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[TBM]

I recently bought a couple of cacti and succulents from a local greenhouse (none of them were labeled what species they are), and one of the things that I didn't notice until after I brought them home was the fact that they were covered in a layer of dust My question is: What is the easiest method to remove dust off of a plant? I've already tried to remove most of it by misting it heavily and wiping the plant with a Q-tip and a tissue, but after the plant dries I can still see dust that isn't coming off, that and I'm afraid I'll end up breaking leaves off trying to remove the dust using that method.

Am I worrying too much about there being dust on them? I'm assuming it's not very good for the plant seeing how it blocks sunlight and likely restricts its ability to breathe.

[EIRN]

pics?

[TBM]

Here's a close up of one of them so you can really see it. The bottom half of the plant is completely green and doesn't have whatever is coating what you see in the picture.

[EIRN]

This can be trichome?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichome

[nobody]

Maybe it is a form of powder mildew, try peroxide.

[TBM]

At what strength? I have 3%, would you recommend I mist it onto the affected plants?

[nobody]

3% should be fine. I would wet a cloth with it and test on one leaf before trying on the rest of the plant.

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[New Wisdom]

That looks like a bloom which is a coating of wax the plant produces.  I wouldn't rub that off if I were you. Looks like it was already rubbed off on the bottom. A lot of cacti produce a "bloom" when they're getting a lot of sun to protect their skin.

I could be wrong, but that's my 2 cents.  Have any better pictures?

[TBM]

Here's another picture showing the entire plant, I had already done a test area, and then misted it once with H2O2 3% before I read your comment New Wiz so any differences from the first pic could be from that.

[New Wisdom]

I would say if it's that hard to rub off of it then it's probably not dust.  What I would do is let it grow more and see if it produces it on the new growth. Just in case it is a wax coating produced by the plant you don't want to clean that off of it.

And I can't really see much from the photos, but it does look like a bloom to me.  I don't see too much of a difference from the first and last picture.

[New Wisdom]

Here's one of my succulents that has a "bloom" on it.  It does kind of look like dust that just wont come off, but it's actually a healthy part of the plant.

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[TBM]

It looks almost like your plant could be of the same family that my succulent is... I suppose it is a "bloom"... something I've never heard of before I'll leave it be and see how it looks after another week or so.

 Thanks for the advice

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[New Wisdom]

By the way, does it have a species name on it?

[TBM]

The only labeling that it had when I purchased it was simply 'Succulent'.

[New Wisdom]

Dang. I'm not sure what mine is. I dont even know  what genus. I'll take a look in my cactus/succulent IDing books for them and let you know. They look like they come from the same genus.