Hey guys!
So it's my first time at growing sunflowers, my first time gardening really. Everything seemed t be going well indoors but as soon as I transferred my plants outside - chaos!!
1. I have tiny little black insects collecting on the underside of my sunflower leaves
2. I have black spots on the sunflower leaves themselves
3. The lower leaves are wilting off and dying
4. I have an infestation of ants on the stems
Does anyone have any advice on how to get rid of any of these problems? Are the ants harmless as suspected? Is the black spot some kind of fungus? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
Pictures would help!
The ants are harmless of themselves, but they do "farm" aphids. They will bring a bunch of aphids onto a plant and guard them there, to collect the sweet secretion ("honeydew") the aphids give off.
It does sound like you probably have aphids.
The black spots could be some fungus. The honeydew is also a perfect medium for growing fungus.
I would start by working on getting rid of the ants and aphids. You can just squish the aphids, or a soapy water spray works against them. Then if you put a circle of chalk, talcum powder, etc around the plant, it should keep the ants from bringing the aphids back. (They don't like to crawl over powdery stuff, clogs up the spiracles)
The ants are harmless of themselves, but they do "farm" aphids. They will bring a bunch of aphids onto a plant and guard them there, to collect the sweet secretion ("honeydew") the aphids give off.
It does sound like you probably have aphids.
The black spots could be some fungus. The honeydew is also a perfect medium for growing fungus.
I would start by working on getting rid of the ants and aphids. You can just squish the aphids, or a soapy water spray works against them. Then if you put a circle of chalk, talcum powder, etc around the plant, it should keep the ants from bringing the aphids back. (They don't like to crawl over powdery stuff, clogs up the spiracles)