Healthy plant, however

[fang0rnz]

Hi friends, I need some help... Plant looks healthy, I'm growing in coco with mineral fertilizers.
However, there's tiny white bugs in the top of the coco, I think it's aphids... Is there any chance of salvation or should I start over?

 

[013]

personally I’d try to eradicate them and keep the plant going…

h202 added to your feed water will get you started or a chemical treatment (via soil drench) with a product like SNS 203, SNS 209, Neem Oil, Safers Soap, Spinosad etc. just beware the h202 will kill beneficials so might need to refresh microbes & mycos

read all product labels and know that it usually takes more than 1 dose to kill nasties… todays spray kills todays adults but needs to be retreated again in few days to kill the pupae & eggs

thats a gorgeous girl and welcome aboard Fang!

 

[Vegan4life]

Could be soil mites?
From The Spruce website: Soil mites are the only tiny white bugs in the bunch that are actually highly beneficial. They break down and feed on organic matter in the soil and help with soil aeration. Some soil mites are predators that control pests such as thrips. Soil mites should be left alone—they are good bugs.

I could not find a good pic of soil mites to download, but you can use google to see what the look like. Here is a link to a vid, if you put your curser over pic it will play as a video 264 Soil Mite Family Stock Video Footage - 4K and HD Video Clips | Shutterstock



Or they could be root aphids?
What are root aphids? Root aphids are aphid species defined by their habit of feeding on plant roots during part of their lifecycle. In general they are 2-3mm long, colour varies depending on species, environmental conditions and host plant, they can be yellow, green or brown often with a white waxy appearance.
Pic below

 

[013]

ditto V4L on soil mites

I’ve battled soil mites before and lost the war (plant) … what I found in my case was soil mites didn’t attack the plant, they just marched in circles around bucket rims and every time I nuked the crap out of them… they came back a day or two later but they were smaller in size.

I’ve had soil mites several grows in a row and now I just don’t pay any attention to them

 

[Vegan4life]

Kind of looks more like soil mites to me after looking at your video again (which are beneficial)... Your plant does not seem to show ill effects to me, I would think that if you had aphids your plant would not be thriving...

 

[Vegan4life]

ditto V4L on soil mites

I’ve battled soil mites before and lost the war (plant) … what I found in my case was soil mites didn’t attack the plant, they just marched in circles around bucket rims and every time I nuked the crap out of them… they came back a day or two later but they were smaller in size.

I’ve had soil mites several grows in a row and now I just don’t pay any attention to them

They are beneficial insects, good for the soil and will help fight off nasty bugs... If that is what they are...

 

[Wastei]

I'm pretty sure they're Springtails and beneficial since the plant look healthy. They're beneficial and eat nasties and dead stuff. I always have thousands of them growing in containers.

 

[fang0rnz]

Hey thanks for all the answers, I'll try to get better footage tomorrow.
The medium is inert coconut coir, nothing organic was added, just plain plant prod (7-11-27) and calcium nitrate. Would it make sense for the bugs to be springtails / soil mites even if there's nothing "organic" in the medium?
A few leaves down under are browning / showing deficiencies, but that might be because of the neem oil + hydrogen peroxide + beauveria bassiana bath I tried 3 days ago... If they are indeed soil mites they must be feeding on the beauveria bassiana spores now, it would make sense to have their numbers increased.

 

[SmokingWings]

Welcome to the group. A great bunch of people willing to help. And a nice looking healthy plant.

I would be asking myself why there are insects in the medium if it is inert without any "organic" material. Doesn't matter whether they are good or bad insects, why are they there if there is nothing for them?

The medium is inert coconut coir, nothing organic was added, just plain plant prod (7-11-27) and calcium nitrate. Would it make sense for the bugs to be springtails / soil mites even if there's nothing "organic" in the medium?

The coco coir is inert in that it takes years to decompose and then be able to add nutrients back. But it is organic in the sense that it is a plant material; shredded coco nut shells. I can believe that some insects would be trying to use the coco as a food source.

It could help if you mention the name of the coco coir product and if it was in a brick form that needed to be loosened up. Or if it was a bag of coco coil mix.

just plain plant prod (7-11-27)

What is this "plain plant prod". Looks like a standard fertilizer NPK numbering system. What is the name of the 'prod' and what is it made of?

