3

I have a trumpet tree in a pot in my balcony. It has beautifully blossomed this spring and gave dozens of flowers. But since all the flowers fell down 1 month ago it has gotten worse and worse.

The leafs started loosing it's green color (see the pictures). Some of the bigger ones started dropping off.

It was then that I noticed some very small cobwebs and looking hard I started to see very tiny white spiders all over the tree. I proceeded to spray the whole tree with an insecticide I have that, according to the label, is appropriate against spider mites. It didn't get better but it also didn't get worse.

Yesterday I was watering the plant and it lost 5 or 6 leafs just for a little shake of the pot. I noticed again the spiders, this time many more than before, so I sprayed them again. This morning I found 15 more leafs on the ground.

Could this spiders be responsible for this? How can i get rid of them? It is also worth mentioning that I usually water the plan with hard tap water, is this bad as well?

enter image description here enter image description here enter image description here

ariera
  • 357
  • 2
  • 6

1 Answers1

5

Yes this is a bad case of spider mites. They are sucking the circulatory fluid out of the plant. You need to treat this right away with 5 ml soap mixed in 1 liter of water. Best success is to wet a rag with the solution and brush the leaves.

See here for more detail.

Community
  • 1
kevinskio
  • 57,927
  • 9
  • 76
  • 157
  • What's a trumpet tree? – Bamboo Jul 19 '16 at 14:50
  • @Bamboo by the book it is Campsis radicans but I suspect this is an allamanda cathartica. Either way that's a whole lot of spiders.... – kevinskio Jul 19 '16 at 14:55
  • Sure is - but when I looked up trumpet tree it gave me four other plants, without a mention of Campsis - just curious as to what it might be, no doubts about the diagnosis – Bamboo Jul 19 '16 at 16:38
  • 2
    @Bamboo from the bits I can see, I'd go with [Brugmansia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brugmansia). – Stephie Jul 19 '16 at 22:02
  • @Stephie Nice ID ! would be nice to have more pictures to confirm. If correct this plant is poisonous – kevinskio Jul 19 '16 at 22:09
  • @kevinsky, in German the Brugmansia is often (incorrectly) referred to as "trumpet tree" (Trompetenbaum). Not to mention the mixup with Datura. But I have currently three of them on my patio... – Stephie Jul 19 '16 at 22:14
  • Brugmansia and Datura were 2 of the plants listed as 'trumpet tree'... – Bamboo Jul 19 '16 at 22:28
  • Thanks for the answer. Will treat tomorrow morning with no more delay, it has lost even more leafs , there a not so many left now, looks very sad. – ariera Jul 20 '16 at 20:57
  • By the way, I think @Stephie is right, the Burgmansia in that picture looks exactly like the one I have, and the Germans here call it indeed "Trompetenbaum". Thanks for puttin it a name :) – ariera Jul 20 '16 at 20:59