Does this look like thrips damage?

HashCake · Aug 5, 2021

Hey guys, I’m new here. I’ve been growing for about 8 years and never truly encountered problems with pests until this summer.

At first I noticed the tell tale thrip damage on the bottom leaves, the silvery stains that look like somebody spit on your leaves. I used a h2o2 and water solution as a foliar and top soil spray, it worked temporarily but their numbers grew larger.

Yesterday I finally got the spinosad I ordered and did a foliar drench, I also drenched the topsoil. This morning I opened my tent to find the leaves have been damaged even further by the thrips but I couldn’t find any on the leaves. I dug around the first inch of soil and saw half a dozen of them squirming and jumping around so I sprayed the soil again with spinosad today.

Im currently heading towards the end of week 3 in flower and I don’t want to continue to spray spinosad for much longer if at all. It’s just some of the leaves look diseased, it’s hard to imagine a thrip eating that much but who knows.

Basically I’m wondering if this looks like thrips damage or something worse and what should I do about it?

Chem77 · Aug 5, 2021

HashCake · Aug 5, 2021

Chem77 said:
No

Honestly that’s what I thought, I know I have thrips because of those silvery spit stains and I’ve seen them, but I have no idea what’s causing that leaf damage. Soil, PH, nutrients, and climate are all in check.. so I’m thinking could the thrips be a carrier of some sort of virus?

Tracyfri · Aug 5, 2021

How bad was the infestation? Like several live ones on every leaf at it's worst?

HashCake said:
Honestly that’s what I thought, I know I have thrips because of those silvery spit stains and I’ve seen them, but I have no idea what’s causing that leaf damage. Soil, PH, nutrients, and climate are all in check.. so I’m thinking could the thrips be a carrier of some sort of virus?

HashCake · Aug 5, 2021

Tracyfri said:
How bad was the infestation? Like several live ones on every leaf at it's worst?

At its worst I could only find maybe 5-6 per plant crawling on the leaves, when I found them I did the h2o2 and water spray and covered the top of the pot with sticky traps. That’s when shit got crazy because 2 days later I removed the sticky trap and saw hundreds of tiny black thrips stuck to the trap. I’m thinking very few were able to surface though because the entire top of the pot was covered for each plant.

Tracyfri · Aug 5, 2021

HashCake said:
At its worst I could only find maybe 5-6 per plant crawling on the leaves, when I found them I did the h2o2 and water spray and covered the top of the pot with sticky traps. That’s when shit got crazy because 2 days later I removed the sticky trap and saw hundreds of tiny black thrips stuck to the trap. I’m thinking very few were able to surface though because the entire top of the pot was covered for each plant.

Gotcha. I've had some very bad thrip damage before that I thought was something else. Didn't look exactly the same as yours but ugly enough in its own way. My infestation was maybe a bit bigger. The spinosad will knock em out with repeat applications though.. Be patient. Personally I think your okay spraying spinosad a few more weeks if needed. Others may disagree, that's cool..

HashCake · Aug 5, 2021

Tracyfri said:
Gotcha. I've had some very bad thrip damage before that I thought was something else. Didn't look exactly the same as yours but ugly enough in its own way. My infestation was maybe a bit bigger. The spinosad will knock em out with repeat applications though.. Be patient. Personally I think your okay spraying spinosad a few more weeks if needed. Others may disagree, that's cool..

it’s hard to find information on how late into flower you can spray spinosad, some people say up until a few days before harvest well others say they’d never spray past the first 2-3 weeks, and I’ve even seen people say they only spray in veg. Anyway I’m really just wondering if it looks like thrip damage, it’s hard to find any pictures resembling this type of damage. I guess only time will tell but as of now I can’t find any other pests that could be causing a separate issue.

mysticepipedon · Aug 5, 2021

Beneficial nematodes will take care of any thrip larvae in the soil. Also gets rid of fungus gnats.

Beneficial Nematodes | Soil-Born Pest Control

Treat and control garden pests before they do damage. Beneficial nematodes are a natural control for over 200 pests with a soil developing stage.

www.arbico-organics.com

HashCake · Aug 6, 2021

Does anyone else have any information on if they think this leaf damage is related to the thrips or a separate issue?

