Dwarf Pomegranate with Scale

[telelle]

Hi, I have a dwarf pomegranate that I recently noticed has scale. The level of infestation isn't too bad but the tree is large enough that it's going to be a pain to deal with. Looks like brown soft scale. It's a fairly large bush/tree, at this point it isn't a standard bonsai, see the photo attached:

Dwarf Pomegranate Tree

2013-08-07 11.00.51.jpg (35.98 KiB) Viewed 934 times

I would like your opinion on how far back I can chop this tree? I've heard that scale is very difficult to get rid of and chopping it back hard would help me quite a bit in dealing with this. I would like to turn it into a standard looking bonsai at some point so any suggestions will be taken seriously.

Thank you for any help!

[tomc]

I'm not sure (if it was on my winter bench) that I would prune this back at all for a couple years,

If you live south of Washington DC your tree will become a 24-7-365 outdoor bonsai with perhaps a cloche on cold nights.

As far north as I am (zone 6-A), pomegranate needs some winter cover, and close monitoring to not let it dry out too much (under cover).

The rest of the year here pom's are outdoors trees.

If you hope to thicken the stump of this tree, the top has to have a free reign growing for a while. Expect that "while" to be five to seven years. Before your going to start pruning away the longest and strongest branch at the last internode. I tend to do that to tender azalea and pomegranate just before I bring them under cover in the middle of October.

Left to grow in field dwarf Poms are a shrub. Let him grow.

A Q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol kills the heck out of scale, and is good 'coffee-time' therapy, spent on the back porch.

[telelle]

I'm getting my hands on neem oil and I guess I will just have to wage a very patient war on these buggers. Neem oil seems to be quite effective against all sorts of plant-chewing insects as well as a good defense against fungus. From what I've read pomegranates are not sensitive to neem so I shouldn't see any photosensitivity from the spray like some insecticidal soaps do. I'll have to spray it once a week for quite a while so my plan is to pick off the ones I can see and then spray to get the ones I miss or can't see.

'coffee-time' therapy indeed.


I'm assuming these guys showed up sometime before I figured out how to properly water my dwarf pomegranate. If I mess up the watering it rewards me with yellow leaves - from both under and over watering. I finally perfected the bottom-watering technique and it seems 100% happier. None of my other indoor or outdoor plants have or ever had scale so I really haven't a clue where these originated from. I've seen spider mites and mealybug but those were quite easy to get rid of.

Thanks for you thoughts.

[telelle]

I thought I would do a follow up post and let everyone know how my tree is doing this year after the scale issue.

I used neem oil and the scale is gone as of fall 2013. I then put the plant outside for the winter (I live in Seattle so it isn't too cold for it). It didn't go completely dormant. It was kinda weird. Anyway I brought it inside in the spring and this tree just exploded with leaves and is seriously happy. I have to put it in the kitchen sink to bottom-water it now.