I have dealt with thrips on a few occasions amblyseius cucumeris are a good predatory too they eat the shit out of thrips
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I actually don’t “till” the soil in my bins once I’ve mixed it up; I just let it sit in the bins and dump about a gallon of water on top every couple days just to make sure it doesn’t dry out.
So what you’re saying is to add those predator mites et al to that soil, correct? Or are you talking about adding it to the pots once I’ve planted in them? I’ll probably do both, actually. I already tossed four pots-worth, but I’ve still got the last three plants that I’m gonna chop tomorrow. If I can at least save that soil, that’d help. Like I said, I really am getting sick of tossing soil, mixing up new batches like every-other grow etc etc etc. Totally defeats the purpose of growing organically.
I’m also getting sick of every single one of my logs ending with,”Does anybody know what this pest is…?” haha.
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NO-TILL TIME! you could get some big ass 65gal pots like i did, buy or mix the soil once, couple bags of top dress, predators, a little ipm program, bada bing bada boom!
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But then he would miss pulling out every plant to water!!
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I believe I was told that the mites are considered generalist predators and will cannibalize each other in the absence of other food sources, but my memory may be off so grain of salt. The product that I looked up containing these mites lists a promising shelf life and is making me doubt my memory at the moment. Anyways these are typically used for control and not eradication so it’s just one layer of defense or preventative. I personally would start fresh with beneficials for the peace of mind but that’s probably not necessary. For storing soil in bins that you’re watering I like the idea of nematodes the most, assuming they are alive and viable (as @supershitfuck said avoid amazon or shady dealers with old inventory) Also ideally delaying application of predatory mites and or rove beetles until the soil is in the smart pots if possible, but they would do fine in the bins too. The mites don’t travel deep in the soil so providing a lot of surface area would be a good idea if possible.
Video that may be of interest :
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Yeah, the more I’m reading about them, the more I’m thinking it’d probably be best to add them to the pots only. And I’ll probably even wait until like week six or seven into flower to do that, since the thrips (and the aphids from the last three runs, as well) don’t ever seem to show up until I’m well into flower, always like two weeks or so before I’m planning on chopping. Which is weird, I think haha, but I guess it’s better than them showing up early and having to deal with them for an entire grow.
The smallest amount of hypoaspis I can find is 12,500 for like 18 bucks. Does that sound right? Seems like a lot of mites, since everything I’m reading says to add like thirty per square foot. I’m gonna have a little more than 12,000 left over haha.
Nah. Because
Exactly. I actually do like being able to do that every time I water. I might not always feel like doing it haha, but it beats not being able to examine the plants closely. No till’s not doable in my situation anyway, since I only have access to the front of the tent.
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Yeah that sounds right, hopefully the shipping cost doesn’t bump that up to 50$+. Many of these places force you to ship overnight.
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you want to put them in the dirt early, they’ll make a home for themselves and be like a deterrent, so the bad bugs won’t show up or get killed as soon as they do, won’t have a chance to do any damage, it seems like that’s how they work
but yeah when i buy 12,500 of 'em i barely see any alive in the container, you put 'em in the dirt and a couple weeks later you’ll see 'em thrive and ready to protect, rove beetles are cool to, i’m not sure what exact predator to get for your pest tho, those are just the ones i have
the population fluctuates on my end, it seems normal
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I looked into rove beetles, it’s kind of the same thing as the hypoaspis: you get 500 beetles, but you only need one per square foot haha. I’ll consider adding them, too, though, just because I’m sick of this shit. It really does take the fun outta growing.
Chopping the last three plants (Purple Corinto/A5Thai, Outer Limits and the Blueberry x Silver Lotus) in a little bit. Looks like the hanging Dread Breads dried out a little too quickly, so I’m trimming them today, as well. Dealt with IRS bullshit (those motherfuckers) this morning, took the dog for a walk, busy day today haha.
For once.
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tell me about bro i have a business, they want their cut, ftb, cdtfa, la county, and the fucking city treasurer, irs too of course, they want you to give up!
but hell yeah, let us know how they smoke as you’re trimming them, i try everything i’m trimming
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When you get a good colony of stratiolaelaps (hypoaspis) and rove beetles, they will persist through reuse, recycling, reamending, and even storage of soil. They’re also a natural component of most high quality composts and EWC. I’ve had the mites survive storage of soil for a whole year, back when I used to reamend before storing.
Thrips are pretty easy to control, if not 100% eradicate. You’ll have to take a three-pronged approach: Soil, Air, and Foliage. Soil control comes from the mites and rove beetles. Air control comes from yellow sticky traps. Foliage control is best handled by two or three applications of spinosad, at the dosage and frequency noted on the packaging. Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew is the cheapest option (they sell concentrated versions of it) and as long as you do it in veg and have the other two vectors controlled, you will never see thrips blow up in flower. It’s also not super toxic if you only use it a couple times in veg, so I would be less worried about that than other pesticides.
Also, once you have good colonies of mites and beetles, they naturally prevent thrips and gnat explosions. You basically never see thrips again once you have the beneficial bugs. But, you still want to keep your veg IPM program of organic essential oils consistent, sprayed once a week, and always hang sticky traps both under and above the canopy to keep an eye on pest pressure.
