1. High pressure spraying of water almost every morning to help stop the mealy bugs and whiteflies from relaxing in the sun throughout the day.
2. Neem oil mixed with a few drops of liquid soap in 1 litre of water and spray atleast once a week.
3. Some panchagavya twice a week to help the plants fight these bugs on their own and constant observation.
4. 2 pieces of garlic and few green chillies ground and diluted in a litre of water.
Frustration point: One day there was so much infestation that I mixed all these solutions together and sprayed together.
5. Bought a few marigold plants as companion planters. Wanted to grow these from seed but needed plants to get the bugs out of the way. Read somewhere that Nasturtiums also help in keeping whiteflies away. Looking for these plants/seeds. If anyone knows where I can get these in Bangalore please let me know.
Here is a picture of one of my hibiscus with the bugs living happily every after.
To finish the blog post on a positive note, I had one hibiscus plant that escaped the bugs and one which I had pruned recently. Learnt that pruning helps the hibiscus flowering. Am getting one flower a day from this plant, and waiting for many more to come.
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3 comments:
I used to grow yellow hibiscus and the plant gave me lotsa huge yellow blooms until the mealy bugs visited and killed it.
Here's what I do to keep the pests away. I spray the plant hard with water every morning. They will come back by evening and I would spray again. I did this till the pests stopped coming back. I also use Neem Oil once a week. (3ml in a litre of water with a small amount of soap). Now the plant is growing well, but flowers very rarely. I need to put more focus on the mealy bug affected plant next week to get it started on flowering.
Thanks for the tips, Natti. I would like to try using Neem Oil. Will check the nurseries here to find if they sell Neem Oil.
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