Fushia Help

deltadawn_2

I,ve had this Fushia for 25+ years now and up to a fortnight ago it was a healthy plant--but its suddenly looks like its been eaten by Slugs i have put pelets down but can,t understand why its suddenly gone like this--any advice would be welcomed as i,m a "Put them in and hope for the best" gardener and know very little but this plant has always been healthy and returned every year .

Farway

Is it inside or outside? In a pot or open ground?

deltadawn_2

Hi
Its outside in the border,

peter_the_piper

Are you sure its slugs? Never had a problem with slugs and have grown thousands of them Now is the time of year when vine weevil beetles start moving and the eat holes in the leaves which bear a resemblance to slug nibbles. Worth a check.

A._Badger

It is quite unlikely to be slugs. Fuchsias aren't immune but they aren't hostas - that's for sure!

Could you post a picture of the damage, do you think?

Linda32

After reading this I remembered that our Hosta's looked a bit worse for ware when I got home. I've just been out and given them a tug. Its not vine weevil I'm pleased to say They looked very very droopy though. I'm thinking we haven't had much rain recently.

Although that doesn't explain the OP's problem if the fuchsia has been in the ground for 25 years. Slugs wouldn't kill a plant that old either. A few nibbles here and there maybe, but not kill the whole plant. No way!!

If you can provide a photo it would help.

Davesnave

Could be moth caterpillars. Elephant Hawk Moths are known to devour fuchsia and I dare say there are others.

I've just had some Buff Tip caterpillars eat one side of a hazel bush before crawling off to pupate. If I'd missed them earlier, the damage would be puzzling.

It's a sure thing that nothing, not even vine weevil beetles or larvae, will polish-off a 25 year old fuchsia planted outdoors. As for slugs, no, definitely not.

However, 25 years is knocking-on a bit, so if I were the OP I'd probably look to replacing it with an Irishman's cutting taken from the same plant. Consider it like backing up computer data (which I'm rubbish at remembering!:o)

PS you have to put a picture on a hosting site like Tinypic and use the code they give you to post it here:
http://es.tinypic.com/

cyclonebri1

As above, I find fuchsias the easiest plants of all to propagate from cuttings.

For what it's worth this has been my worst ever year for plant chomping pests, and it hasn't been slugs like last year.

There have been a variety of them, many caterpillar species that even eat pines:eek: and various other things. Others, when they have selected an area, have attacked everything including weeds.

Even my waterlilies and iris's in the pond have been cleared out by some form of aquatic pest.

VfM4meplse

Davesnave wrote: »

if I were the OP I'd probably look to replacing it with an Irishman's cutting taken from the same plant.

Sorry to be a bit thick, but what is an Irishman's cutting? Have just googled it and ended up with a load of golfing references

cyclonebri1

I'm not sure what that means either, could hazard a guess:D

But what Dave didn't say is that you probably wouldn't recognise the plant if you renewed it from cutting.

Fuchsias, especially have a habit of slowly reducing in flower size year by year. After 25 years you may be surprised.

Farway

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Sorry to be a bit thick, but what is an Irishman's cutting? Have just googled it and ended up with a load of golfing references

Irishman's cuttings are where you pull off, or slice off, some root, along with the stalks etc of the parent plant

Sort of dividing the parent plant, but only in little bits