How I battle aphids-mites

Discussion in 'Growing Organic Marijuana' started by ParanoiaKills, Jul 8, 2018.

  1. good morning GC!

    I ran into a funny way to battle away aphids, and I wanted to share it with you all, perhaps someone has tried this and contribute to my idea.

    The major pros is that there’s no chemicals, no spraying, and you can do this at any stage of your plants life

    Compressed air. Just like a compressor with a nail gun, but with the air sprayer attachment hooked up to your hose

    I have personally tested this both on aphids and mites, I’m in week 3 of flowering, had a small issue where mites and aphids were showing up (not swarmed) and wanted to eradicate them without smoking poison or habanero peppers (which doesn’t work on aphids anyway)

    If you’re going to give this a try, be careful. As a full 70PSI will put rips into your fan leaves. Yup, been there done that, but with no major harm

    I use a pretty cheap husky branded compressor, nothing fancy. It’s probably $100. Worth it’s weight in not smoking poison all day, but I already had it being a tradesman.

    Would love to hear thought and opinions on this. After my first treatment I went away on vacation for 4 days, came back to zero aphids and just a handful of mites, which were quickly blasted away.

    Might even do your buds good to prevent molds and mildews, get some fresh air in your buds

    Personally I’m growing outside, on my rooftop. Not sure if the compressor kills the pests or not, so I’m not sure how effective it will be indoors. Tho I’m sure it is effective to some point. I mean, how relentless can aphids be that they crawl back on your plant day after day if growing indoors lol

    Hope everyone is having a chill day. Everyone hear is welcome to put your thoughts in.
     
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  2. Neem oil? Bladed aphids they always come crawling back for me. I like that you are using non toxic methods though.
     
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  3. I have applied this method but when I was cutting the buds...
    ran in to some aphid problems on autos half way trough flowering,
    but didn't want to risk spraying.
    works well indeed to salvage what would otherwise be wasted.
     
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  4. I’m on week 3 of flowering, a tad too late in my opinion for neem in my situation. They were crawling inside the buds and all lol. I’ll keep you posted on wether or not they start invading my plant again, going to not used compressed air for another 4 days while keeping an eye on things
     
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  5. good luck dude....
     
  6. and if not....ice o lator...lol
     
  7. At 3 weeks I would still be OK with spraying normal dose of neem without worrying. You can actually keep spraying neem much later into flower using a diluted (1:4) solution with no ill effect.
    There was a lot of discussion about that in the thread below if you care to read about it:
    Spider Mites

    Nice method with the air pressure non the less! :thumbsup:
     
  8. My own cocktail
    Neem oil , serenade , castile mint soap and potassium Bicarbonate .
    Takes care of insects and fungi as in powdery mildew .

    I have excessive ventilation now and haven't experience allot of problems that I did starting off .
    I grow in two 4x8 tents and a walk in closet and I keep allot of insects out now that I have good ventilation and can close the tent up and all the air coming in the tent has to go through a screen .

    UV-C light emits a deadly ozone killing everything that is single celled .
    Also the light rays its self will burn everything it comes in contact with.
    UV-C rays and ozone will kill insect lava when your in budding.

    The ozone will kill humans if you are exposed to the light and ozone long enough .
    It will also kill you plants ..

    I turn on my UV-C 85 w light on one minute a day …
    If you are close to harvesting then 15 minutes per day and harvest in 5 to 7 days …
    This will not kill adult insects, only the lava and maybe new born insects .

    I spray my plants every 5 days for fungi and insects ..regardless if I see insects or Powdery Mildew when the plant is in the vegetation cycle and three to four weeks into budding.

    I only turn the UV-C light on when there is a issue and the UV-C lighting stuns the plants growth .

    The UV-C light is nothing less then harsh.

    I have allot less issue with insects once I switched to an aeroponic system .
    There is something to be said about not having a moist grow medium that insects love to live in .

