PLANT CLINIC

Adrian Hunsberger
Adrian Hunsberger is the Urban Horticulture Agent and Master Gardener Coordinator at the University of Florida/Miami-Dade County Extension office in Homestead. She has a bachelor's in horticulture from Virginia Tech and a master's in entomology from UF. As the Extension office's resident entomologist, she draws on her more than 13 years of research experience at UF to teach pest management to homeowners with a special emphasis on biological and organic controls.

Write to her at aghu@ifas.ufl.edu.

Top Story

The brown dots on the underside of the leaf are fern spores.

Adrian Hunsberger/UF Extension

Plant Clinic

Are spots on ferns scale (bad) or spores (good)?

What look like scale insects on your fern are actually fern spores. Insects would not be found in neat rows but would have a more haphazard distribution on the leaf.

Plant Clinic

Yellowing may indicate iron deficiency

The sample you sent in is ixora. This plant prefers an acidic soil and frequently shows nutritional deficiencies in our alkaline soils. Yellow leaves with green veins indicate iron deficiency.
Dania Beach

Dania Beach hosting gardening classes

Nurture your green thumb by learning how to grow and replicate plants.
Plant Clinic

‘Beautiful shrub’ is invasive weed

Unfortunately, you have a Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius), also known as Florida holly, Christmas berry and pepper tree. This is a very invasive plant, which is displacing native plants in natural areas. And it’s a landscape weed. Brazilian pepper is on the Florida invasive plant list.
Plant Clinic

Too much water is bad for the garden

Unless your plants were recently planted and still establishing their root system or your plants are in containers, additional water isn’t needed in most cases. Due to our high water table, most trees and shrubs are able to get enough water year round. Annuals and a few perennials such as gingers and bananas may require irrigation if the weather is hot and dry.
Plant Clinic

Nam Doc mango tree is infected

Your ‘Nam Doc Mai’ mango has either anthracnose or powdery mildew or both (they are fungal diseases). These won’t kill the tree and it’s too late in the season to try to control them now. Anthracnose may cause stem dieback, so monitor your tree. Next winter/spring when the tree starts flowering, use a copper based fungicide spray and continue to spray weekly until fruit set.
Plant Clinic

Too warm for eggplants to flower

Your eggplants and tomatoes aren't setting fruit right now because it's still too warm at night. As soon as the nighttime temperatures start going down to 70 or below, these plants will start to set fruit. Believe it or not but both eggplants and tomatoes are related. They belong to the nightshade family (Solanaceae). Other members include these crops: potatoes, tomatillo, peppers, tobacco, and others. Be careful not to use too much nitrogen when fertilizing your plants. Too much fertilizer can inhibit or reduce flowering because the plant is putting its resources into producing a lot of new growth.
PLANT CLINIC

Live oaks will snap back from cold snap

Q: I have a live oak in South Dade that only grows half the leaves. The leaves at the end of the branches are disappearing rapidly, have small brown spots and are eaten around the edges.