Repotting Cacti into Pon 🌵 and having a bad time when I find mealybugs...
Vložit
- čas přidán 4. 04. 2024
- THINGS I USED/MENTIONED:
Cactus Gloves - amzn.to/3vsvFDd
Semi-Hydro Substrate - collabs.shop/ogjetq
Pon Scoop - amzn.to/3VKNXdo
Aroid Tower Pots - collabs.shop/tdahu0
Liquid Gold Leaf Fertiliser - www.liquidgoldleaf.co.uk/?ref...
Hydrogen Peroxide - amzn.to/3TKqdDw
SOCIALS:
Merch - www.goodgrowingmerch.com
Patreon - / goodgrowing
Instagram - / goodgrowing
TikTok - vm.tiktok.com/ZMeXXopFo/
DISCOUNTS & AFFILIATIONS:
Soil Ninja (new customers can use code 'GOODGROWING' for 10% off all soil blends & components in the UK or EU) - www.soil.ninja/goodgrowing
Liquid Gold Leaf Fertiliser - www.liquidgoldleaf.co.uk/?ref...
Mother Grow Lights (use my link for £10 off orders of £139+ & also works in other currencies) - www.mother.life/GB/shop/plant...
Grow Gang Lights (use this link for 10% off) - www.grow-gang.com/EMMA46848
Predatory Mites (Ladybird Plant Care) - ladybirdplantcare.co.uk/?ref=...
My Favourite Amazon Products - www.amazon.co.uk/shop/goodgro...
MUSIC:
www.epidemicsound.com/music/f...
ILLUSTRATIONS:
by Genevieve's Design Studio - / genevievesdesignstudio
DISCLAIMER:
Some of the links are affiliate links. This means that I might get a small cut if you purchase through that link at no extra cost to you. I totally understand if you don't wish to shop through those links, but know that these are products I love and use regularly!
All opinions and views are my own. This video is not sponsored.
TIMESTAMPS:
My sincere condolences💀Root mealybugs are notoriously hard to get rid of and most things that work on the regular ones don't work on them. Young root mealies are also very mobile and like to escape through the pot holes (especially after watering) to find greener pastures. The only thing that I have found to be an effective course of action is to either cut off all of the roots and reroot the plant after cleaning it thoroughly or soak the entire plant (barerooted) in pesticide and then pot into fresh substrate. You also need to meticulously sterilize everything that has come into contact with the mealies, including the gloves and repotting mat.
🤯
Now I feel I should go check all my cacti and succulent root systems. Yikes.
Honestly, I have a few cacti in PON and I leave water in the reservoir and they all seem to be super happy. I’d like to transfer all of them in PON, but there seems to be a PON shortage. You should use a reservoir for the African milk tree. They actually enjoy being watered more frequently, and since I’ve started watering it like I water my aroids, I’ve noticed a TON of new growth. Looking forward to watching your journey. I’ve learned so much from you.
Cacti are not supposed to grow in peat or any other organic soil in the first place. Nurseries do it because it’s cheap and lightweight. The vast majority of cacti grow in rocky places in very poor soils that have next to no organic matter. I grow all my cacti except for a few specific exceptions in rocks and gravel with small amounts of organic matter deeper in the pot to mimic clay.
In nature, many desert soils have deeper layers of clay that retain some moisture for longer. I don’t use clay for pots because it doesn’t work well and is heavy, so I use a small amount of organic matter mixed with porous rocks at the bottom. The roots can reach there and feed on the moisture. The stem of the cactus is not in contact with it. All. The upper layers of soil in the pot are scoria (lava rock), pumice, clay granules, and gravel. The only exception are cacti with a taproot. They get pure mineral soil all the way through.
Pon is essentially this. The only downside is that pon is a brand and is expensive. You can get pumice and lava rock for considerably cheaper in bulk.
I have about 300 cacti, all in well-draining mineral substrate. In their natural habitat these plants grow practically without soil, with their roots between stones... The only cacti that do well in organic soils are Epiphyllum 🤷♀
Sorry about those puffy beasts; hope you got them all. Thanks for sharing Emma!
well THAT clears things up. I also was confused by your saying semi hydro when you mean semi hydro SUBSTRATE. please keep it up and be consistent. dang mealies ugh..I feel your pain. FYI big fan from very very northern minnesota. isn't it tome for another video with Claire? your chemistry is great..
Cheer up! Last time I received succulent attacked from top to bottom in mealies. I wrote rage mail😅, get a refund, cut what I could and now I patiently wait until the cuttings will grow some roots!
I have a ponytail palm (a succulent I think) in semi hydro with a reservoir, I let it use the water & then refill-it doesn’t go bone dry & it’s doing great! Growing lots of roots & all looks great….so far-been 3 months.
Thank you so much for another cactus video. I'm sorry about the mealies😢
Has me looking over my boobie cactus with a magnifying glass now.
