In my first grow, we never had any mites until halfway through flowering. Then my associate in the venture came up with a concoction of vinegar, isopropyl alcohol, lemon juice, and baking soda to kill them. After the first few spray applications, we took out the vinegar and baking soda.
But the damage seemed to be done. Shriveled up leaves, it mostly killed the mites but took the plants with it. Someone at a collective told me these things we used can also flush some of the good chemicals out of the trichomes. I don't know if that is true or not. He also said you should not spray ANYTHING when the plants are in flower.
But for my second (and SOLO, thank god!) grow, I decided to go all natural and use ladybugs. These plants did get the spray a few times while in veg but they seemed to be ok.
Ladybugs are unusually stupid. You put them on the leaves right next to a bunch of mites, and they go tottering off everywhere else first. Despite my clear American English explanation to the whole bag of ladybugs that any attempts to escape the grow room would result in punishment by death, quite a few tried. And I caught most of them.
But after 2-3 weeks, they did get the mites under control. I have not seen any mites at all on the 3 plants that had their upper leaves loaded with mites in the first week or 2. They have been mite-free for over a week now!
I did see a few mites yesterday on another plant that never had them before, so I found a live ladybug and relocated him to that bud to take care of the problem.
So I will use ladybugs, all natural, and no chemicals!
But the damage seemed to be done. Shriveled up leaves, it mostly killed the mites but took the plants with it. Someone at a collective told me these things we used can also flush some of the good chemicals out of the trichomes. I don't know if that is true or not. He also said you should not spray ANYTHING when the plants are in flower.
But for my second (and SOLO, thank god!) grow, I decided to go all natural and use ladybugs. These plants did get the spray a few times while in veg but they seemed to be ok.
Ladybugs are unusually stupid. You put them on the leaves right next to a bunch of mites, and they go tottering off everywhere else first. Despite my clear American English explanation to the whole bag of ladybugs that any attempts to escape the grow room would result in punishment by death, quite a few tried. And I caught most of them.
But after 2-3 weeks, they did get the mites under control. I have not seen any mites at all on the 3 plants that had their upper leaves loaded with mites in the first week or 2. They have been mite-free for over a week now!
I did see a few mites yesterday on another plant that never had them before, so I found a live ladybug and relocated him to that bud to take care of the problem.
So I will use ladybugs, all natural, and no chemicals!
