After battling a unknown problem for weeks,I have come to find out it was Broad / Russet Mites
These things are tremendously dangerous. They can and will destroy your whole grow. They are extremely damaging and hard to get rid of.
Your plants will look like it has:
Nitrogen Deficiency
Magnesium Deficiency
Calcium Deficiency
Iron Deficiency
It also Mimic Symptom like:
Over Fertilization
Over Watering
Light Burn
Wind Burn
And others
If anyone has pics of the damage they can do post them, we don’t need to be chasing phantom problems.
I Just came out of a huge infestation that basically ruined my summer …hahahah
But I won! Ha!
I was lucky enough to catch this basterds in early veg, so I was able to treat em with Abamectin and Hexitiazox, a pinch of Spinosad (Conserve sc 11%) and a final spray of Beauveria Bassiana before flipping to flower and introducing Neoseiulus Californicus that right now are all over the garden keep the situation in check.
The garden is finally healthy and blooming but I noticed that some particular phenotypes are more affected by their phytotoxic saliva than others, where even the treatment with aspirin and Chitosan couldn’t help to heal some branches…
There are some Sapphire Ogs that after 4 weeks from the infestation still show some weird leaf, but they are completely bug free…
I noticed that the effect of their toxin can last few weeks after the infestation is gone that’s why is crucial to have a 60x scope to check daily if there is some survivor or some eggs, otherwise you could keep battling a ghost enemy!!!
After this war (that I hope is over…) I learned that everything is possible…If you have a serious pest problem, organize a serious IPM and start looking online , reading article on how real farmers deal with it (BM are affecting lots of greenhouse crops especially strawberries, peppers, roses etc…) university researches and lots of reading will bring you to the solution…aaaand…dont hang out too much on weed related website cause they make things waaaaaay more ridiculously complicated and paranoid…
Would be cool to hear if anyone had experience with long lasting damages from the toxins…
I battled broad mites my last round. Made the mistake of trying to bring some plants inside at the end of August, that were infested, spread em to the whole garden. Had to cull some special genetics, treated them with a variety of neem, soaps, and ultimately knocked them out with wettable sulfur. Took weeks, let everything sit after harvest, did a thorough clean up, planted some beans to see if they would come back, and now I’ve got more plants in there, keeping my fingers crossed and scouting constantly. Will be buying some predators soon and treating my yard with all the nematodes to achieve broader spectrum control.
