Root Aphids?

Gotta note. Double potting (cutting the bottom of the pots and "sticking" the rootball to a second pot) seemed really effective even for plants that were close to mid-flowering. I tried this with 5 autos in total. The first 3 were in late pre-flowering, the other 2 close to mid-flowering. The first 3 recovered completely even without using any pesticides because back then I hadn't identified the RA problem. Gradually they started succumbing again but since I used the treatments (after finding the problem) they finished almost untouched - I don't think I could have gottten many more grams even if they didn't have RA.

The other 2 autos were really in a bad shape. Really ugly, almost all fan leaves yellow, problem had mitigated to sugar leaves too. In the end they fucking recovered although they finished without any fan leaves and most of their sugar leaves gone. Still instead of getting 1 oz out of each, it seems I'm getting 2,5-3 oz of each. At the cost of 2 weeks extra flowering time. They seemed like they would be over in 3 weeks when I tried the treatment. Thought I have nothing to lose, trialing different things. It took them 5 weeks to finish but the swelling of the buds was unreal considering the damage they had taken.

It's a pity I don't have pictures, having so many things to do the last thing I was thinking was taking pictures. Double potting is messy I know. You can try supplementing extra soil (like Biobizz All Mix) along with vermicompost on top of the pots. That's what I'm doing for the rest of the plants. Also got some chitosan today, first watering with it, I will see how it goes. Spinosad was also added to the arsenal although I don't have high hopes for that.

@paparov

Yeah I agree. It will kill the beneficials in the organic living soil. But, in my case, the bugs were doing more damage than the beneficials were able to overcome. So, as a "Hail Mary", I used the H2O2. It worked to kill the bugs and the plants started to yellow a bit in response to the treatment. But I just went with some chemical nutes for the remainder of the grow and everything turned out fine. I like organic, living soil, too....but a lot of living soil also harbors bugs and eggs and larvae and, after awhile, it turns into a game of chasing out the pests rather than growing the plants. I'm going to try a hybrid between soil and hydro on my next grow. I'm using a couple of clones from this grow to try a few new tricks. We'll see how they work! Good luck to you in whatever method you try!

I stick anything I am going to grow with in the oven and bake it for a while. I don't trust anything now.

Well, I feel like I owe you an update guys, honestly I hope some fellow growers could benefit from the hard, MOTHERFUCKING HARD lessons I learned during my encounters with these ugly bitches...

1st grow - Photoperiod Plants

I had to throw away 80% of my plants during the 1st round where I acknowledged that problem. The remaining plants were in an ok shape although they were showing that things could get ugly if I didn't act. So, the 1st round were photoperiod plants --> I did the following:

1. Bleached all spaces of my house as thoroughly as I could, threw away all soil.

2. Transplanted into bigger pots with generous amounts of Trichoderma powder and also added some neem meal - don't know if the latter could prove counter-productive to the development of those beneficial fungi. I also added Botanigard at the rate of 4ml/liter. Also watered with aspirin at the recommended doses.

3. Waited for 1 week before I initiated flowering. Continued using Botanigard (absolutely nescessary), Trichoderma, aspirin. Added Chitosan at the recommended doses to my watering regimen. Also started using Canna-Boost + Spinosad. Besides that I was using religiously a kelp extract.

4. I was foliar feeding almost until the 3d week of flowering - per the instructions of the awesome thread "The Lost Art of Foliar Feeding" - that made a whole world of difference I think - while the leaves had a pale color before that practice, in 2 weeks I saw another level of awesomeness - plants got totally green again.

5. I was adding 1-1,5 liter of vermicompost along with a little bit of perlite until the 5th week of flowering - intentionally I had filled the pots at ~85% capacity after the transplant.

In order to sum it up for you:

Biological Pesticides -->

Botanigard with every watering --> after the initial 4ml/liter dosage past transplant I was giving 2ml/liter with every watering. I kept using Botanigard until the last week of flowering. Because i would start immediately a second round I wanted these fuckers severely punished.
Spinosad at the recommended dosages with every second watering. Stopped at the 5th week of flowering with that.

Beneficial fungi -->

Trichoderma Harzianum with every watering until the last week of flowering.
B.subtilis, once every 10 days

Other supplements -->

Aspirin until the 4th week of flowering.
Chitosan until the 4th week of flowering.
Canna-Boost until the 6th week of flowering.
Kelp extract until the 7th week of flowering - flowering was 9 weeks from switching to 12/12 for most of the plants.

Foliar Feeding until the 4th week of flowering --> See "The Lost Art of Foliar Feeding"

Adding vermicompost/perlite on top layer of soil until the 5th week of flowering.

