I noticed my plants in flowering seem to get white spots in the leaves that are otherwise healthy plants. I don’t see any bugs, but that doesn’t mean anything.
I saw what appears to be webs on mature buds, so I’m sure I’ve got some sort of a pest, but I have no idea what pest it is.
I had fruit flys, but managed to bring them under control 4+ months ago. I’m not sure what I have now.
That looks like a pretty advanced spider mite infestation you have there. Unfortunately the best course of action is going to be chopping everything down, clean/disinfect the room and starting over.
I know there are some products that people will try to use to get to harvest but I wouldn’t recommend it. You won’t be able to completely eradicate them and the problem will persist.
This hurts to see and read but for how dense those webs look, the best way to fix it is to kill it like mentioned above.
I would heavily inspect your other plants as well to make sure they aren’t there. Make sure to check for webs and the backside of leaves for more mites. If there are any you can try to treat it, but thats an uphill battle for sure.
Edit to add: don’t forget to clean your soil and pots. I reuse living soil that I’ve grown, if you do the same it is important to treat the soil and give everything 7-10 day break before restarting. One of the most common problems and easiest to fix for controlling pest outbreaks is repeated applications. One application and removal of infested material will get all the living pests, but there could very likely be eggs or larva in the soil that are just waiting to wreck shit
As others have mentioned it’s a bad infestation of spider mites. If you get a leaf and look on the underside with a jewelers loupe or microscope you will be able to see them. By the time you see webbing like you have they are very well established and chopping and disposing of the plant is unfortunately the best option. They cause tiny white spots on the leaves when they feed and if you see those you need to immediately take action to kill them. There are several commercial products that are safe to use but catching it early is key, especially in flower.
Bleach everything down once the plants are out. Don’t forget tent walls, lights, fan etc…
Sorry you have to deal with them but it’s happened to most growers ar some point so you’re not alone.
If you have the ability to clean the whole lung room and give it a break before the next run. Trash everything, clean the tent, deep clean the lung room, etc those are bad spider mites.
If you want to try and salvage you could maybe trash half, go on a hardcore dr zymes regimine, bring the humidity way down and dry things out, dunk your pots every couple days…for like a week or two. and maybe maaaaaybe save some of the run. get a nice fogger/mister and work hard to get every inch. maaaaaybe.
I’ve managed to save a grow once using an organic spray that killed them. I got through the entire grow but the bud tasted like shit. Wasn’t worth the effort. Cut your losses.
Yep, definitely looks like spider mites. Once you see webbing, the infestation is very advanced. It starts with little spots on the leaves and eventually develops to webbing if left long enough. In the future, any time you see any spots or marks/trails on your leaves, check the under sides for tiny pests.
Hot shot no pest strips work excellent to nuke spider mites but I would only recommend hanging them in an empty room. Once you harvest, hang a no pest strip in the room and leave it sealed up for like a week (no vent fans runnng) and all spider mites will be gone. If you don’t treat the room they will likely come back. They can be a huge PITA to fully get rid of. I’ve tried pest sprays, bug bombs, bleach, etc. Nothing works as well or as easy as the No-pest strips. But again, wait until post harvest to use them. I have used them with plants in veg, but most don’t recommend it. But in an empty room they’re fine. Just try to avoid spending time in the room with the strip hanging.
As far as salvaging your current plants, there’s not a ton you can do. You can try to vacuum them off the plants, but it’s likely going to damage the buds somewhat. They also don’t like water., but you have to be careful even spraying water on buds as far along as yours.
You may be able to do a bud wash after harvest but it likely won’t remove them all from the smoke.
Don’t feel bad. One of my first grows I ended up with a spider mite infestation like yours, where the buds were covered in webs. I used a product called “agrizyme”. I remember it dissolved the webs, but the buds smoked like crap.
One and done spray recipe can be found on here shared by an OG member.
It is for spraying in flower - but like most mentioned - this infestation is quite a bit along and it may not be possible to salvage much at this stage.
Good luck what ever you do - spider mites can be such a headache.
take the plants outside and cut off all the flower into bags, seal em and freeze them right away fresh.
Then get some bubble bags and do a fresh frozen run outside in a 5 gallon pail with bubble bags, ice, water and a drill with paint mixer attachment. At least you will get something from the crop and the water and bubble bags will remove the webs and bugs from the hash.
Unfortunately, Spider Mites.
Check underneath the leafs.
I myself would throw it all away. Clean the hell out of the tent.
Start over in a few weeks.
Thats just my opinion though, other people seem to salvage shit like this but it isn’t worth it in my opinion.
Maybe there is a way to save the soil but I would think any of those means would be detrimental to the microbial life in the soil… like peroxide flush or oven baking ect.
Others might know things I don’t so wait for others to chime in
I’ve lost everything to mites 1-2x sadly by taking in too many cuts at once and not being completely on top of IPM treatments, quarantine, constant plant inspection etc mainly due to health issues unfortunately.
Chop it all is my advice and sanitize everything you can as thoroughly as possible and I wouldn’t re-use anything that might harbor eggs or mites themselves.
Not worth the battle and eventually I thought I was getting it under control after using multiple organic and inorganic methods and still ended losing the battle to resilient two spotted mites “the borg” that survived and just wouldn’t die from anything I tried was my experience.
Best of luck my friend and starting over is easier than you may realize with many great things being shared here for free on OG even if you can’t buy seeds or anything much if you decide to take it as a loss.
I washed all of my vegetative plants in the shower, Held them sideways and let the water blast the undersides of the leaveffs. That did a good job of cleaning them off.
Only 1 of the vegetative plants had them enough that I could see them. I still washed off all of the vegetative plants in the shower and gave everything a spay of diluted neem oil.
I also washed off the 3-4 plants I just put in the flower room. They’re barely showing any buds.
Thank you to everyone for the advice. I’ll be able to get this condition under control now.
It’s always a process of elmination witht this. The spots on the leaves started showing up about the same time I changed the lgiht. I thought I was blasting them with too much light.
In the future, any time you see any spots or marks/trails on your leaves, check the under sides for tiny pests.
If it’s that advanced, the water isn’t gonna help. They’re in the soil, on the plant, and too numerous to control. I’ll echo earlier sentiments, this is the time to burn it to the ground and start fresh.
Otherwise you’re going to put in a ton of effort for however long, and still have to burn it when all is said and done.
It’s a hard call, but that’s the right one
Edit: they call them the borg for a reason
