Cold damage on one of my Echinopsis plants

[ansdell]

Hi all

Cold damage on one of my Echinopsis plants. Will these scars heal in time?

thxs Jonathan

[Davey246]

Sadly, no.

[ansdell]

Will some BugClear Ultra Vine Weevil Killer Concentrate kill these scale insects?

[SimonT]

It is a bit difficult to tell from the photo but this looks like it might be a surface fungal growth.
So you could try spraying with a fungicide? It might just clean up.

[Davey246]

Scale are a horrendous problem - as bad as mealies.

Neo-nic's will work, but you'll have to spray, and spray and spray to get successive generations.
I have(????) got rid of them on an Aspidistra using neo-nic's, but only by also spending a while evry week or two, going over the leaves by hand.

Good luck. Keep at it.

[Stuart]

If it is scale, and it looks likely from a distance, I'd get it away from the rest of the plants. I bought some ready-to-spray Provanto recently to spray some blackfly type bugs on Aeonium and it claims to work on scale. It worked easily on the Aeonium and it's handy to have a ready-mixed weapon ready in the greenhouse. Has anyone tried it on scale.

Stuart

[Davey246]

Has anyone tried it on scale.

See previous post

[SimonT]

Looking again, it might well be scale causing this problem. BugClear Ultra Vine Weevil Killer should work for this if that is what you've got to hand. Or maybe try one of the other options suggested?

[Davey246]

Scale can be rubbed off very easily and on indoor plants, seldom gets more than 3mm across, and seldom clusters side by side by side. They also produce honeydew so affected plants are sticky, shiny and often have mould on the honeydew.

I have seen heavy scale infestation on sycamore - 10+mm across, but they did not cluster either.

I would be more than very surprised if the problem is scale.

[SimonT]

It is hard to tell from the image what it is.

A pragmatic approach would be to treat with systemic pesticide and then follow this up with a fungicide.
If it is hard scale it can sometimes "dig in" and so you can't always just rub it off without scarring the plant.

It might clear up.