indoor Tiny little white balls on main stem of indoor sprouts?

[Wulf]

No pic, but I'll try get one when I get home. Before leaving for work this morning, I checked on the plants I still have inside (the runts that weren't worth the effort of getting outside yet) and noticed that on at least 3 of them, they're starting to get tiny little white balls on the main stem. They don't seem completely random, going up the stems in a fairly straight line.

My first thought would be eggs of some sort, but these plants have been inside their entire lives, with no back and forth for contamination. I'd expect some sort of eggs on the ones that made it outside, but for the ones in my kitchen to get them first? Seems wrong, and just a smidge icky. Or rather, whatever the manly version of "icky" is. I shall call this feeling "stripper-less".

Is there any sort of pepper-disease that can manifest as tiny balls on the main stem? Any bugs that like laying eggs on stems that are likely to be found in a kitchen?

 

[lilcholo]

Bugs are everywhere...not just outside.

Not saying this has to do with bugs but....

 

[Pr0digal_son]

Are they close to the soil? The plant might be setting out roots. As you stated, impossible to tell without a pic.

 

[AlabamaJack]

do they look like these?

https://www.google.com/search?num=10&hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&q=hairy+aphids&oq=hairy+aphids&gs_l=img.3...2056.4127.0.4327.12.5.0.7.0.0.65.278.5.5.0...0.0...1ac.zG_6RTLN5lE&biw=1536&bih=783&sei=BeD-T7ugJYTe2QXotYDSBA#hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=WuD-T8-AJYHL2QXGmo3LBA&ved=0CEYQvwUoAQ&q=woolly+aphids&spell=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=2352e5c7810a07cc&biw=1536&bih=783

 

[Wulf]

They didn't look like any of the aphids on that search, or a few other followup searches.

They start from around the soil line and work their way up to the first leaves. I guess I'm not really sure what budding roots would look like, but I'd think they're going up way too high, in too straight of a line, for that to be my guess. And they don't protrude enough, I'd think any healthy plant growth would be varying sizes instead of just putting out a bunch of tiny balls.

Too spherical to be any fly eggs that are coming up on a google search either.

I'll see about taking a picture later, but my camera sucks for close-up shots.

 

[Pr0digal_son]

Ronnie you are a legend. I have seen those wooly aphids since I was a child and never knew what they were.

 

[DatilDaddy]

Some of my plants have them to they are most likely adventitious roots trying to set. Nothing to worry about.

 

[Wulf]

After Googling for adventitious roots, that no longer seems as unlikely as I thought it would be.

I'll take a closer look after work with that in mind. Thanks.

 

[queequeg152]

do they look like these?

https://www.google.c...iw=1536&bih=783

wow, never seen an aphid like that before, i wonder how they react to fire.

 

[Wulf]

Poorly, I'd imagine.

 

[Dave2000]

Occasionally if I over fertilized I see a plant weeping out what looks like semi-translucent/white salt grains on the stem. It's not in a straight line, more or less evenly dispersed on stems but not leaves. Not sure which fertilizer component causes it but when it happens the plant otherwise looks healthy. Since I mainly give them NPK, Cal. and Mag. it's probably one of those.

 

[Wulf]

It's definitely not overfertilizing, though thanks for the suggestion. These ones haven't seen any ferts in their lifetime.

 

[Wulf]

 

[thegreenman]

yep advantageous root nodes...

 

[Wulf]

Hmm, neat I guess.

So will those all eventually grow into actual roots that reach down into the soil?

 

[AlabamaJack]

yup...new roots

I recommend either putting more soil in the cups or transplanting to larger cups and make sure the soil covers the new roots...

new roots will develop on the stem up to where the cotyledons were...if you notice, the stem is a different color below and above the cotyledons...