Organic pesticide recipe that kills the borg

[tentgrower]

I’ve seen a lot of stupid organic recipes posted by others over the years that are either ineffective, cause foliage damage, or a combination of the two.

I had a 12’x16’ flower room and three 5’x5’x6’ nursery tents that I ran for about 2 years - until I got the borg. I spent over $800 on pesticides that included forbid, azagaurd, avid, spinosad, venerate (absolute snake oil), burning sulfur, and a multitude of others that didn’t work. Forbid had the plants perk up for 1 day then they were back to dying.

The borg decimated everything I had. I lost 2 flower cycles in a row with an expected harvest of 5# or so each cycle. I lost all of my clones, vegging plants, and mothers. It was the single most devastating event of my life.

I shut down for 8 months. Sanitized everything with 10% bleach. I got the borg again. There must have been dormant eggs somewhere that took hold of my seedlings around week 3 or 4. I couldn’t believe I was seeing the eggs and damage again on the bottom of my leaves. I just about trashed everything 2 weeks ago so I figured I’d try something I was pretty sure would kill the plant, but I really had nothing to lose.

91% isopropyl alcohol. Do not use rubbing alcohol. It contains additives that will damage the plants. For heavy infestations 30% iso / 70% water. Use a spray bottle for small plants. Use a pump sprayer for large plants.

1. Mix your iso with water in the appropriate amounts. Heavy infestation: 30% 91% isopropyl alcohol = 9.6oz iso and 22.4 oz water for a 32 oz bottle. Spray once every 3-4 days. A maintenance spray is 20% 91% isopropyl alcohol to 80% water. Use a calculator. It’s simple math but math you do not want to make a mistake with. 30% will cause superficial leaf damage and if that is a concern use 20% and you will see no damage to any leaves while decimating the borg.

I was terrified that I was going to lose my ladies so I went 30% for 3 applications. After that I couldn’t find a single egg on any plant. 30% is only for heavy infestations and is only to be used for 1-2 applications. 20% will not cause leaf damage at all while still being highly effective.

2. Make sure your plants are watered properly. If you spray dehydrated plants you will kill them.

3. Spray heavily either at lights off or you can spray during your lights on cycle but you must not leave the plants under any intense lighting. I remove them from my tent, spray them, then I leave them under a 26w florescent light until the next day allowing them to dry completely. Obviously if you’re flowering moving plants in and out isn’t a good idea, so spraying at lights off in the flower cycle is the best course of action.

Notes) If you’re spraying small plants logic implies you should mix a lower concentration. 20% has caused zero damage to any foliage at all whatsoever.

I always hate when people post their home pesticide recipes without showing any pictures of their plants. Half the time these yokals will readily admit they’ve never used the recipe they posted on their own plants. WTF? Really?

This is my biggest wedding cake lady which I was about to trash 2 weeks ago. These are the results of using the recipe I’ve written. I’ll post pictures of the other 3 at lights on. My big one spent the night outside of the tent because I forgot to water it before I left for work. By the time I got home she was wilted and ugly looking. I figured I’d give her the night to recover. And this is how she looks this morning:

IMG_20230528_093048|375x500

!

[Seamonkey84]

I veg that would work fine, kills adults and eggs through dehydration at the least. Once there’s buds, that will melt your trichs. Of course your working with alcohol, make sure there’s proper ventilation and no ignition source!

[willie]

I do the first attack with Azamax. I follow that on day 4 with this concoction
1 pint water
2 Tablespoons castile soap
4Tablespoons 70% iso
1/2 teaspoon peroxide
Both get done at lights out
Repeat if needed. I usually just repeat the mixed one. So three sprays and done.

[shag]

@tentgrower
Good tip most don’t understand how well this works.
This is my go-to solution.
Oh, and it should be ok to use under intense light too.
Please test to make sure, before you do.
The iso should in fact help the leaves stay cool in times of intense heat if I remember correctly.

[sfzombie13]

do they regenerate or are they gone for good? i would think they would regenerate.

[Rogue]

You can also grow organic and sow companioncrops.
Aphids prefer vetch over cannabis.
Thrips prefer mint over cannabis.

Love your enemies by giving them habitat and food, and they become your friends.

Nature will always find a way to turn sterility into fertility.

Study permaculture if you want a balanced ecosystem.

[tentgrower]

Spot on. Always resolve your pest issues before you put your plants in flower. I’d spray up to week 3 then cut it off.

@shag I made the same mistake of discounting it’s effectiveness. The story I see frequently with people using iso bug spray is that they make it too strong and fry their foliage. Then they blame the iso when it was user error. It’s a wonderful product.

Iso bug spray should never be sprayed under intense lighting. You will fry your plants, I assure you. A strong solvent combined with intense heat and light (as are the conditions in most grow spaces) = you filling a couple trash bags full of dead plants. On top of that, why would you want to make the iso dry quickly? It’s a contact killer that has no residual effect once it’s dry. You want the iso saturating the leaves as long as possible to improve it’s effectiveness which is why it is recommended to spray at lights off or turn the lights down to dusk mode. Turn any fans inside your grow space off. This allows the iso to dry slower. Keep your ventilation on though. Just no fans swirling air inside the grow space.

@sfzombie13 You’ll never remove every egg / bug from the plant. Tear down a grow room for 6 months, sanitize with 10% bleach on everything, and you might get lucky enough to prevent another occurrence. They’re good at what they do which is why we need to be good at what we do. It starts and ends with an integrated pest management schedule. Spray 1x/week to keep the bugs in check. If you notice an infestation brewing then you spray every 3 days for 3 weeks. At that point you should be as close to bug free as the good lord is gonna let ya and should have no problem completing a healthy flower cycle - yes they regenerate. IPM is the solution.

