Little tiny white, mite like things are in my soil!!! Spider mites?? If so how do i get rid of them? 3/6 bubbleberry clones have them.
Yep, spider mites. I'm fighting the same fight and, sadly, not winning yet. Pyrethrum spray burned my leaves pretty bad. Insecticidal soap keeps them under control but they just come back. Switching to Neem oil, will see what happens. Also considering diatomaceous dirt - they may be too small for that to work but I just love the idea of filling my soil with what looks like sand to us but acts like razorwire to little critters. Keeping an eye out for anybody else that knows what to do but, so far, people just keep saying "ladybugs." Yeah, I know about ladybugs. They're cute and they're organic and they're like the tigers of the insect kingdom. And I know they like to kamikaze themselves onto HPS bulbs, too. So I'm not going with ladybugs. Killing ladybugs is just bad karma. I'd come back in my next life as a toilet brush or something.
i had a pretty bad soil infestation my last grow. there is no cure, or fix for it. you will not eradicate them, at best you will control them. the bugs i had were strictly soil dwellers (don't know what kind of bug, i couldn't find one pic that resembled them) and looked a bit like a thrip or springtail. when i watered the ladies, they would come out in force. as far as insecticide goes, i would have had to water them with either malathion or something, and the plants would have absorbed this nasty chemical in turn poisoning my prize. i think the best solution would be to fill up your sink or bathtub with water and put the planter into the water. make sure the water level is above the top of the soil. all of the little fuckers will come running out. leave plants in the water for up to 1/2 hour. this will also double as a soil flush, so it is beneficial. that was the only way i could really get a handle on them, but they still came back but in drastically reduced numbers. good luck.
If i were to put my plants in the water to flush those fuckers out, wont the soil get too wet and drown my plant? I had some shitty MG soil i just transferred out of, and at the bottom it was clumpy wet dirt too hard for any roots to penetrate, that soil sucks. I guess my question is will the soil drain enough to ensure the safety of my plant? My soil is some crappy Home Depot, Scotts Potting soil /w added phosphorous for root growth.
after soaking it, the plants leaves will droop and show signs of over-watering. this all goes away quickly and a couple days they'll look normal again. check out the gargen section at walmart, they have perlite and plain-jane soil (brand is hyponex, black and purple bag). use this stuff 50/50 and that's about as good a medium as any.
I feel your pain, I lost a crop to spider mites right at the end once, it sucked worse than anything had sucked prior to that. However, I do have a method that's tried and tested for killing the little bastards thanks to one of my girlfriend's natural remedy books: Fill a 1 liter spray bottle with water. Add a few drops of natural, unscented liquid soap. Add a few drops of rosemary essential oil. Shake. Thoroughly spray the entire plant, then wipe down the leaves with a paper towel and the stems with a Q-tip, both moistened with the mix. Also spray the soil or whatever medium the plants are in. You may have to repeat the process a few times to completely get rid of all them, but remain vigilante, the methods worked for me on a few occasions now.