pest/disease control

[Pankace]

I haven't invested in any counter measures should things go south with things like bugs or mold. The more I read into the subject the more it terrifies me and makes me think I will fail at my first grow. I plan to keep my grow room clean as I can and running as efficiently as possible, but as I can see, it happens.

What are some good, safe products to get that will nip these kind of problems in the butt should I encounter them? I was walking around in Lowe's and have seen plenty of options in the gardening section. Will these work for cannabis or should I order something that is specially formulated?

[Mañ'O'Green]

Hi Pankace:

An ounce of prevention is worth 100 grams or more

If you have an outside air intake or exhaust put a hepa filter or at least pantyhose on the intake and a bug screen on the outlet and keep them clean. Don't let pets (cats, dogs, rodents etc.) enter the area. If you have a garden outside take a shower and change clothes before entering your indoor garden after being in the outdoor garden. Do the same if you visit someone else's grow, or if they visit your grow make sure they are not transporting a problem into your environment. Clones are notorious for transporting spider mites. I have not grown any clones only beans but I have dealt with spider mites many times over the years. Very difficult to control organically once the get a foothold. I would totally dip and rinse a clone 3 or more times over a 5 day period in insecticidal soap root ball and all before it would ever get near my garden. maybe I am just paranoid about being all wrapped up in a cocoon web with a zillion of those microscopic spider crabs crawling over my eyes nose and mouth sucking the life force out of me wow was that a flash or what?

Don't plant Marigolds anywhere in your yard or house they are a Spider Mite magnet. I was just wondering if spider mites would migrate from your cannabis plant to a Marigold? Just situate a Marigold touching your Cola wait a day or two and carry them out and dispatch of them. I hope I never have the opportunity to test that idea.

Prevent Bud rot and Powdery Mildew, monitor your temperatures and humidity. Learn about VPD vapor pressure deficit; It will help you feel what the plant is feeling based on the water content of the air around it. The plant is very forgiving about heat and humidity throughout most of it's life but when the buds are fattening up do the best you can to keep heat and humidity down - VPD will go up so keep your eye on the reservoir level provide plenty of air exchange and movement. Translation = keep a fan in your tent/grow room moving the air gently over the canopy circulating throughout the entire grow space and keep your exhaust system running.

Ok what if the worst happens mites - Oooh there is that flash again - Lots of off the shelf options before flowering from chemical garden sprays to Organic sprays just look at the labels. IMHO I don't think any of them are actually safe for human consumption organic or not ( the Death Cap and Hemlock are both organic and can kill you!) - insecticidal soap is effective but you need to be vigilant with your application. After flowering has begun anything you do other than eliminating all oxygen for 2 hours 3 times over a 5 day period is going to affect your final product in some negative manner.

Spider Mites, Bud Rot and powdery mildew are not the only potential problems but they are the ones I fear the most. Nebulas great page is a good source of information.

[Gelato]

You should find a hydro store near you and get some good organic pesticides and spray every weekly or if you are very clean, bi weekly. Spider mites are not too bad compared to other pest such as root aphid or broad mites. Buy yellow traps for signs of root pests. When you get your clones make sure you clean them good before they spread and if is also easier.

[Pankace]

Great info guys. Thanks! I'm definitely taking into great consideration an intake fan with HEPA filter. I would just have to figure out static pressure for the filter size and fan and length of ducting so that the outtake fan isn't being overworked.

[Royal Nugs]

Hi Pankace:

An ounce of prevention is worth 100 grams or more

If you have an outside air intake or exhaust put a hepa filter or at least pantyhose on the intake and a bug screen on the outlet and keep them clean. Don't let pets (cats, dogs, rodents etc.) enter the area. If you have a garden outside take a shower and change clothes before entering your indoor garden after being in the outdoor garden. Do the same if you visit someone else's grow, or if they visit your grow make sure they are not transporting a problem into your environment. Clones are notorious for transporting spider mites. I have not grown any clones only beans but I have dealt with spider mites many times over the years. Very difficult to control organically once the get a foothold. I would totally dip and rinse a clone 3 or more times over a 5 day period in insecticidal soap root ball and all before it would ever get near my garden. maybe I am just paranoid about being all wrapped up in a cocoon web with a zillion of those microscopic spider crabs crawling over my eyes nose and mouth sucking the life force out of me wow was that a flash or what?

Don't plant Marigolds anywhere in your yard or house they are a Spider Mite magnet. I was just wondering if spider mites would migrate from your cannabis plant to a Marigold? Just situate a Marigold touching your Cola wait a day or two and carry them out and dispatch of them. I hope I never have the opportunity to test that idea.

Prevent Bud rot and Powdery Mildew, monitor your temperatures and humidity. Learn about VPD vapor pressure deficit; It will help you feel what the plant is feeling based on the water content of the air around it. The plant is very forgiving about heat and humidity throughout most of it's life but when the buds are fattening up do the best you can to keep heat and humidity down - VPD will go up so keep your eye on the reservoir level provide plenty of air exchange and movement. Translation = keep a fan in your tent/grow room moving the air gently over the canopy circulating throughout the entire grow space and keep your exhaust system running.

Ok what if the worst happens mites - Oooh there is that flash again - Lots of off the shelf options before flowering from chemical garden sprays to Organic sprays just look at the labels. IMHO I don't think any of them are actually safe for human consumption organic or not ( the Death Cap and Hemlock are both organic and can kill you!) - insecticidal soap is effective but you need to be vigilant with your application. After flowering has begun anything you do other than eliminating all oxygen for 2 hours 3 times over a 5 day period is going to affect your final product in some negative manner.

