Spider Mites & SM-90

BlazingBill

BlazingBill

Active Member
I posted a pic a short while back of a plant my son in law was growing from a seed then gave me, well in the pic the leaves had a weird discoloration but couldnt find the prob, then when I put heat on the plant to warm it up the problem popped its mean head. SPIDER MITES were sucking the life out of my leaves.
After looking around for a fast way to kill them I heard about SM-90 so am trying it now, will update on how good it works.
Question I want to ask is, Should I pull off the bad leaves now or wait till the infest is dead and gone?
Since I put that mars I 300 on it, it has came back to life and now the mites lol.
 
Don't clean it up until the infestation is gone...for a few reasons.


1) it adds more stress
2) you are forcing them to feed on the leaves that are not infected
3) any good portion of those leaves are still working for you
4) removing those leaves wont really impact the mite population. Sure the ones on there are gone but not the ones not on there.


Kill the mites, then be kind and let it recover. Keeping it in veg the whole time you will be able to recover. Then yo can decide what to do but the bad ones will come off easily when ready.

:goodluck:
 
There are some real good websites out there for growing cannabis. The one I use for diagnosing problems has this to say about spider mites after a long list of 14 ways to treat it...



Spidermite_steps.JPG



Here are 2 of the cheaper ones...

Bleach solution (1 tablespoon of bleach to 1 gallon of 95°F, pH balanced, water in a spray bottle or mister) - make sure to clean all surfaces of your room, and bleach them too if possible.

Alcohol and Water mixed together will also kill the bugs on contact and shouldn't hurt the plant as long as the solution contains at least 40% water. You will want to use a spray bottle or mister.


And the key is the whole place is infested not just the plant. You have to clean everything a few times now.
 
Get some green clean, they'll be gone in days. I would strip damaged leaves and clean what's left. Good luck, mites don't like green clean.
 
I was hit with mites pretty bad a few mos ago. I was able to eradicate them with a 3 prong approach. First, I did defoliate and strip all veg plants to bare minimum. I know many people would argue this stresses the plant further which it does but my priority was to kill all the mites and then revive my plants. By reducing the foliage my sprays were a lot more effective and in my mind im removing thousands of mites and eggs by throwing away infected leaves. My second step was rotating sprays of Azamax, Neem Oil/Soap, and plain water between. My finale was releasing 4000 predatory mites. I havent seen any damage since and now Ive dialed it back to weekly rotatings of IPM sprays.
 
I also read that those Hot Shot Pest Strips work wonders against spider mites, apparently it has a vapor that's released into the air and kills them quick so gonna add one of those to my closet, gotta make sure they are 100% gone before I move them to the tent, so the tent is not going up yet
at least since the last time I posted a pic, new sprouts are finally coming out the side
 
High Bill :)

i was just wondering how the SM-90 is working for you.

the pest strips help.. but, imo, there is no one perfect cure, and each approach is based on what stage your girls are at. being that yours are in veg you have a lot more options. i agree, the first thing is a big kill with a good pesticide. if it is within your budget i would recommend Flora-mite. it is very expensive to buy a bottle, but if you have grow stores or dispensaries/co-op's in your area some of the guys are breaking up bottles into small tubes and selling for around $30.00 for 3-4 treatments. i was fortunately gifted one of these not long ago. my veg rotation is now Day 1 - Flora-mite (for the kill) Day 2 - SNS209 (for the plant cell protection) Day 3 - Azamax as an IGR to attack hatching eggs.. and there will be even after all that lol. this repeats about 3 times and then i cut out the Flora-mite and replace it with a basic soap treatment. once the infestation is under control you can cut this back to once a week.. maybe less depending on your environment and conditions. which leads to my point lol.

not letting them get out of control to begin with. easier said than done :laughtwo:

of course rule one is cleanliness.. something i slack at a bit lol. being able to identify and quickly attack is something you will learn.

some keys - proper humidity.. maintain above 50% and spiking it to above 80% occasionally causes them issues. they don't like it. it even kills many by making them explode with absorbed moisture.

the one i really don't see mentioned much is air movement. i think it's because people may be thinking if i put a fan on it they will blow all over. true.. if you don't do a good kill first. even then it will still happen. let's just face it. they will never go away lol. the best you can hope for is control. anyways, the fans.. the fans should be blowing upwards so that the lower part of the plant and the undersides of the leaves are getting blasted. spider mites hide and lay eggs in the still spots noted. every nitch and corner should have good air movement. from all angles.

