Back with another over achieving endeavor mixed with lots of hurdles. I began transplanting my 1 gallon plants into their 30 gallon pots. Was moving along when I came across a plant that had a whole shit load of what I believe are root aphids. Now that I’m looking, almost all my pots have them.
Plants were in a sealed insulated shipping container.
1 gallon pots
Ocean forest soil
I do use a mosquito treatment similar to bt.
I also found a few winged guys here and there. I’m almost positive these are root aphids. What scares me is that I’m finding them In almost all my pots. Can they really proliferate that fast and far wide? Plants were close together In the container. 99% sure I’m right but I have panicked before to find out the bugs I had were good guys. These guys are certainly chilling near roots. Charging my scope to take some
Better close ups. If root aphids are confirmed, whats the hardcore way to handle this now. Some of the pots they are really hard to spot, it’s the one I found that was infested I know bad news is coming… go easy on me boys
can you get an even closer pic of one? They should have dual exhaust shitpipes coming out the back I think. I googled them and the root ones dont have that. it looks like root aphids to me. Ive heard its difficult if not impossible to get rid of them
I’ll go take more pics right now and waiting for my scope to charge. I’m basically certain this is a root aphids and seeing that they are in all the pots I checked, I’m rather bummed and stressed. Hoping for the almighty “nah man they are these guys you’re ok” but that seems to be wishful thinking. I’m gonna get some tape and trap a few for pics
Yeah man…pretty fucked. Here’s some scope pics. The ONLY “good” thing is that I didn’t transplant most the plants so they are all in 1 or 3 gallon pots. So hopefully easier to fight if I can drench those pots. But man. I feel defeated early
On
I havent dealt with root aphids, but soap suds are instant death for the other kind, as well as most bugs. I dont grow in dirt. Would it work to dunk the root ball in soapy water, and then flush it?
That I do not know but I’d assume
They are well inside the root ball as well as visible on the outside. This is terrible. I found 2 plants particularly that looked infested , the others all seem to have much lighter infestation. I’m researching all I can now to hopefully attack this asap while everything is in small pots
Exactly what I’m thinking since I was never fully able to correct that on my larger plants. Now I need to go and really inspect everything. There’s a lot of girls that are ready to go out. Man, someone encourage me even if you’re lying. Tell me I can win this
Ypu need to soil drench every waters with aphid killer, I ran into this exact same problem and I started using every aphid soil drench I could get my hands on and did ot every watering and I eliminated the problem with ease it just took what o believe a month to get rid of them.
The writing is On the wall… I have a few plants that I got wayyy early this year that got huge. There are only like 8 big ones the rest are all appropriate size for transplanting for the season. But I now notice a ton of what I believe are winged aphids on the leaves. I saw them on one plant once but that plant was so tall and close to the light I figured it was a few fungus Gnats that landed and died, which I was treating for. Rough.
Definitely in veg… these are mostly outdoors so they are still way early. I’m gonna go home and spend some time on the internets, every solution needs to be figured out financially, etc. I want to attack it now while they are all in 1 / 3 gallon pots so I’m not treating 100 gallons of soil per plant. There’s a guru in town at the nursery who charges a bit more for products but his knowledge goes a long way. It sucks because it’s an issue that most conclude is a very hard/losing battle. The one I discovered that made me notice this was very heavily infested. I only found two like that. Most of the other plants I checked I have to actually search before I find one. So I’m hoping I caught this earlier enough. There are just so many plants I have to be treated and I just watered them which sucks since I’d like to drench them with something ASAP. Any more suggestions, advice or at least encouraging words would mean a lot LOL. I know some of you enjoy watching my battles as I go and I usually come out on top. Here’s to you guys
They are way early in veg so spraying /treatment isn’t a huge concern as far as that timeline… spraying I assume will kill/deter the adult fliers but as far as soil drenches, I need to figure out a plan asap. This put me in major panic mode. Like I said, I found 2 heavily infested but a lot of others I checked are nowhere near as bad, but they are present. Atleast I know I have the ethic/determination to do anything I have to
At this point I know I have to hit them heavy and with various products. I’ve looked into green cleaner but not sure that’s an aggressive treatment for this… but I will look into any and all suggestions. Like I said every treatment needs to be calculated $$ wise and how far it will go. I will do anything to mitigate this right now. Thank god I didn’t do all my transplanting yet
Atleast I know I have the ethic/determination to do anything I have to