I have an indoor salvia plant, barely. It started to die and lose all it's leaves, I had no idea what was wrong so I sat and watched one day very closely and noticed these extremely small (pin-point sized.. maybe a bit larger) white mites walking all over the plant.
I bought safer's 3 in 1 garden spray which claims to kill mites
shook the spray up..
Sprayed directly on the mite as well as all over the entire plant, it stunk like seriously bad.
The mite continued to run around and do it's thing confused by the dampness, but other than that lived. The safer soap did nothing to the mite aside from confuse it.
I have tried adding bee and wasp killer to the safer soap, along with garlic and pepper as I read these things kill mites. The only thing it started to kill was my salvia plant.
The mites are running around on the plant still - even after a re-pot/rinse and fresh dirt! I don't know where they are arising from.
Does anyone know how well Neem oil works for this? or any other idea that I can use?
there is one leaf left on the poor plant
thanks.
Avid will take care of the spider mites. It can be used as a soil drench or sprayed on the leaf surface.
Keep in mind that many "cures" don't kill bugs but rather upset their reproductive ability.
On the other hand, simply spraying the plant with water once (or twice) a day should keep the spider mites at bay until you can get the correct product to kill the little suckers.
Btw, after using avid, one shouldn't consume the leaves of the plant in question for about 30 days after application when all traces of the plant are gone.
Good luck. Salvia plants are touchy, in my experience.
lw
Yeah wow! she sure likes to be pampered :lol:
the mother plant appears done for, she is just a stick with one baby leaf, lucky for me I'd taken a cutting before the mites showed up and that one is doing alright so far, I did see a mite in it's soil but took care of it. No idea where the suckers came from.
I'll check out avid, thanks for the tip!
also how do these things kill Salvia, you would think they would start hallucinating and forget what they're doing :roll:
I used to have so many problems with spider mites that I gave up on planting tropicals outdoors because when I would bring them indoors in the fall I would bring in so many spider mites. I grow my tropicals indoors now.
I am not sure if they are attracted to certain plants but i noticed at the time that alot of the scented plants had infestations.
I always thought scented plants were supposed to keep most insects away because of the aromatic compounds they produce.
Mints are said to keep aphids away.
Actually the best way to get rid of aphids is to grow a tree tobacco plant( Nicotiana glauca). They will leave other plants just to go to that plant.
I dont know why aphids like the nightshade family so much?
I grew one onetime and had like over 100 aphids on it but the catch is they didnt live long.
Tree tobacco contains anabasine which is toxic chemical similar to nicotine.
JLHudsonseeds says it is toxic to aphids and i know from first hand experience growing one!
haha yeah my tobacco tree is always covered in little white/green aphids, but for some reason they don't eat it(I have not seen any damage) I have tried so much to get rid of them I even sprayed the whole plant down with nicotine tea and they didn't die. I would guess that mites on salvia would be much worse though(because it is so soft where as tree tobacco has hard rubbery leaves), I am sorry to hear about that.
Thanks, they ate the entire mother plant, several cuttings and nearly an entire last plant of mine but I took the only good cutting left which was starting to fade. It grew some roots and is doing alright so far, still pretty small but :D yay. I check on it every day and often find a mite or a strange type of bug on it.
Hopefully she'll do just fine now. I'm using African Violet potting mix, it actually seems to like it :shock:
Ya, spider mites are a fierce little bugs. The love salvia. A mite kills plants by biting into the leaves and sucking out chloraphorme outta the leaf. Thats the reason that they can be different colors depending on the color of the plant there on. Always look for small webs on the underside of the leaves. They will build a swarm on 100000 in 3 weeks in the right conditions. They dont like humidity. Dry hot temps, they florish in.
Neem oil, neem oil, neem oil. Organic wonder plant. Takes care of a ton of pests. My suggestion is by a bottle of concentrate for 15 bucks. It has enough oil to make about 15 gallons of spray. Salvia is a tender plants, that you dont want poison pesticide on. It will leave a slight residue, but it will save your plant. Just wash leaves before harvest. It does have a strong pepper smell, but it actually breaks down the cells of the bugs and eggs. but its all natural.
Im new to this forum but not to salvia. my garden.
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Quote from: chewyYa, spider mites are a fierce little bugs. The love salvia. A mite kills plants by biting into the leaves and sucking out chloraphorme outta the leaf. Thats the reason that they can be different colors depending on the color of the plant there on. Always look for small webs on the underside of the leaves. They will build a swarm on 100000 in 3 weeks in the right conditions. They dont like humidity. Dry hot temps, they florish in.
Neem oil, neem oil, neem oil. Organic wonder plant. Takes care of a ton of pests. My suggestion is by a bottle of concentrate for 15 bucks. It has enough oil to make about 15 gallons of spray. Salvia is a tender plants, that you dont want poison pesticide on. It will leave a slight residue, but it will save your plant. Just wash leaves before harvest. It does have a strong pepper smell, but it actually breaks down the cells of the bugs and eggs. but its all natural.
Im new to this forum but not to salvia. my garden.
...
