After reading about cyclamen mites here I got a little scared and I took my violets to the county extension office. As I feared I have cyclamen mites! I am soooo heartbroken as I have been so very careful with isolation and prevention. I tossed out the sickly ones that I took to the extension office and a couple more that I didnt take. I have a several violets that are doing fine so I am going to try and save them. Im going to use Avid and wash down everything with a 10% bleach solution. I hope I can save some of them. I am also going to invest in either a microscope or a good magnifier so I can check every week. I am so upset over this as they were doing so well and looked so healthy until a few weeks ago. I just hope I dont have to throw the whole collection away. I also hope I do not have to throw my babies away also ;0( I will try to save what I can before throwing them all away. Several of my violets are looking healthy and blooming great so Im hoping they might be ok, even if they are in the same room on a different plant stand... I dont know....Im hoping the Avid will work. I am just sick over this! If any of y'all have any suggestions let me know.
VERY Sad News
V_T,
Oh I'm so unhappy for you. Guess I better take some of mine to CE after Christmas.If I have them,I'll just have to leaves off of what I can,treat them by soaking in warm water w/Safer Soap because I won't use anything else inside my house ,toss eveything out and start over.
P
OH my Violet Grower so sorry :((.
Whats going on with these mites so sad. Use hottest water you can wear gloves when cleaning. It drove my husband crazy but I used so much bleach and hot water every two weeks soaking trays and platic boxes, pots even new ones over night in the hottest water and gallons of bleach. We were always bleaching potting table, soil box before making new batches of soil... you name it.
When you treat /dip use the hottest water you can. Don't worry your plants won't mind. I water my plants with hot water all the times have for years and they love it !
Good luck everyone.
Has anyone got plants from the same place latly ?? Does not mean you got them there. Mite are everywhere. They can come threw a sreeen , or when you were shopping at your local Nursery. When washing after working, touching or being near isolated/new plants, plants from outdoors scrub good , scrub nails and under nails with special care they hide there :((.
Sad to hear this news, Violet_grower. Weren't you collecting vintage and rare varieties? A worthy investment is a 30X magnifier (loupe). I have a magnifier with a built it light to beam into the center. Never let any new plants get anywhere near your collection. I personally now prefer to just grow my own plants from leaves as much as possible. I know all this is more difficult when just starting in violets and trying to get your collection going. I feel so sorry for you, but in the big scheme of things as awful as it seems right now, everything will be alright in the end and this disheartening experience in time will be just a temporary set back. I wish you every success and brighter days in the New Year.
Snow
Violet Grower,So sad to hear the news.My heart goes out to you.I have been very fortunate thus far with my av's* Knock On Wood* but I know all to well how fast disaster can strike.I know I am going to invest in one of those high powered magnifiers Snow has.I hope and pray all works out well for you.
Nancy
Yes Snow I was collecting the rare and vintage ones,thats why I am so sick about this,I had about 16 violets that were on the most wanted list and it took me so long to find them,not to mention the price I payed for some of them. The hubby says why pay so much for the avid stuff..he has no idea what I payed for some of them and believe me they add up well over a hundred dollars...shuuuuusssssshhhh!!!!! If any consolation the plants I took to the county extension office were "regular" violets except for one who was Superman,he had mites...thats why I am going to try and save the rest with avid. I am looking on ebay for an inexpensive 30x+ microscope to purchase so I can keep a good eye on them,and make sure I hopefully get rid of the mites as well as in the future be able to check regularly.
I understand and sympathize. I know a lot of time and effort went in to acquiring your plants. Regular jewelers loupes are cheap and worth every cent and you can always get fancier if you want. I'm glad the 'problem' ones were mostly the easiest to part with. Too bad about Superman....gosh, all so disgusting to say the least. All my best to you....
If you use Avid, please be very careful. I also had cyclamen mites last summer. I am extremely careful with the segregating of new plants and keeping everything clean. I have no idea where they came from.
I used the Avid and it worked like a charm. However, I took over 400 plants out to our garage three weeks in a row, in 100 degree weather, and spray them individually. I also did all the babies and leaves that were put down. I wore a longsleeve shirt, long pants, heavy duty rubber gloves, and a mask. Many of the leaves produced poor growing babies and I have just tossed them. All of the adult plants made it as did many of the babies. I told myself that if I ever had mites again, I would start all over rather than going thru the spray routine. Also, if it happened during cool weather I would not want to spray in the house.
I'm sure there are many of us that would be glad to send you leaves to get you started again.
Nancy B
VG. So sorry to hear about your plight. We all know how much you have spent in time as well as money. Keep us current on what you do and how it helps. Hope the problem stays away from your vintage plants.
Do you have your plants in different areas or are they all together?
I'm sorry to hear this sad news. I know it's really hard because we love our a/v's so much and treat them with tlc. And you have paid so much money on this collection of most wanteds that you have. Best of luck with your plants, hang in there and please let us know how you make out. I hope the mites didn't get to your other plants.
Maureen