Aphid takeover

High! I'm new to the forum, am also fairly new in the grow life as well. I've been growing for about 3 years indoor and have a pretty bad aphids problem. I'm running a flood and drain setup. I have 8 lights with 4 plants under each light, about 4 of the tables have leaves shining from the larvae, and aphids all over the plants. What is the best method to defeat this problem and prevent future outbreak?

A couple thousand lady bugs.Best of luck. Id start with a shop vac to suck off the larva,then spray Safers soap by the gallons.Smoke a joint and repeat lol.

Its one of those things,keep fighting or just kill everything and start over.

My thought exactly, been spraying dawn dish soap solution on them and smoking, gonna do it again in about 4 hours

Also, figure out how they got into your garden.

Phattie420 said:

High! I'm new to the forum, am also fairly new in the grow life as well. I've been growing for about 3 years indoor and have a pretty bad aphids problem. I'm running a flood and drain setup. I have 8 lights with 4 plants under each light, about 4 of the tables have leaves shining from the larvae, and aphids all over the plants. What is the best method to defeat this problem and prevent future outbreak?

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Flowering or veg?

I'd be careful with the dawn, castile soap is what I'd use.

Ladybugs won't take care of an infestation. Best they'll do is establish a breeding population and keep the aphid numbers in check. By that I mean you will see the aphid numbers rise and fall according to the ladybug population, which will also go through cycles. Far from a solution, and it actually caused me one main problem; a bunch of the ladybug larvae decided to pupate on my colas!

I finally got rid of aphids by taking the room down to clones, and treating the clones with a castile soap and neem oil solution, both at 1 tbs per gal, until I was sure there were no more aphids.

The major problem is in the flower room, got allot less in veg room. What your saying is im probly screwed unless I clear out all 72 plants and start fresh, or is the aphids problem worth fighting?

Phattie420 said:

The major problem is in the flower room, got allot less in veg room. What your saying is im probly screwed unless I clear out all 72 plants and start fresh, or is the aphids problem worth fighting?

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Well you cant spray anything, so Id remove every leaf all of them. Veg room same thing or take clones and remove the moms.

How far along is flower? Eventually you'll have to cull and clean.People say spider mites are easier to rid.

I have an 8 week cycle, so I pull every week, I have some that are a week away from harvest and some that are only in second or third week of flower, it's pretty much a rotary operation from clone dome to harvest

Aphids are a bitch to fight, they're literally born pregnant. You have to kill every single one or they will come back. Running perpetual is going to make eliminating them difficult. At some point you'll probably want to start fresh.

I'd do multiple controlled releases of green lacewing larvae in the flower room if you want to fight them. Just be prepared to be buying green lacewing eggs on a regular basis.

Your sure their aphids? Running flood and drain do you use h2o2 or bleach ?

myke said:

Your sure their aphids? Running flood and drain do you use h2o2 or bleach ?

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For what?

My flower room

I clean the tables with 99.9 isopropyl alcohol before rotation every week if that is what your referring to

That looks like drain to waste, your in pots with a medium of coco maybe? Ebb and flow or flood and drain is just water and plants in a net pot or similar. Anyway doesn't matter,just checking if it could be root aphids.

I remember reading about how aphids will produce eggs instead of live birth because of daylight hours.So in your case you may have eggs in the flower room?
Do some google and see.
Good luck,

Phattie420 said:

I have an 8 week cycle, so I pull every week, I have some that are a week away from harvest and some that are only in second or third week of flower, it's pretty much a rotary operation from clone dome to harvest

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Start spraying your plants with wettable sulfur @3tbsp/gallon in veg up to week 1 of flower every 7 days. Organic, cheap, and works great. Growers dip their clones in the stuff. It's apparently that effective and gentle even on young plants. This guy uses 4tbsp/gallon but I reduced down to 3tbsp/gallon. I'll try 4 on the next spray on one plant only. If all is well I'll bump up to 4tbsp. I just did my first application yesterday and the plants look great today.

Thanks bro, I was about to trash everything, deep clean and start fresh from seed. I'll try it and see what happens.

Phattie420 said:

Thanks bro, I was about to trash everything, deep clean and start fresh from seed. I'll try it and see what happens.

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Dont get any of that sulphur on buds,no spraying in bud room.It leaves a film on the leaves like a white dust.Id do a test first.Good luck.