Holes in leaves
- Thread starter breezer
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The question is what causes the holes and the missing pieces of the fingers on the leaves. Mites do not do damage like that. Mites are not the cause of the holes nor the missing pieces.
I have seen rough handling of plants before and the damage is different. It is more likely to result in tears in the leaf, possibly a chunk missing. Even poking a hole in the leaf will show a tear and not the center missing.
Take a pencil and poke it through a of the large finger on one of the leaves on your plant. Do it to several different leaves. The center of the hole is still there.
To rip the tip off of one of the fingers is not easy to do deliberately or by accident either. Try to mess up and remove the ends of the fingers while just roughly handling the leaf. It is a bit harder to do than we realize.
If Low Stress Training caused holes and missing pieces of leaves like that there would be all kinds of warnings about it and suggestions on how to avoid the problem. But we see message after message about how to LST the plant and hardly a warning about damage. If there is a warning it is to try to avoid excessive bending of stem and not to avoid putting holes in the leaves or tearing pieces off.
I have seen rough handling of plants before and the damage is different. It is more likely to result in tears in the leaf, possibly a chunk missing. Even poking a hole in the leaf will show a tear and not the center missing.
Take a pencil and poke it through a of the large finger on one of the leaves on your plant. Do it to several different leaves. The center of the hole is still there.
To rip the tip off of one of the fingers is not easy to do deliberately or by accident either. Try to mess up and remove the ends of the fingers while just roughly handling the leaf. It is a bit harder to do than we realize.
If Low Stress Training caused holes and missing pieces of leaves like that there would be all kinds of warnings about it and suggestions on how to avoid the problem. But we see message after message about how to LST the plant and hardly a warning about damage. If there is a warning it is to try to avoid excessive bending of stem and not to avoid putting holes in the leaves or tearing pieces off.
agree it is consistent with that. it's a lot of damage for handling though.
- Thread starter
- #24
breezer
420 Member
Hello! It has been a few days. So I purchased a jewellers loupe and I have been checking over the whole plant for mites (backs of leaves, the base of the plant, everywhere) but wasn't able to spot anything. I've put out a sticky trap as well just in case something decides to stick to it but nothing so far. Will be keeping a very close eye as I am coming into pre-flower. I do have some neem oil which I am debating whether to use on the plant before I go into flower just to be safe but wanted to get some opinions before I apply it.
Lights have been raised to the highest point in the tent and I have laid off any LST. Only handling has been from looking for lil mites. Humidifier is off now as well, maintaining around 60% at the minute.
I don't think the plant has gotten any worse with bumps/rips etc so that is a positive.
Lights have been raised to the highest point in the tent and I have laid off any LST. Only handling has been from looking for lil mites. Humidifier is off now as well, maintaining around 60% at the minute.
I don't think the plant has gotten any worse with bumps/rips etc so that is a positive.
you're in the clear. looks good.
So sorry I'm late my friend.Hello! It has been a few days. So I purchased a jewellers loupe and I have been checking over the whole plant for mites (backs of leaves, the base of the plant, everywhere) but wasn't able to spot anything. I've put out a sticky trap as well just in case something decides to stick to it but nothing so far. Will be keeping a very close eye as I am coming into pre-flower. I do have some neem oil which I am debating whether to use on the plant before I go into flower just to be safe but wanted to get some opinions before I apply it.
Lights have been raised to the highest point in the tent and I have laid off any LST. Only handling has been from looking for lil mites. Humidifier is off now as well, maintaining around 60% at the minute.
I don't think the plant has gotten any worse with bumps/rips etc so that is a positive.
Did you get things sorted.
I noticed a couple things wasn't sure if your happy.
I'm usually around if you need help with the rest of your coco grow.
Take care.
Stay safe
Bill284
AgedMaster
Well-Known Member
Did u top it I topped mine recently and nipped the leaves on one when they was tiny. Now there big a couple leaves on top two nodes look a little like yours u wont notice at first until leaves growHello! It has been a few days. So I purchased a jewellers loupe and I have been checking over the whole plant for mites (backs of leaves, the base of the plant, everywhere) but wasn't able to spot anything. I've put out a sticky trap as well just in case something decides to stick to it but nothing so far. Will be keeping a very close eye as I am coming into pre-flower. I do have some neem oil which I am debating whether to use on the plant before I go into flower just to be safe but wanted to get some opinions before I apply it.
