Question
Hi James,

I was wondering if you could offer some sage advice. I have a fuschia plant that was doing wonderfully until a few months ago. Ever since the winter, it has been infested with what I'm pretty sure are aphids. In any case, they're little white bugs that appear on the underside of my plant's leaves. I'm pretty sure I've seen them fly a few times as well.

Anyways, I've tried treating them with insecticidal soap (a homemade recipe consisting of 5 ml (1 tsp) of liquid dish soap in 1 litre (4 cups) of water), but they always seem to come back. Any idea why this is happening? I try my best to saturate all parts of the plant, get under the leaves and everything... and I'm scared that spraying it all the time like this will end up doing more harm than good.

Please let me know if there's a better solution. Is it possible that a few of the aphids hide somewhere while I take the plant away for spraying and then come back when I replace it on my counter? Hope that's not a stupid question. :)

Thanks so much for your time,

Jane

Answer
Hello Jane

I have read your question and I have a good understanding of what your experiencing.  

Aphids are attracted to weak plants.  You are correct Jane.  The insecticidal soap does make your plant weaker as do all pesticides.  Weak plants are not always visible to the human eye though.  But they are very visible to insects.  Aphids love plants that are over watered also.

You need to increase the sucrose levels of your plant.  This is the root of your problem.  These levels are commonly referred to as Brix levels.  Brix is a measurement of sugars and how healthy your plant is and can be recorded by using a refractometer.

There is a product on the market called Atomic Grow that will increase the Brix levels of your plant.  Atomic Grow cleanses the Stomata on the leaves and enables them to make more sugar for the plant thus increasing the sugar levels.  Atomic Grow also will clean the Aphids off of your plant at the same time.  

Make sure you have plenty of food (NPK)in your soil for the plant to eat as this product will increase the nutrient uptake in the roots and will increase the metabolism of your plant system.

The company's e-mail is [email protected]

Good Luck Jane