Hey Chewy! I really like your garden!! :D my plant caught something, I'm not sure what. I found no mites at all this time but the leaves and the apical meristem's at the top of the plant started to turn brown and die :shock: so I cut the browning bits off and misted it with rubbing alcohol, let it dry. Then I misted it with antibiotics which stopped the browning from spreading so far. Also, I had just collected "roof water" after a heavy rain and used that thinking the salvia would appreciate real water instead of tap water, I'm thinking maybe there was a microbial creature in the water from the roof so I switched back to tap water that i let sit out for a night.
It's growing, slowly, but it's really sick! I could post a picture if you'd like to see what I mean, I feel really bad about letting it get so sick all the time. Also can you suggest any specific soil mixture you use? Or a way to make it grow faster? I'm using African Violet potting mix but the packaging says it has peat moss, which one site claims it turns into an acidic sludge over time and is no good.
Also, sorry to rant on so much like this but, is it bad to add dirt around an already growing plant? will this cause rot or will it grow roots out the stems?
Neem should be good. Don't use a systemic poison on anything you might ingest later. They say its safe after so many days but i don't believe it. Safers soap has always worked for me on mites. Get the kind with no poison in it, just the soap. I got mine at home depot or it might have been lowes. It kills them on contact but the eggs keep hatching. You have to spray them every day for weeks being sure to hit all parts. Use a magnifying glass to see where they still are. A few plants do not react well to neem. Good luck!
Ya, lots of people use soapy water but i dont think you have a mite issue. YOu would deffinitly see webs on the under side of the plant. Lots of tiny brown spots. And when they bite your plant they leave little yellow scares on the plants leaves.
Yeah that peat moss can be a bit trouble some. I use a generic soil mix. Stay away from soils that already have fertilizers or soil moisture beads. The most important thing i can tell you is perlite. That white crap in most soil mixes. I bought a huge bag of it for 12 bucks. Make your mix 1/2 soil and 1/2 perlite. This will do two things, a) air to the roots. the easiest way to keep your roots free and growing is perlite........b) it will allow extra water to drain while retaining enough for the plant to live. YOu will water more often, which will let you add fertilizers more often.
Post a pic and i might be able to help you more
Quote from: "chewy"Ya, lots of people use soapy water but i dont think you have a mite issue. YOu would deffinitly see webs on the under side of the plant. Lots of tiny brown spots. And when they bite your plant they leave little yellow scares on the plants leaves.
Yeah that peat moss can be a bit trouble some. I use a generic soil mix. Stay away from soils that already have fertilizers or soil moisture beads. The most important thing i can tell you is perlite. That white crap in most soil mixes. I bought a huge bag of it for 12 bucks. Make your mix 1/2 soil and 1/2 perlite. This will do two things, a) air to the roots. the easiest way to keep your roots free and growing is perlite........b) it will allow extra water to drain while retaining enough for the plant to live. YOu will water more often, which will let you add fertilizers more often.
Post a pic and i might be able to help you more
Hey Chewy, I'm not having mites at the moment, but it definitely was mites that destroyed the mother plant. This time I didn't see any mites, the top leaves/nodes just started to brown and get flimsy so I cut them off, except one at the top. It has some brown but it didn't look as bad as the rest, so I left it.
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she looks horrible :e_sad:
lol, itll be ok. I feel for ya cause i almost lost my very first cutting. If i can just add a couple things. Yes, the soil needs that perlite. I can see from the pic's. Its allow air to the roots.And theres nothing you can do right now to help this but, always start in small pots. When they get root bound transplant. Otherwise you can develop roit easier. If the plants not using all the water in the soil it just stays there. SO always start small and as the plant grows keep stepping up to the next pot size.
And let me ask what kind of light your using. How close is it and whats the color temp on it i.e. 6500k or 2700k. Cfl? We'll tune you into a salvia growing machine. Before they banned it in my state i had tons of salvia plants. A see of green.
I'm using a 65k 23watt CFL that hangs just inches away from the plant, and recently just added a second one to the side hoping two will promote growth. I did start it out in a small pot but, for reasons I can't remember, decided to put it into a larger one.
That's the dirt with the peat moss, what did you mean by generic dirt, just dirt out of the garden or purchased top soil? I will get perlite, but i want to make sure I add it to the right dirt :D
I'm sorry they banned it in your state, I find it weird they can ban something that is considered a spiritual tool to many. Isn't this going over the right to practice your own religion idea? anyways.
Thanks!
Ya i use whatevers cheaper. Like i said i mix it with 50 % perlite so the plants getting its nutrients from me. I prefure so i can jam them full or wein them back depending on cutting/harvest time. My plants just took a really long time to grow and get established. It should grow, give it time, and try not to mess with it to much. She's an amazing plant when it gets large.
Yes, i almost wanted to cry when they banned her. I had built a small side biz selling plants. I had 3 strains. I was loving it it. I never got into using it that much, i love the fact that i could thou.
these are my new babys. kratom trees.
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Nice Kratom! I've never tried Kratom but they sure look nice. Can you tell me how much the plant was, and whether it's harder or easier to grow than Salvia?
Thank you. They get large fast. I got them from a dude named vayjaylian off a forum called "kratomforum.com"
He has a bunch of different strains. I hope to take cuttings soon of mine but they take awhile to root anyway. He charges 30 bucks a plant. But all in all its a good deal.
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