Neil Drapkin

neil.drapkin

I have a sharon fruit (fuyu persimmon) plant grown from seed about 5 ft tall, several years old.  It has suddenly become infested with white woolly blobs a few mm long on underside of leaves and on the woody parts. So far there is no sign of damage, and I can't see an of these things on adjacent plants.  Any ideas what they might be, and how to get rid of them?

Dovefromabove

Hi @neil.drapkin and welcome to the forum 😊 

That looks like an infestation of scale insects. 

Information and advice here 

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=557

Hope that helps 😊 

neil.drapkin

Thanks, I will try the link

BobTheGardener

Act fast in removing them - those white fluffy things contain the eggs which will soon hatch into the mobile form (sometimes known as 'crawlers'), which climb over the plant before settling down in a permanent, good sap-sucking spot, where they will grow to an adult and start the life-cycle again.  They scrape off easily.  You may have just missed the hatching, in which case spraying the whole plant with soapy water will help reduce the number of crawlers drastically - they are a little like aphids and just as vulnerable at this stage.

neil.drapkin

Thanks.  I will get down to scraping tomorrow!