Everyone loves to enjoy the beautiful bloom of violets. They come in so many colors: red, white, purple, pink and others. The buds of violets can be curly, terry; violets are often two-colored, for example, white with a combination of another color, as in the photo. But in order for violets to be healthy, they need proper care. But, unfortunately, not all flower growers adhere to all the requirements for caring for these flowers. Because of this, violets are susceptible to various diseases. Today we’ll talk about the white bloom on violets, and we’ll also tell you how to deal with white bloom on violets.
Diseases that infect our violets can be divided into:
To make violets less susceptible to disease, you must follow the following rules:
If the violet leaves look like they are sprinkled with flour, then the cause is fungal spores that spread in the room, in the water, after hand contact between an infected plant and a healthy one. If you do not start treating the violet, the disease will spread further. Ulcers begin to appear on the violet leaves, and the powdery coating develops further, infecting nearby plants. Subsequently, the violet leaves fall off and the plant may die completely. Therefore, it is necessary to recognize the disease in time and begin treatment immediately.
Mycelium spores can be seen even when they just begin to appear. Any dirty balls found on leaves should be destroyed immediately. If the disease continues to develop, the leaves turn brown, become deformed and become covered with a grayish film underneath.
If you notice the presence of reddish-brown and light green spots on your violets, this is downy mildew. And if it becomes covered with a white coating, then it is real white dew, which weakens the violet’s immunity.
The conditions for the development of fungus are damp and cool rooms with poor ventilation. Temperature fluctuations between night and day also have an effect.
On violets, powdery mildew appears as a white powdery coating on the leaves and flowers, which looks like it is sprinkled with flour. This is how a kind of dirt accumulates on the plant and near the flower itself. Therefore, it is initially necessary to clean where the pot with violets is located; you also need to periodically wash the pot and trays.
Often, powdery mildew appears due to poor lighting and high humidity in the room where the violet is located. Most often, violets are exposed to this disease in winter.
Powdery mildew can also appear due to excess nitrogen in the soil in which the violet is planted.
To cure your flower from such an ailment, you need to treat the violet itself and nearby plants with Topaz solution. This solution is recommended by experienced flower growers. Usually two treatments of violets with this solution are sufficient.
At the initial stage of powdery mildew infection, you can use the traditional method. To do this, sprinkle the violet rosette with gray powder and cover with oilcloth or a bag. This way we will ensure that the enzymes of the sulfur powder begin to evaporate, which will destroy the spores of this disease. Under the oilcloth the temperature should be about +25 C.
Another method is to treat violets with a solution of soda and laundry soap. To do this, take 5 grams of soda and 5 grams of laundry soap and dilute them in 1 liter of water.
As always, we use garlic, because it is often used for various diseases and against plant pests. For this remedy for powdery mildew, we make a garlic broth, which we initially bring to a boil and then cool.
Conclusion: the main remedy for white plaque, or more precisely for powdery mildew on violets, is to prevent the disease. Strictly follow proper violet care, and your flower will be healthy. And, if it so happens that your flower is infected, then immediately begin treatment so that the disease does not spread further and destroy your beautiful flower garden.
Apr 27 2018
Indoor violets, so popular among many flower growers in our country, unfortunately, often suffer from improper care and are quite difficult to tolerate various kinds of diseases. You should carefully look at your pets, pay attention to the slightest deviations in the growth, development, or appearance of the violet for the worse. Then you will not miss the problem and begin to correct the situation as soon as possible. In this article we will introduce you to common problems in the life of indoor Saintpaulias, their diseases, preventive measures and treatment methods.
Once again, we draw your attention to the fact that the main way to protect indoor plants from diseases is proper care and timely preventive measures.
If everything is fine with the purchased violet and it does not require replanting, take it to a prepared place in the apartment and begin to care for it according to all the rules. After all, it is numerous violations of the rules for caring for indoor violets that become the causes of problems. Let's start dealing with them in order.
