Can a plant repair spider mite damage ?

Hi guys and girls,

Can or does a plant repair minor spider mite damage to the leaves ?

I noticed some minor white stippling on some of the leaves on some of my 6 week old plants earlier this week. I paid closer attention after a day or two, and did a proper underleaf inspection. Sure enough ... enough teeny tiny white lurkers and some larger brown spots to confirm the mites trying to take a permanent hold. It was a photo <snap><match> for almost every diagnosis page.

I blitzed those little buggers yesterday. Fried them in their tracks.

• teaspoon of Tabasco
• teaspoon of chopped Garlic & Chilli in oil
• 8 or so small Bird's Eye Chillies
• 'zoomered' it up with a hand blender with a little water
• diluted with some rain water into a spray bottle

I misted well, top down and bottom up.

Today, things are looking remarkably better ... to the point where I am a little pleasantly surprised.

I can hardly find the white stippling. Admittedly, it was superficial marking on the leaf surface - I caught it early enough before it was anywhere near actual holes through the leaves.

Did the plants repair their leaves ?

Is that possible ?

It's been a good grow day since the treatment - 30 C / 86 F - and long daylight hours - 05:30 - 20:00.

Could that account for new growth as leaf repair ?

It's nothing that is worrying me ... no problems at all.

Just wanting to understand what these magnificent weeds are capable of.

Opinions from experts encouraged.
Amateurs more than welcome to speculate.

TaoRich said:

I blitzed those little buggers yesterday. Fried them in their tracks.

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Oh yes ... I am aware that it ain't over until it is over. I've had enough experience with spider mites to know that they are persistent pests.

I am going to rinse and repeat.
Literally.
Twice.

A rinse spray tomorrow to get rid of the dead and decaying pest bodies
... then a repeat chilli spray nuking the day after

And same procedure again midweek next week.

Not taking any chances.

Do not want any possibility of a spider mite infestation when I get to flowering.

None.
At all.
Nada.

When the spider mites establish; it's first instinct, before sucking the sap from ur plant, is to paint a mural about it's histories and leaders on ur leafsies. What seemed to 'disappear' was most likely the rough draft of their mural

TaoRich said:

Oh yes ... I am aware that it ain't over until it is over. I've had enough experience with spider mites to know that they are persistent pests.

I am going to rinse and repeat.
Literally.
Twice.

A rinse spray tomorrow to get rid of the dead and decaying pest bodies
... then a repeat chilli spray nuking the day after

And same procedure again midweek next week.

Not taking any chances.

Do not want any possibility of a spider mite infestation when I get to flowering.

None.
At all.
Nada.

Click to expand...

Ime with the lil fuckers.... chopped down plants. Sanitized and sealed grow room, even had to make a sanitizing room (like an airlock) before entering grow room. Lol... they left me no choice. Once you get them they're pretty hard to get rid of. That was 10 years ago in Cali though. There may be ways to do it that I never learned. I live in Illinois now. No spider mites here. Lol

Hollatchaboy said:

Sanitized and sealed grow room, even had to make a sanitizing room (like an airlock) before entering grow room.

Click to expand...

Praise Jah that I'm growing outdoors.


Cannot imagine dealing with these pests in a sanitary grow room.

TaoRich said:

Amateurs more than welcome to speculate.


Can or does a plant repair minor spider mite damage to the leaves ?

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I had spider mites, perhaps still do. But this morning when I checked a few leaves I didn't see any.

What does "repair" mean to you? The leaf may stop dying but it's not going back to the way it was before it was attacked. And the plant/leaves/other leaves may even begin to look worse over the next few days do to bites that weren't detected by you, or even a regroup/counterattack by the mites. You pepper-sprayed the mites, they've angered I'm sure.

What I noticed at 25x is there are white and red mites. Then I saw little white dots, red dots and black dots. These dots are much smaller than the mites themselves. The white and red dots are baby spider mites. The black dots are bite marks. I also saw what looked like translucent drops of water. These are spider mite larvae.

I used chemical warfare.

rmax said:

What does "repair" mean to you?

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I realised I hadn't made that clear in my original post.

The minor damage seems to have repaired into blemishes.

White uneven spots have receded.

I'm seeing what looks like 'a healing process's. Not perfect, but definitely a repair and not further decay.

TaoRich said:

I realised I hadn't made that clear in my original post.

The minor damage seems to have repaired into blemishes.

White uneven spots have receeded.

I'm seeing what looks like 'a healing process's. Not perfect, bit definitely a repair and not further decay.

Click to expand...

When I was fighting the spider mite invasion I also had an established PM occupation. Per forum recommendation to combat PM I did sulfur burns.

After the sulfur burns I inspected the leaves @ 25x and that's when I saw the little white/red/black dots. I thought those dots were live/dead mold spores and/or sulfur clumps. Unknowing the dots were the mites left unchecked.

There was also some evidence of webbing along the main leaf vascular system on the backs of some leaves. I thought that was residual PM so overlooked it.

The posters here helped me so the plants are much better now.

Sounds like you caught them in time & repelled the invasion force. Good work!!

Re: original post, your plant may grow more leaves, depending on where one is in growth cycle, but the tiny spots (cells drained of chlorophyll) will not repair.

downhill21 said:

Re: original post, your plant may grow more leaves, depending on where one is in growth cycle, but the tiny spots (cells drained of chlorophyll) will not repair.

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Thanks.

And it's been two months ... so since then I have grown up a little and learned a little too.

Some lessons from the folks here ... and some lessons from daily observation.

Now that my plants are way way bigger and sturdier, I'm not overprotective about every leaf any more. If I see bad damage om some leaves, then I'm happy to trim. Cull the dead, damaged or dying, and redirect the energy to the fresh new growth up top.