Gwynedd, United Kingdom
What is the treatment for vineweavil on Heucheras?
- 11 Nov, 2010
Answers
If they are in pots the plants need to be tipped out and all the compost washed off the roots. Put all the compost, including grubs and eggs in the dustbin and repost the plants.
11 Nov, 2010
Provado vine weevil killer, as a soil drench. But it's late now, so as B/holic says, a restart. Having said that, heucheras repotted now will struggle, especially if the weevil grub damage is severe. Heucheras, along with many rosetted plants, like some saxifrgaes, primulas etc are very prone to attack. Many growers won't take preventative measures, such is the expese and high turn over nowadays, so it's easy to buy infected stock without knowing. With heucheras it's quite easy to tell if they're affected beause the gloss goes out of the leaves early on, but other stuff suddenly looks limp, and lifts off the soil without any root at all. Phil
11 Nov, 2010
I don't treat the compost with Provado but prefer to try and keep an eye on the pots. If a plant wilts and looks as if it seriously needs water then I plunge it in a water trough, where it will recover. If it does the same again soon after then I unpot it and look for the grubs
11 Nov, 2010
I found quite a few small grubs in the soil when I unpotted several plants last Wednesday, when it was a sunny mild day. At the moment they are like tiny curled up maggots. The robin had a tasty snack. Later they go white and are easier to see. I suspect some of my Heuchera are affected and will be unpotting them and rinsing and repotting with new compost as Bulbaholic suggests. I'm afraid I will have to use a drench on some of my larger pots. They are not manageable by decanting as I don't want back trouble!!! No bees around to suffer at this time of the year.
12 Nov, 2010
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If your plants are in containers there's an insecticide you can buy - look for "Vine Weevil Killer". According to the RHS website it's not suitable for use in open ground, but I don't know why not.
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=234
There are a couple of organic (nematode) treatments but they need to be used when the soil is warmer than it is now. They recommend September - October.
Other than looking for & picking off (and squashing) the adult beetles, I guess you could tip out containerised plants a bit later on when the grubs are big enough to see and squash them, if present.
11 Nov, 2010