If a flower lacks natural light, then new generations of leaves, compared to old ones, grow smaller and look duller. Their petioles lengthen, the edges of the leaf blades bend upward. You should move the flower pot to a windowsill illuminated by diffuse sunlight. In the autumn-winter period, additional artificial lighting for up to 12 - 14 hours will not hurt. Just protect it from direct sunlight and drafts. You will see that the violet will soon recover and return to normal.
Ideally, violet leaves are positioned horizontally relative to the stem. True, some varieties of violets, for example, King’s Ransom, Neptune’s Jewels, Happy Feet, are predisposed to some lifting of the leaves upward. If you have a violet of a different variety, and its leaves suddenly begin to rise and curl, there may be several reasons:
Move the violet pot to a suitable place, well lit by the scattered rays of the sun. If daylight hours are short, provide additional lighting up to 12 hours a day. Then the new cuttings will be of normal size, the leaves will spread out to the sides, as they should be, and the rosette will gradually become beautiful and compact again. Just remember to remove old leaves.
If you analyze the possible mistakes and correct them, your violets will return to normal.
If the leaves of a beautiful violet suddenly begin to wither, and the entire rosette is about to wither, you should hurry up and find out the reason for this disgrace. And there may be several of them:
Perhaps you water it carelessly - water gets on the velvet leaves of the violet and spoils them. Yellow spots also appear from sunburn if the violet stands in the sun. Ring spots can be caused by cold drafts in the winter.
If the edges of the leaves of a violet begin to turn black, it is necessary to find the cause of this phenomenon and eliminate it. Let's figure it out in order:
If the buds do not open completely and the violet flowers dry out prematurely, the sin may be due to the following reasons:
If the violet has lost its turgor, its color has become duller, most likely you have flooded it. The root system began to rot and stopped supplying the stems and leaves with moisture and nutrients. This disease is called root rot. The flower needs urgent treatment. Take it out of the pot, free the root system from the substrate, and inspect it. Most likely, you will find softened brownish roots affected by spores of a harmful fungus, which in a humid environment quickly multiplied and scattered throughout the pot. Low acidity of the soil could also contribute to this disease.
What to do in this case? Remove rotten and damaged roots. Treat the plant with Fitosporin and replant it in new soil. If you use an old pot, wash it well and disinfect it (calcinate it, steam it, treat it with copper sulfate). However, if the disease is advanced and the damage is too severe, the mother plant will have to be destroyed. First try to select healthy leaves from a diseased violet and root them, after pre-treating them with phytosporin or other fungicide to prevent and treat rot.
Violet stems are also susceptible to rotting. Most often this happens in the following cases:
The causes of infection can be different:
If your indoor violet lives in conditions of high humidity and reduced to 15–20 degrees. temperature, she may get sick leaf rust. The reason is the appearance of rust fungi on the plant. When the disease occurs, orange tubercles on the upper part and brown pads below are observed on the leaves. As a result, they crack and spores of rusty fungi are released and spread to healthy parts of the plant. Violets rarely suffer from this disease. If your beauty does become infected, treat her with some fungicide or a one percent solution of Bordeaux mixture. Dusting with sulfur dust will also help.
Very young rosettes, rooted leaves and children are often affected by a disease such as brown rot. You can guess this disease by the brown-brown base of the stem, which thins and softens. On the ground under the rosette you can find whitish threads of mycelium. Urgent measures are needed to prevent the spread of the disease to neighboring plants.
To prevent this, for preventive purposes, treat rooted leaves, cuttings or children with a contact fungicide. Don't bury them. Irrigate the area under the stem with phytosporin or similar chemicals. Use loose soil that does not retain too much moisture. Water infrequently, but abundantly.
If you notice softening and weakening of the green parts of the violet, and a gray fluffy coating begins to appear on the surface of the leaves, most likely the plant is sick with gray rot. The correct name for this disease is botrytis. Gray plaque will gradually cover all parts of the plant, and they will rot. Urgently remove diseased leaves and other parts of the flower, preventing them from getting into the substrate. The fungus enters the flower through the soil. Old soil that is stored on your balcony and may have already been contaminated before should be thoroughly disinfected (freezed, calcined, treated with manganese or a fungicide) before use. You should also treat the violet with one of the fungicides (Skor or Fundazol according to the instructions). If you delay treatment, the affected violet will die.
