Man I wish I had money for something like that, certainly would have come in handy, do I absolutely need a microscope to see them?. I didn't prune off the unaffected growth, only the growth that was damaged. Unfortunately this meant a lot of growth had to be trimmed off entirely. There is a smalle bed of wildflower type plants that seem to be doing just fine. The rose bush on the hill doesn't appear to have changed and the only other plants in the area are my peppers. As far as municpally maintaiend areas, within a 1.5 mile radius of me are 3 public schools and a small park, as Chase said many public schools in Maryland spray during the summer. Regardless I have yet to make an official diagnosis, but I figure once I see how the new growth reacts when it comes in I can reasses for the cause.queequeg152 said:wait, you pruned off the uneffected growth?
you cannot rule out mites. not untill you check them at a proper magnification.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004QF0A1Y/ref=ox_ya_os_product_refresh_T1
i use that to identify mites personally. i can image them, and email photos if i need to for proper confirmation. if you are not interested in taking photos, look for jewlers loops.
i think you need like 12x to 24x magnification at least.
the 2,4-d hypothesis is a poor one given that only the newest growth is effected. its well known that mites will attack the newest growth first given that its the softest and newest parts of the leaf tissue they go after. only when you have a full blown infestation will you see damage all all of the plant.
do you have ANY other plants in the area? any flowers, toms, any dicot should be veunerable to 2,4-d. pesticide drift will not just sneak into your yard, and target one or two plants.
ask your neighbors if they sprayed. do you live close to any municipally maintained medians or grassy areas? does the city or state maintain any grassy right of way near you?
sometimes they spray from vehicles into roadside ditches etc to kill trees etc.
however, the above folks are usually very professional, and rarely atomize 2,4-d. its usually the idiot homeowners that dont want dandelions in their front yard that do this.
I still have all the pruned growth in the trash can, but without the proper magnification in the first place I'm not sure it's worth digging through to re-examine lol! Are there any other methods for checking for broad mites?dash 2 said:
2,4-d tends to only affect new growth. It is localized to areas of new growth by the plant's vascular system. Also, being a growth regulator, it is expected that it will only show affects in areas of cell division and differentiation.
Atomization of these chemicals is almost never the issue with drift. 2,4-d has a high vapor pressure and volatilizes very easily. It is these vapors that can travel long distances still affect plants.
I'm not sure why some plants are more susceptible to damage over others, but that is the case. Last year the only plants on my property that showed any damage were my peppers. This year the pepper damage was worse, and I also saw damage on my tomatoes. Maybe some plants have the ability to metabolize these chemicals, or maybe some are more impervious than others. I dunno. Either way, it is very unlikely to see uniform damage on all plants in an area.
Having said that, you are correct that the best course of action would be to first determine whether mites are present and go from there. If broad mites are the cause, simply pinching off the affected growth probably won't be enough to stop an infestation. Plus, confirming the presence of mites will no doubt be much more difficult if all the heavily infested shoots have already been disposed of.
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