Scale...

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The Poet

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Fellow Growers,


I bought Neem oil and sprayed it on my Satori for scale.
I looked at the plants with my glasses on and with a magnifying glass.
Then seeing the extent of the infestation, decided that I would kill the scale on two of the four Satori mothers by fire. I 'scissored two of them up' and threw them in the wood stove.
There... half of my problems are solved and if I can't kill the scale on the remaining two I'll burn them as well.

Satori is a 'scale magnet' compared to Sour Bubble.
Right beside the Satori and totally unaffected...
I'll concentrate on Sour Bubble from now on.


Thank you...


the Poet...


...
 
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Thats a shame. Satori is a special plant
 
Lesso,


Yup, maybe the Neem will work well enough for me to take a few clones


Poet...


...
 
Scale is virtually impossible to kill without a systemic or translaminar insecticide; that is, one which enters the tissue of the plant, either through absorption or uptake into the vascular system.

Regular Neem oil may annoy them, but it won't kill them.... that being said, though...

Another option is AzaMax (azadiracthin) which is actually a highly concentrated form of the active substance in neem oil. It's actually labelled for organic use. I use it to prevent mite outbreaks. It is known to be effective on scale, and it is a systemic.

Before any pest control treatment, scrape off as many of them as you can using your finger or an old toothbrush dipped in rubbing alcohol (like, if you have one an ex left behind, that you haven't used to clean the toilet with already hahaha). An adult bug means it can lay eggs and reproduce so start by cutting down the breeding population.

Systemic insecticides can stay in plant tissue for long periods, so if you use them, it should be during veg only.
Once they go into flower, all you can really do is discourage them from reinfesting. The neem might help with this, but with scale, wellll... they are tough, persistent little buggers, so see if you can get your paws on some azadiracthin to use in veg and up to about week 2 of flower. There are many trade names.

I think you are wise to focus on pest resistant strains as well.

May the Force be with you!
 
You know, this is getting a bit exhausting having to defend the accuracy of posts when you pop in just to tell me (and others- umbra isn't the only one who has noticed, just the only one who has said anything so far) how we're wrong and you're right. It has been a pattern. We tend to be a little more supportive/friendly with our advice than most sites, and I'm trying to say this in the kindest way possible. We all know that there may be many solutions to one problem, and that the correct solution for one's particular problem is often tied to one's personal situation and grow style, so we offer POSSIBILITIES, rather than marching orders. But back to the subject at hand:

Yes. Azadiracthin exhibits both contact and systemic effects. Systemic effects weaken with increased pH in root zone (absorption range aint just for nutrients!) but since we stay below neutral, us pot growers can benefit from both.

See manufacturer's technical sheet for additional info/applications.

Still wanna argue? Go poke around the Oregon agricultural extension library first. And please just try to lay off the contradictory for the sake of it posts... I'm tired of this, dude. I'm just here to grow pot with a supportive community and have a good time.
 
Re: [dirty] edit
That is a translaminar. And it doesn't get far from the application site ; you need to involve the vascular system to get a systemic really truly mobile.
Considering the thickness of the 'skin', which turns to bark in large mature plants, absorption into stem tissue, where scale loves to feed, is negligible.
Again, you need to do your homework better before presenting to the class. This isn't Reddit lol.
I'm off the clock. If you want the last word; please- be my guest. I've got Hot wings and cold beer that require my immediate attention.
Happy Friday!
 
Y'all...


I nuked all 4 of the Satori and after looking real good, the Sour Bubble also had scales! All my plants are gone now.
I intended to do one thing, and that is to kill scale!
I burned everything in the wood stove.

Do scales live on the floor or around ones house?
I must order more seeds but will waiting help?
How about spraying the closets, floors, carpets with peroxide or bleach?
How long does it take for the little critters to starve?


Thank you...


Poet...


...
 
It's not so much the adults you have to worry about now as the possibility of eggs or larvae you didn't catch. Luckily scale doesn't have a flying life stage so they don't get as far, but clean your pots, if you have left over dirt that you might have reached into after touching your plants take it outdoors, vacuum really well, you might consider bug bombing the room (I would for sure), and when you buy new dirt you might even consider getting a different dirt or getting it from a different store since you don't know where the scale came from.
If you have other houseplants, or a garden outdoors, be careful about touching anything in an uncontrolled space before working in your garden.
And your neem oil preventative is good to use before the bugs have a chance to reestablish a population.
I'm so sorry about your plants! You will do great next time. We have all had disasters, and it's so disappointing in the moment but in the long run it's valuable experience and it makes the first crop you harvest taste extra sweet.
 
Miss Stinky...


Thank you for reminding me about 'valuable experience'.
I'm getting a lot of that lately.

Mold, scale, and getting my clones accustomed to dry air.
I was thinking the other day that if I have many more problems to solve
I'll be a genius before long.

