Swole Grows Perpetually

[SwoleGrow]

To sterilize the grow room I bleached EVERYTHING in the room. Ceiling, walls, floor, outlets, cords, ductwork, ac, fans, timers, EVERYTHING WAS BLEACHED AND WIPED DOWN. I’d also read that mites can’t survive temps above 135F and high humidity, so I cranked the temps up to the 130-140F range for a couple of days. I let the room sit inactive for 2 weeks after the extreme temperatures and on 12-23-2020 I introduced new seedlings and a few clones from the veg.

 

[BurnzYzBudZz]

To sterilize the grow room I bleached EVERYTHING in the room. Ceiling, walls, floor, outlets, cords, ductwork, ac, fans, timers, EVERYTHING WAS BLEACHED AND WIPED DOWN. I’d also read that mites can’t survive temps above 135F and high humidity, so I cranked the temps up to the 130-140F range for a couple of days. I let the room sit inactive for 2 weeks after the extreme temperatures and on 12-23-2020 I introduced new seedlings and a few clones from the veg. View attachment 1080463View attachment 1080464View attachment 1080465View attachment 1080466

I believe you are correct. About the high humidity. I’m talking in the 90% range. What happens is the mite absorbs the moisture and end up popping. Same for when the eggs hatch. I believe it needs to be continuous for 3-4 days to ensure the eggs, if any, have hatched and died. Nice job.

 

[SwoleGrow]

I believe you are correct. About the high humidity. I’m talking in the 90% range. What happens is the mite absorbs the moisture and end up popping. Same for when the eggs hatch. I believe it needs to be continuous for 3-4 days to ensure the eggs, if any, have hatched and died. Nice job.

I had it pretty muggy in there, you can see in the pics, but couldn’t reach 90% RH. I’ve popped seeds & rooted clones since 12-23-20 & all is well so far. I’m a believer in IPM now, about time for a round of green cleaner.

 

[DankNugz420]

Nice man good luck on your grow hopefully that treatment takes care of your mites

 

[SwoleGrow]

I’d mentioned the plants I had vegging during this whole ordeal, they really were the ones to suffer. The mite damage initially looked to be a nitrogen deficiency with yellowing starting from the lower fans and progressing upwards. So of course I think feed more which is what I do. Shortly afterwards comes the nitrogen toxicity. The mite damage will have the inexperienced thinking it’s a nitrogen deficiency and feeding only compounds the problem because the mites love plants with nitrogen toxicity. The problem only got worse from here and I ended up losing about 7 plants totally, the mites ate them down to only the stalk.
Attached is a pic during the N toxicity stage and you can see the mite damage on some of the leaves by the curling up similar to heat stress. All of the plants in the solo cups and one gallon pots were lost due to mites

 

[SwoleGrow]

I was able to save six of the older plants that were involved, but I wasn’t out of the woods yet.
The evening in November 2020 that my green cleaner arrived I went to work spraying plants and transplanting to new soil. While I had the plants outside I took a spray bottle I’d filled with (Clorox only) and sprayed down the entire veg, choking and throat burning from the fumes I eventually finish wiping down everything I’d sprayed. I quickly bring in the six plants I’d sprayed with green cleaner because it’s 30F outside and dark which is interrupting their day cycle. I get them situated in their newly bleached home and the waiting game begins to see if this green cleaner is going to work.Id wait 3 days and apply another round of green cleaner as ipm and repeat over the next two weeks also using bees 3 in 1 for ipm. Around the third day I noticed hundreds of little bugs dead on the floor of the veg room. I assumed them to be fungus gnats, this is also around the time I noticed the edges of the leaves on the plants looking as if their scorching/burning. I immediately put 1+1+1 together and got 3. See, the Clorox only that I sprayed in the veg I didn’t rinse it out, I only wiped it out (because I was in a rush to get the plants back in out of the cold and darkness) leaving all residuals behind. I smelled Clorox fumes for at Least a week and a half after I sprayed. The fumes are what killed all those fungus gnats I found dead and the fumes were what was causing the scorching on the leaves. I swear if it’s not one thing it’s another!! One problem at a time though and let’s get this room in order. I removed the plants again and this time I took my hose and sprayed the room down to remove the leftover Clorox. I wiped it down and dried it afterwards, waited a few days and transplanted the ladies into fresh soil. It’s been 2 months and no sign of any mites. It was because of what I went through here in veg, is why I knew what to do with the plants the were finishing in flower that had the mite infestation.
Attached is a pic of the dried brittle leaves during the chlorine toxicity stage and a pic of the plants in recovery.

