marci wrote:


I bought a hanging basket with petunias in it in June. The plant looked
wonderful when I bought it, but now it has turned brown and brittle in
certain areas. The main large stems are green, but most of the off
shoots have turned brown. (stem and leaves) Only the ends flower now. I
have been watering them everyday and they recieve plenty of sun. I have
noticed that there are tons of tiny black ball like things all over the
plant. I was wondering what they are. They come off easily. The ground
is usually covered in them. My plant is on the balcony of my
apartment, so I doubt it's an insect (unless they were on there when I
bought the plant)

If you need a picture to understand what I am talking about, just let
me know. Thanks!

Aphids can love petunias and they are absolutely common everywhere.
I've had petunias covered in dead ones. The easy way is to touch the
leaves. If they are tacky or sticky, it's aphids. THe aphids suck the
sap out of the plant and they leave sap all over the plant's surface.

The black ones are woolly aphids. I get them each year somewhere. The
petunias usually get green aphids. The black ones on Nasturtiums. This
year my nastiurtiums showed up very late, so they woolly aphids
covered teh calendulas.

You can power-spray the suckers off. Its a little rough on the plant
but works. I also found a hokey-home rmedy from that weird Jerry Baker
guy. This did work, but I find most of his stuff bumpkin-silly.

The spray was onion, garlic, chile/jalapenos, and cayenne pepper. add
water and blend in a blender. You can let it steep a bit to
strengthen. Strain it through a fine seive or coffee filter. Add 1/2
teaspoon of dishwash detergent to the liquid. Put in a spray bottle
and coat the plant with the stuff. Be careful if you are in a heatwave
zone--wetting down certain plants in blistering sun can hurt them.
Lastly, if you love onions and garlic the smell will make you hungry
as hell. the patio will reek for a little while that day. I sprayed it
on two days in a row and the aphid population dropped dramatically.

Honestly hosing the suckers was quicker though.


DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email)
Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound
3rd year gardener
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/royalf...=/2055&.src=ph