What is my N. hamata doing?

[Maiden]

I suggest you make a determination whether or not that may be your problem before assaulting the plant with pesticides.

+1

 

[Whimgrinder]

I will inspect it closely tonight when I get home from work.

Thrips are not hard to see, but use a magnifying lens to inspect

 

[pebes]

i cut off a leaf and inspected under a stereo microscope at approximately 10X. The picture below is what i saw. There was only one adult visible but a few molts were also observed so keep an eye out for those too.

 

[CephNectar]

Thank you all! Super fast and knowledgeable replies on this forum!

I definitely came to the right place.

 

[Dexenthes]

I'm leaning towards thrips on this one.

 

[PsychoSarah]

Ugh, nasty little pests.

 

[hcarlton]

Orthene works really well on them, though..... and just abut anything else I've had a problem with, though the smell takes some getting used to.

 

[PsychoSarah]

How does one get used to smells like that?

 

[mato]

For whatever reason, hamata seems to be prone to this. I haven't quite figured out what causes it, but it could be heat related (daytime, not nighttime). I've seen it occur on probably three different clones over the course of two years, and if memory serves me well, it always occurred in the summer.

At first, I began to think that the constant moisture on the crown could have caused problems relating to the water potential of the plant and therefore mass flow, which could theoretically cause these kinds of problems, but I've seen this happen in dry conditions.

I looked at this thread yesterday but decided not to mention this so as not to sound like an alarmist, but I would go with what pebes said. Although I personally wouldn't assume thrips if this was my plant (they usually decimate the growth point to where it looks black and crisp), I would check very, very carefully for mites (you will literally need magnification to see them). I don't know why, but hamata seems to be an island for these under certain conditions.

Your temperatures are fine for that species, by the way.

 

[CephNectar]

Looks like I will be purchasing a magnifying glass tonight.

Thank you

If it is mites how do I destroy them? And do I need to treat all of my plants? Will the live sphagnum be affected?

 

[CephNectar]

I have some Orthene but it is disgusting...

Last time I used it I had to repot everything I treated to try to get rid of the stench.

 

[mato]

You can either order a $140 bottle of Shuttle, which is a safe systemic miticide, or treat them with an oil-based insecticide like neem or a pyrethroid. Yes, the mites will go into sphagnum.

Better still, colonize your plants with predatory mites and skip chemicals all together.

 

[CephNectar]

Alright. Where do I get the predatory mites? Would that prevent me from having to potentially dispose of my sphagnum?

Second choice $140 bottle of Shuttle. Definitely worth it to save my babies.

 

[mato]

Well, that's if you know it's mites. It might not be!

 

[CephNectar]

Yeah. True. I need to slow down a bit and figure out what the problem is for sure.

Just to run it by you...

I replaced one of my T5 bulbs recently as one of them had gone out. Obviously my lighting is too much for the hamata to begin with. Do you think that there is any chance that the increased light would have caused this?

 

[mato]

It's possible, but your old bulb must have been very dull for it to have that much of an effect (assuming it's a replacement of the same type of bulb).

 

[CephNectar]

Hello all! I wanted to say thank you to everyone for helping me resolve my hamata troubles. It seems like my plant is happy again!

 

[Whimgrinder]

So, was it a climate parameters issue, or mites, or ??

 

[CephNectar]

I decreased the amount of light that I was giving it and it started growing normally again. No other changes were made.

 

[Bio]

My bet is temperature was too high, caused by being too close to the lights. It's a good looking plant. Congratulations on getting it going again.