Oh that’s awesome. You can stop them coming in. So glad you went looking for them. I was watching caterpillars crossing the fucking street yesterday… grass on one side was eaten to nubs and they were looking for their next food. Hundreds of them!
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We found them to be in the Bermuda and Dallas grass with clover but not in the fescue and Blue stem hay. The fescue seems to be to thick for them to survive along with the hay. The other types of grass they seem to thrive in and now putting the pieces together, makes sense from past years with how the worms played out.
We are going to remove the Bermuda and Dallas grass and seed for fescue. The other option is to make the border around the black plastic a ground up rock type border. This would make it hard for them to cross from the grass onto the black plastic and up the grow pots.
I am also going to increase the amount and frequency I put Trichogramma wasps out.
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The horse has already left the barn, but parasitic wasps are pretty good at keeping caterpillar numbers down.
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Please explain regalia ?
So now that it s harvest time I am analyzing the crops
And bud rot is defenatly there
Wan t to prepare for next year to either prevent or slow down
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REGALIA Biofungicide ignites the natural defenses of a plant to protect it from a variety of foliar and soil-borne fungal and bacterial diseases. Its active ingredient, extract of Giant Knotweed (Reynoutria sachalinensis ), boosts plant vigor and growth while stimulating the plant’s ability to develop resistance to plant pathogens (induced resistance). This developed resistance builds plant health as opposed to attacking the disease directly.
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Regalia is probably more for powdery mildew. The best way to stop caterpillars is a bt spray, like this one:
It’s their poop that grows the mold.
Not that it is practical at scale, but I like doing the 3 part water rinse with freshly picked branches. In addition to live caterpillars falling off, it washes off the turds too. Maybe it is worthwhile as a sample of a few plants in a field just to see what comes off. The wash is 3 bins of lukewarm water. Baking soda in the first to make alkaline water, second is lemon juice and peroxide, 3rd is plain water.
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Regalia won’t really help with bud rot. Regardless it is only a preventative spray to be applied in veg/early flower. Once bud rot is set in, there really isn’t a spray to my knowledge that will stop it. Oxidizers can actually facilitate the spread of botrytis so don’t spray those. You just gotta cut the moldy buds out and keep scouting. EM1 is a beneficial spray you can add to foliar feedings in veg/early flower. It has been shown to slow botrytis in grapes.
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Soil drench twice with regalia, it will almost eliminate bud rot / mold middles from a wet finish. Making seeds we run things a few extra weeks and it makes a world of difference.
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Nice deffenatly worth trying
It s interesting to note that there is a fierce discussion among farmers and indoor growers on the extra few weeks
Including myself
When I look at the flowers in the field I believe they are ready
The farmer insists that by keeping the soil drenched with water these last 10 days make a diffrance in mass / thc-a yield
I doubt that this makes sense for the risks involved off disease bad wheaten etc etc
Trying to figure out a experiment to prove who s right wich is complex since we run on seeded plants and there is no standard to be found
I wouldn’t suggest this. Plants in veg like wet soil, flowering plants like dry backs.
When i said soil drench i ment water it in instead of foliar.
I run extra weeks only for seed production, otherwise harvest when the trics are where you want them.
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Sounds like a tough time with both bud rot and caterpillars. Apart from BT, you may use neem oil or even insecticidal soap, but use them sparingly so you don’t overmoisturize. You could add some beneficial insects, such as ladybugs or lacewings to help bring down the pest populations. Trimming off some excess foliage and improving air circulation around that area can really help somewhat there reduce some bud rot dangers. Good luck—hope you save your crop! Cheers!
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