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 Post subject: Ball Moss
PostPosted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 6:58 pm 
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Location: San Antonio
Okay, I've been patient but the ball moss is getting out of hand in my live oaks, cedar elm, and pear tree. Can I use the baking soda solution without fear of damaging the trees or other plants? If I am successful in killing it will it eventually disappear from the trees or will I still need to pluck it from the branches? Both the cedar elm and the oaks are large enough that the only way I MIGHT be able to reach the upper branches is with a hose end sprayer. Is this acceptable? There is no way for me to physically reach the upper branches to mechanically remove the moss. Thanks in advance for your replies.

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PostPosted: Thu Feb 05, 2004 2:27 pm 
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I did a search from the home page and came up with this and a whole lot more...

http://www.dirtdoctor.com/dallasnews.php?id=21
"Ball moss is a parasite that only hurts the tree in heavy infestations but can be controlled easily by spraying baking soda or potassium bicarbonate at ½ cup per gallon of water."
http://www.dirtdoctor.com/cgi-bin2/htse ... =ball+moss

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PostPosted: Fri Feb 06, 2004 10:27 am 
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I don't get that. If ball moss is a parasite, how does it grow on power lines? I know, it's sucking the juice out of the power lines :lol: :lol:

Neither ball moss, nor its cousin, Spanish moss, are parasites. They are epiphitic opportunists. They live on whatever nutrition and water they can get from the air. The reason they seem to kill trees has to do with the tree and the moss. In oak trees, the tree itself shades out the lower branches. Since the lower branches cannot compete for sunlight, they die. But before they die, the ball moss starts to grow on them. The moss starts out very small and sparse. As time goes by, the tree is cutting off the lower limbs while the moss on those lower limbs continues to grow. So both things are happening separately in the same location. Eventually it looks like the lower limbs were smothered out by the thick coating of moss. As the new growth comes out on the tree, it doesn't have any ball moss growing on it yet, but it will. It always looks like less moss on the newer growth because the moss is very small (young).

You can scrape the moss off the tree with a curved pruning saw. Hold it with the flat side against the bark and cut between the bark and the moss. It falls right off. The baking soda will apparently kill the moss. It will also kill other fungus growing on your trees and anything else the spray lands on. I think you still have to scrape the moss off the bark, though.

You might be able to get the spray higher in the tree with a trombone sprayer rather than a hose end sprayer. If you are pretty strong, you can really shoot a spray up high.

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