Integrated Pest Management (IPM) - What’s your routine?

What’s up, everyone?

Let’s talk about IPM. Going along with the whole “ounce of prevention…” theme, I’d like to come up with a routine/schedule for preventative maintenance in my garden. More specifically, I’d like to come up with a short list of organic sprays and/or soil drenches that I can rotate on a weekly (or other) basis.

Off the top of my head, I know that my routine will need to address fungus (powdery mildew and botrytis) and invertebrates (thrips, mites, whiteflies, caterpillars/worms). I’m familiar with most of the commonly used products (and I have my favorites) - mostly interested in how to use and rotate through them most effectively.

So… What’s your IPM routine?

Let’s discuss!

Cheers,

~SS

Mine is pretty straight forward , spinosad and fungicide from hardening to stretch then bt and fungicide till harvest. And of course constant inspections

Thanks man.

So you’re doing spinosad, wait X days, fungicide, wait X days, repeat? How often are you spraying? And what’s your fungicide of choice these days?

My “go to” sprays are neem (emulsified with Pro-Tekt), spinosad, and potassium bicarbonate. I’ve been using been more often than spinosad as a preventative, just because it’s also somewhat effective at preventing PM in addition to killing/deterring mites, thrips, etc.

I worry that PM will take hold if I go two weeks without spraying fungicide (i.e. if I spray just once a week and rotate between pesticide and fungicide). Maybe what I should do it alternate pesticide/fungicide on a 3-4 day basis?

SpicySativa said:

Thanks man.

So you’re doing spinosad, wait X days, fungicide, wait X days, repeat? How often are you spraying? And what’s your fungicide of choice these days?

My “go to” sprays are neem (emulsified with Pro-Tekt), spinosad, and potassium bicarbonate. I’ve been using been more often than spinosad as a preventative, just because it’s also somewhat effective at preventing PM in addition to killing/deterring mites, thrips, etc.

I worry that PM will take hold if I go two weeks without spraying fungicide (i.e. if I spray just once a week and rotate between pesticide and fungicide). Maybe what I should do it alternate pesticide/fungicide on a 3-4 day basis?

Click to expand...

During veg, I do neem oil (or azamax), spinosad, BT mixed together at full strength with 1tsp/gal dawn concentrated dish soap. Applied every 10ish days depending on weather.

In early bloom I apply BT, spinosad, and for the first time this grow added Garden Friendly Fungicide to the mix. All three full strength. Applied every 10ish days.

I have not applied anything for the last 2 weeks. I've got about 5 weeks to go til chop with very little precip in the forecast. Hopefully, they'll make it okay. They've been doing very well up to now.

During veg I rotate azamax, citrus, green clean just as preventative every 3 to 4 days and if I find anything I’ll Ulysses what’s needed but for me it’s all about treating as if I have bugs as I do not run a clean room.

Now this is my kind of topic! Outdoors, you will have the best luck with a mold resistant strain, single biggest factor imo. I used to grow in a "challenging" outdoor environment and had the best luck with landraces and landrace hybrids-my very best outdoor plants grown as an adult in the Northern states were from Ace Seeds-all picked for mold resistance. As a kid, I grew Mexican brickseed sativas in So California, it was so easy and wonderful, I didn't know what IPM was.

Unlike landraces, that have been optimized for their environment over generations, modern polyhybrid chucks haven't been bred with ANYTHING in mind beyond THC content, production, or "fruitiness," and I've had terrible luck with them outside, botrytis magnets. As for IPM, I like to spray neem/kelp/silica once per week in veg, then a second spray during the same week will be with Southern Ag Garden Friendly Fungicide (any of the good biofungicides will work), and I'll also add chitosan and/or aspirin (1 aspirin per gal) water to that every other week-always use a wetting agent like yucca. If I have a stretch of rain or high humidity, I'll treat them with those even during flower-remember, rain will spread those spores to every part of the plant, so you aren't going to hurt anything by spraying them when they are already wet. If I get a stretch of wet weather towards the end of veg, I'll also spray them with potassium bicarbonate or even sulfur, to hopefully clean them up for flower time. Regalia is great stuff too if you have the money-a lot of these work by initiating ISR/SAR, but some also work on contact. so using several products with different modes of action will be best in a "challenging" environment.

Lastly, I like to train/top my outdoor plants for as many bud sites as possible for two reasons-the bigger the bud, the more likely it will develop botrytis, and the more buds you have, the more likely it is you will be able to save some of them in the case of an outbreak. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. If you are able to grow more than one plant outside, choose a different mold resistant strain for each plant and find what works best in your environment.

I wouldn't do all this unless I lived someplace with a lot of wet, humid, or especially cool summer weather. If you've never had botrytis (or something else) ruin your outdoor crop and you don't do ANY IPM, good for you. But if you grow outside every year, it will happen, and it can be devastating. After that, you will take a serious interest in this topic. This has been a bad season-look at all the posts we get lately of people with botrytis, PM, septoria, and bud worm. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Listen to my grandma!

That’s what I’m talking about! Thanks, Rurumo and others!

I think you may have chimed in on my other thread about strain selection? If you haven’t figured this out yet, I’m a guy who likes to plan everything out ahead of time AND come up with contingency measures to implement if/when problems arise. I definitely plan to do some research before I place a seed order for next season, and resistance to fungal attack will definitely be a top priority. I’ll check out Ace Seeds.

