President's Corner

by Lee Squires

The Bjorn Event

We had a great demo, dinner, and workshop with Bjorn Bjorholm on April 9th & 10th. I hope as many of you all could attend as wanted to and sorry if you had to miss it for whatever reason. Bjorn is a talented young bonsai artist with a specialty in wiring, design and redesign of tired old plants. Maybe we can have him back in the future for a PowerPoint presentation of his Japan experiences.

Scale?

Many pine growers are bothered by pine needle scale. I’m sure you all have seen it, as it resembles white paint flecks on the needles of, mainly, Mugho Pine. I fight it off and on since I do have a few Mughos. Timing a spray is difficult because the crawler, larval stage, is only out from underneath the protective white shell for a 5-7 day migration cycle to other parts of your tree. Last year I found a fairly new product that is easy to use and effective on scale, spider mites and other piercing/sucking insect pests. It is Bonide Systemic Granules, with Di-Syston as the active ingredient. It can be applied directly to potted bonsai and other plants in the ground. I use from one to four tablespoons per pot, depending on pot size. Just sprinkle it on the soil surface and water it in. Don’t let your dog drink the dripping drainage water!!!  I had an infestation last Fall and applied some in October. This Spring around 2/3 of the colony was brown and the white ones were starting to dry up. I reapplied it to all of my pines this year as a precaution. It takes five days to dissolve and be absorbed by the root system and transported into the leaf and branch tissue of the plant. It acts systemically and as the insect sucks plant juices it gets a cocktail of D-Syston, a deadly concoction more potent than tequila shots! Bunton’s and other garden centers may carry it, and it costs $22.00 for a four lb. container.