Damn it stinks in here!

[Scrappy-doo]

Just spidermites. Lol you know, that's pretty much exactly how I've thought of them for the last several years. Never even gave them a second thought. More an annoyance than anything, always easy to eradicate.

But here I am almost halfway through flower on my final crop, with untreated plants and none of my usual weapons at my disposal. Far too late to use anything really. I did some spot treatments on some leaves with pyrethrins to slow them down, but at this point I really don't even want to use that anymore. Don't want anything to affect flavor or smokeability of these buds.

So, I'm going to let nature take it's course. It's going to be a race to the finish. Most of these will be done within 6 weeks. The question is will I be able to harvest before they take over. I'll do my best to isolate and create barriers to the unaffected ones.

Don't have to worry about them spreading to other plants. There are none. All my veg plants are back home getting ready for the outdoor season.

As far as weapons for battle, the only thing I'll be using from here on out is finger grease.

I'm a muthafukin ninja with that shit though.

 

[Bmac1]

What about releasing some beneficial insects like lady bugs or something else that feeds on the little bastards?

 

[Cannavore]

get some hypoapsis miles bro. predatory mite will take of that for ya. i bought compost from buildasoil and it was loaded with them.

 

[Relentless]

cool thread scrappy! love the name and avatar too, that brings back some great memories

Ill be taggin along if ya dont mind!

edit: sorry to hear about the borg! good luck in the fight!

 

[Tonatiuh]

ladybugs bro,they wont affect taste or smokability,
ive used them before in flower,leave some water in something for them to drink
i did anyways....theyll help a lot w them pests and hopefully help u get to harvest better.
been lurkin,just thought id chime in...
peace-T-

 

[Scrappy-doo]

Bmac and Tonatiuh thanks for the suggestion I've considered lady bugs. So far there's been 3 different things people have said about them.

1 they work great
2 they just escape or die and you still have mites
3 they work but you need a dome to contain them

I'm open to it. Do I just put them in the room and let them do their thing? Will my friends find them all over their apartment? lol they have 3 cats who I'm sure want me to make the purchase.

I've seen the ladybugs at one of the hydro shops I go to. Maybe I'll take a trip.


Cannavore - hypoaspis miles really? I've had them before, not sure how they got in my garden. I've only seen them in the soil. So they actually go up in the leaves and eat mites? Where do I get them?

Relentless - Thanks man and welcome to the show.

Sorting through some pics. Lots to show.

 

[Tonatiuh]

a lot do die I cant lie but if you have your lights cooled less do,
because for some reason they like to play kamakazi and fly into the lights....
but if you order plenty and play the numbers enough survive and are smart enough to find the food/bugs to help out.
you will be sweeping up dead bugs but its worth it....always takes a few dead soldiers to win a war

I ordered 3000 and let them all loose when I used them.i only had a 6k room.

hope whatever you decide works out for you homie.
peace-T-

 

[Scrappy-doo]

I want to talk about my light setup.

Before I had to break down this garden I was running a 1k hps air cooled. When I brought everything back in I needed a simple setup since this is my last run at this spot and everything that was in veg, big or small, was going to be flowered immediately. So I put in 3 x philips 315 watt cdm units, with cycloptics fixtures, hoping I could cover more space with the same wattage.

cdm's are the newest generation metal halide bulbs claimed by some to rival if not outperform a standard 600 watt hps. At only 315 watts it produces more and better quality light per watt where the hps uses a lot of energy to produce heat.

Most people are using sunbeams fixtures which are pretty much the same concept as a normal hps hood, focusing energy down. These cycloptics hoods are very different. They throw a ton of light out the sides and down in all directions, utilizing the walls to reflect light onto the canopy from all angles, giving an even amount of light with better penetration throughout entire grow area rather than just under the hood. It's recommended to use either 2 or more because they work better with overlapping light patterns.

As far as I know, there is only one person who has a documented grow with one of these things. There is definitely a learning curve to using these.

The first time I tried it out I used only one in a 3x3 tent as a veg light. Put it about 3 and 1/2 feet above the canopy of my tallest plants. I had read you can have these as close as 2 feet from your tops safely. Put the thing right in the center, 3 and a half feet I though would be more than fine, and left. Came back the following week and all my plants were fucked up. Lumen shock. The ones that were the worst were the tall ones along the edges because of the reflection off the walls and they got decimated. For anyone who doesn't know what lumen shock is, it looks like this:

This actually is not my pic. I didn't take any, but the exact same thing happened to me. I found it in the cdm thread. This poor guy didn't even know there was a problem. I wish I saw this when he posted it. Would've helped the guy out, but I found it way after the fact.

Here's how it looked a week later:

And a week later:

Yeah it ain't fun.

(BTW I believe that plant was grown with a sunbeams fixture.)

So, even with the light at the top of the tent my girls couldn't handle it so I went back to the cfl's lol. Took some of them a month to recover and my worst ones were only as bad as that 2nd pic.

The 1k was way easier to harden plants off to. These things are intense. The feel of being under them compared to an hps is very different. You can feel much more energy. An hps is intense and it's hot. Being under this light feels warm not hot and you can feel the pulsing and vibration on your skin and eyes. It actually feels way better to work under. Happy and energizing.

