Hello, I'm imagining a Rube Goldberg type plan where I buy five or six bags of soil, and let 20 or 30 starfruit fall off the SF tree (that's like 5-6 days worth or starfruit!!!!!) and then I mix the fruit into the soil, and then I shovel the fruit/soil mixture into the Ficus hedge, which is stressed due to whitefly (I recently got rid of them), and then water the fruit soil mixture to let it soak in. The hedge looks horrible but this .pdf from a University says that whitefly typically are not fatal. If anyone seeing these photos disagrees and thinks my ficus hedge is doomed, let me know. It's even somewhat worse than it looks because some of the greenery you are seeing in this decimated part of the hedge is vines!! How did I let this happen? I'm wondering the same thing. I nominate me for Worst Gardener In The Village. My Starfuit Soil Strategy will not save much money and maybe I should just buy a fertilizer, one video on youtube said get a low number fertilizer for heges, something like 3-9-6. (Agree??) Good idea? Disastrous? Illegal? Florida has more than its share of oddball environmental laws (we are supposed to kill the Iguanas, I refuse!). Any advice would help. The starfruit tree surges three times per year, and it is currently putting out like a slot machine as it is want to do. (Seeking cool points for verbiage, at the end of the day, so to speak.) I pick approx 10 of them off the ground each day, here is two day's harvest. I have tried giving them away but people become less and less enthused each time I do. The last time I visited a friend's house, I saw some of my starfruit in the outdoor birdfeeder! I had brought them some SF two weeks before. Footnote, the birds weren't eating them. I put these and other questions of the crane, and the crane doth not reply.
Your starfruit tree (which I'm not familiar with) appears to have an infestation of vine weevil or similar. If that were my hedge, I would cut it down to about 6 inches from the ground, and give it a chance to regrow. I have never seen ordinary whitefly cause that kind of damage before
First of all mate, if you want to consult a crane on botanical matters, first get hold of a crane. What you have here is a blue heron...and they are notoriously weak botanists.
How RUDE of me. That's why the noble bird doth not reply! Even more than being ignored I'm right lucky I didn't get a sound peck between my eyes! By Golly I did not even notice, the star fruit tree is being chewed up again. I am so busy picking up the fruit I did not even notice that. I have a product which is a bacteria to battle the tiny caterpillars (I believe) which are chewing up the leaves. The stuff is a few years old but I will apply it and see if that fixes the problem. The extent of the damage occurred because of unusual circumstances. I was working OT on the third shift. A physically demanding job. I even went about two months without mowing the yard! Thank you both Sjoerd and Tetters for the input. If anyone else has any ideas or predictions about the hedge I am all ears.
Well,, first try to get rid of the insects chewing the leaves,, if thats what it is ! A good commercial fertilizer would probably help but the nitrogen number needs to be the higher of the three ! Should tell you on the label ! Its usually the first number ! Nitrogen promotes green growth like leaves ! I would not use anything higher than an 8 on your hedge and not too much of that ! If you know anyone with livestock, chickens or rabbits ! Good aged manure woulld be especially helpful without commercial fertilizer !
For the Starfruit tree which is being chewed up I found something in the garage I bought in Sept. of 2019 called Monterey B.T. It is rigtht at the expiration date, so I will increase the measurements when I spray it on the tree. The active ingredient is Bacillus thuringiensis. It seems pretty benevolent so I don't think there's any harm in changing the mix. It may not be effective at all because I did not store it indoors. Not sharp of me, I usually do store certain delicate products indoors. Thanks to everyone regarding ideas for fertilizing. If anyone seeing this thread wants to hazard a prediction as to whether or not the hedge has any hope of coming back, I'm all ears.
