Another Newbie Needling Reassurance

Good morning All. During my morning plant routine I noticed a couple of things that have me a little edgy. Both of my concerns are with my very first cuttings which are about 2 months old, and if I may I'd like to ask the advice of my learned friends here on the board.

This first picture shows my Dr. Seuss and I'm wondering what's causing the leaves to "pucker". I now have close to a dozen cuttings (THANK YOU!) and I've not seen anything like this on any of the others. Is this something I need to be worried about?

Edited for grammer. Ugh.



This message was edited Dec 15, 2007 4:44 PM

My other question is with my Charles Gimaldi. Any idea what might be causing that leaf to bleach in the center?

They sit about 1-2" under a light that stays on 24-7 and I usually water them every 3rd day. I have just begun misting them if that has any bearing on anything.

Thanks as always......
La

The color looks good to me. Check and see if you have spider mites on the under sides of the leaves.

Thanks Ken......checking now. Er, I WILL know them if I see them, right?

OK when examining them closer I did not see any mites (I don't think, Good grief I'm not even sure what spider mites look like). I did however notice that the veining on the first one is very similar to that one leaf on the 2nd. All of the leaves on the Dr. Suess are bleaching/yellowing around the veins. One is even browning on the underside and looks like it's turning crispy.

Oh my I really AM getting edgy now. We are just at the beginning of a predicted 5-10" of snowfall so I can't even run into town for "medicine" should it be prescribed.

Do you have Neem oil? I'd spray em with Neem. If not you can use Canola oil or polmolive to get by. 1 tsp to a quart I think... Even alcohol would help. (diluted) There are many home recipes for treatment.. no worries yet.

Actually, they are small enough to do the hot water treatment too! soak them or rinse them for 5 to 10 minutes in 115 degree water. I use a candy thermometer to make sure I'm not cooking them.. cause it feels like that's what your doing.. but it works great! I do that to all the new plants or cuttings that come in.

I have never seen a spider mite, only the damage.. CG looks like it might have spider mites..that one leaf looks sunburned.. but it is hard to tell from the pic. Can you see any tiny traces of webbing under the leaves or on the stem? If you run your fingers down the leaf and it feels "dusty" or like sandpaper, those are spider mites.

Broadmites are microscopic, you can't see them with the naked eye. Your DrSuess leaves getting bumpy, curly and crispy on the edges look more like broadmites to me.

I also turn the lights off at night.. I know others who leave them on 24/7 but I don't.

edited to add...... new growth is often a little less than perfect in the winter... both your cuttings look very healthy!

This message was edited Dec 15, 2007 9:10 AM

Ahh, thank you ZZ! I am really feeling quite anxious. I have no Neem so will try one of the home remedies, but (jeeze this is a tad embarrassing) am spraying the leaves or soaking the roots pot and all with the alcohol / canola / whatever I can find? And do I need to worry about any neighboring plants? Should I "treat" them all?

I don't think it's that bad Lala.. Don't fret.. really.. even if you did nothing, they will make it.. I don't think you have a serious problem. You are just being initiated to wintering brugs... get ready cause here it comes! LOL

Don't soak roots.. just leaves. and if your gonna spray one, spray em all.. that way you don't have to go back and do it in a few days.

LOL @ me running back to check this post every ten minutes. Thanks you SO much, I do feel better now. Geeze, maybe I ought to invest in a life, eh?

ZZ is right, your plants look healthy over all. You are on top of it and will learn from this.

Or you could do it my way, Lala. I am a lazy brug mama, as ZZ knows. LOL I just snap off the effected leaves at the trunk and spray the rest of the leaves as a preventive measure. But then, I don't mind one bit if I have naked brug branches. LOL
Ooops, I probably only have about 10 minutes before ZZ shows up at my door and takes back her babiez. HARHAR

Ah, but with the Seuss that would be ALL of them! LOL! I'm sure that as time goes on I'll relax (just like any new mother) but since I'm so new to them and don't know what to expect I suppose I get a little overly anxious.

Thanks for the encouragement Ken. You guys rock!

,Lala I have a naked brug aphids attacked....but with the help and knowledge here...us newbies will triumph :*) Brug love.
Kim

We should post.. buy all your bug sprays and fertilizers before you even shop for brugs.. cause your gonna need it! Then after months of fighting bugs for big huge green plants... Finally Fall comes and you get a flush of blooms that takes the whole world away!


LOL at Pudgymudpies... The truth comes out.. you pinch em when mama isn't looking! LOL

Good advice ZZ. You see a good flush of blooms and you find you'll try almost every product made to assure that you'll get to see another. Fertilizer, bug spray, organic everything, even plant hormones one year. Buy all the products now before the next price increase. LOL If I had a nickel for every plant product I've purchased .....

PudgyMudpies - I think that may have put you on the "Naughty List" LOL

Yikes. I am already that way and I've only seen pictures.

I am going to have to disagree with the masses. I do not do that much in the way of insect control. I have had problems in the past and I do spray if necessary but it is not all that much. Mites and other insect usually attack unhealthy plants. Keep you plants healthy and your bug problem will be kept to a minimum. I also do not feed as much as most people, then again I do compost, big time. I gather bags of leaves by the thousands. Some years my compost pile will be 35 feet in diameter and 9 feet tall. I grow my Brugs in the ground, out in the yard or in raised beds for newbie that I want to push. I do use time released fertilizer when I have Brugs in pots. We also spray with a mixture that is a leaf feeding fertilizer. I will post the recipe for the mixture in another post.

kenboy
www.vonrussellfarm.com

Lala I agree with everyone that your plants look fine for winter storage, you shouldn't worry at all. But if you do want minor improvement, I would say the first pic looks like low humidity. Where do you have them and what kind of temps do they get?
The second pic looks perhaps like that is all the growth a small pot such as that can handle. When they're in small pots (good for winter) they'll continually shed the older leaves.
What kind of light do you have them under? Like ZZ, I would also put them on a timer to give them an evening rest.
Like Kenboy, I tend to believe that for me, the cure for spidermites is not poison, but it's higher humidity, watering the leaves when you water the plants (including undersides), and generally growing a healthy plant. Poisons are temporary and don't cure the root cause, just treat the symptoms. :^)
- Tom

This message was edited Dec 16, 2007 11:59 AM

Thanks again Tom and Ken.

Ken I would love to have your "recipe" and will to look to see if you've posted it. This summer I started my first compost pile which is still quite small, but I'm all giddy to start using it this spring.

Tom you might be on the mark with the humidity. My plant stand is against a wall that has a heating register running at the base. It's not forced air, but still I know it is very drying. I really don't have any other options at the moment in regards to relocation so I'm going to have to make the best of things as they are. I wonder if more misting would be beneficial?

In theory misting should work. Sadly we're so darn dry down here in Southern California that we're a mite paradise. I had a misting fan going a lot of the summer, but it didn't make a difference. I personally found it refreshing though.

Lala indoors misting by spray bottle sometimes has the opposite effect. It opens up the pores on the plant widely. The misted water is evaporated very quickly but the open pores continue to lose water from the opened pores for awhile. The net effect is that you can sometimes actually lose more water by misting.
You do want to wash the leaves every time you water though. Depending on your level of dryness, once a week hosing, including under the leaves, is enough to keep the mites mostly under control. If you have a woodstove, some people keep a kettle of water on there to raise humidity. There are also many kinds of portable and whole-house humidifiers available. If you can keep your plants as cool as possible, or put them in your coolest non-freezing place, that helps too. :^)
- Tom