Aphids on newly rooted Crassula O.

Hello all.

I recently acquired a Crassula O. cutting on a trip to LA, and I'm rooting it now.

It flowered, and it appears there may have been some aphids hiding inside the flowers, as when the tiny flowers opened up, I started to see some very tiny green aphids on the plant.

I'm getting very conflicting info here, some sites say that use of an insecticidal soap is the best treatment, while others warn that on some succulents it can clog pores and mess with transpiration. At least one site said to apply, then rinse off a day later to avoid this.

I've seperated it from my Ficus B. and P. Afra, which seem to show NO signs of the infestation at all...but I'd like to knock this problem out on the Crassula, and treat the other two preventatively.

What is the best treatment here?

I've looked at soaps such as:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BWY6K2/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details

For this soap, the active ingredient is "Potassium salts of fatty acids".

Is this safe to use in limited applications on my Crassula, Ficus B. and P. Afra?

If not, what would you recommend?

I found this posted in another thread by jake4bonsai:

They even rarly get bugs although its still good practice to use a neem spray of some kind once a month just to ensure bugs stay at bay. Thats goes with any bonsai. I use a product called fungicide 3 concentrate. The ready mixed isnt strog enough. Its a fungicide, miticide, and insecticide in one. Its 70% neem oil and is harmless to benifical insects, humans, and animals. Can also be used on any species of plant known because its all natural. Not exspensive either, i got it for 12 dollars for enough to make 20 gallons at one ounce per gallon!

Can't help with crassula or P. afra, but I've used horticultural oil spray on my ficus without any problems. It is recommended for aphids but I've never used it for that purpose (I've been using it for scale), so not sure how effective it is.

Chris

I did some more research last night and for jades it seems that the rules are:

1) No products made with a petroleum product base.

2) No very harsh inorganic chemicals.


The aphids were ONLY on the flowers, and the flowers were starting to wilt, so I clipped them off and gave the plant a wash, so far I don't see any returning.

I bought some Fungicide3 as Jake4Bonsai recommended, its a water base with Neem oil as its active ingredient, which by all reports is 100% safe for both my jades and my Ficus B.

General rule if you're not sure is to test it on a small part of the plant before dousing the whole thing. Other thing, regarding the neem (from Jake's post) - I wouldn't assume that it "can be used on any species" just because it's derived from a natural source.

coh wrote:General rule if you're not sure is to test it on a small part of the plant before dousing the whole thing. Other thing, regarding the neem (from Jake's post) - I wouldn't assume that it "can be used on any species" just because it's derived from a natural source.

Oh no you are correct, that is not the assumption.

I got my "neem is safe for jades" from finding quite a few posts by experienced plant enthusiasts that have used neem/water based products on their jades with great success.

Update on this.

So, I did some more research and I wanted to update this thread:

1) No insecticidal soaps are safe for jades, they cause defoliation. I believe this is true across the board for many succulents, but I cannot confirm past the "jade" family.

2) I tested Fungicide 3 (neem based, not a soap) on ONE leaf of my Dwarf Jade (P. Afra) and within two hours the leaf was showing massive cell damage and cell death. I decided to NOT dillute the Fungicide3 for this test, figuring that if the P. Afra can handle full strength neem, it can handle any dilution. I pruned the leaf off the plant and I will not be using any oil based products on a jade ever again.

In short, it appears that neem based products are not safe for jades at full strength, its possible that at a very high dillution they might be ok.