Marijuana Cultivation/Pests and Pest Control

Pests and Pest Control
As you continue growing, you will sooner or later face pests. Pests are able to destroy all of the plants in your garden if they are in same room. Pests will find your indoor environment to be ideal and full of food, without any natural enemies.

It is good to know what pests appear, where a crop they can live and what are the typical symptoms. All the symptoms are not due to pests and can be caused nutrient maladjusted nutrients.

A magnifying glass and daily or at least regular inspection can save your garden from ruin. Often, pests are hiding on the underside of leaves. In order to get an accurate view of pests and their effects on your plants a magnifier of at least 8x magnification power will be required. The most important thing is to monitor your plants regularly.

For other plants fighting pests is easier but hemp does not respond well to chemical pesticides and chemical poisons would often render the output to be unsafe to consume or smoke. Biological pesticides are not toxic, so they can be used to remove pests. Neem oil is a natural and effective insecticide, which is produced from Neem tree seeds by squeezing. Pine soap solution is another natural pesticide, which is active against some pests. Pesticides containing pyretine can be used safely (pyretrin is rapidly degradable organic insecticide). Before using any off the shelf pesticide you should make sure that the its use is recommended for fruits and vegetables. Any non-detergent soap can be mixed with water to make a natural pesticide, often ground red pepper or chilli powder is added as well to deter pests from returning. Soap based pesticides are effective against all soft bodied pests but because they kill on contact they must be applied with a great deal of care and do not on their own deter pests from returning. This is where the pepper additive comes in. If you have an aphid infestation then you should also consider taking steps to prevent ants from returning to your plants since it is the ants which farm the aphids.

Tetranychus urticae
Spider mites are mostly orange-toned less than 0.5 mm long, spider animals. These should not occur if the humidity is above 80%. Vegetable mites are easy to identify because of their webs, but often it is already too late. If your hemp leaves are changing dirty yellow, and are starting to fall off, the plant may be infested with spider mites.

In order to prevent spider mites it is best to examine plants for a few days with a magnifying glass. They cause damage in the form of small dots on the leaves from where mites suck plant juices from the underside of leaves. Begin by looking at leaf bottoms, usually mites thrive there. Eggs are spherical white dots. If there are many mites and they are able to weave webs they can be difficult to get rid of.

Spider mites thrive in a dry and warm environment, so the easiest way to control a growing population is to increase humidity. Mist regularly with water, especially below leafs. Keeping the temperature low will reduce their ability to reproduce. Unfortunately, spider mites can remain dormant even in cold temperatures and will resume activity when the temperature rises again.

If you find mites on any plant in your garden it may be best to remove it promptly to avoid infecting the other plants in the garden. Apply a safe insecticide (see information above on insecticides) thoroughly with careful attention to the undersides of leaves. Raise humidity above 80 percent and only then return the plant to the garden. Monitor the plant carefully for a few days. Often simply misting with water and raising the ambient humidity is sufficient.

Alternatively you can utilize predator mites Phytoseiulus persimili as a preventative measure. This will protect your crop through the vegetative phase of your grow only.