Stevebombs Arena

I guess I need a place to consolidate all my random updates. The common denominator in any of my growing is using all organic methods, so I guess it should fit in here.
 
A brief rundown of my settings:
 
Soil - ITGs soil mix that's posted in the Organic Growing subforum. Homemade compost/EWC for my humus, Canadian Sphangum Peat Moss, and Buckwheat Hulls are my base. Most my stuff is in 5-gal smarties.
 
Indoor- 600W HPS/MH light setup, only have 1 plant flowering G13 Pineapple Express. Veg, I have 6 Zombie Farms plants, 3 Pwerple, 1 Grape Drink, 2 PunTangs (lol at the names). These are under ~200-250W CFLs right now, I would like to go bigger soon, but I'm still feeling my indoor situation out a little bit.
 
Grape Drink

 
Pwerple

 
Outdoor- I have a garden and am experimenting w/ growing behind my corn, I have a CH9 Super Haze that is in the middle of flowering naturally, another G13 PE (just to see how big it gets growing starting August 1), and 2 Autoflowering plants something from Samsara seeds and a THC Bomb from Bomb seeds.
 
 

 

My Pineapple has been my experimenting/learning plant this run. I gave her my first try at "lollipopping" and LST. I feel I learned a great deal about those methods without fugging the plant up. My most expensive lesson with this plant has been indoor IPM. Outside I spray my veggie garden, and subsequently my mj plants, about once a week to battle natural pests in the garden. I have been winning my outdoor battle, but been asleep on the indoor management. I now have leafhoppers and an established spider mite infestation.
 
I went to Lowe's to get Spinosad today, they only had the "ready to use" which seems to me like it's just a bottle of water, we'll see the results. About an hour before lights-on today I thoroughly showered my plant from the top and underside, making sure to soak every single cell of the plant, with this "Captain Jack's" spinosad spray.
 
I plan on getting the more concentrated version that's offered at my local Feed Store.
 
 
Photos of damage(these are after I sprayed, and right when the lights came on):
 
This bud was fully encased in a web, a web built in a night (scary).

 
Leaf damage:
Extensive vs. Early signs

 
This was at the tips of a couple leaves, idk what it is, but surely something associated w/ the mites:

 

When the spider mite problem first started, I thought it was PM. (I'm learning all this by thinking retrospectively) I now know the little spots I was seeing on my leaves were not mold, but damage from the mites. I can recognize this now, and will not ever again let the mites get a foothold equal to that which they now have.
 
Like Potato Beetles, these mites explode in population in a blink, can wreak so much havoc in one night, and are nothing to be tolerated or taken lightly. If I let this go on, unhindered, for even a few more days I wouldn't have expected to take this plant to harvest. Two days ago I wasn't even that concerned, much less fearing for the loss of an entire plant.
 
Everyday learn something new, if you don't, that's when you stop living.

 

Thanks blades. What a better time to start documenting my plants than in the middle of a major problem. I'm excited about what I'm vegging right now, though. I'm hoping for at least one male to save its pollen for my own crosses.
 
TmfJ, I'll be peekin in on your journal now, too. I definitely want to see how those genetics play out.
 
Tomorrow I'll get some pictures of the garden and the garden escondido.

 

I really didn't have too much interest in starting a journal, but I have been learning a lot with these plants and I figured somebody may benefit from seeing me (hopefully) pull myself out of a huge spidermite rut.
 
 

Maybe I should go through the quarrantining they did on the movie ET every time I walk in the room
 

 
 
I've got no doubt your strict regimen is what led you to be successfully pest-free.

 

On the deck: Basil, cherry tomatoes, and those striped Germans that Pak was talking about this spring.

 
My basil "forest" The trunks of these things are seriously like logs, lol. A consistent source of bees, though.

 
Carolina reapers on the left, Bell on the right (no fruiting yet, I was late getting these outside)

 
Some salvia (not the kind for hallucinations, lol)

 
The lone onion w/ some taters behind

 
My habañero, lotsa blooms no fruit

 
Here's what I get from broadcasting a half a bag of lettuce seeds (I had to pull up a few that were growing too bunched, but still maybe a 10% germination rate).

 
Zukes growing under my corn

 
Some beans climbing and fruiting

 

The super haze

 
Pineapple Express, topped her once then set outside.

 
Black Beauty Eggplant, the only one, please stay disease/pest free.

 
My ONLY 'maters to date.

 
So here's my plan w/ my sunflowers. I lopped off the heads to dry and harvest seeds, clipped the leaves to put in compost pile/let fall where they are for mulch, and going to use these left-over stalks as poles for my beans to climb.

 
Mmmmmmmm.....Nettle FPE.......(3 days of soaking, so far)
Probably going with the method outlined here: https://www.frenchgardening.com/tech.html?pid=3164873867231346 (I believe I came across this site independently, but I'll give credit to Coot b/c he linked it last week and I've referenced it much more since.)
 
But I'm trying to figure out if soaking the nettles for longer than what they say is beneficial or no.

