New additions to flood table...need help

[CalBear4Life]

If you want you can check out my diary to see where I am now: http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=153392

HYDROPONICS/Aero Ponics/Coco/Soiless/

How long has this problem been going on? 4 days (since transplant into 6" rockwool cubes)
Are you growing in a PVC grow tent? (example: Hydrohut or any other non brand tents) Homemade tent made from pvc for framing and pandafilm liner
What system are you running? (DWC? Ebb flow? Aero? Water Farm? Flood Tables? and so on...) 6x3 flood table
What STRAIN are you growing? 16 Chemdawg D 11 OG Kush
What was the establishing technique? (Were the seed or clone?) Clone in 2" rockwool
What is the age of your plants? not sure...plenty of roots at the bottom of 2" rockwool when purchased 5 days ago
How long have they been in there mixture they are in now?(coco,soiless etc..) transplanted to 6" rockwool 3 days ago and placed on table...flooded with 5.5 ph water for first two days then began using GH 3-part with Cal Mag 2 days ago at 1/5 strength
How tall are the plants? roughly 6" with some variation
What PHASE are the plants in? (seedling, vegetative or flower) are the plants in? Veg
What Technique are you using? Possibly LST later
What substrate/medium are you using?(Hydroton, RockWool etc.) 6" rockwool
What is the Water temperature? 70 degrees (rez heater)
What color are your roots? White? Brown? Are your roots slimy? Haven't reached bottom of rockwool
What Nutrient's are you using?(If growing soiless) GH 3-part at 1/5 strength and CalMag at 1/2 strength
How much of each nutrient are you using with how much water? *Knowing the brand is very helpful*
Grow-140ml/70gal Micro-70ml/70 gal Bloom- 70ml/70 gal
How often are you feeding? (If using soiless) Started at 3 time per dayfor first two days then reduced to once every 2 days since
How often are you giving nutrients? (If using soiless) haven't had to top off yet
If flowering, when did you switch over to using Bloom nutrients?
What order are you mixing your nutrients? (example: veg nutes 1st, bloom 2nd ect) Always Micro first
What is the TDS/EC/PPM you are using? Hanna ph meter (calibrated weekly but seems to become uncalibrated easily)
What is the pH of the "Tank"? 5.6
Are you sure your calibration is correct on your equiptment? My meter seems like it needs to be calibrated too often but I do it almost every time
When was your last watering? Today at 6:30
What is your water temps? 70 deg
When was your last feeding change? (ie. grow-bloom-micro-additional) I used reg water for the first 3 days then completely flushed and drained and added all new water before adding nutes
How often do you clean your system: example: Flush out water replace with clean water and nutrients? weekly
What size bulb are you using? 1000 w MH
What is the distance to the canopy? 4 ft
What is your RH Factor(Relative Humidity)? 55%
What is the canopy temperature? 72 degrees day 62 night
What is the Day/Night Temp? (Include flucutaion range)
What is the current Air Flow? (cfm etc.) 1 18" oscillating fan
Tell us about your ventilation, intake exhaust and when its running and not running ? Vortex venting hood directly outside
Is the fan blowing directly at plants? above
Is your water HARD or SOFT? No
What water are you using? Reverse Osmosis (RO)? Tap? Bottled? Tap water with 60 ppm
Are you using water from a water softener? no
Has plant been recently pruned, cloned off of or pinched no
Have any pest chemicals been used? If so, What and When? no
Are plant's infected with pest's no

 

[jim_browsky]

Good idea to cut back the waterings. When they are that small they
may go even 3-4 days in 4" rockwool without needing water.
Some solutions:
1. Obviously water less frequently, they could only need to be watered every two days until they are flowering, then only once a day.
2. Water by hand from above so not to over water, until roots pop out the bottom.
3. Reduce the time that the table is flooded, like only two minutes.
4. When roots have established, add extra medium in there like hydroton to protect the roots.
5. (And my favorite) Switch to a drip feed line, works well with 4" rockwool.

 

[CalBear4Life]

Good idea to cut back the waterings. When they are that small they
may go even 3-4 days in 4" rockwool without needing water.
Some solutions:
1. Obviously water less frequently, they could only need to be watered every two days until they are flowering, then only once a day.
2. Water by hand from above so not to over water, until roots pop out the bottom.
3. Reduce the time that the table is flooded, like only two minutes.
4. When roots have established, add extra medium in there like hydroton to protect the roots.
5. (And my favorite) Switch to a drip feed line, works well with 4" rockwool.

1. Point taken...reducing watering to once per 3-4 days
2. Will start watering by hand until root exposure
3. I am going to work with my timers to figure out how to make it only flood for about 2 mins
4. I plan on filling the tray with hydroton once roots come through the bottom
5. I wish I could get the drip lines going...maybe next time

Thanks for the help! If anyone else has any ideas then please let me know!!!