Spider Mites, Bud Rot and powdery mildew are not the only potential problems but they are the ones I fear the most. Nebulas great page is a good source of information.

WOW! Thanks for the visuals man..... I feel the same about spider mites.

That's a neat idea about the Marigolds. It'd be like the canary in the mines.

Clones are the number one source of mites and it proved true for me. This last clone I got from my uncle was infected by not only mites but gnats too. Thanks to GWE I won the war. I now have SM-90, Azamax, and Spinosad spray for the mites. Mosquito dunks for the gnats. After a couple days, the numbers of both were diminished. After a couple weeks, there were a few here and there. A week after that, all gone. I've since stopped since I switched to flowering and I plan on discontinuing use of these despite the fact that they're approved for consumables. I just don't take any risks and will have to mitigate any reinfestation as best as possible using non chemical warfare.

I've read that using a clothes steamer wand to kill fungus gnats and their larvae by steaming the media.

For the mites, ice water in a spray bottle supposedly works well.

Hopefully, it doesn't come to this....

[NebulaHaze]

Just to add to what everyone else is saying, avoid roses! They're another plant that spider mites seems to love! One of our readers actually got spider mites once because he bought a bouquet of roses for his wife and it had mites which somehow got into the grow room. Luckily when you get mites from plant species other than cannabis, they're usually a lot easier to get rid of because they're not "specialized" for cannabis like the ones you get on clones.

I'm not sure if you're interested, but I actually made a list of all the different pesticides that are safe to use on cannabis up until harvest, along with what pests each one kills. Luckily for growers, there are lots of safe and natural options that actually work really well, and some of the ones are specialized for certain bugs and work better than the chemical stuff

[Mañ'O'Green]

A clothes steamer wand is not very effective.

If you only need a small amount of soil you can bake infected soil it in the oven @ 250F for an hour and this will kill all living organisms. You will be starting with "Sterile" soil so don't forget you need to add "ALL" of the bacteria, enzymes, mycorrhizal fungi, microsomes etc. to the soil before you start your grow. Start by rehydrating the soil with distilled water. You are doing this so unwanted microbes from your tap water don't overpopulate your virgin soil before the ones you want get started. Add a good quality soil microbe amendment and a little diluted molasses and give it a few days and you're good to go. If you need a lot of soil just buy new soil blended especially for cannabis.

[Pankace]

A clothes steamer wand is not very effective.

If you only need a small amount of soil you can bake infected soil it in the oven @ 250F for an hour and this will kill all living organisms. You will be starting with "Sterile" soil so don't forget you need to add "ALL" of the bacteria, enzymes, mycorrhizal fungi, microsomes etc. to the soil before you start your grow. Start by rehydrating the soil with distilled water. You are doing this so unwanted microbes from your tap water don't overpopulate your virgin soil before the ones you want get started. Add a good quality soil microbe amendment and a little diluted molasses and give it a few days and you're good to go. If you need a lot of soil just buy new soil blended especially for cannabis.

Use pasteurization, rather than sterilization, for soil. This is using lower temperatures (180 F) for an hour or hour and a half. This kills off larvae and most contaminants in the soil while keeping most beneficial thermophilic organisms alive. This practice is widely used in mushroom cultivation when preparing casing soils for a substrate.

If you sterilize the soil it kills all organisms in the soil, leveling the playing field for any and all organisms and bacteria that will compete within the soil. If you're using some kind of myco supplement for your soil (Hydrogaurd, ex.), then sterilization might be the best route.

Just putting my 2 cents in. Who thought my blue thumb would spill over to the green side lol

[Mañ'O'Green]

If you are dealing with known good soil pasteurization is ok but if it is suspect in any way just kill it all then use something like Humbolt MycoMaximum.

[Royal Nugs]

A clothes steamer wand is not very effective.

If you only need a small amount of soil you can bake infected soil it in the oven @ 250F for an hour and this will kill all living organisms. You will be starting with "Sterile" soil so don't forget you need to add "ALL" of the bacteria, enzymes, mycorrhizal fungi, microsomes etc. to the soil before you start your grow. Start by rehydrating the soil with distilled water. You are doing this so unwanted microbes from your tap water don't overpopulate your virgin soil before the ones you want get started. Add a good quality soil microbe amendment and a little diluted molasses and give it a few days and you're good to go. If you need a lot of soil just buy new soil blended especially for cannabis.

I linked the forum post from where I read about it. It seems to work for this guy. I thought it was clever. It was just a thought about alternatives for dealing with pests other than chemicals, organic or not.

[kingfish]

Bugs are an unfortunate byproduct of growing in Soil. No matter how clean your grow room, a new bag of soil can screw things up. Maybe on this forum I can learn a way to prevent it.

[Royal Nugs]

Bugs are an unfortunate byproduct of growing in Soil. No matter how clean your grow room, a new bag of soil can screw things up. Maybe on this forum I can learn a way to prevent it.

IPM (Integrated Pest Management). Won't get bugs if you create an environment they can't live in.

[kingfish]

Hopefully on this forum I will learn how to improve my IPM.

[Boo]

I had a total infestation of white flies in my grow cabinet. Neem oil took care of them for a while, but they eventually won out. Between them and the outdoor temps over 100, I was beaten.

Dumped all the soil mix that I had on the ground and threw it out. Seems the flies started in the bag from the big box store. Now have new Coco, will supplement with Perlite and Vermiculite and use that exclusively. No more soil ( ground up bark to be accurate)......

Good luck, I've got lotsa learning to do, but it sure is fun..... boo