How bad off am I??

[Biggobelly]

I just started growing in soil within the last six months and went the 100% organic route (or as very close to it as I can possibly get). My issue is root aphids. I got them when I bought one of my components (either ProMix HP, perlite or EWC). At first I thought they were fungus gnats so I treated with dunks and misted with Spinosad to get the fliers. Long story short, I am 3/4 through flower on some and others still in veg. I plan on treating with Botanigard, Bonide Systemic Granules and Acephate along with cleaning of pots and equipment used with bleach. My issue is that I have over 300 gal. of soil mixed up (10 large containers), peat, coco coir,old soil to reuse and a worm farm going all in the same area...all of which is open to my living quarters. So how bad off am I?? Should I just stop growing my medicine all together?

 

[AnonEmouse]

Don't stress it too much brother man these are the woes of grows.

Order some predator mites, i like persimillis or fallacis (sorry for spelling on those), as these will help to safeguard from fliers and protect from enemy expansion.

Top dress with powdered organic malted barley, cover the entire surface of each pot. Enzymes melt faces!

Make neem/kelp tea for the girls regularly. 1 cups neem and 1 cup kelp per 5 gals. Brew for 24-36 hours. At least once per week. If you have karanja meal, sub that in for neem every other week.

IPM Foliar at least once per week of:

-Neem oil (3/4 tbps per gal. Yes you can even use this in flower, even 4-7 days before harvest without issue. There will be no taste or residue, half-life is much less than that.)
-Aloe vera (I cut a 1" piece and blend the gel with water)
-Agsil 16 or Silica to emulsify the neem

Thats all i got for ya. Good luck!

 

[AnonEmouse]

I should have clarified that the predatory mites wouldnt specifically target fliers, but moreso eggs and larvae. There are superior predatory controls to those I mentioned though, a quick google search will find them along with nematodes.

 

[king oscar]

I don't know how that's going to work out if you keep all the material around. I'm totally sterile in hydro and these things were a real pain in the ass. It took treatments once a week for 3 months to get rid of them for good, alternating systemics and contact killers. If you can afford it trash that soil and shut down for a bit.

 

[chronosync]

If you couldnt afford to trash it couldn't you treat it by running boiling water through it in trash buckets or something else you can make or has holes? It would be sterilized of pests I would think and then quarantine it in storage?

 

[Biggobelly]

Thanks for the input all!
KO - Never had a problem with them when I ran Hydro thankfully!
Chrono - Afraid the boiling water would kill off my microbe herd as well. I am treating the pot and stored soil with Botanigard. Expensive shit, but from what I understand doing research it is worth it. Doing my second application tomorrow. Cleaning all of my equipment that is sitting around with bleach in the meantime.

Anon- should the MB be applied after watering or before?

Biggo

 

[Biggobelly]

Also spraying everything with pyrethrin and catching as many fliers on yellow stickies as I can.

 

[phazer]

botanigard worked well for me. 2 qt/100 gallon first drench, then 1.5 qt/100 three days later. then 1 qt/100 every 5 days for 3 weeks. they say not too irrigate until 24 hrs after drench. in combination with og biowar and sns 209 it did the trick

 

[AnonEmouse]

The malted barley should be applied immediately. A top dressing of neem/crab shell/worm castings could be applied as well. Enzymes and Chitin are your friends here, they are known for melting bad dudes.

Include aloe in the weekly tea as well. There are a plethora of threads regarding its benefits on these forums, namely in the Organic Soil section.

Kingoscar, when you are sterile in hydro you are required to do all the work that nature has done for millenia and unfortunately, do it worse.

As Phazer mentioned, I have read great things in a previous thread (including great microscope pics of dead root aphids covered in what I believe was fungi) about the OG biowar foliar pack applied as a soil drench to kill root aphids. The microbes go to war on those suckers. Well know that I looked up the thread it is not on these forums but a quick google of "Root Aphid Annhiliation" will get you there

Now I never like to endorse products, much less one I have never used, but I did want to suggest the idea as I know times are stressful when things like this happen.

 

[soserthc1]

Unless you bought the promix hp from outside storage places that's not the culprit. I've been using it faithfully for 2 years without even a gnat. Started after a year of hell from every bug known to man and nothing but hard work will fix it. You'll be a better grower for it.
Kontos worked well along with spino sad
Edit : ogbiowar is a staple for me also

 

[Biggobelly]

Good thing I bought some OG BioWar Foliar a month back. I am going to proceed with a multi-pronged attack spread out every day or two. Keep rotating around with my stuff. But first, I am going to top dress with Malted Barley powder, neem, chitin and EWC. Thanks again for the input, AnonEmouse. I might just dump some nematodes in my soil storage containers to boot.

 

[AnonEmouse]

My pleasure. Sounds like you've got the remedy!