Under the microscope: normal plant biology vs eggs?

i got a (really crappy) microscope to check for bugs post broad mite infestation. the tents have been dark for 3 weeks. i have seedlings going and i’m checking for bugs and now see things everywhere. can someone tell me if these are normal? the russet mite eggs look like these but with white dots on them. i don’t think i’m seeing white dots but this scope is bunk and won’t focus any better and the res is poor. i’ve never looked at a normal plant through a microscope before so don’t know what normal looks like. these might be normal resin glands? these are seedlings.

ps i’m trying not to freak out.

1.2 scope2

1.2 scope

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Kiddos for being vigilant!

My impression is that these are normal glandular trichome heads. Part of my reasoning is the uniform spacing; insects tend to deposit eggs in tight clusters.

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the russets don’t unfortunately.

do baby seedlings have trichome heads this early?

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I have noticed a similar number of trichomes on my seedlings, though that dark bit in the second photo looks strange. A bit of dirt, perhaps?

Give me a few minutes and I’ll get a pic or 2 from my current seedlings.

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ya probably dirt. thanks for checking. i’m over here contemplating burning my house down.

should clarify. you are right, they are clustered, but the cluster IS the single blob. they drop these clear blobs with a bunch of eggs in them. the blobs, from my observation, don’t get clustered together. or if they are, you’re 1000x screwed :slight_smile:

Not the clearest pics, and my magnification isn’t as good as yours, but it is clear that the leaves are already loaded with trichomes.

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I’ve seen trichomes on new plants. If you at picture at lights out with a flash, they should show up. It’s not a lot, but enough to count.

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thank you thank you thank you thank you. putting my matches away (at least for a few days).

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Please don’t burn your house down lol

sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do…

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Hey, what was the verdict on these? Are they eggs or trichomes/sap? I’m am seeing the exact same round things everywhere on my plants but nothing crawling. Thanks!

i think it’s normal. it’s weird cuz some of my plants are totally clear but most of them do have them. sorry not a totally concrete answer but they can be normal. if you see any potential damage, i’d keep looking for critters.

I wanted to add something about my experience. I recently saw that one of my plants was growing all twisted. I found this section about pests and I also had a crappy microscope. It’s chinese, cost little and was only 1000x. I have found a way to make it more useful. I put a relatively thin piece of glass that was in a small picture frame over the leave so that I could focus better. I was able to get a much clearer picture. One two different leaves I found images that were moving! Eeek, must be broad mites. So my three plants are all infected so I’m going to have throw them out, sanitize the hell out of everything and start over. Lesson learned. I had a clone outside near cooking types of herbs and it must have gotten infected with no visible symptoms and I brought it inside.

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I hope that this uploads a photo of the little bastard. It’s in the center of the frame.1-Tue Oct 19 08-55-19

Joe

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Welcome to the community @joeboy

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sorry to hear, but like everything, it’s a learning experience. any time i get clones now i’ll dunk them in Dr. Zymes, keep them separate for a few days, microscope, then dunk again. NOTHING goes outside ever. but i know i’m in the minority, others do it just fine.

i can’t quite tell what you have there but if you need 100x to see them and they’re clear, they could be broad or russets and safest thing is to just start over as you’re doing, which super sucks but i’ve been there. with the rounder clear mites, they’re more easily identified by finding their eggs, which are clear with little white dots on them. i also periodically buy predator mites and let them patrol to prevent issues. i just got rid of a small spider mite outbreak with predators only. at least i hope i did… i’ll still need to get another round of predators to bat cleanup and won’t get slack on ordering them every few weeks again.

Thanks for the feedback. Since I in europe I’m not sure if I can find Dr. Zymes but I’ll check with the grow shop and also about predatory mites.

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