But is there any skunk?!? 
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You know where to find me!
None at all at the moment. Not sure I even want a stinky ass pole cat messing with this orange smell.
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I learned quite a bit from this recent russet mite encounter and figure it’s worth sharing. I think I’ve got rid of them now, but I’ll know for sure in the next couple weeks.
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I originally thought these were thrip larvae and treated the plants with Spinosad. This did absolutely nothing to stop the russets.
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I originally noticed the russet mites on the Purple Urkle cut, which also had the spider mites. I did not see any mites on the other three clones (Forbidden Fruit, Blueberry, and GG4). Within a week the FF and BB also had russet mites, but the GG4 did not. It was the only plant not touching the others.
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The russet mite eggs are impossible to see with my current scope, but research says they are laid on the leaf surfaces and will fall off into the soil. The russet mites can hatch and live in the soil, feeding off the plant roots, hidden from view. The eggs are impervious to most pesticides and can lay dormant for some time.
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Research indicated that sulfur will kill the russet mites (not the eggs). I took a leaf with mites and sprayed it with sulfur and actually watched one writhe around and die in the sulfur liquid with my scope. It made me irrationally happy.
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I took another leaf and did some other torture testing. Physically squishing the mites was hard to do. I got a couple but there were some survivors. They are so small and can easily tuck into the smallest crevices of the leaf veins.
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Blasting them with the sink sprayer removed most, but again, there were a couple survivors, and that’s probably all you need to start the cycle anew.
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Another leaf was used for a drowning test. I submerged the leaf for 30 minutes in plain tap water. That seemed to work pretty well. I didn’t spot any moving afterwards, but I still was not confident that they were entirely dead. Probably would be better to use a surfactant so the surface tension won’t trap micro air bubbles they could potentially survive in.
With all that in mind, I proceeded with my plan. I started by cutting the clones at the base of their stems and throwing away their roots and soil, leaving the cuts in a cup of water while I prepared the next step. Then I stripped most all of the fan leaves off. Then I sprayed the shit out of them with sulfur and let them sit in darkness for a couple hours while the sulfur liquid dried up. Then I rinsed them off, then submerged the cuts in water for 45 min. One more spray clean, then I did my final snip and attempted to root them.
Turns out the sulfur really burned the plants to shit, so PNW must have had some kind of oil spray on them. If you look at his Strainly page you will see the longest list of IPM ever noted. All that crap and his stuff is still crawling with spooks.
IPM:
Ionizer (ozone generator)
Suffoil-x
Micronized Sulfur powder
Safer Mineral Oil
Monteray Insect Spray
Monteray Takedown Spray
Dr Zymes Eliminator
Mildew Cure
Zerotol 2.0
Regalia
SF Nematods
Botaniguard ES
BioCeres
Compost Tea
Anywho…9 days later I am amazed to see roots popping on these cuts. I thought for sure they were all goners. Unfortunately the Blueberry was too small and weak and didn’t survive the processes, but the FF, PU, and GG4 seem like they will all make it. I’ve been scoping them like mad and there’s no sign of the russets. I’ll let them veg for a couple weeks then do another thorough inspection, and maybe, eventually, release them from quarantine.
Also forgot to mention, but while they were rooting I cleaned the quarantine tent with 10% bleach solution and let is sit in the freezing cold for a couple of days.
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Great info! The time you take to learn shit like that pays off in the end like pure gold! Nice!
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I use safer soap and then mix powdered sulfur in with it, then do a dip/soak.
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This made me audibly chuckle.
Well, at least you’re handling it and it sounds like it’s taken care of (fingers crossed). If I ever wore a hat, I’d tip my cap to you haha for putting in that time and effort. I woulda just trashed everything, cost of the clones be damned.
Is all that stuff, like the sulfur and spinosad, organic? Are they kinda the same deal as neem, where it’s fine to spray on leaves, but not necessarily something you wanna be spraying on flowers?
