# I got mites and want to have a harvest moon



## freerein (May 14, 2008)

Hi just joined the board and this my first real post.  I have done a little searching but wanted to post my own topic as well. 

The end of the month is the perfect time to harvest since it will be a few days before a dark moon. I just noticed lots of buds are coated in mite webs.    I have been spraying with water and just did my final watering with clean water to flush nutes so I don't want to pull them yet.  I have the lights off while the plants are drying from the room temp distilled water spraying.  My plan is to keep soaking the buds with spray bottle for the next week and no more watering at all and let the soil go bone dry.  I was only going to have my lights run for 8 hours for the next couple of weeks. I need to start looking closer.  I have been trying to not use any chemicals and water spray only.  I bomb the rooms without the plants every few months but I need to do more. 

I am sure this topic has been discussed ad nauseum.


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## thc is good for me (May 14, 2008)

You should not spray your budding plants with water they can get moldy. whats the humidity in your room?  

Buy one of those bug killing air freshener things i bought one that kills mites.

BUT SPAYING BUDING PLANTS WITH WATER IS NO BUENO


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## lyfr (May 14, 2008)

dude, you gotta inspect more often,  if you can see webs coating your buds its too late...serious infestation.  they are hard enough to get rid of if you only have a few which gives me an idea for a new thread.  if you catch'em early you can get rid of them by using 3 different killers(50/50 iso-h2o, insect spray 4 veggies, permathrin bomb/spray) 1 ea day, 3 days apart, for 9-15 days. *using 1 kill method will not eradicate mitesIME*.  low temps and high hum. slows down reproduction but then you get into mold issues late in flower.  basically,in a perfect scenario, and weak mites, it will still take some good luck to get rid of them.  i inspect my leaves daily for little yellow spots(first sign of many different bugs.  hope it helped


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## HippyInEngland (May 14, 2008)

If your that close to harvest then no more liquids, as said above it will mould, try this, get a hoover and suck the little buggers off, most hoovers have an adjustable setting and set it on its lowest setting so it doesnt rip all your bud off :shocked: if your hoover/vacumm does not have an adjustable setting, simply put your fingers over the end of the suck bit to only allow a slight suction


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## freerein (May 14, 2008)

Hi thanks for the reply.  I guess it's too late to not spray water on them cause I already did.  I have a fan on them now and harvested a few of the plants last nite and trimmed all the leaves off and put them in a paper bag left open for more air.  I have too many plants to tend to and it kind of got overwhelming.  I stil have 3 more plants to harvest and I cut all the leaves off them last nite and basically gave them a poodle cut.  These plants have some large buds and it still looks pretty healthy. I will take some photos later and post.  I have other plants in the same room 4 Huge White Widows (just started to go in bloomin mode) and 8 other plants in intitial veg mode using H.O. flourescent lights.  I basically have 2 different rooms split into 2 areas. I will eventually get some photo's up to show what I am doing. I want to have different light times and more space to keep the heat down.  I am just growing for myself and it may be slightly over-kill but to me it makes sense to have aleast one room for starts and clippings, one room for Veg mode and one for flowering. I have one room for super growth and 1,000 watt halide light.  I have 2 flowering rooms using different different type of lights.  One has a 400W sodium, and the other has 8 HO flourescents with 2 spectrums which have gave me amazing results.  I like to grow for 4-6 months and let the plants dry out by not watering them till the plant is really dried out before I pull it but my mite issue has to be taken care of first so I am harvesting everything that can be harvested now. 

My plan is to harvest what I have make sure it dries properly and then completely clear the 2 rooms and bomb and clean up and then re-introduce each plant one at a time after thorough investigation with a magnifier.  My eyes are not like they used to be.    

I need to also get a better ventilation system built cause I end up leaving the doors open so more air can come in which allows more bugs to come in too.  I have alot invested in this time and money wise and I obviously need to pay more attention.  I am allowed to have 20 ounces of cured smoke at anytime so my goal is to be harvesting at least 7-14  plants every 4-6 months. 

Thanks for the replies and I will post some photo's of my work after I get some rest. I was up all nite harvesting.  I have the room at a nice and cool temperature and lights off now with a fan going across the plants to get the buds to dry from all my water spraying last nite.  I really didn't want to harvest last nite since I had just watered them a couple days prior and wanted to harvest a few days before the dark moon which is the end of the month.   

The bottom line is I had too many plants to manage and was not paying enough attention to all of them closely.  There is no way to control these mites with just room temp water sprayed on them.  I am going to scale things down a bit so it is more manageble which is what I planned to do once I had a decent propogation of clippings  which I do and now the focus is a clean mite free environment.  All my plants now are mostly 3rd and 4th generation and I want to keep these strains alive and never start from seed's again.  