once in flower you can continue pesticides for a few weeks, but i try to avoid this. recently i had a Pitbull with about 3-4 weeks left on it that had an infestation. no option for pesticides at this point.. at least for me. RH spikes helped for about a week or two, but i swear the Borg even adapted to that. i ended up placing a cardboard shell around her and treating with pure CO2 for about two hours. that did them in fairly well lol. got me through to harvest with no further treatments. oddly enough (LOL) as i was bud washing the harvest i made another inspection and lo and behold i find one alive! that was when i made up my mind there is no perfect cure. the Borg can adapt to ANYTHING. the key is keeping the Borg unhappy lol. unhappy Borg don't breed fast, giving you better control.

OH! predator insects work if you can get your environment right. otherwise they can be a waste of money as the bad mites come right back after the good bugs die. i can do that with any pesticide for way less money :rofl:

good luck and many good vibes to you my friend! i hope my ramble helps.

:Namaste:
 
The beauty of green clean is you can use it up to the day of harvest. It's not a pesticide, you won't ruin anything. Won't taste it. You folks think I'm bull chitting you,, try some. You'll swear by it ;)

Great for PM and mites....
 
MassMedMan said:
The beauty of green clean is you can use it up to the day of harvest. It's not a pesticide, you won't ruin anything. Won't taste it. You folks think I'm bull chitting you,, try some. You'll swear by it ;)

Great for PM and mites....
Click to expand...

you definitely have my attention :) i'll pick up a bottle this weekend and give it a try.. as described.. no shortage of test mites :rofl:
 
electro gypsy said:
ok. i have a 2oz bottle on the way for testing :) i like the multiple sizes!!! i wish more people would think this way. a lot of people can't afford to drop a hundie for a bottle of good stuff. thanks man! :high-five:
Click to expand...

A little goes a lot. I go ten mil per quart. I started with that small bottle and then got the 8oz. I was using it over the summer to spot wash off powdery mildew. Spray it on, it dries, shit is gone. And the mites,, never had them... But that's due to a three pronged approach,, clean space, neem early foilar and from pan, and green clean to finish. Good luck. I got using it from a commercial grower,, he swears by it and so do I
 
MassMedMan said:
A little goes a lot. I go ten mil per quart. I started with that small bottle and then got the 8oz. I was using it over the summer to spot wash off powdery mildew. Spray it on, it dries, shit is gone. And the mites,, never had them... But that's due to a three pronged approach,, clean space, neem early foilar and from pan, and green clean to finish. Good luck. I got using it from a commercial grower,, he swears by it and so do I
Click to expand...

yep.. i just might as well. :) that's some pretty good stuff! :thumb: :high-five:
 
I've gone so far as to spray pyrethrin around the house and just outside the grow once a month. Between these I use a variety of other off the shelf insect killing products.

I think I trip about mites a bit more than most.
 
Everyone has had a bad experience they trip about. I wont grow soil without a bag a vermiculite laying around for gnats. I used to automatically put it on just in case. You just haven't been growing very long if you aren't trippin.
 
After 2 sprays i now have full luscious green leaves and did a third day just to make sure.
That stuff really does smell good and its organic and safe to use up to budding from what I read.
Will post a new pic shortly, still waiting for the wife to clean out the old bedroom so I can put my mars grow room up and get it inside.

But atm in my little closet its loving the mars 300.
 
this is how my little girl is doing now,
To recap, my son inlaw got some seed from his bro planted them and this was given to me form him, we found out it was a female and he gave it to me at around 8-9" now after putting that sm-90 on it and my mars light she is now almost 2 feet tall and still growing.

Its hard to see it perfectly with the mars light on but the leaves are a lush dark green.

Bills_Plant.jpg


Just wish I knew what type of bud it is.
I was wondering if it might be good to just go ahead and clone it without know what type of bud it is.
Any thoughts?
 
i would clone :) for sure. my only concern is if it is auto flower then there's not much use.. but if it's photo, and it's good, you'll wish you had backed it up with clones.

yeah she looks healthy with those leaves reaching up like that. maybe back off on the nutes a little. i see a few hooked tips.. high nitrogen.

but wow look at all that inner growth! she would have made a good trainer. probably a little tall now lol, but if you have some space you could do a little LST to bring out the inner growth. :Namaste:
 

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