Image – Flickr/Forest and Kim Starr
The Brazilian trunk, also called water stick, is a perennial plant widely used in interior decoration. It can grow very tall, reaching 2 meters and even exceeding it if given the chance, and since it does not take up much space due to its relatively thin trunk, it looks great in any room. However, we need to know that sometimes you will get sicksince no living being is exempt from being able to suffer from disease throughout its life, no matter how much and how much it takes care of itself.
So if you wanna know what are the pests and diseases of the brazil trunk and what you need to do to recover, in this article I will talk about it.
The Brazilian trunk or water stick is a plant that is not always easy to maintain and keep healthy: it needs plenty of light but not direct, light soil so that the roots are not waterlogged when watered, and nutrients that it must receive throughout the spring and summer.
Also as it is important to control irrigationbecause although it is sometimes called a “water stick”, in reality one of the worst things that can be done to it is to have it in a pot without holes, full of water, since it does not is not an aquatic plant, and therefore, It is not adapted to live in these conditions.
But we can’t forget the weather either: many pests that affect plants are more active in warm weather, that is, in spring and especially in summer. And if heat and dryness combine, our Brazilian trunk can kill some in less time than you might imagine.
Having said that, Let’s see what are the pests and diseases that can harm our plant:
Contents
red spider
Image – Wikimedia/Gilles San Martin
The spider mite, despite its name, is a mite (not a spider) measuring about 0.5 centimeters. It feeds on leaf cells, so you will find it on the underside of leaves where will leave small discolored or yellow spots that later turn brown. Also, you will see that it weaves a kind of fine web to move from one sheet to another.
To fight it, you can do two things: first, apply an insecticide that is also acaricidal, like this Compo spray, or clean the leaves with water and neutral soap, but this last treatment is useful only if the plague is not widespread; that is, if you only saw a few spider mites.
mealybugs
Image – Flickr/Katja Schulz
There are many types of scale insects, such as the cottony scale, scale insect, the one known as the San Jose louse… All of these scale insects damage plants. But the one that most affects the Brazilian trunk is the cottony one. It is so called because it looks like a cotton ball and breaks very easily. They perch under the leaves and feed on their sap.
The symptoms are varied: sticky leaves, bright green, with some discolored, even deformed and/or honeyed areas. On some occasions, the bold mushroom appears, as it is attracted to molasses. When this happens, the leaves have a sort of blackish coating, which is more unsightly than anything else: by eliminating the mealybugs, the plant will recover.
To do it, must be treated with an anti-cochineal insecticide like this one that they sell here, or if you prefer it with diatomaceous earth, of which we leave you a video:
aphids
Aphids are very small insects, measuring about 0.5 centimeters, which multiply rapidly in spring and summer. In fact, when you think there are only one or two on the plant, there may be a few more. What’s worse is that they quickly become a major pest, which It feeds on the sap of the leaves, making them sticky because of the honeydew they secrete and deform.
This molasses also attracts the black fungus, but as we said earlier when we talked about scale insects, once the plague is gone, the fungus will disappear. And how do you control aphids? You can do this with the same insecticide we just recommended (this one), or with other naturals like neem oil that you can buy here.
Mushroom
Image – Wikimedia/El informatic
mushrooms they appear when the plant receives too much water, or when its leaves are sprinkled with it daily despite the fact that the relative humidity of the place where it is located is high. There are many types, but the one that damages the Brazilian trunk the most is septoria, which produces gray-brown spots on the leaves. But others can also affect you, such as mildew or powdery mildew, which coat the leaves with gray mold.
What to do? In such cases, apply a systemic fungicide like this one from Flower and remove what is damaged to prevent the infection from spreading. But also, risks must be better controlled, trying to leave the earth a bit before pouring water on it again. And, as a precaution, I recommend finding out about the degree of humidity in the area, because, as I said, if we spray a plant with water where it is very high, fungi will quickly appear.
To do this, just Google “relative humidity of X”, replacing the X with the name of the city or town where we live. Although it is much more advisable to buy a home weather station, to have this information always in view, like this:
I hope this has helped you learn more about Brazilian trunk pests and diseases and how to treat them.