Fertilome (11207) Tree & Shrub Drench (1 gal)

Over the years I have used this product to rid/prevent insect damage to gardenia, palms, hibiscus, and it works like a charm. My gardenia flowers were always spoiled by tiny tiny insects inside the blossoms, preventing them from being clipped for indoor enjoyment. UNTIL I started using this drench! I apply it in the Spring before bud set, and I can now enjoy the gardenia blooms for the entire blooming period. I also had a small palm (don't know the species) that had a terrible infestation of a damaging white insect (not whitefly), and this product eliminated it. Follow the directions and you'll be pleased with results.

Crape Myrtle Bark Scale ( Acanthococcus lagerstroemiae) is the only reason I use this product, but it is quite effective. I live in North Texas where my best landscaping is native Yaupon Holly (NOTHING bothers these beauties) and lots of various types of crape myrtles. For 20 years my crape myrtles could handle the stupid extremes of hot and cold and shake off minor bugs like aphids and then the freaky Asian Bark Scale invaded across the South. I came close to losing a couple of well established trees (the scale also sets up a great environment for sooty mold and the two problems cause terrible damage) before I finally found the systemic root drenches that work to kill the scale. I don't use this on any regular schedule although I have found it I usually have to dose each tree once every two years. I just wait until I see the scale and then dose the tree and the scale is dead within a couple of weeks and stays gone for a long time. The sooty mold never has a chance to develop. Fertilome is an effective as any of the 3 different products I've used and less expensive than the other two.

I use this twice a year in Tennessee- January and June. Last year I missed a tree. In the photo it’s obvious which tree got stripped of leaves by the aphids, the fuller tree was treated. Lesson learned.Before I started treating my trees, it wasn’t a good idea to walk under them talking or without a hat because I saw sun rays through the branches once. In the rays I saw p00 raining down. Some people call it honeydew. Honeydew my goodness. That’s like calling an outhouse a powder room. It coated flowers, lawn ornaments, the windshield of my truck black. The goo is sticky and requires manual scrubbing. I’m just glad I found this product solution.I have 16 trees I treat and use 9 oz of product per gallon of water, no matter the size of the tree. If I used the recommended amount on my mature trees, which includes all 16, I’d have to buy six or seven gallons which is totally not necessary. For two trees growing right close to one another I treat each tree separately.Bonus: Even if it’s late and you see proof of an infestation, treat it. Within literally a couple days you’ll stop them dead. Don’t be surprised to see new growth on the tree after it’s treated.

The timeframe on the bottle for it to work is 1 week - 3 months, and for me it took about a month to see any results. I applied in early May and have just begun to see the population of mealybugs on my crepe myrtle tree thin. It’s a very big tree (about 2 stories) so I used the whole bottle, diluting as directed. The mealybugs infestation was very severe, with literally thousands of bugs coating the tree and roots.The reason I say “as far as I know” is that I was taking other measures to the surface of the tree while waiting for the Fertilome to take effect. I would hose the bugs out of the tree each day, and in the last week of May and first of June I would use generic dish soap (after hosing the bugs down onto the ground, I’d coat the soil on top of/around them as well as the trunk and any branches I could reach with store bought dish soap - like generic Dawn). I would spray a little water after to make a lather, and could see this helping to cull the population somewhat. There were still just so many hatching anew each day, but this past week (first week of June) I’ve finally noticed the bugs meaningfully decrease. There are maybe 20-30 insects visible these days with fewer each day, and I haven’t needed to soap and rinse.I’d recommend a combination of this product with the hose and dish soap strategy, and patience as this did take a month to show results on a large tree. 👍

Very easy to apply as long as done before spring growth of ground cover ... certainly much more practical than attempting to spray branches of mature trees. I have been using to control Pine Beatle so difficult to observe effectiveness. (I have 4 mature pine trees. Two are infected and two are in about 200 away.) However, continuing to use professional services would be at a perpetual cost of $700 - $800/yr. This product is about $30/yr to treat all 4 trees ... cheap enough for keeping the trees to be feasable.This year I am also trying out the product on my mature birch water willow and ornamental flowering cherry trees to see if I can more fully control aphid issues. If successful I will, after 2 years, likely go back to using lady bugs.

My crepe myrtle were full of mites and scale. My neighbor told me about Fertilome drench. Tried it and what a difference it made. My crepe myrtle look healthy and beautiful. Will pretreatvtjis spring to prevent mites and scale.

Great product. It helped my crepe myrtles quite a bit. No more aphids. I ordered 2 gallons this year.

This product works great have used it before witn good results.