Recently, I was gutted to find out that my entire collection of Fuchsias are infected with Fuchsia Gall Mite. This devastating, microscopic sap-sucking parasite has become very common here in South Devon and is set to spread to other parts of the UK in the coming years. There is currently no affective treatment - infected plants (Fuchsias only) develop deformations on the growing tips and flower buds and eventually died. Fuchsia Gall Mite is highly contagious, spreading from garden to garden by insect, bird and wind. Cutting infected plants back hard doesn’t seem to offer much relief.
So, what can we do about this to protect our Fuchsias? Not a lot other than sit tight and hope for a clever solution. Of course, there is another option; we select varieties of Fuchsia which has demonstrated natural tolerance toward gall mite. That’s not to say that any Fuchsia is immune, just better at fending off attack.
Which Fuchsia varieties are most susceptible?
In trials, F. magellanica, F. arborescens and F. procumbens have all shown themselves to be the gall mite’s diet of choice.
Resillient varieties
- F. Arboretum (Porphyrio, Grand Harare, Dr. Mahoney, Strybing’s Peach, Blush Fandent)
- F. Quelusia (Campo Thilco, Campo Moline, Campo Victrix, Galfrey Lye, Galfrey Blush, Alta, Miri, Corallina, Turner Matthew, Kyle Peter, Isaac Rowan.
- F. microphylla
- F. thymifolia
- F. venusta
Other varieties to look out for: ‘Baby Chang’, ‘Cinnabarina’, ‘Mendocino Mini’, ‘ Miniature Jewels’ and ’Space Shuttle’
Would it not be better to remove all the plants and burn them? If this is going to infect other plants surely this would be a better course of action.
Yes, of course, but the point of this article is to offer a list of varieties that are showing resilient to infection in the first place. Any infected fuchsia plant should be destroyed by burning, although you really should send specimins off to your local FERA Plant Health and Seeds Inspectorate office so that they can track the infection.