Need help! Budworms, Mold -- harvest now?

[hydra-glide]

but a good caterpillar prevention method I discovered is paper wasps

imo, people are better-off using chemicals over "natural methods" or soaps. Too much time is wasted chasing bugs. Cuts into family time, which sometimes causes problems, and domino's into strife. All because of mites, aphids, grasshoppa's, etc. No way are a bunch o' bugs going to enter, run, and ruin my life!..... I'll.... I'll... Kill them with bi-layer and systemic poisons - and be on my merry way!
If you use those professional farm pesticides then you'll need these:
Organic Vapor mask:
https://smile.amazon.com/3M-Disposable-Respirator-Respiratory-Protection/dp/B007QY8WX0/ref=sr_1_cc_3?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1538171896&sr=1-3-catcorr&keywords=organic+vapor+face+masks
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That's not alot of equipment for the job it's doing for your plants, imo. Stress-free growing.
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PPE Suit:
https://smile.amazon.com/DuPont-Protective-Coverall-Disposable-Elastic/dp/B0008F4HNS/ref=pd_sbs_328_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0008F4HNS&pd_rd_r=f08154c0-c369-11e8-a709-598374602c47&pd_rd_w=Q8nit&pd_rd_wg=oGHHX&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=0bb14103-7f67-4c21-9b0b-31f42dc047e7&pf_rd_r=PAPGRHMXSRE85A53NC0Y&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=PAPGRHMXSRE85A53NC0Y
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9mil Nitrile Gloves:
https://www.harborfreight.com/9-mil-nitrile-powder-free-gloves-50-pc-x-large-68512.html
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1-gal. Spray Bottle:
Get a couple. And make sure the handle locks in place. Some don't and when shaken (like with Cease, continually) the handle will unfasten and the bottle will drop till it stops. No good. Keep your receipt and at least one of the HDX boxes, so you can take it back for another one. They're the best as long as the handle stays put.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-1-Gal-Sprayer-1501HDX/207202420

 

[ANC]

Mites also don't like wind, so a fan will slow them down

I think it fucks with their reproduction if I remember correctly.

 

[Miyagismokes]

imo, people are better-off using chemicals over "natural methods" or soaps. Too much time is wasted chasing bugs. Cuts into family time, which sometimes causes problems, and domino's into strife. All because of mites, aphids, grasshoppa's, etc. No way are a bunch o' bugs going to enter, run, and ruin my life!..... I'll.... I'll... Kill them!

I'm on a little larger scale, so any effort savers are good. The wasps like the eaves of my shed, and I just didn't bother to kill them off. Instead of me chasing caterpillars, they do it for me now.
But at this scale there's a certain amount of acceptable loss, and caterpillars have never been that severe in my area. Even without my guardian wasps, I did nothing for caterpillars other than peel them out when I see one.
If I lose a cola to a caterpillar, whatever, I have scores more.

 

[hydra-glide]

caterpillar

Moths & caterpillars go hand in hand with bud-rot, imo. I've broken-open bud-rot buds and found caterpillar(s) nesting in the muck. Those get tossed asap.
We're going get some weather from hurricane Rosa by Monday. I'm chopping the ripe ones Sunday night if this storm stays on track.

 

[Chunky Stool]

Moths & caterpillars go hand in hand with bud-rot, imo. I've broken-open bud-rot buds and found caterpillar(s) nesting in the muck. Those get tossed asap.
We're going get some weather from hurricane Rosa by Monday. I'm chopping the ripe ones Sunday night if this storm stays on track.

I'm going to chop a few tomorrow morning.

 

[madininagyal]

Hi All,

This is only my second time growing and first time outdoors... and well, my poor girls are getting massacred by bud worms.



Basically I have 11 girls on my deck (live in SoCal) that I planted in May from a bunch of random seeds I found in herb I bought and expected some of them to come out male so i'd end up with 5-6 through flowering but all of them ended up female. Anyways everything was going great despite a little more work than I hoped for until I left to go on vacation in August for 10 days and I come back to finding a couple worms... only to read online about them and quickly realized I had like hundreds of these fuckers.

I did the things I read to do... bought BT, started spraying.. even bought a giant 20x100 afgani bug net to literally close off my entire freaking deck from these death savage moths.

However it is now getting to be mid 60's at night and any areas where the flowers were bitten or pooped on by the budworms are rapidly turning into black mold that seemingly is spreading insanely fast for past 2 days. I had ripped out any super poopy peices and any all the tops that started dying from these fuckers (literally about 2 ounces worth of bud ripped off already)

-- attached are some pictures showing the moldy pieces forming- especially where the stems were bit open by those deathworms.

Do I just harvest the plants now to salvage whatever I can now? Some are close to ready for harvest but others look like need another 2-3 weeks... I mean i guess I'd rather have some non moldy bud that is less potent vs a shit ton of moldy bs??

On top of that, now I seem to be getting little fucking mites and white flies up in there now that i finally got mostly a hold on the worms.

This has been a nightmare experience and I will definitely learn from it to be preventative in the future but just trying to save what I can as this was like 2 LBs of pot, and its quickly going to turn into like a couple ounces of clean smokable pot which crushes me with how much money and time i spent.

Pic 1 and 3 can be saved but number got mold, spiderweb and spidermite shit in them, harvest the rest

 

[Brendan311]

If there's any sugar leaves, or buds remaining intact that are "brown rot" (early-stage bud-rot, a foul, black bubbling of the sugar leaves seen through a 60x loupe) that is impossible to smoke without gagging on the tobacco-like inhale. You can however take this worthless collection of trichomes and make superior ice-water bubble hash without the bad taste. I've made at least 37g's of the stuff as a test for a neighbor with a pile of it on his hands, using 250g's of de-stemmed bud and leaf. The best tip I have discovered it to use alot of half-moon ice cubes inside the 220-zippered bag for extracting the most trichs from what you have.

^ so glad you mentioned this as I was just telling my wife my plan is to hack it all tonight and this weekend and make 3 buckets (1) Trash - clearly bad stuff (2) hash/edibles - stuff not trashed but looks like it might have slight amount of mold (3) smokeable (for the only clean shit).

I have never made bubble hash but always wanted to, so curious if you got any links with more details on making it. I am not even sure what you mean by 220 zipped bag lol. I thought you just buy dry ice and like rub the buds on it and when the ice melts to gas all that is left is the trichomes (i.e. hash). but i never really dug into it and i bet if i googled it see 10 dif ways to do it

 

[Brendan311]

I probably say this too much, but a good caterpillar prevention method I discovered is paper wasps.
You look like you're in the burbs, so that's probably not a good option....

you know whats funny? Before I closed off the deck with afghani bug net, there totally was a few wasps flying around the flowers looking for worms to eat and it was glorious. never been so happy to see hornets haha normally afraid of being stinged.

Its too late now, but definitely going to get some predators next year (praying mantus, wasps or i saw this special fly that eats worms online too).

 

[hydra-glide]

I have never made bubble hash but always wanted to, so curious if you got any links with more details on making it. I am not even sure what you mean by 220 zipped bag lol.

I had a Thread called BubbleMan Hash or some sort in 2017, that runs it all down. Don't buy any thing until I find the Thread. For sure you want BubbleMan's mesh bags. I'll link to a kit you'll need.
The machine and 220 zippered bag: But get the MESH bags not vinyl sided ones, imo
https://www.bubblebagdude.co/