Systemic Insecticide

[Mark Soxman]

With this wacky weather we are having in the northeast, I am having problems with aphids.  They appeared earlier than normal this spring and I just cannot seem to control them with sprays.  One reason the sprays are not working is my plants are so big, I cannot seem to drench the whole plant.  I tend to use Orthene, Saffari, insecticidal soap and hort oil.  I can knock them down but they just keep reappearing.  I have an injector system that I run my fertilizer through and was wondering what (if any) chemicals I can run through my system when watering?  I did have some thrips but I seemed to get all of them, so I am mainly looking for something on aphids.  Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Mark Soxman

JuneRose Garden center (Pittsburgh)

[robin waldrop sr]

marathon works very well just watch open blooms, sprench off blooms and foliage after applying.

[Eric Rohloff]

Mark a spray application of any Imidacloprid product along with Endeavor will give you a quick kill and excellent control for a least 2 weeks. We use this combo on open blooms. Don't waste your money with late drenches that the plant needs time to absorb. If you over water in the first 7 days after application you could leach out the active ingredient. Flagship plus Endeavor is also a great combo. A spray applied in the late afternoon will have the aphids kissing the ground by morning.LOL

[Steve]

Use Safari as a drench that should get them.  Also you need to put ant traps around the outside perimeter of the greenhouse because the ants will actually farm the the aphids, picking them up and moving them from place to place.  If you see ants you most likely still have aphids.  Killing the ants is a major step in getting control of the aphid problem.

[Andrew Eye]

Flagship drench will probably take care of your problem.

[Carlos E. Bográn]

It has been a while since your post but I am curious to know what you decided and if it worked.  I agree on the suggestion of Endeavor; if the population is not too high you may try it by itself since it is very specific for aphids. Another one I would consider is Aria by FMC if aphids are the target.  Hope to learn what happened. Cheers.

[Mark Soxman]

I ended up using Safari and Endeavor.  I applied it through a power sprayer being very thorough to get the tops and bottoms and all sides of my baskets that were in that greenhouse (400 baskets in total).  Within a day all the aphids were dead and I released them for sale.  Within 2 weeks I sold every basket.  Next year I think I will start using a systemic and marathon will probably be my mode of action.  I thank everyone for their input and I hope sales are good for everyone.

Mark