pests The edema bug finally hit

[mrz1988]

Okay so I water every few days but I've always backed off a lot. My plants are frequently starting to wilt by the time I catch them and water. The humidity in my grow space is pretty average and temps are in the low 70s.

I have a couple tomatoes and one younger pepper plant with edema. I backed off watering further and all its doing is making the plants wilt sooner...

My leaves are beginning to yellow and the affected plants look sickly. I definitely need to re-pot them is that possibly the cause? Or is it possible these guys were just predisposed to issues?

Thanks for the tips.

 

[spongey600]

Please post pics

 

[Pr0digal_son]

If I remember your glog correctly you live in two different places that are far apart? I am in the same boat. I know very little about growing but I had some edema too and think maybe I understand what happened to me. I keep my plants on the dry side but being as I can spend 4 days away from them every week I try to make sure they have enough water to get by. What happens is I water them when they dry out but I always have to water them a tiny bit in a day or two in order for them to make it til I get back to town. Multiple watering before plant completely dries out? Could that be a culprit. I use a fan quite a bit now,and I have timed their watering better. A full proper watering and a full dry out period. No more edema. Went away as quick as it came.

 

[mrz1988]

Yeah I have a kind of crazy schedule, going to school an hour away from my plants and working on the weekends where my plants are. I have beds at both locations so I sleep at school tuesday and thursday nights and try to be with the plants the rest of the time. My soil seems to hold water well but I water my larger plants once per week and smaller ones twice per week. The smaller ones dry out crazy fast.

As for right now the pepper plant is wilted and I'm going to water it right now. I'll post pics once it pops up again. I'm honestly just thinking of scrapping that one since I have 3 other seedlings of that variety and ALL the rest of my chile plants (five dozen+) are doing fine. I just think it's weird because this is an annuum variety which usually aren't as picky about watering.

This is also the first year I've done tomatoes and haven't paid as much attention to them as my chiles. I've grown so accustomed to growing one plant type that I forget they don't all grow the same . My chiles love to just be left alone to do their thing.

Anyway I'm off to buy some soil. I have to pot up the problem plants and some others as I think that's at least half the problem. They're all far too big for their containers at the moment.

 

[Maxsack331]

I had to take my mom's tomato plants out of the grow tent because it was way to humid for them, if there is any water/moisture at all on the sides, then there is your problem, what is the humidity in there, and where did you measure it, because I thought mine was OK, and then I actually put one of those little humidity and temp with a high/low memory in there on the top of my larger Bulgarian Carrot (put it into a 3gallon pot, has chips on top of the soil, and I stick it right on top) and so I assume the humidity might be slightly higher there than right under the lights, but it gives me a good idea, and the temps are slightly lower since, well now the other plants are beginning to shade it a little.

but anyways when the lights are off, no mater how much I kept the fans on and vented it with the exhaust fan (had it on every other 15min) the humidity was still pretty high, like 80-90% if not higher, but it was just able to keep the moisture off the walls. So now I just have the top front zipper of the grow tent open all the time, it gives a good.. 6" on the top for air to circulate all the time, and the temps don't change too much. and I have a fan on all the time when the lights are on, and another oscillating fan on for 15min once an hour, and a little more when the lights are off + the exhaust fan for 15min every hour when the lights are off, and once for 15min every other hour or so, maybe a little more with the lights on.. but even the Congo Trinidads are doing much better, and they were giving me edema like crazy no mater what I did, they just tend to try out a little faster, I guess they just transpire water through their leaves faster than most.

but that solved my issue, and my plants had pretty bad edema, and the annuums were the ones to first go.. so I think a combo of temps (even if the thermometer doesn't say it's that high, it depends on where it is) and the high humidity in there without being able to circulate "fresh" air, because even when it's really hot and humid outside, and in the tropics.. they still have "new" air to replace and circulate what is around them when they are outside..and the annuums are not as adapted to that.. which is why they went first for me also... and the tomatoes went much earlier on lol, but are doing great now, I just haul them in and out of the mini green house now, and leave them next to windows that face East (which isn't great but oh well, the south facing windows are all filled up with other plants, and my seedlings lol)

oh and last thing, I have noticed that when I let the plants wilt, which I know a lot of people like to do as a factor, but I read and have noticed that letting them really really dry out and then watering them a lot can also aid the edema.. so I have been trying to water them only when they are dry, but right before they wilt, and still have a tiny bit of weight to the pot, but not bone dry, and now i have to pick each pot up before i water them because depending on where they are in the grow room, and their size ect.. will determine how much water they are using ect... it's a pain, but I think I finally got the hang of it, and they are doing awesome now

 

[mrz1988]

Thanks man. I think my fan just wasn't enough for them and I think the air isn't circulating enough. I looked harder at my plants and sure enough, more of them are starting to develop symptoms. They're getting bigger and the air is getting more humid every day as we push toward spring. I think air circulation is more of a problem than humidity though, as I don't control humidity in my grow area and it isn't closed off much from the rest of the house. I'm going to get an oscillating fan today because the fan I was using just wasn't cutting it. The plants at the back of the grow area seemed to have it the worst.

 

[Maxsack331]

yeah, I just think of humidity and bad air circulation kind of similar, at least in the way that bad air circulation will cause edema with lower humidity than it would otherwise, and I wasn't sure what kind of setup you had, I haven't looked at the glogs too much.

but for a fan, the Lasko 18" oscillating fan, the one without the remote and everything, at Lowes or Home Depot, and maybe walmart is pretty good, that's the one I got for $27 about, and works great, it is a little strong and I have a dimmer attached to it that I already had for my snake cage heat mat, but it gets better use for the fan, but anyways I just set it to the height right above the plants, so when it blows, it just moves the tops of the plants around, and doesn't blow the leaves around too much, has helped a lot

and no problem and good luck!.. the weather says that around sat the lows should be 40s and higher, some nights in the 50s again, so hopefully it stays like that, and gets consistently in the high 40s low 50s at night! that weather by May 1st would be awesome, just need to find some truckloads of cow poo around here lol and more importantly figure out when my boss will get the sand/salt spreader off his truck so I can borrow it!

 

[patrick]

If your leaves are yellowing and the plant is dry enough to wilt your roots may be rotting. May want to repot those particular plants and remove as much of the dirt as you can. Pay attention to the color of the roots too. White is good, brown and slimy isn't.