Nuzzled almost squarely between Houston and Corpus Christi, Texas is the El Campo division of Greenleaf Nursery. Opened in 1945, Greenleaf has four locations operating in Oklahoma, Texas and North Carolina. Greenleaf ships plant material across the entire nation. At the El Campo facility, which was opened in 1971, staff are growing a host of tropicals, annual color and broadleaf evergreens, among other plants.
One of the pests that hound Greenleaf’s El Campo crops are mites, particularly Southern red mites and twospotted spider mites. Brett Alldredge, pest management supervisor for Greenleaf, says the red mites are especially problematic on the nursery’s azaleas. To combat their pest infestations, Alldredge employs Akari miticide from SePRO.
“We use quite a bit of Akari. We’re having really good success with it, particularly on our azaleas,” he says. “We also use it on twospotted spider mite, and it has control there as well.”
The nursery has been using Akari since before Alldredge joined the staff in 2009. He’s been duly impressed with the results, particularly his ability to use it broadly across the 420 acre growing site. Akari’s mode of action is primarily as a contact miticide.
“With Southern red mites, it’s absolutely amazing. It tends to stop feeding almost immediately. Within 24 hours, the mites are done feeding. Absolute kill can take 3 to 7 days. There isn’t really any plant material that we don’t rotate it on,” he says. “There’s nothing, really, that we won’t use it on.”
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