MotherLode Gardens 2017

[Surfgimp]

We had 80" of rain this year (between Big Sur + Arroyo Seco), double edged sword!

Upside, the water table is higher than ever, no way the well is going dry. One of the downsides is the rodent population. Theres prob 4x the usual amount of woodrats, gophers, moles. The ground was so soft through May/June that they really rolled into the garden area like an invading army.

I've been zapping the gopher/mole burrows with M-80s (thank you Pahrump) followed by Giant Destroyer smokes. I've been weedwacking / clear cutting near the garden, then covering all holes, watching for new activity.

The fights going well, now starting to see some of the gnaw marks on the lower trunk / branches. The fun never ends.

 

[40degsouth]

Hey guys, was going to melt back into the shadows but finding it difficult now l've taken a step towards the light!! ;-)
I didn't know cork worked like that Surfgimp, great info!!
I can share an old school remedy that works in a similar way that might help solve a problem or two and was used during mouse plagues before poisons became cheap and available.
Plaster of paris mixed in with some sort of seed or grain will also set in the gut. The advantages of this method are, it's extremely effective and cost efficient, there's zero overkill for un-targeted species, no resistance build up to poisons and it's organic.
The downsides are, it's ethically questionable and needs to be kept dry.
If this is a problem for you check out "Cambodian rat traps and snares" and you'll be able to re-locate them to somewhere other than Heaven and practice some survival skills along the way.
Hope this helps.

 

[Shcrews]

 

[plantingplants]

Bro how wide is that? We are gonna need a measurement . Wtf

 

[DanaD]

great!!

 

[Noonin NorCal]

Nice looking Shcrews, Are you gonna try and throw a trellis over the top? looks sketchy way up there lol. be careful on your ladder. keep up the great work

 

[Lester Beans]

Year after year you have the most amazing plants I have ever seen!

Great job!

Cheers!

 

[HHILL]

Shcrews, it seems that you have eclipsed last season by quite a bit. I've run the AOG f2 with the purple stems last season and they are very narcotic, yields on par with the F1, but not quite the flavor and terpenes. The green stemmed ones have the terps of the original. Running some f3's here.

BTW, I only ran the Ancient because of your thread a couple years back, big yields and amazing flavor..... thank you for posting to IC all these years. It is a pleasure to see your work and to inspire us all to create better flowers and medicine for people....

 

[plantingplants]

You measure that one yet?

How's the mice problem going?? Solo cups didn't totally work for me-- one of the fuckers just leaned on it and chewed above the cup and I lost two lower branches from their gnawing. I have traps set, caught 3 or so but they're still doing damage. I think I'll put bowls of water out so they have water as I hear that's why they chew stalks.

 

[Shcrews]

You measure that one yet?

How's the mice problem going?? Solo cups didn't totally work for me-- one of the fuckers just leaned on it and chewed above the cup and I lost two lower branches from their gnawing. I have traps set, caught 3 or so but they're still doing damage. I think I'll put bowls of water out so they have water as I hear that's why they chew stalks.

the biggest plants are about 12ft diameter now

The plant that i posted pictures of with rodent damage ended up dying the next day. she would have been easily 10 pounds. I found one other plant that is partially girdled but she hasn't wilted at all and it's been a few days now. No new damage that i can see, we put hardware cloth around the base of all the plants that didnt have gopher baskets. we will wrap stalks with steel wool soon too.

 

[Shcrews]

problems

problems

july is always a difficult month here it seems, and this year was no different. Apart from the rodent damage, there seems to be 3 different problems that we are experiencing now

1. Drooping tops - a few plants are drooping from the top down. the main growth tip is affected but the lateral branches seem fine. I've seen this before, it is a recurring problem. seems to stunt vertical growth but not lateral growth. possible soil imbalance or virus?

2. Wilting/dying branches - I've found scattered instances of dying/wilting lower branches on big plants, with no visible cause. It appears the joint where the affected branch meet the main stalk is soft... the wilting branches pull right off the stalk easily. leaving a hole/indentation. Seems to be limited to lower branches and does not seem to be spreading. possible infection or virus?

3. Just this morning we discovered what appears to be russet mite damage on a few lower branches of a very large plant. This is a big problem, i've never seen damage like this at this location. Not sure where the plants could have picked up mites , everything is from seed. I am still worried the damage will spread. I cut off the affected branches and am going to spray wettable sulfur, followed by essential oils. Also ordered some predator mites. Daily inspections will tell whether the treatment is effective.


I wish i could figure out how to get through this part of the season without having problems every year. it's really depressing seeing a perfectly healthy garden begin to deteriorate, especially when i dont know why.

 

[Noonin NorCal]

Ive noticed a few of my plants have some taco-ing going on with a little droop as well. Im guessing for mine it could be from heat, Im running only clones this year. I asked my buddy that lives in Mendo if it could be the russet or broad mite, he said probably not. Do you ever feed with silica? It might help. I always try and add silica every few watering or so

 

[cannascholar]

Been having good results w/ Bonide micronized sulfur powder @ 1-2 tablespoon per gal w/ coco wet.Nice plant response as well. Trifecta is supposed to be an effective oil product for them also.

