Fruit & Orchards Garden Organic Gardening

How to safely kill aphids & moss on a transplanted orange tree?

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

I have a beautiful orange tree (15yrs old) I recently transplanted to an above-ground, cloth pot. After giving it plenty of room to grow, and pruning it back for the roots to take the new soil, and nurturing it with plenty of organic food, it is growing quite nicely. It has already had many blooms and its leaves are getting fuller every day. Yet, about two weeks ago, I noticed an infestation of aphids! I sprayed them off a couple of times with a water hose but knew this was not the cure-all. I sprayed the tree down once with Neem Oil and am now a day shy of spraying it again with the oil. I have never used this product before, but am hoping it will end the problem.

First, how do the aphids get on the tree in the first place? There are very few left. But see them reappearing after a few days. I know I need to spray it again. How many times do you spray before they will not return? I don't want them returning or going to my pomegranate bush.

How do the aphids get there? I heard it was by ants. If so, how do you get rid of the ant problem without chemicals? And is there another way to get rid of the aphids, without oil or harmful chemicals? Honestly, I'm not really sure what neem oil is. Maybe it's completely safe. I figured it was more organic and safe than anything else available.

Secondly, my tree has moss on it. I think it always had this problem because of where it was located at our old house. I've heard you can use bleach mixed with water and spray it on the moss, scrub after a few minutes and it would come off. I'm wary of using bleach and not sure I should use the Neem Oil and bleach at the same time.

Any suggestions on these problems? Want to keep everything as natural and organic as possible. Thanks for any advice!

This is my orange tree today.

Same day - This is after we treated once for aphids...still a little showing after a couple of days. Respraying tomorrow with Neem Oil.

Moss problem.

Another pic of the moss problem

On April 16th is when we realized the aphid infestation.

Just another pic of the pestering aphids. I sprayed these pests off the tree, then we had a few days of heavy rain. After it dried, I sprayed them with the tree with the Neem oil.

The is another pic of the whole tree with new bud and leaves.

Early April started budding.

More buds and new growth.

More new growth a week later.

First new growth in early March

Transplanted in early February after the last frost. This pic is a month after being transplanted. I lost all but 1 leaf.

This is the tree in its old natural habitat! It enjoyed that place and gave us a LOT of great oranges!

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Comments (5)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
5 years ago
lichens are harmless .. ignore them ..

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=lichens&iax=images&ia=images

unless you can find some FL thing that isnt harmless ... that looks like a lichen ... but arent ... spanish moss or something.. that this MI boy knows nothing about ...

aphids have a way of finding stressed plants ... i would not spray them with oil again. since you say the population is already in decline ...

why did you bag it??

how do you know when it needs water???

ken
hegewoman thanked ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
If anyone could answer the question as to where aphids come from, they'd be rich!! Where do any insect infestations come from??......they just happen :-) Ants may cultivate and protect the aphids but they don't exactly transport them around and aphids can and do appear independent from any ant presence.

Water is still your best bet for aphid removal and the only reason you keep seeing more is the eggs they laid are hatching. You need to spray the plant down routinely for several days to a week to effect full control.

Neem is a fully natural and organic product. It is the extract from a semitropical tree native to India. It is considered a horticultural oil and has diverse purposes. If used for soft bodied insect control - like the aphids - it must come into contact with the aphids. You can't just spray it on the leaves and expect it to work efficiently.

And the moss is actually lichen and is completely harmless to the tree. It is just using it as a staging platform to receive the sunlight and rain it needs. Attempts to remove it are unnecessary and will cause more damage to the tree and its bark than if just left alone. No bleach!!

If your tree was doing so well in the ground, why did you dig it up and stick it in a pot? It won't do nearly as well under those conditions.
hegewoman thanked gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
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poetie
5 years ago
Just watched a video of this guy on the rusted garden talking about aphids. He recommends 1 gallon water and 1 tablespoon of castille soap.

https://therustedgarden.blogspot.com/2013/05/identifying-aphids-on-tomato-plants-and.html
hegewoman thanked poetie
hegewoman
Original Author
5 years ago
Gardengal48,

I dug it up because we moved. It was a sentimental tree in that my mom, my son's grandma, gifted it to him when he was born. We wanted to bring it with us when we moved. We didn't want to plant it in the ground because we are going to move again within the year. So trying to make it work until then. =)
hegewoman
Original Author
5 years ago
Ken,

Thanks for the info.

I was thinking it may be Spanish moss. It seems to grow around here in North FL. But never heard of lichen.

I put it in a bag because we are moving in a year and there wasn't a normal pot I felt was big enough to contain the root system. When reading and calling around, the advice I got was to cut two feet out, trim back, and give good soil. I couldn't put it in the ground because we are in a rental house for the year. I also didn't want to have to uproot it again and go through this whole process again. So this was the best option. I didn't even know they existed until looking for something big enough. Every person I talked to said it wouldn't live, but it is so far...so Yay!

As for water, I just check it every day it doesn't rain to see if the soil is moist.