Mealy bug on Lophophoras?

[Nick_G]

Has anyone ever found a mealy bug on a Lophophora? I don't believe I ever have. My mealy preventative regime is dunking the whole plant, pot and all, into a bucket of whatever insecticide is currently available 2 or 3 times a year. I think I'm wasting my time dunking my Lophophoras. They are mite magnets of course and SB seems to be dealing with this satisfactorily but I'm really not convinced that mealies are a problem with Lophophoras. It's dunking time in the greenhouse and I may miss them out this time to save myself some unnecessary work.

[Tina]

Hi Nick,
I think you are right I have never seen a mealy on a loph, a euphorbia yes which I thought was odd with the toxic sap.
Has anyone found an extra large bottle of SB seems expensive for the small bottles

[Pattock]

Has anyone found an extra large bottle of SB seems expensive for the small bottles

Do you use the ready-to-use spray or the concentrate?

https://www.growthtechnology.com/produc ... vigorator/

[NickHitchcock]

https://www.google.com/search?q=super+c ... Aw5:2412.5

[Jeff S]

Has anyone found an extra large bottle of SB seems expensive for the small bottles

https://www.agrigem.co.uk/sb-plant-invigorator-5l
This place has 5l for £162, but I pay 14.99 for 500ml on Ebay so I don't think it's much of a bargain.

[Redjimp]

They used to do a litre and 2 litre bottles at a substantial discount however as these things tend to go you now can only get the smaller sizes at the higher prices

[ralphrmartin]

This place has 5l for £162, but I pay 14.99 for 500ml on Ebay so I don't think it's much of a bargain.

I thought that at first too, but then I realised the 5 L container is for professional use, and is 10 x the strength.

[Pattock]

This place has 5l for £162, but I pay 14.99 for 500ml on Ebay so I don't think it's much of a bargain.

I thought that at first too, but then I realised the 5 L container is for professional use, and is 10 x the strength.

The website says 10ml per litre for a knapsack sprayer, just like the 500ml bottle of concentrate for general spraying. The dilution by a tenth is for a boom sprayer, which has a different use, perhaps?

[ralphrmartin]

SBPI's own page https://sbpi.co.uk/commercial-products/ just says
"Dilution rate: 100ml concentrate to 100 litre of water."
Nothing about a higher rate for knapsack sprayers on the SPBI site I can see.
Where did you see that?

This page,
https://www.tudorenvironmental.co.uk/sy ... 0label.pdf
however, quite definitely says
Professional formulation: 2 ml / litre of water
Garden/ Retail formulation 10 ml / litre of water
which as it was dated 11/06, ties in with another statement on SBPI's own page:
FROM 01 JULY 2015 ALL NEW STOCK OF SB PLANT INVIGORATOR WILL BE NEW DOUBLE STRENGTH FORMULATION THAT GOES TWICE AS FAR FOR THE SAME PRICE
1 litre concentrate makes up 1,000 litres of dilute spray

So, I still believe the professional stuff is 10x the strength of the retail stuff.

Logic says no-one would be buy the professional stuff if it was more expensive than the retail stuff (especially as VAT needs adding to the price of the professional stuff, too).

[Pattock]

That was on the agrigem site linked above:

https://www.agrigem.co.uk/sb-plant-invigorator-5l

You are right, Ralph. Though I doubt the manufacturer's claim on their website that it is magic.

I don't think this useful information is on the label:

A thorough application (to upper and lower leaf surfaces) of SBPI applied to the point it runs off the plant, followed by a similar application one day later will be required to control an established infestation of mealybug.

The initial application will remove the protective wax from the adults and the second application one day later should effectively kill them (Fig. 2).

Eggs and the small mobile juveniles are more difficult to control with SBPI so further regular applications of SBPI at weekly or fortnightly intervals are recommended to ensure the infestation is fully eradicated.

That website answered two questions for me. SB stands for Stan Brouard. The surfactant they use is one of the most common in shampoo - SLES (sodium laureth sulfate). That is the only thing they list in "Hazardous components", at 10-20%.

Obviously, pure SLES would be colourless and cheaper. They keep mentioning "foliar nutrients" without saying what they are. Potassium bicarbonate is a popular mildew preventative, would that be safe enough not to list on the MSDS? Though they suggest SBPI is just washing the mildew spores off the leaf. The colour reminds me of the type of linseed oil used for cricket bats.

Personally, I have only ever used liquid potassium soap with a glug of olive oil. Seemed effective enough against greenfly and psyllids.