grayarea
- 1,565
- 163
i have to use a res to ph my water . i go by numbers because they are less confusing then terms like "main" when i separate that stuff from the work im doing i usually get better results
not 1/4 inch line, typically 5/8" or 1/2" black pipe....I'm saying don't use the white PVC if it's going to be left exposed to the elements, and I'm also saying that I would find using drip line *as* the main supply line entirely bereft. I don't use a reservoir. I feed the soil, it all gets watered. If a feed is needed, it's occasionally only, so again, no need for a reservoir (which would require what is to me constant maintenance). Using quarter inch drip line as *the* main supply line to get water to the gardens doesn't fit in my scenario.
It sounds like your going to get emunder controlHey guys. . I meant to get back with an update sooner but I've been dealing with a life or death battle: RUSSET MITES!!!
I have never had these little fucks before. When I came to the area and heard about it I just didn't take it seriously because everything I grow, whether clone or seedling, originally came from seed companies or my own seed stock. I had learned too many times in the past just how easily one can receive someone else's pest along with their clones. Anyway, I had a friend call me because he had figured out that he had Russets. He took on a significant amount of damage before getting the issue properly diagnosed. Then another friend started seeing the tacoing leaves in his garden so I went on high alert because my plants had spent some time at his place while in transition. Searching the garden I was finding occasional leaf twists and curls but it wasn't until the following day when I saw the leaves starting to curl taco-style that I knew I was in the shit too.
It's amazing how much questionable info is out there about winning the war against these bugs. The following was done in a rush to attack the problem while still trying to determine what would actually work and what was bullshit:
A few comments on the above treatments:
- The friend who first got them told me that sulfur would work. Starting on Friday, July 25th, I spent three days spraying sulfur using a hand-pump sprayer with a wand on sections of the garden in the evening and then washing it off in the morning before the sun was on the girls.
- Then starting on Monday, July 28th, I spent the next four days spraying sections of the garden with malathion, again using a hand-pump sprayer with a wand. The local Home Depot actually had so many customers coming in with the same problem that they had made a little sign saying that malathion was the only insecticide they carried that was effective against "rust mites"- pretty funny.
- Then starting on Sunday, Aug. 3rd, I used the same hand-sprayer to hit these little bastards over three evenings with Avid (1.25 ml/gallon with 10 ml non-ionic surfactant 10 ml/gallon)
- On Thursday, Aug. 7th, I used a friend's Hudson Fogger to spray the entire garden over two evenings with Forbid (1 ml/gallon with 10 ml non-ionic surfactant 10 ml/gallon). I questioned the effectiveness of the Fogger because it didn't seem to really soak the leaves, especially the undersides, very well unless used up close but it also felt like it was blowing a lot of the material right through the plant and out the other side unless used from a distance.
After the Forbid treatment I took a night off from spraying. The next day, which was yesterday Sunday Aug. 10th, I was walking around the garden and I was seeing leaves that were still tacoing. Had this sign never gone away? I wasn't sure. I was also noticing lower leaves on some of the plants that were going brittle and falling off. I thought maybe I hadn't mixed the forbid well enough in the tank and so maybe some of the plants got too strong of a solution, but then I realized it was more wide-spread and I think I remember seeing a video with a guy who had Russets and his leaves looking like this. Then I started noticing mutated growth on the newest growth. Before I had seen leaf twists and curls on somewhat older leaves, this time it was the newest formed leaves! I scoped some of the new growth and saw eggs on it. This means I still have adult fuckers actively going around and, based on the mutated growth, the larvae have been hatching! FUCK!!! So, last night I drenched the main garden with Avid using a backpack sprayer. While I was out there I'm pretty sure I saw the same spindly new growth on a few of the plants that I had seen in pictures from people who had Russets. Those plants got extra drenching! Prior to yesterday most of the damage done was more from the sulfur and malathion treatments, the leaf twists and tacoing leaves not being all that bad but the leaf death and more sickly growth has got me going nuts. Considering that I was already behind for the season the mantra had been "no more setbacks". Can a guy get a break?
- The sulfur is difficult to completely wash off, leading to some occasional leaf burn and its effectiveness against Russets is questionable. I think it may have slowed them down a bit but that's it. Considering the hassle of having to wash it off in the morning and its roughness on the plants I would not repeat the sulfur treatments.