A few leaves down under are browning / showing deficiencies, but that might be because of the neem oil + hydrogen peroxide + beauveria bassiana bath I tried 3 days ago...

The Neem Oil is also organic since it is an oil pressed out of the seeds of Neem trees. But, I doubt that the mix would be causing some browning of leaves within 3 days. There are growers who mix Neem Oil with water and pour onto their medium and do not mention that it causes leaf problems so I doubt that it is related.

 

[Wastei]

Welcome to the group. A great bunch of people willing to help. And a nice looking healthy plant.

I would be asking myself why there are insects in the medium if it is inert without any "organic" material. Doesn't matter whether they are good or bad insects, why are they there if there is nothing for them?


The coco coir is inert in that it takes years to decompose and then be able to add nutrients back. But it is organic in the sense that it is a plant material; shredded coco nut shells. I can believe that some insects would be trying to use the coco as a food source.

It could help if you mention the name of the coco coir product and if it was in a brick form that needed to be loosened up. Or if it was a bag of coco coil mix.


What is this "plain plant prod". Looks like a standard fertilizer NPK numbering system. What is the name of the 'prod' and what is it made of?


The Neem Oil is also organic since it is an oil pressed out of the seeds of Neem trees. But, I doubt that the mix would be causing some browning of leaves within 3 days. There are growers who mix Neem Oil with water and pour onto their medium and do not mention that it causes leaf problems so I doubt that it is related.

Coco coir is not inert. It has high amounts of K naturally and is constantly being broken down by natural oxidizers and enzymes. It binds well to both Ca and Mg, that's a lot of activity and not very inert in my book. Think in terms of Garden stones, Hydroton, Vermiculite or Perlite for a totally inert medium that takes years to decompose.

Springtails eat dead plant matter and fungus and they have plenty of food no matter the growing method and medium? I even have them in my DWC reservoirs. You should never water diluted Neem oil on your plants, only foliar sprays. Drenches/topdressing is strictly for Neem meal/cakes.

Cheers!

 

[fang0rnz]

Hi, first of all, thanks a lot for all the help, folks. It really does mean a lot to me.
After letting the medium dry for 3 days, this is how it's looking. The bugs are still roaming around the medium.
I've taken some photos of the "ugly" looking leaves, most of them are older leaves and I'm not sure why they look like that, my guess is that it could be related to either ph fluctuations (my reservoir was around 5.8 and then it increased to 6.1 overnight a few times) or bugs in the root zone. Any guesses whether I should really worry and do something or just let her grow would be appreciated.
I'm feeding at 2.0EC at 5.8ph, high frequency fertigation 3-5 times a day until there's some runoff.

Thiese are some of the worst looking leaves, one guess would also be that could be because of the neem + h2o2 bath + drying for 3 days could have done that and/or deficiencies that arised when I was still figuring out EC, but even though these leaves are ugly, new growth seems to be mostly unnafected.

 

[fang0rnz]

Welcome to the group. A great bunch of people willing to help. And a nice looking healthy plant.

I would be asking myself why there are insects in the medium if it is inert without any "organic" material. Doesn't matter whether they are good or bad insects, why are they there if there is nothing for them?


The coco coir is inert in that it takes years to decompose and then be able to add nutrients back. But it is organic in the sense that it is a plant material; shredded coco nut shells. I can believe that some insects would be trying to use the coco as a food source.

It could help if you mention the name of the coco coir product and if it was in a brick form that needed to be loosened up. Or if it was a bag of coco coil mix.


What is this "plain plant prod". Looks like a standard fertilizer NPK numbering system. What is the name of the 'prod' and what is it made of?


The Neem Oil is also organic since it is an oil pressed out of the seeds of Neem trees. But, I doubt that the mix would be causing some browning of leaves within 3 days. There are growers who mix Neem Oil with water and pour onto their medium and do not mention that it causes leaf problems so I doubt that it is related.

Thanks a lot!

The brand is a pretty generic one, it's already loosened up, a bag of coco coir mix.
The "plant prod" is just generic NPK hydroponic plant fertilizer (Plant-Prod 7-11-27 HydroVeg Water Soluble Fertilizer - Master Plant-Prod Inc.)
I've posted some of the browning leaves in the previous reply.
I really appreciate all the help, hope to be able to contribute to the forum in return.