First time growing and in week five of flower and bam! Spider mites?

[Jdilla2420]

Hello!

Yes, I'm a proud female grower

Kinda a crazy thing but, I just threw some seeds in a jiffy pot with regular old potting soil not sure what would happen. Well, wouldn't you know it, all 170 seeds popped! I have never grown anything and in fact, killed the only couple plants I had. They were lucky bamboo, lol. So needless to say, I had my hands full. After they sprouted I couldn't get rid of any. Plus everything and everyone was telling me that I would lose 50% roughly to them being males. I ended up with 164 before sexing and raised them up until I figured out how to tell if they were male. Leaving me with a total of 78 plants. I had no clue how to grow. I learned as I went about it all. I stated with Advanced Nutrients as they were local to me here in Michigan. I had to keep adding lights and bigger pots and more space. My whole house just about to be honest. I studied anything I could and watched tons of youtube videos. I lived this pretty much since April. I eventually mad my own 5 gallon flex pots and purchased mad buckets as well. I am now in week 5-6 of flower! I can't believe that I made it this far. With not too many set backs. Until..... Two days ago found spider mites on 3 of my beautiful girls! I only had them on a couple of leaves and that's what brings me here. I am inquiring about what to do now. Any advice? I am Soo close and will do whatever it takes to make it! I am growing agent orange and lavender platinum presidential. I got the seeds from a personal friend out in california from buds I trimmed for them. A couple had hermied out on him. That was an outdoor grow. I'm obviously indoor. My ladies

Back to the issue at hand, what do you think about this situation and how can I get rid of them? Should I just harvest
and if so, how?

Sorry for the long-winded message but any and I'll help would be so greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone.

 

[Jdilla2420]

My ladies hopefully this works.

 

[013]

Safers Soap would be my choice or Spinosad. (personally I avoid using Neem in flower) But you will need to check every plant or spray them all perhaps. Sometimes gardens can be like kids in daycare - if one kid is sick today.... the others will soon follow. I would not harvest early, the buds won’t be ripe and you will have speedy weed that’s buzzes for 10 minutes and gives a headache.

after using chemical sprays in late stages - I would be sure to bud wash everything immediately at harvest

as always - wait to see what other answers come in before rolling with this.

 

[Manchester2020]

Feed them garlic give them 4ml to every litre as a sock treatment then give them 1ml per litre after that until harvest

 

[Manchester2020]

Feed them garlic give them 4ml to every litre as a sock treatment then give them 1ml per litre after that until harvest

Shock not soc sorry

 

[bobrown14]

Spinosad is what you need and you need it ASAP

This will need to be sprayed every 2-3 days for 3 weeks.

You have a pretty bad infestation.

To knock them back until you get spinosad try Hydrogen peroxide + water
Say 1 cup peroxide to a 1/2 gal water spray underside of leaves and the plant and everything around the plant.

Spinosad is the active ingredient so not sure where you're located so look it up near you.

I use Monterey Garden insect spray.

 

[Jdilla2420]

Safers Soap would be my choice or Spinosad. (personally I avoid using Neem in flower) But you will need to check every plant or spray them all perhaps. Sometimes gardens can be like kids in daycare - if one kid is sick today.... the others will soon follow. I would not harvest early, the buds won’t be ripe and you will have speedy weed that’s buzzes for 10 minutes and gives a headache.

after using chemical sprays in late stages - I would be sure to bud wash everything immediately at harvest

as always - wait to see what other answers come in before rolling with this.

You know, I think you are right. I certainly don't want a 10 minute spee

Spinosad is what you need and you need it ASAP

This will need to be sprayed every 2-3 days for 3 weeks.

You have a pretty bad infestation.

To knock them back until you get spinosad try Hydrogen peroxide + water
Say 1 cup peroxide to a 1/2 gal water spray underside of leaves and the plant and everything around the plant.

Spinosad is the active ingredient so not sure where you're located so look it up near you.

I use Monterey Garden insect spray.

Good to hear that because I have been adding hydrogen to the water but I have not been adding enough. I also yesterday decided to try garlic with cayanne pepper and vegetable oil with water, as I read somewhere that you should rotate what you use to avoid the mites building immunity to one? Does that sound right? I will definitely order safer soaps or something with Spinosad but it will take a few days to get as there are no hydroponics stores in my area. Well or I could just drive a bit. I should probably just do that so I can start using it today. Well that helps me out. Thanks for your insight and experience!

 

[Jdilla2420]

Feed them garlic give them 4ml to every litre as a sock treatment then give them 1ml per litre after that until harvest

I read that and did add it to just plain pH water as of yesterday so hopefully that will help. Thank you!

