Hey guys, did some extensive research and we need your opinion on if were in the right direction with this one...
We took everyone's advice and ripped out the plants that displayed those viral signs and malformities in new growth. Well we took it a step further and dug up the roots to inspect every bit of the plant and soil that surrounded it. Two things we found kinda interesting. Take a look at the roots in the pics. After we cleaned them off, they seem pretty good but if you look close there appears to be some galls attached to a portion of the upper root mass. Its hard to tell if its intertwined with the root or is actually the root. After
farmerfischer info on it being some type of leaf hopper, i looked up pathogens, viruses, and parasite effects that fell in the category of malformities in plant tissues and it led us to this online...
Hyperplasia is the enlargement of a plant tissue due to excessive increase in the number of plant cells produced. Hyperplasia results in overdevelopment in size of plants or plant organs.
Hypertrophy is excessive growth due to the enlargement of individual cells. This condition also results in the overdevelopment in size of plants or plant organs. Hyperplasia and hypertrophy could result in the enlargement of leaves and fruits, and the enlargement of stems and roots.
So plant pathogens and parasitic insects can cause hyperplasia in plants, this is where
farmerfischer leaf hoppers comes into play. We found like 5 different types of "grasshopper" like insects. So do these "malformed growths" popping up in other plants sound like a parasite being transferred from leafhoppers after a lil evidence? Or something else?