Thankfully I don’t get much rain during the growing season, but I do get some fog and morning dew… We did have a random thunderstorm the other day, though. Damn climate change is throwing a wrench in the spokes.

SpicySativa said:

Thanks man.

So you’re doing spinosad, wait X days, fungicide, wait X days, repeat? How often are you spraying? And what’s your fungicide of choice these days?

My “go to” sprays are neem (emulsified with Pro-Tekt), spinosad, and potassium bicarbonate. I’ve been using been more often than spinosad as a preventative, just because it’s also somewhat effective at preventing PM in addition to killing/deterring mites, thrips, etc.

I worry that PM will take hold if I go two weeks without spraying fungicide (i.e. if I spray just once a week and rotate between pesticide and fungicide). Maybe what I should do it alternate pesticide/fungicide on a 3-4 day basis?

Click to expand...

Once a week, more if any issues or heavy rains
No I mix both and apply together

A. nodosum seaweed juice at germination induces genetic switches for drought and salt tolerance( higher feed levels) that are permanent.
That's from Israeli tomato studies, Indian rice studies, and other tests on model plants used for basic biological studies. They think its a compound from the bacterial slime coating that keeps it wet during tides.

Inoculate seedlings and grow media at the same time with your biotics of choice, most induce resistance for bugs and pathogens or act as growth elicitors.

Sulfur can be tank mixed with just about everything but biotics, doesn't push the ppm up much and cheap.
Neem/ azadirachtin work well with pyrethrins, synergistic effect makes both more effective together. Another good tank mix application.

I don't put on BTk at all in veg outdoors, not really an issue since there are no buds. Only when I drop the neem and pyrethrin do they need BTk outdoors.
You can also mix BTk into a paste with oil and whole wheat flour, use the paste a bait for all the hoppers, they love that stuff more than pot.

Spinosad or Venerate/Grandevo tank mixed with BTk for early flower if needed, Citric acid is used for spot spraying.

Regalia, increasing dosage throughout the grow, plants just love that stuff.

Potassium silicate/sesame oil foliar. Citric acid for immediate bug elimination.

Next year I'll I'm going to be testing JS, JHS, and JWA.

Rurumo said:

Regalia is great stuff

Click to expand...

I’m intrigued by Regalia, but goddam it’s pricey…

Any others have experience with Regalia (or other products designed to boost resistance)?

I have a similar IPM to @Rurumo.

For botrytis:
Veg
Regalia foliar
Potassium silicate foliar
Chitosan foliar
Garden Friendly Fungicide foliar
I probably spray each one of these once every 2 weeks with a yucca wetting agent.

Flower
Regalia soil drench
Potassium silicate foliar after rain / morning dew to kill spores. Has a high pH
Garden Friendly fungicide foliar (not very frequent)
Chitosan soil drench

For pests:
Grandevo
BT

Bt is once a week at minimum. Grandevo is the shit for any sucking insect. This year I've only had to spray once and I don't see any insects anywhere. It probably helps that I spray my entire yard whenever I fill up my sprayer. I tried citric acid but the low pH was actually favorable for botrytis.

Overall my two biggest battles are botrytis and caterpillars, both of which require prevention rather than treatment.

I'm also a firm believer that constantly maintaining a good microbe mix in your soil helps with both pests and mold. So I give EWC compost tea every 2 weeks and EM1 every week.

xtsho said:

Potassium silicate/sesame oil foliar. Citric acid for immediate bug elimination.

Next year I'll I'm going to be testing JS, JHS, and JWA.

Click to expand...

What is that?

DCcan said:

What is that?

Click to expand...

JS = JADAM Sulfur
JHS = JADAM Herbal Solution
JWA = JADAM Wetting Agent

xtsho said:

JS = JADAM Sulfur
JHS = JADAM Herbal Solution
JWA = JADAM Wetting Agent

Click to expand...

Nice, thanks.

Was reading some studies on chitosan and botrytis. Thought this image was pretty cool.




Attached the study to this post.

Here's also a nice overview of chitosan effects on SAR.

If I get some budrot this year I'm going to make a mini experiment. For the post-harvest bud wash I'll dip some branches in a chitosan/water solution and see if I lose less to mold during the drying process.

I'm actually hoping I don't have to do this experiment, but we'll see.

sirtalis said:

If I get some budrot this year I'm going to make a mini experiment. For the post-harvest bud wash I'll dip some branches in a chitosan/water solution and see if I lose less to mold during the drying process.

I'm actually hoping I don't have to do this experiment, but we'll see.

Click to expand...

It sounds like you are planning to fail

Sir Napsalot said:

It sounds like you are planning to fail

Click to expand...

I already harvested a plant with budrot this year, so yea I'm taking every precaution I can. "Planning to fail" sounds like you're implying I have a negative mindset. Growing in coastal fog from July to October is not an easy task, and no matter how many precautions you take your environment is set up for mold. I usually lose about 20% of my harvest to mold. It's not a fail because I still have smokeable bud. I'm just trying to make it 0% budrot with the odds against me. Apologies for doing an experiment if I get mold again. Lol, clown.