Hey guys, I'm an absolute beginner to cannabis growing; my friend had a plant she needed to get rid of and so I bought it off her cheap with the intention to clone. I dunno what strain it is or how good the product will be, but I figure it's a good place to start. I've been noticing some problems with it and was hoping for some advice. The plant appears to be female due to white pistils. She had been keeping it in the sun rather than a controlled light environment amongst other plants. I believe this exposed her to pests and the like, as I've been noting webs near the cola which are a lot more obvious when they're wet from misting, and also on some leaves there are characteristic white spots. Further I've noted some tiny insects in the topsoil from time to time. I think the top culprits are spider mites and fungus gnats. Furthermore, the leaf tips are turning brown and curling upwards which I believe may be due to something attacking the roots (which may explain why she hasn't grown very much). My setup is just a reflective mylar grow tent that I have set up in my closet, with a simple red/blue LED grow light (225 diodes, about 14W or so total I THINK). As of yet I don't have any forced ventilation as I haven't been able to set it up. I spray her with neem oil (and spray some in to the topsoil too) whenever I water every few days in the hope that this will help with the potential mite and gnat problem. Further I've set up a liquid-based insect trap (rather than traditional sticky fly paper as I couldn't find any locally for some dumb reason). Pictures are attached: it's hard to see the webbing etc. due to my camera being shite but it's there.
I would throw it out and clean the fuck out of your tent. 14w isn't going to produce anything, all you're going to get out of it is a spider mite infestation.
This plant is way into flower from being outside and exposed to short days and best to just leave it out to finish.. Just the fact it's survived tells me your in a warm winter zone like I am in So Cal.. You have till mid May or even June 1st as your must harvest by date.. Much past that you risk re-vegging and that will ruin the buds you have.. Fungal Gnats can be controlled with Mosquito Dunks.. Most all garden centers now have them.. Break one up and sprinkle a pinch on top on the soil.. It's hard to tell from the fuzzy pics but a single strand of silk is not mites.. They web a quarter sized area very densely the one time they invaded my cloner.. Tapping the plant over a white sheet of paper is a fast way to see if it's really mites.. The white blotchy patches do look like Powdery Mildew not unexpected in an outside plant.. I use Green Cure from the hydro shop to control that but for just one plant you can substitute Baking soda.. Ratio is 1 table spoon in 1 gallon of water and drench spray till dripping.. I treat weekly as PW spores are everywhere on everything but most of my grow is outside.. Just my 2 cents.. BNW
LEDs produce a lot more light per watt than CFLs, metal halide bulbs and the like. I've known people who have successfully grown on cheap LED strips from China before. Thing is, the majority of the wattage from other sources of light gets turned in to heat which subsequently has to be dissipated. LEDs do not have this problem, thus a lower wattage is perfectly acceptable. I study chemical engineering officially and electrical engineering as a hobby, and I have looked in to this a fair bit, so I'm quite confident that there is nothing wrong with using LEDs. Further, all I'm seeing is a few stray webs as of yet, not what I would qualify as an infestation. Do you have anything useful to put forward perhaps?
Thanks man, I'll look in to what you've said a lot more. I'm guessing it's possible the white spots I've been seeing might just be aphids or the like. The neem oil I'm using should take care of that. You're quite right: I live in Queensland Australia which never goes below 10 degrees Celsius in winter, but I'm southern hemisphere so it's actually fall at the moment. I have suspected it to be already flowering but I've been leaving it on a 16/8 light cycle until I can move it to my friend's place where it'll be safer to flower and cure as he lives on his own. Thanks for the tips.