Green and blackfly, already.
 

How annoying. On young shoots of all my fruit trees.
So many jobs to do.
Filling up the sprayer now. Liquid soap aka Fairy liquid. That should do
the trick? Hope so.

Baz

Green and blackfly, already.
 

On Tue, 07 May 2013 12:23:56 GMT, Baz wrote:

How annoying. On young shoots of all my fruit trees.
So many jobs to do.
Filling up the sprayer now. Liquid soap aka Fairy liquid. That should do
the trick? Hope so.

Baz

Could you not let Nature deal with it? Birds will be after them to
feed their young, ladybird larva etc will deal with them. Don't spray
unless you have to. In many years I have ONLY sprayed blackfly on
broad beand, nothing else.
Guess I'm too late, you've probably done it already!

Pam in Bristol

Green and blackfly, already.
 

Pam Moore wrote in
:

On Tue, 07 May 2013 12:23:56 GMT, Baz wrote:

How annoying. On young shoots of all my fruit trees.
So many jobs to do.
Filling up the sprayer now. Liquid soap aka Fairy liquid. That should do
the trick? Hope so.

Baz

Could you not let Nature deal with it? Birds will be after them to
feed their young, ladybird larva etc will deal with them. Don't spray
unless you have to. In many years I have ONLY sprayed blackfly on
broad beand, nothing else.
Guess I'm too late, you've probably done it already!

Pam in Bristol


Sorry, Pam, but these flies infest young leaves(leafs?) and prevent new
growth. I have to kill them.

Baz

Green and blackfly, already.
 

On 07/05/2013 13:23, Baz wrote:
How annoying. On young shoots of all my fruit trees.
So many jobs to do.
Filling up the sprayer now. Liquid soap aka Fairy liquid. That should do
the trick? Hope so.

Baz

Fairy liquid isn't liquid soap, it's a detergent, not deterant.
When spraying weedkiller out the field the other day I must have seen at
least 50 Lady birds.

Green and blackfly, already.
 

On 07/05/2013 13:23, Baz wrote:
How annoying. On young shoots of all my fruit trees.
So many jobs to do.

The reason for that is that you have fed the trees with too much
nitrogen and the new growth is too soft lush and attractive to aphids.
High potash and phosphate fertiliser is best for young fruit trees.

Filling up the sprayer now. Liquid soap aka Fairy liquid. That should do
the trick? Hope so.

Baz

It will after a fashion. But you probably wanted soft soap!

Ladybirds, bluetits and similar small birds would make short work of
them if you encouraged them into your plot. I have a tame robin that
follows me around the garden pinching worms from under my nose.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Green and blackfly, already.
 

In article ,
David Hill wrote:
On 07/05/2013 13:23, Baz wrote:
How annoying. On young shoots of all my fruit trees.
So many jobs to do.
Filling up the sprayer now. Liquid soap aka Fairy liquid. That should do
the trick? Hope so.

Fairy liquid isn't liquid soap, it's a detergent, not deterant.

Both work. I have needed to do this on my Lonicera etrusca, which is
often prevented from flowering by the aphids. I may get rid of it,
as it clearly can't handle the UK conditions, which is a pity.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Green and blackfly, already.
 

On 2013-05-07 15:05:29 +0100, Martin Brown said:

On 07/05/2013 13:23, Baz wrote:
How annoying. On young shoots of all my fruit trees.
So many jobs to do.

The reason for that is that you have fed the trees with too much
nitrogen and the new growth is too soft lush and attractive to aphids.
High potash and phosphate fertiliser is best for young fruit trees.

Filling up the sprayer now. Liquid soap aka Fairy liquid. That should do
the trick? Hope so.

Baz

It will after a fashion. But you probably wanted soft soap!

Ladybirds, bluetits and similar small birds would make short work of
them if you encouraged them into your plot. I have a tame robin that
follows me around the garden pinching worms from under my nose.

Hanging bird feeders from affected trees/shrubs does help. The birds
find the feeders but also find the unwanted pests.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

Green and blackfly, already.
 

In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:
On 07/05/2013 13:23, Baz wrote:

How annoying. On young shoots of all my fruit trees.
So many jobs to do.

The reason for that is that you have fed the trees with too much
nitrogen and the new growth is too soft lush and attractive to aphids.
High potash and phosphate fertiliser is best for young fruit trees.

That is not my experience. It often occurs even on completely
unfertilised trees - indeed, pretty well the ONLY thing that I
put around mine is wood ash.

Ladybirds, bluetits and similar small birds would make short work of
them if you encouraged them into your plot. I have a tame robin that
follows me around the garden pinching worms from under my nose.

That is not my experience. Ladybirds have suffered badly from the
winter, and are always late risers anyway, and I live in suburbia
with too many cats - hence damn few birds.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Green and blackfly, already.
 

On Tue, 7 May 2013 Martin Brown wrote:

How annoying. On young shoots of all my fruit trees.
So many jobs to do.

The reason for that is that you have fed the trees with too much
nitrogen and the new growth is too soft lush and attractive to aphids.

I have a pussy willow tree which is thick with greenfly. It has never
been fed and is in the middle of a lawn.

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

Green and blackfly, already.
 

That is not my experience. Ladybirds have suffered badly from the
winter, and are always late risers anyway, and I live in suburbia
with too many cats - hence damn few birds.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Not only in suburbia - too many damn cats out in the sticks too (:-(
What shotguns were invented for - no pussies on the two + half acres
I am charged with promoting the birdies on. (:-)

Pete

Green and blackfly, already.
 

On Tue, 7 May 2013 17:58:43 +0100, Sacha wrote:



Hanging bird feeders from affected trees/shrubs does help. The birds
find the feeders but also find the unwanted pests.

Be careful if you have bullfinches! For some reason they migrate from
the feeders to the buds!

As my gardening activity is unfortunately limited at the moment, I'm
being more diligent in my bug-watch. OK, lily beetles at a gradually
increasing rate - I'm now at about 15-20 a day - but no sign of
green- or white-fly at all.

I find some smashed snail shells most mornings but no sign of
slug/snail damage yet. Hostas are all un-nibbled and delphiniums,
which are often gorged as they appear above ground, are sprouting
nicely, despite their emergence co-inciding with the few days I was
confined to my buttocks!

Thanks to my "new" camera, I've been able to satisfy myself that what
I thought might be early wasps, or maybe honey bees, are, in fact, an
abundance of hoverflies.

Can't wait to see my first ladybird of the year though I'm
half-expecting not to find any hedgehog evidence, having found two
dead ones earlier in the year. The sheltered leaf piles I left are
undisturbed and empty.

FWIW, badger has moved on since I built the great badger barrier. I
spread sand behind the fence to check for footprints and have only
found fox ones since about the 3rd day after. There were initial signs
that he was trying to get through the chain-link fencing and to dig
under the concrete but he seems to have given up. The lawn is
recovering nicely, apart from one area which I'm going to have to dig
up completely and re-lay rather than fill and patch.

--
Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East end of Swansea Bay where it's May
and I'm worried about minus zero temperaturess forecast