so, I am new to posting on any canna boards, tho I've been looking for years...... I write today to share some of my root aphid experience........ In 2011, I got 20 teens from a good friend, in coco. They began to fail.... I had never heard of RA (neither had the friend at that time). I tried every tactic I could find.....
Botaniguard,
Pyganic, Merit 75 WP, Spectracide Triazacide, etc... what worked that time for me was that, twice, two different times.... I totally washed all coco and then, soil away from the roots, then, I dipped the root ball and entire plant into the Merit 75 solution........ In between those two treatments, I did soil drench with the Triazacide...... also, cleaned completely, bombed the rooms, took cuts from and then killed off all my moms, and then, I treated with
Pyganic soil drenches for months...... I basically lost a month or two of production, and I remained diligent for years..... I will say that the Merit 75, beyond being expensive, and an evil awful poison, was very very harsh on my plants, but, we did beat the RA.
To me, things like PM, and spider mites are kindergarten. RA is college-level.
In this past year, I lost my mother, my son, my marriage, and a job I've had and loved for 12 years, so, maybe I have not been as on top of things as usual........whatever. I have the RA again, but, this time, none of the above has helped, and I have been working to rid my rooms of these awful creatures for about 4 runs now. I have lost 40 to 60% of my production 3 runs in a row, and then, lost my entire run at about day 32 out of 63 this last time.....
I had wanted to try the heat method that I've been reading about, so, what I did in line with that is on one run, before I potted-up to the 5 gal pots, (besides cleaning, bombing, cleaning all filters, fans, bleaching the rooms, and treating every 3 days with something in the lists of things that might hopefully work, including a couple treatments with the OG Biowar, etccc)) was to heat treat my soil. I'm running ish of 52 plants in 5 gal plastic pots with the raised bottoms so they don't sit in water. I felt that perhaps the bugs were coming in the soil I had been buying, so, I tried the heat.......
that run, I used my steam cleaner and my oven to heat every tiny bit of soil to 200 degrees for about 5 or 10 minutes. I treated all 260 gallons of my soil in that way....... and treated the plants and cleaned the room. Still, tho my run completed, the yields were half what they should have been.
so, next run (still continuously treating all of my nursery plants every 3 to 5 days.), I got new soil, bleached, bombed, steamed all the corners, and etc... in the room...... and I planted.... I felt I had a handle on it... my kids were beautiful.......... until day 22 under the 12/12 cycle. They just started failing everywhere.............so, in desperation, I tried the hot water thing......... I could not use poison on my medicine at that stage of the game..... so, I brought out my free standing camp stove, and 4 canning pots, my candy thermometer, and all kinds of other gear........ I heated the water to 125 degrees, and then poured it through each pot's soil, letting it soak in big bottom trays... I had to move each plant into separate rooms...... 52 plants in 5 gal pots, ranging in height from 42 to 50 inches tall, bushy, and beautiful, but, failing.......
It was a huge task. I finished it up, and went away for the weekend......... came home to standing straw. The entire room was dead. I believe it was the hot water treatment to the soil. I did not apply hot water to the foliage.
I took out all the soil, put it in black plastic bags, and out into the direct sun.. that first day was 108. I live in the hot Sacramento valley, and that soil has had some serious heat on it for at least 10 days.... last night, I opened a few of the bags, just to check.........there are flyers everywhere. I do NOT believe in heat treating.
I think that the RA has become immune to many of the products, and I will never try heat again. The one thing that has showed some success this time through is the
Pyganic, organic pyrethrum. It is quite expensive, and even though it is organic, it is big time poison...... I don't believe there are directions for drenching, but, I just go with the directions for a foliar spray and then drench the soil with it.........
I am sad and upset with this... so, my run is gone, my room has been empty for most of 2 weeks, and my nursery has flyers.......... In a separate location, I have another run ready to roll. I have bombed my flower room twice, 3 days apart... swept, vacuumed, cleaned the filters on everything, etc...I have been treating the nursery and teens with Triazacide every 3 to 5 days, and will begin with an Imid product that I found for much less $$ than the Merit, but, at only 1.47% rather than the 5%, so, I guess I will use more........... I'm going nuclear, I will not falter. I have to beat this.
so, anyway....... my plan..... I'm picking up fresh soil this afternoon, and will wash away the soil for the next run (30 kids, not 52 this time), I will treat with the Imid, totally drench the root ball and foliage, pot it up, and then drench the soil with the imid too. I will drench again on Saturday morning, and again next Tuesday morning. Then, I will spend the following week or so, drenching with the Triazicide every 3 days............. then, I will turn the lights to 12/12, flush the soil, do a light feeding just with mollasis water, and start brewing my active compost teas. I think I should wait at least a week to 10 days after the last treatment before I introduce mychorrizi and other bennies. also, each time that I water, I will spray the low parts of the plants and the top of the soil with a
Pyganic solution. (once the light bulbs begin to show on the plant in flower, if you treat with
Pyganic, it turns the white pistols brown. ls late in flower,
Pyganic will definitely have a bad aeffect on the taste of the finished product.)
I am so freaking tired of this, and so upset. I am ever learning, but, also, I am not a novice. These bugs are just awful. (Oh, somewhere along the lines this past year, I have also introduced the predatory nematodes, but, they really didn't have any chance to build up their levels and do the job before they were cooked with the hot water.)
PS: The kids that came out of my rooms and went into the earth outdoors have been treated (yes, even in their 60 gal smarties) with triazicide a few times, and all are looking lovely strong, and deep dark green. They all have one more treatment, and then, I will just keep on telling them how amazingly beautiful they are, and how proud a mother I am that my children will bring such healing to so many.
