Possible spider mites or thrips.. not sure which.. Week 6 flower

Can't really tell which it is, and thankfully I've caught it early on, and it's not really affecting too many branches (Lower small ones only).

Here's some pictures of some problem leaves I cut off, and keep in mind I have been treating with Safer Soap & Neem Oil, so the problem seems to have slowed down, if not fully stopped. I also have some mosquito dunks, in case it is thrips (Unless it helps with spider mites? Not sure) If anyone can help identify it, it would be greatly appreciated

Edit: There aren't any webs that I see on any of my plants

Get yourself a jeweler's loupe. It's too small to see in these shots.

Webs aren't visible til they really get a hold of your plant, your soap and neem oil treatment seems to be holding them at bay for now..thrips are alot bigger than spider mites, they like to cluster on underside of leaf, easily seen with the naked eye. their egg clusters are also quite a giveaway.

that looks like Thrip slime (white drieds slimey patches with black dots- that is their poo) .. look under leaves by the veins.. you may see a small worm looking thing .. But what you want to do is kill the larvae in the soil as well as on the plant... if you don't they will come back... add water treated with Mosquito dunks for about 3 -4 waters... should kill the larvae( it tricks them they are full, they won't suck on your roots and they will die)

Thrips climb up the stalk and then go on the leaves and then drop their eggs into the dirt from the leaves.... treat the soil.. then cover it with foil or paper to prevent that.. then use neem oil and yellow tape if you have any mature ones in there.

Will be doing the mosquito dunks, though it's probably too late to do it 3-4 more times, considering this is an 8 week strain and I'm almost into week 7. The Neem Oil & Safer Soap seems to be combating whatever it is, though only time will tell if it's working. Was going to make a few home remedies, to keep it switched up though, in case it is spider mites, so that they don't become immune to the methods I've been using.

smokedherb420 said:

I'm almost into week 7. The Neem Oil & Safer Soap seems to be combating whatever it is

Click to expand...

Duuuude i wouldnt use neem in flower. ( leaves nasty taste imo ) .... i switch to azamax if i have any trouble in flower. Btw that looks like mite damage, but its hard to see from the pics. azamax should put most in there place.

Managed to figure out it was Thrips. Hasn't really been affecting any of the new ones I've started. Didn't notice a weird taste on that last crop from the neem honestly.. though the thrips problem wasn't on buds, so I wasn't really spraying the buds (to the best of my ability)

Looks like spidermites, is the room over 80?

Room is at 70-74 with lights on, 63-65 with lights off. Still not FULLY sure what they are yet now, since they're still on my plants. Guess we'll know for sure after these soil plants come down and I move to a full DWC grow. Still haven't seen any actual webbing, and have had this problem through the whole grow, sporadically spraying with neem oil. Temps have been constant, RH is around 50%. Here's another few pictures of a recent leaf. Undersides does have little black spots I can kind of see moving around, with 60x-100x microscope, I can see little stalks (that kinda look like Trichomes) black dots that aren't moving, and some little bugs that move kinda quickly. Kind of the whole reason of my being unable to identify them.

Found some tiny little webbing starting to form on some leaves.. Amusingly, tomorrow is chopping date, and there's barely any webbing anywhere. I dunno what's been holding them back, but seriously, they don't look like they've diminished any of the crop at all.

Update: Getting a Big Blue Ozonator to throw on my intake in about 2 1/2 weeks, and got SNS217 & a sprayer with a wand in the mean time to take care of the problem on my hydro plants that are still going strong (doing perpetual MMJ grow). Gonna pull all the plants out of the room during lights on, pull up plastic on floor, vacuum, lay down new poly plastic (2 layers, clear on bottom, then white/black, white facing up), and then leave the plants out for an hour once I have the ozonator to let that run to kill anything inside, bring plants back in, and spray with SNS217 on the plants to make sure I get everything. Then as I said, throwing it on the intake, to kill any spidermites/Powdery mildew spores that may try to come in that way. Sound like a good plan to get rid of this problem permanently?