To prevent this disease, it is extremely important not to spray plants in the cool season, not to allow air humidity to be too high, sudden changes in temperature, not to overwater the flowers, not to allow water to stagnate in the pan and condensation to form in the greenhouse during propagation (rooting).
If you find something that looks like flour on the violet leaves and flower corollas, most likely the flower has been attacked by powdery mildew. This is one of the most common fungal diseases of indoor violets. Typically, infection of Saintpaulia occurs through fungal spores in the soil.
Powdery mildew most often affects weakened plants:
For preventive purposes, protect such plants from sudden temperature fluctuations, water them properly, and use fertilizing on time. Wipe the flower leaves occasionally with a slightly damp cloth, wash the pot and the tray underneath. Ventilate the room.
If you still find traces of powdery mildew on the violet, treat it with the fungicide benlat or foundationzol.
If you notice brown, drying spots on the leaves, which, as the disease progresses, begin to spread to all parts of the plant, most likely your violet has developed late blight. The cause is fungi that penetrate the violet’s body through microcracks in the leaves and roots. As a result, the root collar begins to rot and the leaves become covered with brown spots. The affected tissues undergo necrosis, the rosette withers. Even after watering and fertilizing, the elasticity of the foliage is not restored.
It will not be possible to save such a flower. If the apical part of the rosette is not yet damaged, try cutting it off with a clean tool and rooting it, just be sure to treat the cut with an antifungal drug, removing all tissue affected by the disease. A healthy cut should have a light green tint. You can also choose healthy violet leaves for rooting, and destroy the rest of the rosette along with the soil. After each cut, dip the tool into a glass with potassium permanganate or alcohol. For prevention, treat all plants adjacent to the diseased violet with phytosporin. Fungal spores can live in the soil for quite a long time, so be sure to treat the flower pot well with copper sulfate or another fungicide.
If you notice that the roots of the violet have begun to rot and soften, and then the disease has spread to the stem and leaf petioles, then most likely you cannot save the violet - it has contracted the most dangerous disease of Saintpaulia - fusarium. From roots infected with the fusarium fungus, the infection quickly spreads through the vessels to all parts of the plant. Most of the old foliage in the lower level quickly fades, the stems and edges of the leaf blades become watery, and then die completely. Most often, weakened plants get sick - after flowering, with a lack of nutrients in the soil, and also at temperatures below 16 ° C.
Most likely, it will not be possible to cure a plant affected by fusarium - it will have to be urgently thrown away along with the soil. If you value the pot, disinfect it with copper sulfate or an available fungicide. To prevent the disease, monitor the watering schedule, and also water the violet with a phytosporin solution once a month. Do not plant your violet in a larger pot than it needs in heavy, moisture-retentive soil. Sudden changes in temperature, drafts and watering with cold water are contraindicated.
If during the hot season, usually in summer, the lower leaves of your violet become covered with mucus and begin to die, most likely the plant has been affected by vascular bacteriosis. Urgently cool the surrounding air, ventilate the room, and establish constant ventilation. For treatment, use chemicals - fungicides: foundationazol, previkur and immunocytophyte.
Violets (Saintpaulias), like many indoor plants, are susceptible to various diseases and pests. It is fair to note that if all necessary preventive measures and appropriate care are observed, the risk of injury is minimized. And yet you should know what the most common diseases and pests of violets exist and what methods and means to combat them.
Red spider mite– red dots appear, surrounded by a light cobweb. The foliage becomes deformed and dries out.
Spider mite– brown depressed spots appear on the foliage, as if punctured by a needle.
Cyclamen mite– the young leaves in the center of the rosette are the first to suffer; they become modified, deformed, and yellow spots appear.