 

[Mr. Greengenes]

I see jim got you straightened out here, I just posted the same stuff on your other thread. Looks like things will be improving for you.

 

[CalBear4Life]

I see jim got you straightened out here, I just posted the same stuff on your other thread. Looks like things will be improving for you.

Thanks a lot guys...I will take your advice and put it to use. I will update everyday to make sure I get advice on how to keep on the right track

 

[CalBear4Life]

I put more pictures on my grow-log...please check it out and let me know if you have any further ideas. http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=155251

 

[CalBear4Life]

I've updated my grow-log if anyone was following...in my sig

 

[CalBear4Life]

Plants are back in the infirmary, this time with the dreaded BORG! The plants are in week 2 of veg. There has been evidence of spider mites for about the past week and I just now started spraying. I am using a mixture of neem oil with something called Take Down Garden Spray (.5% Pyrthrins, 89.5% canola oil and 10% inert materials). I also made some tobacco tea from Organic American Spirits loose in order to have alternate treatments. I just thought it would be good to hear what sort of spraying schedule I should use to eradicate these pests? The guy at the hydro store said once every 7 days with the mixed spray, but I think shorter may be better. What do you guys think of alternating my mixed spray and tobacco tea once every 3 days? What sort of ill-effects would, say a 3-day spraying schedule for these products have on the plants? Also, should I try to wipe off or spray off all of the leaves daily to remove excess eggs and product?

Cheers guys!

 

[cyberwax]

never had spider mites myself but there are various remedies for em, just make sure to get it early. There is a sticky about this aswell.

 

[MynameStitch]

neem every 7 days, same with the sprays, alternate if possible. A lot of times not just one rememdy will rid mites.....


sticky strips near the plants will help catch the bastards. Looks like you got the start of an advanced stages too

If you want to get some scotch tape, not the real sticky kind and roll it backwards and go on the underside of the leaves and dab in areas to help reduce the adults.

Since your plants are not big it would help out a ton doing that, just make sure it's not real strong where it breaks leaves or anything, just a lite dab.

 

[CalBear4Life]

neem every 7 days, same with the sprays, alternate if possible. A lot of times not just one rememdy will rid mites.....


sticky strips near the plants will help catch the bastards. Looks like you got the start of an advanced stages too

If you want to get some scotch tape, not the real sticky kind and roll it backwards and go on the underside of the leaves and dab in areas to help reduce the adults.

Since your plants are not big it would help out a ton doing that, just make sure it's not real strong where it breaks leaves or anything, just a lite dab.

I know my infestation must be pretty bad, but there are hardly any adults after the spray last night, and any remaining are not moving. I have searched and everyone seems to have differing opinions on how to take care of spider mites. You don't recommend me using the pyrethrin? only neem? or better to try to alternate these?

I am going to use some tape tonight to try to get as many off my plants as possible and grab some sticky traps for further prevention.

I have heard that it is nearly impossible to get rid of spider mites, should I even bother or just start over and try again?

 

[CalBear4Life]

Red Spidermites

Red Spidermites

I think that I got the red spidermites. I somehow got this picture of one of them through the microscope at 100x. Anything different about the red ones compared to the two-spotted ones? Anyways they are all dead for now. Any of the bodies I see are dead. I sprayed them 3 days ago with tobacco tea and 2 days ago with pyrethrin and neem and I put a No Pest Strip in the room yesterday. Die mofos!

 

[MynameStitch]

The only way it's impossible to rid of mites is when they are resistant to your methods you are using, or they did not keep using the stuff they used to rid of them and the ones that did not die carry on resistance.

You just always want to have more than one method in killing them, alternating is good to do, if you got sticky traps or no pest strips you can keep them near the plant to help rid of them too.

You should rid of them now, just keep up your methods even after you don't see any of them.

 

[CalBear4Life]

Update: The mix of treatments I have been using seem to have made a world of difference. I started with tobacco tea, then hit them with a neem/pyrethrin mix the next day, then I hit them again with the neem/pyrethrin three days later. Here I am the day after the last spray and I do not see any adults whatsoever, but I haven't checked the leaves with the microscope for eggs (the Radioshack microscope is kind of a piece). They'll be back though, they always COME BACK. I am going to pick up some Azamax today as most people seem to say that it is amazing. I have been keeping my temps at 65 degrees to inhibit the mites, I am taking every possible precaution, seems to be the only way! I will update until these things are gone...thanks for the help!

 

[CalBear4Life]

Update: I was looking through a microscope at one of the leaves I pruned and I can see hundreds of eggs. The treatments that I am using have completely eradicated the adults, but the next generation is just about to hatch. I think the No Pest strips are what is most effective, but the neem/pyrethrin mix must have had some effects as well.

My question is: Should I go immediately and buy Floramite? If so, will it kill the eggs? Or should I wait til they hatch and just kill them then so that they cannot reproduce?