PH, Spider mites or heat burn??

Hi there,

I´m having problems with my two indoor plants, both of them were started from seed (I had been saving seeds from different buys for a while, and planted them all together) I got 14 plants and around half of them are looking good with no health problems and the other half have little to no problems. All these plants started as outdoor plants, they were all protected with plastic polycarbonate corrugated sheets to avoid excessive rain and protect from cats.

I brought these two plants inside around two weeks ago, at that time they were showing problems with curled or twisted leaves at the top of the plant, basically just on new growing leaves, but that was it. They have now been on 24 h light cycle with three CFL's (26 watt, 100 watt incandescent equivalent, 2700º K) for around a week and a half to two weeks. The plants are around 5" tall and have just started growing leaves on the nodes (they seem to be damaged, a bit twisted. The light is about 4 or 5 inches above the plant. The plants are in a closet which is closed most of the time, and no fan or air extractor/ventilation system.

The plants actually look worse than in the pictures. The problems I've been having are:

- Leaves curling up or wrinkling (just two opposing sets on each plant around the 5th or 6th set of leaves)
- Small spots (yellowish, whiteish) on many of the leaves.
- Holes in some leaves, and a yellow burned color around them.
- Edges of some of the leaves are lighter green to yellow.
- Some of the leaves undersides have many black spots, that look a bit like soil.
- Black very small insects on the leaves, and some transperent shiny goo on the leaves.

At first I thougt it was probably a nutrient deficiency and after putting them under fluorescents I thougt that I might have been burning them (because of the leaves curling up, and no ventilation) so I moved them up a couple of inches, but now I suspect its these insects, spider mites maybe?

Thrips ... What you're describing sounds like Thrips to me ... The black stuff is called honeydew (which is actually their shite) ... The white goo stuff could be from the Thrips but sounds more like you may have Mites too.

It's hard to tell if something else is causing the other symptoms or if it's all related to the pests.

THRIPS:

Thrips are really tiny, but can be seen by the naked eye. Some may have wings and some may not. Thrips reproduce rapidly, especially in tight places. That is what makes them hard to get rid of when using pesticides. They suck the sap right out of your plant with there piercing mouths, which makes the leaves look like they turned white. You can tell when you have thrips by taking a look at your leaves, the leaves will look as if there chlorophyll have been ripped right off the plant. Plants that are damaged can’t be healed thus making it harder for the plant to absorb light. SO if left untreated the thrips will kill the plants. Damage also can be seen by the greenish black specks of there poop they leave on leaves. Also the plants will show silver patchs from scar tissue. Depending on the severity at first, thrip damage might look like spider mite damage untill it increases in damage and then thrips case is for sure when you see the greenness replace with big parts of white.


One good way to repel thrips for those growing outside is to use garlic, this is a good way to keep them away before you get them. The color yellow attracts the thrips and should be advised not to have this color around your grow.. If you already have them using neem oil, and or lady bugs can get rid of them. If the infestation is bad then you need to use biological solution like, pyrethrin-like insecticides. Picture 8 shows thrips damage.
Other Products include:
Chemicals
Hot Pepper Wax,Safer Yard & Garden Insecticide (which can be used right to the day of harvest),GNATROL( used in hydro in the water as well as soil),Doc's Neem Pest Soap,Safer Sticky Stakes,TR-11000 Pyrethrum.

SPIDER MITES:

