6 ft. tall and starting to show preflowers..

so here is the start of the damage on my big Armageddon as you can see from the above pic, the hole in the stem is on this plant and its already droopy The thing that scares me is that these "worms" are inside the stem and this insecticidal soap isn't going to phase them, any thoughts on this? Also you can see my wall of dust to keep those damn crawlers outta here and also I wont be having a problem with mice falling in my rain water buckets and dying anymore as you can see I put screens over the top of them. Thanks for your support guys.

AKRevo47 said:

wow! nothing like some beautiful plants soaking up the sun! good work

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Thanks bro, there are a few bumps in the road right now, but things always have a way of working out (knocks on wood) lol

Any thoughts on the "worm" and whether or not it will be affected by the spray if it is inside the stem?

wow nice plants. sucks about the bugs. i would think its some kind of borer beetle. did you actually see a worm or something? you may want to cut off the dead part and split the stem open to see whats inside.

volcomrider157 said:

Any thoughts on the "worm" and whether or not it will be affected by the spray if it is inside the stem?

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ok here's what I know from my hydro dealer, he said that some type of nute he sells, duluted for soil will detour bugs from infestation, inside and out, but the shit was unbelievable expensive, so I just handle it my way, pick off any critters that are viewable and use neem oil, soap and water to keep them off. the hotter it gets outside the worse the problem gets. stay on top of them..... they're to sweet looking to let them bastard get em!

floridasucks said:

wow nice plants. sucks about the bugs. i would think its some kind of borer beetle. did you actually see a worm or something? you may want to cut off the dead part and split the stem open to see whats inside.

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Well you could be right, it could be a beetle, I don't know what it is, I haven't seen it at all because whatever it is it must spend most of its time eating inside the stem. good call on the cutting open the stem, I'm gonna do that later today, that one is dead to the point of no return anyway. The leaves are already crusty dry. makes me wonder if its still in there even. I hope it is because then at least I'll know what I'm dealing with here. Other than that after I sprayed with insecticidal soap yesterday I was checking em out earlier and there isn't any bugs crawling around on them at all.

if you find something in the stem make sure to burn that bitch or something.

try supercropping the tops once in a while, im trying out compost tea as a foliar spray ( i hear it does a lot of good)
dont let them get too wet or too dry your on the right road my friend!

plantsinpants said:

try supercropping the tops once in a while, im trying out compost tea as a foliar spray ( i hear it does a lot of good)
dont let them get too wet or too dry your on the right road my friend!

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Subscribed, really interested in finding out what's drilling your ladies.

They were looking quite nice and it's suck to see such wonderful ladies never fully develope.

Best of luck.

do u see ants crawling round the stem they can be a nuisence they carry other pest like aphids with them...

I have some excellents pictures of a similar problem but cannot seem to upload, this is the third time I've had problems loading images, bummer, will try to troubleshoot, anyway these damn bugs seem to bore a perfect hole in the stalk, I've had this problem with only one plant this year, and I've seen the bastard, black and shaped with its head taperring of into a slender body, the first time a saw it it was raining and he'd pop in and out, I wanted to poke the little devil but I did not have anything pointy with me, I checked on Friday, a week later, and the larvae or whatever had spewed eggs all over the stalk, my plant was stunted and will make a comeback but I have no idea on how that thing (or its mother) bored a hole into the stalk! We'll try to week the uploading proble, out ASAP...

Great looking plants dude! I'm pretty jealous! haha. Thats a great spot too, looks pretty nice and secluded and very well lit. How many weeks into growing are you? Are you using the soil that was already there or did you dig it up and put your own in?

cbtwohundread said:

do u see ants crawling round the stem they can be a nuisence they carry other pest like aphids with them...

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No ants in sight...

stoopy said:

I have some excellents pictures of a similar problem but cannot seem to upload, this is the third time I've had problems loading images, bummer, will try to troubleshoot, anyway these damn bugs seem to bore a perfect hole in the stalk, I've had this problem with only one plant this year, and I've seen the bastard, black and shaped with its head taperring of into a slender body, the first time a saw it it was raining and he'd pop in and out, I wanted to poke the little devil but I did not have anything pointy with me, I checked on Friday, a week later, and the larvae or whatever had spewed eggs all over the stalk, my plant was stunted and will make a comeback but I have no idea on how that thing (or its mother) bored a hole into the stalk! We'll try to week the uploading proble, out ASAP...

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Well keep trying to upload as I'm sure you saw in my pic it is indeed a perfectly circle little hole, I have seen no larva of any kind nor have I seen the bastard that's doing all the drilling but there is either more than one or its moving on to other areas because there is three holes I have found between two plants thus far. only thing I have noticed about the holes is that there seems to be either plant shavings or poop around the holes like little brown shreds, by product of what ever this is....? at least you saw your problem, I'm going to visit my patches later and hopefully I see that fucker, Im gonna burn that bitch.

did you open the dead stem?

smokeymcbongwater said:

Great looking plants dude! I'm pretty jealous! haha. Thats a great spot too, looks pretty nice and secluded and very well lit. How many weeks into growing are you? Are you using the soil that was already there or did you dig it up and put your own in?

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Im using the soil god provided. Its much easier plus I can get away with it around here because where I am at has some of the best fertile soil In the state. Yea Im very pleased with my spot thank you

thanks for keeping up guys I'll be back later this evening with an update and more pictures.

floridasucks said:

did you open the dead stem?

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Oh yea, no I didn't get a chance to yesterday but I plan to later today, I'll take pics.

BREAKING NEWS!!!! I have identified my pest. It is called the "Stalk Borer" and let this be a message to all outdoor growers, apparently they come from tall grass. I have tall Bromegrass surrounding my patches and they are known to be found in bromegrass. I wont go into all the details about them as you can search it yourself but they start in the grass and work their way to other larger plants later in life, and they only move at night. I have a list of insecticides that destroy these things but none of which I would use on my plants so I'll get one and spray all the grass in my surrounding areas. Here are the pics that led to my discovery...my camera sucks and cant see things close up but I guess it gives you a rough idea of what I'm dealing with here.
As you can see the first pic the the hollowed out stem. the 2nd pic you can see the difference in the stem good part (left side) and bad part (hollowed out) and in the 3rd pic there is the stalk borer, I killed it accidentally when I sliced the stem down the center but its there. If you look up the stalk borer you will see better pics of what it really looks like.

hah i knew it would be in there! is it like a beetle or what?