Im with you, i have always either root rotted or dry rotted mine… or i purchased them that way and it just didnt show for a long time. I have transfered all of mine into pon recently (except for one huge one i do plan on doing soon), and they all seem to love it. Ones that used to look shriveled no longer do, and some growth is happening. I did kill one because i tried to transfer its soil roots to water roots (it rotted by sucking up too much water). I did find two were dry rotted when i went to put in pon so i had cut off the healthy part, let it callous and then i was able to grow water roots. I just put those in pon, im hoping the roots will root down and wont just shrivel and die. Ive been watering those once a week to hopefully combat that. I do have a wandering dude in pon without a water resevor and it’s doing really well! I water it once a week or maybe twice. I am wondering if my alocasia corms i have in a two cup method be ok if they suck up all their water before i get back from vacation. I usually have to fill them every 3 days and I’ll be gone for 6!
Listening to you reminds me so much of living in London for 4 years, my Canadian accent mingled with the British accent just like yours! But being back home since 2013 i've lost all of it lol :)
I moved most of my cactus to homemade pon 4 to 5 months ago. All with a water reservoir but using a wick. They drink extremely slowly but seem to be doing fine. I think I have new growth on my Peruvian hag but it's hard to tell because she's a hairy lady 😊. Another cacti seems to drink much faster. So for now no drama... 🤞
Oh sweet Emma 🫣 how stressful!!!
Oh nooooooo! Sorry to see root mealies!!!! Hope you manage to get rid!!!
The cactus/succulent soils I use are basically soiless so it seems that potting in semi-hydro is very similar.
I agree it is very confusing when the semi hydro term is used when semi hydro is a phrase which applies to a growing system not usually a substrate. Now I’ve got my heads around that I can understand things much better, so thanks a lot for that :)
I’ve had root mealies a few times, always on cacti, succulents and hoya. They give me the icks too! I usually clean off all the soil (if in soil) and soak the roots in a neem oil/castile soap/water mixture. The things is that mealies can lay eggs and live inside the root sheath, so you need to check the plant regularly. It’s a good idea to isolate them if possible, because the male mealies can fly and settle on a new plant. They need regular treatments for a while to get rid of them completely 🙂
Does systemic granules work for root meals? I’ve never had to deal with them and I hope I never do. It’s always good to know.
I was told that thrips can live in your plants tissue undetected then they emerge which makes it seem like they appeared out of thin air. My daughter has had to deal with thrips, I tend to have to deal with spider mites and aphids.
Oh and I don’t know if I can get the thought of flying mealys out of my head now! 😖😖😖😖
@@lovesyorkies3395I don’t know, we don’t have that kind of pest prevention in my country. yup, thrips larvae can be dormant in soil and in leaf tissue. so the only way to prevent a massive outbreak (of any type of pest) is to have a quarantine procedure for new plants no matter where they come from and to check plants regularly to catch them at an early stage 🙂
🤯
@@ronjakh I don’t treat any of my flowering outdoor plants with systemic granules due to pollinators. I treat my indoor collection with the systemic granules which takes about a few weeks (depending on the size of the plant) to work its way through the plant. Treatment lasts for about 3 months. I try and do this twice a year, a spray down with a natural/organic product if I buy a new plant then add the granules. (I always change out the soil after acclimating my new plant) you never know what is lurking in the soil.
I have 3 Yorkshire terriers…they don’t mess with my plants but I am still very careful when it comes to my furry babies.
My sympathies. I have only ever had mealies along branches of rhipsalis and they were easy to get rid of. If you have hoya, be sure and check them as they are notorious for mealie bugs.
Thank you for that video Emma! I bought monkey tail cactus at the end of last year from Conservatory Archives...decided to take a closer look at it after watching your video...saw a few potential white bits on the cactus itself but couldn't see any mealies...then took it out the pot to check the roots. With the help of my microscope found root mealies!!!! Looks like I caught it early, so dunked in hydrogen peroxide mix too. Have just repotted and will add hydro peroxide when I water it for the next couple of times and I hope the cactus is OK. I would never even have checked the roots yet had it not have been for your video! Thank you. Hope yours is OK too!!x
Root mealy bugs are a thing??! Yuck! As annoying as it is, it's kinda lucky you were repotting so managed to catch it???
What you call 'semi hydro' growing is technically called passive hydroponics. 😉
Where I live in 🇦🇺 my succulents live outside all year and they're all planted in pumice, zeolite, sand etc. And they barely get watered monthly - in summer, because of how much water they store, similar to the zz plant. I use a slow release fertilizer designed for succulents because they really don't need that much. I grew several Echevarria in pure sand for over a year with no fertilizer and they grew as well as any of my others.
