MITES!!! Caught it fairly early and she's small, since I have a ready supply of CO2, my plan is to bag it and flush/fill with gas & tie it off for a couple of hours. I guess like any mite treatment, do it every 2-3 days for a couple weeks? I've read about this method and suffocating roots is not an issue. Anybody have experience with this?
More of a control step then a step to kill them. If you have sand or diatomaceous earth to kill the eggs in the soil. Then do what your going to do with the c02 and yes you can have an over do co2 Get an organic spray and spray under the leaves. Good thing you caught this early
looks like classic spider mites. I've never heard that mites propagate in the soil. I've gassed her twice-2-3 hours each time. It seems to have stopped the spread but it's too early to say for sure.
Interesting method: Post back your results ...either way avoid D-Earth(diatomaceous earth) ok for food but we smoke our food, see D-Earth as millions of nasty razor blades waiting for your lungs ..UGH!
Results of co2 vs mites: I used a drawstring garbage bag & a tank of co2 with hose. I placed the pot in the bag & inserted the hose through the tightened opening. Think colonoscopy. Flushed the enclosed pot with gas then ballooned the bag & tied off the opening with string. After 3 hours the bag was still inflated and removed the pot. I repeated the process 3 days later. It's been about a week and absolutely no sign of mites!! There is one possible problem. A few days after 2nd treatment some leaves show possible signs of nute uptake issues. Either it's unrelated or maybe the co2 saturation affected the soil ph. The new growth is healthy and it will recover. Gassing definitely wiped out mites however if I do it again it will just be young plants so that I can tp after treatment.
Mite sound like a dumb idea but outdoor doesn't have much mite problems. Typically because healthy leaves have natural resistance to pests. And outdoors has natural predators like lacewings. Lady bugs etc. Heathy leaves=no problems
This was started in a grow box and indoor grows are vulnerable. I will bring this one back inside to flower in July so in the meantime I'm considering sterilizing the box to kill off anything. Do mites lay dormant eggs that survive months? Also the cover crop on my summer pots has thrips and I don't think my urban area has enough predator insects. It's getting neem before transplanting the babies into them
keep in mind bugs like a weakened plant, consider re potting to a 3 usgallon, and yes I'm a neem oil addict, to my blog: http://forum.grasscity.com/blog/1093/entry-9709-neem-oil/
I use a combo of Azamax and Purespray to treat mites. 50/50 solution with a little dish soap(Unscented, not antibacterial). Three applications , three days apart will wipe out the living, their hatchlings and their eggs. After that I do recommend once a week application as a preventative measure. PS . Remember spray lights out, and the undersides of the leaves need to be hit, not the tops
Yes she going into a final 4 gal pot soon. It was topped once and now doing LST. I've got neem seed in the new soil and it's written that along with being a good fert, it helps fight pests
It looks like potassium deficiency which I've never had before with the same organic soil. The timing suggests that co2 saturation did something. The new growth is fine and no mites so if need be I'll try it again
It's not like you're sprinkling it on your buds...you top dress with it. There is no way it would have any effect on the buds.
^^^CanadianOrganic is very correct ..D-Earth has no affect on the buds, once caught ...and it will.. you will toke it in, nice and easy like, but unfortunately this crushed rock does irritate the lungs, you cough.. pushing it further into the lung capillaries, and yes coughing gives you that sandy feeling in your mouth, with constant irritation the toker knows nothing but for the slight trickle of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, most ignore it,........by then it too late, the result is death by suffocation(drowning in your own blood) ..but Hey! I only know one guy who died this way ...it took 5 months, and he used D- Earth on all 5 plants ..give it a try ..but you have been warned
I use plastic trash-bags, a hose, 5 gallon water bottle, duct tape, dry ice, water and suffocate at 1-2 hour intervals.
So someone else here's done the co2 method...how cool is that. Any adverse effects? What did you treat? What are your intervals?
Considering the use of DE on soils, please explain how one ingests silica by smoking the herb grown in said treated soil. I'm truly curious...