Spray During Flowing?

I have a couple of questions about spraying the plants when feeding and watering.

During the vegetative growth I thought it was a good idea to spray the plants down after watering. I would wait till the sun would stop shinning on them and rinse them off. I thought it helped keep bugs off and made the plant work out by holding up more weight.

Now that the plants are flowering... I was wondering if spraying them would knock off the trichromes? I have a thrip infestation and neem oil sprays isn't seeming to help much. I put nematodes in the soil so knocking off the bugs is nice. I am not too worried about mold because we get decent breezes and the plants are cleaned up pretty well. I also have most of the bigger branches and the stalks staked up with bamboo.

I water every other day. And feed the plants every other watering. When I feed the plants I make a tea with molasses, fox farm bloom, and fox farm tiger bloom.

Should I continue to lightly spray down the trees or just water them only directly in the soil? Is it better to feed nutrients directly in the soil, directly on the plant, or both?

Those are some fairly large plants!. My first thought upon reading is that you may be over watering, yet they look OK. I tend to water thoroughly only once per week. Spraying them will help with the thrips, but I have a few better alternatives listed below. I recommend starting with the aluminum foil trick along with removal of infected leaves.

Predators: Ladybugs and green lacewings, both the larvae and adults will feast on thrips. Good guy nematodes that naturally live in the soil will mine into thrips, reproducing there and releasing a bacteria that kills them.

* Keep your plants properly watered and mist them if you can, thrips hate moisture.
* A sulfur dust can control them.
* Spray plants with neem oil in the morning 2 times 3 days apart.
* To foil thrips: flatten a square of aluminum foil around the base of plants to bounce light on the undersides of leaves. This also helps the plants in giving them more light.
* Try garlic or onion sprays.
* If you can apply a thick organic mulch in the very early spring it will help to prevent the adults from emerging
* Thrips are attracted to flowers which are light in color- yellow, white, pastels etc.
* Spray with insecticidal soap every 3 days diligently for 2 weeks.
* A pyrethrum/rotenone organic spray will nail thrips as a last resort(careful here, not within 3 weeks of harvesting).
* For fall control/prevention cultivate the soil around your plants to a depth of 2 inches and do it once again in the following spring.
* Destroy infected leaves but don't compost them. Throw them out.

Damn Thrips.... Nuke em' all.

Sweet thanks for the info sun. I will have to try the neem oil sprays in the morning. I have been doing them in the late afternoon and only a couple times a month.

Can thrips ruin a crop if they are present? Last time I checked there was about 10-20 bugs per branch on every plant in the garden. Do you think a neem oil spray would kill the nematodes also?

I have been feeding the plants by mixing organic nutrients into the soil when watering. Think I should also foliar feed them? They are about 5 weeks into flowering.

Hi AD,

Thrips can ruin a crop in the same fashion mites do, but generally don't unless it's very early in the season when food sources are scarcer. Also, those plants of yours appear to be very leafy. I'm actually going out today to trim mine, you may wish to do the same. I've done foliar feeding in the past, but only during vegetative state using a fairly high nitrogen mix. Then come late July, I generally use a granule time-release higher in phosphorous to promote pistil growth. IMO, it's a waste of time to foliar feed this late in the game b/c much of the plant is becoming covered in oil which obviously is an H2O repellent.

Also, you can spray the plants with straight white vinegar. It's organic and bugs hate it. I know it works on spider mites, not sure about thrips though.

neem will affect the taste of the buds, be careful

I sometimes want to prune the plant so the lower and inner buds get more sun light. But I heard that hurts the plant more than it helps. I usually try not to pull off any green healthy leaves. I like to keep my plants leafy. I heard that the leaves are like solar panels for the plants energy. So the more solar panels the better. If I see any bug damaged or yellow leaves I will usually pull them right away though.

I have heard that you can use neem oil a few days before harvest. I am not sure if it effects how your bud taste or not though...