So, that way I got 1g/watt of some of the top quality buds I have ever produced. I was really happy with the outcome, didn't expect the ladies would advance so well. It was the most difficult grow ever (my house was looking like a fucking dumpster for a while, getting all that soil out, making new soil, transplanting) but it gave me the resources to advance with my next autoflower grow.

2nd grow - Autoflower Plants

For the second grow I did the following:

1. Made a new soil mix from scratch - bought new pots as well. Used 5 gallon pots for the autos.
2. I added big amounts of diatomaceous earth in that soil + mycorrhizae. I also added Kaoline instead of zeolite. Also added some gypsum. And moderate amounts of neem oil. Went with Biotabs pellets for the organic fertilization.
3. For the first month --> With every watering --> Botanigard, Spinosad, Aspirin, Trichoderma, Biobizz Root Juice, small amounts of kelp extract
Second month --> Using Botanigard (religiously!), Trichoderma, Kelp extract, B.Subtilis
4. After the 3d week from sprouting, I was adding 1-1,5 liter of vermicompost+perlite on top layer of soil.

Well, the second round was fucking amazing - I got ~1,8 g/watt in a period of 90 days with the autos! Many autos finished in the 65-70 day range but I had a 15% of them go up to 90 days (all of them the same strain, totally sativa structure). And I got that with lousy water techniques - since I was watering all plants by hand, essentially emptying the contents of the watering container at the soil without having the patience to do it gradually and slowly.

Honestly I couldn't believe it, went beyond my wildest expectations --> in the past I would struggle to get 0,7 g/ watt and I would blame it on my soil mix for being too weak and me being lazy with using mostly just water+trichoderma and nothing else. Now I know!! And the "funny thing" is I'm certain I wouldn't be noticing those sneaky bitches if I wasn't writting a book about insects which can invade mj in my country + the sudden spike in RH with me using VPD techniques+CO2. Those bitches got crazy after the electric power had gone down for like 7 hours and I hadn't noticed. When I entered the room after that shut down of power, RH had skyrocketed to 91%. Then the plants started deteriorating rapidly in the following days and that's when I perceived that something is really off.

Well, that took me some time to write it down - almost 9 months went by since I first spotted the problem so I don't recall all of the details completely - i have some traumas from that period, it was fucking exhausting to do all that stuff, hand watering, researching for organic ways to combat them, applying all that, intense stress levels etc...I'm not glad for what happened, I'm glad for my response to what happened though and the results were there to prove it. For once I'm feeling happy for contributing to this wonderful forum. If you have any questions feel free to ask ofc. Sending you the best vibes girls and boys, happy grows.

RAs are the worst. I only skimmed over your post, but it looks correct and full of good info.

The only thing I would add to it is for growers to be mindful when using Aspirin and Chitosan. Too much or too late in flower and you'll sacrifice yield, but both will illicit a SAR response and give your plants a boost when under duress or recovering from an attack.

I drench everything with gnatrol (Bti) and Botanigard as part of my IPM.

And try to refrain from using an enzyme if the roots are in recovery mode. Wait until the plants have had a chance to regrow some roots. The kelp and even some B vitamins and aminos will help with that.

These kind of battles suck but in the end, they'll make you better a grower.

Tangerine_ said:

RAs are the worst. I only skimmed over your post, but it looks correct and full of good info.

The only thing I would add to it is for growers to be mindful when using Aspirin and Chitosan. Too much or too late in flower and you'll sacrifice yield, but both will illicit a SAR response and give your plants a boost when under duress or recovering from an attack.

I drench everything with gnatrol (Bti) and Botanigard as part of my IPM.

And try to refrain from using an enzyme if the roots are in recovery mode. Wait until the plants have had a chance to regrow some roots. The kelp and even some B vitamins and aminos will help with that.

These kind of battles suck but in the end, they'll make you better a grower.

Click to expand...

Yeap, especially in conditions that are promoting their reproduction, they are fucking savages.

Very good remarks about the aspirin and chitosan and the enzyme products during recovery! That's why I used aspirin+chitosan until the 4th week week of flowering. Now that you mentioned Vitamin B, I remembered I also used Superthrive after the transplant + an amino product! Also I recall I used a root promoting product along with the kelp extract until the 5th week of flowering to promote new root growth as much as I could. The addition of vermicompost on top was also used to promote root growth among the other benefits. My memory is a little bit hazy after those hard times...

Definitely man, I developed a new perspective in growing after this experience. Sending my best vibes!