PATS12


In This Issue
New Year starts with 11% uplift
Millbrook Garden Centre: not a nightclub
Retailers gather customers for the Big Garden Birdwatch
IPM show increasingly popular for UK garden centres
Join in the Jubilee tree giveaway
Greatest Awards finalist spreads Christmas cheer
Rocket charged Veg sales
More Tree-mendous giveaways: Monkton Elm offer free saplings to worthy causes
Business as usual after storm lashed Olive Tree Café
Celebrating 50 years young with a new netXtra smartphone app
Camellia adds a splash of colour as February’s Plant of the Month
Poppleton Garden Centre expansion to create more jobs
Two New Pests enter the RHS Top Ten
Experts offer gardeners free advice on spuds
Oh what fun there is to have at The Greatest Christmas Awards party!
GTN Bestsellers Charts - epos data analysis every week
Get growing, get selling
Garden centres to attend Housewares Conference & Innovation Awards
Manor Garden Centre awaiting leads on double burglary
Topsoil-supplying garden centre to appear on ITV Business Club
Tastes of the world on the menu in East Fortune
Made Aware: the new trademark for green‚ outdoor furniture and barbecues
Webbs of Wychbold compile calendar for local hospices
New Directory of HTA Training and Business Development Events 2012
Gardman appoints a Product Standards Manager
GTN Bestsellers Chart Update
GTN Bestsellers Charts - epos data analysis every week
Read more»
katherine.watt@tgcmc.co.uk
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Two New Pests enter the RHS Top Ten
 
Leek Moth copyright RHS.jpg
Leek Moth copyright RHS.jpg
Slugs and snails have taken the top RHS pest enquiry slot for 2011 after having been toppled from the first place by viburnum beetle in 2010. Usually they are the number one problem in most years with 2010 being a slight variation. Nearly all gardens suffer from slugs and snails and since they damage a wide range of plants it is not surprising that they often generate most enquiries.

This year’s RHS list has two pests that are in the top ten for the first time. Fuchsia gall mite, at number six, was unknown in the UK before 2007. It was discovered when a sample from a Hampshire garden was sent to the RHS Members’ Advisory Service for identification. Since then it has become widely established along the south coast and is moving northwards.

These microscopic mites are having a major impact on the growth of fuchsias. Their feeding at the shoot tips and in the flower buds causes severely distorted growth. Affected plants are unable to produce normal leaves and flowers.

RHS Principal Entomologist Andrew Halstead. “Unfortunately there are no effective pesticides for garden use. Because the damage cannot be controlled, it may lead to a decline in the popularity of this valuable garden plant.”

The other new entry, at number eight, is leek moth. Although mainly a problem on leeks, it also affects onions and shallots. The moth produces two generations of caterpillars during summer. The second generation in late July–August is particularly troublesome. The young caterpillars mine the leaves but later they bore into the stems of leeks and the bulbs of onions and shallots. Infested leeks often become infected with secondary rots and die.

Leek moth is mainly found in the south of England and South Wales but, like fuchsia gall mite, is also spreading northwards. Another pest affecting leeks and allied vegetables is allium leaf miner. This small fly was first discovered in the Wolverhampton area in 2003 and is now widespread in the Midlands and is also present in northeast Surrey.

Although there are no pesticides available, knowledge of these pests mean that garden centres can help to identify any problems that gardeners have, and offer the advice to grow the plants under mesh.
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