The Apothecarium - Indoors / Organic / Medical

Indoor Growing
101

was planning on making some of johnny potseeds one and done bug spray when i run out of the neem and dead bug brew.

i bought the captain jacks dead bug brew last year for outside after struggling with thrips and DIY remedies. i am a big fan. the stuff works GREAT. a little pricey, but for now i’ll eat the cost. my indoor zones have (had) been bug free for a year and a half.

i got complacent apparently.

do you mix your citric acid with anything like a binding agent (dish soap) or does it do fine just diluted to water?

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102

I put a couple drops of Dawn dish soap in to help it spread better but that’s it. I only used it outdoors as I haven’t had bug issues indoors for the last 6 years or so. It fried the eggs in less than a day when I checked with a loupe. Adults were gone completely after 2 sprays 3 days apart.

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103

how does that stuff work on thrips? same?

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104

I’ve never had em but it’s supposed to work on any soft bodied insect. It dries them out by dessicating them so I’d imagine it would work on them.

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105

dessicating them sounds pretty f^cking metal.

i had thrips for the first time last year. they’re more brutal than spidermites IMO. they ravage your crops at a much faster rate than spidermites. spread faster too.

i’ll have to get some of that stuff (backup, or to mix in) when i have some extra coin. you can get it at supermarkets yeah? the food grade stuff?

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106

Yeah, it’s usually in the section for canning with the Mason jars and stuff at Walmart.
The stuff I’ve used looks like this. It’s good for ph down in a pinch too. It just doesn’t keep the ph as stable as long as the ph down chemicals do.

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107

right on. thanks for the tip(s). appreciate you.

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108

SPIDERMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITES!!!
khaaan

i’m knee deep in spidermite blood and gore. these relentless bastards have found their way into 3 of my 4 indoor spaces. i have fought them back and gained territory back… and holding it. i’m not overrun, but i am having a lot of “this is sparta!” moments and cutting losses. many plants in solos have found their way outside to fend for themselves after a spray. those outside are in 2 states - thriving and in flower, or still weak and recovering from the gang beating they took.

the ONLY space they have not infiltrated is Zone1. i wash my hands with rubbing alcohol before entering each space. i suspect they hitched rides on the spray wand. only thing i can think of. i have been meticulous in my practices since the spidermite scourge of '22 and have remained bug free indoors since then. i know they came in this year when i decided last minute to bring my prized pepper plants inside to overwinter and save me time for spring planting. the peppers were no where near zone 2 or 3, but they got into zone3 first. it’s been a fight since. gotta remember to wipe down the spray wand now between spaces. f^cking spidermites.

spraying with a mix of neem oil and spinosad. it is effective, but pockets remain. i just sprayed all areas with a fresh mixed batch about 30min ago.

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109

Citric acid at 2-3 teaspoons per quart will fry the little bastards and can be used in flower. Higher strength mixes may brown the pistils a little in flower but it’s only cosmetic. The day after spraying with it can see all the dead and dried out critters and eggs. Good luck on the battle brother, you got this.

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110

citric acid has been ordered and is on the way. i couldn’t source any locally. i’m sure once the sh^t i ordered arrives it will be back on the shelf again (like the damn cups) and at a reduced price.
:man_facepalming:

does the higher dose harm the plant? dry out the leaves?

i want to make a nice strong dose and watch them writhe

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111

I used it outdoors at 3 tsp per quart and only saw burnt pistils. Leaves looked fine after. I just hit all the cuts I took at 2.5 tsp per quart, I’ll let you know how they look tomorrow. I put them out of the light until they dry just as a precaution in case it caused burning or spotting and will have em back under the T5 once they dry out.

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112

@Til_Valhalla apologies for the super late reply! I’m going through my missed tags as it’s been a mentally exhausted year. :man_shrugging:

It depends on the cultivar but usually a few weeks and then they go cray-cray with new growth. :+1:

:sob:

I had a bad thrips situation once and for each growing space I had a different set of clothes that I left in each space. Walked room to room naked with Mrs. P cat calling me. :rofl:

All the best with your battle @Til_Valhalla !

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113

no worries. thanks for stoppin’ by.
i think it was about 6 or 7 days and it started to bounce back. the only issues remaining is the old soil is completely rootbound and HARD to get to take water. have had to water from the top and bottom to get it softened up. it’s doing better now.

well, FWIW, i just finished making the raised beds in my veg garden yesterday. there will be no more growing vegetables in buckets. therefore, no more plants will come inside to overwinter, so there should be a greatly reduced chance of bringing spidermites back into the house.

i suspect fighting thrips naked is a great psychological weapon.

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114

The stuff I ordered got a delay message yesterday and then a cancel/refund this morning…

Drove up to the mega ballsackmart and found this in the canning aisle.
Think this sh^t will work?

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115

I would think so, it’s for canning just like what I use. I’ll be inspecting the plants I sprayed with Citric acid today and I’ll let you know if I see any issues from the small clones.

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116

ok. i’ll give this sh^t a whirl in another day or so. i just finished spraying 2 days ago. i usually wait 3 days (egg/larvae cycle) between spraying. i see much reduced activity today… and i think i have completely reclaimed zone 3. will see tomorrow. zone 2 may be close behind.
zone 4 (flower) is the most vexing (and probably where those f^ckers got stuck on the spray wand and carried everywhere else) spot… i have them under control in the right side, but the left side is so densely packed with branches and foliage, it’s really hard to get an even spray. i think i’m going to have to go in and strip even more leaves… definitely NOT ideal at this late stage of flower (week 5 or 6).