    Good luck
     
  9. Nice thread, when it comes to organics jerry knows what he’s talking about (I’ve been here for a handful of years) So does cold pressed neem also kill aphids? For mites I usually mix Cali-Spray, just habaneros that are cooked into water essentially, and it does a womderful job, completely eradicate, but doesn’t touch aphids as they are soft shelled. I didn’t have any neem, and I found the aphids the day before my vacation, so I had to do something ASAP. I should grab some neem for future endeavors with aphids tho
     
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  10. Ugh....PM. I know it all to well growing up here in New England. I’ve been using Silica for my powdery Mildew IPM. I have very strict IPM schedules including the Cali-mix and silica for PM, the silica does great for your cellular walls of your plants also. I’ve just never had aphids before, in my 6+ years of growing, so I suppose I wouldn’t have an IPM for a non-issue, but that’s going to change now lol.

    Never heard of these lights before, sounds harsh tho. I’m outdoors anyway, so the light isn’t an option. I also dry the living crap out of my soil, I do not water even every 4 days, otherwise the fungus gnats have a parade in my soil lol

    Having these IPMs have surely made growing less stressful, and more successful. When I start another plant next year I’ll start the neem, but for now compressor air seems to be doing the trick :smoke:

    Here’s my plant btw. Yes...the bucket is wrapped in insulation lmao.it gets pretty frigging hot on top of a black flat roof
     

    Attached Files:

  11. My tents inside air temp is always in the high 60's to mid 70;s
    Normally I grow mint along side my plants in my aeroponic indoor grow system inside a 4x8 tents .
    Insects hate mint and several other plants and that might be your best organic choice.
    12 plants that repel unwanted insects

    Yes the UV-C light is nothing less then dangerous also will cause cancer … to everything the light or its ozone comes in contact with.
    Its a interesting subject leaning about using UV lighting in horticulture.
    I use two 35w UV-B lights in the last two weeks of budding,,, make the buds 20 to 30 % heavier with resin .
    UV-C lighting has been being used in Horticulture for decades …………
    almost all room sanitizers use a UV-C bulb...


    Guide to Understanding UV Light & How It's Redefining Clean
     
  12. PS plants need the violet color spectrum that only UV-B lighting produces ……………..
     
  13. I would assume so but not 100% sure.
     
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  14. Worth it’s weight in not smoking poison all day

    TRUE SHIT BROTHER


    Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk
     
  15. #15 WizSteve, Jul 21, 2018
    Last edited: Jul 21, 2018
    nice which strains do you grow? they do more for some strains than others thcv is also increased by there use.for outdoor grows lady bugs and praying mantis early on should take care of most or the bugs in the area. go heavy on the eggs 10 pods or more of the mantis ties to tree limbs in the area some really kool looking ones too if you shop around
     
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  16. Amnesia Haze is my main strain .
    I have white widow, berry white , AK47 .
    I have a couple of growers that I got going with Amnesia Haze and AK 47 , trying to get these guys where they are preserving the amnesia haze strain .
    growing their own clones .
    As of right now I give away all my extra clones , hopefully I can get clones back from those people just in case my plants die unexpectedly .
    I haven't had issues with bugs, not wild about the thought of letting bugs loose inside my home to kill other bugs.
    I make anti bug and mildew cocktail . Neem oil , serenade , sodium bicarbonate , Castiles mint soap.
    Keeps the bugs and powdery mildew away . .
    Powdery mildew my nightmare .
    I got control over the powdery mildew, but it was a costly leaning experience .
     
  17. nice if you get a chance try growing some Willie Nelson using those light at the end (also durban poison but i like willie nelson more lol if your in oregon there are some panama red clones going around
     
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  18. Nevada .

    With the laws the way they are , its hard to grow allot of different strains and still hold on to my favorite strain.
     
  19. #19 WizSteve, Jul 21, 2018
    Last edited: Jul 21, 2018
    yea we need more than four plants ,if you have the space to keep mother growing you can graft other strains to it so you can as many strains you want to graft on (label each graft) this still gives you 3 to flower without breaking the law

    Btw have the prices started to drop? its getting crazy over here new lowest price here was $20 a ounce
     
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  20. I use Ladybugs, safe, non-toxic, cheap, and cool to watch. I get some for my outdoor tomatoes, as I typically grow MJ indoors.
     
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