Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

[Midwest Weedist]

I do notice if I topdress with neem or karanja they settle back into the clover patches. But after a week or two when the plant has used all the meals they hop right back up. It is great to see the neem and karanja do their thing on the pests though. Do you just live with the mites? Do you topdress heavy on the meals for keeping them at bay?

I'm living with it currently because I'm waiting on my neem oil from bas to get here. Then I'm spraying the living hell out of them. They literally just showed up this last month. I've noticed that every yard in my area is covered with spidermites. I checked my relatives yard today and her entire yard is infested. Her clovers are dying back it's so bad; red, white, pink, doesn't matter, they're all doomed. Powdery mildew is pretty common right now too. The Midwest is hard to grow in sometimes because of stuff like this. My grandfather's garden that I help tend to already lost some heirloom tomatoes to some disease (high humidity and temps for weeks) and his raspberries are a joke this year. 12-15ft tall and only an 8th of a pound of berries so far this year off of 20 different patches. Aphids have already started to decimate his beans, which doesn't usually happen for him till the end of the season.

 

[4ftRoots]

Good luck with the neem. They will hide under the clover and you will never get rid of them. I have been at war for 2 straight months spraying every other day with various essential oils and neem/karanja. I always have them in my yard but thankfully nature thought of that so the predators, water, rain get them. In my room I don't have any predators only had spider mites. But they are gone! Hope you can beat them, if not get rid of that clover! lol

 

[Joedank]

I do notice if I topdress with neem or karanja they settle back into the clover patches. But after a week or two when the plant has used all the meals they hop right back up. It is great to see the neem and karanja do their thing on the pests though. Do you just live with the mites? Do you topdress heavy on the meals for keeping them at bay?

stoked to try the yarrow and cammomille
i pull the infected clover and compost it thus using it as a "trap crop" so to speak ...

 

[hyroot]

no mites from clover here either. I dont get how clover is hydrophoibic . It doesn't make sense. No one else has ever heard of that either. Maybe if sprayed with rain x first , I use foliars and ipm's on my clover all the time. no pests on my clover. My Rh is really low too. I don't ever see clover repelling water either. Last year I thought clover attracted white flies. Later I found that out to be wrong. It was just the time of year and the particular strain I was growing.

 

[drekoushranada]

How tall does the chamomile get?

 

[Joedank]

How tall does the chamomile get?

mine about 8"-24" depending on age . keep cutting the flowers and it will keep going . it has a supriseingly small root mass for a tall plant IMO

 

[Midwest Weedist]

Rh has a lot to do with it I would imagine. I haven't seen mites on my indoor clovers until my inside rh was consistently over 60%.

 

[Pattahabi]

BIMs are in the air everywhere. Bacteria, fungus, etc. That's how we can isolate with a simple rice water bath. Little bastards just fall in and are activated because you have them a food and water source. They'll fall all over your soil and set up shop as well. It's inevitable and unavoidable.

Ok, just wanted to make sure you weren't refering to mycorrhizae. It is my understanding mycorrhizae are too big to be air bourne. I think Gil's work on BIM's is awesome. www.unconventionalfarmer.com.

Peace!

P-

 

[Rrog]

The fungal hyphae are big for sure, but spores go airborne. I see a few mycorrhizal studies online where they had to take steps to keep their tests from being contaminated by airborne mycorrhizal spores

 

[4ftRoots]

How tall does the chamomile get?

There are two types. Roman and german. You want the roman. Roman is the shorter strain and grows to max 6 inches in my room. Takes a year to get that high though. I never have to mow it down

 

[4ftRoots]

So your saying high humidy is attracting mites? That would make sense because my room is always dialed in with VPD in mind. Why would they come to a place with high RH?

Rh has a lot to do with it I would imagine. I haven't seen mites on my indoor clovers until my inside rh was consistently over 60%.

 

[Rrog]

EDIT: Curious what clovers people are experiencing probs with.

