Small dots along the stems of a bunch of my hydroponic basil plants. Treated them with neem oil every 3 days and they still are here. When they get larger and more plentiful I have just been able to scrape them off with a knife, but it is hard to get to some of them, and I am bound to miss some. Any ideas on what they are / what I can do to get rid of them / what I can use to get rid of them?
Dots ("mites" ?) on basil stem
- Thread starter Twilak
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Small dots along the stems of a bunch of my hydroponic basil plants. Treated them with neem oil every 3 days and they still are here. When they get larger and more plentiful I have just been able to scrape them off with a knife, but it is hard to get to some of them, and I am bound to miss some. Any ideas on what they are / what I can do to get rid of them / what I can use to get rid of them?
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Looks like hard scale insects. They attach themselves to the plant and even when dead stay attached until the growth of the plant dislodges them. You probably killed them the first time you sprayed Neem. Neem is what you use on them as it suffocates them.
That seems possible, although they are still coming back, even after constant neem and scraping. Anything else I can try using?
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Please send pictures of the growing setup and also closeup pictures of both sides of the leaves.
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Leaves look fine, here are the photos. Someone else told me that they may perhaps be roots of some sort. They seem to ball shaped for that imo, right? I am going to try planting one that way to test that theory, however. Also for more info, if needed, ~74% humidity, ~6PH, 650ppm, and these are downy mildew resistant basil plants. Would upload at a higher resolution if I could, sorry about that.
Thanks so much for the help!
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View attachment 64979
Leaves look fine, here are the photos. Someone else told me that they may perhaps be roots of some sort. They seem to ball shaped for that imo, right? I am going to try planting one that way to test that theory, however. Also for more info, if needed, ~74% humidity, ~6PH, 650ppm, and these are downy mildew resistant basil plants. Would upload at a higher resolution if I could, sorry about that.
Thanks so much for the help!
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Pictures are unavailable. It says OOPS something or other. The reason I need them is to check for tiny soft scale insects called crawlers. They live all over the plant and is where the hard scale insects come from. They can be anywhere.
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From the pictures I can't be 100% but it looks like tiny white crawlers on the bottom of the leaf but that picture of the stem is of scale.
The way the plants are crowded together is an excellent way of growing scale insects. Do you check each plant individually on a regular basis?
Hey so I actually took a close look at it under a microscope, and it is bug free! That is relieving to know. Any tips on how to keep it that way, since you do bring up a good point: if one gets it, they all do? Any other ideas on what it may be -- I will get back in 2 days to confirm if it is/is not roots? -- also no, the plants in the back are hard to get too, so I only go to them for harvests and to spray neem oil.
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I will not put any chemicals on anything I eat indoors or outdoors and that's the main reason I grow my own. You are doing a super job growing basil indoors under LEDs. The only thing I would add, is you should allow yourself more space between plants so they can get Fat and have more airflow. Also use yellow stickies everywhere you can find a place for them. That way you can spot the invaders early by looking at the stickies. I think your bug problem is mainly due to overcrowding and lack of air-flow. Take a couple of them out of the grow, and see what I'm talking about. You can get the same weight with less plants and sometimes even more.
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Soft scale and crawlers are mobile and in a situation such as yours it would be easy for them to get on every plant you have as each plant actually touches another. @oneeye is correct about the stickies and especially the airflow. Airflow is extremely important, not only in insect control but in fungal control as well. And 74% humidity makes it extremely likely that some sort of fungus will appear.
Yeah I have already fought fungus (and won) with another plant in the grow space, but I now use biofungicide (organic) and that problem is gone. I am going to add the stickies today!
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Although you won the first battle with fungus the war is not over. As long as the humidity is that high future fungal problems will arise and maybe not as easily controlled. If you could get a little oscillating fan for them it would help a lot.
Yeah I have only 1 tiny fan. I still use an inorganic fungicide on that other plant (strawberries), otherwise it comes back, I just prevent the basil from getting it with biofungicide (which has been extremely successful. My goal is to not have to use inorganic fungicide, but as you say, that is impossible with 70% humidity.) Also, what exactly would fan do? (the whole grow is in an enclosed closet with only a fan for air pump cooling, and a tiny fan above to push air into a super small dehumidifier)
I really appropriate the help -- I sprayed the leaves with organic neem oil today, as it turns out I was only spraying the stems, and now that I know there are bugs on the leaves, I started spraying them too (thanks to that very helpful find as to what my problem was)! As you can tell this is my first time "farming" pesto-basil in my closet, and I have to say it is worth it (constant pesto is amazing).