PLANT CLINIC
How to avoid problems in the vegetable garden
Q: Each year I have a lot of disease problems in my vegetable garden. What am I doing wrong? Is there any thing I can do other than using sprays?
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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.
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Take care when pruning a tree
Q: What is the right way to prune a tree? Can all trees be pruned?
M.L., Sweetwater-
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Fishtail palm's seedpods come naturally
Q: Our fishtail palm is dying. There are many seedpods, which seemed to sprout overnight. E.W., E.W., North Miami
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Learning art of grafting
Q: When is the best time to graft mangoes? Please note that I have no grafting experience! M.T., Homestead
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Topiary shows damage; ghost ants hard to control
Q: What is the proper fertilizer for topiaries? The tips of the branches appear to dry out. L.F.,
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Whiteflies remain a problem in the ficus hedges
Q: My ficus hedge is dropping a lot of yellow leaves and I see small whitish flies flying around my plants. What can I do? A.P., Miami
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Weird critter eating frangipani; now's time to plant veggies
Q: I've lived here since 1926 and never saw such a critter before. My frangipani is being eaten by huge caterpillars with bright yellow stripes. They have a small tail, too.
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Mango tree's branches dying off
Q: For a year I've been struggling with a mango tree. Someone said I was watering the tree too much. I stopped the watering, but the branches are still dying off.
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PLANT CLINIC
Lethal yellowing unlikely in royal's death
Q: I heard on a radio show that royal palms can get lethal yellowing. Is that what killed my palm? M.L., South Miami
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Plantain trees' yellowing is a sign of dried-out roots
Q: I planted two Hawaiian plantain trees several months ago. The plants have not grown and the leaves have turned yellowish. I have tried fertilizing them several times but there has been no visible improvement.
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How to use seedlings to reproduce spectacular amaryllis
Q: We have a particularly spectacular amaryllis from which I took a couple of seed pods this year and recently planted the seeds. I now have a small forest of seedlings that are about one to two inches tall. What next?
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Best to pick sugar apple before it's ripe
Q: I have had a sugar apple tree for three or four years. How can you tell when the fruit are ripe? Any fertilization tips for this fruit tree?
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Plenty of mango varieties to choose from
Q: What mango varieties would you recommend if you could only plant two or three?
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Caterpillar loves to eat our pentas
Q: A huge (2 1/2 to 3-inch) brown caterpillar was chewing up our white pentas and then it disappeared. The caterpillar had a huge eyespot and a ''tail.''
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Care and feeding of a new lawn
Q: I sodded my yard three weeks ago with floratam grass. What is its care?
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Death and destruction in the garden
Q: I have lost several queen palms to ganoderma butt rot. Can you give more information on this disease? S.Z.,
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Tree is really an invasive (and banned) weed
Q: I have a tree in my front yard that no one seems to be able to identify. I'm sure it's quite common given that I see it in other yards in my neighborhood.
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Combatting nematodes among the vegetables
Q: I think I have nematodes in my vegetable garden. Last year my plants did poorly and were stunted. The roots were knobby. Is there anything I can do this year?
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What causes inside of mango to rot?
Q: My mango tree produces nice fruit, but some are rotten inside. The seeds are rotten too. What causes this? A: This is a disorder called ''jelly seed'' or ''soft nose.'' It is the premature ripening of the fruit's flesh. This is aggravated by high nitrogen fertilization. Harvest fruits at the mature-green stage if your tree is prone to this problem. The degree of severity may vary from one season to another. To help prevent this disorder, use a fertilizer with higher potassium level than nitrogen...
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Bugs with glowing lights are version of a click beetle
Q: I found these long, brown bugs that have two glowing lights near their heads that are walking around at night. What are they? A: The insects you found are a species of click beetle and the adults produce light called bioluminescence. Few insects other than fireflies have this ability. They are called click beetles because when they are placed on their back, they snap together to right themselves, which produces a clicking sound.
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Thorn bugs infest lysiloma tree
Q: I found more than a dozen tiny insects in my lysiloma tree. They are about half the size of my fingernail and have a pale green body. Then I used a magnifying lens and saw three tall spikes sticking up vertically from their body.
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Determining jackfruit's ripeness; combatting sooty mold
Q: How can you tell when jackfruit are ready to be picked? A: Harvest jackfruit when it starts to have a strong odor. It will continue to ripen off the tree. It's ripe when it's slightly soft when pressed or sometimes when the bumps on its skin become more rounded.
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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.
