re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates

There is only one way to get rid of guava mealybugs. Imidacloprid. I find the granules work best. Use 3x the label amount. The morphology of the tree makes non-systemic pesticides useless. Just trust me on this one, I've tried it all. Do not waste one second on any of the stupid home remedies you see online. (just mix one part dish soap with lemon juice and water....).

LINK

I've sprayed Malathion twice now and it has done a pretty good job. They are still not completely gone but it's a lot better than it was.

I didn't like putting that guava infested tree in the greenhouse with the other trees, but i haven't had an issue on the other trees i have all summer.

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Imidacloprid

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I was trying to avoid using that. When you use that you're not supposed to eat the fruit for at least 2 years after using it.
That is what i used on the flowering tree that had the bad infestation.

I wasn't planning on eating any fruit next season anyway as i'm still trying to let my trees grow and shape them correctly.



From the description of the one you attached:

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Systemic Insect Control Granules are not intended for use on edible plants like herbs, vegetables or fruit bearing plants

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Imidacloprid is used on edibles all the time. It's fine and it works.

National Pesticide Info Center

Nice, will be curious to see what kind of temps you can maintain. Here's my current readout.

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Imidacloprid is very toxic to honeybees and other beneficial insects. The role, if any, of imidacloprid in Colony Collapse Disorder is not yet clear. Scientists have shown that plants grown in treated soil may have imidacloprid residues in their nectar and pollen at levels that are below those shown to cause effects on bees in laboratory experiments.

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I hope its not fatal to bees. The two flowering trees i treated with it normally have 100's of bees on them in the spring.



I'll have to use it on my guava regardless. thanks for the info.




My 10x6 greenhouse maintained 45F with the small heater/thermostat, and still is this morning while its 34F outside right now.

Says it’s 65 in there by the brick. Had the heater up front and the shed door open with the mini split running

OK so I just got home and did a damage assessment. My low was 29F and we were below 32F for 6 hours. I protected nothing that was in the ground and I'm shocked at the things with zero damage. Tropicals like bougainvillea, cordyline/ti plant/tropical passionfruit/hibiscus took no damage. The only damage is on banana leaves and passionfruit leaves that are at least 20 feet off the ground and exposed to open sky. Everything else is untouched. Absolutely best case scenario for me.

Yeah they'll be fine at anything above freezing. The warmer the soil the more resistant they are to root diseases. Anything below 60F is going to trigger flowering in mangos so you will need to manage that.

Sustained air temps below 60F.

We hit 38 here in Tampa. Checked the grove today. The recent flushes on the mangoes have held on. I do suspect that we’ll be seeing panicles a full month early this year. If Mother Nature is kind; we’ll have many mangoes in June. I’m watching my Dwarf Hawaiiian carefully. It’s the canary in the coal mine at my place; if it throws out panicles in the next two weeks, it’s game on for all the others in December.