I don’t know anything about Lotus or Kaki, but I had similar looking leaves on some American seedlings and it turned out to be persimmon psylla so that is another thing to consider, but the treatment is probably the same.
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Looks like persimmons psylla to me too. I use malathion low concentration to reduce the psylla population. I’ve found that it is impossible to completely eradicate them, but you can control the damage by spraying.
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OK. Thanks guys. I’ve looked but can’t see anything with my naked eye. But perhaps psylla are too small to see?
Do you all think spraying imidan would work?
@ncdabbler I’m not even sure what “row cover bags” are or where to get them?
THanks…this is really important to me-I REALLY don’t want to loose these grafts!
I was able to eliminate the psylla on my persimmon seedlings. Keep in mind these were not fruit bearing trees and I would not do this if I planned to eat fruit from an infected tree. I sprayed mine with Permethrin. For me, the key was ants. As soon as I would see any ants I would retreat. Again, these were young seedlings growing in root pruning containers on my deck, so spray coverage was very good.
My mature trees on the farm don’t seem significantly impacted by it. They seem to focus on new growth with young trees. which is enough to really hurt a seedling. So, I can’t really say if permethrin would be as effective in the field.
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Persimmon psyllids are a bit bigger than the average fruit fly - black with transparent wings. The larvae produce a white waxy fuzz kind of like scale insects do.
I was referring to cousinfloyd’s post:
Row cover is the light woven fabric used for frost protection (or insect control) also known by brand names like remay or agribon. You can sew it into bags, or if my grafts are close to the ground, I’ll use electrical conduit bent into hoops and drape older sections of row cover over these and use rocks or bricks to hold down the edges.
It’s just a way to avoid spraying until the leaves are old enough to be less appetizing to the psyllids.
Ok, thanks very much. But let me ask you, since I’m not organic and have no real aversion to spraying, do you think I can just spray with my imidan or some other spray? Will that work also? Thanks
I imagine spraying could control the adults, but once the leaves start to curl, it’s hard to get at the larvae inside with a spray. I’ve tried unwrapping leaves and crushing the larvae by hand, but that usually damages the delicate new leaves as much as, or even more than leaving them alone.
Back to pawpaw, they are the toughest tree I’ve dealt with in terms of transplanting success. Of the 23 I planted in the field, only 8 survived into the second growing season. Many leafed out and looked good in the spring they were transplanted but lost their leaves in the summer. Many of those bounced back. Here is one:
One of them was top killed but bounced back from the roots. Here is a picture of it:
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That tree in the first picture looks great for its second season. I grew 30 from seed in a greenhouse for the first year. I planted them out last year before they leafed out. I have lost four so far. Two got totally striped of folage from deer and grew back from the roots. Others have been eaten too, but for the most part the deer and critters have left them alone. I didn’t protect them. My best one last year doesn’t want to leaf out on the top branch, but it still has green tips about 1/4" long on that branch. I’ll have to post current pics.
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