Photoxicity

[melodies]

Hi everyone, long time, no see!

Well, I was checking on my plants today and saw that my adenium has aphids on its brand new growth. I have an Ortho systemic and am going to go ahead and spray everything with it. I know that it can cause phototoxicity but not for how long. If I spray the plants tonight, will they be OK? Or will I need to cover them or something?

[melodies]

I waited a while for someone to advise me but then I lost my patience. I went ahead and sprayed everything as the sun was going down yesterday. After a brief inspection a few minutes ago, I see no sun damage. It seems to me that any phototoxicity that may have been caused did not last long enough to cause damage.

[CactusFanDan]

I was interested in an answer too, but I'm glad you found out in the best way! I think your plants will be fine as long as you don't apply chemicals in full sun. It's usually the carriers and solvents used in the pesticide formulations which cause the phototoxicity, rather than the pesticides themselves. The carriers and solvents usually evaporate quite readily which is good.

[melodies]

I have observed absolutely no damage, so it seems that as long as it is applied at around sundown, by the next morning anything that causes phototoxicity has evaporated, as you said.