G
Guest
Recently I have had a round of plant trouble...
After months of tweaking my soil, water, lighting and ventelation, nutes, PH and generally pulling out my hair, I chanced across the culprit one day looking at leaves under the microscope... a tiny amber colored arachnid crawled through my field of vision... Oh no!, frakin' spider mites...
I had been looking at photo after photo of plant problems for quite a while... never saw what I was looking for... so here is a series of photos of the progressive damaged caused by the little sapsuckers...
This leaf is showing the beginings of what I had mistaken as a nutrient problem, purpling veins, Clawing, yellowing tips...
Examination under a scope found a few mites feeding in the area where the leaf blades join together, and one or two mites on each blade.
In the second pic, you can see the damage progress...
under the scope there is now a colony of mites grazing their way up each blade, feeding especially in the veins. several were found wandering the blades.
The damage progresses farther, P?, K?, Mag?, no mites.
under the scope the leaf is now infested, the veins being overrun with feeding mites.
These last two pics show the final condition of the leaf.
The yellow one is overrun...
The colony has abandoned these dry leave, to infest new healthy feeding grounds...
After months of tweaking my soil, water, lighting and ventelation, nutes, PH and generally pulling out my hair, I chanced across the culprit one day looking at leaves under the microscope... a tiny amber colored arachnid crawled through my field of vision... Oh no!, frakin' spider mites...
I had been looking at photo after photo of plant problems for quite a while... never saw what I was looking for... so here is a series of photos of the progressive damaged caused by the little sapsuckers...
This leaf is showing the beginings of what I had mistaken as a nutrient problem, purpling veins, Clawing, yellowing tips...
Examination under a scope found a few mites feeding in the area where the leaf blades join together, and one or two mites on each blade.
In the second pic, you can see the damage progress...
under the scope there is now a colony of mites grazing their way up each blade, feeding especially in the veins. several were found wandering the blades.
The damage progresses farther, P?, K?, Mag?, no mites.
under the scope the leaf is now infested, the veins being overrun with feeding mites.
These last two pics show the final condition of the leaf.
The yellow one is overrun...
The colony has abandoned these dry leave, to infest new healthy feeding grounds...
