NorthernCosmos
Well-Known Member
I think my plants may have root aphids, or something like it. I observed a few critters on top of the soil around the stem some time ago, but didn't think much of it due to lack of knowledge. Lately, when watering around the stem, a few of them surfaces - little green'ish bugs. There aren't many too see, I've spotted maybe 4 or 5 at the same time. I've also spotted one or two winged ones, both on the soil surface, and on the tent wall. The winged creatures are neither gnats nor banana flies, so could they be winged aphids? There is another creature there too; picture below.
One of many diagnostics that match is this one:
"The symptoms of root aphids have infested your cannabis plants can be, the plants will start to have yellowing leaves and appear to have stunted growth. It can resemble a magnesium deficiency. Another sign is you may notice them crawling around the top of the soil or on some of the bottom leaves."
My plants are very small, and I've had many drying yellow leaves with brown spots on the lower part of the plant that I've been picking off, and many of the lower leaves have a yellow tint. I'm using store bought peat based soil mixed with compost from my garden. The compost is lively, with earth worms and a few larger beetles. I thrown out the beetles as I sift through the compost to inspect for just such things. I suppose there could have been aphid eggs, too small to see, that hatched after some time in the warm and cozy tent... Ref. my grow journal in my signature.
I wanted to be fairly sure what this is before posting, and today I managed to capture one of them, hence finally posting.
Is diatomaceous earth a good remedy? It's one of the few things I can get hold of quickly around here (10µm particle size). How do I best apply it?
I'm scared now... Please help!
Here is the suspect, captured on the soil around the stem and killed. It's body is ca. 1mm long :
I also captured this one on the surface around the stem, body length 2-3 mm. What might it be:
One of many diagnostics that match is this one:
"The symptoms of root aphids have infested your cannabis plants can be, the plants will start to have yellowing leaves and appear to have stunted growth. It can resemble a magnesium deficiency. Another sign is you may notice them crawling around the top of the soil or on some of the bottom leaves."
My plants are very small, and I've had many drying yellow leaves with brown spots on the lower part of the plant that I've been picking off, and many of the lower leaves have a yellow tint. I'm using store bought peat based soil mixed with compost from my garden. The compost is lively, with earth worms and a few larger beetles. I thrown out the beetles as I sift through the compost to inspect for just such things. I suppose there could have been aphid eggs, too small to see, that hatched after some time in the warm and cozy tent... Ref. my grow journal in my signature.
I wanted to be fairly sure what this is before posting, and today I managed to capture one of them, hence finally posting.
Is diatomaceous earth a good remedy? It's one of the few things I can get hold of quickly around here (10µm particle size). How do I best apply it?
I'm scared now... Please help!
Here is the suspect, captured on the soil around the stem and killed. It's body is ca. 1mm long :
I also captured this one on the surface around the stem, body length 2-3 mm. What might it be:
This might explain a few things about these plants. On the bright side, it can only get better from here, now that I'm aware of this.
