So a friend just messenged me with this question and I really don’t know as I’ve never faced this problem.
He says 10% or so of his crop had spider mites and was wondering if there was a way to extract the material.
I’m use to seeing the pesticide questions but not so much the pest question.
Thanks.
Pests should t affect your end product, it’s mostly a filtration issue. As you said pesticides are a concern, pests are not. I’ve run stuff for friends that was covered in aphids and never had a problem.
I believe you can just do your standard extraction. They are relatively large, and shouldn’t contaminate the extract, especially if it is cold enough and you use filter paper.
I’ve helped growers up here in Maine save harvests to go to distillate. First thing to do before harvest is use a water hose (70-90f temp water) to blast off all webbing and crud you can. Use Luke warm water. Cold water will make trichomes brittle and knock them all off. After hosing the webs and shit off mix up a batch baquacil oxidizer (cheap high concentrate peroxide) use 1 gallon in a 55 gallon drum of water fill it up about a foot from the top. Use a few ladders and place a high flow fan in a manner where you can chop your plant, dunk and agitate in peroxide mix then hang on the ladder, place fan on full blast and blast off the water asap. This also works on powder mildew. Skim the top layer of shit that accumulated on the water for each dunk. The flower after this should not be used as flower. This is effective for making crude only. The peroxide oxides very fast this will not leave any residuals. Don’t use lemon juice or any of that stupid shit the boards say to use
Gross… your so gonna have mite guts in yo shizz… jk but not really… wash it blast it and SEND IT!!! lol let us know how it taste…
I wouldn’t be shocked if half the carts on the black market coming from out west were made from mite infested plants
FucKing mites… got them once and shut my whole shit down. My homies was like fuck that… roll with it. . I couldn’t smoke it. I was so grossed out… I couldn’t sell it conciously… we had a bon fire out back… that night and for weeks after neighbors were giving me either at a boys or fuck you looks… took me 4 months to get ramped back up…
Just like food man, it’s always easier to trust if you know the source. My carts are always my grow or my partners. All organic grown, natural pest remediation (lady bugs, predatory mites, predatory nematodes), we mostly use old sticks, stems, fan leaves,and alph-alpha to feed the worms.
Get some purecrop1 no residual! kills bugs and mold…use on the day of harvest! Blast as normal
Mites are a soft celled. They have no shell. Most things will kill them, just have to keep up on it and dont let them get to maturity to lay eggs.
Pm is systemic and cannot be removed with any surface application. Its in the plant material itself.
Pm molicule is 3 to 11um so you need to use 2um or small to take it out of your extract.
As per blasting mite infested material square root is correct maybe a bit of overkill with the h2o2 water will do fine
i think the debate is still ongoing about PM that grows on cannabis vs other plants but as of now we believe PM is not systemic.
The H2O2 bath is to help sterilize and break up bacteria that can make it through fine filtration due to bug excrement. i havent noticed any ill effects from it but then again i cant confirm with testing that its necessary.
Ill read that. I have done a ton of research on the matter a few months ago when i contracted pm for the first time. And was try to remedy to problem and also not lose my ass on the crop.
Ty for the link
That is the only place i found that state pm is not systemic . Sodium bicarbonate mixed with vitamin d milk works for awhile. H2o2 works for awhile.
They might be rite. I havent seen it pop back up again yet, praying it doesnt but time will tell
There are a few debates going as to whether or not cannabis pm is a different entity than the pm we know of that plagues other fruits and vegetables. As far as flower itself. I wouldn’t attempt to sell flower that’s been touched by the white . Going to distillate is another matter