What is this on my Aloe Vera ?? I'm about to chuck it !!!

Hi Guys/ Gals,

I had a friend over this morning and she told me that she has to throw out her Mother plants as they have weird crystal stuff on them. Her plants are indoors in a tent. What she described was a fluffy looking white crystals a bit like rock salt.

I have the exact same thing on my Aloe Vera. I found it on the street over a year ago and I re-potted it no problem. It even flowered this year. I initially thought this white stuff was some type of candle wax from the previous owners.

This plant is outdoors but in the same property as 'the girls' who are indoors. I'm ready to chuck it.

Is it some type of fungus or a virus ? Or nothing ? It's had a bit of routine Neem oil spray so no bugs present. It used to have some predatory spiders.

The camera battery died just as I was taking pictures so I hope it's clear enough.

Looks like mealybugs to me. They suck the sap. Check for eggs. Is there anything on top of the soil that has fell from the plant? When they eat they drop bits of sap and it gathers on top of the soil.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/294223-aloe-plant-illnesses/

Treat by painting the affected areas with cotton ball dipped in rubbing alcohol and paint the affected areas with it. You will have to retreat for a few weeks

The bugs are actually underneath that white stuff. It is a layer they secrete to protect them from predators/environment etc

jpockets420 said:

Looks like mealybugs to me. They suck the sap. Check for eggs. Is there anything on top of the soil that has fell from the plant? When they eat they drop bits of sap and it gathers on top of the soil.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/294223-aloe-plant-illnesses/

Treat by painting the affected areas with cotton ball dipped in rubbing alcohol and paint the affected areas with it. You will have to retreat for a few weeks

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mold perhaps? i dont know but aloe is super thick and strong one of the few plants an alcohol solution can used on with a lesser risk of damage.

i think its mealy bugs too. imo

Well guys !! thanks for the speedy response. I had no idea so I'm glad I've asked. Sounds disgusting and I think I should throw it out. Worried that it may spread indoors.

I can always go and buy a small one for €4 and start again. - Sorry, thinking out loud there.

Is rubbing alcohol the same thing I use to clean the bud scissors with ? Alcohol de limpieza, cleaning alcohol in our words !!

I'm gonna charge the camera battery and take more pictures when I go there later.

I didn't even know we get mealy bugs in Spain, we have enough other critters as it is.

Now I feel sick . Yuk !!

Ewww..that is a gross looking creature for sure...like a tiny ankylosaurus

yeah its the kind you clean with. umm dont thro it out they are pretty easy to kill on the bug chain of things.

How many mm are these nasty looking things. Im gonna try and look later.

microscope small until they fat. 1-4mm http://www.learn2grow.com/problemsolvers/insectsanimals/insectdamagecontrol/mealybugs.aspx

polyarcturus said:

microscope small until they fat. 1-4mm http://www.learn2grow.com/problemsolvers/insectsanimals/insectdamagecontrol/mealybugs.aspx

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Great website. Thanks

I investigated further today by scratching off the surface of these weird crusty secretions and underneath were mealybugs, just like in the picture. Really small, about 1 mm long. I've sprayed them in the meantime. I need a huge black plastic bag to chuck it. Next on my list of things to do !!!

At least they're not in my grow room or worse still in my Mother tent such as my friends got right now. I thought they would have just been an outside bug but no.
A few of my friends had seen this Aloe and all thought it was just candle wax or sap.

im telling you a good spray and they wont come back or you could divide the rootball and pick a clean pup to plants. keep the vera around its a miracle plan.

mealy bugs are low down on the list of troublesome pests.

It needs a new home, bigger pot. I have 2 of them (different properties). The other one has had the pups cut off since the other day. This one is intertwined with several others so it would be hard to separate them.

I like the pot it's in for a Mother plant perhaps. Problem is that I've got some MJ on the other side - about 1 M away.

Will Neem work for now? Or that pyrthrum spray is really strong??

What do u think ?

ps. I nearly got sunburnt today so it may come in handy !!

neem or pyrethrin would work. both perhaps, if its needed.

polyarcturus said:

neem or pyrethrin would work. both perhaps, if its needed.

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Hi, I've got both. I could do a strong Neem solution at 0.5% dilute or a bit less with the pyrethrin spray as it's so strong. I had routinely sprayed it with Neem which may have helped keep them at bay. I'm going to sturate them on the next treatment. Already less present since the last spray.

My 'gardening' friends who have the same in their tent didn't have a clue so thanks for this info, it would have saved them too. They're in their 40's and have been gardening for a couple of decades, and growing MJ for 2 years on a 6 light operation so it was really surprising that they thought it was fungus !!

Been having too much fun catching fungus knats indoors to treat it properly. Like the potato skin trick.

hell yeah im not even a gerdner lol. i barley know what im doing half the time, its just resisting the urge to jump to conclusions.thats main problem instead of acing that moment the key is to experiment a little rather than say fuck it, example,
plants run yellow,so you assume pH, when it was simply over watered for about a month. so they change the pH versus where i would wait several days(i never water when i think things are wrong) to see what happens. theirs gets worse mine gets better. less is more. IMO

lahadaextranjera said:

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It needs a new home, bigger pot. I have 2 of them (different properties). The other one has had the pups cut off since the other day. This one is intertwined with several others so it would be hard to separate them.

ps. I nearly got sunburnt today so it may come in handy !!

Click to expand...

You could easily divide that aloe into 2 or 3 plants if you needed to.....Perhaps just a huge pot to put it in if you want to keep it?!!?!? Also, be sure to feed it the Bloom Formula and not the Grow formula. But be aware that your aloe will grow super-fast, tho! I use it lightly but regularly!! Only 7 drops of 5-10-5 bloom formula per 32 Oz distilled water every other watering and my aloe just grows and grows! The grow formula will often discolor the plants tips. Mine usually turn a dark color so I never use the grow formula.... Whenever I need to sooth a burn or even give a piece to my Hispanic maids (they eat the kind I grow), it's a great plant to have around!

I wanted to divide it b4 but all the roots were intertwined. I could kill/sacrifice the smaller two?? It definitely needs a bigger pot !!

I bet you could just cut it into 2 and re-pot it in some nice organic soil and it would survive just fine. Just get some heavy duty scissors or garden tool(s) and cut it it right in two! Then put each one in a nice big pot with fresh dirt! Then soak it with water and your off to a new start!

If not, you could trim off a few new plants w/o doing damage to the center of the rootball. Then just re-pot the new ones in small pots and then re-pot the Main plant in a big one! Then soak with water.....

And remember, the bloom formula not the grow formula

its a "rootball" cut the roots to divide it will recover. you wont kill it cutting up the root so long as you do it carefully.