DonBrennons 'Unconventional' organic gardens

DonBrennon

Well-Known Member
All my pots seem to be infested with fungus gnat and both the plants in my mother tent and my experimental tent have thrip infestationsthrip.jpg IMG_3512.JPG

So...........I'm going to war with them, I've got 4 packs of theses nematode to be used over the next 3 weeks, all plants will be getting a foliar of them and any soil anywhere in my house will be getting a drench of them.

  • Nemasys Fruit and Vegetable Protection is a natural product containing a blend of different species of microscopic worms (nematodes) which kill a wide variety of pests that challenge the “Grow Your Own” gardener. The list is extensive so for the full list and appropriate application instructions look on www.nemasysinfo.com
  • By using this blend of nematodes it is possible to control many pests without having to determine exactly which one is causing the problem. It is also an advantage to use the pack for several different purposes. For instance some of the pack could be used to treat the soil for carrot root fly whilst the remainder could be used to treat thrips in the greenhouse.
 

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DonBrennon

Well-Known Member
Hope the nematodes work. I have fungus gnats again myself and I've placed an order for some. They sprang up in my flowering room, one or two occasionally in the veg room.
I can tolerate the odd fungus gnat when all my plants are well established, but I've got seedlings going at the moment and feel that they are more susceptible to their roots being attacked by the larvae.

The thrip are becoming a bit of an issue now though and I may have to re-assess my IPM methods after these applications and re-introduce neem oil foliars', my homemade pest repellent doesn't seem to be doing the job.
 

DonBrennon

Well-Known Member
These are 30 days since flipping to 12/12, they were heavily infested with thrip and have lost a lot of their lower leaves. I do think the thrip have effected bud growth as well, they started flowering really fast and sort of stalled when I noticed the thrip population exploding, despite IPM measures and predator mites being used.
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These aren't the worst affected leaves, they're probably about average, I've given them one treatment of nematode, which I don't think the plants liked, I had to be a little rough with them to get right inside with the sprayer though. They'll be getting another 2 treatments over the next two weeks. I've never foliared with anything during flowering before, but I've never had an infestation like this.
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DonBrennon

Well-Known Member
8 days after sowing, 8/11 were through
IMG_3560.JPG

Today 11 days after sowing, still only 8 through and 2 of the stragglers are the most interesting ones IMO, the Blue Cindy and Mango Sapphire, the other one is the Northern auto, which I'm not too fussed about. I'll give em a few more days before I start digging to see whats happened.
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DonBrennon

Well-Known Member
Hope you get it all figgered out.
Thanks for the concern, the thrip in this tent are actually the least of my worries. I've been working quite a distance away recently so apart from being a little absent and neglectful, I've made a couple of school-boy errors in my main tent. When I flipped to 12-12, the girls were showing a little mag def, and I usually do some kind of cal/phos foliar at this stage. So, I gave them a foliar of home made cal/phos with some epsom salts mixed in. On top of this I had recently increased the wattage on my lighting without fully compensating on extraction and not having the time to monitor it................The result, quite a few fried leaves and I mean serious burn, a mixture of nute burn and heat stress, not good!!!............it seems I'm gonna have to make a quite few of the same mistakes as I did as a hydro noob all over again. LOL
 

calliandra

Well-Known Member
These are 30 days since flipping to 12/12, they were heavily infested with thrip and have lost a lot of their lower leaves. I do think the thrip have effected bud growth as well, they started flowering really fast and sort of stalled when I noticed the thrip population exploding, despite IPM measures and predator mites being used.
View attachment 3640185 View attachment 3640187

These aren't the worst affected leaves, they're probably about average, I've given them one treatment of nematode, which I don't think the plants liked, I had to be a little rough with them to get right inside with the sprayer though. They'll be getting another 2 treatments over the next two weeks. I've never foliared with anything during flowering before, but I've never had an infestation like this.
View attachment 3640191 View attachment 3640192 View attachment 3640193 View attachment 3640197
Fingers crossed the nematodes get em!
I sat a while admiring the structure of your plants - they're lovely elsewise! :mrgreen:
 

DonBrennon

Well-Known Member
This is what I'm up against, I took this vid a couple of hours after the 2nd application of nematode

Looks like I'm gonna have to try a different method, maybe some lacewing larva or something IDK
 

calliandra

Well-Known Member
This is what I'm up against, I took this vid a couple of hours after the 2nd application of nematode

Looks like I'm gonna have to try a different method, maybe some lacewing larva or something IDK
Wow, impressive footage there!

Not sure you should give up on the nematodes too soon though -- these parasitic nematodes need to find their prey (the thrips) to get at them, so maybe you just need a few applications for them to really get going on them?
Fingers crossed!
 

DonBrennon

Well-Known Member
Wow, impressive footage there!

Not sure you should give up on the nematodes too soon though -- these parasitic nematodes need to find their prey (the thrips) to get at them, so maybe you just need a few applications for them to really get going on them?
Fingers crossed!
I'm currently having a coffee and spliff break after spraying and watering everything down to get moisture levels up in preparation for another application of nematode. This will be the last one though, I've got a few different predatory mites on the way to hopefully take care of any stragglers
 

calliandra

Well-Known Member
More micro movies......... some of the millions of nematode I've just released and a young thrip, not one bit bothered LOL. you can also see some of the thrip eggs, I need something that eats these eggs



Wow cool -- the ones in the 1st 2 vids, looks like they're bacterial feeders? They look like they're vacuuming haha
Where are the thrips eggs? I couldn't distinguish them :rolleyes:
 
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