Alright everyone, time to address the elephant in my room. I really appreciate all the replys I got on my last question. I am 99% sure I will be buying a new 2x4 Gorilla tent for my flowering area.
The question of what steps to take in restarting growing after a 3 year break leads me to my biggest concern. Sterilization and IPM.
The issue is that I am pretty sure that I had a broad/russet mite infestation during my last couple of runs, I shut down in the spring of 17’. I was doing a bunch of stuff to try to keep it under control, but my last run was tossed. It looked and smelled pretty decent, but when smoked I noticed a moldy type flavor, which unfortunately I have experienced before. The bud had no visible rot or mold (we have very low humidity, maybe 10% on average). I think the dead mites and their shit caused some type of inner bud mold to occur ? I will post a few pics of that crop.
Regardless, I need a strategy for sterilizing before restarting any beans. The only equipment that I will be reusing will be my 2 ft t5 light that I use to start seeds and veg, and also my seed starter heat mat. I have new t5 bulbs, and I can disassemble the fixture to clean it. I wouldnt think the fixture would still be harboring mites or eggs after 3 years, but will still take the necessary precautions.
The veg tent will go in our extra bathroom, in the tub. Thats where Ive run it before. Pretty easy to clean that with bleach and stuff. However the flower tent goes in our spare bedroom. We have hardwood floors throughout the apartment. They should also be sterilizable.
We do have a couple of houseplants that are in our living room, a jade and a “special” cactus. They have been with us for many years. And we also have a ton of plants going in container on our back porch at the moment. Wife has several types of basil, flowers, and other herbs. I have 7 pretty massive tomatoes going in pots. I know that lots of these plants, tomatoes in particular attract mites. I am planning on starting my seeds/grow well before all of our porch plants are harvested. It starts to get cool here in mid august, but most years my tomatoes go til mid september, which is right around when I would anticipate that I would be flipping my first run. We usually are getting hard freezes by the first week of October, although at 8000 ft anything can happen at any time of year
The knowledgeable members on here have been so helpful since I joined. I am hopefull that I will get some good insight on possible strategies to employ. I know in the 3 years I took off, lots of stuff changed, new products and technologies came out and improved, and also growers improved techniques and strategies. What products should I use ? What steps should I take ? Thank you all in advance.
