Is petroleum jelly on the stem going to harm them?

[neongreen]

So I spotted what I thought was mites on my clones, and till I can neem them I decided to put a small ring of petroleum jelly around the stems to stop mites spreading.

After having done that, I'm now wondering if it was a bad idea!? Am I in danger of "ringing" my clones? Should I clean it off?

 

[Weird]

i use horticultural mineral oil but too much can fuck up tissue esp if it is young and tender

 

[neongreen]

They are all fairly mature. Cloned over two months ago now, and many in need of potting up!

48 hours and the plants seem fine, although I guess it's still early days. I may take clones from the larger clones, just to be sure I don't loose anything important!

 

[Dawn Patrol]

I think you'll be fine. I've been experimenting with a strip of very dense foam (Magic Eraser sponges cut up) saturated with essential rosemary oil wrapped and tied around the base stem. Every week I add more oil and I've seen no adverse effects at all.

Next step is to test my essential oil mixes but i don't anticipate any issues with them.

 

[aridbud]

I think you'll be fine. I've been experimenting with a strip of very dense foam (Magic Eraser sponges cut up) saturated with essential rosemary oil wrapped and tied around the base stem. Every week I add more oil and I've seen no adverse effects at all.

Next step is to test my essential oil mixes but i don't anticipate any issues with them.

Great idea!

 

[Dawn Patrol]

I've been experimenting with essential oils (rosemary in particular) for almost a year now as aphids and spider mites are an ongoing battle for me here. We haven't had a hard freeze for about 7 years now and all the bugs are at full strength all the time.

The sponge stem barrier is not my idea, I saw it here or on another forum but it's a great way to keep pests from "climbing the tree" as it were.

By the way, the essential oils mixes need to be sprayed weekly to be effective, but for a non systemic, organic solution they seem to be working quite well for me. I can't say they eradicate the pests, but they do seem to keep them in check. Plants are healthy, happy and show no signs of pest infestation even though I occasionally can scope a spider mite or two.

 

[troutman]

Will the vaseline create a greased pole and the spider mites keep sliding down?

 

[St. Phatty]

Not a single KY joke ...

 

[Sativan]

I use a ring of Tanglefoot around the base of the stem if I develop mites or other crawling insects. it does no damage.

 

[Lrus007]

i also use tanglefoot on outdoor.
it will not harm the plant.
Lrus007

 

[Mtn. Nectar]

I have seen death from petro jelly.......best to wrap a barrier around then apply............

 

[Easy7]

Can't imagine anything getting past pine tar.

 

[aridbud]

I use a ring of Tanglefoot around the base of the stem if I develop mites or other crawling insects. it does no damage.

Great idea!

 

[neongreen]

So far so good here. It did no obvious harm, and I dipped them all in a neem bath recently which had the desired result.

Thanks to all for the ideas and alternative suggestions.

 

[Easy7]

With outdoor guerilla it's important to trim back nearby plants. Not only light but the bugs. I never tried pine tar as copper wire does a good job with slugs. Other bugs seem to not do terribly much.