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suekelly49

Blind white springtails plague in my soil.

SueKelly
9 years ago

Hi, I've recently constructed a lovely rose garden where there was previously lawn. I removed the rocky soil down approx. 500mm deep and replaced it with a mix of local topsoil, sand, mushroom compost and cow manure. This was prepared many weeks before my 27 beautiful bare-rooted roses arrived. I have them spaced a metre apart, in full sun, sheltered from southerly winds. They are now beginning to bud. I've done all the research I could and really putting in the effort to succeed. Lucerne hay was highly recommended as a mulch, so that's what I used......now I have a huge plague of blind white springtails. I've read they don't do harm to established plants, but am unsure about young establishing roses. I believe the springtails came in the lucerne, I could be wrong. I've treated the soil with Richgro Carbaryl Caterpillar insecticide. It hasn't had much effect.
The health of my roses is some-what disappointing. Started out a few weeks ago with powdery mildew on 2 plants. I've since got that under control I think, with systemic fungicide, followed by copper, followed by condi's crystals a fortnight in between each. However, the leaves don't all look as healthy as they could....some crinkly curly, some turning yellow prematurely. I remove all unhealthy leaves as I see them, but I'm not confident I know what I'm doing. Trying too hard I think!

Comments (11)

  • Glenburn
    9 years ago

    Sue, by the look of your post you have done your homework on preparation of the soils, well done on that. My question to start with is, what make you think they came in the lucerne, have you got some photos of the the lucerne ?. I guess you "googled" the bug, from what I know they live in humid environs, is it possible they came in some of your other soil improvers. If you "google: them and read from "Wiki" facts, they are beneficial organisms for microbial activities.
    I live in Mudgee NSW on lucerne flats and encourage them in my garden beds.
    As for your roses, how do you water them, by hand or sprinkler or dripper ?, again have you got photos of the the roses which are effected with the yellowing, can you tell me the rose varieties which have it.
    Regards David.

  • SueKelly
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thank you David for your interest! I'm very happy to accept the springtails aren't a problem...one less thing to worry about!....and they're kind of cute! If I can get all the photos to upload you'll see some of the leaves of concern. I must add these leaves weren't visible yesterday when I did a pretty thorough inspection. I remove all leaves of concern each day as I said. I've named the respective plants with their leaves in the photos....there seems to be multiple problems....or does everybody have one or two of these in their otherwise healthy gardens? There is lots of healthy new growth on most of my plants, and budding also. The plant of most concern is the Limbo, (which I have also included a photo of). I noticed the powdery mildew (just beginning) on Amadeus and Limbo....sprayed them and surrounds with milk solution this morning but it rained an hour later!
    I'm particularly keen to see what you have to say about the crinkled leaves as shown in the Peace leaf example. About half of my roses have produced leaves similar to this...some more distorted again.....Ingrid Bergman, Gina Lollobrigida, Amadeus, Firefighter, Spirit of Hope, Limbo, to name the worst.
    I've been removing buds up until now, to let the plants establish first, but decided to start leaving them from now on as I have visitors coming next week. Any comments most welcome!

  • SueKelly
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Another photo.

  • SueKelly
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    You can see the lovely bud on an otherwise not too happy Limbo rosebush.

  • SueKelly
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Additional information: I have removed all of the lucerne to let the soil dry out a bit. With all the rain we've had lately, and my soil holding moisture quite well, it is still quite moist. My garden is on a reasonable slope, so it has good drainage. I watered the roses in for the first 4 weeks using a watering can avoiding the leaves as much as possible, and have left them to the elements once established. We had no rainfall for the first couple of months. Since then we've had warmish days and dew overnight, plus rain.....that's when the trouble started.
    I intend to continue watering by hand as we're on tank water and need to conserve water.

  • seil zone 6b MI
    9 years ago

    If you are having a lot of rain, cool nights and warm days the conditions are just right for most fungal diseases. The spores are already out there everywhere so I don't think the lucerne brought it in. They live in the soil, air and water as well as plant material. You can spray or you can wait it out until the conditions change. Either way don't remove any leaves unless they are already yellowed. Even damaged green leaves continue to supply the plant with food.