 
And the best for last!
 
Francis (I named him when I was 14 after Francis Crick, so you can tell I've always been a nerd for science)

 
Guapa(Beautiful)

 

Lights just came on, and 24 hours after spraying with the "ready to use" Captain Jack's spinosad, it looks like more then 50% of the critters on a severly affected (webbed) leaf are dead. About every mite w/ a red back is dead, while the ones that are white w/ the greyish/green back are still roaming around. I'll try to get a picture of what I'm looking at through this Loupe, it looks like a scene after an epic battle worthy of Tolkien's novels.
 
Edit: Plus there's no observable damage today that wasn't there yesterday, no new webs either. So at the very least, this is halting/grinding to a stop the progress of the mites. I can certainly tell a difference, though.
 
Edit:x2 Can't take a macro shot, the zoom plus the loupe makes every heartbeat shake the camera too much.
 
Here, however, is a shot of the whole plant and some buds. It's not a scrub plant, and definitely is worth the $9 I paid for the spinosad.
(The lean it's currently acquired is from being so laden w/ spinosad, all the colas slumped over. I've got them tied up a lil [a wire  connecting all the colas together, so if one falls they all drop lol]).

 

 

 

 

Today was the 2nd application of Spinosad. I pulled a leaf yesterday to observe the mites and saw a decrease in movement from the day before, restricted only to the small green-backed mites. I've been reading about spidermite lifecycles lately and I think these green ones may be a younger stage, nymph stage or something.
 
So I sprayed today about 2 hours before lights on (I couldn't wait any longer), and when the lights came one I pulled another leaf to study with my loupe. This one has absolutely no movement, I see a lot of caracsses, but no movement. Now, this isn't the best/most thorough study or sample size, but I think I can make conclusive statements as to the efficacy of Spinosad on a full-on spidermite infestation. Conclusion - (For all the pokemon fanboys out there) It's Super Effective.
 
I don't know how well the plant will do in terms of reversing damage, but as long as no further damage occurs I should be golden to have every picogram of bud that the plant has produced.

 

Yeah, I'd call them "under control" if anything. The only things I can see running around are the very tiny mites now, so I assume they're just the freshly hatched buggers and since all the mature ones are dried-out to a crisp, I assume once the egg cycle's broken they'll be eradicated. Pretty cool to see a pest get annhilated so effectively. It would be much cooler to have never seen them in the first place, though.

 

It's certainly not easy to highlight things that you're doing wrong, but letting these things get so established was certainly an error on my part. 2 things made me hop on them so quickly/thoroughly: Pak saying there were times w/ spider mites when he didn't know if he was going to get his harvest or mites, and me seeing an entire bud encased in a web that, the day before, was perfectly healthy.
 
The bigger they are, the harder they fall. These mites proposed themselves to be a goliath, but don't seem to even be lasting 2 rounds with ol' Captain Jack.
 
I can only give credit to the GC(organics) community for providing the experience and information to help me re-claim my flower room.

 

With this infestation dying out, I think it's time for a little bit of reflection:
What did I learn?
 
Awareness is key(Knowledge is power)
The more you know about your plants, and what may or may not be happening on a level not immediately visable is the most important tool for pest management. When you go in to see your plants (for watering, turning, love...etc) take a magnifying glass and check out some leaves, top and bottom. This only takes a minute and can save you future headaches.
 
Don't ignore the signs
Leaf curling is more than just a sign of heat-stress. If you see anything abnormal in your plant, it's worth it to check out what's going on on that almost-microscopic level.
 
Don't misinterpret the signs
White spots can be more than just a result of PM, remove any shadow of a doubt from what you're dealing with and you're better equipped to keep it in check.
 
Cleanliness is next to godliness
If you have an outdoor garden w/ known pest problems, it's probably not smart to tend your indoor garden immediately after being in your outdoor one. Have separate tools for each, and change clothes if you're going indoors after working outside.
 
Prevention is the real key
Keeping a strict IPM regimen is the best way to ensure you won't ever have a pest problem; it's another thing that takes only a fraction of time and can save you so much heartache.
 
Extra tip: If using spinosad to get rid of a fully established infestation, don't be afraid to apply liberally. Make that plant look like it just got out of the shower; I'd rather wash away some resin than have to worry about whether or not I eradicated the pricks.

 

It could have been a lot worse.
 
I'm pretty thankful that i got such a thorough introduction to spidermites in this way: I only had one plant, i got to see all stages of spider mite development/infestation, and got to see something successful to combat it. This was my first indoor grow, and set me up to be a little smarter in the future. It could have been in one of my future grows where I'd probably have more than 1 plant, in an arrangement where it would be near impossible to get to every leaf, have to use a lot more effort and spinosad to spray, and probably wouldn't have come out too effective.
 
Now I know exactly what to look for, and what to remedy it. I hate field guides because I am always so "iffy" on whether I'm making the right identification; I'll never have that problem w/ spidermites the rest of my life.