Spider mites found a week after switching to 12/12; should I reveg?

Discussion in 'Sick Plants and Problems' started by Sanez, Jan 3, 2018.

  1. With the dry winter here (10% humidity), and some bad luck, I landed myself a spider mite infestation on my second grow. They have been causing spotted leaf damage on all of my plants for 1-2 weeks now. At first I thought it was a CalMag issue, but upon closer inspection with a loupe I have confirmed they are mites since I can see them walking around.

    There's at most 10 of them on each of the highest leaves (where it is warmest), and few/none on the lowest. I have increased the air flow inside, and added some buckets of water to raise the humidity. I've also misted all of the leaves with a cayenne-soap-water mix, and plan to buy some mite insecticide next.

    Should I reveg until the problem is fixed? They've been on 12/12 for a week now. The plants seem to be growing all right. The stretch is ongoing and the new growth looks nice and healthy.

    By the way, I am growing indoors in soil, in case that matters.
     
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  2. Have the shown pistils yet ? If not just switch back the light cycle to veg.

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  3. Even though no pistils have shown, might it still take a couple weeks to reveg, and throw out some mutant leaves in the process? I'm guessing the stretch will also repeat when it's time to flower again?

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  4. I've defoliated many of the infested leaves, and thoroughly sprayed the undersides of all the leaves and the top of the soil with EndAll insecticide. The humidity is now 60 in the tent, and I also wiped down the whole tent with the same spray. I'm hopeful so still on 12/12 for now.

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  5. I do not believe she will reveg . Just continue vegetative growth. The stretch was still to come

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  6. I have been battling mites, myself.

    I would never smoke anything that had been treated with ANY kind of insecticide so I am using predator mites.
    Probably not quite as effective as Azamax and definitely more expensive. But, I used predators on my last mite infestation and it worked really well.
    I'm just one of those ABSOLUTELY NOT people when it comes to insecticides.
     
  7. To each their own. For sake of information, Safer's EndAll is Pyrethrum-based, which is supposedly safe to use on flowering plants up until a day before harvest. But I can understand why people might still want to avoid doing that.

    I'm thinking of doubling down and getting something else to help. Maybe a DoktorDoom fogger, but that is also Pyrethrum-based and so that might just be redundant? Or maybe something made with diatomaceous earth. Sure are a lot of choices these days for dealing with this. Just hoping it works before the pistils start showing.

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  8. #8 Sanez, Jan 5, 2018
    Last edited: Jan 5, 2018
    Today I hosed the leaves down again with plain water. The base of the tent must have had a couple thousand dead mites / eggs at the bottom, so had to clean it out again. Now I can hardly see any mites, and those that I can find appear dead. Humidity almost 80 now in the tent. F***ing buggers better be gone, but I'll remain vigilant in case any eggs survived. Advice to any readers: be very thorough; get down on your back, use a good head lamp, use your hands, and focus your eyes on the undersides of each and every leaf; be patient.
     
  9. I'm gaining a lot of respect for these pests. I've given 3 treatments of EndAll, and 2 treatments of hydrogen peroxide, across the past week. In between treatments I'm constantly spraying with plain water and cleaning out the tent. Each time I spray I'm soaking the bottoms and tops of each leaf.

    Still I keep seeing mites pop up on the occasional leaf. Maybe I'm not being thorough enough, or maybe they've become immune to EndAll now. Either way I need to fix this for good ASAP since the pistils are beginning to show. Luckily the tops of the plants look happy. The bottoms are shedding fast.
     
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  10. I'm intrigued, but the wife is worried that when they run out of food they will migrate throughout the house. I said we can get a praying mantis then to eat the predatory mites. But then she said we would need a chicken to eat the mantis. Still, couldn't we eat the chicken after?

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  11. I decided to take the wife-friendly approach and spray neem oil (1 tsp mixed into a litre pressure sprayer with a drop of dish soap). I don't see any nibbling on the newer leaves, and I see fewer mites around. Realized that the temperature has been going below 15 Celcius at the bottom and the bucket is touching a cold concrete floor, so I hope that explains why many of the leaves are still wilting. Got some foam insulation mats and a temperature controlled space heater to keep the RZT up. Also turning off the exhaust at night. Have a hygrometer that remembers min/max temp/RH. The picture shows the readings from before yesterday. We'll see tomorrow if this made things better.

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  12. Good ol' neem oil seemed to finally do the trick. It took 3 thorough applications but I don't see them anymore! I'll do preventative spraying until a couple weeks before harvest assuming they stay under control. Yaaay! Fingers crossed.
     
  13. FYI lavender oil will kill any eggs that may have survived. GL


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