  • SueKelly
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thank you Seil for your input. I spent this morning spraying Myclobutanil 0.05g/L systemic fungicide onto my roses as the powdery mildew appears to be coming back. It's been two weeks since I sprayed condy's crystal mixture, and I fear I'll have to spray regularly with rotating fungicides all through the season. When you suggest leaving on green damaged leaves....do you mean those with obvious fungal symptoms as well? At the moment they go straight into a ziplock plastic bag and into the rubbishbin.
    I have another query....I have a spray called Rose Black Spot & Natural Pyrethrum Concentrate (10.6g/L Triforine, 3.5g/L Pyrethrins, 15.8g/L Piperonyl, and 13.37g/L Dimethyl Formamide). It has a caution: "Do not spray on very young growth.". The first time powdery mildew showed up, my local nursery sold me this to fix the problem. I found it hard to spray my young roses without getting any on the young shoots...could this be a reason why I'm having crinkly leaves? How is one supposed to use this spray as there's always going to be new growth in the fungal season?
    Lots more questions, but I'll leave it there for now.
    Many thanks for comments.

  • Glenburn
    9 years ago

    Sue, I received your email, sorry to take so long to answer.
    First off, what is the white residue on the leaves?
    What time of day do you spray ?
    The crinkly leaves on 'Peace' can be normal in young growth/plants. I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, as the leaves on 'Peace' get older they grow black spot.
    Elina, Lions Rose, Spirit of Hope, in the reverse order I have listed them "appear" to be burn.
    You didn't get a photo of the Powdery Mildew by chance, if not can you explain what it looked like.
    With 'Papa Meilland' is this an older leaf that you have shown us, what are the young leaves like ?
    Here are some links to read,
    http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7463.html
    https://www.google.com.au/search?q=powdery+mildew+roses&espv=2&biw=1440&bih=767&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=gMApVPncJYSD8gXMpYL4Bg&ved=0CCIQsAQ
    http://www.wikihow.com/Grow-Healthy-Roses-by-Controlling-Powdery-Mildew
    As for 'Royal Highness' it is Powdery Mildew, what have you used on it up to now ?
    With 'Limbo' it is just young growth in my opinion and will grow out, most and I only say most young growth looks like this not all young growth.

    Regards David.

  • SueKelly
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Hi David, I've looked up the sites you suggested...many thanks for that! Hopefully you can see my picture of what I think is powdery mildew....taken this morning...it's not so much on the surface of the leaves now....more underneath. Yesterday I went through the garden and was very pleased at how healthy it was starting to look....now this morning I've found a few leaves like this. They were from Lion's Rose and Blue Moon....2 otherwise healthy looking plants.
    To answer your questions about what I've sprayed so far:
    16th Aug. Triforine (Sharp Shooter Rose Black Spot), 20th Aug. 1:10 milk/water mix, 31st Aug. Copper, 10th Sept. Seaweed, 13th Sept. (2 teaspoons Condy's crystals, 2.5 tablespoons bicarb soda, 1 litre milk to 9 litres of water) mixture, 25th Sept. milk and bi carb soda mix (rained an hour later), 27th Sept. Seaweed on leaves, 28th Sept. Myclobutanil, 29th Sept. 1:10 Milk/water mix. I'm thinking I need to repeat the milk spray again today just on the Blue Moon and Lion's Rose. Do you think I'm being paranoid? Too much spraying? I'll do a second posting to show you the Papa Meilland.

  • SueKelly
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Here is a photo of Papa Meilland. You can see the leaves vary from enormous to quite small!
    Do you think I should persevere with the Peace, Papa Meilland and Amadeus or replace them with a healthier variety?...tempted to just rip them out....
    I haven't taken much notice at what time of day I spray...usually mornings if possible, but there's not been much heat in the sun yet, so didn't think it important.
    Thanks again for your time helping me out....much appreciated!

  • seil zone 6b MI
    9 years ago

    Only you can decide if they are worth the effort to you or not. If you can 1. live with some not so perfect leaves some times or 2. are willing to commit to a regular spray program, and you really love these roses then keep them. If, however, you don't want to do either of those things and you can part with them without regret then look for some other varieties that will do better in your area.

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