High all! I am collecting rainwater for my pot plants and edible crops, and since the rains are very rare lately, but heavy, I have filled everything available to me with rainwater, huge Rubbermade tubs and such. I use Mosquito bits in those big containers (they are open, no lids), which have BT as an active ingredient. The possibility to brew a tea outdoors in one of those 30 gal containers looks very sweet to me, but I am not sure what BT in a water could possibly do. Any thoughts would be highly appreciated!
Alright. I'll throw in. I think there are at least a couple of things to consider. Not listed in any order of priority. 1. All bacteria have a definite life-cycle even in the best of hospitable conditions. Given that this collected water is probably sitting around, uncovered, subject to the changing elements, lack of oxygenation, there's a pretty good chance that at any given moment you could sample the water and not see much microbial activity unless you are actively attempting to cultivate and sustain them. 2. B.thuringiensis is a known bactericide effect on larva of many types of catepillars, moths, fungus gnats, etc. So, it's a great treatment for those types of pests. 3. There are at least 42 identified strains of Bacillus of which only 14 or so have been studied. Who really knows at this point which of the remaining 28 are "good guys" or "bad guys". Perhaps if you are successful cultivating vast populations of BT and introducing them to the soil they might overtake all the "good guys" leaving the "bad guys" in the majority? Who knows eh! 4. Withstanding any and all discussion or opinion about soil pH, leaving large containers of water open and exposed to the air will tend to make this water acidic over time due to the CO2 in the air. That's what I've read anyway. So try to keep your containers covered if they are going to be sitting exposed for a long period of time. Just a couple of thoughts
I have something to relate. Might help you, might not. I did a soil soak with spinosad about a month ago (bacteria, similar to Bt). I had thrips and possibly spider mites. The spinosad sprayed on the leaves took care of thrips. I did a soil soak to 'take care' of anything in the soil. I did it on my #5 smart pot that was in 12/12 and on my #2 smart pot that was my mom plant. I lost the mom a few days later. It kept yellowing and getting crispy and never recovered. The bigger #5 pot in 12/12 just always seemed to 'be off' in its color. Light green and super early to yellow. I will not be doing any sort of horticultural soil soaks with spinosad. Outdoor, maybe. Indoor, hell no. I have sprayed it since then and try to keep it from getting on the soil. I may even make a 'bib' if I spray it indoors again. On top of that.... I say I might have had mites. You may be wondering how my dumb ass doesn't even know if I have mites. Well, I bought a new tent. With it came thrips for sure and possibly mites. I noticed the thrips, cause they were bigger first. I saw 2 distinct types of damage. I noticed thrips and whit blob looking mites. After spraying, I noticed no mites on the plant, but all the soil mites were acting crazy cause of the soil soak. So, long story short.... I still don't know if I have spider mites or if I have fucking stoned ass soil mites. I'm using Dr. Bronner's and Neem oil now.( for foliar for the 'mites')
Oh wow HerbMed, sorry about your plants Thank you for sharing your story though, now I will be definitely thinking about some rain barrell, so I can avoid using BT treated water for plants. Talking about bugs - I lost 5 seedlings indoors to thrips in the beginning of the summer, so I understand your frustration. I did use Spinosad as soon as I noticed thrips on my bigger plants in the veg room before I started the seedlings, but apparently it did not eradicate the fuckers completely. After loosing all 5 babies I gave up, moved vegging plants outdoors and drenched my indoor grow rooms with some organic broad spectrum bug killer. Because of the heat I had the indoor grow shut off for summer, but even now I am still uneasy about starting anything new indoors Bugs indoors suck. Good luck with your war. Do you mix neem with the Bronner's soap in one spray or do you alternate it? PS. I brought thrips for my plants myself I believe, from outside. Realizing this made me rethink all my grow hygiene routine. Now I really really wash everything and have peroxide and alcohol handy.
I mix the neem and soap and spray with that. 2 tsp of soap and 2 tsp of neem oil per 1/2 gallon in a garden sprayer. You can go up to 3 tsp per 1/2 gal, but this already kinda turns the hairs brown just a bit, so I want to stop spraying. I'm bout week 4 12/12 on my lady. I'm debating about stopping my perpetual cycle and doing what you did. Finish this lady and start new with a clean/scrubbed/sprayed tent and fresh pots/soil. I have a seedling ready to flower, so it's tough to decide to flower it or not. I also was cleaning my garage yesterday and tiding my grow supplies. I moved the soil from the mom outside. I noticed it had a weird green mold all over it. This was the container that I soil soaked 2x with spinosad and the mother plant eventually died. I thought that was kinda telling.
I have used spinosad as a drench to kill fungus gnats inside and had no problem. I also used it 4 times @ 2x strength.