[Rons Landscaping]

"It's that time of the year again to feed you palm trees."First of all I would just like to say thank you, to all of our customers that have made some very nice post about our landscape company through out the year, it is very much appreciated. Yes, it is that time of the year again to feed your palm trees. I tell all our customers to feed them in March, July, and again in November.Do not feed them during the winter months because if we get a freeze it will hurt the new growth coming out of the crown of the tree, so wait until around March 15th to feed them again. I use Lesco 8-2-12 fertilizer for all our palms, it is a very good feed. You can purchase this feed from John Deere Landscape Co. they are located in Leesburg on the corner of Griffin Ave. and Thomas St. I saw a post here on "Talk Of The Villages" a few days ago about some one asking about Asian scale on there King Sago Palms. When you look under the fronds of your Sago's you will see a white scale, it almost looks like the frost we use to spray on our Christmas trees years ago. Asian Scale is very hard to get rid of, it has no natural enemies. I have found over the years by spraying water very hard under the fronds it cleans them off some what, and then you can apply some insecticide on the palm. You can use a contact insecticide such as Malathion that will kill the scale, but a systemic insecticide (it absorbs into the plant tissue) is better because any bug that feeds on the plant will die. If you don't feel comfortable using that try using a oil base such as Volck Oil, or Dormant Oil. When you spray the palm cover it thoroughly, you need to suffocate the scale. Asian Scale is very hard to treat, it can be found up to 24 inches down in the soil. Asian scale can reproduce within 3 to 4 weeks after they hatch, so you have to treat the palm every few weeks to keep it under control. You may find that you may just want to take the palm out, rather then trying to fight this tuff little critter. I have not used a King Sago in any of our landscape projects for years because of this pest. Even if you get a brand new palm from a nursery it will catch Asian Scale, it is wind driven and it can crawl, and is transported from lawn tools and mowers. If you trim your fronds off your palm before you spray it, remember to clean your tools by socking them with a solution of bleach and water, I hope this will help some of you. Again from one Villager to another thank you for your post here on Talk Of The Villages.