Suspected root aphids in flower, help!

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Cannabis Kid

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hi, im in week 4/5 of flower and have discovered root aphids, 1 plant in particular is holding water in the soil while all others dry out, also this plant has had no growth for a few feeds now, and 80% of pistils are now brown, just wondering if its worth takin this one dwn early as feels like im wastin my time wiv it, any help will be greatly appreciated.
 
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lil miss lone

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I'll tell you from my experience you should just let them all go bro. It won't be worth it in the end if you try to fight them now. Yield will be about a quarter what it normally would have. Flowers will be dry, airy and seem to mature faster than normal. Your best bet is to get the aphids completely gone. Good luck man.
 
ShivaSkunkPunk

ShivaSkunkPunk

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2nd that, Jus pitch'd entire plant/pot as they caused her to herm bad @ 16d flower so had to start over wit clones i'd taken, tried a lot of stuff w/ no success, ended up cleaning out tent with clorox bleach and shut down for 3 days, not worth the hassle or the abuse to your lady, Peace SSP
 
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Cannabis Kid

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thanx for the advice, gonna bring them down 2moro and start a fresh b4 i waste any more time, thanx again.
 
mace

mace

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diatomaceous earth can go around the base of your plants in pots next time, will kill the adults on contact and is organic. Also, i use mosquito dunks in my water, you can find them at home depot for cheap.
 
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amstercal

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So you're sure it is root aphids? Did you see them? I would definitely take down the one that you're concerned about. Tear the roots and medium apart--away from your grow, preferably outside. If you have root aphids, you'll see them in the medium somewhere. My experience found them between the rockwool starter cube and the 4x4 it was put into, but i know others find them around the edge of the pot. Look slowly and in good light. The little beetle looking ones are the easiest to spot (unless you're so badly off you have the fliers already), but in my experience stay all the time in the medium.
If it is indeed aphids and you take them down, I would treat all your moms etc with Bayer Tree & Shrub. Raise the lights a bit for a day or two if they're under anything intense.

A few minutes of searching through whatever you pull could give you a clearer picture so it doesn't happen again.
 
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lil miss lone

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diatomaceous earth can go around the base of your plants in pots next time, will kill the adults on contact and is organic. Also, i use mosquito dunks in my water, you can find them at home depot for cheap.



Neither of those will work for root aphids bro, I'm sorry but I tried both of those. BTi will not kill aphids, neither will diatom.

Good deal bro. I wasted damn near a year!! trying to fight those things before I turned off the lights. I wish I had known then what I know now, you know. I'm glad you made that decision, you'll feel better for it, trust me..

Now, what are you going to do in veg?? Kill all and start over from seed, do you plan on going nuclear, what?
 
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Toes

Guest
This may help

By Ed Rosenthal - Sunday said:
Root aphids colonize and suck juices from roots in many mediums including horticultural pebbles, rockwool and planting mixes. They are persistent, so it requires some discipline to eliminate them. There are several organic products that can be used without affecting the plant, the buds, or the safety of the buds for later human consumption. The first is organic pyrethrum. This is a natural insecticide gathered from a chrysanthemum-type flower. There are several brands of liquid concentrate. If pyrethrum liquid is not available at your local nursery or garden shop you can order it on the internet.

Botanigard is an insecticide that is composed of a living fungus, beauveria bassiana. This fungus seeks out aphids and infects them, causing death. Then it releases spores waiting for more victims. It also works to control whiteflies and thrips. You can order it at many garden stores or through garden websites on the internet.

Neem oil and citrus oil have also been used to kill aphids, but they sometimes affect the roots. Test them on a sample plant before using either of them in the garden.

The aphids should be treated every other day with a minimum of six treatments. Rotate the insecticides. Botanigard can be combined with pyrethrum. The neem and citrus oils can be mixed with each other as well as pyrethrum. The idea is to totally eliminate the pests.

If the plants are growing in a hydroponic system, rather than mixing the treatment in the reservoir, make a special batch of water. Turn off the hydroponic system and water the plants using a watering can. Let the insecticide water stay in the root area for at least an hour before turning the hydroponic unit back on.

Once the aphids are gone, it is difficult for them to reinfect. They were probably introduced to your garden by a new element such as a clone or infected planting mix.
 
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Toes

Guest
Here's one more...

By Ed Rosenthal - Tuesday said:
Root aphids are a serious problem and they are not easy to get rid of. A serious infection occurred in a controlled indoor plant nursery. We never discovered how the infection began. No outdoor plants were ever admitted except as bare cuttings that were first quarantined; new plants were started in synthetic planting mixes and only sterile planting mixes were used. Nevertheless, the very agile hard coated black insect, 1/16" in length, invaded the rooting medium and could be seen scurrying into hiding. It was identified as an aphid, but I thought looked more like a beetle.

