1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kindsoil

[Van Stank]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

LMAO, that is the plan.....let them eat every last one of them. Less work we have to do!

 

[Pennywise]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

We'll need video of the carnage lol

 

[Van Stank]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

Thats the plan brother.....I want to capture video of these little bastages being eaten alive!

 

[Pennywise]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

Lol karma sucks

 

[Van Stank]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

OK, I released the predator mites right after the lights went out for the girls nap time! Let the carnage begin!!! (Hopefully)

 

[Van Stank]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

So, no clue as to how the battle with the mites is going. I figured it was best to let the predator mites do their thing and just leave them alone. It kills me not to cut some leaves off and take a look under the microscope. Hope they are doing their thing and I can flip these things into flower!

 

[Pennywise]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

Im sure they are, give them a day or 2 then check.

 

[Van Stank]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

Yeah thats the hard part....I want them fuckers gone!! I wanted these damn things in flower already. Only time will tell. I will wait until tomorrow before I start cutting off any of the leaves and checking to see what kind of carnage there is. If these don't work, its back to spraying again.

 

[Guy Cavallero]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

This is the stuff I was talking about the other day. Another source of chitin to feed from. This is insect waste product and claims to have significant properties to help fend off pests.

Organic Nutrients Insect Frass -
100% Organic, All Natural, Fertilizer

 

[Van Stank]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

Thanks for sharing it brother. Checking it out now. I still have two more products coming in case the predator mites don't work. I was also reading you can kill them with straight water.....just spray the living shit out of them regularly with water. I don't like the idea of using chemical based stuff but I don't want to risk losing the plants to these bastards.

 

[Guy Cavallero]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

Thanks for sharing it brother. Checking it out now. I still have two more products coming in case the predator mites don't work. I was also reading you can kill them with straight water.....just spray the living shit out of them regularly with water. I don't like the idea of using chemical based stuff but I don't want to risk losing the plants to these bastards.

I read the testimonials, although none of them were about mites, they did mention fungus gnats and how well it worked on those.....food for thought, I'm pencil in it into my shopping list for now lol.....unless you discover something horrible about it.

 

[Van Stank]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

It looks good, certainly something I would be willing to try!!

 

[Van Stank]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

I added the Crab meal/Shrimp meal for a lot of the same benefits (I had hoped)....but perhaps its just not good for spider mites. The Crab/Shrimp meal has a good amount of Chitin in it

 

[TheFertilizer]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

Is this the soil you amended neem seed meal into?

I fight spider mites with neem oil. A lot of people will suggest that neem doesn't kill them but only prevents them, but I've found this to be untrue. The trick to using neem is emulsification. Most people don't emulsify it with soap before use, and so it just is never properly applied or absorbed by the plant. Tead is a member here who I gleamed this recipe off...

Both into a gallon:
Foliar spray: 1 Tsp Neem oil 2 Tsp Dish Soap ( Use Palmolive Biodegradable so it's kind to the microbes, no anti-bacterial soap ) and mix these together until milky white or yellow. It should look a little like vanilla pudding.
Root drench (my preference) 2 Tsp Neem oil 3-4 Tsp Dish Soap, same milky white mix.

You want the mix to be closer to pale yellow than a bold yellow, just add more soap until it is.

I've been using this for a while now and don't have any spider mite problems. Before I use to run into them every grow and try to knock them out with pyrethrin foggers and the like. I tried lady bugs too but the problem with lady bugs is they just end up farming the mites like live stock.

Hopefully you won't have the same problem with your custom soil and the neem seed meal in there.

 

[Guy Cavallero]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

It looks good, certainly something I would be willing to try!!

Yeah for sure. Just like the multi tiered plan to rid yourself of those little picks, why not try the same type of approach for prevention.

 

[Van Stank]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

Is this the soil you amended neem seed meal into?

I fight spider mites with neem oil. A lot of people will suggest that neem doesn't kill them but only prevents them, but I've found this to be untrue. The trick to using neem is emulsification. Most people don't emulsify it with soap before use, and so it just is never properly applied or absorbed by the plant. Tead is a member here who I gleamed this recipe off...

