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Whitefly
rosemummy
Posts: 2,010
My honeysuckle has awful whitefly, much worse now as we've beem away, been spraying with organic bug clear, lots of leaves are black and sticky and the whitefly seem to be spreading, some of the leaves in the rise next to it look like they have blacks pot now too, I 've removed those and resprayed today, wondering if I should just chop the honeysuckle tight back to a foot as it's not flowered/ flowering anyway and hope for better next year?
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Is it dry at the roots rosemummy?
thanks for replies, i don't use chemicals at all, good idea re feeding birdss mike, i think it could have got dry at the roots,dave, i have given it a good soak the last couple of days since weve been home, i'm afraid i don't know the variety, it looks like serotina but can' remember when it flowered at our old house, it has never flowered well, a couple of flowers only
Honeysuckle is a woodland plant so it needs moisture and shade at the roots. Mulch it heavily and keep the soil moist. In spring you can prune it down quite hard, you'll get plenty of new growth if you keep up the regime of moisture food and shade. It'll be less prone to black spot and powdery mildew as well.
thanks dave i had to pruna couple of unruly shoots yeaterday as haven't had time to get ladder up and put supports on place, i will mulch this weekend and prune hard next spring
been out to check again, i think having googled a bit, honeysuckle has black sooty mould, have sprayed organic bug clear 3 times now, still loads of whitefly, been soaking roots, some leaves died off, brown and crispy, is it still worth trying to sort this plant out?sorry to keep asking, bit fed up , all garden seems to be getting the better of me at the moment, need a good full day to do what needs doing and i just don't get time,so much needs cutting back or tying in
One of my newly planted honeysuckles succumbed to mildew earlier on this year and lost all its leaves - my fault, I let it get too dry under the trees - but with more consistent watering it's growing healthy new shoots. Don't worry, yours will survive - it's always a bit of a battle
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
thanks dove, watched that gw with the couple who grew loads of honeysuckle, grrr made it look so easy
That's the problem with tv programmes - they so rarely show you the tears and torment!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.