The flower is significantly retarded in growth, the stem is significantly shortened, the leaves at the base acquire a gray tint, as if covered with gray powder. The buds become deformed and do not open. When a plant is infested with mites, the foliage curls and has a dusty appearance, and the violets do not bloom.
Treatment:
They often settle on rosettes with smooth foliage and live on leaves or their petioles. The insect has a small shield.
The first symptom of violet infestation by scale insects is the detection of sticky droplets of secretions, and upon closer examination of the plant, the scale insects themselves are noticeable. If you notice at least a few scale insects on the plant, then you need to treat not only this violet, but also all the nearby flowers. Since the scale insect reproduces quickly, its larvae are quite mobile and can infect other plants.
Treatment: spraying with Agravertin
Small insects have the ability to fly and infect all nearby flowers.
Small insects of a dark brown color move on the plant, which infect flowers, eat foliage, white stripes appear, foliage and flowers seem to be gnawed; the appearance of brown or black spots.
Treatment: removal of flower stalks, treatment with preparations: “Fitoverm”, “Aktellik”, “Aktar”.
Tiny worms that live in the soil. They harm the root system of the plant by sucking out plant juices and releasing toxic substances, as well as new growths on the roots (galls).
At the initial stage, it is almost impossible to detect the pest, only when transplanting a flower, carefully examining its root system.
With further damage by the nematode, light green spots appear on the foliage, then they become brown in color and rot. The growing point of the violet dries out or modified leaves develop from it. Affected plants are stunted, weakened and do not bloom. The stem becomes deformed, gradually withers and dies.
Treatment: it is almost impossible to get rid of nematodes, so the only solution is to destroy the flower along with the soil, and the flower pot should be disinfected.
Since the pest lives in the axils, folds of leaves and young peduncles, there it feeds and causes damage. Such bite sites are subject to deformation and pigmentation in a red-brown color. Other plants brought in can serve as a source of infestation with scale insects. When replanting a plant, the soil has a specific mushroom smell, and upon careful examination you can see scale insects covered with white fluff.
Treatment: Treatment with the preparations “Aktar”, “Aktellik”, “Fitoverm”; removing damaged soil and replanting the plant in new soil;
Small green insects.
In violets, the peduncles, flowers, and buds are the first to suffer. Insects suck out plant sap. The petals change, become deformed, and wither. When aphids are abundant, a white sticky liquid forms under the peduncles and on the foliage.
Treatment: treatment with Mospilan and Actellik.
The insect lives in damp places, is active at night, feeds on decaying plant debris and damages living plants.
Insects damage roots and foliage and carry infectious diseases to plants.
Treatment: treatment of plants and substrate with acaricides.
The damage is not caused by the insects themselves, but by their larvae, which damage the root system and contribute to the destruction of the substrate.
When the soil is massively infested with insect larvae, the roots and stem of the plant rot.
Treatment: Soil treatment with Karbofos.
Treatment: spraying with insecticides in combination with Akarin, Actofit, Fitoverm.
Insects living on the soil surface.
Dampness promotes reproduction. They are practically harmless to flowers, but when multiplied en masse they can harm young flower roots.
Treatment:
Soil treatment with Pyrethrum solution, optimal soil drainage.
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The leaves of violets become covered with a white coating, similar to dust or flour, but do not disappear when washed or sprayed with water. Promote active spread: decreased temperature and increased air humidity.
Treatment: spraying with “Topaz”, “Saprol”, “Bayleton” preparations.
Hypothermia of the plant contributes to the development of this disease. lack of lighting and excessive watering. When affected by this disease, the foliage of violets droops.
Treatment: At an early stage, the violet can be saved by tearing off all the infected, wilted leaves. Next, the violet should be transplanted into another soil, after cutting off all the rotten roots. Treatment with the drug "Fitosporin".
It often appears during the cold season, conditions that contribute to its appearance: excessive watering, excessively heavy soil, too spacious a pot, sudden temperature fluctuations, watering with cold water.
