Cyclamen mites on my African Violets
Myrna Beasley
3 years ago
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terrilou
3 years agoRelated Discussions
cyclamen mites???
Comments (4)My guess would be too hot and too sunny for cyclamen.And then you probably overwatered it. You need to read more about the culture of cyclamens if you insist on growing them. I would never ever bring a cyclamen home for the reasons of mites. Cyclamen mites feed on cyclamens for million years - and plants developed resistance - so they tolerate these mites and do not collapse. AVs get poisoned by the mite saliva when the pests feed - and they get distorted and look awful and eventuallsy collapse and die. You do not know if you get the infection or not. You can wait and watch your violets - they either develop symptoms - then you need to spray them - or not. I would get rid of cyclamen plant right now - and next time if you acquire it - keep it at work, do not bring it home. Do not stress yourself -it is doable to get rid of the pests. Just extra work you do not need. I,...See MoreHELP my african violet is slowly fading away
Comments (12)If this is one of your first AV's, please take note of the following ... AV blooms do not last forever, usually only a few days to a few weeks, depending on the variety. After this, they brown and dry up. At this point, you should remove the bloom stalks. So ... for future notice, let's go through the steps of successful African Violet care ... 1.) Have a suitable spot selected for the plant(s). This spot needs to be well lighted (either from a window or household fluorescent lighting), and the temperature in the area should be steady. In other words, don't place the violet(s) in spots which will experience temperatures which are too hot ... or too cold. The good thing about African Violets is that they like the same temperature range which is comfortable for people (70-85 F). The (natural or fluorescent) light that your plant receives should be enough to cast a shadow if a white piece of paper is held behind them. This level of light will be necessary to ensure that your plant will bloom. 2.) Determine whether or not you can water your plant with household water. Some city/metropolitan water systems add chemicals (Chloramines) to their supplied water which, unfortunately, will harm/kill your African Violets. I would start by purchasing a gallon jug of spring water from the grocery and use that to water your Violet(s) until you determine whether or not Chloramines are in your water supply. You can also use rain water, if it's available. 3.) Shop for your African Violet (if necessary). We've all seen the bright and colorful displays of African Violets at the grocery and/or big box hardware stores. These plants are ideal to cut one's teeth on in learning to successfully grow African Violets ... with one caveat. These plants will almost always come with insect pests (thrips and/or others) which will ultimately begin to rob you of the beauty of your African Violet blossoms, unless you take the necessary steps to stop them. The alternative to buying African Violets at retail outlets ... is to buy them through mail order. There are a number of reputable mail-order African Violet vendors which will supply you with healthy African Violet plants which, in most cases, will not be carrying insect pests (thrips and/or others). Some of these vendors are Lyndon Lyon Greenhouses (website), PJ's Violets (ebay) or Jack's Violets (ebay). But, in general, pick plants that look healthy (not droopy) and which have a nice spiral type leaf pattern, where you can clearly see the center (crown) of the plant. Avoid plants that look jumbled ... or full of leaves, because that indicates that there is more than one plant in the pot, ... and you will have to separate the plants to have your best success. 4.) Once you have your plants, the most important to do is to NOT OVER-WATER them. The easiest way to kill your violets is to over-water them. Violets only need to be watered when the soil is very nearly dry. And when watering them, you need to allow the excess water to drain out of the pot's drainage holes ... to be discarded. A violet which is allowed to remain in a pot which is saturated with water will quickly die of root rot. 5.) Make sure that the AV pot is not too big ... and that it has drainage holes. An AV should be in a pot no bigger than 1/3 of the plant's width. So the leaves should stick over the sides of the pot, so that the plant looks like it has wings. I've included a photo for comparison. The easiest pots to use are like the plastic one shown in the photo, though, in time, you can graduate to using other types of planters. (Or you can set the plastic pot inside of a more decorative planter). These tips should set you well on your way to successful AV growing. And please, come back to Gardenweb with any other questions....See MoreCyclamen mites (I think)
Comments (5)1. Yes, the leaves are hairier than normal. 2. The stems are disproportiately larger than the leaves. But then, the leaves are tiny--dime sized at best. 3. The center leaves are still green, but extremely tiny--in the time I've had the plant it has barely grown at all. I use fish emulsion as fertilizer and keep the temps around 70 degrees. The plant is in an east facing window with blinds. Could this be a root problem? When I obtained the plant, it was in a heavy soil, and a lot of the roots were black. After removing the dead roots, I repotted it into a smaller pot using 50% African violet soil and 50% perlite. I have not checked the roots since, not wanting to disturb the plant. I will see about the botanical garden option. Thanks for the suggestions, Nancy....See MoreBroad mites on African Violets? Please help!
Comments (29)The Forbid label had all sorts of warnings about human toxicity through inhalation, direct skin contact, etc. Birds are extremely sensitive to airborne particles and chemical fumes, even those that don't bother humans (fumes from teflon-coated nonstick pans, for example, can kill birds in a matter of minutes), and in general, it's pretty safe to assume that anything in the air that's harmful to humans will be more harmful to them. I didn't think it was worth the risk, even in a different room. Plus I'd have to worry about getting the overspray on my floor/wall/etc. What I did do is made about a half gallon of Forbid and, with my gloved fingers holding the soil/plant in the pot, dunked each of my plants (I have ~30, so not as many as a lot of people) upside down and swished them around for a few seconds. Saran wrap probably would have helped, but unfortunately I didn't think of it or see your comment in time, but just using my fingers worked relatively well. I did have one plant fall out of the pot and entirely into the miticide, but I fished it out quickly, and after letting it dry out overnight, I repotted it with apparently no harm done. Garbage bags covered with a layer of paper towels worked well to set the plants on while they all dried overnight in my bathroom, with the vent on to get rid of fumes. The miticide got a little dirty by the last few plants, due to some loose soil falling in, but I don't think it impacted its function any. I do need to figure out how to dispose of the leftover, though. However, that would have been a problem even if I had chosen to spray it, since I wasn't sure how much I needed, and it's not stable once mixed up, so I couldn't have saved it to reuse. I currently have it sealed in a cleaned milk jug while I figure out how to responsibly dispose of it. Thank you all for your help and advice while I figured this out! Hopefully this will be the last of the nasty mites!...See MoreMyrna Beasley
3 years agoterrilou
3 years agoMyrna Beasley
3 years agoterrilou
3 years agoirina_co
3 years agoLisa Butler
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