Three ingredients were used to eliminate the insect under the "zero tolerance" policy of the nursery.

Liquid pyrethrum concentrate was mixed into the water/nutrient mix. Pyrethrum is an organic pesticide refined from flowers in the chrysanthemum family. There are a number of brands available in nurseries and garden shops but you may have to go online to find a liquid concentrate.

Botanigard is a specific virulent species of fungus that infects soft-bodied insects. When a possible host insect brushes against the fungus spore, the spore attaches itself to the insect. Then it grows hyphae, which are simple thread-like filaments, into the body of the insect and starts feeding on the insect. When the insect dies it releases more fungus spores that are ready to germinate when they come in contact with a suitable host such as another root aphid. It is available at a few shops and online.

Beneficial nematodes are microscopic carnivores that attack all kinds of insects in all stages of growth. Once the nematodes come in contact with the insect, whether adult or pupae, it is walking dead. After the feast, the nematodes do just what you'd expect, so thousands more hungry nematodes enter the scene looking for a good meal. They are available in both garden shops and on the internet.
 
vaporedout

vaporedout

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haha, my nickname at work was toes.

i had root aphids a couple grows back and i couldnt figure out why my plant hermied. i didnt have any light leaks but those little fuckers can do it huh? i threw my hermie outside and the rest of em seemed fine after that. good luck, i never beat em during that grow, but ive prevented them from coming back with a good ass cleaning.
 
Seamaiden

Seamaiden

Living dead girl
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Neither of those will work for root aphids bro, I'm sorry but I tried both of those. BTi will not kill aphids, neither will diatom.

Good deal bro. I wasted damn near a year!! trying to fight those things before I turned off the lights. I wish I had known then what I know now, you know. I'm glad you made that decision, you'll feel better for it, trust me..

Now, what are you going to do in veg?? Kill all and start over from seed, do you plan on going nuclear, what?
I have not had to treat again since the Tx with triazicide (Spectracide) used according to label directions as a root drench that was left (flood tables) for two days. I know I've told you that before, but this is for others.

I hope you appreciate what a help you've been to me! While my final yield absolutely will suffer, as you predicted, I am going to get something out of this run.

Now, for eradicating that fucking powdery mildew....
 
Seamaiden

Seamaiden

Living dead girl
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No, it doesn't, not as a "for sure" kind of thing. Not to mention the fact that it remains in plant tissues for 60 days, which means that if he treats his girls now he won't be able to harvest them for at least that long, and that's too long. Treated 2x with it, switched to Spectracide. Spectracide has a harvest window, I allowed a minimum of 21 days, but haven't needed to retreat for the RAs.
 
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amstercal

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I know of two grows that had it. The worse one was treated with Bayer Tree and Shrub, which knocked em back but didn't get rid of the nasty infestation. The Spectracide (as Seamaiden suggests, follow root drench instructions on bottle) produced a lot more corpses. Followed by light Azamax drenches once a week for a couple of weeks, the aphids haven't been seen in months and the plants are super healthy.

The lighter infestation that hadn't really shown symptoms yet and no fliers, the Bayer T&S was applied long before the flip and it went through a great harvest with no issues.

Hope that helps
 
lazarus718

lazarus718

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Anyone try Neem on those suckers, I've used it for a long time in my gardens and would be awesome if I could add root aphids to its prevention list!!!:sick0004:
 
Seamaiden

Seamaiden

Living dead girl
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Yes, I'd have to say almost everyone who thought they were fungus gnats in the beginning.
 
homebrew420

homebrew420

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I second the triazicide, Seamaiden. In fact thanks to you I picked some up and wiped them out. Good call. But already into flower is a tough one. The longest time to harvest listed was something like 21 days, but I would wait double that. I don't trust the timeframe. 45+ for sure. If that is too long you could try Azamax/trol it might slow them down. Root drench with it. I wish you luck, a fwe plants had them in flower and they turned out ok but for a greatly smaller yield. Quality was fine though.

Peace
 
homebrew420

homebrew420

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Neem did nothing that I could notice in population density or effectiveness. I pulled the pots off and sprayed the aphoids themselves with it. then after a few days checked again, nothing noticeable. Sorry wish I was wrong on that one.

Peace
 
Smokey503ski

Smokey503ski

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Gnatrol or GoNats. Either of those will work. I prefer Gnatrol because it is in a granular form. I just went thru this myself, it takes about a total of 3-4 weeks to kill them. First feed kills the Adults, Second feed kills the eggs leftover by the adults, Third kills anything left behind. At least that is what I have found.
Or if you cannot get either of those you can use Mesquito Dunks found at most hardware stores. Break those up and spread them around your plants or you can put them in your res.
 
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