eyes88

I never heard of a thrip before today...but there's no doubt now that i've got them.

Does anyone have experience dealing with these pests?

I've sprayed all the plants with Neem oil (1 tsp per qt pH'ed water + 1/4 tsp of mild soap)...completely soaking all the of foliage, including the undersides of the leaves and spraying the soil surface as well.

Will this do the trick?
Is it safe for flowering plants as well as those vegging?
Do i over do it, or do i need something stronger?

For the longest time i thought the damage i was seeing was due to the leaves being splashed with water that was pH'ed too low (i had a faulty pH meter)...because only the lowest leaves had the problem. The silver patches looked an awful lot like deposit on the leaves...like spots one might get on glasses from not using Cascade in the dishwasher. The "deposits" didn't wipe off, so i then assumed that they had been burned with acidic water...but it was Thrips...the little f*ckers!

The lower leaves on nearly all of my plants look exactly like the photo "revised complete guide to sick plants" shown here:



Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer...

peace,
- eyes88

__________________

bluecheese

Search results for thrips - titles only.

__________________
cheese

Posting Guidelines -- AUP -- Sick Plant? -- Nursery Troubleshooting Guide
Plant Abuse Guide -- St0ney's pH Chart -- Reputation & Thanks

My Journals

buzzmobile

Spinosad is a good remedy for thrips. Monterey Garden Insect Spray is the most economical and widely available.

eyes88

Thanks Buzz, I've been reading a lot about thrips this evening and i hadn't yet come across Spinosad. I just now ordered some.

peace,
- eyes88

__________________

eyes88

...well thrips are indeed tough to rid.

I removed all the plants from the cabinet completely sprayed them with a neem oil / soap combo, plus watering each plant with a 1 tsp of neem oil / qt., a few hours later i noticed that there are still thrips in the cabinet.

I've ordered Spinosad and Tanglefoot, and while i wait for it to arrive in the mail i plan to re-spray all the plants tomorrow with more neem and soap.

If i'm not mistaken neem oil works by disrupting the insect life-cycle so it probably takes a week or two to have an effect..so i guess it's not surprising that i haven't gotten rid of them with one application. Neem oil doesn't mix well with water...so i think i'll add a little lecithin (a food additive and vitamin suppliment for humans) which is an emulsifier, so maybe that will help get a more even coating of oil on the leaves.

Here's a look at one of the Satori (day 36) showing thrip damage...



My previous indoor grow ended in failure too, and now i know the real reason why. On my previous grow i flipped the switch for 1 Satori, 1 Sadhu, and 2 Purplicious on Aug 1st. Two weeks later i went on vacation for 18 days and returned to find four badly damaged plants. At the time i though it was a combination of a faulty pH meter, and a inexperienced friend who over fertilizing the plants. The plants all looked to be severely Nu+ burn. The Purplicous could not be saved, but the Satori and Sadhu were removed from the cabinet, flushed repeatedly and then put outside to heal and hopefully finish. I now know that it was THRIPS that destroyed the last grow, and that in a late stage of infestation the plants had brown, curling leaves, that were brittle.

Here's a picture of the surviving Sadhu from the last grow. As you'll notice there are no fan leaves left on this plant...it lost them all. The plant essentially stopped growing, the bud matured, but the plant is tiny compared to the clones in have in the cabinet now which are three times the size and in smaller pots.



...the only leaves left on the Sadhu were ones that have trichomes. Mandala seeds describe Satori and Sadhu as being somewhat mite resistent...and i guess the same can be said for thrips. It suffered a lot of damage, but survived while the Purplicious (not a heavely trichomed plant) did not.



peace,
- eyes88

Attached Thumbnails

     

__________________

bobbooty

what jai said.

__________________

Welcome to gardenscure.com. Growing marijuana in the United States is a federal offence. Aquisition of live cannabis seeds is illegal in the United States. The Garden's Cure Posting Guidelines can be found here.The Acceptable Use Policy can be found here. The grow guide can be found here. My SoG growroom can be seen in my journal. want to learn more about medical marijuana in the US? check out the Americans For Safe Access site here. and MediCann here. | Journal of the year awards 2009 |

MJ Maven

... who is growing hydro

Change out your reservoirs and lids after each application of neem (or whatever you are using).

I found colonies of the thrips, in larval stage, living in the 2mm space between the lids and the reservoir lip. They are persistent little buggers ... but tamable. And if I remember correctly ... they have a 72 hour life cycle ... so, applying your neem more than once every three days is over-doing it. "3 by 3" is my rule ... 3 applications, 3 days apart each time. I try not to hit flowering plants with anything though ...

Another tip I heard from the grow store ... ladybugs They will eat most smaller insects that have made a home in your garden

Hope it helps...

Maven

__________________
With each cannabis seed we germinate, something far greater than a simple plant grows.

Journal of the Year Awards

Posting Guidelines

Click Here For Free, Top Quality, Marijuana

Methods to my Madness: Rockwool Cloning, Germination & Sprouting, "Lollypopping"

buzzmobile

Adding the lecithin is not necessary when the neem oil is mixed with soap. The soap does the same thing as the lecithin.

eyes88

I've been reading up on SPINOSAD and from everything i've read it's the most effective thing going for thrips. In fact growers who once consided thrips a major issue now after using spinosad regard them as a minor annoyance.

I'm still waiting for the spinosad to arrive.

...so after looking in on the plants last night i gave them a second treatment of neem oil/soap mix. Thrips were still all over the place and after losing 50% of my crop to them on my last indoor grow (over the summer) in a matter of three weeks i felt the need to treat them with neem until the spinosad arrives.

peace,
- eyes88

__________________

bobbooty

neem wont do anything to thrips, they drink that shit for breakfast.

like jai said, dont bother spraying them with anything till the 'SAD arrives.

and just FYI, i dont spray anything that is past 3 weeks into flowering, anything under that and vegetative is ok (read "all mother plants and cuttings") to spray the piss out of, be sure to get top and bottom of leaves, stems and stalks. wear a decent organic particle respiratory filter and goggles and gloves.

__________________

Welcome to gardenscure.com. Growing marijuana in the United States is a federal offence. Aquisition of live cannabis seeds is illegal in the United States. The Garden's Cure Posting Guidelines can be found here.The Acceptable Use Policy can be found here. The grow guide can be found here. My SoG growroom can be seen in my journal. want to learn more about medical marijuana in the US? check out the Americans For Safe Access site here. and MediCann here. | Journal of the year awards 2009 |