Harvesting with mites (yes, again)

[pho]

Hey guys, I've definitely done lots of searching and have probably spent a hundred or more hours reading these forums. Please disregard the post count.

I have terrible mites I underestimated and am closing in on harvest. I've heard that hanging the plant upside down is the best remedy when harvesting. I've purged big fan leaves and had to defoliate in order to minimize their attack. It has worked well but being so deep in flower and having grow room problems made it very difficult.

I have a good Danby dehumidifier with climate control and will aim to set the humidity to 50% RH and the temp to ~70 degrees f. Is this correct? I wanted to blast the room with cold air for a while hoping to kill or slow down some of the mites. Is this recommended or will it slow their migration to the tips of the plant?


I plan on following the guides here and allowing them to dry for 4-5 days (that's about how long it took last time when my room was unfinished and I had to pull out early), bagging them and closely monitoring the humidity and then jarring them and burping them.

Can people here provide some tips and best practices? I'll be closely inspecting jars for webs and whatnot. I really want to know if hitting my ladies with a cold blast will hurt. Trichomes are clouding up so I'm about to give a 48 hour cold period and flushing with water and Florakleen, then just straight water a couple more times. Cheers!

tl;dr version:

- Got mites, wanna know if I can hit the room with a cold blast and try killing/slowing the fuckers down
- Gonna to hang entire plants as there's few leaves and a small amount of foliage, wanting to confirm that a bit of a slower dry will be appropriate to avoid making hay
- Just looking for any tips to make sure I don't wake up to jars full of mite infesting bunk... friend just cropped out his OG Kush and gave me an 1/8th... absolutely amazing. Hoping mine is as good as his

 

[Phillthy]

cold air wont stop mites. they can over winter. hit all your plants with azamax then harvest a day later. azamax will make a dent in the live mite population and can be used up to the day of harvest.

 

[Madrus Rose]

Hey guys

I have terrible mites I underestimated and am closing in on harvest. I've heard that hanging the plant upside down is the best remedy when harvesting. I've purged big fan leaves and had to defoliate in order to minimize their attack. It has worked well but being so deep in flower and having grow room problems made it very difficult.

An oz of prevention earlier on is such the easier way , hmmm ? (two dips with floramite etc from clone the again right before xplant & into flower ) But this has happened to everyone . You can cup the bigger leaves & tip the plant over & spray up from underneath & avoid coating most of the flowersets if done carefully ....and from underneath !

The idea of hanging the plants upside down only works if the plant is chopped , not still growing . The deal is , once branches are cut or whole plant is chopped & hung, the water pressure (turgidity) inside the leaves is cut off & wilting occurs . This is a universal signal to all mites to scram & their instinct is to climb upwards to the top of the plant since their food source is no longer there . Suppose its their way of hopping a ride on the breeze to the next plant . ( Ticks also do this , climb to the top of a blade of grass & wait for some animal to come along & hop/grab on )

On mited plants chopped & hung , millions of mites literally head for the top of the cut branches to form a ball which i've witnessed many times. A good thing for most 99% of the mites vacate the flowers this way & few left behind . In a few days they are dead of starvation entirely up at the butt of the hanging branch.

Who knows tho , never tried it myself ,
hang a whole growing plant upside down for
a night & report back to us !

lol....doubt it will do anything tho.

 

[SOTF420]

And get a blowtorch and a camera

 

[turtle farmer]

SNS-217 is organic and can be used up to day of harvest--very effective
I've seen it wipe mites out very efficiently on all stages of infestation
my ace in the hole if I see mites in flowering or near harvest--- just my opinion...peace

 

[supermanlives]

snap crackle and pop there goes another mite LOL. i tend to find most mites on leaves not buds till its bad. they dont taste that bad. i have harvested quite a few mildly infested plants and never new the difference when toked.

 

[Blueshark]

Still, given the choice, I would prefer a mite free smoke. I use Azatrol (Azamax) and have had good success. They are next to impossible to eradicate. That's why we call them the "Borg"....good luck

 

[pho]

Thanks, guys. Giving 36 hours of darkness right now. About 24 hours to go and I'll be coming home to cut and hang them. Will take a vacuum to those cock suckers too.

Between grows I'll rewire everything and do mods. Would have loved to do a perpetual grow but all in good time. Cheers.

 

[CIJohnny]

Sorry to hear of your misfortune-been there myself. I tossed a crop of 5 plants, 7 weeks into flower before I knew what to look for. In the mean time I ruined another crop spraying AzaMax in early flower. Then I ruined the next crop by spraying SNS 217. By ruined I mean that it affected the taste and since I grow for quality I won't do it again. This crop I dunked my plants in AzaMax when well rooted and again 2-3 weeks later, if no symptoms, followed by Avid at the flip to 12s. I will not treat with any oil product (whether neem or rosemary), past mid veg. I've read about people treating later, but my experience was negative. I also spray alot of H2O in veg and do regular inspections. I think that AzaMax and SNS 217 are both effective in early veg! I'm in week 8 now with good results with the systemic effects of the Avid, but hate to resort to chems. Good Luck!

 

[pho]

Chopped 'er all down tonight. My bud kept telling me how beautiful it looks so I guess I'll need to post bud shots once it's trimmed and manicured. I was really depressed over the mites but maybe it's not as bad as I thought.

Grew out of control and didn't train or SCROG them because it's my second run and I don't know anything about this strain. It's OG Kush and my other buddy harvested already. We'll see how she smokes soon enough. Pulled some buds early to water cure too. Thanks again, everyone.

