PESTS
Chances are we have all suffered pests and if you havent the chances are even better that you will. I personally have suffered pests in about 40% of my grows and so I will cover some of the pests I have encountered and how I got rid of them. I will also share some remedies for pests that others I know have dealt with and share their remedies. If it becomes a wall of text I will break it into more manageable posts but in the blog it will all be in 1 single post.
The most common and possibly the deadliest pest to not only your garden but to you is humans. The reason I say this is because a bug may kill your plants but they cant throw you in jail put fines on you and genuinely mess up your life. The ideal best policy is to not let anyone you know(off the net) that you grow.If they arent on the lease then they dont need to know. They may be a honest person and cool with it but word will spread and then you are opening yourself for thieves,narcs,cops who will raid you in order to pretend that they matter even if they personally disagree with the drug policy they will tow the line for that government money.
Fungus mold and bacteria and their spores will seriously mess up your crop. They will slowly creep without notice and by the time you do notice it may be to late. They are especially devastating in the flowering phase. Ive dealt with mold 1 time but it developed post harvest in the leaves and it was because they werent aired out and there were to much in the container I used to hold them but all in all not a huge loss since I smoke the leaves when the buds get low. I also had fungus 1 time but that was also post harvest in the stem that I left in the dirt after I cut the plant it developed a week or so after harvest because I was busy with the harvest and didnt clean up right away. Now I clean up right away after I hang the plants by the stem. The best way to combat these pests is to try not to let them get a foothold in the firstplace. This involves using clean clippers and containers you use to grow in as well as disinfecting the grow area. Some people even bug bomb prior to planting. Good ventilation in your garden also helps constant circulating air will keep the humidity down. Make sure to clean any old dead leaves out of the garden as those are good food for bugs and molds to set in. Never give them any ground. Leaves hanging down into the soil is a great way to get fungus and necrosis and that is one of the reasons a lot of growers clear the undergrowth to get the air circulating under there. Also reusing your soils is a bad thing. If you use someone elses clones you really should quarantine them from the other plants to make sure you arent inviting a infestation into your garden. Dont wear the clothes you wore outside into your indoor garden as bugs cling onto clothes.
Mites are treated like insects but they are actually arachnids and are 8 legged cousins of spiders. Mites live on the bottoms of the leaves they are usually black red or brown. Mites are incredibly tiny and so they usually arent discovered until you see the silk webbing on the leaves. Another way to tell you have mites is blemishes on the leaves which are caused from them sucking the juices from the bottoms of leaves.
Aphids appear on plants because ants actually herd them to your plants. It is a sybiotic relationship in which the ants herd the aphids and as a reward the ants eat the liquid the aphids secrete and that liquid then encourages fungus to grow
Whiteflies are tiny moths (I believe) that are about 1/10th of a inch in size they are white in color. The way you can be certain you have these is because if you shake the plant by the main stem they will start flying about. If you have a vacuum with a hose extension you can shake the plant and suck them out of the air with the hose. It might be tedious but I always prefer harmless methods over potentially poisonous insecticides.
In my experience and I feel in most growers experience fungus gnats are the most common of the pests. I hate these little dudes. They are attracted to soil so Im not sure if hydro growers get them. If you have these it is usually because your soil is to wet and they will burrow into the soil so when you water they will start to fly. You can get rid of these by letting your soil dry and using yellow sticky cards as a perimeter to the grow area. You can also improve air circulation. Ive read about people putting a potatoes on their soil or using a top layer of sand to dry them up. I can't personally attest to these methods but feel free to try them out
Some homemade insecticides
Garlic water insecticide
Skin a clove of garlic then mash them up well. Add the well mashed garlic to boiling water and let it steep for 15 minutes. Use a strainer to strain out the garlic so just the water passes through the strainer then add to spray bottle.
Tobacco water insecticide
Take some tobacco and place it in a tea filter or I suppose you could put it in a coffee filter and staple it closed. Put it into the container and pour boiling water on it and let that steep for about 10 minutes then strain that into the spray bottle.
Soap water insecticide
Mix a tablespoon of dish soap per every quart of water you use mix it well leave on plants for 20 minutes and then spray that with clean water to eliminate the soapy residue. This will dry out the bugs.
