So I have several citrus plants in pots and a few of them are showing some strange leaf discoloration. It is not a matter of under-fertilizing. Impacted trees are not growing new leaves. Old leaves are kind of splotchy and faded. Can be like half the plant. No webbing seen but maybe spider mites? Attaching a couple pictures.
It kind of looks like spider mites. There should be the webbing if that’s the issue. But what you need is a good hand lens to look for the little buggers up close. With my hand lens I can see the two spots on the two spotted spider mites.
In the past I’ve used horticultural oil or another miticide. This year I’m trying a regular spray with a high pressure stream of water. It’s too soon to know if that will do the job. Right now, I’m spraying the water twice a week in my greenhouse. If the mites show up, I’ll increase that to everyday.
Hi there,
You could try watering and/or spraying them with black tea or coffee. You can put the steamed tea leaves or coffee into the soil as well if you want.
I know this sounds weird, but a lot of critters can’t handle the caffeine. Worst case the plants will get a ‘tonic’.
This is my first action if I see/suspect any critters in my plants.
Worked well on many species of plants for me, indoor and outdoors: phaleanopsis, ivy, perlagoniums, chillies, lettuce, basil etc
Check the underneath side of the leaves.
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I used a hand lens and it looks like there are spider mites (reddish brown ones) there in relatively significant numbers. I sprayed with a 70% alcohol solution on top and especially bottom of leaves. I did see several of these elongated white guys running around. Does anyone know if this is a good guy? If so, I might hold up on neem oil which is my next step otherwise.
