Pests or am I too rough with LST? Etc

I did some trimming today. Zero issues on the sister plant that hasn’t been touched with trimmers or LST methods but this one started having holes in leaves when I started LST. There have been a few gnats flying around the light so I killed them and started keeping the tent zipped closed. She is in coco and perlite in a cloth bag. Just in case it’s pests I ordered some Neem oil spray and it will arrive Saturday. I’m planning on being more precise and gentle with LST as well. Hoping someone can diagnosis so I can be confident I’m headed in the right direction or they can point me in a better direction.

I get little rips like those and I tend to think that they're either from the ends of pipe cleaners or from my using a wooden chop stick to tuck some of the more crowded leaves away. I've not had any major issues so I haven't been too concerned when I see it. I should probably switch to using cotton swabs for leaf tucking but I hate to give up on the pipe cleaners since they're cheap and the multiple colors makes it easy to see what's tied where.

Got any houseflies around? Bottle flies will rip a leaf like that.

hang some sticky tape for flies in your tent by the light (where they tend to hang out) that'll help... you could also consider companion plants on your next grow. I will be planting clovers and peppermint in my tent along side my girls... peppermint is known to deter pests and insects plus it helps to mask the smell of flowering a little

TropiKanna said:

hang some sticky tape for flies in your tent by the light (where they tend to hang out) that'll help... you could also consider companion plants on your next grow. I will be planting clovers and peppermint in my tent along side my girls... peppermint is known to deter pests and insects plus it helps to mask the smell of flowering a little

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Great idea. I ran a single peppermint plant in my tent this grow and it seems to have helped very much. The biggest pests I have are flies, and they don’t like it. It’s also giant now.

Cinco said:

Great idea. I ran a single peppermint plant in my tent this grow and it seems to have helped very much. The biggest pests I have are flies, and they don’t like it. It’s also giant now.

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Try planting white clovers in your medium with your plant! It will slowly release nitrogen to the plant as needed! Def look into growing companion plants in your space... its super beneficial and can mean free pest management as well as free nutrients! I use living soil so all I do is add water! But I use SoHum Living Soil... its expensive as shit but it won best soil in High Times and considering i dont have to buy nutrients other than maybe worm castings or tea so the cost of the living soil versus nutrients balances itself out

Cinco said:

Great idea. I ran a single peppermint plant in my tent this grow and it seems to have helped very much. The biggest pests I have are flies, and they don’t like it. It’s also giant now.

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Yeah i read that mint plants should not be placed in your grow space until the cannabis is substantially bigger than the mint plants. Mint plants become invasive and grow faster... and is good to keep them 10-20cm away from the cannabis plants... ill even place a couple on the outside edges of the tent to prevent pests from even coming in at all! Plus they are a great house plant and when they get to big you chop em down and make pepper.int tea with the leaves... can even make cannbis peppermint tea with everything left over!