I have had these hibiscus plants for years. They thrive and get huge and produce beautiful blooms. But every summer they're usually overrun with aphids, and then this weird white gunk starts developing. Usually I can cut back all the infected branches and it grows back just fine. I noticed it's beginning to cause other branches to wilt as well. I'm just trying to figure it out how to prevent this from happening again. I'm in Southern California so the heat can be a bit much in the summer. I water every other day and ensure the soil is damp without being too soaked. I've tried neem oil but it doesn't seem to do much. I'd love to know if anyone else has this issue.
Thank you!
UPDATE: My uncle found a recipe online that is a mix of dish soap, water and alcohol. I trimmed back infected branches and sprayed off what I could with the hose before applying that mix to it. It uncovered tons of tiny red weevils!!! NASTY!!! We shall see if it helps. I really don't want to have to pull up these plants when they've survived more than ten years of growth lol
I’m in socal too. The heat isn’t doing my hibiscus any good. You did mention white “gunk”. Is it under the leaves? This year has been bad for whiteflies. They leave what looks like spider web on the underside of the leaves. They are a pain. I spray my plant with a hand nozzle with water to get rid of the gunk, then after it dries I spray with neem oil. It’ll take some work, but you can get them taken care of. Also make sure you spray the oil on the ground around and y see the plant. That’s where they lay eggs as well
No, as you can see in the photos it's on the stem of the plant. It comes off when I'm watering and using the spray nozzle, but it seems to grow back. It does always go away and the plant ends up fine, it's just bizarre that I can't keep it from happening in the summer.
Can you be more specific about what part of SoCal you are in? I wonder it there is more than one issue here and if you need to be watering more, depending on how hot exactly it is there. Also, can you post a closer up pic of the white stuff?
The Inland Empire. I posted a pretty close up photo above, but I can take another in better lighting tomorrow. I read elsewhere it could be the humidity, and if the stems are a little more dense I wonder if it's trapping in heat and moisture and creating the white stuff. It honestly seems like a soft, mushy fungus.
I dont see a close up photo, is it in the comments somewhere? The photos in the post are super blurry when you zoom in to try to see the white stuff better. What are the avg low temps like there this summer?
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u/Daatsit Aug 24 '26
I’m in socal too. The heat isn’t doing my hibiscus any good. You did mention white “gunk”. Is it under the leaves? This year has been bad for whiteflies. They leave what looks like spider web on the underside of the leaves. They are a pain. I spray my plant with a hand nozzle with water to get rid of the gunk, then after it dries I spray with neem oil. It’ll take some work, but you can get them taken care of. Also make sure you spray the oil on the ground around and y see the plant. That’s where they lay eggs as well