Got back from holidays to find my favorite plant - the now famous 'Siam' (not it's real name) covered in what I always thought were aphid pods - all over the stem & branches. Ants everywhere.
I cut off a twig that had a good cross section of the different size blotches & took it down the garden center for advice. "Scale" she said & pointed me to the WMD section of sprays. I said I couldn't use them because I'm eating that plant...but there wasn't much else.
I ended up walking out with a bottle of organic 'Natrasoap' that she said wouldn't work...but then she was surprised that the plant was still producing pods given the level of infestation...& even more surprised at the size of the chilli plant. So I figured that apart from recognising Scale, she didn't really know much more.
I got home, I haven't used the Natrasoap. I did some googling & learned about the ants harvesting the honeydew that the parasitic Scale soak up through a straw. I went out to the plant & noticed that the Scale came off easily. I cut a small square of soft green pot scourer and brushed it all off..where there were branches that had heavy infestation I cut it off - the "Scales" lady said to cut it back heavily & also that I should use some old engine oil on the stem to stop the ants from climbing (she asked how big the stem was first).
I poured some organic dishwashing liquid on the stem & went back 2 more times today to check the plant, found some extra bits that I missed, gave it a good dose of liquid fertalizer, found some spider web like egg sacks under some leaves & brushed them off with my finger.
I suppose I still have a question unanswered - Is there an organic way of defeating scale? (there's a lot of Scale variants, but all the same)
Anyway I'll try to keep you posted on how it goes because I've seen a few people in here with similar bugs.
I cut off a twig that had a good cross section of the different size blotches & took it down the garden center for advice. "Scale" she said & pointed me to the WMD section of sprays. I said I couldn't use them because I'm eating that plant...but there wasn't much else.
I ended up walking out with a bottle of organic 'Natrasoap' that she said wouldn't work...but then she was surprised that the plant was still producing pods given the level of infestation...& even more surprised at the size of the chilli plant. So I figured that apart from recognising Scale, she didn't really know much more.
I got home, I haven't used the Natrasoap. I did some googling & learned about the ants harvesting the honeydew that the parasitic Scale soak up through a straw. I went out to the plant & noticed that the Scale came off easily. I cut a small square of soft green pot scourer and brushed it all off..where there were branches that had heavy infestation I cut it off - the "Scales" lady said to cut it back heavily & also that I should use some old engine oil on the stem to stop the ants from climbing (she asked how big the stem was first).
I poured some organic dishwashing liquid on the stem & went back 2 more times today to check the plant, found some extra bits that I missed, gave it a good dose of liquid fertalizer, found some spider web like egg sacks under some leaves & brushed them off with my finger.
I suppose I still have a question unanswered - Is there an organic way of defeating scale? (there's a lot of Scale variants, but all the same)
Anyway I'll try to keep you posted on how it goes because I've seen a few people in here with similar bugs.