Well this is a sad story but I decided to share it so you don't make the same mistakes I did.
My first grow. Living in Spain and growing 4 plants (feminsed seeds from Greenhouse Seed Company). Wanted to utilise the good strong Spanish sun, so the plants spend their day next to open balcony doors. They've been getting 6 or more hours of direct sun a day and were doing great. And I mean great - tall (2 feet), strong, bushy and very very happy. In the last few weeks they've been growing like crazy, getting ready for flowering, new shoots coming from everywhere, the stems are a centimetre thick, beautiful smell etc.
Meanwhile I've been building my grow room in a cupboard in my home which is perfect for growing - it's 1 meter square by about 2 and a half meters tall. There is a lockable door and at the top a window for venting. My plan was to let the plants veg for as long as I could then flower them in the grow room.
Then the probs started. Spider mites to be exact. Yeah the fuckers hit the plants bad. At first I had just 1 or 2 and was spraying reguarly with a soapy based organic insecticide. Later I started to use another organic spray derived from Chrysanthemums (I'm sure you know the stuff). But the fact is that if you got determined mites then none of this stuff works. Yes it will help in the short term but it will not kill the problem. I've read that there is even a doubt over whether Neem oil really works.
I can't watch the plants 24 hours a day and so I was taken by surprise by a sudden increase in mites - I'm talking INFESTATION. Well i panicked. I didnt have time to travel to the grow shop so I bought an insecticide from a local shop. It was an insecticde AND mitacide so it kills spider mites, and it said on the bottle that it was suitable for cannabis. I sprayed the plants and yeah it worked. DID it work... all the mites were blasted to hell... dead bodies everywhere.
Now, I'm a bit unsure what happened next, and what I did wrong exactly. Maybe the insecticide really wasn't good for cannabis. Or maybe I didn't water the plants enough first and they drank in too much of the insecticide. Or maybe it was the fact that I was soooooo freaked out about the mites that, despite the fact that I didn't have my fans fitted yet in the grow room, I decided to start flowering and I put the plants in there. Its a small room and without fans there is really no fresh air circulation.
The result? After 2 or three days the plants started to look sick. Several lower big fan leaves turned brown and dropped. Then more. Then upper leaves started to die. I got them out of the grow room and transferred them to my spare room which is light free while I fit the fans.
Its over a week later now and my plants have been decimated. The entire lower half of each is bare - all leaves died and dropped. The plants are still standing tall. not drooping, Some new growth is coming and they are showing signs of starting to flower. The remaining leaves are generally looking ok but slowly, daily, I'm seeing damage even to those beginning to show. My worry is that they will not recover. Oh, and one of the plants is way worse than the others - looks practically dead. Maybe if I'm lucky the other three will recover and give me something to smoke.
Was it the insecticide? Was it the lack of fresh air for three days? My guess is: 1. Plants were a little dehydrated when I sprayed with insecticide. 2. So they drank in too much of that stuff. 3. I made this worse when I shut them in a room with no fresh air - ie: they had no chance to breath out the poisons.
The lessons:
1.WATCH WATCH WATCH for mites. Don't be complacent. If you see them ACT FAST.
2. Avoid strong insecticide and only use organic products. The Advanced Nutrients company make a good general spray for insects called 'Away' which you can use safely right throughout your plants life even through flowering and up to harvest, and it keeps bugs away. You spray it every week, even if you dont have an insect problem. Its a preventative.
3. DON'T PANIC!
My first grow. Living in Spain and growing 4 plants (feminsed seeds from Greenhouse Seed Company). Wanted to utilise the good strong Spanish sun, so the plants spend their day next to open balcony doors. They've been getting 6 or more hours of direct sun a day and were doing great. And I mean great - tall (2 feet), strong, bushy and very very happy. In the last few weeks they've been growing like crazy, getting ready for flowering, new shoots coming from everywhere, the stems are a centimetre thick, beautiful smell etc.
Meanwhile I've been building my grow room in a cupboard in my home which is perfect for growing - it's 1 meter square by about 2 and a half meters tall. There is a lockable door and at the top a window for venting. My plan was to let the plants veg for as long as I could then flower them in the grow room.
Then the probs started. Spider mites to be exact. Yeah the fuckers hit the plants bad. At first I had just 1 or 2 and was spraying reguarly with a soapy based organic insecticide. Later I started to use another organic spray derived from Chrysanthemums (I'm sure you know the stuff). But the fact is that if you got determined mites then none of this stuff works. Yes it will help in the short term but it will not kill the problem. I've read that there is even a doubt over whether Neem oil really works.
I can't watch the plants 24 hours a day and so I was taken by surprise by a sudden increase in mites - I'm talking INFESTATION. Well i panicked. I didnt have time to travel to the grow shop so I bought an insecticide from a local shop. It was an insecticde AND mitacide so it kills spider mites, and it said on the bottle that it was suitable for cannabis. I sprayed the plants and yeah it worked. DID it work... all the mites were blasted to hell... dead bodies everywhere.
Now, I'm a bit unsure what happened next, and what I did wrong exactly. Maybe the insecticide really wasn't good for cannabis. Or maybe I didn't water the plants enough first and they drank in too much of the insecticide. Or maybe it was the fact that I was soooooo freaked out about the mites that, despite the fact that I didn't have my fans fitted yet in the grow room, I decided to start flowering and I put the plants in there. Its a small room and without fans there is really no fresh air circulation.
The result? After 2 or three days the plants started to look sick. Several lower big fan leaves turned brown and dropped. Then more. Then upper leaves started to die. I got them out of the grow room and transferred them to my spare room which is light free while I fit the fans.
Its over a week later now and my plants have been decimated. The entire lower half of each is bare - all leaves died and dropped. The plants are still standing tall. not drooping, Some new growth is coming and they are showing signs of starting to flower. The remaining leaves are generally looking ok but slowly, daily, I'm seeing damage even to those beginning to show. My worry is that they will not recover. Oh, and one of the plants is way worse than the others - looks practically dead. Maybe if I'm lucky the other three will recover and give me something to smoke.
Was it the insecticide? Was it the lack of fresh air for three days? My guess is: 1. Plants were a little dehydrated when I sprayed with insecticide. 2. So they drank in too much of that stuff. 3. I made this worse when I shut them in a room with no fresh air - ie: they had no chance to breath out the poisons.
The lessons:
1.WATCH WATCH WATCH for mites. Don't be complacent. If you see them ACT FAST.
2. Avoid strong insecticide and only use organic products. The Advanced Nutrients company make a good general spray for insects called 'Away' which you can use safely right throughout your plants life even through flowering and up to harvest, and it keeps bugs away. You spray it every week, even if you dont have an insect problem. Its a preventative.
3. DON'T PANIC!