Are the plants watered adequately? Might help to fertigate some of the Micropak.

 

[Ibechillin]

Im no expert, but im experiencing something similar and this is what ive gathered so far.

2. Wilting/dying branches

My outdoor plant had one lower branch start wilting suddenly overnight about a week ago and has the same symptoms. The branch had a small amount of brown rot starting at the end where it met the stalk.

I felt around the stalk at the soil line and felt one kind of soft spot about the size of a nickel but no discoloration, The rest of the plant seems perfectly healthy, im fearing its the start of fusarium. It gets into the xlem layer of the plant from the roots or open wounds and reproduces until it clogs, causing branches to wilt and die.

From the reading ive done fungal spores are all in the air and bugs carry them on the plants. Over watering and Low soil ph less than 6.5 allows fungi to grow rapidly.

Preventative measures to avoid fungal issues are more efficient than treatment of fusarium from what i understand also. People refer to plants "limping along" more than recovering once they are infected.

My pot is filled with 30% perlite for airation/drainage and have never shown any signs of under or over watering, just happy outstretched leaves the whole season since may.

3% hydrogen peroxide is suppose to be effective in treating/preventing infections by spraying it on open wounds daily.

I let my soil dry out pretty good and did a light peroxide 1/2 cup to gal water drench in case there was some kind of root issue or spores in the soil, along with a crushed 325mg aspirin to boost the plants immune system and some powder dolomite for ph neutralizer.

I also did a preventative spray of lime sulphur to fight off oncoming mold, fungi, russet mite bullshit before flowers are on.

Sulphur is suppose to be effective on treating russet mites from what i understand.

 

[jidoka]

Is the stuff that is more exposed showing more probs?

 

[plantingplants]

Russet mites are super small and can hitch a ride on anything from a bird to a whitefly so it's easy to get. Don't spray oil after sulfur. You're going to need to inspect with at least 60x scope. There's a cheap $20 100x at grow shops called active eye. If sulfurisnt working for some reason and you value your crop more than the organic status, hit them with Forbid and rotate with Avid. Don't stress it, just spray them down and keep an eye out, you'll be fine.

Funny we got the same problems goin on. I got rodents chewin, russets suckin, and floppy tops too.

 

[Ibechillin]

With all the commercialization happening in Washington, Oregon, and California its not much of a surprise we are seeing increases in the amount of insects and fungi etc that attack cannabis on the west coast.

Its the same with the increase in rodent activity around california since getting their water back last winter. Additional water and vegetation to eat created a boom in rodent populations.

There is a town near me called puyallup that used to be a hop farming town, they eventually became so infested with hop mites they had to quit farming them there.

 

[cbcool]

If sulfurisnt working for some reason and you value your crop more than the organic status,

I wouldn't spray anything you plan to ingest with Forbid, unless you want cancer, tumors, or fucked up mutations. Forbid is a hard core chemical not made for consumption, I'd avoid it at all costs.

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/msds/Forbid 4F Ornamental Label.pdf

Forbid is manufactured by Bayer, one of the leading chemical manufacturers and the owner if Monsanto. That should say enough.

Please dont use forbid!!!

 

[mushroombrew]

You guys got pics of the wilting? Have you checked the wilted branches for stem borers?

I got fusarium 6 weeks ago. Pretty sure it came on clones from southern OR.

Outdoors I would look for borers. But if there is any brown soft tissue it is probably fusarium.

But I need some more info/pics.

 

[mushroombrew]

july is always a difficult month here it seems, and this year was no different. Apart from the rodent damage, there seems to be 3 different problems that we are experiencing now

1. Drooping tops - a few plants are drooping from the top down. the main growth tip is affected but the lateral branches seem fine. I've seen this before, it is a recurring problem. seems to stunt vertical growth but not lateral growth. possible soil imbalance or virus?

2. Wilting/dying branches - I've found scattered instances of dying/wilting lower branches on big plants, with no visible cause. It appears the joint where the affected branch meet the main stalk is soft... the wilting branches pull right off the stalk easily. leaving a hole/indentation. Seems to be limited to lower branches and does not seem to be spreading. possible infection or virus?

3. Just this morning we discovered what appears to be russet mite damage on a few lower branches of a very large plant. This is a big problem, i've never seen damage like this at this location. Not sure where the plants could have picked up mites , everything is from seed. I am still worried the damage will spread. I cut off the affected branches and am going to spray wettable sulfur, followed by essential oils. Also ordered some predator mites. Daily inspections will tell whether the treatment is effective.


I wish i could figure out how to get through this part of the season without having problems every year. it's really depressing seeing a perfectly healthy garden begin to deteriorate, especially when i dont know why.

No.1 My money is on stem borers.

No.2 Sounds like fusarium or lots of stem borers.

No.3 They will spread. They can even blow on the wind. Remove infected plants of possible. I would treat all the plants as a precaution.
And are you sure it's mites? Pics?