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How do you tell the difference from balling or thrips?

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Posted by subk3 7a/Mid TN (My Page) on
Thu, Oct 10, 13 at 23:13

The description of both of these seem very similar to me. I've had some problems with blooms opening this summer--and granted we've had a really wet year--but some of it doesn't seem related to rain and I'm wondering if I've got both of these going on and how I would tell the difference if I did...

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RE: How do you tell the difference from balling or thrips?

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In balling, the outer, thin petals of the bloom stick together and rot to form a casing around the flower so that it cannot open. The inner petals are usually fine, as the outer petals are the issue.

With thrips, blooms often open and blow quickly, showing damage throughout the bloom. If you pluck off a bloom and open it up when it shows this damage, you can often see little flower thrips scurrying about inside. Chili thrips are much smaller, however, and cause widespread destruction throughout the plant including new growth, existing growth, and buds.

Hope this helps!

Josh

This post was edited by JoshTx on Fri, Oct 11, 13 at 11:47

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RE: How do you tell the difference from balling or thrips?

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As Josh says. if there is a thrips problem, you will see lots of them between the petals. Gardeners with poor vision may need magnification.

Balling proper is as Josh describes, but botrytis and alternaria petal-blight fungi can cause other symptoms such as rotten brown spots, pink spots, fuzzy gray mold, and general rot following a rainy spell.

Of course you could have thrips and petal blight on the same flower.

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RE: How do you tell the difference from balling or thrips?

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Take a piece of white paper out to the yard to the bloom. Turn the bloom over the paper and shake it hard, but not hard enough to take the bloom off the plant. You will see the tiny thrips scurrying around on the paper if you have them.

Or simply try a spritz of either Orthene or Spinosad, on the bloom (and only the bloom) both of which can be put directly on the blooms to kill the thrips without hurting anything else. There are no "beneficial" insects that live in blooms.

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