I just now noticed that two of our rhododendrons have scale on them, rather badly.
I know that rhodies are not considered to be
permaculture plants, but they came with the house we bought 2 years ago, and they are pretty.
I would like to heal them and keep them.
I do not want to use a spray that will mess up the ecosystem, which is most sprays, it seems to me.
Our other 5 rhodies do not have scale that I can see upon rather close inspection.
I never had scale on outdoor plants before.
I have had it on indoor plants that seriously did not get
enough light. From all sides I was hearing that all the plants in the house were in grave jeopardy, and I had to take drastic measures. I was skeptical, since I knew they were growing in bad conditions. I swabbed off the scale and put them in good light and the scale never came back, and certainly did not affect any other plants in the house.
So I am prepared to believe that the scale on the rhododendrons may not be a massive threat to our garden.
We are putting in a
permaculture food forest on our 1/4 acre lot in outer SE Portland, Oregon.
The scale may have been on them for a long time. I usually do not pick flowers at all, but picked some today for my partner for his Father, who served in WW2, to put on his Father's grave. That is when I noticed the scale.
When I squished the scale, they were blood red inside. The ones in the house long ago (8 years ago) were all white inside.
These 2 rhodies were in bad shape when we moved in 2 years ago in late June.
One was overgrown with ivy and hardly bloomed at all last Spring. I cut back the ivy and watered it a lot and mulched it about 1 1/2 feet deep with cut-back blackberry canes, starting 4" beyond the trunk out a little beyond the
drip line. This year it was thick with blooms.
One was even MORE overgrown with ivy plus massive amounts of blackberries. I cut back the ivy and blackberries and gave it a bark dust mulch . This year the ivy and blackberries were back to a large degree and I cut most of them back again last month. There is more to cut back.
We have had a very wet Spring, even by Portland standards.
So, I am hoping for practical ideas, hopefully ones folks have used successfully themselves.
I am open to brainstorming, but please be clear whether you are brainstorming or experienced.
Predators? Plants to attract the predators? Nutrients to topdress?
I want to save these plants, but we will not mess up the infant
permaculture food forest through using things that mess up an ecosystem for the sake of 2 rhodies.
I love one of them a lot, the one that I got to bloom so much this year. It is very beautiful from outside the house as well as inside, where one window looks out on what was a gorgeous, joyous profusion of flowers this Spring, a welcome sight in rainy Portland.
The other is a color I do not really like, but it is about 7-8 feet tall and gives us a good windbreak from the STRONG east wind, and privacy. It is taking up space that would be better utilized by a food producing tree. It gets afternoon sun after the equinox. We have a lot of shade here.
It is spooky how the plants that I do not really want here are the ones which do poorly. They appear to know my thoughts.
Basically, if we could very quickly have the wind
shelter and privacy with a food producing plant, I would prefer that. We cannot afford to buy big plants.
One very chilling thought is that there is a LOT of radiation coming down in the rain here in Portland. This of course is a hard on the plants. I hope to Goddess that the radiation is not the cause of the scale, although it must be a contributing factor.
Thank you for any help you can give me.
Health, Happiness, Peace and Abundance for All!
Pamela Melcher
