Spider Mites ,, what to do about those pests?

Tim Fox said:

I was wondering about baking the soil at the start?

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Grilling might be less harmful to the beneficials

it would be cool if you could by like a clean type of dirt they could call it "clean"
can i have a large bag of fox farms "clean" please 100% clean contains no dirt

then you would not have to bother grilling or baking, such is life

Tim Fox said:

I am four weeks into flower

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4 wk in....

Mighty wash works great, you can use up until harvest
Taste & smell not effected


Just started using big time exterminator this run,
It has great reviews & is working for me in rotation with MW

Good luck

BobBitchen said:

4 wk in....

Mighty wash works great, you can use up until harvest
Taste & smell not effected


Just started using big time exterminator this run,
It has great reviews & is working for me in rotation with MW

Good luck

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Can mighty wash be sprayed on?

Iv combated them in the past by just spraying pure water. They hate it.

Tim Fox said:

Can mighty wash be sprayed on?

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Yes,spray on, use full strength, don't dilute
It can be used until day of harvest they say, I stop a week or two before, just me.
Lots of other choices, i'v tried a bunch, always come back to mighty wash, especially in flower.

I just started using big time, it has a lot of good word of mouth, a little cheaper than MW,

http://buildasoil.com/products/big-time-exterminator

i have used azamax with success. my buddy uses it as a preventative like the first two weeks of flower or the first and last weeks of veg and first week of flower i cant remember what he said but i would use it as a drench and spray because mites will hangout in the soil too. i had a white berry strain that was like the mite hangout. no matter what i did i could only keep the population down. it would be right next to my ny diesel would have no mites at all. never needed sprayed. honestly unless your growing in a quarintine cdc tent like e.t. style and you bleach every surface and strip naked and shower before you enter your room. chances are you will get mites. like ol boy said pinene limonene type strains. or you will have mites at some point in time. at least that my experience.

skunkd0c said:

it would be cool if you could by like a clean type of dirt they could call it "clean"
can i have a large bag of fox farms "clean" please 100% clean contains no dirt

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It's called coco

Though... I quit coco cause every single time I used it, even in one pot, I got fungus gnats. Kinda hard to grow dry in coco and gnats love moist crap looking shit. Canna coco even... as if it came with the stuff, not normal.

I transplanted males (from dwc/nft) to perlite and hydroton, works fine too. No nasty shit there...

Perhaps it's better to use no medium at all, at most a little rock wool cube or hydroton to get started, much better for the environment, my wallet, the plants (hence quality and quantity), and no worries about pests and fungus sucking out the sugars out of my treasured plants. Now that I think about it, isn't it weird not everyone grows hydroponic

hot pepper spray will make them hate your plants. chop up a few of the hottest peppers you can find and boil them use the water to spray. wont hurt your plants. super cheap just respect the fact that they are hot peppers. gloves maybe dust mask. ventilation etc works for gnats and white flies too.and hydro is not pest free. i have seen white flies in dwc

If trying a pepper spray, Steep the peppers, don't boil...I believe boiling kills the protein you want.
Add garlic, cinnamon,.............

probably right bob. and garlic defenitely helps.

Sativied said:

It's called coco

Though... I quit coco cause every single time I used it, even in one pot, I got fungus gnats. Kinda hard to grow dry in coco and gnats love moist crap looking shit. Canna coco even... as if it came with the stuff, not normal.

I transplanted males (from dwc/nft) to perlite and hydroton, works fine too. No nasty shit there...

Perhaps it's better to use no medium at all, at most a little rock wool cube or hydroton to get started, much better for the environment, my wallet, the plants (hence quality and quantity), and no worries about pests and fungus sucking out the sugars out of my treasured plants. Now that I think about it, isn't it weird not everyone grows hydroponic

View attachment 3491703

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I guess i am one of the lucky ones as i started with hydro, i grew my first soil plant about 5 years after hydro
i like the way it is easier to keep plants small and control size with little pots , but other than that i did not see any reason to continue

often i have left over cuttings and seedlings with no home/space for, i would put them in a pot of dirt rather than throwing them away
but after the spidermites i am too scared to grow with dirt now , i think i would rather do little pots full of rockwool or whatever than soil for those spare cuttings i cant bare to throw away

peace

skunkd0c said:

i have not seen a spidermite on my hydro plants since last century , when i first started growing cannabis

the first soil plant i grew in many years had spider mites by week 2 of flower
i know spidermites can climb up the branch, but i had my soil plant downstairs there was no way those spider mites could climb up all those stairs
i was still concerned that my hydro plants would get contaminated, because spidermites can travel in air currents and on clothes
so i threw the dirty girl away , would never mess with a dirty girl like that again. too much risk

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And I haven't had sex since I knocked a girl up. What's your point?