The leaf petioles turn brown and fall off. The roots darken and rot.
Treatment: as with late blight. For prevention - with a solution of "Fundazol"
Careless watering (drops of water falling on the foliage and petals) contributes to the appearance of the disease; they quickly turn brown and rot.
Treatment: removal of diseased leaves, treatment with Fundazol.
We hope that this article about what diseases and pests of violets there are will help you protect your green beauties.
And finally, a piece of advice: be careful when purchasing new plants, do not rush to place your purchase directly on the windowsill with the rest of the plants. Wait a while and make sure it is not infected.
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The indoor one is quite capricious, demanding and needs increased attention. Under favorable conditions, it pleases the eye with its delicate velvety leaves and modest, but so touching flowers. But this wonderful plant is defenseless against diseases that attack it and sometimes lead to death.
In order for the violet to feel great, several prerequisites must be met:
The causative agents of the disease are fungal spores that are spread indoors, in water, and through hand contact after touching infected plants. At the first stage of the disease, violet leaves become untidy, as if sprinkled with flour.
If urgent measures are not taken in time, the second stage of the disease begins with the appearance of bumps and ulcers, and the powdery coating spreads more and more, affecting not only the diseased plant, but also its neighbors. As a result, the leaves die, fall off, the plant stops in its development and dies.
Upon careful examination, you can find a mycelium that has not yet released spores, stuck to the leaf with special suction cups. The sheet on which the first dirty ball appeared must be destroyed immediately. Ripe and compacted, browned mycelium gradually deforms the leaf, which becomes covered with grayish mold underneath.
Downy mildew differs from true powdery mildew by the presence of reddish-brown and light green spots, while real powdery mildew is limited to a white coating, which significantly weakens the plant's immunity.
The fungus develops especially actively in a damp and cool room with stagnant air, when the temperature ranges from low at night to sharply elevated on sunlit window sills during the day.
Powdery mildew on violets is one of the most common fungal diseases, which visually fully justifies its name.
Powdery mildew on violets appears as a white powdery coating on the leaves and flowers of the plant and gives the impression that the plant is sprinkled with flour. When a plant is affected by powdery mildew, a kind of dust and even dirt accumulates in the place where the violet is located, near its pot.
That is why the first step in the fight against this disease of violets is regular cleaning of its location. It is also necessary to wash the pots and trays on which they are placed from time to time.
Very often, powdery mildew on violets occurs as a result of insufficient lighting or high air humidity at low temperatures, so very often this disease affects violets in the cold season, especially if pots with plants are placed in the back of the room.
Powdery mildew appears especially strongly on violets, the soil of which is oversaturated with nitrogen, but lacks phosphorus and potassium.
To cure violets, it is necessary to treat the plant and the violets next to it with a special solution, for example “Topaz”. Very often one treatment is enough, but most often the fight against powdery mildew requires repeated treatment.
At the very beginning of fungal infection, you can try using this folk recipe: sprinkle the flower rosette with sulfur powder and cover with a plastic bag. If you raise the temperature under the hood to +25 degrees, then the evaporating sulfur enzymes can destroy powdery mildew spores in the bud.
A good effect can be achieved by treating the infected plant with a solution of soda and laundry soap in the following ratio: mix 5 grams of soda and 4 grams of soap in a liter jar of water. From natural ingredients, you can take grass soaked in the evening, which is then boiled for half an hour, cooled, filtered, diluted in water, and used for spraying.
An undiluted decoction of garlic infusion brought to a boil and cooled can also successfully combat powdery mildew.
The best treatment is prevention. To prevent the violet from getting sick, care should be taken to ensure that all the requirements are strictly met.
Do not rush to place a newly acquired plant on the windowsill next to existing flowers, but quarantine it for at least a month.
Do not keep plants in close proximity to each other. For replanting, it is better to use soil from the forest or from the countryside, take it as far as possible from the city. In a flower farm, greenhouse or greenhouse, the soil can be infected, so it must be treated by freezing or calcining. If you care for the plant with attention and care, it will generously thank you with its beauty.