Scale is the worst problem I've had lately.
I nuked the living plants and will start cleaning everything else in the morning.
Setting plants outside to take advantage of 'free sun' caused the scale problem.
Cleaning the house and ordering new seeds, then a rest period while I clean the area.
If scale can live 'for weeks' with no food, how long would intake to starve them all to death? One month? Two, three???
I'll start seeds but it may take a month before I get my next disability check.
Two weeks till they come and before I have plants which would attract the attention of the scale, it may be another month, 2.5 months...
starved to death yet???
But as you said eggs... eggs can lay around a long time.
I'll vacuum every day too.
All the soil in the house thrown out.
A bag of brand new soil I planted the scale covered plants in and ,
pulled 5 plants with scale from, in the trash too.

Miss one scale bug, and I'll have to go through this all over again.
Its true... I'm getting 'valuable experience', expensive too!


Thank you...


Poet...


...
 
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Miss Stinky...


Thank you for reminding me about 'valuable experience'.
I'm getting a lot of that lately.

Mold, scale, and getting my clones accustomed to dry air.
I was thinking the other day that if I have many more problems to solve
I'll be a genius before long.

...

We’ve all been there. I once had a mite infestation so bad over several crops, that I had to stop growing for 6 months, clear out the whole house, bug bomb the place 3 times, and still decided to move after I couldn’t get rid of them (was renting at the time) But I learned a lot about pest control and never had that problem again.

Keep learning by trial and error. Sometimes it’s sucks, but eventually you will perfect your ways.
 
You know, this is getting a bit exhausting having to defend the accuracy of posts when you pop in just to tell me (and others- umbra isn't the only one who has noticed, just the only one who has said anything so far) how we're wrong and you're right. It has been a pattern. We tend to be a little more supportive/friendly with our advice than most sites, and I'm trying to say this in the kindest way possible. We all know that there may be many solutions to one problem, and that the correct solution for one's particular problem is often tied to one's personal situation and grow style, so we offer POSSIBILITIES, rather than marching orders.

Still wanna argue? Go poke around the Oregon agricultural extension library first. And please just try to lay off the contradictory for the sake of it posts... I'm tired of this, dude. I'm just here to grow pot with a supportive community and have a good time.

Agreed, especially with someone who still hasn’t shown they have any relevant experience. Only negative posts, no pictures, no proof, nothing really relevant. I just read, chuckle a bit, then move to the next post....
 
25 years growing and was very successful at it, now just personal. 2.5 weeks average veg hitting .8 gpw average gh3 part no additives. That tells you everything.

It says a lot, but doesn’t SHOW anything. .8 GPW means nothing to me. It’s about quality buddy.... just GH three part, tells me a lot lmao

I have more than 25 years experience, doesn’t mean I know more than anyone else. I still take into account everyone’s experience and advice.
 
I just want to say that my experience with pests has taught me that it is all about knowledge. I was told about "The Borg" and how destructive it was and I encountered many other pests as I waited. I met thrips scale white flies caterpillars and much more and finally the borg came and hit hard, and what it taught me is that it is much like the other pests, when you know how it functions, it makes it easy to fight it. With scale, if it infested flowering plants, I would only try to control it until harvest if possible. For vegging plants, I would trim and clean and if it is persistent take out in a vented area and use chloryphos which is a non-systemic chemical pesticide. Throughout my 14 years I used it a handful of times mostly in the first years when I had less knowledge. Nowadays, with the dialed trimming and fast detection, it would be hard for any pest to settle on my plants.
 
In my own grow over the years I've battled (and beaten! Yay!) mites and thrips but it was scale that decimated my genetics collection which at one point was close to 30 mothers . It came in on a plant that someone asked me to hang on to while he moved his grow. I had quarantined it looking for the usual suspects and it didn't even occur to me to look for scale- not even on my radar as a potential pot pest at that time! I ended up breaking down for a couple years as I was doing an intensive apprenticeship anyway and just couldn't put in the garden hours.
In the course of consulting to other growers, I've seen pretty much everything else as well. What it has taught me is to just assume that Nature is out to get ya! Bugs gonna bug, molds gonna mold, and a routine of inspection and prevention is key. But with every disaster you recover from your confidence as a grower improves and that is what we're all here for to keep each other from getting discouraged along the way :)
 
Yup. Azamax / avid rotating for the veg room, dichlorvos emitter in a big cardboard box for quarantining incoming clones, sns244 (which tbqh is mostly stuff I'd put in soup lol) leaf shine & mold prevention up til week 3 bloom. Things stay pretty peaceful and the pests stay out in nature where they belong. I'm also lucky that we only have about a 2 month season where it's super humid, during which I really cut back on what's in the bloom room, though in recent years it has gotten longer.
 

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