Citrus Growers Forum

dauben · Posted: Fri 05 Jun, 2009 2:11 am

Hello all,
I noticed some of my buds that I grafted acted like they were swelling and started to grow only to have them seem to die back a few days later. They're all still green, but it just seems odd.

One theory is that I noticed that the earwigs I'm infested with like the new growth flushes. I'm wondering if they're sneaking out at night munching on the buds.

Thanks,
Phillip

pagnr · Posted: Wed 10 Jun, 2009 10:04 am

If you have an earwig plauge, check your propagation area at night with a torch to see if they are climbing up into the plants. They probably are.
Check for slugs and snails at the same time, particarly after irrigation.
I dont know if earwigs target bud growth, but they seem to do general damage, including some buds. Slugs and snails seem to be particularly attracted to the shoot from a foreign bud, and will crawl past several lower rootstock shoots just to get them.
We had an earwig plauge a few years ago, followed by a huntsman spider plauge.(A large type spider that crawls at night) That seems to have cleared up the earwigs a fair bit.

dauben · Posted: Wed 10 Jun, 2009 11:48 am

pagnr wrote:

If you have an earwig plauge, check your propagation area at night with a torch to see if they are climbing up into the plants. They probably are.
Check for slugs and snails at the same time, particarly after irrigation.
I dont know if earwigs target bud growth, but they seem to do general damage, including some buds. Slugs and snails seem to be particularly attracted to the shoot from a foreign bud, and will crawl past several lower rootstock shoots just to get them.
We had an earwig plauge a few years ago, followed by a huntsman spider plauge.(A large type spider that crawls at night) That seems to have cleared up the earwigs a fair bit.

Thanks Pagnr. I had gone out several nights to watch for earwigs, but I had been putting out pesticide at the same time that the buds were growing so I wasn't seeing them. It could have been that the damage was already done when I had put out the pesticide. I do have some renewed growth on many of the buds so I'm thinking it may have been a vector problem. I'm just a bit disappointed that many of the buds didnt' come back after starting to grow. Ohh well, I'm learning many things to improve my budding success rate. My first year I learned to keep an eye on the weather forecast before budding. I had extreme temperatures at each end of the scale several times only to watch my buds get zapped.

Phillip

Patty_in_wisc · Posted: Wed 10 Jun, 2009 7:16 pm

Hi Phillip, sorry about your bud "bites". Pagnr mentioned slugs & I remembered the old copper wire trick. wrap copper wire around the tree trunk little off ground- or even around pots, & the slugs won't go past it (if you have a problem w/ them).
Hey, thanks again for that nice big winter banana apple budstick. I grafted it on a nice branch at the tip, and the branch gradually died! The stick was still green so I re cut it & grafted it on another branch. I don't know why that one (of 2) branch died...last year they had tons of blossoms. Fingers crossed.
Wonder if anyone ever regrafted a budstick - and if it took??

_________________
Patty
I drink wine to make other people more interesting Wink

dauben · Posted: Tue 23 Jun, 2009 5:17 pm

Yea!! I've been busy for the last few days so I haven't been able to check my buds. Nearly all of them have starting to grow without any signs of dying back (even the ones that looked like they died back previously). I now have a meyer lemon, USDA 88-2, Page mandarin, and Tarocco Blood Orange to add to my collection.

Phillip

bastrees · Posted: Tue 23 Jun, 2009 9:06 pm

Good job, Phillip! I guess sometimes ignoring them helps! Barbara

dauben · Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2009 1:35 am

bastrees wrote:

Good job, Phillip! I guess sometimes ignoring them helps! Barbara

Yea, what's the saying about a "watched pot will never boil", well neither will a watched bud. I forgot to mention that thanks to Joe I also have indio mandarinquats budding also. I'm starting to convert my grapefruit trees into something more enjoyable. 5 trees down, 125 to go.

Phillip