Spider mites are by far the worst pest to have, because they are the hardest to kill and can literally kill any plant. They are by far more active in warmer climates than cold ones, they also suck sup from the leaves leaving tiny white spots on the leaves from where they suck on. The damage they do is just like thrips, but with spider mites they pierce the surface of the leaves and can show tiny holesor white speckling damage, unlike with thirps they eat the surface of the chlorophyll. You can tell when you have infestation of spider mites , because you will have distorted growth, shortened internodes and petioles.
When you have bad infestation you will see webbing with larva in them. You get spider mites from either store bought soil mostly when your soil is not sterilized. Most brands do not state weather or not they are, chances are if you buy cheap soil, you have a less likely chance of the soil being sterile.Also, bringing outdoor plants indoors, or getting plants from someone else who was infected with spidermites.
Spider mites live on the plant itself and are under the leaves most of the time and are usually are so tiny you can’t see them with the naked eye. In order to get rid of spider mites one of the best ways to start to get rid of them is to use NO-Pest strips.NO-Pest strips work well and should always be used with other methods. Neem oil helps get rid of them as well. Also by raising the humidity in your grow room a lot will kill the spider mites off, by them absorbing to much humidity and will burst. You can use soap solution like Safer Insecticidal Soap to get rid of most aphid problems. Use some tobacco juice and chili pepper powder added to this for mites. (see below how to make tabacco juice)
Pyrethrum should only be used in extreme circumstances directly on plants, It starts to breaks down around a week and is easily washed away with clear water or. If your plants are in flowering and you have spider mites, using safer chemicals is your best bet. The tobacco and pepper soap solution works well and should be used daily, spraying on the underside and top leaves and later the whole plant. Since spider mites are very residual to common products, you have to find or try any number of ones untill you get rid of them. make absolutly sure you retreat as stated, other wise you will get resistant spidermites and then you have a bigger battle on your hands.Also do not allow pets that go outside alot to be around indoor plants,mites have been known to be carried in from pets to plants. PLEASE NOTE, below are ways to get rid of spider mites, but no 2 mite infestations are identical, you almost always have to use different products to get rid of them, also make a habit to check for at least a whole month after thinking you got rid of them, that way your chances of the spider mites that became resistant breeding and then having a bigger problem. Make sure you spray your plant down very good and enough and on time.
Here are some more products that may help get rid of spider mites:

Chemicals
Hot Pepper Wax,Safer Yard & Garden Insecticide (which can be used right to the day of harvest),GNATROL( used in hydro in the water as well as soil),Doc's Neem Pest Soap,Safer Sticky Stakes,TR-11000 Pyrethrum. Anything that says dicofol on the back. ( should be used in vegging or early flowering)

Tabacco Juice recipe

Take 3 strong ciggeretes soak them over night in water
Boil it for 2 to 3 miniutes, let it cool off and spray the plants 3 to 4 times a week. You can add safer soap if you like to the mixture.
(make absolutly sure you use gloves/face protection while handling and spraying)
Neem oil works very well too!!

Tabacco Juice will kill mites to right because i think i have them or those thrips things is the tabacco juice ok for preflowering or flowering plants

AnyBody ???

Yea tobacco juice is good for mites.

You can use it on pre-flowering plants or plants that are early in flowering (first half to be safe - e.g 4 out of 8 weeks in for an 8 week strain).

You can use it later in flowering if you've got a good enough environment to ensure a high chance of avoiding fungi/mold growth on your buds.

Cheers.

how much should i mix i seen somewhere it said three cigarettes or something
to a liter im not really sure but thanks for all the help and info

LOL it was your post in this thread i seen that god im such a retard when i smoke hahahaha

Hahaha, sweet man, as long as you found the info you were looking for

OK, a few days after posting I noticed an increase in all these spots and the number of insects (whatever they were), so I tried the tobacco spray. I used 5 cigarettes with a quarter of water, let them soak overnight and then I sprayed.

The plants have been sprayed two times already, once and then two days after, and now it has been around four days since last spray, so I'll probably spray them again today.

Well it seems now I'm having two different problems on each plant:

• One has not changed too much, and has wrinkled, raisin like textured leaves with yellowish colors and the young leaves growing at the node are curled down. I also noticed, didn't see them before, lots of reaaally small bugs on the underside of the leaf, they were white and were moving.

• The one that had most of the insects does not have them anymore, there are no small white spots on the new sets of leaves growing on the top, however the tips look burnt. Other than that, the new leaves look healthy and I didn't seem to see the white bugs from the other plant, which is strange,as they are right next to each other.

One thing I have noticed is that there seems to be many roots that are growing close to the surface, and this made me check the bottom water drainage holes where I could see some roots coming down in the first plant. Is it time for transplant yet?

So now I'm thinking maybe I should try a different kind of insecticide on the first plant or maybe spraying it with tobacco everyday instead of every two days, what do you say?

Something else I've noticed with some plants is that they get white dust on the soil when it dries in some parts, mildew ??

Anyone? Please

if i'm not wrong .i thought i saw nutrient burn

I can tell by looking at your pictures that your soil is probably no good for growing marijuana. I see no Vermiculite(the little white pebbles in potting soils) in your soil. The book i have which i also recommend called, The Soma Guide to Growing Marijuana recommends making a soil that is 2/3 black peat mixed with 1/3 vermiculite. The Vermiculite is necessary as it is helps air get in the soil which is vital to the growth of marijuana and helps the soil to dry faster which is also neccesary for marijuana as it does not like to be overly watered.