Chances are we have all suffered pests and if you havent the chances are even better that you will. I personally have suffered pests in about 40% of my grows and so I will cover some of the pests I have encountered and how I got rid of them. I will also share some remedies for pests that others I know have dealt with and share their remedies. If it becomes a wall of text I will break it into more manageable posts but in the blog it will all be in 1 single post.
The most common and possibly the deadliest pest to not only your garden but to you is humans. The reason I say this is because a bug may kill your plants but they cant throw you in jail put fines on you and genuinely mess up your life. The ideal best policy is to not let anyone you know(off the net) that you grow.If they arent on the lease then they dont need to know. They may be a honest person and cool with it but word will spread and then you are opening yourself for thieves,narcs,cops who will raid you in order to pretend that they matter even if they personally disagree with the drug policy they will tow the line for that government money.
Fungus mold and bacteria and their spores will seriously mess up your crop. They will slowly creep without notice and by the time you do notice it may be to late. They are especially devastating in the flowering phase. Ive dealt with mold 1 time but it developed post harvest in the leaves and it was because they werent aired out and there were to much in the container I used to hold them but all in all not a huge loss since I smoke the leaves when the buds get low. I also had fungus 1 time but that was also post harvest in the stem that I left in the dirt after I cut the plant it developed a week or so after harvest because I was busy with the harvest and didnt clean up right away. Now I clean up right away after I hang the plants by the stem. The best way to combat these pests is to try not to let them get a foothold in the firstplace. This involves using clean clippers and containers you use to grow in as well as disinfecting the grow area. Some people even bug bomb prior to planting. Good ventilation in your garden also helps constant circulating air will keep the humidity down. Make sure to clean any old dead leaves out of the garden as those are good food for bugs and molds to set in. Never give them any ground. Leaves hanging down into the soil is a great way to get fungus and necrosis and that is one of the reasons a lot of growers clear the undergrowth to get the air circulating under there. Also reusing your soils is a bad thing. If you use someone elses clones you really should quarantine them from the other plants to make sure you arent inviting a infestation into your garden. Dont wear the clothes you wore outside into your indoor garden as bugs cling onto clothes.
Mites are treated like insects but they are actually arachnids and are 8 legged cousins of spiders. Mites live on the bottoms of the leaves they are usually black red or brown. Mites are incredibly tiny and so they usually arent discovered until you see the silk webbing on the leaves. Another way to tell you have mites is blemishes on the leaves which are caused from them sucking the juices from the bottoms of leaves.
Aphids appear on plants because ants actually herd them to your plants. It is a sybiotic relationship in which the ants herd the aphids and as a reward the ants eat the liquid the aphids secrete and that liquid then encourages fungus to grow
Whiteflies are tiny moths (I believe) that are about 1/10th of a inch in size they are white in color. The way you can be certain you have these is because if you shake the plant by the main stem they will start flying about. If you have a vacuum with a hose extension you can shake the plant and suck them out of the air with the hose. It might be tedious but I always prefer harmless methods over potentially poisonous insecticides.
In my experience and I feel in most growers experience fungus gnats are the most common of the pests. I hate these little dudes. They are attracted to soil so Im not sure if hydro growers get them. If you have these it is usually because your soil is to wet and they will burrow into the soil so when you water they will start to fly. You can get rid of these by letting your soil dry and using yellow sticky cards as a perimeter to the grow area. You can also improve air circulation. Ive read about people putting a potatoes on their soil or using a top layer of sand to dry them up. I can't personally attest to these methods but feel free to try them out
Some homemade insecticides
Garlic water insecticide
Skin a clove of garlic then mash them up well. Add the well mashed garlic to boiling water and let it steep for 15 minutes. Use a strainer to strain out the garlic so just the water passes through the strainer then add to spray bottle.
Tobacco water insecticide
Take some tobacco and place it in a tea filter or I suppose you could put it in a coffee filter and staple it closed. Put it into the container and pour boiling water on it and let that steep for about 10 minutes then strain that into the spray bottle.
Soap water insecticide
Mix a tablespoon of dish soap per every quart of water you use mix it well leave on plants for 20 minutes and then spray that with clean water to eliminate the soapy residue. This will dry out the bugs.