Be sure to keep the violet purchased (or acquired in another way) in “quarantine” for two to three weeks. If you have any suspicions about its condition, treat the plant with Fitoverm and water the substrate with Fitosporin-M once a week for a month to prevent diseases.
If you use ready-made soil for planting and replanting Saintpaulias, be sure to sterilize it first, since soil from greenhouses, greenhouses and flower beds can sometimes be contaminated. Conduct your own soil collection away from the city, somewhere in the forest. Wash and sterilize old pots well.
The most dangerous insects for violets are nematodes - tiny worms. They usually affect Saintpaulias weakened by disease or improper care. Nematodes settle in the soil on the roots. They often penetrate into the roots and into the vessels that feed the rosette, after which they suck out the juices from them. As a result of their vital activity, toxic substances are produced. In places of damage, swellings and thickenings (galls) form on the roots. The process of the flower’s absorption of nutrients from the soil is disrupted.
It is almost impossible to detect the pest in its early stages. Only when transplanting violets, during inspection of the roots, can the lesion be determined. When there is a large accumulation of nematodes, light green spots appear on the leaves, which darken and dry over time. Thickenings appear on the stem. The growing point of the violet also begins to dry out, and new leaves appear deformed.
To prevent infection with nematodes, we recommend purchasing substrate for your indoor violets only in specialized stores. Be sure to heat the soil you prepare yourself in the oven or disinfect it in any other way, for example, steam it or freeze it in the freezer.
In a dry, hot room, various types of mites are frequent guests of indoor violets. Below are the signs of a tick and photos of different types.
Red spider mite
Cyclamen mite is visible only under a microscope
In an over-moistened and rotted substrate, flies and mosquitoes - sciarids - can appear. Adults are almost safe for violets, but their larvae quickly destroy and compact the substrate, reduce the access of oxygen to the roots, which causes enormous harm to the violet’s root system. However, if there are a huge number of midges, they begin to eat the leaves and stems of homemade violets. Sciarides pose a particular danger to young, not yet mature violets. Their vital activity leads to rotting of the stem and root system of the flower.
To get rid of them, you need to treat the soil with a solution of Aktara or Karbofos (water it). Additionally, you can coat the edges of the pot with chalk to prevent cockroaches. Adults are destroyed by any aerosols such as “Dichlorvos” or “Raid”. If the substrate is heavily infested with midges, it should be replaced completely. New primer should be calcined for 30 minutes in the oven to guarantee. The pot should also be disinfected. In the future, avoid waterlogging the soil.
Aphids may appear on the back of young leaves of indoor violets. She can fly to you from the neighboring balcony through the window, or you yourself can bring her into the apartment with flowers bought in a store or cut at the dacha. In addition to Saintpaulia leaves, it affects peduncles, buds and flowers. These small green (gray or black) insects feed on the sap of the plant. As a result, the growth of the flower slows down, the leaves fade, and the flower petals become deformed and dry out. When the aphid colony is numerous, it forms a white layer of sticky liquid on the surface of the leaves.
To fight aphids on violets, purchase one of the insecticides in the store: Fitoverm, Actellik, Mospilan, Actofit. Carry out the treatment strictly according to the instructions and in the quantity indicated on the packaging. Once is usually not enough to get rid of prolific insects.
Thrips on violets also like to feed on sap. These are small flying “insects” of a dark brown color. They have a wide range of attacks on indoor plants, including eating foliage. Thrips carry causative agents of various violet diseases from outlet to outlet, so they are very dangerous for indoor crowded plantings. You will see their presence by white stripes, brown or black spots on gnawed leaves and flowers. You can try to collect thrips by hand, but it is better to treat the flower with preparations such as Fitoverm, Actellik or Aktara. It is necessary to process not only the violet leaves, but also the substrate. Pick off flower stalks - Saintpaulia pollen is a favorite food of thrips.