Lights have been raised to the highest point in the tent and I have laid off any LST. Only handling has been from looking for lil mites. Humidifier is off now as well, maintaining around 60% at the minute.
I don't think the plant has gotten any worse with bumps/rips etc so that is a positive.
- Thread starter
- #28
breezer
420 Member
I didn't do any topping, no just low stress training
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- #29
breezer
420 Member
Massive thanks to everyone in the thread that helped out with advice, really appreciate it. First time grower so on a big learning journey 
Good chance that the insect left or that whatever was causing the holes and ripped off tips is over. Keep watching, though.
No problem. It used to be that growers were spraying Neem until about two weeks before harvest. Then over a couple of years people would say spray until 3 weeks before and then someone would say spray until 4 weeks and that kept changing. Interesting thing is that those who kept moving the goal post also mentioned that they never sprayed with Neem.
Another interesting thing is that I had sprayed cloned plants until 1 week before harvest, went through the typical dry and jar cure and then gave away joints and no one said anything about a strange or weird taste. I did it with a second cloned plant and mentioned that it had been sprayed and no one said that there was an off taste.
I figure you can spray the Neem now and for the next couple of weeks if you want. Then switch over to one of those products that can be sprayed until the day of harvest to keep Mites under control.
I'm a bit late but that doesn't look like thrips damage either. I'd guess mites.
I get both pests and have successfully battled them with a regular soap spraying routine. I use Dr Bonner's organic soap and tap water. I spray every day for three or four days initially and then every three days as a bit of a preventative.
The soap spray dissolves the bugs exoskeleton and dries them out dead, but you have to actually spray the bug for it to be effective, a bug landing on a freshly sprayed leaf will be largely unaffected.
The mites and thrips have an incredibly short life cycle, something like three days from hatching to laying eggs of their own so you have to spray often enough to interrupt that cycle. And, they're so tiny and can hide in all manner of nooks and crevasses that you'll never get them all on the first spray no matter how thoroughly you think you've doused the plant.
Plus the soap spray doesn't seem to be effective on eggs so you have to spray the bugs after they hatch.
I get both pests and have successfully battled them with a regular soap spraying routine. I use Dr Bonner's organic soap and tap water. I spray every day for three or four days initially and then every three days as a bit of a preventative.
The soap spray dissolves the bugs exoskeleton and dries them out dead, but you have to actually spray the bug for it to be effective, a bug landing on a freshly sprayed leaf will be largely unaffected.
The mites and thrips have an incredibly short life cycle, something like three days from hatching to laying eggs of their own so you have to spray often enough to interrupt that cycle. And, they're so tiny and can hide in all manner of nooks and crevasses that you'll never get them all on the first spray no matter how thoroughly you think you've doused the plant.
Plus the soap spray doesn't seem to be effective on eggs so you have to spray the bugs after they hatch.
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- #32
breezer
420 Member
I think I will just to be on the safe side, got a little bit of time to play with as in late veg so will take advantage of that
I have no experience with Thrips. But I have been under the impression for years that both Thrips and Mites do not chew holes all the way through the leaf; that is holes that someone could slide a pencil through or chew off half of the end of one of the fingers on a leaf.
The damage that is showing in the photos in the first message really does look like some sort of chewing insect or caterpillar and not the smaller marks Mites and Thrips make.
I mean thrips, too. I agree that it's likely a larger critter than mites or thrips making the holes. I was referencing the small white dots on the leaves. Mites leave more singular dots whereas thrips tend to leave drifts of them.
Read up on the ways to develop a spraying schedule to get rid of existing Mites and then develop a preventative schedule to reduce the chance of them coming back.I think I will just to be on the safe side, got a little bit of time to play with as in late veg so will take advantage of that
Those little things can reproduce fast, awfully fast. The idea is to break their reproductive cycle and then go after the survivors.