@Rogue I actually planned to do this all in organic soil w/ microbe tea but it wasn’t feasible with my current situation. I have 1 soil plant and the other 3 are in hempy’s with 100% perlite. You’ve got the bull by the horns regarding companion crops. Farmers do it because it works. I actually started peppermint, lavender, dill, and sweet basil as companion plants with my current grow. Peppermint grew very slowly so I transplanted it outside in the garden. Hopefully it takes hold. With all those tasty treats nearby the borg didn’t touch a single one. I’ve yet to identify this pest. I believe it to be scale, but even with 120x magnification nothing moves. They’re definitely sap suckers though.

[Seamonkey84]

If all you had was plants in veg, that’s easy, I have a continuous cycle going, so plants at all stages at almost all times.

I’m about to hit my plants both veg and in bloom for the third and final time with the DIY spray that Johnny shared. Ive seen the results (using the old RadioShack pocket microscope) after just one spray, kills the mites and their eggs, it’s food grade and safe to use in bloom. With this mix, even the little bit of alcohol that ends up in the diluted spray seem to melt through the webbing that protect so many of them from usual soaps and oil sprays I’ve used. But I always assume I missed some, so hit them again till all crawlers and eggs that hatched are gone. Not as simple as just alcohol and water, but highly effective and safe in bloom.

Mites,Thrips, Aphids 'one-n-done' with pics

Ok… first I’d like to thank an ‘Anonymous Friend’ for producing this product. I ask that no members attempt to guess the name, please! He wants to remain anonymous, and that’s how it’ll be, thnx. This recipe is the culmination of literally months of research and work! Not by me… Here is my entire ‘test’ and the recipe for the product. It is a one-n-done’ spray that kills Mites, Thrips And Aphids . Everything, eggs, larvae, nymphs, and adults! Title: MTA UltimateUM// A Diatribe with Benefits! …

[Greenup]

@Rogue

You can also grow organic and sow companioncrops.
Aphids prefer vetch over cannabis.
Thrips prefer mint over cannabis.

Would you grow vetch and mint in separate containers from your cannabis? Any particular type of either?

@Seamonkey84

I’m about to hit my plants both veg and in bloom for the third and final time with the DIY spray that Johnny shared.

I have also done several sprays across many tents of JPS spray and it is working. One spray was not enough for me. I will say one of my plants I really soaked like 3 times already and a lot of leaves shriveled and died. But the other leaves are still looking healthy so it could have been unrealeated to the spray or maybe I got too much in the soil or something. This is also somewhat of a bonsai style mom (root over rock) so maybe that had something to do with it. So far I have been happy with the spray but I definelty haven’t gotten rid of all my pests completly. I am gona do another spray on a bunch today cause I am seeing spider mites again. Really been cleaning the whole grow area around it to help get control.

I was talking to a guy the other day and he said he never really got pests until he started growing lettuce indoors along side his cannabis. Well… thats exactly when I started having all these bug problems. However, they don’t seem to give a shit about any of the lettuces or brussel sprouts i am growing.

[NoCal]

Good to read a success story. Thanks for taking the time to write this up.

Saved in case I ever need it

[NoCal]

@shag

Oh, and it should be ok to use under intense light too.
Please test to make sure, before you do.
The iso should in fact help the leaves stay cool in times of intense heat if I remember correctly

Interesting, maybe it just evaporates so fast there is no time for it to harm the plant, and even cools it?

[Rogue]

@Greenup

Would you grow vetch and mint in separate containers from your cannabis? Any particular type of either?

Same container, but I wouldn’t stop there, the more different species of plants you grow in the same container, the better it works. There’s always gonna be something that nibbles on our plants but a little bit doesn’t matter, the plant doesn’t give a fuck about a few aphids.
I’ve grown vetch outside and some of them were absolutely covered in aphids being farmed by ants, and guess what, the vetch kept growing and flowered and gave me beans that I had for dinner.

All those sprays do much more damage than the insects you fear.
And so you see, it is fear that is the most destructive force on this planet.

Note that I’m strictly speaking about 100% organic growing, when you use synthetic fertilizers your crops will have weaker immunesystems by default.
It’s the same with farmers who use synthetic hormones on their cattle, and people who use doping in sports, most of them get cancer and other diseases.
It all stems from fear, which creates desire to dominate, it creates greed, it blinds, it lowers awareness of the profound harmony that mother nature perpetuates by herself through sheer diversity and the joy it births.

[tentgrower]

I decided to try 20% iso last night and I’m happy with the results. As soon as they dry, the leaves look lush and point to the light. This saves a little iso because you go through it fast spraying every 3 days. Do cover your pots with dish towels so no iso makes it into the root zone. If the plants are in dirt put them on a plant elevator so they don’t absorb iso from the bottom up.

Here are the plants the next morning

[Loggershands]

Nice one! Sounds cheap and easy!

What is the Borg?

[tentgrower]

“The borg” is a term og growers call pests that decimate gardens. Spider mites, particularly russet and broad mites, have been affectionately referred to as “the borg.” If you have a pest you can’t get rid of, you might just be dealing with the borg :).

[LandraceWarden]

does this recipe take care of all other pest problems or just Mites?

[willie]

I’ve used it on fungus gnats that are on the top of the soil. Aside the mites and gnats, I haven’t had any other pests to try it on.
I use Dr. Woods Tea Tree Castile Soap fwiw.

[herojuana.tom]

Alcohol will kill most bugs, including larger pests like fleas and ticks!