My CBD plants are 5th week flowering outdoor in North Carolina. Growing for biomass that supplies my own store.
Its the season where bud rot and caterpillars hit.
I have been spraying BT but have held back cause I’m worried the excessive moisture and the humidity is gunna expedite the bud rot further. Doesn’t help the caterpillars are chomping away.
Any one have any organic tips to combat this?
Make fresh frozen and extract it. Not much room on the market for craptastic buds.
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Get a bunch of bug zappers
Cut out the grate so the opening is big as possible
Put them everywhere
They kill the moths that lay the caterpillar eggs.
Put them
On a timer so they don’t mess with your photo period
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Dont you want the bug zappers on at night though? Like a moth to flame.
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Spray Heligen ftw.
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Their site has a cool time lapse showing a treated leaf vs untreated over six days. The caterpillar on the treated leaf dies, turns black, and releases more caterpillar killing bacteria. Wicked
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Truly is. Zero residuals too!
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Where does one buy it? I cant find a site selling it.
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Southern States here in Virginia. Maybe find a store and order it from them.
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Regalia seems to do a good job of preventing bud rot itself.
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You can also use super yellow bug trap - its like double sided tape - it attracts the moths as well, and they stick and can’t lay more eggs.
You can always prune back nasty buds (hard if you have a fuckton of plants).
In my fruit orchard - we also do this thing where we use big ass dryers to dehum the area around the trees - especially during blossoming… this keeps them from freezing and dries out the ick. I haven’t tried it in acres of hemp… but I have tried it in backyard garden space. This also has the added benefit of convincing the bugs to “leave” cause many don’t like the smoke and stuff.
Good luck with this - you can use a systemic in the soil to help with this…I use a corn meal/corn oil mix for this… I know not everyone likes it. But when you’re planting acres I feel like you want cheaper…if you don’t want fancy chemicals. -shrug-
Let us know what you decide!
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What kind of dryers do you use?
Some people use 55gal barrel fires - I like a bit more directional control with this.
Some people use radiant heaters - I don’t have that kind of power out with the plants/trees…
Maytag exclusively
What dryers are you referring to?
Link?
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Interesting…I’d love to hear more about the systemic action of this mix. I have used corn meal spread around plants and on anthills with great success to control aphid farming ants.
Smudge pots in an orchard? This would be cool to see!
It happens in the Spring - when its warmer before it should be and the blossoms come out early. Then you have to use the smudge pots (or radiant heaters…or some people cover their trees and wish) to keep the temp up and prevent frost by removing moisture and increasing heat. Its kind of awesome.
As far as corn meal is concerned - its one part of a three part blend of corn meal, blood meal, and bone meal. Its really about prepping the soil before the plants go in - people do this in lots of ways. I’d been using it on newly planted fruit trees and tomatoes for years before using it with my pot plants.
I’m sure you’ve heard of Pure Crop - its a whole slew of OMRI listed insecticides and fungicides - I’ve seen it work wonders and its listed for botrytis. I don’t know that it will do any good for caterpillars - but it seems to assist with winged insects so it might help with moths. I know I use it or my own concoction of vegetable oil, soap, and lemon juice for this purpose as well.
If the plant is suffering - I prune heavily and then give it a good spray down. At this point, my plants don’t suffer - but I’m starting a new tent this year and I’ll have some on hand just in case. Never know how a new house will be - there’s always critters and insects getting in from somewhere until you chalk them out. 
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We made a formative discovery on the farm today.
The caterpillars are actually coming from the field around my hemp. They were crawling through the grass and once on the plastic ground cover, made a mad dash for the pots to crawl up on to the plants.
I thought the moths laid eggs on the hemp plants but we saw the moths flying around the field and hundreds of caterpillars in the grass.
I am going to spray the perimeter of my hemp plot as well as the plants still with BT.
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