Sooty mould on my Banksia Integ.

I have sooty mould on my banksia
just on the underside of the leaves
The strange thing is there is plenty of airflow and light
Nothing else in the garden has it either !

So Fu would the milk +water spray work on this little diddy like it does the roses??

I am going to try it out anyway as well as the Yoghurt and I may as well go the whole hog and give the molasses on the lawn a try too

It may help but first you need to look closer at why it is there in the first place
Don't treat the symptom Find the cause
The sooty mould usually goes hand in hand with insects that feed on the sap. They poo out a sugary nutrient rich substance. That is what the mould grows around and from. So is there any scale? They would be the most likely on a Banksia. If so the very best treatment is to use predatory insects No mixing chemicals, no effort. Just get them in the post, hang the container in the offending plant and let the little blighters annihilate them ...mmmmwwwwuhahahahha

If you want to spray then I am afraid there is only one truly effective substance available in retail garden centres. It is also possibly the most toxic thing in that building. It is Maldison. Sold as "Anti-Scale" it works. I hear and see people use or get recommended Confidor or similar for treating scale. I rarely if ever see those work on scale. Wear a mask, your tongue might go funny and you may get a mild headache but the problem will be sorted for a while. However you will wipe out any bee that goes to the plant so I hope it isn't flowering.

Someone has sprayed something near here on their precious roses because I am seeing dead bees everywhere. In fact where a week ago there were hundreds of bees being Bee-sy their would be only 10 or 20 I have seen alive today and a few of those were not looking well Poor bees If only better alternatives were mentioned to folks visiting garden centres

Also who put the scale there? Look for ants around. If there are loads, then get rid of the ants. The are scale farmers They collect the poo from them and use it to feed the colony. ( I think they use it to feed fungi in the colony but entomologists would know more on that ) So kill the ants, kill the scale and the sooty mould will go on it's own

You want this guy
http://www.goodbugs.org.au/Good%20bugs% ... hycus.html

...and these are his mates to help with other problems
http://www.goodbugs.org.au/Good%20bugs% ... ilabl.html

http://www.goodbugs.org.au/index.html

This is something used by commercial nurseries and production to very good effect. In fact a friend of mine found it cheaper, more effective and easier than sprays. Her plants were healthier and so were her staff

Fantastic stuff

Too bad it seems none of the stockists have the little wasp ATM
But Google and BING are on the case!!!!

I should add that I only have scale on 1 of the 15 banksias and the other are covered in the mould

I went around today and pruned all the lower limbs off that seemed to be the most affected and disposed of them in the council green bin

the scale on the 1 banksia is now gone as is that whole banksia LOL

But I will still try and source the little wasp I like the whole insect control
only chemicals I have ever used in the garden is washing up liquid and glypho to control ONION WEED GRRRRRRRRRRRR

If the others don't have obvious scale it may be a mould like sooty mould. It is similar to what we get on Kangapaws with the black spots. I reckon use some potassium bicarb which is a certified organic fungicide sold as Eco-Garden fungicide which identical to the easier to find eco rose fungicide. They are both identical contents so get what you can find. That or Full cream milk diluted in water as discussed. Otherwise just leave them and normally they bounce back fine when the weather clears up You might loose a few flowers as well but that's fine