 

[pho]

Nervous smoke report - it's good!

Did a few quick puffs with some early pickings alone the way. Obviously knew it wouldn't be anything to stash, but nice to kill the curiosity. Smokes really nice. Dried out a little faster and the stems were bendy around days 4-5. But the buds dried out a little bit quicker and the RH in my jars sits around 50%.

Thinking I'll just keep it around there and possibly rehydrate it just a touch. I know people feel that after it dries out that it never cures again. Perhaps that's true. However I've done this with bagged, relatively fresh buds and there was still a great improvement. I'd be content with taking any continued improvement as far as curing is concerned.

High is kicking in strong. Feels like it's going to be awesome for migraines. And it's really loosened up my body and I was able to stretch and crack some annoying joints. I can also hardly formulate sentences despite being a 100 WPM typist who can write a novel without looking at the computer screen even once lol

Cheers and good vibes. I'm too baked to be on the computer right now

 

[hippydan]

Nervous smoke report - it's good!

Cheers and good vibes. I'm too baked to be on the computer right now

Very glad to hear everything worked out great for you so far! The Borg can be beat!

 

[pho]

Thanks again. Checked my buds and still no signs of mites. Looks like the vast majority of them did actually migrate after. Some of my plants suffered a little but not as bad as I had thought.. whew!!

Everything is smoking well too. That air freshener was left in the room when it was about 70% humidity and I couldn't put my dehumidifier in there (electrical is shit!! Rewiring with a professional before next run). With humidity that high my scrubbers weren't able to do their job and despite having a very clean, very well developed grow room I couldn't get to the back of the plants.

Instead of 8 waterfarms I'm going to run 6 next time and I'll SCROG it as originally planned. I'll grow fucking monsters, have a dehumidifier going and I'll have perfect plants. A few puffs of this shit almost wrecks even 30+ old smokers like my dad. My brothers helped with my "taste tests" and felt too fucked up to drive home! LOL


I have to say that I love this site. For years I've always hunted triple AAA buds and thought there's no reason to smoke anything but medicinal grade. This is great for my migraines but I'll optimize my room before growing again, locate a few different strains that are good for my needs (migraines, including nausea, ocular pressure and body aches) and we'll post a grow log to try giving back to the community. My first time from start to finish with no outside help, other than from my dad who helped with ongoing construction and tweaks. Just followed the shit online and grew magnificent, magical plants which smoke like a dream despite the plethora of problems I had along the way. I can't imagine what it'll be like once I grow again with little to no problems!!

 

[¿kama3]

you have to manually eliminate them, with two sponges and green soap, ju simply put the contaminated leaves in between the two sponges and clean them of spidermite and eggs.
worked on me

 

[B. Friendly]

what the hell,
if i have mites and are chopping down the next day why the !@#$ would you spray. like that makes a difference. it will put something in your smoke that can't get out, spray.

so if you are a few days away don't do nada. just do the hang upside down thing. they'll fall out

if you are a week away and it's webbing you got then maybe spray. a Spinosad product will work and it's organic and cheap as hell and ok to spray in the last week.

safe'ist spray is 2x your H2O2 dilution and use as a foliar spray, 100% safe and like hitting em with acid. also have the ph at 8 mites hate a high ph. do this when the lights are off...

 

[TRONIC187]

Ever seen a pound of weed that looks like an ant hill? i have gross, spray that. you dont want your stash looking like an ant hill after you chop it down.

 

[krunchbubble]

safe'ist spray is 2x your H2O2 dilution and use as a foliar spray, 100% safe and like hitting em with acid. also have the ph at 8 mites hate a high ph. do this when the lights are off...

very good advice!

also, if the mites are really bad and webbing on the top of buds, you can grab a shop vac and vac them off.
will get rid of 75% of the mites, do a H202 spray and your golden.....

 

[Rednick]

Don't spray Aza in late flower!

 

[Midnight]

Thanks again. Checked my buds and still no signs of mites. Looks like the vast majority of them did actually migrate after. Some of my plants suffered a little but not as bad as I had thought.. whew!!

Everything is smoking well too. That air freshener was left in the room when it was about 70% humidity and I couldn't put my dehumidifier in there (electrical is shit!! Rewiring with a professional before next run). With humidity that high my scrubbers weren't able to do their job and despite having a very clean, very well developed grow room I couldn't get to the back of the plants.

Instead of 8 waterfarms I'm going to run 6 next time and I'll SCROG it as originally planned. I'll grow fucking monsters, have a dehumidifier going and I'll have perfect plants. A few puffs of this shit almost wrecks even 30+ old smokers like my dad. My brothers helped with my "taste tests" and felt too fucked up to drive home! LOL


I have to say that I love this site. For years I've always hunted triple AAA buds and thought there's no reason to smoke anything but medicinal grade. This is great for my migraines but I'll optimize my room before growing again, locate a few different strains that are good for my needs (migraines, including nausea, ocular pressure and body aches) and we'll post a grow log to try giving back to the community. My first time from start to finish with no outside help, other than from my dad who helped with ongoing construction and tweaks. Just followed the shit online and grew magnificent, magical plants which smoke like a dream despite the plethora of problems I had along the way. I can't imagine what it'll be like once I grow again with little to no problems!!

That's fantastic man, just make sure that you super clean your room before the next run to get rid of the mites. Mites are some hard fucks to get rid of. After you super clean it, super clean it at least three more times just for good measure.