Both into a gallon:
Foliar spray: 1 Tsp Neem oil 2 Tsp Dish Soap ( Use Palmolive Biodegradable so it's kind to the microbes, no anti-bacterial soap ) and mix these together until milky white or yellow. It should look a little like vanilla pudding.
Root drench (my preference) 2 Tsp Neem oil 3-4 Tsp Dish Soap, same milky white mix.

You want the mix to be closer to pale yellow than a bold yellow, just add more soap until it is.

I've been using this for a while now and don't have any spider mite problems. Before I use to run into them every grow and try to knock them out with pyrethrin foggers and the like. I tried lady bugs too but the problem with lady bugs is they just end up farming the mites like live stock.

Hopefully you won't have the same problem with your custom soil and the neem seed meal in there.

A root drench huh? So what is the science behind that? Not knocking it, just trying to understand it. So you water like normal with neem oil and a little soap? And the plant drinks the neem oil and what?......the smell or taste is the repellent to the mites? Is that how it works? What is the purpose of the soap when feeding to the roots? I understand the role of the soap as it pertains to foliar sprays...I use it for my hot pepper spray on my outdoors garden to fend off squirrels and chipmunks. Just trying to understand the 'whys' in doing something brother. Thanks for any clarification you can provide.

 

[Van Stank]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

Yeah for sure. Just like the multi tiered plan to rid yourself of those little picks, why not try the same type of approach for prevention.

I definitely plan on taking a more proactive approach to prevention. I plan on doing regular sprays in the future when I bring the girls down for watering or training. Just take a few extra minutes and spray them well, especially when they are young and its not as difficult to get under each leaf. Now that they are a lot bigger.....its definitely much harder to get under every leaf. If I can add something else to the soil that will aid in that goal, I am all for it!!

 

[TheFertilizer]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

A root drench huh? So what is the science behind that? Not knocking it, just trying to understand it. So you water like normal with neem oil and a little soap? And the plant drinks the neem oil and what?......the smell or taste is the repellent to the mites? Is that how it works? What is the purpose of the soap when feeding to the roots? I understand the role of the soap as it pertains to foliar sprays...I use it for my hot pepper spray on my outdoors garden to fend off squirrels and chipmunks. Just trying to understand the 'whys' in doing something brother. Thanks for any clarification you can provide.

Well neem oil's main ingredient is azadirachtin and when the plant absorbs this through its roots ( or leaves ) it stays in the plant tissue. When pests then eat the plant tissue they ingest this chemical as well. There's a lot of different information on what the poison does to them; I've heard it simply makes them unable to breed, but I've also heard it basically drives them crazy and makes them eat each other. Pretty sure there's more truth in between because they don't like it at all.

The soap is just to emulsify the neem oil because it's so hydrophobic, and without it would stay in big globs in the water and be difficult for the plant to take in. When used in a foliar spray it also helps it adhere to the leaf surface, but for the roots it's really just a matter of more evenly distributing the neem oil throughout the mixture. Otherwise it can be so concentrated it could cause root damage or just not be absorbed properly.

Neem works a little bit as a contact killer to by clogging insect pores so there's some function of it as a contact killer, but soap also does this, so if you emulsify with insecticidal soap you basically have a doubly strong contact-killing spray with a systemic benefit afterward. It's a good idea to do both since the foliar spray will knock out a large amount of the living pests ( remember to do another spray in 1-3 days to get the generation that hatched ) and then it will also leave azadirachtin in the plant tissue for future generations of pests to eat and die from.

Really the most important aspect of using neem is the emulsification with soap. I hear people knock it all the time and they are always missing the emulsification step. I use root drenches just to not have to waste that much into a gallon since my garden isn't big, but it will also enable you to give neem treatment late in flower.

