is water blasting enough?

[Darkhorse]

Hi all, forgive me for not saying much lately... typing on a cell has become increasingly tedious.  anywho, last year i struggled with getting control of a mite situation and it cost me the majority of my collection.  i have since learned what not to do, but am unfortunately fighting the same battle again this summer.  up to this point i have been spraying every infested plant 2x per week w oil.  despite my care in not contaminating clean plants, 1 or 2 mites continue to show up on "clean" plants not on the list for oil.  spraying the oil is very time consuming and some of the plants are becoming unhappy with it too.  my question is... if i blast my entire collection w the hose nozzle often enough, will that take care of the mites by the end of summer?  the plan is to blast them all-- clean or dirty--  daily.  what do u guys think?

[Darkhorse]

Forgot to add... the goal is for them to be completely mite free before they come live inside this winter.  also, before they get too big to treat effectively.  bart has certainly set the standard w his 7ft island queen.  i cant imagine trying to rid that big of a plant of all its pests.  Getting back to the winter plans, indoor space will def. be an issue this winter hence the "no mite left behind" policy, plus im a perfectionist and like to set unrealistic goals for myself. 

[Pachrian]

Jordan, I noticed spidermites on one of my Belles recently. There were also darker ones and the question was if they are the kind that would take care of the bad ones.

I ended up thoroughly hosing the plant down a few times and, knock on wood, so far so good.

Maybe, and I really don't know anything about the oil, but maybe it also kills beneficial insects?

I hope you get this infestation under control, it must be so frustrating...

[helixturnhelix]

Hi Jordan,

This is exactly what I do, I just spray the top and underside of the leaves of all my plants in the evening.  It takes about 15 min to do, but it definitely keeps those spidermites at bay.  By spraying with water, you are making sure that the environment under the leaf is not good spidermite habitat, since they do not like water at all.  It is really interesting to me how susceptible Belle is to Spidermites.  Mine has been set back badly this year because of terrible mites.  I am not planing on getting any blooms on it this year, but its finally starting to grow again and hopefully when I cut it back all the way to move it, it will also get rid of all the mites.

Jordan I think you need to start hybridizing CVs that are resistant to Spidermites!  Good luck

[Charlie]

If you find yourself spraying a lot or spraying a growing number of plants one way to make it easier and faster is to invest in a back pack sprayer. These hold 3 or 4 gallons of spray water and will treat a lot of plants with just one filling. 4 gallons is too heavy for most people so I would go with a 3 gallon model or only fill a 4 gallon part way full. These come with a 3 foot long spray wand on the end of a couple feet of tubing, making it easier to reach plants and to spray the undersides of leaves without bending and squatting. They also move you further back and away from the spray. Such back pack sprayers are available from Home Depot and other big outlets for $50-100 but make spraying a lot faster and easier than using a small bottle.

Charlie

[Charlie]

I like Chris's hot water from the tap spray idea, if it works. It's been long enough now and it does seem to be working, right, Chris?

We've talked about this before but it's worth mentioning again - the only way to know you've got spider mites is to view them with a magnifier of some sort. !0 to 20x is enough to see the little crab like critters moving on the undersides of leaves. This is particularly important when trying to figure out if a treatment worked or if another is needed. Yellowing leaves only tell you that the mites were there, but not if they still are there. For that you need to actually see them moving on the leaves.

Charlie

[helixturnhelix]

Hi Charlie,

So far so good,  I need to grab a magnifying glass to check for sure, but I havent had any yellowing of leaves from the mites yet on plants ive been spraying with hot water

[helixturnhelix]

I also want to note that this method is good for preventing mites, if you have a full blown infestation more drastic measures will have to be taken. 

[Darkhorse]

Thanks guys...  what i may try is hort oiling once a week and spraying w h2o every other day.  uli, the oil smothers mites so im sure it kills the beneficial ones too.  it does seem to have a little residual effect compared to just plain water.  if i cant get rid of them soon i may just suck it up and buy avid.  chris, i am really looking forward to hybridizing some mite resistant cvs, although at this rate  i may run out of space 4 seedlings!  i may try the backpack sprayer charlie.  i assume u can use it 4 pesticide too which would be great compared to.the little squirt bottle.  sounds like a decent workout as well although ur right... 4 gallons might tip me over

[Charlie]

It would be nice if water and oil will take care of the mites. If not and you do end up going with a miticide like Avid please wear gloves and a respirator mask when mixing and spraying. It's not a particularly risky chemical but zero exposure is the best policy.

One extra benefit of Avid is that it is also one of the few pesticides that kills thrips so can be alternated with spinosad so that the spinosad does not quit working. The chemical in Avid, abamectin, is out of patent now so there are some cheaper generic versions around.

Tip over may be right - at 8 pounds per gallon water is quite heavy. 4 gallons is 32 pounds plus the spray tank which makes it like a heavily loaded camping backpack. The best home garden sprayer for convenience and ease of use is an electric powered one. The tank can be fairly large - like 12 gallons - but sits in a frame on wheels and is pushed around, not carried. The real beauty of it is that a long hose connects the spray wand to the tank so all you have to do is walk around with the spray wand while the tank stays parked. The electric motor creates more pressure than in a backpack sprayer and so can shoot the spray more forcefully into the plant canopy. Works really well but of course costs more, too - $300-500 is typical. This is more sprayer than most need or want, but for those who find themselves with 100+ plants to spray it is a great convenience.

Charlie

[Darkhorse]

Hopefully the water and oil will take care of.it.  if last year was the year of the mite for me, this year has been the year of the thrip.  in this case, avid doesnt sound like too bad of an idea if i have to resort to that.  i didnt realize it worked for thrips too

[roadrunner]

Until this year I would occasionally have a small spider mite problem that was easily taken care of by hard rinsing a couple of times a week and Safer's soap applications about once a week. This summer has been different. Even with the addition of rotating horticultural oil into the treatments, the infestation has continued to get worse.  My collection is somewhere in the 60 plant range so this is really getting to be a pain in the you know what. About 15 plants have lost a large number of leaves from the spider mites and needed to be pruned back quite a bit. I just ordered the Bayer 3 in 1 for my next step in the attack on the little monsters.  Daily rinsing of the foliage on the plants outside in the landscape seems to keep them away there. I may need to resort to doing that inside the greenhouse as well, though I'm not sure how long my wooden benches will hold up doing this.

dave

[Darkhorse]

Dave i feel your pain... the more plants one has the more time spent washing.   so far i have yet to find a way to speed things up other than using a garden hose nozzle, which really does help.  have you tried avid?  i may have to resort to getting some if winter gets much closer and the mites are still hanging on

[roadrunner]

I haven't tried avid yet.   I just got the Bayer 3 in 1 and will see what kind of results I get with it.   I really dislike using anything stronger than soap or horticural oil and try to limit the use of those in the garden to spot spraying. That normally works there til the lacewing and lady bird populations build up and take over.  The greenhouse and inside the house are a different matter.

dave

[Charlie]

Dave, I'm with you on limiting the sprays used in the outdoor garden. Our problems with mites in our outdoor garden are minimal compared to greenhouse and house. It's all due to the insects and other predators that eat mites - Mother Nature by far the best at keeping things in balance.

Charlie