The affected violet quickly fades. Its leaves become dull and yellowish. Remove wilted parts of the plant. Treat the plant against mealybugs with one of the preparations: Aktara, Actellik or Fitoverm. It is better if you replant Saintpaulia into new soil, having first removed the remnants of the old substrate from the roots.
With high humidity in the room and frequent waterlogging of the substrate, woodlice settle in pots with violets. Woodlice are tiny white land-dwelling crustacean insects. They look like small armadillos. In moist and loose soil they multiply quickly and damage the roots and leaves of violets. Their presence is especially dangerous for still young, immature plants. In old houses and basements, where dampness prevails, woodlice can still be found today. Perhaps some individuals have made their way into your home.
Drugs - acaricides, of which there are a large number in special stores, will help destroy woodlice from violets. Purchase the appropriate preparation and carry out the treatment (spraying the plant and watering the substrate) in accordance with the instructions.
Sometimes, on the surface of a damp substrate in a pot with a violet, springtails or podura settle. When the owner sees this insect for the first time, he literally freezes with horror - after all, tiny white or cream-colored insects with antennae are crawling in the pot under the flower. There are specimens painted in a greenish or silvery tint. The average size of a podura is approximately 2 mm, but there are also large specimens, up to 1 cm in length. Some of them crawl, others also jump with the help of a special fork attached to the underside of the abdomen. By the way, this feature (jumping) distinguishes springtails from the larvae of other insects - mealybugs, fungus gnats and thrips.
In fact, poduras in small quantities are not dangerous for indoor plants, including violets. They are part of the natural soil fauna. Poduras settle on the surface of the ground, love dampness and readily reproduce in it. Poduras feed on plant particles that begin to rot. We recommend immediately reducing watering the plant. Indeed, during overflow, when water stagnates on the surface of the substrate, forming silt, “uninvited guests” form a mass population and become a problem for both the flower and its owner. Particularly large specimens of springtails can damage young Saintpaulia seedlings, and at low room temperatures, minor damage can cause various infections.
To remove the fungus, you should sharply reduce watering of the plant. Pay attention to the composition of the substrate - it should not contain components that cause the development of fungi and mold: sawdust, tea leaves, dry leaves. Deprived of their usual comfortable habitat, springtails will disappear on their own and will stop bothering your violets.
Another folk method against fools. Place the pot with the flower in a basin and fill it with settled warm water “over the top”. When the springtails float to the surface of the water, you will collect them with something like a strainer.
Regular raw potatoes, cut in half, will help to collect springtails. Place both halves cut side down on the surface of the substrate for several hours. All the springtails will gather on the potato cuts. All you have to do is carefully lift the halves from the ground, holding them with a flat spatula from below, in order to collect all the individuals and destroy them. This procedure will have to be carried out several more times until you are sure that you have gotten rid of all the individuals.
If the colony of springtails has become too numerous, we recommend treating the plant with insecticides. The drug Bazudin is suitable. It is scattered over the surface of the substrate in a thin layer. The fools will probably die within a few hours. The drug Pochin will cause a similar effect. Only its granules should be mixed with the soil. It will begin to act immediately, and in a few hours all insects will be destroyed. You can also treat the soil with a solution of Mospilan, Aktara, Pyrethrum according to the instructions. But the main thing is to dry the soil optimally.
If you find at least one adult violet on an indoor violet, we advise you to treat the flower and all nearby rosettes as soon as possible. Scale insects carry many young ones under their shells, which easily move and disperse. Scale insects can be removed from the plant manually - with tweezers, a toothbrush or a napkin moistened with alcohol (vodka). Then the plant should be treated with a suitable preparation (Aktellik, Agravertin, Aktara). Avoid crowding of plants, adjust watering and lighting
Abundantly blooming violets decorate any corner of our home and give their owner or hostess a lot of positive emotions. We always want to protect our green pets from diseases and harmful insects! But this is not always possible, and it is important to know what to do in this case. We hope that our tips will help you identify “uninvited guests” at the very beginning of their invasion, get rid of them and correct mistakes in flower care that led to this situation.
