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!

"marci" wrote in message
...

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!


--
marci

One of the disadvantages of growing plants in containers, in the sun, is
that many plants don't do well when their roots are hot. Naturally, the
containers are as hot as the surrounding air. The plants sometimes end up
looking ratty and worn out before an identical plant growing in the ground,
where the soil's usually cooler. With pots on the ground, you can sometimes
arrange for the pots themselves to be shaded, but that's not always possible
with hanging pots. So, you may just have to get new plants. Better nurseries
know this, and should have fresh plants available. It's also a good reason
to buy seeds and plant second crops yourself at whatever time is appropriate
for the plants you want.

The black things: What color are your petunias? Petunia flowers can shrivel
up to a pretty small size, and dark blue or purple flowers may look black
once this happens.

Try cutting the the plants back to about the bottom of the pot. Then
water them with miracle grow every time you water.

Thanks Nancy.. I believe this black things are maybe seeds? I just tried cutting back as much "dead stuff" as possible.. hope this helps. My petunias are Vegetative Petunia "Sanguna" Rose Vein".

Thankyou for your tips.

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

"DigitalVinyl" wrote in message
...
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.

I got an infestation of aphids early this spring. They went mostly for the
spirea. I had good luck using a little dish detergent and vegetable oil
mixed with water and sprayed on the plants. I repeated this once a week for
about three weeks. I have had them attack my petunias. I find that
petunias can be a little sticky even without aphids, making it messy to
deadhead them.

I think I might try your tip Vox Humana, since I don't have a hose on my balcony, it would kind of be hard to try another method. I'll give this one a try. Do you think aphids are responsible for my plant looking poorly? Im trying to remember, i think i remember seeing the black things during the time my plant lost it's fullness. The plant is a bit sticky.

I'll let you know if it works. Thanks.

Sorry I forgot to ask.. how much detergent, oil and water should I add? Don't want to kill them

Actually... I think I have solved the mystery. I did some more research and came up with this..

One of the most common pests of petunias is the budworm caterpillar. These small green worms appear in late June and July. You won't often see the worm itself. Instead, you'll see the droppings, which often are described as small black seeds. The worms feed on the flower buds, making small holes in the buds and the leaves.

These caterpillars are difficult to control but Bacillus thuringensis (B.T.) and Bifenthrin are reasonably effective insecticides. If left unchecked, the presence of the caterpillars will cause petunias to stop blooming.


Thanks to everyone to tried to help me.. I'm sad to say that I think I may be buying a new bunch of petunias instead of trying to fight this.. it's cheaper

"marci" wrote in message
...

Sorry I forgot to ask.. how much detergent, oil and water should I add?
Don't want to kill them


I put about 1/2 teaspoon of liquid dish detergent and a tablespoon of
vegetable oil in a 16 oz. spray bottle. I wasn't very precise.

"marci" wrote in message
...

I think I might try your tip Vox Humana, since I don't have a hose on my
balcony, it would kind of be hard to try another method. I'll give this
one a try. Do you think aphids are responsible for my plant looking
poorly? Im trying to remember, i think i remember seeing the black
things during the time my plant lost it's fullness. The plant is a bit
sticky.

I'll let you know if it works. Thanks.

You can usually see aphids on plants if you look closely. A magnifying
glass would help. They tend to line themselves up on the young, tender
parts of the plant, such as flower and leaf buds and new stems.