Hope your babies recover quickly 🤞🏻🤞🏻
I have a lot of succulents and tried lots of things but nothing seemed like a permanent cure for mealybugs until recently. Because they lay eggs in plant tissue they kept coming back.
Diatomaceous Earth is the main solution for me but I've developed my own regime with it. I've only done this with regular mealies, but DE should work with root ones too.
1) Use hydrogen peroxide to kill the ones I can see.
2) Wash plant in horticultural soap.
3) Depending on what is easier either- sprinkle DE all over plant and soil while plant is wet so DE sticks to it. OR use spray bottle with some water, horticultural soap and DE to spray plant.
4) Isolate plant and check it regularly for any new mealies that missed the DE. I check daily for a week-hydrogen peroxide any new ones then reapply DE to that area. Week 2 you can move to checks every other day. If you don't find new mealies you can move to weekly checks. If no new mealies are found for 2 weeks you are done and can wash DE off.
Some sites say 2 weeks of DE treatment is enough but I go with 4 weeks to be sure.
Most importantly wear a mask when applying DE as the particles can get in your lungs.
🤯
I feel your pain.... I got them first time around but it was on the top. I felt exactly the same. My 2 affected plants died as I was naive about how clever and insidious they are ...they hid deep within the stem/Petiole wraps - the bits that wrap tightly around ...and they kept coming back over months despite regular treatments with alcohol. When I finally thought I got rid of them, I lifted the plants and it happened to be a very sunny day ... I saw bods hiding out .... I lost my aglonena cutlass and silver bay. I've never had them before and I'm still more grossed out than Thrips.... Good luck with treating this. Let us know how you get on.
I use a paintbrush to get any debris outta my cacti spikes, it helps to dust them too
The closest thing to a semi hydro mix in Canada I’ve found is Mollys succulent soiless mix, Lechuza pon is always sold out, soil ninja doesn’t ship here yet, so leca is our only option right now, but I love Mollys for succulents, it’s very rocky
Well done dealing with the mealys! Sorry love 🤷♀️ Yuck! Before importing anything else on that infested potting mat you should dispose of all the soil and wash it in case the new plants are clean, you don’t want cross contamination, I’d definitely contact where you got those and let them know
Oh no, root mealies. You'll have to give us an update, I've not dealt with them before.
😭 Sorry Emma
Love it❤
I hope you kept those two cactus.
I hate root mealies.. heres hoping I dont have them anymore 😂 Also you can use 3% hydrogen peroxide "straight" for the roots, no need to dilute it more. Roots should be fine
The noid cactus may be a mammillaria bombicyna
I thought the same thing .. the hooked spikes are a bombicyna thing 😅
😨😐😵💫 ..lets play a game of ‘burn those plants’ hahahaha… am i joking!?! we’ll never know (said in Turbish’s voice)
But seriously ask yourself if its worth potentially infecting the rest of your collection… i hope you’re okay after the discovery!!! & i hope your head stopped itching haha i was like my head would get itchy in this situation too and i’d get real hot 🤢 im so sorry i know how much you love your/the booby cactus!!!
Sending hugs🤗
The "no id cactus" is a Notocactus scopa 😀
Carol Noel, a very famous Hoya grower, deals with root mealies with a 100% hydrogen peroxide flush, and says that she has no problem dealing with them. I'll report back when I eventually get them 🤣
No id cactus are some sort of mammillaria 😉 for mealies I wash all roots like to put in pon and spray the hell out of them with 70% alcohol and pray 😢
Poor Emma. Mealy bug soup 🤢 because of your Video i take a look on my cacti and found mealys too
oh no!!! That really sucks but I'm glad you found them!
Root mealies are the worst. A few years ago I threw away 70% of my collection because of them. Clean the roots off completely and the then use peroxide soak. You have to be aggressive with them. 😢
I don't understand the point of growing cacti in such an artificial way when they are so easy to grow in a natural substrate. For mealybugs, simply water with nematodes or with a little soap mixed in the water.
Hi Emma, what you thought of and treated as "rootmealy bugs" looked a lot like mycorrhizal fungi to me and they should not be exterminated.
They do look kinda the same because of the white fluff but you can see the root mealies moving in the close up video😢
I don’t know why mealies gross me out so much but they do! Sorry this happened to your boobie! I know you love that one!
I see so many plant-tubers struggling with pests, I really wonder about it. Am I just lucky that I've never had any and I've had plants for 20 plus years and alot of them? One plant plant I took in from outside actually did get spidermites twice. But other than that I've never ever had anything
It can be luck too, but remember that many plant tubers have a collection of 200-500> plants and the amount of plants that come in & out the house is pretty big (probably more than you'll ever have in your home). So, the 🌱 tubers are much more likely to end up with pests. (Not that I know how many plants you have, this is just my guess)
🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡
Awe crap... mealies suckkkkkkkkkk
Wait let me guess... Emma has pests...