Yeah that looks like a Thrip, probably an onion thrip not that the distinction means much as far as treatment goes.
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For a stubborn thrip infestation that has been ongoing for a little while, soil drenches are critical to handle the ones that drop into the soil to pupate. BT is a great control method for thrip and you can mix in a little Diatomaceous Earth as a soil dressing to really make things pop.
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Has anyone used the X ray
?
In canada most lp’s need to irradiate their product to be able to pass microbial testing, 90% of consumers have no idea.
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Radsource and other Xray technology is great for getting flower past extremely stringent microbial testing requirements. In Canada and in several of the legal states in the USA its basically a requirement in order to pass what basically amounts to a Pharmaceutical standard of cleanliness (IE. Aerobic bacteria counts of 0). As far as its effect on the flower its more or less neglible, possibly some minor drying out of the material but no major hits to potency or terp content.
However, thats the extent of its usefulness. Visible mold such as botrytis will not be remediated by this tech so, although it wont be a live infection, the plant material will still obviously be damaged.
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I’m sure this is a silly question, but if I add predators to get rid of bugs. How do I remove the predators?
They will remove themselves when they run out of food.
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Thanks for the help. I’m really trying to get away from spraying crap on my plants. I started off with a PM issue. Started spraying a “wash”… helped a little. Then I freaked out on some spider mites. Sprayed some goo for that. The spider mites goo and a ton of cleaning seems to have completely ridded my grow of PM. (Thank Ja for that.) But now I keep getting spider mites in my bloom room. Haven’t got any webbing yet. Cut out a bunch. But I have two more weeks before harvest. I don’t want to spray anything on my babies. I’m tired of this and I want to sick predators on my whole grow.!
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If you don’t get predator mites, soapy water will kill the mites it touches and can be washed off immediately. You probably want to wash the buds in water when you harvest, as doing so will knock off the dead mites and various residues. The 3 part I use is alkaline water, acidic water with peroxide, and then plain, all at room temp.
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What are the numbers for your 3 part? I’ve been reading through the thread and found a few good recipes I’d like to give a shot.
I’m not a recipe person. I estimate everything. The peroxide is subjective to how dirty the flower is, and I add more after some use. The first dip in alkaline water will knock off bugs, and that water will need changed faster.
Spider mites are a serious problem in California. There is a theory that big ag using heavy pesticides have created super mites that are resistant to almost everything. I battled them for 2 years straight in the mountains, its their turf, I never won.
One thing I learned during this war was a different take on foliar ipm. I got tired of spraying individual plants multiple times a week and creating humidity etc. So for indoors I would just put a few drops of essential oil near my circulating fans twice a week. Rosemary, dillweed, peppermint, coriander oils in various combinations. My room smelled great and almost all bugs left. After doing this I would rarely get mites and they would not spread much so it was easy to trash a branch here and there.
Just seems way easier to make the entire place smell offensive to them. Not 100% solution but made a huge impact.
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Im going to try this in my gh.
My basic idea is that if it’s in the air it can coat everything in the room to some minute degree. So doing it frequently during veg may create a thin layer similar to a typical foliar. I would stop doing this after stretch, so that it does not affect the flowers. During the rest of flower I would continue to use these oils on the outside of the room and surrounding area, like a defensive border. I was not sure if oil aromas in the air would affect the flavor or safety of smoked flower, so I went with the safer option. If anyone can confirm these aromatic oils will not harm the end user please let me know.
Just to follow up. Harvest went great, I lost a little to the spider mites. But not to much. I’m glad it happened towards the end or I would have lost much more…
I got a bunch of predator bugs and I’ve been turning them loose every two weeks in the mother room. So far so good I think. Process seems a bit slow. Time will tell if this is my remedy.
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I was so busy assuming my strainly purchased clone had hop latent viroid that these little buggers went unnoticed until now. Pic is the best I can do with a clip on phone scope. The little white grains move around. I think they are russet mites. I washed the plant off with dawn soap suds, gotta get some Sulphur.
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Just throw it away while you have the chance…
That is a battle that’s not worth the fight. Imo
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I got lucky w my grow considering no power but i had to pull 3/4 early and just watered the last one today. The other 3 went whole time no water due to boil water advisory. My outdoor got molded and bugs after the storm so RIP to that.
Indoor, may have lost 1 out of 4 but idk
Hoping no bugs on them, which is my main worry rn
Definitely russet as I can tell. Throw everything you can away. And don’t use a fogger or paint sprayer to try and treat. I blew those buggers all over. Big room once. Then ordered a dumpster. They are all over you right now.
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The dawn soap suds nuked em. But the problem is the eggs:
There is one plant in the same room I would like to keep. I can’t see any mites on it, but there’s no telling for sure. I have had russets on hemp clones before and they never seemed to leave the one variety they liked. Russet mites don’t seem to thrive as well in the central US as they do on the west coast. Maybe all the spider mites here crowd them out.
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