Thanks for helping me save my girls and get on the right track.    More to come.


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## lyfr (May 14, 2008)

i would keep whatever you harvest far far away from the rest...them mites are gonna be packin up and lookin for a new home when they start dryin!


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## freerein (May 14, 2008)

lyfr said:
			
		

> i would keep whatever you harvest far far away from the rest...them mites are gonna be packin up and lookin for a new home when they start dryin!


 
I hear ya and will do that.  I sprayed all the others remining plants with water mist in the same room that are just starting to bud this morning as well to keep them from wanting to start a colony before I get the fine tooth comb out and implement all the suggestions I get here.  I am going to be pretty much working full time on this over the next week to get things where they need to be and hopefully it will be much easier to manage.  I kind of dove in and did really well accept for this mite situation.  

I will be going to the garden shop and stocking up on mite maintenance supplies today.  I am glad to have some smoke while doing this cause I suffer from chronic pain in a bad way and the more careful I am hopefully it will end up being less work by keeping a good and healthy environment for the girls so they can thrive.  I enjoy the work and the satisfaction of creating my own organic medicine so it's all good.  

Thanks again!!


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## freerein (May 14, 2008)

thc is good for me said:
			
		

> You should not spray your budding plants with water they can get moldy. whats the humidity in your room?
> 
> Buy one of those bug killing air freshener things i bought one that kills mites.
> 
> BUT SPAYING BUDING PLANTS WITH WATER IS NO BUENO


 
BTW the current temp is around 72 and 60 humidity.  I just bought a bunch of bug killer hangers, neem spray, veg spray and indoor bug spray for outside the rooms and surrounding areas.  I also got another osc fan and gonna go pick up some ISO and create a H20 / ISO spray mix.  

This is war!! :rant: 

I will have some photo's up shortly.  I thought I had them mites under control but my eyesite was failing until it became obvious they were still infested. I have a big magnifier now.  Hopefully the buds are gonna be still good because they look really good and they are nice size. 

I love this site!!


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## freerein (May 14, 2008)

Here are some photos


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## SmknWhiteWidow (May 15, 2008)

wow im very impressed. wish i could have the room and money to go this big. keep it up man


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## freerein (May 15, 2008)

Thanks.  I started small but really glad I can seperate things for better control.  

Nice Les Paul.  I used to have a Black Beauty. I still play, compose, produce and working on several projects.


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## Nova (May 15, 2008)

freerein said:
			
		

> Hi just joined the board and this my first real post.  I have done a little searching but wanted to post my own topic as well.
> 
> The end of the month is the perfect time to harvest since it will be a few days before a dark moon. I just noticed lots of buds are coated in mite webs.    I have been spraying with water and just did my final watering with clean water to flush nutes so I don't want to pull them yet.  I have the lights off while the plants are drying from the room temp distilled water spraying.  My plan is to keep soaking the buds with spray bottle for the next week and no more watering at all and let the soil go bone dry.  I was only going to have my lights run for 8 hours for the next couple of weeks. I need to start looking closer.  I have been trying to not use any chemicals and water spray only.  I bomb the rooms without the plants every few months but I need to do more.
> 
> I am sure this topic has been discussed ad nauseum.



I used this fantastic stuff called Bio-Neem....its totally organic! I applied it to my grow area, in my overkill-type fashion. It got rid of my mite problem quick! 

You can mix up a diluted solution and mist the plants  very lighty. On top of that, you can mix it into your water, without nutes, and apply it to you soil to kill any buggers hiding. Also you can mix up a stronger solution and wash the floors and walls with it. It's great stuff, and its completely organic, so i think this might be right up your alley! It's a bit pricey, but well worth it.

Oh, and it doesnt harm the beneficials either, like ladybugs or red mites. Red mites prey on the spider mites! You may consider investing in some red mites, you can buy them typically in 1000-2000 bunches, also look into some lady bugs too! 

So if i were you, i would spray the whole area, plants, and soil, down with the Bio-Neem. Then introduce a good amount of red mites and ladybugs to the grow and see if that tackles the problem. If not, you might want to apply the Bio-Neem again to help the beneficials out!

Good luck!

Nova

p.s.
My grow is outside, so it is much harder for these buggers to survive. Also, growing outside, we get those flying spiders.....those buggers that spin a web and it acts like a sail. I find that all over the plants.....with no other signs of mites!


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## freerein (May 15, 2008)

Thanks Nova,

That's what I bought.   I will give it a try and do some light spraying over the buds. I was just affraid it may effect the taste but willing to give it a try just to piss off the mites some more.  Its getting warm right now 80 but 60 humidity so maybe they are out poppin around munchin on my buds.

:chuck: 

I'll be baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

:watchplant:


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