I have one Alberta Spruce that is really sick, and might not make it. It looks like it is not getting any water, but the Alberta Spruce that is less than 2 feet away is going like gangbusters.

I think that the sick tree has bugs, possibly spider mites.

How to I confirm that, and how do I protect my healthy trees and possibly save the sick tree?

Steve, most garden supply stores have a spray concentrate that you mix and spray the trees with, to get rid of the spider mites… If you spray one, spray them all…
from what I understand, most spider mites work up from the ground, so we try and insure that no braches are close to the ground…

One other problem we have out here in illinois, are ““bag-worms””… check all the branches for a bag-like thingy, hanging from any branches… kinda looks like an up-side down teardrop, that is somewhat enlongated…

Steve,

I used the Ivory Liquid Soap method as explained on the other large scale site. This process DOES work as I had spider mites on my dwarf alberta spruce. Make sure to accomplish the follow on weeks. I mixed about 4-5 tablespoons per 2 gallon sprayer.

Good Luck!

Here is the process:

"OK…the sprayed soap therapy REALLY works. But it don’t end there. Spider mites lay eggs. What the soap is doing is coating the eggs and killing them…and it’s killing the alive mites too. To rid the plant of spider mites there are two things you need to do with the soapy water spray.

1. Spray the WHOLE PLANT…left to right, opposite side left to right, top to bottom, bottom to top, then do the opposite side again…GET ALL THE FOLIAGE WET ON ALL SIDES…right, left, up, down. For a few trees you can use a pump/pressure sprayer. For a lot of trees, use a garden hose sprayer. Dont’ be afraid to leave bubbles everywhere. (By the way, using soap helps water penetrate your soil…so this is a good thing too for the general health of the plant.)

2. Repeat #1 weekly…for 3 weeks…maybe 4. Here’s the deal. The soap kills the mites…and screws up their eggs…for 80% of the bugs. Somehow, 20% thereabouts seem to survive. Application 1 kills 80%. Application 2 kills 80% of the surviving 20% from round 1. Application 3 kills 80% of the surviving 4% from round 2. You’re now down to having under 1% of the bugs left. You can do a fourth application if it’s not a big deal to you. You’re approaching zero mites on your plants IF you really did what I said in #1 above.

The KEY POINT is #2…doing it weekly for 4 weeks in a row.

One last point…most folks WON’T spray their stuff 4 times…or they won’t do #1 four times. They’ll do #1 once or twice…and then quit. If you really want to preserve your investment, do it 4 times.

By the way…this process works on any tree/bush that suffers from mites."

What is the ratio of soap to water? I have two trees which are really nice, however, some of the lower branches are dead . Thanks for the help
Noel

Noel,

Jerry Sahnd said:
I mixed about 4-5 tablespoons per 2 gallon sprayer.

I have a 3 gallon sprayer, so I'll use 6 or 7 tablespoons per 3 gallon sprayer.

My question is, what is the break between a few trees and a lot??? Decisions, decisions, decisions… I have about 30 trees, so I’m going to dub that a few, just because I’m like that.

I used a high pressure spray (well, garden nozzle on it’s highest setting) on all of the trees. Most of them are infected, which really did not surprise me.

Its good to know that I don’t need to use diazanon or Durzban or anything like that. My chickens might object.

I’ll mix up the soap tonight.

Would a silicon surfactant work as well, I wonder?