Best way to keep spidermites out!

[dazza]

After a few cycles of having pesky spidermites cause havoc in my growroom and damage my plants, i decided to do a little research.

I had read a lot about companion planting so i decided to give it a try. I planted two bulbs of garlic in each pot(50l) with my babies and kept a close eye on them. After a few days i spotted a few mites(i had found a few outside in the herb garden)and decided not to spray with anything but to leave it and see if the garlic worked. A week or so later there were no littlle rascals to be seen. That was about 7 weeks ago and my babies are a few weeks away from harvest and i still have not seen one mite since..... bloody marvelous!! Garlic takes up no room at all and can be either transplanted afterwards or used in any other way. There are no more mites in the herb garden either as i planted about 25 cloves amongst the herbs. If you are having problems keeping the critters out, give it a try- it definately works!

[Guest weekprik]

Thanks for the tip,

would dried garlic hung in a nylon stocking thing work, or does it have to be living growing garlic??

Ive got a few mites that are hanging on pretty good ;(

[Mr Nice Guy]

Garlic hey, Sounds better them spraying my plants with chemicals... Thanks for the tip mate!

[dazza]

Dunno weekprik, might be worth a try. When i tried it i was so sure that it was a myth and that it wasn't going to work i was blown away with the results. I literally lost my last crop to spraying Pyrethrum a few times as after each good spraying the plants looked worse(unhealthy and almost burned). I ended up with not too much bud(which wasn't too tasty) with a few empty Pyrethrum sprayers and a large elecrticity bill!!! I ended up going to a good greengrocer and asking him for the strongest Garlic he had, which turned out to be pretty small cloves with a purplish tinge. I wouldn't reccommend using Russian Garlic(large cloves which grow very slowly) as it isn't too strong. I sprouted the cloves in my clone box(in a small beaker of water/nutes) and planted them in the 50l pots with the babies. They don't take up much room whatsoever and do not have an invasive root system so they do not affect the babies. This has proven itself outdoors with my vege garden which used to have mites and now has none whatsoever, and i have heaps of garlic growing in luvley organic soil!

There is two things i hate, one is bugs and the other is using toxins to kill the bugs, so i was stoked when after a week or two i saw the mites dissappear(literally). Apparently mites hate garlic and that is why Pyrethrum now has a garlic additive(which by the way i tried and it never worked.)

So depending on your cycle and how far you are in to it, plunk a few cloves in the pot with the babies and see how you go! Otherwise on your next cycle give it a try. I rekon at least one clove per plant or two/three per 50l pot.

Death to the spidermites!!(without chemicals)

respect

[Mr Nice Guy]

Ever thought of making a garlic juice sort of thing?

Could just wizz it up in food proccesor add a bit of water... might work?

 

Prob easyier to jsut grow a few plants

[dazza]

Sorry, another thing is it is always good to give homemade sprays a go. There are heaps of ingredients you can use, antything strong such as garlic, tobacco, chili, lemon etc. Always add a soap base as a "wetting" agent to help it stick. One thing to remember is NOT to boil it all up in a pot on the stove as heat breaks down their compositions. Check any good growers guides or websites for homemade sprays.

respect

[dazza]

It can only be worth a try nr nice guy(good ring to that!)

I rekon anything is worth a try when it comes to using toxins!

respect