ExoticCannabis2021

[Pants]

Nope I went hard with Ludwigs. Also had thrips a while back.

It’s amazing g how quickly these buggers move on


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[ORGANinc.]

10 hours ago, ExoticCannabis2021 said:

Week 3 - Day 21(28/05/2021)

What a F***ed up day.

Spent the day in the tent having a closer look at the plants to make sure theres no other issues.

On close inspection, i found some pests eating away at the seedlings.  After that i took a look at each and every plant in the grow room and found a variety of issues. All listed below. 

• On all 3 of the Tortini seedlings i found Thrips.
• On multiple other plants in the Veg grow room i found a combination of Thrips, Fungas Knats and Spider Mites. There was a fair amount of bugs, but not too serious. Ive also been aware of the Fungas Knats and i control them with the sticky fly traps which usually works for me
• In the flower tent, the situation was much more horrific. In two of my plants in flower i found an entire Spider Mite infestation. 

NB: The flower tent and veg tent are next to each other.

Absolutely frustrated i proceeded to purchase a bottle of Bioneem and diluted 10ml per 1L and took out every single plant from both tents and sprayed them with excessive amounts of the mixture. I also sprayed the tent walls and floor with the mixture. In retrospect i should have calmed down before spraying down my plants. Nonetheless, in my haste, i dropped the EHG-COCO, and tore a bunch of roots.

I washed off the roots with plain tap water, then repotted with new coco, added in some mycos, watered with EHG nutes at PH of 6.0 and EC of 0.5 with Biodyne added. Run off was PH 6.1 and EC 0.4.

I've now dropped both the EHG-COCO and HORTIMIX-COCO plants in a space of two weeks with both plants having damage to roots. They most probably will be out of the comp but Im too much of a sucker to give up hope on them, so i will include them in all updates as apart of the comp. Plus Im still keen on HORTIMIX vs EHG and i hope others are aswell.  

I will not be at home for a week, so i wont be able to really have a look at how the plants are doing, but ive got a friend whos going to just pop in and take some pics and water them if required, so ill post those updates. Whilst away i will be researching the most efficient way to get rid of my spider mites infestation. 

If anyone knows someone that sells lady bug colonies in SA please let me know.

Here are the pics:

Bomb the whole growroom with pyrol 

[ExoticCannabis2021]

Nope I went hard with Ludwigs. Also had thrips a while back.

It’s amazing g how quickly these buggers move on


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Okay awesome, that's good to hear. I've never had thrips before. Spider mites I have tho. And I've lost crop to them too. Think I'll give Ludwigs a try if my mites don't go away, seen as it worked for you

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[ExoticCannabis2021]

Bomb the whole growroom with pyrol 

Thanks, think I'll give that a try as well. . Thanks. Atleast now I have a few options

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[ORGANinc.]

Just now, ExoticCannabis2021 said:

Thanks, think I'll give that a try as well. . Thanks. Atleast now I have a few options

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I didn’t see you had another option abovez... rather do just one bud, pyrol is rough on the plants. Very easy to over do

[ExoticCannabis2021]

I didn’t see you had another option abovez... rather do just one bud, pyrol is rough on the plants. Very easy to over do

Thank you for the advise, I'll definitely use one at a time. My infestation in the flower tent is pretty serious though. So it will be good to try something else if one option either doesn't work for me or doesn't work quick enough. And there's only 5 weeks left before the Tortinis have to go into flower, so tick tok

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[iGrowDagga]

This is exactly what caused me to fail the previous grow off. 

I'm convinced Thrips never go away once they reach the tent, BUT, I've been spraying Neem 3x a week for a good 1-2years now and the trip population seems dead. 

We don't want to kill thrips, because that involves chemicals, the goal is to starve them to death. 

Neem makes the plant taste undesirable to them and causes the thrip colony to slowly die off.

*This round I sprayed BioNeem from day 1, just to be sure I'm clean this round. 

[ExoticCannabis2021]

This is exactly what caused me to fail the previous grow off. 
I'm convinced Thrips never go away once they reach the tent, BUT, I've been spraying Neem 3x a week for a good 1-2years now and the trip population seems dead. 
We don't want to kill thrips, because that involves chemicals, the goal is to starve them to death. 
Neem makes the plant taste undesirable to them and causes the thrip colony to slowly die off.
*This round I sprayed BioNeem from day 1, just to be sure I'm clean this round. 

Urg, that must of been pretty frustrating man. All that work for a bunch of insects to destroy your crop.

I'm glad to hear you are Thrip free now though. Even happier to know neem oil works

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[CreX]

just what ever you decide to spray... please dont spray it on your flowers? 

there are a bunch of good advices and products to use here... but spraying your flowers should be only a last resort before terminating that flower and starting over.

i have heard of a lot of people that neem makes the smoke taste bad or less nice compared to plants that were not treated with neem. Pyrol is not carcenogenic... but best be safer rather than in trouble.

and then literally everything else would be a huge nono for flowering plants

[ExoticCannabis2021]

3 hours ago, CreX said:

just what ever you decide to spray... please dont spray it on your flowers? 

there are a bunch of good advices and products to use here... but spraying your flowers should be only a last resort before terminating that flower and starting over.

i have heard of a lot of people that neem makes the smoke taste bad or less nice compared to plants that were not treated with neem. Pyrol is not carcenogenic... but best be safer rather than in trouble.

and then literally everything else would be a huge nono for flowering plants

Yeah thanks for the heads up. I did avoid spraying the flowers, and targetted leaves and stems only. There was some overspray, but i assume a little overspray is okay?

[CreX]

41 minutes ago, ExoticCannabis2021 said:

Yeah thanks for the heads up. I did avoid spraying the flowers, and targetted leaves and stems only. There was some overspray, but i assume a little overspray is okay?

should be okay man.. at least you know to be careful now

[ExoticCannabis2021]

Week 4 - Day 27(03/06/2021)

Have not been at home all week to have a look at the plants, had a friend go in and check on them.

I am aware this is not a current update and I will be at home tomorrow and will post a current update then.

 

HORTIMIX-DWC

• Looking much better. Decent growth. Nothing else checked or added

HORTIMIX-COCO

• Looking okayish. Growth still slow. Nothing else checked or added

EHG-COCO

• Looking very bad. 
• Watered with plain water PH'd to 6.0. Run off was 0.5 EC and 6.7 PH
• Watered with plain water PH.d to 5.5 until Run off was measured to EC 0.2 and PH 6.2.
• Pics to be added below

 

 

Edited June 6, 2021 by ExoticCannabis2021
Incorrect date on post

[ExoticCannabis2021]

Week 5 - Day30 (06/06/2021)

Back at home and spent some time in the tent catching up and making corrections.

HORTIMIX-DWC

• Reservoir is at 0.4EC and 6.0PH. Lost about 1L of water. No changes made to reservoir.
• Pest have definitely increased, Neem oil seems to have not done much. Thrips have definitely increased and also noticing 1 or 2 spider mites

HORTIMIX-COCO

• Watered with plain water PH'd to 6.0, Runoff measured at 0.2EC, 6.3PH. No more changes
• Pest have definitely increased, Neem oil seems to have not done much.

EHG-COCO

• Watered with plain water PH'd to 6.0, Runoff measured at 0.2EC, 6.5PH. Rewatered until runoff was 6.3PH (Have noticed some PH fluctuations here, going to water once every two days and monitor)
• No decrease in pests
• Not looking the best, but still think i can save her

Pics to follow

 

Edited June 6, 2021 by ExoticCannabis2021

[ExoticCannabis2021]

Week 5 - Day33 (09/06/2021)

 

HORTIMIX-DWC

• No feeding or measurements taken
• Pest have definitely increased, 

HORTIMIX-COCO

• No feeding or measurements taken
• No change in growth
• Pest have definitely increased.

EHG-COCO

• Watered with plain water PH'd to 6.0, Runoff measured at 0.2EC, 6.2PH. 
• Pest have definitely increased.
• No change in growth

 

[ExoticCannabis2021]

Week 6 - Day36 (12/06/2021)

HORTIMIX-DWC

• No feeding or measurements taken
• Pest have definitely increased, 

HORTIMIX-COCO

• No feeding or measurements taken
• No change in growth
• Pest have definitely increased.

EHG-COCO

• Watered with plain water PH'd to 6.0, Runoff measured at 0.2EC, 6.2PH. 
• Pest have definitely increased.
• No change in growth

Pest have now gotten out of control. Theres thousands of them in the Flower tent. They are all over the place. All plants in the flower tent will be thrown out. The flower tent will be cleaned and santized. 

All plants in the veg tent will be removed. The tent itself will be santized and the plants will be reintroduced back into the tent. Predatory mites will also now be introduced. New pics will follow after the cleaning of the tents. For now this is the current state

[CreX]

eish brother man!! those pests sound like they are already making your life and passion difficult!

what have you got for pests other than sticky traps?

[Stinger96]

Ah sorry man. How you finding the Biobee predatory mites? How long have the sachets been in the tent and have you seen any improvement?

[CreX]

30 minutes ago, Stinger96 said:

Ah sorry man. How you finding the Biobee predatory mites? How long have the sachets been in the tent and have you seen any improvement?

They work... but will take 3-6 weeks with re-inoculations in order for them to be effective

[Stinger96]

Holy shit.. That long..?

[ExoticCannabis2021]

1 hour ago, CreX said:

eish brother man!! those pests sound like they are already making your life and passion difficult!

what have you got for pests other than sticky traps?

Other than fly traps, nothing really. I tried neem oil 2 weeks ago but the spider mites just came back with a vengeance really. Within +-2 weeks all plants in flower were gone. So yesterday i've scraped the flower tent and disinfected with F10 pet santizer, followed by San-O- Agri (suggested by Hortis shop). And lastly with a 25% concentration of need oil.  The tent is empty now. Going to repeat Sanitisation over the coming week

1 hour ago, Stinger96 said:

Ah sorry man. How you finding the Biobee predatory mites? How long have the sachets been in the tent and have you seen any improvement?

On Sat i added three Sachets.

Yesterday i opened one and toppled them onto some plants to make sure they are actually alive. Then i added another 11 sachets to the veg tent. I have about 15 plants in total and i've added a total of 15 sachets. More or less 1 per plant. 15 is abit of an overkill but i cant lose the rest of these plants. I've seen no changes just yet

Hortishop said they dont reproduce without pollen so they need to be replaced every 2 weeks. Ive bought 4 flowering daisy plants (2 for veg tent and 2 for flower) and 18 small marigold plants which ill be introducing and i hope the daisies atleast will help maintain a colony over time. However ill be replacing with 8-10 sachets every 2 weeks for the next 2 months - depending on stock availability obv

Edited June 14, 2021 by ExoticCannabis2021

[CreX]

30 minutes ago, ExoticCannabis2021 said:

Other than fly traps, nothing really. I tried neem oil 2 weeks ago but the spider mites just came back with a vengeance really. Within +-2 weeks all plants in flower were gone. So yesterday i've scraped the flower tent and disinfected with F10 pet santizer, followed by San-O- Agri (suggested by Hortis shop). And lastly with a 25% concentration of need oil.  The tent is empty now. Going to repeat Sanitisation over the coming week

On Sat i added three Sachets.

Yesterday i opened one and toppled them onto some plants to make sure they are actually alive. Then i added another 11 sachets to the veg tent. I have about 15 plants in total and i've added a total of 15 sachets. More or less 1 per plant. 15 is abit of an overkill but i cant lose the rest of these plants. I've seen no changes just yet

Hortishop said they dont reproduce without pollen so they need to be replaced every 2 weeks. Ive bought 4 flowering daisy plants (2 for veg tent and 2 for flower) and 18 small marigold plants which ill be introducing and i hope the daisies atleast will help maintain a colony over time. However ill be replacing with 8-10 sachets every 2 weeks for the next 2 months - depending on stock availability obv

no offense... but you just opened up a huge hole in your pocket there man!! those live goggas are not cheap...and at having to replace every 2 weeks... even with pollen flowers in your grow it is going to be hard... firstly the goggas may prefer the pollen to the goggas...secondly, why move so much when the pollen is right here already? you may just have super healthy daisy's with no pests, and your cannabis may still have loads of bugs on them that the predator bugs may no longer be interested in because of the lovely flowers you gave them

[CreX]

1 hour ago, Stinger96 said:

Holy shit.. That long..?

sadly yes... even tho they are predator bugs... they are still tiny AF and take time to find their food... and they also get full of bugs and stop eating for a while to digest before they find the next bug... they cant fly so they need to crawl all over the plant which is pretty time consuming... like it could take 10 min for the bug to crawl to the stem and another 10 min to get down to the soil medium... and in all that time it may not even feed... 

for predator bugs to be effecient, you will need to create a mini eco system in order for them to thrive, and that will take up a lot of space as well... so like @ExoticCannabis2021 said, he will be reintroducing more and more until the issue is resolved.

 

for a home grower, i dont think predator mites are the way to go for cost effectiveness vs reliability vs efficacy 

[ExoticCannabis2021]

3 hours ago, CreX said:

no offense... but you just opened up a huge hole in your pocket there man!! those live goggas are not cheap...and at having to replace every 2 weeks... even with pollen flowers in your grow it is going to be hard... firstly the goggas may prefer the pollen to the goggas...secondly, why move so much when the pollen is right here already? you may just have super healthy daisy's with no pests, and your cannabis may still have loads of bugs on them that the predator bugs may no longer be interested in because of the lovely flowers you gave them

i agree with the hole in the pocket. But losing crop in flower cost much more.

And i definitely didn't do my research about the pollen. They attendent said they dont reproduce without pollen so im like okay let me just add pollen, then i dont have to keep buying the fuckers. In my head it was a once of cost. Definitely didnt consider any of your points

Most of the chemicals arent flower safe, so how to i treat a spider mite infestion in flower ? And i know i already have spider mites in the veg tent. If i spray the plants with all the chemicals suggested in veg am i garuanteed to destroy all traces of spider mites ?

I haven't had to deal with level of pests before so at this point i'm just trying everything people suggest until something works

Spider mites seem like they are here to stick around so ill have to have find a way to deal with them through out the entire grow cycle

[ExoticCannabis2021]

oh and no offense taken. I welcome the criticism. Its constructive

[CreX]

the chemical i suggested will wipe those fuckers right out like a hose pipe takes away mud off a window...it would be like you never had them