How in the world do you avoid getting pests?

My first harvest was ruined due to thrip and spider-mite infestation. What are the possible causes and how can I avoid this problem in the future?

Neem or Citric acid didn’t seem to cure the problem either. Plants started indoor inside the tent, humidity was kept 30-40%, no dehumidifier used during flowering, temp 70-80 F for both veg and flowering stages. Had 0 bug problem during veg stage but once it turned to flowering, it first started with thrip then led to spider mite infestation. It might have something to do with my new indoor plant collection.

What do you do to keep your plants bug free?
Thanks in advance for your help!

Not sure. Never had any pests Indoor bar three or four gnats here and there and I've had consistent plants going for two years.

Have had nightmares outside though. Used every imaginable combination of sprays and within two or three days they are always covered in caterpillars again.

I'd look at your medium if your getting issues indoors. I make my own mediums for that reason. I have cracked open store bought bags of medium full of numerous pests and gave up ages ago.

When the weather is cool enough, the bugs aren't active. That's when I germinate my indoor seeds. Bugs aren't vectored inside because they aren't around. That's #1.

Maintain a meticulously clean grow space -walls, floor, lights, fans, etc.
No cats dogs or kids allowed,
No shoes that were worn outside.
Use a well-known brand of soil mix such as Fox Farm's products or Roots Organic, etc. Don't just grab soil from the outside garden and bring it in because it will have bugs in it -some might be good, but some will also be bad. Best to keep a clean slate from the start, in my opinion.

Monitor your plants closely everyday and several times a day if possible. If you see anything funny, then catch it in the earliest possible stage.

Bottom of the page, there's a huge excel "Hemp & Marijuana" list of approved products and manufacturers, lists, percentages all the active ingridients etc..
That should help get a simple, cheap IPM routine going, but know what tools are available and how to use them if needed.

DCcan said:

Bottom of the page, there's a huge excel "Hemp & Marijuana" list of approved products and manufacturers, lists, percentages all the active ingridients etc..
That should help get a simple, cheap IPM routine going, but know what tools are available and how to use them if needed.

Information for Hemp and Medical Marijuana Growers

portal.ct.gov

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How useful! Thanks a lot

Keep everything clean and the bugs won't have a reason to come inside. This tents like 2 years old, has been used consistently and has never been cleaned, still looks like new. However, I'm obsessive compulsive and would freak out of I dropped a single crumb if medium...you don't need to go that far..

I've seen some tents on here looking like they've been pulled out of a swamp four weeks after purchase. It grosses me out.

I don’t clean at all and never get bugs. Don’t have house plants or live by the woods

The crazy shit though, all my gnat issues went away the second I started using yard soil which is full of hypoaspis. They are powerhouse predators and will eat gnat large and other soil dwelling pests.

It is all about prevention. You need to keep healthy plants and an IPM schedule to follow. You want to treat plants with pesticides at least biweekly up until the second week of flowing. Look into other peoples pest management programs and find one to follow that suits you.

Coco.

MATTYMATT726 said:

Coco.

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Absolutely. No soil indoors. Sorry every bag of top brand soil I’ve purchased has had bugs. Soil is for outdoors for me anyway

tstick said:

No shoes that were worn outside.

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This is a good rule. I've always worn a pair of slides that are dedicated to my grow rooms.

lusidghost said:

This is a good rule. I've always worn a pair of slides that are dedicated to my grow rooms.

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Also I spray the bottom of pants with Isopropyl, sometimes the grass is higher than shoes. Added precaution.

Remove all clothing & shower after grass mowing/leaf blowing..

I do let my dog in my carpeted bedroom/growroom (he's my homie) but not when the tents open & I vacuum often.

So far so good *knock on wood*

Jeesun72 said:

My first harvest was ruined due to thrip and spider-mite infestation. What are the possible causes and how can I avoid this problem in the future?

Neem or Citric acid didn’t seem to cure the problem either. Plants started indoor inside the tent, humidity was kept 30-40%, no dehumidifier used during flowering, temp 70-80 F for both veg and flowering stages. Had 0 bug problem during veg stage but once it turned to flowering, it first started with thrip then led to spider mite infestation. It might have something to do with my new indoor plant collection.

What do you do to keep your plants bug free?
Thanks in advance for your help!

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The only way to avoid pests is to treat your garden as if there is always a pest. Spray for when it is and isn’t. IPM is just that. I use PureCrop1 as a soil drench and foliar spray to kill anything that could be.

I never had to deal with anything aside from gnats for almost 6 years. Then my son bought a bunch of house plants and my plants got thrips.

lusidghost said:

I never had to deal with anything aside from gnats for almost 6 years. Then my son bought a bunch of house plants and my plants got thrips.

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I just hit a thrip issue recently from two bags of soil I used recently. I caught the issue early on by using a jeweler loop and spending time with the ladies realizing the leaf damage on the lowers. After I realized what I had going on I defoliated the canopy on every plant to deal with less. Then I foliar sprayed, root drenched, every 3 days and put DE ont the top soil, blue sticky traps etc. Haven’t seen anything in a few weeks and I’ve entered flower stage with no issues. Knowing what works and when and how to use it is a powerful tool for every grower.

You avoid pests by taking away their habitat and making it a hostile and unhabitable as you can. You also keep your garden sterile and as clean as possible. One of the perks of growing hydroponically is your dealing with inert mediums that don't hold pests.
1. Keep a good 12-18" bufferzone between pot and under canopy, trim bottom of canopy.
2. Get a good circulating airflow in the under canopy.
3. If growing with soil, let the top dry out in between waterings.
4. Keep dead leaves out of pots and off floor.

If you have a pest problem, your first going to want to do the steps 1-4 and then to get rid of the pests depends...for me, I have sealed room and I crank the CO2 up to 15,000ppm for 6 hours once a day for 3 days. CO2 displaces O2 and essentially suffocates the pests. But it will do the same to you, your pets and your family. So if you don't know what your doing, don't attempt it. The plants do just fine and aren't stressed to much. The positives are no chemicals was sprayed on plants or room. It's also easy. After the 6 hours you need to have a inline fan exhaust the high levels of c02 down before entering room let's just say 1500 at that level it's not lethal but you can still experience side effects like sweating, rapid heartbeat, nausea, headache etc..

Was using pro-mix for a while and no bug issues. Stopped because the peat was too acidic over time. Switched to Roots Organic and I'm infested with gnats. Switching to something else this week. I want to try the mother earth coco/perlite mix again but I fucked it up the first time. The plants never took off from clone. Had to be the way I was watering/feeding them. Might buy a few different kinds and see what works.

Never buy dirt thats sitting outside usually its infested.
Dont overwater.