I’ve got bad news. Every cannabis grower is going to deal with spider mites at some point. When you get them the first time, the novice grower panics and sprays something—anything, regardless of the stage of the plants in the garden. Instead, here are some tips to keep from having to use and/or misuse toxic pesticides.
How to prevent spider mites
If you don’t have spider mites on your cannabis plants, then congratulations. The first step to preventing spider mites is not getting them. Now this may not be what you want to hear if spider mites are chewing their way through your precious cannabis, but there is hope! These seven steps will keep you from getting them again and again. After all, one way you may have got spider mites in the first place is that you brought them in yourself.
Spider mite cannabis recipe (delicious)
- Keep other cannabis plants outside your grow space mite free or just get rid of them. Keep your grow room clean and don’t allows pets near your plants.
- Wear clean clothes that haven’t been outside on in another friends grow room or around pets.
- Keep other growers out of your grow room.
- Take your shoes off outside of your grow room.
- Quarantine new cuttings before you bring them into your grow room.
- If your cuttings look clean, spray or dip them anyways every three days with an organic oil-based miticide.
- In a clean room, you should still spray weekly as a preventative measure, focusing on the bottom of the leaves and the lower half of the plant.
How to deal with spider mites
If you spot them during vegetative stage of your cannabis harvest or early flower, then you are in luck.
- Get high and pluck off every leaf that shows speckling and remove them from the grow area. That physically removes most of them off your plants. You will notice they a start at the bottom of the plants, so just remove all bottom growth.
- If your cannabis plants are small you can dip them in an organic oil based miticide. Dipping gives better coverage and coverage is key. If they are too big to dip, spray thoroughly focusing on the underside of the leaves.
- Repeat your dip/spray every three days to kill any eggs that hatch for 12 days. This will ensure there are no remaining eggs hatch.
- Go back to weekly preventative sprays up to week two of flower.