Spider mite eggs can come from any person or thing large enough to carry them, even house flies potentially. I'm sure they can climb stairs too, like ants, though it might take them a while. You're probably more likely to carry them in on your socks without even knowing it.

Nullis said:

What's your point?

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The point is its called a conversation and i am sharing my experiences, do you have a problem with that ?

if you are contented with having a sex free life that's great, thanks for sharing this information with me

see how that works, isn't it fantastic ^^ "the art of conversation" by skunkd0c

anything else you would like to share feel free pal

Nullis said:

I'm sure they can climb stairs too, like ants, though it might take them a while.

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I did anticipate this, that is why i stated there were too many stairs as i am well aware spidermites can climb to the top of the branch

if the spidermites could climb the stairs faster or if i had fewer stairs i am certain my hydro plants would be infected with spidermites

my plants grow fast, this is why i have no spidermites upstairs with my hydro grow
i don't think the spidermites can climb the stairs fast enough before i have grown and harvested the plants, i am lucky hydro is faster than soil

I'm just saying man, you grew a plant in soil and it got spider mites so soil must = spider mites = is twisted logic. You don't know where the mites came from regardless of the location or floor of your house. Spider mites can literally blow in your house through the screen of an open window.

I use an amended hydro mix as soil.

Also I lied. I continued having sex with her after I knocked her up.

skunkd0c said:

Grilling might be less harmful to the beneficials

it would be cool if you could by like a clean type of dirt they could call it "clean"
can i have a large bag of fox farms "clean" please 100% clean contains no dirt

then you would not have to bother grilling or baking, such is life

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Most bagged potting soil contains absolutely no "soil" or dirt whatsoever. Ocean Forest is actually one of the only well-known brands on the market that technically does because it contains sandy loam. Even if the manufacturing process is as controlled as can be, potting soil needs to be bagged in bags that have little holes to provide for air exchange. This is how pests can potentially enter during shipping or storage. Usually the pest is fungus gnats though, not spider mites.

Consider that even coco coir actually comes from material that's been sitting piled, outside in the elements potentially for decades.

Nullis said:

I'm just saying man, you grew a plant in soil and it got spider mites so soil must = spider mites = is twisted logic. You don't know where the mites came from regardless of the location or floor of your house. Spider mites can literally blow in your house through the screen of an open window.

I use an amended hydro mix as soil.

Also I lied. I continued having sex with her after I knocked her up.

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soil does not directly = spidermites but there is a risk its quite a big one spidermites are pretty common with soil and i do not want to take that risk because they could infect my hydro plants

i was never growing with soil as the main grow just for the odds and ends i couldn't part with
its a shame because its easy to put some small plants in a little pot of dirt and it grows like a little cactus and it looks cute, i miss that
i guess i can do the same with rockwool in little pots

its pretty simple to grow with hydro and never see a spider mite, although i know it is possible to get them with hydro
but as long as things are reasonably clean it should never happen

It's just as easy to grow in soil and never see a pest either. It's called system acquired resistance. Then of course there's always IPM.

In my "soil" I have live predators, beneficial mites that eat other mites, fungus gnats and various other pests. Spider mites would not survive in my soil.

Nullis said:

It's just as easy to grow in soil and never see a pest either. It's called system acquired resistance. Then of course there's always IPM.

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It's not about "easy" or not.... But of course not, wellknown fact hydro = less pest management than soil. SAR does not make up for that in any way and is not exclusive to growing on soil, i.e. totally irrelevant. Same for the concept IPM... Throwing those terms around may be useful to grow epeen, won't help kill or prevent spidermites.

Oh... And try condoms...

Its been my experience that once one see spider mites on a few leafs your totally infested and everything in that room and other rooms need to be treated.

Sativied said:

It's called coco

Though... I quit coco cause every single time I used it, even in one pot, I got fungus gnats. Kinda hard to grow dry in coco and gnats love moist crap looking shit. Canna coco even... as if it came with the stuff, not normal.

I transplanted males (from dwc/nft) to perlite and hydroton, works fine too. No nasty shit there...

Perhaps it's better to use no medium at all, at most a little rock wool cube or hydroton to get started, much better for the environment, my wallet, the plants (hence quality and quantity), and no worries about pests and fungus sucking out the sugars out of my treasured plants. Now that I think about it, isn't it weird not everyone grows hydroponic

View attachment 3491703

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The last two grows now in soil and I get bugs, the last two times I was given clones already growing as teenagers. Now when I get out of this crop, I need to do some serious cleaning, and I am going flood and drain at the very least. And I will even still do some spraying early on, just for insurance, but the whole, " soil is easier " thing, maybe not freakin bugs suck, thanks for your expertise