Chem77 · Aug 6, 2021

HashCake said:
Does anyone else have any information on if they think this leaf damage is related to the thrips or a separate issue?

That’s not thrip damage, it looks like you burned them with a spray to me. Also I never seen thrips jump around, let alone in soil. Sounds like spring tails in your soil, and probably fungus gnats. Thrips like the bottom side of your leaves. Identify your bugs and go from there.

HashCake · Aug 6, 2021

Chem77 said:
That’s not thrip damage, it looks like you burned them with a spray to me. Also I never seen thrips jump around, let alone in soil. Sounds like spring tails in your soil, and probably fungus gnats. Thrips like the bottom side of your leaves. Identify your bugs and go from there.

thrips are born inside of leaves, crawl out of them, feed on them, crawl into the soil where they pupate, then come out of the soil as an adult. You can find thrips on any part of your plant and in the soil, they’re some annoying ass bugs. And I didn’t burn my leaves, they starting showing that appearance and slowly spread like a virus growing more and more, and now at this point I can’t find a single bug no matter how hard I try but the leaf damage continues to progress.

HashCake · Aug 6, 2021

Also, despite how much growing experience I have my experience with pests is fairly limited. Where I lived before it snowed 5 months out of the year and was 6500 feet in elevation so I never saw a bug growing cannabis for years. Then I moved to the valley with dry heat and 100 degree summer temps and the bugs started popping up everywhere.

Homesteader · Aug 6, 2021

I think that is calcium depletion and would recommend a giant handful of gypsum

GNick55 · Aug 6, 2021

ok firstly i don’t have a lot of pest experience also but to me those spots or some of them look like leaf septoria..
also some if the damage on the leaf edges can be from overwatering as with leaf septoria.

HashCake · Aug 6, 2021

Homesteader said:
I think that is calcium depletion and would recommend a giant handful of gypsum

Thank you for the advice I’ll give that a try.

mancorn · Aug 6, 2021

Most certainly NOT thrips.

HashCake · Aug 6, 2021

GNick55 said:
ok firstly i don’t have a lot of pest experience also but to me those spots or some of them look like leaf septoria..
also some if the damage on the leaf edges can be from overwatering as with leaf septoria.

Thanks for the observation, it’s very possibly I have been overwatering recently with soil drenches trying to kill the bugs. As for the leaf septoria I looked into it and I think that might be the issue, I read it can transmitted by pests as well. Luckily it said it doesn’t affect the flowers only the foliage, still looks like a diminished yield this season unfortunately, luckily I grow small scale for personal use only.

HashCake · Aug 6, 2021

After looking at pictures of late stage calcium deficiency I’m starting to think that’s probably it, Very similar leaf damage.

mancorn · Aug 6, 2021

Burned leave tips (which most of yours have) are almost always excess nutrient. The really burned leaves are either further nutrient burn or a watering problem.

5 Surprising Signs of Overwatering | Grow Weed Easy

by Nebula Haze This overwatered cannabis seedling is drooping from being given too much water too often. If you’ve got droopy cannabis plants, you’re not alone. Overwatering is one of the most common problems faced by cannabis growers. Giving too much water to your cannabis plants doesn’t mean...

www.growweedeasy.com

HashCake · Aug 6, 2021

mancorn said:
Burned leave tips (which most of yours have) are almost always excess nutrient. The really burned leaves are either further nutrient burn or a watering problem.

5 Surprising Signs of Overwatering | Grow Weed Easy

by Nebula Haze This overwatered cannabis seedling is drooping from being given too much water too often. If you’ve got droopy cannabis plants, you’re not alone. Overwatering is one of the most common problems faced by cannabis growers. Giving too much water to your cannabis plants doesn’t mean...

www.growweedeasy.com

Hard to imagine it’s a problem of excess nutrients, I only use dry amendments so it’s slow release, then I’ll top dress if necessary. Starting to think I have been overwatering though trying to kill these bugs.

Does this look like thrips damage?

Does this look like thrips damage?

HashCake

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