Last Tuesday at our local rose society we had a program on pruning and one of the slides showed cane borer damage. There was an interesting discussion as to what if any preventative people used (glue, nail polish, smear dirt, spray insecticide etc) or if people didn’t do anything.
Interested in how others approach this problem.
When I first started growing roses, I was religious about applying Elmer’s glue to the end of every cut in a major cane. I had the little applicator bottle right in my fanny pack. Did that for a few years, then slacked off. Funny… I never did see a cane borer in 20 years of growing roses in Las Vegas!
I moved to Georgia in 2019, we planted our rose beds in 2020, and while pruning in 2021 I found ONE cane borer! It truly was the first and only one I’ve ever seen! So I don’t worry about that any more… too many other issues to be concerned with!
I DO spray pesticides and fungicides, so maybe that makes a difference…
Jill
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We have cane borers in our North Carolina gardens, but they do not do extensive damage. We advise growers that have a few roses to top the canes if they want to make the effort, but for those growing many roses it is probably not worth the effort.
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