I’m currently growing Blueberry in Coco with jacks 321 and tribus. My temps are normally around 70 and my RH is around 60. I flipped to flower on 11/30. A few days ago I noticed these tiny little white bugs in my Coco. At first I thought they were salt or something being left over for the Jacks. Close by inspection showed they these white specs seem to be little bugs. From what I can gather from online they seem to be ‘soil mites’ but I’m not sure. I see have not seen these bugs on the plant at in all and I don’t see any kind of damage on any parts of the leafs or plant and the in plant over all in is in looking in pretty good. Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated.
Unfortunately I don’t think BT will do much against root mites or aphids. I might humbly suggest Neem meal for this. It won’t make your buds taste like Neem oil or hurt your plants. It just breaks down into Nitrogen and releases a small amount of azadirachtin to the roots and soil. I feel a little 2 faced saying this because I just made a post about how much I dislike Neem as a spray. I think the Neem meal would be the way to go. If its root aphids or mites (depending size, bigger looks like aphids to me) they will affect your plants.
BT is good for catapillars. It kills fungus knats like none other because the larval stage of the knat is a little tiny caterpillar in the soil. It will not be affective against mites or aphids.
I love captain jacks as much as everyone here but Spinosad is not very effective against aphids or root mites. It is only effective (mites) against spider mites.
I would humbly suggest some Neem meal top dressing.
Cap’n Jack’s active ingredient is Spinosad. Its mode of action requires ingestion, meaning chewing and munching. Piercing/sucking insects aren’t much affected. I’d opt for not using this product if control of aphids is your aim; those look like root aphids to me. But it’s the same for root mites, like ditto. They don’t ingest leaves, they suck plant juices (sap). Spinosad is not absorbed into the vascular system, therefore can’t infect insects that feed that way. Or at least, the control will be extremely haphazard.
That’s why aphids aren’t listed on the label. The manufacturers don’t want complaints or lawsuits related to the ineffectiveness of their product.
Spinosad works the best on about everything else I would also say.
Jokes aside I read all of your posts that I come across thoroughly, you clearly have an intellectual way of explaining your thoughts. I learn something each time. For me I’m just trying in my own way to be helpful and learn myself at the same time. I enjoy the heck outta this experience.
@noddykitty1 this and the mosquito bits aren’t good for aphids good to no thank you have to check out some other stuff these were the two i read on here awhile back that was good for them happy growing
Root aphids…
Get to work and kill those little f%ckers…
They will kill your plant if you don’t kill them first…
They will suck the plant dry from the inside out and kill off the root system and cause root and plant infections and then death and it wont take long my friend…
Check all plant’s…
More than likely , all of your plant’s have them and maybe even some house plant’s if you have them or check the plant’s around your house and kill them…
Good luck my friend…
Plant’s still look healthy , i really think that you have a chance to get it to harvest…
Thanks for the reply! Captain Jack’s was something I was going to try. These things are small and looked like grains off salt. I only started noticing they were bugs when I stared at one for a while till I noticed it was moving. I haven’t noticed a single on any part of the plant and they seem to not be interested in the stock at all.
I agree these look like root aphids. A spinosad soil drench would help, but neem meal top dress was a good suggestion.
Seeing as this is coco, a quick easy may be see if a few peroxide drenches will nuke them. I think proper ratio is 1 part 3% hydrogen peroxide to 4 parts water, but maybe check that through google or something. It’s been years since i’ve used.
