My Petunia Budworm Problem

Are your petunias doing well this year? If not why?

My petunias weren’t looking very floriferous. Weak in the blossom department.

Knowing that petunias don’t like the heat, my first thought was that the summer heat got to them. Also, they like regular feedings, and maybe I didn’t feed them enough in the weeks before I went away.

But then I looked more closely and noticed that the few flowers that were there were eaten with those infamous black dots all over the foliage.

Finally, I found the insect - the petunia budworm - and remembered that it caused the same problem last year, too. This caterpillar will devour petunia flowers in a couple days, so most people think it’s just time to give up on them when in fact, mine came back to life in a couple days. I sprayed the petunias with Bonide’s Captain Jack Organic Spray and fed them with some water-soluble fertilizer and they bounced back to full bloom in about three days.

Since then, I’ve had about 20 people come into the Chelmsford garden center with the same problem, so I’m posting this “fyi” for people who are about to give up on their petunias: They may not be lost after all; check for the symptoms.

Photo source and for more information: Penn State.