P.S. I tried watching The Rehearsal based on the suggestions here. I watched the first two episodes and barely cracked a smile…what am I missing? On the other hand, I checked out Mo and thought it was fairly funny, and then watched Sprung and laughed a lot in the first two episodes. Different strokes, I guess…
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you’re missing that the guy is just pranking craigslist people, the audience and the network, and he takes it way way way too far, you got pranked 
thanks for the tip on hypoaspis and rove bettles, they are tuff little fuckers, i keep 'em in my cloning tent too, i didn’t know they could survive all that, how cool
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i just caught up the thread for the last week (more or less, you guys get into it)… plants look great especially those dread bread, i may chance them outside next year, just leary after the cherry queen took a beating from botrytis on some ridiculous gigantic colas, bit sad
those look like thrips damage to me, and also i noticed thrips are harder to find than mites, and looove dry heat (which you mentioned having a bit of); nube said it above, capt jack or the monterey version of spinosad containing products annihilate them in one or two applications (not to be used on flowering plants)
was trying to remember the name of that show, saw yall goin off on it a while back, i loved nathan for you so, this is where i get my tv programming suggestions now
oh and minitiger, bubble hash in joints ftw
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Yeah, that’s interesting, because I actually didn’t put any sticky traps in the pots of the plants that got thrips, which were the three smaller plants. There just really wasn’t any place to put traps because the plants were so low and bushy and compact. I mean, I guess I coulda squeezed them in there somewhere, but I got lazy.
I’m fairly certain that those three small plants also didn’t get quite as many IPM treatments as the bigger plants got. I was thinking about that yesterday, actually, remembered that they may have gotten two fewer treatments than the big plants.
I dunno, but that show is funny as shit. It’s a character study, for one, and I always enjoy character study-type shit. In this case, Nathan is the study; whether or not that’s intentional, I dunno. I figure it must be, considering he’s the one in charge. But there are other characters, too.
I also like the “rabbit hole” aspect of it. The first half of the fourth episode really is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, but if you’re not digging it after the second episode, I doubt you’d find the fourth episode funny, either.
Like you said, different strokes… And you’ve always struck me as a humorless prick anyway haha! Kidding, obviously. I haven’t heard of Mo or Sprung, but maybe I’ll check them out. I need something to watch after five fucking days of football…
Yeah, no, that’s not what’s funny about it. Other than the first episode, nobody from CL is involved. I wouldn’t even say anybody’s getting “pranked” necessarily, either.
I trimmed the Dread Breads yesterday and the nugs are for sure very dense, so yeah, if botrytis is a concern, that’s something you should probably consider. They still smell really good even after hanging in less-than-ideal conditions for eight days, though. Still smell exactly the way they did on the day I chopped, too, with that “creamy fruity” thing. That’s exciting. Usually, my plants smell pretty different after they’re dried.
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I got the intent, I just didn’t think it was funny. Intentionally obvious, “reality parody” stuff is not my brand of humor. The premise seemed obvious and the delivery wooden. I also tried to watch Fielder’s other recommended shows and had the same reaction. I think maybe I’m not the intended audience, as I don’t find deadpan / cringe comedy funny.
It’s a fair point! 
I’m missing the funny genes…a stranger in a strange land.
And I don’t like football. How bout them Redbirds, though? Fuck LA. 
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Reality parody? I don’t think that’s what’s happening in that show at all. Of course, I’m not familiar enough with any kind of “reality” stuff to know if it’s a parody or not. Still, though, I don’t think that’s what that show is. It’s definitely not a “reality parody.” It’s much deeper than that. And I’m not even joking when I say that.
Well… You did post that “lemon party” thing on Iamyou’s thread a while back… haha! That was pretty funny. I still can’t get that image out of my head.
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The episode of NFY with the security guard that likes big breasts made me really uncomfortable. Like dude is picking on folks with special needs. Nathan should get his ass kicked in real life. A weak ass Michael Cera Jesse Eisenberg type bully. I love dry humor but I think I love people/life more.
My little 2 cents.
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Chopped the rest of the plants yesterday, a little sooner than I wanted to on account of those fucking thrips, but I don’t think it’ll affect things too much.
Purple Corinto Budder x A5Thai, chop day 85 (would’ve liked for her to go another ten days or so):
Post-ties removal:
She was definitely a little floppy. I think she just didn’t have the sturdiest of branches, as opposed to the Dread Breads, which flopped because their nugs were so dense.
PCB x A5T closeups:
So she foxtailed a little bit… haha. A couple of my Bandaid Hazes from the last run started to do that, too, I’m assuming it’s coming from the A5Thai male side, but I do also think it was the heat that made the PCB’s foxtails so extreme.
Anyway, here’s the Outer Limits #2, chop day 66:
I tried… haha.
And the Blueberry x Silver Lotus #1, chop day 66:
I tried again…
Anyway, in the last week-ten days, the Blueberry/Silver Lotus really developed an extremely noticeable, super-strong “Vidalia onion” thing that actually overwhelmed all the other smells, different from that sorta “BO/onion” smell like the Clusterfunks had. However, when I was digging around in the plant yesterday, trying to figure out how exactly I was gonna hang her, all kinds of delicious fruity smells came wafting out of her. My hands smelled really, really good afterwards, too. So I’m stoked about that haha.
Everything’s hanging now, obviously. Gonna start scrubbing the room and changing out carbon filters and shit in the next few days, probably plant some new seeds in the next ten days or so.
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That was my first thought too after lookin at a ton of a5thai stuff! But I agree with the heat being a factor too. Really looking forward to the smoke report on this one!
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Is the Purple Corinto Budder originally a Coastal strain? They had a strain called High Biscus which was Purple Corinth x Puna Budder. Guessing Doc D hit it with an A5 Thai male
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