Be careful what you spray

Trouble shoot problems you are having with your cactus.
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SnowFella
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Be careful what you spray

Post by SnowFella »

Not everything reacts in the same way it turns out. :?
Noticed some mealies in the back corner of the collection yesterday afternoon and desided to give them a spraying for good measure, to late in the season to go hitting them with a proper soak of systemic. So I hit everything in that corner with Yates Folimat, an aerosol insecticide that I've used in the past with no ill effect....just haven't used it on these plants before.
Got somewhat shocked when I came home this afternoon and found my Lophocereus scottii mostrose looking like this #-o
Image
You can tell where I managed to give it a good coat of spray and what bits I missed, all of the skin that I managed to cover has turned a sickly grey/white colour.
Going to try and hit it with water and see if it scrubs off but I doubt it's going to work, have a feeling it's the skin itself that have marked. ](*,)

Oh well, lessons learned I guess.
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tumamoc
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Re: Be careful what you spray

Post by tumamoc »

It could be worse. At least it will continue growing, and before you know it, that will be the botttom part of the plant. Better yet, one day it will just be one of many stems :dontknow:.
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majcka
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Re: Be careful what you spray

Post by majcka »

Maybe it gets off with cotton stick and water???
Maja

Strange is fun, cacti are funnier!
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SnowFella
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Re: Be careful what you spray

Post by SnowFella »

Tried that just minutes after taking the photo, looked promising when the skin got wet but the marking came back as soon as it dried. A member of another forum, I posted this in multiple forums for good measure, suspects that it wasn't the chemicals that did it but rather that I flash froze the skin by holding the can't nozzle to close as I sprayed. Guess that's just as plausible as the chemical beeing the culprit even though non of the others I sprayed from the same distance show any harm.
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hoteidoc
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Re: Be careful what you spray

Post by hoteidoc »

SnowFella - Really hope it was the 1st theory rather than 2nd! I guess even if it's 2nd you still have a viable stem. Boy, I so glad we ALL don't have to make ALL the mistakes w/o sharing them. ](*,) So many things to continually be aware of! Please show a pic 2 - 3 wks down the road!
Peter
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There's no 12 step programme for Cactaholics...so I shall just have to get some more!!
iann
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Re: Be careful what you spray

Post by iann »

It won't be any consolation but the skin damage was probably caused by the propellant rather than the pesticide itself. These are usually a type of light hydrocarbon like propane or butane. If you spray lightly from a distance then very little of the propellant reaches the plant and it rapidly disappears. If you spray heavily or from too close then this happens. Stop spraying immediately if you see any sort of liquid forming on the plant because that is dangerous. The instructions say to spray from at least a foot away but you can still overdo it even from that range.

This stuff contains Omethoate! Oh to live in Oz, can't find good cacti but can get every insecticide under the sun :)
--ian
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SnowFella
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Re: Be careful what you spray

Post by SnowFella »

So would that be a chemical reaction from the propellant or a physical reaction from the cold liquid propellant getting into contact with the skin?
Have to say I likely got to close as I remember seeing liquids forming on it as I sprayed, quickly evaporating and if I remember my school physics/chemistly that would draw even more heat away.
@Hoteidoc: don't mind if a screup of mine will keep someone else from making the same misstake. The more we know and share the better the chance no-one else will make the same misstake again!
iann
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Re: Be careful what you spray

Post by iann »

Hydrocarbon toxicity is not caused by chilling. Perhaps surprisingly there is no clearly understood answer to what exactly it is caused by.
--ian
daiv
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Re: Be careful what you spray

Post by daiv »

Is this independent to being used in sunlight? In other words, does the same problem happen even if the plant is shaded? I had thought this was a result of sun acting on the oils. Is this yet another way for a plant to get damaged?
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iann
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Re: Be careful what you spray

Post by iann »

Sun makes it worse but you can burn them in the shade. Dry soil makes it worse. It does seem that the oils somehow dessicate plant cells and the results are very similar to windburn or sun scorch.
--ian
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SnowFella
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Re: Be careful what you spray

Post by SnowFella »

The sun had already set when i did the spraying and this plant is in a spot that only gets direct sun in the late afternoon so it cant of had anything to do with that. Noticed the damage before it had got any direct light.
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JeffWhiteDevil
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Re: Be careful what you spray

Post by JeffWhiteDevil »

Sorry about the plant! and I thought it was bad when I washed the blue off a Browningia with Ortho 'Orthenex' spray. :(
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Peterthecactusguy
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Re: Be careful what you spray

Post by Peterthecactusguy »

at least yours is green. Mine have weird red growths on them. I do not know how that plant grows... I will post pictures. Maybe the red new growths will turn green or something..

And yes it is always a good idea when using chemicals to NOT spray them on plant tissues. Photo-toxicity seems to be a huge problem with the oils like mentioned above. It almost looks bleached.
Here's to you, all you insidious creatures of green..er I mean cacti.
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Steve Johnson
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Re: Be careful what you spray

Post by Steve Johnson »

Peterthecactusguy wrote:at least yours is green. Mine have weird red growths on them. I do not know how that plant grows... I will post pictures. Maybe the red new growths will turn green or something..

And yes it is always a good idea when using chemicals to NOT spray them on plant tissues. Photo-toxicity seems to be a huge problem with the oils like mentioned above. It almost looks bleached.
Yep, been there, done that. When I got my new collection going last June I did an Imidacloprid soil soak just as a preventative. Everything was fine, then 2 months later I thought I saw a few mealies on my Stenocactus multicostatus. I was using an insecticide-miticide-fungicide spray with Neem oil for my Habanero plants. Been working well for the Habs over 5 years, so I thought "well, that should be safe for the Steno". Wrong. The plant started showing orange spots in a few days, it was completely orange in a week, and after some more time went by the Steno was obviously dead -- phototoxicity. Learned my lesson there, and an Imidacloprid systemic is the only thing I'll use on mealies. As to spider mites, I've never had a problem with them, but if I do, I'll never use anything oil-based on cacti. Speaking of...

Ian has stated elsewhere that alcohol is effective. However, he was referring specifically to false spider mites at the time, although I believe it would apply to red spider mites as well. I also believe alcohol will not produce a phototoxic reaction, which would be a plus in spraying for mites. I'm not completey certain about that, though, so I've asked for confirmation about this several times. No response yet, but I'd sure appreciate getting an answer one way or 'tother. By the way, I'd be spraying cacti with alcohol out of direct sunlight. Since it evaporates quickly, I can see where it would have a definite advantage over oils and soaps given their residual effects.

@JeffWhiteDevil -- yes, I'm having fun with my cacti. Doesn't mean that I shouldn't worry a little bit and anticipate problems beforehand. Better that than let those problems get the drop on me as I go "what the f*** do I do now?" With that said, I confine myself to anticipating things that can be reasonably expected.
If you just want photos without all the blather, please visit my Flickr gallery.
My location: Los Angeles, CA (Zone 10b)
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JeffWhiteDevil
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Re: Be careful what you spray

Post by JeffWhiteDevil »

I don't thnk you can go wrong using Imidacloprid. I have heard negative stuff on the use oils on cacti skin or on their roots but I have no experience with the stuff. The alcohol should be fine as long as you don't over-do-it, I use it myself upon occasion.
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