 

[Scrappy-doo]

I decided to set up a 5x10 space, split in half. Veg plants on the right half under 1 light raised about 3 feet. Mature flowering plants on the left under 2 lights about 2 feet from the canopy.

Here's the right half:

I wish I took pics of how these things looked when they went in. They were not happy at all. Hard to believe they're the same plants. Keep in mind most of these were tiny going in. Many them tripled in size.

I really don't think they could be any happier. They are loving this light.

One thing I've come to realize is that the 5x5 space compared to the 3x3 space made a big difference. It allowed the plants to get used to the light without the extreme side reflection. Now I can lower the light closer to the canopy and see how much I can push.

 

[Scrappy-doo]

Here's a closer look at some of what's in there:

Here's one I call Bubba Crack - aka Bubba Cush- from Melting Pot

Bubba Kush x Green Crack (Reversed)

Great plant. Nice combination of both parents. Smells heavenly, frost covered, yielded huge for me outside last season. I have 3 or 4 going out this year.



ECSD

Always one of my favorites.

Unfortunately it's also one of the borg's favorites.

 

[stihgnobevoli]

i've never heard of this lumen shock. looks like overwatering to me. most likely as a result of receiving weaker light than it was used to. i've seen that before...i don't call it lumen shock though... i call it plant not getting enough light shock. looks like it's been sitting in the dark for a week.

sorry, just wanted to address that post, haven't read the rest of your thread yet i read from back to front. these last pics look good though

 

[Scrappy-doo]

Stardawg - Illuminatti Cut

Possibly the healthiest looking plant in the garden. And not a mite in sight.

ChemD

Being pretty fussy about her mag, but otherwise she seems real happy

ChemD on bottom, Gorilla Glue on top:

Now we're working our way to the left half of the room and here we can begin to see a little difference in quality of life for the older girls in the stable.

But I'll get more into that maybe tomorrrow.

 

[Scrappy-doo]

For now, here's a little more glue.

 

[Scrappy-doo]

i've never heard of this lumen shock. looks like overwatering to me. most likely as a result of receiving weaker light than it was used to. i've seen that before...i don't call it lumen shock though... i call it plant not getting enough light shock. looks like it's been sitting in the dark for a week.

sorry, just wanted to address that post, haven't read the rest of your thread yet i read from back to front. these last pics look good though

Thanks bro. It's all good, speak your mind.

About that damaged plant. It wasn't sitting in the dark for a week. My plants were, but those aren't my pics. That's what happened to some dude who put his plant under that light.

In this thread. https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=6895269&postcount=393

Looks kind of like overwatering, but it's not. The differences can be seen clearly up close. The color on the leaves becomes dull. The texture of the leaves becomes rough and paper-like, almost like a fine sandpaper. The roots are healthy. Take it away from the light and it slowly starts to recover. Keep it in the light and it dies. I've done both. Lost a few plants in that 3x3 tent with that light.

Lumen shock is just a term I made up. I don't know what other people call it. It's not really light burn because they leaves aren't crispy with white burn marks. I equate it more with a sun burn. Plants that have tender delicate leaves that have been under a cfl or t5 need to be introduced to a high intensity bulb gradually. It's called hardening off. Lots of people do that. Otherwise it gets 'shocked'.

This has happened twice already with these lights. Same exact thing both times. My point was that it's very easy to do with these. Better to veg under them from the beginning

I don't over water.

 

[stihgnobevoli]

i'll take yours and that guys word for it, but i've overwatered a million plants. it's the same look all the time. plump, yet limp hanging leaves. slow growth, overall lack of photosynthesis, pale new growth. only other thing i've seen cause that is insufficient light. since you said this reflector mostly throws light to the side and not down my first assumption would be inadequate lighting. everything under the canopy or in shadows looks just like that guys plant if i don't account for the less light and allow more time for the pots to dry out.

 

[Scrappy-doo]

The reflector throws light to the sides and down. It's plenty bright underneath it.

Definitely not a lack of light under these. The leaves are not limp they are clawed and firm. Like as if they were made of a light cardboard. Cooked in other words.

Maybe just for you I'll sacrifice a small plant I have under cfl's to demonstrate, if I have any extras after I set my outdoor plot.

 

[heady blunts]

plants look real healthy and your attitude is golden considering the ordeals you've recently been through!

best of luck finishing these gals up. glad to hear you've got projects elsewhere if you gotta shut down this one.

that Larry dog looked legit

 

[Krabby887]

Scrappy doo shit looks real nice what stran is that ??

 

[Scrappy-doo]

Thanks Heady. Love that LD she's one of my favorite plants.

All these problems are just speed bumps is all. I'm just grateful that I'm still here to grow another day.

The only project I have planned now is this season outdoor. I have all these new amazing cuts and nowhere to flower them out lol. I'm sure an indoor spot will open soon enough. Always does. Just found the most perfect spot for my outdoor garden. Gonna go big this year. Ain't no stopping the unstoppable.

 

[Krabby887]

An what week are they in if you don't mind me asking??