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CURRENT HOURS: |
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We will be open Labour Day Monday 9-5! We are also excited to announce our first ever Family Fall Festival being held this September 18, between 10am & 4pm. Come down for fun & food for all. Contact us for more information @ (780) 469-8733. |
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DIRECTIONS: |
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Download Directions and a Map |
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Expert Advice
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Pests and Diseases |
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| Question: |
The leaves of my tree are very shiny and there are wasps all around it. What’s causing this? |
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| Answer: |
Most likely the cause is small soft bodied insects called aphids that attach to the back side of the leaves. The aphids release a sticky slightly sweet substance called honeydew that the wasps are attracted to. To reduce aphid numbers you can rinse the plant off with water or spray with an insecticidal soap solution. Trounce is another product that is stronger than soap but still safe to use and is highly affective against aphids. Make sure you read product labels carefully before applying any spray to your plant. |
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Pests and Diseases |
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| Question: |
The top of my spruce trees are brown and it looks like the needles are gone. What could have caused this? |
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| Answer: |
It sounds like yellow-headed spruce sawfly. Did you happen to notice any yellowish-green caterpillars with darker heads? These little critters eat the needles especially near the top. The adult sawfies come up from the soil in late May to mid June and lay eggs at the base of new needles. The caterpillars hatch out and feed until about mid-July. They then drop back down and form cocoons in the soil and the cycle continues next year.
Spray with malathion or permethrin when the caterpillars are actively feeding, you need to contact them to kill them. Occasionally working up the top two inches of soil under the spruce may also help by disturbing the cocoons. Left untreated for a few years the sawflies can kill the tree. |
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Pests and Diseases |
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| Question: |
I have an eating apple tree and the apples are brown inside and not usuable. What is causing this? |
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| Answer: |
This most likely is a pest called Apple Maggot. In mid-to-late June the adult Apple Maggot flies emerge from the soil in the drop zone of infested apple trees where they have overwintered. Adult flies usually travel less than 300 metres looking for a host tree where the female deposits eggs under the skin of immature apples. The eggs hatch into tiny caterpillars which spend the summer chewing away inside the apple. In the fall when the ripe fruit drops to the ground, the larvae exit the fruit and enter into the soil where they form a cocoon that survives the cold winter temperatures and they then pupate into a fly. Spraying an insecticide is ineffective but there are ways to control the fly population. In June and July when the adults are flying, hanging several sticky traps that mimic ripe apples in the tree can help control the population as the flies are drawn to these traps. These traps can be purchased at most garden centres. Also, in fall, pick up and throw away any apples within a day or two after they drop. One can also place an impermeable barrier such as landscape cloth under the drop zone of the tree to catch the apples and prevent the larvae from entering the soil to overwinter. These insects can also attack plum, cherry, pear and Hawthorn trees. |
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Pests and Diseases |
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| Question: |
The leaves on my swedish aspen are rolled into tight little tubes but when I open them up there is just little black bits inside. What's causing this? |
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| Answer: |
These are called leaf rollers. They don't really cause the tree any problem, the damage is primarily cosmetic. A little green caterpillar rolls the leaves, chews a little and eventually drops down to the ground. The black bits are just what the caterpillar leaves behind. The next stage in the life cylcle happens in the top couple of inches of soil so fluffing up the soil around the trees from time to time will help reduce numbers.Once the leaves are rolled there is no way to contact or kill the bugs with any pesticide. There is a natural preditor of these leaf rollers and by not spraying hopefully their numbers will increase to the point they will keep the leaf roller in check. |
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| Category: |
Pests and Diseases |
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| Question: |
Some of the leaves on my Swedish Aspen turn a reddish-brown colour mid-summer. What is causing this? |
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| Answer: |
This sounds like Bronze Leaf Disease (BLD) and it is a fungal disease that has started to appear in the Edmonton area.
The symptom first appears on the leaves (the colouring of them) with the fungus then moving into the branch resulting in dieback. Infected leaves will remain on the tree throughout winter. Trees susceptible to this disease can decline and die after being infected for several seasons.
The disease spreads by airborne spores and this happens in spring once daily temperatures average 18 degrees Celsius.
So far there are no known chemical controls for BLD so early detection and good sanitation practices are key to help stop the spread of the disease. Diseased branches should be pruned out below the lowest visable point of infection and be either burned or buried. Trees severely infected or ones that have recently died from BLD should be removed and either burned or buried. Maintaining good plant health with adequate water and fertilizer will help trees to stave off this disease. |
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