Yellowing and webbing from spider mites in protected capsicum and cucumber, identification and control.
5 जवाब
Two spotted spider mite shows as fine pale stippling on the upper leaf, with tiny mites and webbing on the underside, and it builds fast in the warm dry conditions of a polyhouse. Scout the lower and middle canopy twice a week with a hand lens because populations explode before damage is obvious. Raise humidity and remove badly infested leaves, and consider release of predatory mites where that service is available. If you spray, acaricides with different modes of action are used in rotation so resistance does not build, but you must follow the product label, the pre harvest interval and local KVK advice; do not repeat the same molecule. Get the chemical confirmed locally because mite resistance patterns differ by area.
In my polyhouse mites always start near the door and corners where it is hottest. I now scout those spots first and spot treat early, which saves a lot of spray.
In Madhya Pradesh I grow capsicum in a small net house and the same mite problem hits in the dry spell. Keeping a bit more humidity and not letting the crop go water stressed slowed them down for me.
A tip that helped me: wash the underside of leaves with a plain water jet early when numbers are low. It knocks down a lot of mites and webbing before I even think about an acaricide, and I always rotate molecules as the team said.
I found scouting twice a week with a hand lens is the part most people skip. By the time you see stippling from standing height the mites are already heavy, so a quick look under a few middle leaves every few days has saved me one or two sprays a season.