 

[Jdilla2420]

Safers Soap would be my choice or Spinosad. (personally I avoid using Neem in flower) But you will need to check every plant or spray them all perhaps. Sometimes gardens can be like kids in daycare - if one kid is sick today.... the others will soon follow. I would not harvest early, the buds won’t be ripe and you will have speedy weed that’s buzzes for 10 minutes and gives a headache.

after using chemical sprays in late stages - I would be sure to bud wash everything immediately at harvest

as always - wait to see what other answers come in before rolling with this.

As for the bud wash, what would you recommend? I appreciate your help!

 

[Manchester2020]

I read that and did add it to just plain pH water as of yesterday so hopefully that will help. Thank you!

Worked for me I wasnt as far along as you when I saw noticed them but the garlic definitely had an effect and kept them away

 

[bobrown14]

NP you have a bad infestation. So you can knock them down with soap and water. Try some unscented natural soap like Dr Bronner un-scented. like 4-5 drops per 1/2 gallon water.

The soap will get on the mites and suffocate them as the breath thru their exoskeleton. Coat it with soap... they die. But it's very temporary.

Important thing with insect infestation is to learn the life cycle of the pest in hand.

Here's the life cycle of spider mites:

Life Cycle

Spider mite development differs somewhat between species, but a typical life cycle is as follows. The eggs are attached to fine silk webbing and hatch in approximately three days. The life cycle is composed of the egg, the larva, two nymphal stages (protonymph and deutonymph) and the adult. The length of time from egg to adult varies greatly depending on temperature. Under optimum conditions (approximately 80ºF), spider mites complete their development in five to twenty days. There are many overlapping generations per year. The adult female lives two to four weeks and is capable of laying several hundred eggs during her life.


As you can see they need constant vigilance to get rid of. They are fairly easy to kill with spinosad but you need to keep spraying as the eggs do not get killed. So 5 days later you are back to where you were when you first sprayed. So every 2-3 days spraying will work. You are working on breaking the life cycle. You can break any part of it to get rid of them.

A good approach is kill all adults so no more eggs. Then spray to get rid of the younger nymphs.

Spinosad can be used up to the day before harvest. Be sure and spray the floor and walls if you're in a tent. Also very likely you brought them in on your clothes or shoes. So be aware of hygiene when it comes to tending your indoor garden. Outdoors these pests have predators, indoors they do not you are their predator.

With that many like you have you should consider bud washing your produce after harvest.

 

[SmokingWings]

I am with @bobrown14 on this. That is a major infestation. By the looks of the leaves in some of the photos you have had mites on the plants since May or early June at the latest. When the leaves get that silver look to their color the mites are out of control. I did a couple of close-up cropping of one of your photos to show what I am seeing.....

Since you have plants all over the house most likely there are mites in every room. It is now time to play Commander In Chief and go to war against these things. Based on what I had to do over a two year span (my growing is a perpetual set-up so there are plants in every stage of veg and flower all the time) the small insects can be beat.

Choose what you want from the suggestions mentioned. Pretty much everything that gets mentioned I have seen in most every hydro and grow shop I have been in here in Michigan. I used Neem Oil and a product called Nuke 'Em.

You have to start with breaking the cycle and since the problem is bad I suggest that the first 3 spraying sessions be 1 day apart and then go to every third day for about 3 sprayings and then once a week. Miss one plant and they will be back in no time.

The mites are in the buds now. Any spraying you do should include all the buds and every leaf of every plant. If you avoid spraying the buds they will continue to lay eggs and reproduce. Once I accepted that the only way to beat them was spraying the buds I applied Neem Oil until 2 weeks before harvest and the Nuke 'Em until 4-5 days before harvest. The bud washing procedure has been discussed in a rather long thread and will pop up if you do a search.

Even though I feel that I have been the Mites back to extinction inside the grow room I still spray every 7-8 days as a preventative measure. I also spray my outdoor plants since I plan on bringing those in to finish flowering instead of leaving them outside all year. Plus the Neem helps kill off Powdery Mildew and that I do not want that in the grow room.

I can't think of the title of the Bud Washing thread I am recommending but I think it was a technique started by Doc Buds or a name like that. It is a long thread but people came up with many interesting ideas so the whole thread should be read or at least skimmed over for the good stuff. Maybe someone has the link to it.

 

[Jdilla2420]

Yes, I do plan on doing a bud wash. Could you recommend one that is good and preferably all natural?

