[GrowRR] Fertilizer

[Dave Christiano]

It's great that you have Bromeliads to play with - not so great that they
are infested. You have an uphill but very winnable battle if the scale is
bad. They are easy to knock down, but hard to eradicate. Here's what I would
recommend. Like with cars, your mileage will vary.
 
First, go over each plant and assess the severity. You can physically remove
90% of scale easily with your fingernails and 99% of the mealybugs with a
forceful spray of hose water. Scale mostly hide on the lower leaf surfaces
and often deep in the leaf axils where it's hard to get at them. Often
removing several of the lower leaves is probably best. After going through
each plant for scale, be sure to completely hose off each one to get rid of
any eggs left behind. If you get rid of the scale the mealybugs will have
been dead for a long time. 
 
Go to your local nursery supply and get some Merit insecticide
(imidicloprid). It's a systemic you water with (and can spray on the leaves)
that essentially makes the plant toxic. It likely won't completely eradicate
the scale, but will make long-term control much easier. Bayer makes several
products containing Merit notably aimed at scale control on trees and
shrubs. Be sure you don't use it on anything from which you will eat either
leaves or fruit. I've not seen scale on Tillandsias but it won't hurt them.
 
Segregate the infested plants so the scale cannot spread to unaffected
plants. Scale propagate by hatching out very tiny "crawlers" that you can
just see with your eyes. They don't fly so they cannot infest another plant
unless they are touching. The crawlers find a new location and grow into the
adults that develop an armor plating (which makes direct control difficult).
The crawlers can be killed by direct contact insecticides, but the adults
produce lots of them and unless you spray constantly controlling the
crawlers is difficult.
 
The first application I would use is a long (20 seconds) dip in a strong
solution. I treat all my Bromeliads, watering with a Merit solution monthly
along with my regular fertilization.
 
Without doubt rainwater is the best. You can collect it in buckets or
barrels from gutters. There are numerous collection ideas you can find in a
web search. If your water is really bad (very hard, dissolved metals like
iron or manganese, etc) a small reverse osmosis unit can remove most bad
things (and make the water much more drinkable too). While Bromeliads
generally like water in their center cups, "bad" things in your water will
concentrate there upon the water evaporating. If you have limited rainwater,
use it in the cups.
 
Check out the Florida Council of Bromeliad Societies (http://fcbs.org/) and
Bromeliad Society (http://www.bsi.org/) for cultural and other info. I'd be
happy to call you and chat. I'm retired so I have lots of free time. Check
back here with your progress. 
 
Welcome and good luck,
Dave & Mary Christiano 
Springfield, Missouri 
http://geocities.com/ne0b/ 

"Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple
or more direct than does Nature, because in her  inventions, nothing is
lacking and nothing is superfluous."
-Leonardo Da Vinci 

-----Original Message-----
From: growrr-bounces at bsi.org [mailto:growrr-bounces at bsi.org] On Behalf Of
mounthopebuilders
Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2006 3:23 PM
To: growrr at bsi.org
Subject: [GrowRR] Fertilizer



Hello ... 
 
    I am a beginner who bought a small farm and acquired over 145 Bromeliads
and Tillandsias.  I have water issues, scales and mealy bugs, can anyone
help with me?  I would not mind if you contacted me either at 845-355-1854.
 
Thanks in Advance. 
 
Patrick  
 
    

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