 

[DankNugz420]

Dang well atleast u got a clean grow room now lol I couldn't imagine dealing with mites and stuff, I've been fortunate enough and not had pest problems (knocks on wood) lllooolll

 

[SwoleGrow]

Once everything settled down and was back to normal I had five plants that had grew too tall to flower out in the veg room and if I topped for clones they wouldn’t be worth flowering because of the stunted growth and all that was lost because of the infestation. I decided to take all clones off of one of the plants and do some experimenting in the process.

 

[SwoleGrow]

Dang well atleast u got a clean grow room now lol I couldn't imagine dealing with mites and stuff, I've been fortunate enough and not had pest problems (knocks on wood) lllooolll

yep back on track. I see that the consensus is mites are the devil and I could see where they could be, but I’ve met nothing more aggravating than fleas. My mite infestation came in part because of fleas and the insecticide I was using to kill them. Will get into that later lol

 

[DankNugz420]

Yea man a friend of mine had mites bad in his grow a few years back, they take over swiftly for sure. One plant was just tented top to bottom. He used einstein oil mix foliar spray as last resort to try saving what he could of the harvest. He moved and didn't grow again since so whoever got that house probly has mites lol

 

[SwoleGrow]

I took 13 clones from one of the 3 Pink Runtz plant that survived, I trashed what was left of it afterwards.

 

[DankNugz420]

lady bugs eat some pests but do they eat spider mites?

 

[DankNugz420]

Might be worth tossing a couple on the girls once in a while

 

[SwoleGrow]

Yea man a friend of mine had mites bad in his grow a few years back, they take over swiftly for sure. One plant was just tented top to bottom. He used einstein oil mix foliar spray as last resort to try saving what he could of the harvest. He moved and didn't grow again since so whoever got that house probly has mites lol

pass the infestation along huh yeah I saw how fast they work. I literally watched them each day build that web on those buds I had in flower. It was at the end and I knew they were contained in the room so I watched them work until harvest. Then I bud washed them suckers away

 

[SwoleGrow]

Might be worth tossing a couple on the girls once in a while

Definitely will be come spring when life returns outside. My insecticide for the fleas killed them all off, which aided the mites. I didn’t know this until stumbling upon the article on the web.

 

[SwoleGrow]

lady bugs eat some pests but do they eat spider mites?

They do eat spider mites

 

[SwoleGrow]

Might be worth tossing a couple on the girls once in a while

I didn’t have to find them, they followed the plants in when I brought them inside to veg. And they followed them in because their food (mites) was on those plants. This one flew onto the light and instantly started smoking, literally. I had to knock it off because it was stuck to the mh bulb.

 

[DankNugz420]

stupid bugs lol

 

[SwoleGrow]

Still I have five more plants that I’m unsure what I’m going to do with. Scrog came to mind again. I’d thought of it before but had too many plants, but maybe it would work now. Had to try something, so scrog it was. I already had the frame from my plans to scrog my last grow, so I cut it down to size, ran the line for the screen and set it in place.
All of these plants ranged from 6-8 months in age so they were pretty set in there ways and didn’t want to bend as much as I needed them to, some branches were broken, but we managed to make it work.

 

[SwoleGrow]

I used the broken branches for clones and also took more clones from two of the Fire OG plants that were grew from seed from my first grow that herm’d. Using all the clones I set out to find the best rooting method. From each plant I either used aloe Vera from a aloe plant or clonex as the rooting gel or I used no rooting hormone at all. Each clone had great white sprinkled in the hole and watered with great white added to the water. None of the tests showed that I should or shouldn’t use a rooting hormone/gel. Aloe Vera had some that rooted and some that didn’t, same with clonex, same with using no rooting hormone/gel. All methods work or didn’t, none any more than the other. The fastest method for me was not using any rooting hormone/gel. I had roots in the solo cup in 5 days where the aloe Vera and clonex didn’t show until after 7 days and 10 days
Attatched is a pic of me accepting the fact I won’t be flowering for a while as I’d planned and my nursery is in full effect with clones and new seeds