Pest management routines

Sick Plants & Problems
#1

I’m curious what people use for pest and fungal management. I have only had to deal with fungus gnats until now and have used Bt which I found to be very effective along with cultural controls.

I’m having a mystery problem and I’d like to rule out pests so I’m trying to design an IPM routine that I can start to try to wipe the slate clean.

I’m most interested in the bacterial and fungal treatments similar to Bt, but also might need to add a systemic poison like Avid at least at first. I’ll be going for a scorched earth approach then hopefully building a population of beneficial organisms.

If you have a homebrewed solution I’d definitely be interested to hear it. Especially if you can explain how and why it works.

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Basic Insect Control
Question for 20yr+growers: Hardest cultivation lesson learned?
#2

spinosad (monterey garden spray, captain jacks deadbug brew) is a great organic treatment (i’ve heard) although it’s banned in canada and have also heard it could be harmful if combusted and inhaled - well most likely the inert ingredients - so you wouldn’t want to spray near the end of flower

nematodes are a great treatment for fungus gnats, thrips and other pests, but you need a certain species (s. feltaea or something is the one i used) kinda like you need bti for gnats and not btk

those above treatments will work for treatment, they kill pests. i have heard good things about ‘greencleaner’ as a pesticide, the name sounds organic but i am not sure about that. for preventative i like essential oils. i’ve used method 1 pps myself and it smells great. it will also work well in combination with others for a treatment, but the company itself wouldn’t recommend relying solely on that for treating a problem. neem also works well i’ve heard, have not used, although i’ve also heard you don’t want to combust and inhale that either. i guess you don’t really want to combust anything.

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#3

Can you get the Method-1 PPS? It is pretty effective against mites. It is basically hemp oil and rosemary essential oils. If not, go buy some cilantro, bubble it in water for 24 hours with an airstone. Strain and mix it with your soap and spray the crap out of them: top, bottom, pots, everything!

Can you get neem seed meal instead of the oil? If so, you can use that the same soaking method as above. You can also use any oil. Horticulture oil is sold at nurseries, heck you can even use canola oil. Getting the oil to emulsify is tricky. I use Pro-TeKt to emulsify my oils. Add four ounces of oil, two tablespoons of Pro-TeKt and stir until the oil turns white (technically you are making soap here). Slowly add to a gallon of warm declorinated water.

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#4

Most insects don’t like peppermint extract so if you have some in your kitchen 4 - 5 drops in a quart sprayer of pro-tect or soap spray will make them want to leave.

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#5

I have stripped a 55galon drum of leaves this week, 3rd week of flower

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#6

@MadScientist would be making a 55 gal drum of cannabis ferment. :grin:

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#7

and that was only one plant

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#8

I notice italics in that statement. Ha! Ha!

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#9

You know it right! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

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#10

Not the first time I’ve heard of this. I’m going to go buy some peppermint extract tonight. In the meantime the girls are all seperate with a foot between them. Hit them with the bug b Gon again last night, hopefully I don’t notice any worsening this evening. I turned my space heater off and let the room go to 17C during lights off last night but kept room sealed to trap humidity. Hoping that will make things unpleasant for them, but I hope it doesn’t hurt my plants.

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#11

Good luck and be vigilant. :relaxed:

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#12

The only thing they had for me at the grow shop was Bug-b-Gon. It’s an insectisidal soap. I have looked everywhere for neem and the only place that had it was very weak stuff because it’s apparently banned here.

I did see horticultural oil at the local hardware store recently, would this be a preventative treatment? The bug b Gon definitely works but only kills on contact. Even though I was thorough they seemed to come back. I wanna stomp em out before it gets too late. I’m only 8 days into flower so I’m still able to spray bud sites with pretty much anything. I inspect my girls nightly so I caught this very early. Some plants only have one or two affected leaves. A couple have none at all. My worst plant had maybe 10 affected areas. I think I’ll give the peppermint a whirl though because I’ve been told this method for years from growers.

Sorry to derail the thread lol.

I guess they do go hand in hand (stripping leaves/pests) though.

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#13

The problem with just the soap is just that, its a contact killer. It will do nothing to the eggs, so they come back again and again. The oil on the other hand, will smother the eggs. Check out that Mehod-1 PPS. It should do the trick. Oh, and FYI cilantro is considered a mint. Keep up whatever you are doing every three days or so. You need to break the breeding cycle.

#14

Clackamacootz is the king of cilantro sprays. He has been preaching it for years and it works. :grin:

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#15

Yeah, i got into it when i read the ingredients in SM-90. Basically coriander oil. :smiley: any mint works similar, basil, rosemary, lavender, and traditional mints. Where I live they put cilantro in everything, so it’s handy and available.

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#16

method 1 active ingredients are just peppermint oil and rosemary oil, you could add those to your insecticidal soap to make your own version. it also has isopropyl alcohol but not listed as active ingredient. method 1 is also contact killer (it will kill some eggs) and requires repeated spraying to interrupt their life cycle (every 2-3 days or however long before they mature to lay more eggs)

you can also use 1 cup white sugar + 1 cup 3% h2o2 in 1 gallon of water and spray with that. it also will not kill eggs but will kill mites. best bet is to alternate all treatment options every 2-3 days to prevent building resistance. add neem oil to this mixture if you’d like to kill some eggs as well. can order neem on amazon probably?

i’ve also seen people use isopropyl alcohol diluted with water and maybe h2o2 as well

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#17

You forgot the hemp seed oil and lauric acid to emulsify it in Method-1. You could probably use canola oil and lecithin instead. But what ratios should one use? I use it in rotation with my IPM, it smells awesome!

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#18

yes i was just listing the ‘active ingredients’ and soap would act as emulsifier i figured. yes i’ve never used neem but i’ve heard it smells awful and can be a bitch to clean up. method1 smells great. i had no qualms about spraying it 4 weeks in to flower. rather that than smoke thrips

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#19

Good call making this it’s own thread @ryasco :thumbsup:

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#20

Yes thanks for the split!

I would imagine the soap would act as a makeshift emulsifier. Just adding the peppermint to a surfactant would help spread the solution a bit better anyway.

I’ll look into method or neem online as they’re unavailable here. Shipping takes time and money’s tight but I’m trying not to take half measures.