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Well you must have a good head of hair. People usually wear hats for a reason. Air hat-tip right back at you good buddy. These clones were relatively inexpensive, cheaper than a pack of seeds, but the experience is worth it’s weight in gold.
Yeah, don’t spray anything on flowers. The sulfur is rated organic, not that I really pay much attention to that. I use organic amendments but how could any of that stuff possibly be sourced, broken down, and transported completely organically?
Now the Spinosad is systemic and I’ve recently shied away from using it if possible. Nube posted some info about the results of combustion when the chemical is stored in the leaf. But damn does it knock out thrips real quick. If I use it, I try to make sure its early in veg. I used it for the first time in my Passionfruit Hashplant tester log, and I was 4 weeks into flower! Yikes! But I didn’t notice anything, the smoke was great. But I won’t be doing that again. You’ve got to take care of these things before you flower.
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That sounds like a good mix.
You prefer dunking to spraying? I’ve tried dunking but fell like spraying covered more some how.
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Yeah, okay, I dunno if I read that post from nube or what, but I was thinking there was some kind of weirdness involved with that Spinosad. It just sounds weird haha.
I’m curious, did you let PNW know what the fuck was going on? I’m not saying go all “yelp” on them and leave a horrible review, but did you contact them to be like,”Yo. There’s shitloads of bugs all over the clones you sent me,”? Wha’d they say if you did?
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Just don’t use spinosad in bloom. I prefer the dip/soak over just spraying. I’ll get the water stirring really good and dunk the plant upside down in it and let it sit for at least 30sec to a min. Not missing a single crevice when doing that. I will dunk up and down a bit too. I then spray the surface of the soil and the sides of the container, plus and stem that wasn’t submerged.
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A microscope and a plan, for the win 
Schmarm will be teaching those guys at PNW how to handle the parasites.
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Is there a difference between “wettable sulfur” and “micronized sulfur”? Was just listening to the potcast episode with Bob Hemphill for like the 190th time today and he was talking about his IPM regimen using sulphur, alcohol, essential oils, and plant therapy.
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woah, that’s hardcore. Mixing the oils and sulfur is dangerous to your plants health. It burns holes in them.
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Yea he mentions his ratios but also outlines some specific environmental stuff to take into account and he does mention that it can hurt plants if not done correctly, pretty intense shit.
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“Wettable” is just the sulfur powder with some surfactant (like soap) added to help it mix and not just sit as a clump. I mix up safer soap first, then stir in the sulfur powder.
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Yeah, sulfur’s a kinda “last resort”-type thing, no? Is that something that somebody should be using as a part of their IPM? I’m genuinely curious, not judging (much).
Whatever happened to neem oil? Haha… I saw somebody mention on a thread that they didn’t use neem, but instead used something “more organic” and then said that what they used was hydrogen peroxide and soap. I didn’t bother to ask how peroxide and soap were more organic than neem oil, didn’t seem worth it haha.
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Just have to make sure there’s no oil based treatment on the plant first. Just wash it off first. Only time I had issue with the sulfur was when I caked it on there 
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I know for sure that Bob mentions that sulphur + everything else combo as a once a year treatment for his mothers. I think he said he sprays that something insane like 12 days in a row and it’ll pretty much kill anything that could be on the plants. I don’t however remember if he mentions using a more diluted/less intense combo as a more regular part of his IPM. I’ll have to listen to the interview again, but I know he holds a huge library of old cuts so He’s probably seen some extreme shit in his time
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here’s the thing… I don’t do an IPM, instead I identify the pest with positive ID then I use the treatment I know kills them off. If I identify it as being a fungus, I immediately snuff it’s life with sulfur. If it’s a bug, I drown it’s ass. You will never find me treating a plant that doesn’t have a parasite.
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Yeah, that makes much more sense. Why throw the kitchen sink at something if only… uh… the spigot will do? Haha. Or the faucet. Whatever.
I dunno. I get all proud when I just do, like, three neem oil foliars over the course of my sixty-day veg haha.
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