- The malathion might be effective but it can also be pretty rough on the plants. I recommend only spraying this stuff in the evening and don't go over a plant more than once in a treatment. I did some spraying in the morning and had a fatality from applying it too close to the heat of the day. Use with caution.
- Avid is the first product I was able to get my hands on which seems to reliably kill of Russets. It was also the first product that made the plants actually look healthier the next day. I was upset when I looked through my 20x scope and still saw a shitload of eggs (my scope isn't powerful enough to see larvae clearly) but at least any adults I saw were dead ones. I used the concentration listed for mites (4 oz/100g = ~1.25 ml/gallon) but I've been told that I used too weak of a concentration and I plan to use 2.5 ml/gallon in the future.
- Forbid is also supposed to reliably hurt Russets, particularly their eggs. I dunno if I should blame the Hudson Fogger but I was disappointed after this treatment as you will see below.
Here's some pics from yesterday:
Lower damage, from Russets?
View attachment 431806
View attachment 431808
Leaf tacoing and new growth curling:
View attachment 431809
More curling: View attachment 431810
Here's some shots I took just now:
More leaf damage showing up today....:(
View attachment 431811
View attachment 431812
Some might say that it's not that bad yet. I am lucky that I got on this from the very first signs and the pics are from the worst affected, but it is very distressing that shit seems to be getting worse!!! Damage ain't that bad yet but if I don't get this licked then it's gonna be ugly. I only have a short time before I will have to stop these nasty treatments so that it doesn't end up in the finished flowers.
For the immediate future I plan to go on a constant rotation of spraying half the garden with Avid one evening and then the other half the next evening, then Forbid over two evenings and back to Avid. I *might* throw in a malathion rotation in there as well. I also need a more powerful scope so I can actually see if the larvae are active or dead. All I can see right now is just tiny beige blobs but I can't tell if they're moving.
As things get closer to harvest I want to be able to back away from the nasty stuff. The guy at one of the local grow shops convinced me to buy a bag of insect frass (bug parts and bug shit). The idea being that it contains a bacterial that will eat the Russets. So I add the frass to a tub of water and churn it with an air bubbler to get the bacteria really active, then spray it on the plants and it would both attack the bugs and act as a foliar feed which would strengthen the plant's resistance to attack. I'm not ready to dedicate any precious time to that yet. I've also heard rumors that spraying ice-water early in the morning will kill them but I'm skeptical of that one.
Now going back to the original subject of this thread, delaying the flowering has gone okay. In the main garden I have a 600 watt HPS turned sideways and positioned in the best spot for maximum coverage and a halogen lamp, like what painters use, at the other end which I try to move around to a few times each night in hopes of getting everything sufficiently lit up. On the smaller garden I have another 600 watt HPS turned sideways.
Back in mid/late July I got a bit of preflowering hairs on pretty much every plant shortly after everything was planted. I got concerned about things actually flowering early instead of late! I have been hitting all of the girls pretty hard with nitrogen (mixing in 1/3 Miracle Grow grass fertilizer, which is almost all N, to 2/3 Earth Juice Sea Blast Grow). I'm not sure whether it was the Nitrogen and/or the lights or if they just did it on their own but they all eventually came out of that preflowering. Then last week (early Aug.) we got a few cooler gloomy days and the flowering came back on the majority of the plants in spite of the lights and N. This time it looked more like legitimate beginnings of flowers and I've started to become more hesitant about feeding grow and putting the lights on the girls that look like they're really getting ready to flower. I don't want to end up hurting the quality of the flowers because I refused to let them flower when they wanted to.
Can anybody comment on how far into the transition I can go with nitrogen without hurting the flower quality?
To answer some old questions- We have solar and a powerful Generac generator which runs on propane. If I were to make any improvements to our power situation it would be more storage capacity because the batteries get full fairly quickly on a sunny day or whenever the generator is running. We have a well that hasn't showed any signs of slowing down yet. The well fills a storage tank which then provides water for both the irrigation and the house. We hope to have an injection system in the future so we can feed through the irrigation system. We got some Israeli drippers that are supposed to not clog even with nutes.
The comments about the PVC are appreciated. When there's time I hope to cover the PVC with dirt. I need to finish all the 1/2 inch black tubing spirals with drippers so that the PVC will actually get used and my pots can get better moisture dispersion with less effort. Right now I'm hand watering, then spraying, watering, spraying....
Thanks for all the helpful comments!