Mites: Need Help With A Go/No Go Decision

[Aroxol]

Hey Everyone. Today I broke my most sacred cardinal rule by grabbing some rooted clones (clone only strain) from a foreign garden and bringing them home. I have always set this as a no-go boundary line because I have a clean garden and everyone I know who has had mites, got them from foreign clones. I am seeking guidance from those of you who have experience with mites (because I don’t). If the consensus is this move is too dangerous and mites can weather the storm, I may just toss the plants and cut my losses.

Here’s what I did when I got home:

First, inspected the clones in a place far away from my garden and though I didn’t see mites under my macro lens, the plants definitely didnt look as flawless as I would’ve liked to see. Some white dots on top of leaves for instance. So here’s what I did:

1. Sprayed the becheesus out of each clone, tops/ bottoms of leaves with keyboard cleane/ compressed air.
2. I chopped the clones off at the stem like a new cutting and trashed the rooted RW.
3. Cut off as many fan leaves as I could and then halved the rest.
4. Put them through a triple tub dunk.
-water with rubbing alcohol
-water with rubbing alcohol, veg oil, dish soap
-plain water shake off
5. Recut the stem, dipped in gel and into new RW.
6. Placed in dome in separate room from garden / threw clothes in wash.

I have no idea if the clones have mites, but let’s assume they do...is this good enough? Should I do another dunk in 3 days or will it not matter because new eggs could be in the new RW too (which won’t get dunked)?

Thanks

 

[TurboBucket]

If you have the ability to easily keep them isolated for a couple of weeks I would. Easier to be safe than sorry right?
Looks like good first steps let them go for a few days make sure they are good and clean before integrating with the rest of your stock.

I like using neem oil it helps the plants natural defenses as well as killing what it contacts.

 

[Lowrider72]

You did all this and you dont even know if mites were on the plants....
They hide under leaves near the veins.
Ask the guy where you got clones if he has had them, if not, dont worry.

 

[Aroxol]

Thanks man, I’ll incorporate neem oil as well and definitely keep them separated.

Lowrider - I know it probably sounds excessive and maybe it’s all unnecessary, but I’ve seen friends throw away entire gardens (massive thriving gardens) and start over, only after wasting a ton of time and energy trying to combat them, so I’m ultra paranoid about this subject. And delaying a grow by 5-10 days to reroot is no big deal to me.

I’ve found ego gets in the way of honesty, so someone telling me their clones are clean really doesn’t carry too much weight with me. Perhaps I’m just a dick. Tomorrow I can take some macro close up pics of the underside of the leaves, and if you can lmk if you see anything concerning it would be greatly appreciated. I want the genetics, just no critters that may or may not inhabit them

 

[Weaselcracker]

someone telling me their clones are clean

Been there done that and I don’t blame you one bit for being paranoid as hell. It took me nearly two years to get rid of those F$&&ers

 

[jimbobdaz]

I feel your pain... i cut down and burnt one grow well into flower because of those little buggers, have you thought about a sulphur vapouriser?

https://www.hotboxworld.com

 

[Aroxol]

Thanks for the input guys, happy to have your support on this effort. I’ll get out my usb microscope and try to snap a slew of photos today and if I can borrow your eyes I would greatly appreciate it! It’s one of those things where I don’t know what I don’t know, and so having you catch things I’d miss will be invaluable. This will also get me out of the seed game if I can establish a solid process for quarantine/ sanitization.

I haven’t really explored a sulphur vaporizer, but was planning to seal the clones into a garbage bag and gas them out with CO2 before moving them into the garden. I think that may be the same logic as the sulphur vapor, and I already have CO2 onhand.

 

[jimbobdaz]

The sulphur vaporisor is different because it leaves a film over everything that continues to work long after... but if you have co2 to hand then sure give it a go

 

[Aroxol]

I’ve got to be honest I’m not that encouraged right now. Here’s what I’m seeing on top of the leaves...

And btw, the source also confirmed they’re “clean”

Is it safe to say we’re at the point of get that entire clone tray the fuck out your house??

