Spider mite question...aka the Borg

[OlderNOTwiser]

Got busy and forgot to come back with pics.

The entire tent is now affected. I think Han Solo has about 24 hrs or until I rig up a bathing station for it whichever comes first. Or if I chop a bud and its in there it will be curtains for sure. Then I get to try to make it to the end with three bigger girls that are just now showing signs of infestation. One bagseed is just starting cloudy and two gorilla plants are still 3 - 5 weeks out. They may end up early chops and racy weed. Hoping to get to the end though. With everything I've thrown at the damned spider mites all I've managed to do is slow the approach but they're still marching on. The last pic gives me a tiny glimmer of hope. Damage is from tips inward and I'm hoping a trim (harvest) can chop most off at the junction of green and brown and then do the wash routine.

[Rwise]

When you spray, do you spray heavy? Starting from the under side until it runs off good, then the top and buds completely saturated.

[OlderNOTwiser]

Oh, yea! With a tiny plant I step outside, flip her over and spray the living crap out of her. Bottom first and then top down. I then put her in a quiet spot to dry before placing back in the tent. Was it you that said it gets personal after a while? Whoever said it was surely correct. I'm pissed! They're right nasty little beotches!

[OlderNOTwiser]

I need some well reasoned thinkers to assist for a minute. Won't hurt a bit. I promise. I was looking up the formulas for the three bucket bud wash that is once again in my future. While doing that I had what I hope was an epiphany and not a stroke. The alkali bath followed by the peroxide bath then followed up with a water bath to remove the crud from the first two baths both shocks or kills the bugs and then rinses off. With a solo cup plant it seems like it would be easy enough to flip the plant in the cup (securing soil and roots of course) and use the three washes on the live plant. I don't think it would ding the plant any more than everything else I've thrown at her. I don't think I have anything to lose at this point. My thinking is it wouldn't eliminate them but could severely limit them for a while and possibly weaken them to give me time to get to harvest or clobber them again with the dead bug and other treatments. Thoughts?

[peenster]

u can piss around all u want with them sprays, but if u want the job dun with no effort on yer part, git sum ladybugs. 2 days & all plants clean.

[OlderNOTwiser]

Needed to trim the affected and infected leaves and such off and get it disposed of. Part of my intention was to trim as much as I could and get into the green parts and leave what little I could for some photosynthesis still. I ended up doing a wet trim on the whole thing! To my surprise and pleasure there was a very nice little crop hiding behind all of the crispy damaged leaves. And since we put two lady bugs in the tent and they died within an hour they may have been eating poisoned mites. Bad for the ladies but good for the plants in the tent, I hope. Anyhow, this is what Han looks like undressed as it were. That long cola is very dense.

[OlderNOTwiser]

Gonna wrap this thread up for now. If the three grown up plants do okay. If not I'll be back! Anyway, I admit I have murdered Han Solo Cup. I'll save most of the pics for the competition entry.

What I really want to address is the washing o'the bud. Outdoor grows can get dust and all manner of insects and gunk. Many wash the buds/flowers just because of that alone. I've had the "good" fortune of a bad aphid infestation (outside) and now a battle with the Borg (inside). No matter where you line up on the damage the trichome argument I feel I've had no real good choices. This time with so many types of insecticides in play, one of them with oils, and of course the actual bugs it seemed prudent. I hope to have a dry weight for the competition thread by the 10th. Most use a three bucket process as do I and almost all are in metric units. Us wingnuts in the states have to jump through mental hoops doing conversions and such. So, most recipes call for 2g of baking soda per liter of water in the first bucket. That translates to about 1/3 teaspoon when I weighed out the two grams. I used a full teaspoon for my 3 quarts. The next is either lemon juice or peroxide. That called for 10ml. I now know that is equal to 2tsp. And the last is plain tap water or RO or bottled, etc. This is to rinse off the previous two washes more than anything else. Some call for the baking soda and peroxide/lemon juice in one bucket. It seems counter intuitive to me. When you add both an alkaline and acid to the water don't they create a neutral? Depending on relative strengths of course. I did spot one adult aphid in the first wash bucket. More importantly I could see oil suspended on the surface of all three buckets. So I washed them a second time! More plain old dirt than I expected, though. For now I'll just let her drip dry 'til evening and then bring her inside the tent to finish overnight.

[ocgreen]

Sorry to hear about your struggles with this grow. After reading, it scares me to think that I may have ingested some bud that had been through all the sprays and washes that you describe (before I started growing my own). Sounds unhealthy, honestly.

I have been growing for over a year and luckily never had to use any chemicals or makeshift concoctions. I think a lot of my "luck" has to do with preventative measures: keeping a meticulously clean grow space which gets scrubbed down/disinfected at end of each grow and acting swiftly at first signs of problems.

In this case, I think it would've been prudent for you to A) immediately discard the infected plant (or parts of it) upon discovering it was the only one impacted or B) take more decisive (and safe) measures early on (e.g. ordering lots of lady bugs).

Last piece of unsolicited advice is to scrub every inch of your tent and grow space with a disinfectant to prevent recurrence.

[Cali]

Damn I wouldn’t even look twice at buds that have been sprayed with anything. There are lots of things out there that say it’s safe to spray till harvest but Fuck that. The last time I spray anything is at the 12/12 flip or the latest 2 weeks into flower but nothing on my actual buds hell no. That’s why I started growing because I’m sure the guys growing to sell don’t give a fuck about spraying the buds they care about getting payed. No lore dispensary bud for me. I don’t even use bottled nutrients.

[403grower]

If we’re calling spider mites the borg. What are we gonna call thrips

[Willyd]

Has anyone tried mint? my father in law is an old school school grower and he told me he used to plant them along with his girls. I'm trying it just for fun but im using oil in my humidifier.

[Cali]

Yes mint is a good companion plant to grow. I told myself I would grow it in the same pot with my girls but forgot. Look at other plants of the “mint” family as well. They are great pest repellents like rosemary, thyme, and there is more but I forget the names. Great point to bring up. I believe I posted something like it here but not a lot of people here interested in natural remedies (ironic) they want to hear what they can spray that will kill at once lol anything that does that we have to beware.

[Rwise]

One thing 'bout mint, the shit spreads!