Thanks for all the help friends.
After thinking and looking at old pictures from past years, I've had thrips before and was able to get rid of them fairly easily with out using pesticides. Well not totally rid of them but got them under control. This was a very odd infestation, these details are kind of odd.
I had these 4 huge pots with mixed passiflora's in each pot, 1 pot had 3 plants and 2 pots had 2 plants and 1 pot had a huge Belotti in it alone. All of these pots wintered in the same greenhouse at the local High School. You would think all 4 pots would have very similar damage but that isn't the case at all. All of those leaves I took pictures of came from P. Blue Bouquet that shared a pot with P. Constance Elliot. The Blue Bouquet was totally eaten up on every new growth tip but the Constance Elliot only had spots on the leaves and maybe 2 leaves were curled up like the other plant. After reading how thrips will set up camp in the soil, I decided to repot and get rid of as much of the old soil as possible. The plants have been in new soil for less than 1 week and they both look 95% better. Hardly any of the new growth is curled up and there is no signs of leaf spots either.
I have a theory I would like to run by you guys.
I've noticed over the last several years that I can keep spider mites and thrips at a minimal level(Meaning almost no signs of them at all) by merely keeping plants very healthy and as stress free as possible. Then as soon as they get neglected or stressed out in any manor, mites and/or thrips are very noticable and begin to take over. This was very evident when I grew many plants indoors hydroponically. Occasionally a hydro dripper would clog and cause a plant to dry up and wilt a little. As soon as a plant showed those signs, the spidermites built there tent cities all over that plant almost immediatly. I would prune off the worst of the plant and get it healthy again and the mites would seemingly back off until they found another weekling to pick on.
Now I'm seeing the exact same result's with this plant and the thrips outdoors now.
About 2 weeks ago, I was watching the TV show "Gardening by the Yard" with host Paul James. He mentioned this topic and how he would leave the problem plant alone providing that the pests weren't destroying an entire garden. He then stated that by allowing the pests to "beat up" on a single plant, the plant would send out fermones or some other kind of chemical signal that broadcasted a message alerting other predator bugs(bugs that occur naturally and will kill your particular pest) that their food was present like ringing a dinner bell.
After watching this plant and remembering similar problems in the past, I think there is a lot to this theory and that maybe what is happening here as we speak even if I can't see or prove it. What do you all think?
I forgot to mention that the other 3 pots of passiflora's show no signs of damage at all in 2 pots and a tiny amount in the 1 pot containing 3 different plants. That pot has to be stressing those 3 plants as the pot is only large enough to support 1 of them at this size. Very odd IMO but they look good, they have to be extremely rootbound. I plan on repotting those 3 ASAP and getting a better look at them.
I'll keep a very close eye on these plants and take some pictures daily so I can compare daily progress if this is what's happening. I think this is happening here right now and is a great idea as long as pests aren't completly killing off anything. I know this won't work with many other pests and isn't always practical but I do think there is something to it. I sure wished my giant hardy hibiscus could do this when the annual white fly infestation begins! LOL Luckily Planet Natural sells white fly parasites that ensure a painfully ruthless death!
Thanks guys, Jeff
This message was edited Jun 9, 2005 1:58 PM