 

[Van Stank]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

Well neem oil's main ingredient is azadirachtin and when the plant absorbs this through its roots ( or leaves ) it stays in the plant tissue. When pests then eat the plant tissue they ingest this chemical as well. There's a lot of different information on what the poison does to them; I've heard it simply makes them unable to breed, but I've also heard it basically drives them crazy and makes them eat each other. Pretty sure there's more truth in between because they don't like it at all.

The soap is just to emulsify the neem oil because it's so hydrophobic, and without it would stay in big globs in the water and be difficult for the plant to take in. When used in a foliar spray it also helps it adhere to the leaf surface, but for the roots it's really just a matter of more evenly distributing the neem oil throughout the mixture. Otherwise it can be so concentrated it could cause root damage or just not be absorbed properly.

Neem works a little bit as a contact killer to by clogging insect pores so there's some function of it as a contact killer, but soap also does this, so if you emulsify with insecticidal soap you basically have a doubly strong contact-killing spray with a systemic benefit afterward. It's a good idea to do both since the foliar spray will knock out a large amount of the living pests ( remember to do another spray in 1-3 days to get the generation that hatched ) and then it will also leave azadirachtin in the plant tissue for future generations of pests to eat and die from.

Really the most important aspect of using neem is the emulsification with soap. I hear people knock it all the time and they are always missing the emulsification step. I use root drenches just to not have to waste that much into a gallon since my garden isn't big, but it will also enable you to give neem treatment late in flower.

Thanks for the information Fert! I completely get the soap on the leaves, though I have to say I haven't been doing that on my previous sprays with neem oil. As I said, I do it with my hot pepper spray for the furry pests I have in my outdoor garden. I just got another product I ordered for the pests today. AzaMax.....like you are saying it can be used both as a foliar spray or a root drench. Once my predator mites are done munching on these little bastages, I will start doing the foliar sprays. In the mean time I will start doing a root drench on the plants. Again, thank you for the detailed response brother!!

 

[TheFertilizer]

Re: 1st Grow - Alaskan Thunderfuck x4 - Durban Poison - Blue Kush & Blueberry In Kind

Thanks for the information Fert! I completely get the soap on the leaves, though I have to say I haven't been doing that on my previous sprays with neem oil. As I said, I do it with my hot pepper spray for the furry pests I have in my outdoor garden. I just got another product I ordered for the pests today. AzaMax.....like you are saying it can be used both as a foliar spray or a root drench. Once my predator mites are done munching on these little bastages, I will start doing the foliar sprays. In the mean time I will start doing a root drench on the plants. Again, thank you for the detailed response brother!!

No problemo, man. Yeah a lot of people haven't heard of the importance of soap for emulsifying the neem, or just don't realize how important the emulsification step really is. Tead filled me in on that one so I try to pay it forward. I read a post from Clackamas Coots regarding using biodegradable soap so you don't upset your microorganisms with an anti-bacterial soap, but you can also use a silica supplement--it's just with the amounts needed to properly emulsify you might use way too much, so I'd stick with soap.

Azamax is essentially extracted azadirachtin and mixed into a bottle ready to be diluted and used. Most people are familiar with root drenches using this product and I wouldn't hesitate to just use it over neem oil. I only really go for neem oil because it's cheaper. Since it's concentrated it should last you longer, but I've never used it and I'm not sure what concentrations will be safe. Should give you a more potent kick for an established infestation though. Again I'd do both a spray and root drench with it, because you want that contact-killing to knock out as much of the population as you can initially.

Clackamas Coot's soil recipe uses neem cake and he suggests that the systemic absobrtion of azadirachtin can be obtained through that as well. So I am hoping that with my next soil mix using Neem Seed Meal that it will have built-in azadirachtin absorption. I have been following your soil making blog post and saw you included some too.

There's a real wealth of information about neem cake also helping out your soil's biolife, but you'd have to google to find the thread since I can't link to those forums here. But I Cann tell you that if you google "Neem Oil vs Mycorrhizae" you can find the thread chalked full of information.

I also have some white-papers on my hard-drive that cite some other documents showing sysmetic uptake of azadirachtin if you'd like to take a peak but I'd have to hunt them down. It's all on Google though.