Bob Hobden wrote:
"Jackie D" wrote

My camelia caught a disease and died. Following advice I recevied from
my garden centre, I cleansed the soil with diluted Jeyes fluid. A while
later I moved a pot containing a handsome acer to that very spot. Then
that died within a very short period of time. I am now thinking the
soil in the pot is infected also.

I would like to re-use the pot but would I need to cleanse the soil?
Get rid of the soil and cleanse the pot? Throw the pot away and buy a
new one?

Here is more about the disease and my poor camelia:

The beautiful pink flowering camelia was healthy in its pot for years.
Then I transplanted it to the garden in between a lilac tree and a four
foot high bike shed. Soon it got badly infected by sooty mould. It was
so bad that it looked almost fire damaged. For four years I spent hours
cleaning the leaves and wiping off the sooty mould. I seemed to be on
top of it.

Sooty Mould is not a disease of the plant, it is a sign that your plant was
heavily infested with Scale Insect. A spray with a suitable insecticide
would have cleared up most of them and with repeated applications you should
have been able to stay on top of it. It is difficult to eradicate
completely. (Citrus and Acers also suffer)
What happens is that the Scale Insect suck the sap of the plant and excrete
a sugary liquid which the sooty mould then grows on. Wiping off the sooty
mould didn't help your plant at all, it was just a symptom not the problem.

Then suddenly all the leaves dropped off and it died. By
this point it had developed these strange 'berries' - brown sacks that
emitted a grey dust if squeezed.

Adult Scale insect in the process of dieing due to lack of sap (dead plant).

I dug the plant up and cleansed the soil. A few months later I moved my
potted acer on top of the infected spot (in hindsight that was a dumb
thing to do).

Waste of time cleansing the soil I'm afraid, it was never your problem. Did
you ask at a Garden Centre about all this? If so don't go there again they
don't know what the hell they are talking about.

snip

I'm also rather alarmed that he was advised to use Jeyes Fluid - not a
very happy idea for the other plants in the vicinity, I think! It's
great for cleaning algae and fungi off paths etc. but in the soil where
plants are growing nearby doesn't strike me as a very sensible
suggestion. In fact, I was so struck by this as a Bad Idea that I
checked it with Ray who is just astonished and really quite cross that
someone would blithely hand out such bad advice. You use Jeyes to kill
things off, you don't put it into flower beds where other plants are
trying to live. Whoever gave the OP that advice should be sacked,
frankly! This really is a case of a little knowledge being a dangerous
thing. Jeyes has its uses but it is not in flower beds!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon