Sweet Lady Jane Mites & Marijuana Mildew

[Cat Jockey]

Just sharing some of my experience for fellow underground farmers. Colorado has gotten fucking invaded in the last couple years by mites and mildew. This is from the huge influx of Cali clones that came in when the dispensary craze hit a couple years ago. A whole bunch of Colorado growers saying, 'What the fuck is this Powedery Mildew Shit?'

Well, that Powdery Mildew Shit is what I call Marijuana Mildew. And them little fuckers that are now everyfuckingwhere are Sweet Lady Jane Mites. They have evovled, adapted. These little fuckers eat pyrithum for breakfast. It puts hair on their sacks and makes them horny. Don't even bother with pyr based shit anymore on - you'll just feed the little fuckers and laugh at you.

How do you beat 'em? I was dealing with 40 + mothers, some in verticle lighting and RWDC, some in Ebb&Flow, some in dirt. And shelves holding trays of clones. Scary 4 digit number shit if the feds walked in and starting counting. Was being the operative word. That shit ain't no mo'. Closed down. However, I got to try about 5 gazillion different fucking ways to kill these little shitheads and the MJ mildew.

These little fuckers have evolved. They have adapted. They are the Borg. These are Sweet Lady Jane specific spider mites. I have got lots of sweet, big house plants that have walked by bazillions of times crawling with the little fuckers all over me. Never a Sweet Lady Jane mite on any of them. They want MJ and MJ alone. They are specialized.

They are also used to a bunch of fuggin' stoners doing half assed jobs trying to eradicate them which has allowed the strong to survive. The ones that laugh at p-bombs. I don't claim to have tried it all, but the two things I have settled upon that gives people, especially my fellow Coloradans, an actual chance of elimintaing the Borg from their garden.

AzaMax from GH. This is an antifeedant, growth regulator, sex drive and maturation fuckerupper. It is used as a foilar spray and/or in your nute mix to become systemic. I have only used it to foilar feed as the smallest res I ever fuck with is 50 gallons and to feed it systemically it is ALOT per gallon and would be one pricey res change. I have used as a foilar spray with great results though. It will stress plants though and I do not recommend using past the 4th week of flowering. It will not instantly kill them, it prevents their continual breeding, so you will see live mites for a few days - don't worry, their days are numbered, they just don't know it. As far as negative effects, if you really coat the plant, which you need to do - spray the shit out of it - within about 24 hours, you will see the onset of what looks like the 'ol Claw from overnuting. This will further develop to the leaf tips really curling under even further. They will not recover, but don't worry minor damage compared to the mites.

If you are soil, definitely feed it in your nutes. It is economical for non-hydro and becomes systemic.

Next thing that still works in complete eradication are the No Pest Hot Shot strips. You need a realtively sealed grow room though and remeber that each one is good for about 1000 cubic feet, so you need a few of them. Hanging and some down low to get underneath the canopy. Kills the fuckers dead. Again, not past 4th week, unless you have no choice and then I suggest 7 days exposure.

One other thing about Hot Shot is that it has inhibited PM spores. Plants whose leaves are exposed to the hot shot vapors will not spore and further infect your garden. One other thing that I found for 100% gauranteed kill the PM infection systemic within the plant with one application was a combination of DM Pentrator & DM Zone. Which sucks 'cause DM changed their shit a little bit back and now all you can get is Saturator (there new Penetrator) and Gold Range Zone which is a different recipe than the old black label Zone.

You see a black label bottle of Zone sitting on a hydro shelf, grab it as it is PM destroying goodness. The new recipe is not as effective. It works, but not as well on larger plants by foilar feeding. Cuttings, it still kicks ass though. Mix bottle rate of Saturator + 25mL per gallon of Zone and dunk cutting completly and swirl around. PM inside of cutting now dead. So are any mite riders and eggs that get suffocated by the Saturator.

Get serious about the shit. Don't freak out on me and go all Lady Gaia bullshit decrying the poisonous vapors of Hot Shot strips and smoking them, blah, blah, blah. Yea, its poison. It needs to be. You are trying to kill things. Fortunately, we are really, really, really big compared to a mite. Water is toxic too, if you drink to much. So is salt, etc. Point being if you are a real stoner, the amount of residue from a 4th week Hot Shot or AzaMax treatment, is not even a drop in the bucket compared to all the shit you have smoked on Mexican Schwag and amature growers.

Ya ain't going to die - but the little fucking Borg will. And if you do it right, you only need to do it once and be done with it.

[A Bloke Down The Pub]

Leaving aside the whole "nasty poison, don't want that anywhere near me" kind of talk........

The one thing I've found that DOES work for spidermites is pure neem oil.
Needs to be cold pressed oil, and if you're an Earth-friendly sort, you'll probably want it organic, too.

1 teaspoons of oil, 1/2 teaspoon of dish detergent, 1 litre water. - spray every 4-5 days for at least 20 days, and the little buggers are gone.
The first spraying gets most of them (takes 2-3 days to work) and the subsequent sprays get any that hatch from the eggs left behind.

As you say, permethrin based foggers and sprays seem do very little to mites (except possibly make them a bit groggy, and kill off the senile ones (a bit like a British winter)

Neem oil is pretty cheap compared with most commercial stuff (£20 for a litre on e-bay) and breaks down quite quickly, so there aren't any problems with residue.
It stinks like buggery when you put it on (like rotting onions), but soon fades, and I haven't been able to detect any off-flavours in the end product.

Powdery Mildew?
Never had a problem with it, so I have no advice to give (although I think I read that wiping the leaves with milk helps?? )

[WhiteHotAfterburner]

Why no mention of Diatomaceous Earth (also known as diatomite or kieselgur)?

It's natural and the little fuckers have to walk everywhere they go so it is unavoidable that they must navigate through it to get to the ladies (and gents where applicable) thereby committing suicide in the process...

IF ever I have the opportunity to grow again I'm going to try it and retain this information you've both provided as back-up

Thanks!

,
WHAB

[WhiteHotAfterburner]

why you gotta be hatin?
you sound like a fuckin racist,
except that you're all about Coloradans,
and your sworn enemy is Californians.
how do you know that these aren't common problems in other states as well?
how dare you generalize and blame it all on Californians...
"fuggin' stoners doing half assed jobs..."?
and besides that, your advice is pretty fuckin weak.
i could recommend some better products,
but considering your highly offensive attitude, why the hell should i bother?
you've got it all under control anyway, right?
& good luck with that cancer down the road, Hot Shot.

I know where he's coming from as I saw it first hand. Very many clones came from California (especially when things started blowing up a few years ago). Many of those clones came with mites.

That's not to say mites are not indigenous to Colorado, because I believe they are, but they didn't need the additional problems from ANY other state.

,
WHAB

[A Bloke Down The Pub]

Why no mention of Diatomaceous Earth (also known as diatomite or kieselgur)?

I've used it, but only on the soil and surroundings, to stop them walking between plants.

It's said to be safe, and probably works well, but I'm rather reluctant to sprinkle the leaves of plants I'll be smoking with tiny, razor sharp little shells.
I find it difficult to believe they're not damaging if they find their way into lungs.
I don't have any evidence to support that view, but I still don't like the idea.

[WhiteHotAfterburner]

Why no mention of Diatomaceous Earth (also known as diatomite or kieselgur)?

I've used it, but only on the soil and surroundings, to stop them walking between plants.

It's said to be safe, and probably works well, but I'm rather reluctant to sprinkle the leaves of plants I'll be smoking with tiny, razor sharp little shells.
I find it difficult to believe they're not damaging if they find their way into lungs.
I don't have any evidence to support that view, but I still don't like the idea.

The idea I have in my head is to make it impossible for them to ever make their way to the plants. Set up a perimeter of DE (doorways, entrance-ways and window ledges) and on the medium (as you say you do) where possible. Not on the plants themselves.

As I understand it they are microscopic particles and we are HUGE humans If one were to ingest it by the spoonful there might be problems, but otherwise I see none.

IF one were to put it on the plants themselves I imagine a puff of compressed air would surely clear it from the plant? You don't even have to own a compressor. You'd just have to own a portable storage device...

5 Gal Portable Air Storage Tank
http://www.amazon.com/BE-Pressure-Porta ... B001CYIOXS" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It need not be that one ^ ^ ^ specifically, but anything that does the same job. They can be had fairly cheaply or even for free on craigslist.org. Fill it up at your local petrol station (with free air, preferably) take it home and blow the shit out of your plants

^ ^ ^ all theoretical as I've not used it myself, yet ...but, I have ruminated over it for some time...

,
WHAB

[Munchy]

why not just try using the right tools for the job?
if you need to kill mites, use a MITICIDE!
if you need to kill fungi, use a FUNGICIDE!

btw last year, i luckily scored a couple of 2-gallon jugs of DE, on a 1-cent clearance sale at my local auto parts store! so what i do just for the hell of it, is sprinkle a thin layer across the top of my soil/perlite mix, especially around the main-stem, but not on the plant, and then i add another thin layer of perlite on top of that, while wearing a surgical mask, of course. but if you have any problem with PM, the last thing you want to do is start blowing the spores around... in fact, you'll want to turn off any fans except for the exhaust blower.

i recall seeing those supermites once, they're really big and fast... i even watched one do a fuckin break-dance for me under the magnifier glass... it was wild! i heard they came from the emerald triangle, but they didn't get too far around here, as i simply Forbid them to stay... which isn't a problem, if you use a good miticide. but i haven't seen any mites for a long time, since i last used Forbid that i got from ebay. i also got the Azatrol & Avid to switch off with, but whenever i see any mites, only a few drops of the Forbid knocks them right out for months... from a single application during early veg will last all the way thru harvest and even thru a few generations of clones! it's a spray on systemic by absorbing right thru the top side of the leafs, which kills mites immediately as well as their eggs, and there's no claw effect, nor any other ill effects from it, unless you're a beekeeper. but i've never heard of applying a systemic insecticide or miticide by feeding it to the roots!

& PM has been cropping up everywhere due to the weather conditions lately, even the grow store guy said everyone has been getting it lately, and not necessarily by getting clones either, but just like spontaneously under certain temp/humidity conditions. the last time i had seen any PM was back in 2001! I had some Volck Oil spray on hand which was highly effective, but when i let that lapse, and the PM did return recently, i did a little online research on it (check out the links below) and went and got some Fung-onil fungicide (suitable for fruits & veggies) which is apparently doing the trick.

http://gardening.about.com/od/gardenpro ... Mildew.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/FactShee ... owdery.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sheets ... ildew.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/02902.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In Colorado, powdery mildews are common on ash, lilac, grape, roses, turfgrass, vegetables (such as cucurbits and peas), euonymus, cherry, apple, crabapple, pear and Virginia creeper, among others.

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05507.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Spider mites are common pest problems on many plants around yards and gardens in Colorado. (11/06)

oh & btw, not all of us Cali canna growers are "fuggin' stoners doing half assed jobs"... although i'd bet that every state, including Colorado, has their fair share of them. and i'd think that most savvy growers would have the good common sense to give any incoming clones a very close inspection, a precautionary insecticide &/or miticide spray-down, and a good period of segregation... or i dunno, maybe that's just a Cali thing... or maybe you guys are just kinda new at growing, or perhaps mentally challenged, or most likely you're just too fuckin lazy to bother following such a standard protocol in your superior state? but i'm sure that there are many here like myself, who are chronically ill, and don't have a caregiver or anyone else to grow for them, nor the funds to go buy from the cannabis clubs, and so we really have to struggle through the pain, out of pure necessity, just to grow enough for our own personal medicine. someday the when the little haters grow up, their bad karma from it will likely come back around, and then maybe they'll even get their chance to feel so much pain every day, that they'll be lucky if they can grow enough to make ends meet for their own meds... and then i'll bet they change their fuckin tune... or else they'll probably just go find another 40 million people to blame all of their new problems on.

[jesus]

"How do you beat 'em?"

Read them any one of your posts.

Or PYRETHRUM based foggers twice. One week to 10 days apart. Works EVERYTIME.

[Cat Jockey]

Lol, I pissed of some Cali folks, eh?

ust sharing some of my experience for fellow underground farmers. Colorado has gotten fucking invaded in the last couple years by mites and mildew. This is from the huge influx of Cali clones that came in when the dispensary craze hit a couple years ago. A whole bunch of Colorado growers saying, 'What the fuck is this Powedery Mildew Shit?'

Shit happened. I watched it live, and I was pumping out x,xxx clones/week in a 10,000W Mother Room that had at least 60 strains at one time, a 24 site RDWC (that I ran 24 different strains in), Ebb & Flow and Dirt (PPV, so not dirt or soil, really). Cry me a fuckin' river if you don't like me telling the truth. Colorado got bombarded with PM infected clones carrying spider mites that ate normal p-bombs for lunch, and it acted as an aphrodisiac, lol. This is from not doing a thorough job, ya know, a halfassed job.

Dutch Master's Zone and Penetrator (or Satrurator, can't remember which name was first, now) mixed up USED to be a 100% cure for PM and mites. I used to set up a 5 gallon bucket of with it mixed up, and every cutting got dipped in it. Plants with PM or mites got the foilar-fuck sprayed outta them. When they changed the formula for Zone (Zone beats the shit out of Roots Excel, IMO) and did the name change for Pentrator/Saturator, it was no longer 100%. Still was effective, but needed multiple applications.

Don't know what was in it that worked, and picked that up on ICMAG years ago, and the plants never showed any negative effects from Zone being foilar fed.

I saw some bullshit when I was skimming about PM in Colorado. What the fuck ever. The Front Range (Denver) is 5" of precipitation away from being classified as a Desert, instead of Arid. PM is at home in that humid environment of Northern Cali, though.

Relax, my Cali Brother and Sisters. I don;t hate ya, I just don;t like all ya'll taking credit for Colorado Strains, like OG Kush and all of the Deisel strains. OG Kush has it origins in some weed grown in Durango in the late 80's, which was a Mountain Bike Mecca at the time. The Diesels all come from the Crusty Butt area, Crested Butte. If what I said earlier pissed you off, that outta really get ya, eh? Me telling you that OG and the Diesels are good 'ol Colorado Mountain Tick Stains. PM and mite free, of course, lol ...

[BCbudinTO]

Interesting, good info, Thanks CJ.

I do know that DE can be harmful to humans as well, being a super fine powder it can have negative effects on your lungs if you breathe it in. Not fatal but not terribly pleasant either.