Perpetual Indoor/Outdoor Grow Journal #29: Gals go deeper into flowering while I'm fighting spider mites

in cannabis •  7 years ago 

It's been 4 weeks since my plants started flowering, so the stretch is over, and they're filling up. But I have to keep fighting the mites, which I keep under control with daily inspections. Otherwise, they do reasonably well

Spider mites have just started laying eggs under the bottom leaves - they hate bright light, they're after dark spots - so I took the gals out from the tent to check them thoroughly from top to the bottom... and I removed every fuckin' leaf that had eggs underneath!

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Sensi Star is probably the most beaten up plant I've ever grown, cause she's a pest magnet unfortunately. I've treated her with 3 different homemade insecticides so far, and I keep spraying her with water, which took a toll on the foliage. My objective here is minimal. I want her to finish the cycle, and never see her again 😝

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White Querkle is the real deal. She flowers like a champ, has a very pungent smell, and frosts up exactly like White Widow. She actually looks a lot like a sativa genotype of her famous mother with these spearheaded colas. She's supposed to be ready in 9 weeks, so 5 weeks left for her!

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And my small Dutch Kush - the troubled freebie - which is doing very well at this point. There's not gonna be a lot of smoke unfortunately, cause the plant was stunted in veg, but there's still a hoping for something special. And the mites haven't touched her so far, which is a good thing. Not great trichome production, but we'll see what happens in a week or two.

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💨 💨 💨

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Plants look tasty

I knew those mites were still hiding! They are little cockaroaches!

I’m hesitant to spray anything for the mites as I don’t want to hurt my beneficial bugs. Seems there is a decent balance now in my bed, the mites are leaving my new transplants alone & ive been seeing a mantid patrolling the box. They tend to pop up in waves, just when you think they’re gone, mite tsunami

It was a totally new issue for me, man! I've been growing for 15 years both outdoor and indoor and I never saw a fuckin' mite! But I heard a lot of stories from my buddies at 420, so I was very swift in battling them. I started from baking soda solution, which just burnt my plant and it stopped them for maybe 2-3 days.

Then I went with garlic, stinging nettle and habanero spray, which didn't work well either. After that it was my friend's recipe: sugar and hydrogen peroxide diluted in water. I was supposed to spray 3 times, but when I saw that it didn't work after two applications I dropped it.

What really has worked great so far though was inspecting both plants daily and washing these suckers off with cold water. Finally I got to the point when adults have started laying eggs, so I picked all these tiny leaves yesterday and today and then I used cold lemon wash to get rid of the remaining ones. And I'm happy to say the population has dwindled down by 90%!

In the meantime I ordered a pyrethrin, a safe, organic extract that kills mites on contact, but it breaks down in 3-4 day tops, so you can spray it in flowering without any problems. It'll be sprayed tonight!

You’re lucky to have gone so long!

I’m scared of pyrethrins, I prefer smoking mite poop 💩

You know I'm paranoid about insecticides too, so I do a thorough research before buying anything and I make sure I buy natural, organic thing. Pyrethrins are certified both in US and EU. Breakdown time has been studied and the molecule is non-systemic and it's gone completely after 3-4 days tops. The reason why I can't let them reproduce is they're extremely quick and SS is too weak genetically to defend herself against this infestation. I want to have it over with ASAP!

One of my neighbors once gave me a sample of his weed. Worst smelling weed ever, he soaked them in some sort of pyrethrin based solution to the point that you could smell more pyrethrin than weed. I kept that bud around to show people & that stink never went away. He may have been using a chemical laden version but made me even more resolved to stay away.

Are you gonna treat all the plants? I’d be curious if you notice a difference between treated vs non.

Would be cool to get protection from planting chrysanthemums as companions

I just treated SS, she's the culprit here! And I'm gonna wash her off with water tomorrow. She's just thrown a few nanners btw! I wish she was already done!

Bugs... can't live with em, can't live without em!

I've never encountered mites (as a problem) yet. Had my battles with thrips though! Sounds like you got em under control. There's a pretty good all natural pesticide called Big Time Exterminator. Could also give neem oil a try in the future. Neem is a great preventative if used early in veg, before infestation. You don't want to spray it on flowers though.

I'm pondering neem oil drench after I'm done with the plants. I heard it kills the eggs for good.

Yeah, it's not a bad preventative as well. My friend "dunks every cutting on their first transplant... it's systemic so the plant will maintain some repellent properties throughout it's lifespan, even when applied early.

Hot tip: Order from an essential oils distributor to save tons of cash. Some will have organic certified if that's what you're after. I paid $12 CAD for 1L of pure cold-pressed neem oil.

The clean game once wrote that neem caused cannabinoid hyperemesis. I get some symptoms of it when I smoke way too much weed so I thought it was an interesting comment

Maybe try sesame seed oil

Neem sounds fine. I never used the stuff, but I need a precautionary measure before I start another run... and I hope I'm gonna kill them all to death by then :D

Good luck!