Not sure what this is, any ideas?

Its all a bunch of weird leaf anomalies. Twisting, cupping, loss of vigor in growth, stretched growth, poor root development, random leaf oddities, and the thing most all have in common is an odd mag deficiency that no amount of magnesium will cure. Flushing doesn't cure it, only base butes won't cure, only cal mag won't cure it, nothing cures it.

This is at least Root Aphids...if I could find a trusted entomologist I'd bet 1k on it right now. The flier I caught and killed, but didn't squish, was the clincher in my mind. Especially once I saw what was going on in my root balls.

ballplayer 2 said:

Nothing worked for you moose? I'm assuming they may be on some fir trees i have in my backyard and find their way into my house.

I'm assuming you tried nematodes, azadirachtin, imid, Botanigard, pyrethrins, grandevo, and venerate? I have all those things on hand except nematodes and will be deploying them.

I am also probably going to look into another spot to get started, but am afraid ill bring the root aphids with. Obviously I won't be bring plants from one place to another. I Will buy new containers, soil, etc. I will probably end up cooking any soil I use before I get started. Anybody know what a safe and effective temp is for cooking soil? I figured 150 would be safe and effective, not sure tho, never did it before.

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No, nothing I threw t them worked. I tried Azamax, I tried chemicals, I tried Spinosad, I tried metaphysics.... I tried stuff I'd never heard of before, and some tings that I would NEVER put on a plant that would provide food or smoke, etc., in most cases.

I finally put the grapefruit tree on the front porch in middle of winter; thus my surrender included putting the tree into a 'scorched earth' scenario... The tree wouldn't live, but I'm hoping/guessing that the sub-zero temps also did a number on the bugs.

The root aphids were very clearly defined by their translucent, off-whitish tear-drop shaped bodies, legs poking out around their backsides along each side, but mostly visible was the tear-drop shaped bodies of the color I described.

Their population was quite dense at times.

I will say here that the leaves and stems on my son's grapefruit tree looked considerably worse off than the pics you posted, however.

Good luck.

If I see your thread again soon, and I get a chance to peruse the back porch, I'll see if I can locate some of the more extreme chemicals I used on the buggers, before I finally tossed the towel in entirely, and surrendered to them..

Again, root aphids received the blue ribbon and gold medal for 'Most Daunting Insect infestation I have -EVER- Dealt With.' .... Bar none.

Call an exorcist.

I see no root aphid symptoms in your pics.

Your description of the bugs you are seeing does not match root aphids.

Internet search: 'rice root aphid' rhopalosiphum rufiabdominale and look at the images. Root aphids appear almost black when seen against a light background. They are in no way clear or whitish.

Brother i promise you I believe with everything in my soul these are root aphids. Ive seen probably 4 or 5 fliers. I've made no attempt to control these. If I left gnats to breed uncontrolled I'd have a full infestation.

What I saw are root aphid fliers, they dart, not hover. Fat round body, the flier was black. The immature stages are clear/white/and eventually red.

This is exactly what the small bugs in my containers look like

If you have fungus gnats, take cuttings, as many as you can,
and root them in plain water, not medium, away from the grow area.

Assume your grow area is infected and do a deep cleanse,
like they do at the hospital in the room after a covid patient dies.

In a basement, so many places for the gnats to incubate.

Trash all the rooted plants, and the medium in the pots.

If you have any house plants, assume they also have RA's.

You can dose your house plants with heavy chemistry.

Don't eat or smoke your houseplants,
and keep the cats from eating dosed plants too.

Pasteurize your medium and add bennies afterword.

After a few weeks try again after the cuttings root.

You're boned now, but in a couple months you may just get back on track.

ballplayer 2 said:

This is exactly what the small bugs in my containers look like

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There are a number of types of aphids and even root aphids.

The pic of the white root aphids you posted is EXACTLY what my root aphids looked like.

Their visibility on the surface, stems (especially near the surface), above-medium roots, etc., varied according to the amount of moisture in the mix, but there were times it looked like a goddamned zombie invasion.

And yes, per my earlier post..... NOTHING I threw at them convinced me they are mortal. I didn't try a flame thrower or blast furnace on the bastages, but darned near everything else under the Sun.

I do not believe they are of this world. Maybe the product of movie props from a Sigourney Weaver space horror/sci-fi film, where some of their imaginary critters were just too frightening in appearance and reality to subject the audience to.

I'll add that some of the most beneficial information others ever shared with me re. 'plant troubles', whether fungal, bacterial, pest, or other, had to do with the overall health of the growing medium, moisture, nutrient and mineral make-up in the mix, leaf or plant debris and presence, etc., all make a plant/garden more or less susceptible to infections of a WIDE VARIETY of types.

That info they shared with me helped to change my view of what was causing harm or problems to my girls.

Good luck.

And again, the grapefruit tree we had that was infected with root aphids, looked FAR worse, re. symptoms, than the 2 plant pics you posted that I viewed yesterday or so.

Pues yo creo que es un virus.

Lee lo último de principiante8,

ballplayer 2 said:

More

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The rubber mats may not be enough to keep the cold of the tiles away from the bottom of the pots. If you'd stack 2 or 3 on top of eachother, it might make a difference.

This could just be a lockout of nutrients because of a cold root system.

Also, leaves are already reaching over the edge of the pots. With larger pots and more soil, they won't run into nutrient deficiencies as quickly.

Lastly the top leaves are curling, which could indicate 1) pH issues (which could also have to do with the cold) and 2) mites.

I would switch over to a medium specific to cannabis. Canna, Plagron, Biobizz. If you're only growing a few plants, Bio Canna Terra is probably the best and easiest medium out there. Sungro is mainly a horticultural company. Also they seem to have time released nutrients and water crystals.

From a complaint about Sunshine 4 from 2013:

https://www.rollitup.org/t/growers-beware-sunshine-mix-4-is-horrible.708471/

Just feed the 0.4 EC of high P/K late flowering food, and 0.1 EC of epsom sal (Mg, S), to stimulate root growth (P) and a healthy stem (K). The nutrients in the medium will do the rest. Let the medium dry until the top of the medium is no longer wet in the morning, then water slowly and thoroughly. This prevents overwatering/underwatering. Never add more than 0.6 EC worth of nutrients to your water with this method - the drying out concentrates the nutrients while the medium dries.

Also, plants need 1 gallon of soil per expected foot of growth. A 6 feet plants should be in a 6 gallon pot. In soil growing, plant size and flowering are limited by the amount of soil the roots can grow into. In hydro that's not a problem because roots just grow into the reservoir without resistance.