 

[Weaselcracker]

Could be the photo quality but the white dots don’t really look like mite eggs or residue to me. They’re too white,round, and consistent- seem more like some other type of white dust. Or a different kind of eggs lol.
But yeah if it was me I would definitely keep them quarantined for a few weeks.
I did read that a very high ppm of co2 will kill the eggs. In my area they make it nearly impossible to get your hands on a tank and I wasn’t able to test the claim. Eventually I got some systemic pesticide (Mite-did) that worked great and wiped them out. Even that took about six months since by then they’d secretly infested my houseplant and greenhouse at near invisible levels and kept re-infesting my grow from those places. Which took me quite a while to figure out.

 

[Captain Cannabis]

Although those pics do indeed look like the Easter mite stopped by, I don't think it's what it looks like. It could be residual dust, from the air in the room. Also, I don't see any leaf damage. Surely an adult mite big enough to lay eggs, is gonna eat.

Spray the neem, and keep em separated. Fingers crossed!

 

[Aroxol]

Alright dudes, thank you. Maybe it’s the white frozen dust from the computer duster I used? I didn’t see anything on the bottom of the leaves, only the top. These are two jungle boy cuts so I really don’t want to lose them if at all possible. I’ll grab some neem oil tomorrow, gas the plants with CO2 and stay the course for now. I’ll also redip them tomorrow/ Tuesday just in case. Appreciate everyone’s insight once again.

 

[Carcass]

Perhaps I’m just a dick

Perhaps I am too-I don't believe anything someone says when they're trying to sell me something...
Have you ever heard anything negative about a product from the person selling it?

 

[Captain Cannabis]

You know, it could be from the dish soap. Some soaps have micro "beads" to help break things up.

 

[Weaselcracker]

People also just talk shit even when they’re not selling something. My infested clones were a gift from a friend. He swore they were certified mite-free. Later the story changed to “well actually I did have mites before but I thought I’d got rid of them...”

 

[Aroxol]

Just ripped a fan leaf off so I could get as close/ clear of pictures as possible. Here’s what I’m seeing across the front and back. This is as far as my microscope can zoom in so hoping this provides enough depth to make a solid determination.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Wooo.. a bit scary looking hey...
Kept quarantined in a warm place for a day or two and you should be able to easily see if those egglike things hatch out into beautiful babies.

Still - they seem a bit too perfect looking to me. And in the bottom pic and top couple pics - there are four perfectly oriented dots within the large dots (?)

 

[EhCndGrower]

I feel your pain and worrying thoughts on what to do. My first grow I was given a Cinderella 99 clone about 4 weeks into my grow. Being a noob (still am) I didn’t bother checking it, and the plant thrived for 4 weeks before everything went horribly wrong. My cousin got it from a friend and called just as my mites were just rearing their ugly heads (4 weeks into flowering) and started killing the plant. He too was infested with them and I tried to rid them for a few weeks still in my tent (winter time and no other tent) with various remedies. Nothing worked and finally pulled her from the tent, but they got to my Gorilla Bomb and zapped it from forming any frosty nuggs. They were present on most of my 6 other plants but thankfully most made it in the end but wonder how much better they could of been.

Best of luck on whatever you decide to do in the end

 

[Carcass]

Well,$hit-I just googled "spider mite eggs",and whatever those are sure do look the same...
Are those 4 dots reflection from your lights?,because,other than that,they're identical..
That sucks !

 

[Aroxol]

This is a tough one, but I’m sort of leaning towards it’s not eggs only because of the amount. Those pics are so zoomed in, but in reality there’s probably hundreds (maybe a thousand) of those dots across a few clones...I mean I guess they could be eggs but seems like a lot.

Weasel, I love your idea about quarantining some cut leafs to see if they hatch, so I just implemented that in separate containers so I can know which clone(s) are or are not infested. Hopefully none are.

I’m going to leave the quarantine leaves untouched to see if anything rears it’s ugly little head, and then hit the actual clones with NPK mighty wash and some neem oil tonight. I’ve never messed with any of this stuff so it’s a good learning opportunity and I’ll stay positive maybe, just maybe the clones are good to go. I’d really like to run this in my head to head grow coming up, will have killer bag appeal and be beautiful plants if they don’t have mites.

So with that, I command thee to show yourselves you devil spawn! Thank you all again.