I hear you on the transfer of them on clothes, shoes, hair, pets ect.. I actually believe I know how we came to have this problem. I have a older gal who does a lot of gardening and she came by the other day to help out with some other things and we got to talking. She informed me that I needed to be careful about letting people in that room as the pest can be carried from person and pets alike. As she is telling me about it, she says that she is dealing with spider mites at my mother in law's house on her chinese orchids or something. I was wondering right then if she has just came from there or possibly wearing the same clothes/shoes but assumed that she was warning me about it so I thought she obviously knew better. I swear it was like within 24-48 hours I noticed the first web. It is very isolated on three plants that I removed immediately just until I could figure out what to do. I could be wrong though but it got me paying attention...

 

[Jdilla2420]

Wow!!! I can see what you mean. That's terrible. Man I am shocked but your completely right. I will definitely be on the defense and do everything I can to eradicate them. Thank you for showing me this and educating me about the early signs that I missed. I will be more prepared in the future. I am going to look for the thread about the bud wash as well. Thanks again!

 

[SmokingWings]

Yes, I do plan on doing a bud wash. Could you recommend one that is good and preferably all natural?

I hear you on the transfer of them on clothes, shoes, hair, pets ect.. I actually believe I know how we came to have this problem. I have a older gal who does a lot of gardening and she came by the other day to help out with some other things and we got to talking. She informed me that I needed to be careful about letting people in that room as the pest can be carried from person and pets alike. As she is telling me about it, she says that she is dealing with spider mites at my mother in law's house on her chinese orchids or something. I was wondering right then if she has just came from there or possibly wearing the same clothes/shoes but assumed that she was warning me about it so I thought she obviously knew better. I swear it was like within 24-48 hours I noticed the first web. It is very isolated on three plants that I removed immediately just until I could figure out what to do. I could be wrong though but it got me paying attention...

As to the Mites, they have been chewing on the leaves for so long that more than 50% of the leaf is dead and cannot produce the chlorophyll that gives the leaf its green color. That is why many of your leaves are picking up that silver color. They did not show up the other day. It takes them a couple of months to chew up leaves like that.

Bud Washing is a process using stuff found in the house in the pantry and maybe even your fridge. It uses buckets of hot, warm and cold water, lemon juice, baking soda and some people add a few other things depending on what they fell they need. There might be Bud Washing products at the store but the price to make your own solutions is dirt cheap.

 

[013]

I know Neem is made from neem seed oil and is safe to use, its a personal issue for me. I detest the smell. I even use Neem in veg I but try to avoid it in flower. If you use a little sulfur in your soil mix or apply it with dusting in veg it prevents both mites & pm - says so on the box. Most don’t recommend using it in flower though probably from fear of imparting a bitter taste.

pic to see water after bud washing Bud washing pic

There many ways to wash buds and some use hydrogen peroxide for critter removal or Powdery Mildew but I don’t know the mix ratios for that Another faq page see post 11

 

[Manchester2020]

I am with @bobrown14 on this. That is a major infestation. By the looks of the leaves in some of the photos you have had mites on the plants since May or early June at the latest. When the leaves get that silver look to their color the mites are out of control. I did a couple of close-up cropping of one of your photos to show what I am seeing.....

Since you have plants all over the house most likely there are mites in every room. It is now time to play Commander In Chief and go to war against these things. Based on what I had to do over a two year span (my growing is a perpetual set-up so there are plants in every stage of veg and flower all the time) the small insects can be beat.

Choose what you want from the suggestions mentioned. Pretty much everything that gets mentioned I have seen in most every hydro and grow shop I have been in here in Michigan. I used Neem Oil and a product called Nuke 'Em.

You have to start with breaking the cycle and since the problem is bad I suggest that the first 3 spraying sessions be 1 day apart and then go to every third day for about 3 sprayings and then once a week. Miss one plant and they will be back in no time.

The mites are in the buds now. Any spraying you do should include all the buds and every leaf of every plant. If you avoid spraying the buds they will continue to lay eggs and reproduce. Once I accepted that the only way to beat them was spraying the buds I applied Neem Oil until 2 weeks before harvest and the Nuke 'Em until 4-5 days before harvest. The bud washing procedure has been discussed in a rather long thread and will pop up if you do a search.

Even though I feel that I have been the Mites back to extinction inside the grow room I still spray every 7-8 days as a preventative measure. I also spray my outdoor plants since I plan on bringing those in to finish flowering instead of leaving them outside all year. Plus the Neem helps kill off Powdery Mildew and that I do not want that in the grow room.

I can't think of the title of the Bud Washing thread I am recommending but I think it was a technique started by Doc Buds or a name like that. It is a long thread but people came up with many interesting ideas so the whole thread should be read or at least skimmed over for the good stuff. Maybe someone has the link to it.

Wow that's alot of mites I feel for you I dont think I would have the patience think I would of had a hissy fit threw it all out and started again probably tried to take some clones if possible