jonnynobody
Well-Known Member
About 4 months ago I tried my first soil plant in years. I was pretty excited until I found out the plant was infested with broad mites. It then infected my other plants. I made it through 1 more harvest barely due to the ongoing broad mite battle. The problem has gotten so hopeless as of late I'm tearing everything down tomorrow and starting over in a few weeks after I bomb the room several times followed by 2x 10% bleach spray / wipe down on every surface I can touch.
I've been trying to figure out the source of the infection so I don't have it happen again and I think I've isolated it to my bag of fox farm soil. The reason I'm thinking this is the culprit is because the only plant that was infected in the beginning was the only soil plant I had in the garden. I planned to finish off the plants I had and start over from seed instead of cloning infected plants. Well those plants are now being chopped up and thrown out. I accept broad mites won this war and I hope to never battle them again.
I did end up planting 30 or so seeds starting fresh and clean. I sanitized the nursery tent 2x with 10% bleach solution and never touched the tent after I had been in my flower room on the other side of my basement. The nursery tent was basically a safe zone. No shoes over there and I only checked them in the AM so I would limit any chance of cross contamination from my infected flower room.
Low and behold just as I was feeling better about things I noticed mite damage on several seedlings. Un-fucking-believable was the only thought running through my mind. I clipped a small leaf that looked damaged and it was covered in mite eggs. Top and bottom. Hell there were probably more eggs on top than bottom. Nearly 30 new seedlings with 15+ different strains all had to be trashed. To call what happened devastating would be a big understatement.
This is what leads me to believe the soil is more than likely the source of these fucking mites. As I've watched all my plants die a slow death over the last 4 weeks I've read a lot about spider mites, particularly broad mites. Their eggs overwinter in soil and hatch when environmental conditions are right. I'm wondering if that's what happened to my plants and how common this is with other growers? Anyone else experience these kinds of issues with soil? At this point I'm not taking anymore risk using dirt. I'm using coco exclusively moving forward. Sterile and safe.
Just a last thought here - when I started growing about a decade ago I used soil exclusively for the first 4 grows. While the dope always turned out stellar I got mites every single time. Thankfully they weren't broad mites, but I still battled the little fuckers on each of those cycles. I wasn't running a perpetual garden or anything like that. All grown from seed. It seems like every time I've ever used soil I've gotten some kind of spider mite. For years growing in perlite running hempy buckets I never got mites. I had so few pest problems I didn't even run IPM. I mean none. Then I use soil and yet again I get mites. I appreciate any advice my fellow growers can share on this topic.
I've been trying to figure out the source of the infection so I don't have it happen again and I think I've isolated it to my bag of fox farm soil. The reason I'm thinking this is the culprit is because the only plant that was infected in the beginning was the only soil plant I had in the garden. I planned to finish off the plants I had and start over from seed instead of cloning infected plants. Well those plants are now being chopped up and thrown out. I accept broad mites won this war and I hope to never battle them again.
I did end up planting 30 or so seeds starting fresh and clean. I sanitized the nursery tent 2x with 10% bleach solution and never touched the tent after I had been in my flower room on the other side of my basement. The nursery tent was basically a safe zone. No shoes over there and I only checked them in the AM so I would limit any chance of cross contamination from my infected flower room.
Low and behold just as I was feeling better about things I noticed mite damage on several seedlings. Un-fucking-believable was the only thought running through my mind. I clipped a small leaf that looked damaged and it was covered in mite eggs. Top and bottom. Hell there were probably more eggs on top than bottom. Nearly 30 new seedlings with 15+ different strains all had to be trashed. To call what happened devastating would be a big understatement.
This is what leads me to believe the soil is more than likely the source of these fucking mites. As I've watched all my plants die a slow death over the last 4 weeks I've read a lot about spider mites, particularly broad mites. Their eggs overwinter in soil and hatch when environmental conditions are right. I'm wondering if that's what happened to my plants and how common this is with other growers? Anyone else experience these kinds of issues with soil? At this point I'm not taking anymore risk using dirt. I'm using coco exclusively moving forward. Sterile and safe.
Just a last thought here - when I started growing about a decade ago I used soil exclusively for the first 4 grows. While the dope always turned out stellar I got mites every single time. Thankfully they weren't broad mites, but I still battled the little fuckers on each of those cycles. I wasn't running a perpetual garden or anything like that. All grown from seed. It seems like every time I've ever used soil I've gotten some kind of spider mite. For years growing in perlite running hempy buckets I never got mites. I had so few pest problems I didn't even run IPM. I mean none. Then I use soil and yet again I get mites. I appreciate any advice my fellow growers can share on this topic.
