Has anyone had experience using biocontrol agents in combatting rose diseases and pests in the northern hemisphere in indoor and outdoor rose gardens and propagation?
I read about the use of the parasitic mite phytoseliulus persimilis that attacks spider mites in one of the world’s largest flower farms in Kenya, Oserian, run by Peter Swagger, in a book called “Papyrus,” by John Gaudet, Pegasus Books, 2014.
phytoseliulus persimilis is a red spider predator that is used on greenhouse florist roses at least for last thirty years.
[attachment=0]boxwood-edging.jpg[/attachment]Your question got me to thinking. I have a large population of praying mantis in my rose/daylily/oriental lily garden. They lay eggs in the boxwood edgings and hang out on the boxwood. Not sure what they are eating in that garden but last year I saw very few Japanese beetles and virtually no aphids on my roses. I will observe more vigilantly this summer to see what they are eating.
Cathy
Central NJ, zone 7a
Cathy,
Were you Praying Mantis naturally occuring or did you import them?
Rob
When I stopped spraying or putting down granular insecticides I noticed a lot more hover flies naturally around in the garden they do a good job keeping the aphids controlled.
I don’t spray for pests at all since I’ve discovered I have fewer issues this way. I might manually remove, or use soap on aphids until the ladybugs, hoverflies, and aphid lions move in, but I have fewer issues letting them do the work.
I once had a ginormous passion flower vine that attracted a bajillion Gulf fritillaries. I allowed the caterpillars to devastate the vine so I could enjoy the adults. I was a little disheartened by the assassin bugs that moved in late in that season and feasted on the caterpillars until I realized that, once the caterpillar population was significantly diminished, my issue with milkweed bugs which I had battled for years was suddenly, and permanently resolved. My passion flower vine stopped looking like cr*p, yet I had enough butterflies to enjoy, and I had virtually no pests to speak of, and rarely saw a milkweed bug (which had, prior to then, sucked almost every blossom in bud dry on my altheas and other flowers).
I have since recognized that for me, letting a natural balance take place is my best defense. THat garden was so much more successful and beautiful when I stopped spraying for pests.
But you need to recognize that everything is about balance. If you introduce predatory mites where there is no prey, you are wasting your resources. If the predator is not very resilient, then once the prey (food) is gone, they too will be gone, and unless there is a reserve of the predator in the area you should expect a recurrence of the pest. A predator cannot (and generally will not) be a successful predator if they completely eliminate their prey. They would only starve themselves into extinction.
A Kenyan mite might not like your winters, and the following winter you might be back to square one if there are no “predator reserves”…
[quote=“Rob Byrnes”]Cathy,
Were you Praying Mantis naturally occuring or did you import them?
Rob[/quote]
Rob, they are naturally occurring.
Cathy
Central NJ, zone 7a
I don’t usually apply pesticides either. Early on I applied a miticide for spider mites but I haven’t done that in years. It seems the aphids are attracted to certain types of plants more so than others. Either they were more attracted to my R.glauca seedlings or I just noticed them more because they stood out against the purplish leaves. But those seedlings used to be covered in aphids and I was constantly stripping them off with my fingers.
Cathy,
I wish our gardens looked like that now. What cultivar is the striped rose in the picture?
[quote=“pgeurts”]
Cathy,
I wish our gardens looked like that now. What cultivar is the striped rose in the picture?[/quote]
Paul, that is the floribunda Scentimental, the only striped rose I own. I do not use it in my breeding program.
Cathy
Central NJ, zone 7a
I thought it looked like Scentmental. I tried it a couple times but not much became of the crosses. There are a number of decent offspring of it on HMF so I may give it another try this year.
[attachment=0]22A-04-Raspberry-Stripe.gif[/attachment][attachment=1]22A-04.Nancy.gif[/attachment] Paul: I probably have the most vigorous striped rose to come out of Scentimental that I know of. It is 22A-04 Jelinek. I call it Raspberry Stripe. It’s a cross between Scentimental and Brave Heart (Heirloom Roses). It’s like a large camellia bush. It produces viable pollen, but hasn’t set any hips yet. It has long stems, makes good cut flowers, and roots easily from cuttings.