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117

i have reclaimed zones 2 and 3.

the fight in zone2 was fierce and decisive. there was no way i was going to let them take my AC GDP clone mom. they did not.
the ken’s plant did get hit, but considering it had red flagged itself out of the GDP breeding program it found itself sprayed, and tossed outside to fend for itself. i’m a bit irritated i spent so much time trying to nurse it along for this inevitability. i have NOT had much luck with the ken’s seeds to date. weakest vigor seeds i have ever had the displeasure of trying to grow. not sure what will replace it… much to consider. 7 seeds left in that pack of 10. 3 of 3 attempts have been weaklings. disappointing considering the amount of time to find and then the “rarity” price i paid for them. :angry:
zone 3 fight saw quite a few casualties on our side. not complete losses… but casualties. those that got hit the worst, got taken outside, sprayed with the hose inside outside and upside down. then got the nuke mix (citric acid, spinosad and neem) and tossed out in the texas sun to fend for itself. toughen up b!tches. this is spartexas…
the weak getting tossed actually was good in a way that cleared up more space in zone 3 for the survivors worthy of remaining inside. it also provides more room for the 32oz cup experiments that seem to be doing ok, and in the case of godfather og, much better than ok. i am DEFINITELY going to clone that one before the flip. vigor out the a$$. impressive top 5 kinda stuff.
it was not a complete infestation in zone 3, i did catch it in time and started fighting before they could start colonies and start the web slinging. but they DID spread quickly. tight spaces and too many plants. some ambitions have their limitations. lesson(s) learned.

zone 4. my flower area. this has been the most aggravating fight. have been using low dosage nuke mix in here trying not to douse the flowers too much… but in being delicate, it has allowed pockets to escape the executioners axe. getting close to time when frost is really forming and pistils are going to start to explode and change color… i decided to get f^cking mean and save my crop. i got nasty. ripped leaves, tore apart the scrog, rearranged everything and sprayed. sprayed some more, ripped some more. re-arranged the scrog. then sprayed again. the plants were a sopping mess. GOOD. die motherf^ckers.
today i checked. the smoke was clear. bodies. piles of bodies. poked them. prodded them. dropped doob ashes on them. dead. no motion anywhere. i see dead females with trails of eggs behind, so there is one more generation coming… but i see no movement. i think i got 'em. i didn’t go full strength on this mix, but real damn close. 1/4 off each max measurement.
the plants did suffer a bit. had some leaves that had been ravaged by the mites change color and curl up. they got ripped off and inspected. bodies. no movement.
the flowers are just starting to frost up hard. and didn’t seem to get too beat up. some pistils changing color. maybe a bit early, but would rather that and save the crop than have to toss the whole lot. (no thanks.)

will keep an eye on it for another week before claiming full victory. but things are looking good.

til next time.

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118

today marks my cherry blast into the world of chucking pollen.
hopefully the first of many more to come. i do have purpose in mind.
my child-like excitement aside, let’s get into it.

The Project : GDP Recombination

The Parents
Mom - “Abuela’s Cut” Grandaddy Purple
Pop - Purple Urkle BX1 F2

The Players Involved:
Pollen Courtesy of: @LonelyOC
Pollen Connection Courtesy of: @FirstCavApache64
Brains With the Initial Idea: @Sodapop

The Purpose
in having another conversation with @Sodapop about GDP, genetics and the desire to breed the selected female i had, the suggestion was to try to reinvigorate the line by re-introducing parental genetics.

palms forehead
f^cking brilliant, right? so here we are. let’s see what this will do!

Just Get On With It:
getting on.

so… in a perfect timing/destiny sort of way, the pollen became available roughly the same time i had a fresh set of clones rooting into their permapots. in an also perfect timing sort of way the pollen arrived mere days before these clones hit day 21 of flower. today is day 21. so lets do this.

removed the pollen i had been storing in the fridge and let it sit out for about 30min to get to room temp. got my art brush ready and got the area i was going to use on the work table sterilized and cleaned up.
pulled the select clone out of the flower space and closed those doors behind.
placed the plant on the clean workspace, and looked it over to select the branches and subsequent flowers i wanted to hit.
i chose the tallest/healthiest clone, dipped the brush into the pollen and dusted the pollen onto the topmost 4 flower nodes on each selected branch.
my first time so really hope i did this part right and got the pollen where it needed to go. we shall see.

i left the pollenated plant sit out on the work table for about 30min (fans off) to let her enjoy her post encounter cigarette… and let the pollen sink in a bit before moving again.
once those 30minutes were up, i opened up the right side and placed it back in its spot.
30 min later i turned the fans back on… was getting pretty warm/humid so figured it best to get the air moving again and prevent any rise in humidity… we want preggo and stay preggo.

cleaned up the work area, washed hands and placed pollen back into jar in fridge. it will stay in fridge for a day to get back down to temp, then transferred into freezer with the rest of the pollen stash.

Photos
the tools

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the candidate

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awww yeaaahh … queue the barry white music

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dusted…

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back in place. hope i did it right!

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til next time

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119

Ohhh, this is exciting. I hope that the pollen survived the trip to texas and that you get the seeds you wanted. If you get any trouble, I’ll send you some seeds instead.

Here’s more post with the male if you’re interested.

Pz :v:t2:

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120

Way to go! My first pollination was so exciting. Harvesting seeds you made yourself is a very rewarding feeling. Best of luck for lots of seeds from this and welcome to a new addiction lol.

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