Sorry that I missed this, but has anyone ID'd the mite?

Are we thinking that a sealed high Rh room might exacerbate this? I just checked with a buddy who I had grow clover in between grows. He's not seen any pests, and he leaves the door and window open. Again, just a closet grow

My last room was sealed, but I controlled Rh, and I had no mites. I ran clover in between grows but not during grows.

Soil inoculated with BTI, nematodes, and chitin source.

Either way, clearly the clover is a liability for some for whatever reason, and I would avoid it in my new room once it's up and running

 

[4ftRoots]

EDIT: Curious what clovers people are experiencing probs with.

Sorry that I missed this, but has anyone ID'd the mite?

Are we thinking that a sealed high Rh room might exacerbate this? I just checked with a buddy who I had grow clover in between grows. He's not seen any pests, and he leaves the door and window open. Again, just a closet grow

My last room was sealed, but I controlled Rh, and I had no mites. I ran clover in between grows but not during grows.

Soil inoculated with BTI, nematodes, and chitin source.

Either way, clearly the clover is a liability for some for whatever reason, and I would avoid it in my new room once it's up and running

It seems to me that the clover is a great home for the mites when they happen to find the room. And once they find it they become harder to get rid of since the clover, at least for me, is so hard to spray and a great high nitrogen food source. It was the twospotted spider mite in my case.

edit: dutch white clover were in my beds

 

[Rrog]

Anyone ID the mite?

 

[st0wandgrow]

I haven't messed with cover crops in a while but when I did I used a clover mix and never saw a mite. I honestly thought the cover crop thing was a waste of time for indoor container gardening, but whatever blows your hair back.

 

[Rrog]

I'm bald...

Not much light under the canopy, so for me, clover was good to keep the plant pot active while waiting for the next plant, etcetera. Not so much as a companion plant during the Canna grow

 

[st0wandgrow]

I'm bald...

Not much light under the canopy, so for me, clover was good to keep the plant pot active while waiting for the next plant, etcetera. Not so much as a companion plant during the Canna grow

I've just really tried to simplify things. For a while I was doing everything. It got to be too complicated, time consuming , and expensive. Now, I build my soil and keep it moist. That's it. No SST, young coconuts, aloe, cover crops, etc. Just my soil and plain water. The plants have never looked better.

 

[4ftRoots]

I haven't messed with cover crops in a while but when I did I used a clover mix and never saw a mite. I honestly thought the cover crop thing was a waste of time for indoor container gardening, but whatever blows your hair back.

I'm in it to replicate the diversity of nature. Plus growing your own mulch is cost efficient in my head. Nothing to loose but a lot to gain in large 30 gallon pots

Edit: and I bet you could find some benefit from an SST and Aloe. I'd bet on it!

 

[st0wandgrow]

I'm in it to replicate the diversity of nature. Plus growing your own mulch is cost efficient in my head. Nothing to loose but a lot to gain in large 30 gallon pots

Edit: and I bet you could find some benefit from an SST and Aloe. I'd bet on it!

I've done it all. My measuring stick is the health of the plants, and the finished product. My plants are as healthy or healthier than they've ever been. Maybe with a bigger swath of soil or a large bed with several plants in it I might notice a difference, but in my 10 gallon containers it was a waste of time.

I think these are pretty healthy..

 

[st0wandgrow]

Maybe I'm alone in thinking like this, but to me organics should be simple and inexpensive. There are no SST's, coconut water, etc in nature. It's all about the compost IMO. Get that right and the plants will excel in spite of whatever else it is we're doing.

Leaf mold/coco coir/peat, home made vermicompost, and the usual amendments. I don't see the need for anything beyond that. Not to say that the other stuff will hurt anything, I just don't find that the juice is worth the squeeze. I have 3 young kids, and I'm self employed. I really don't have the time to be brewing up teas and driving all over the place sourcing ingredients. Simple is what I'm after, and it seems to be working well.