riffraff8
Member
Hi,
I've got some issues I'm trying to fight off with my ladies on an indoor grow, so I picked up a bottle of Essentria IC3. This stuff is supposed to be an all natural bed bug killer, but doubles as a great plant treatment from what I'm told (by the bottle instructions, and by lots of people online specifically referring to our plant of choice). It said to mix it up relatively weak as a preventative (1oz / gal) or much stronger (5oz / gal) to actively fight something. I think the suggestion for the broad mites I'm fighting was somewhere in between. (they're the borg, I know this stuff isn't gonna put any kind of permanent end to the problem) I used ~2.5 oz / gallon, though I guess I should have used 1oz or less.
Here's what happened:
I sprayed this on the leaves of about 8 small flowering plants in my flower tent. They're small because they went straight into flower after a week of veg, so I grow SoG style with small plants. I also sprays my 5 mothers that I take clones from in a veg closet. Finally, I sprayed 8 clones which I had taken recently from the mothers, and which had just showed signs of rooting a couple days prior.
I then turned the lights back on in my flower box, but left them off in veg areas (mothers and clones) for a couple hours to let the plants dry. In hindsight, I should have left the 600w flowering light off as well, thought it might not have made too much difference since I didn't test the stuff on one plant before going ham on all of them.
Within a couple hours I came back, and 5 of the flowering plants in the tent were covered in rust-colored spots. I wish I had a picture, it happened really quick and much moreso on the top leaves. Clearly either the IC3, or the IC3 with a hot light on top right after. So I check the veg plants...
Same thing on all 5 mothers, including one strain I don't know the origin of, but I'd love to keep her spectacular genes! Orange rust spots. Same on the 8 clones as well. Within hours the spots turn black, curl, die, and leave crunchy black leaves in their wake. It destroyed large sections of every plant sprayed, and I had to kill 8-10 of them by the next day. There just wasn't enough undamaged leaf surface left to save, especially on the smaller plants. Luckily, there's green still showing on all 5 mothers, and I think with a lot of time and careful patience, I can save them. The one of unknown origin but spectacular genes has about 3 tiny leaves left after I cut off all the dead black burned leaves. And all the leaves I cut off were 75% of more black, crunchy, and clearly of no more use to the plant.
It's been a sad couple of days in the grow room to say the least. Not only am I fighting broad mites, but something I thought might slow the infestation down a little backfired and bit me in the ass! So my question is... what gives? Yea, I made the stuff up medium strength and not the weakest they recommended. But I don't think I made it any stronger than they suggest for broad mites, possibly even weaker. They say you can pour it on plants, and I don't see anything crazy listed on the ingredients. So why did plants with both direct light on wet sprayed leaves, and wet leaves left in the dark, all turn rust-colored, shrivel up, die, and turn black and crunchy? I've never seen such a fast death of so many of my plants before. Do people use this stuff? If so, how?
I've got some issues I'm trying to fight off with my ladies on an indoor grow, so I picked up a bottle of Essentria IC3. This stuff is supposed to be an all natural bed bug killer, but doubles as a great plant treatment from what I'm told (by the bottle instructions, and by lots of people online specifically referring to our plant of choice). It said to mix it up relatively weak as a preventative (1oz / gal) or much stronger (5oz / gal) to actively fight something. I think the suggestion for the broad mites I'm fighting was somewhere in between. (they're the borg, I know this stuff isn't gonna put any kind of permanent end to the problem) I used ~2.5 oz / gallon, though I guess I should have used 1oz or less.
Here's what happened:
I sprayed this on the leaves of about 8 small flowering plants in my flower tent. They're small because they went straight into flower after a week of veg, so I grow SoG style with small plants. I also sprays my 5 mothers that I take clones from in a veg closet. Finally, I sprayed 8 clones which I had taken recently from the mothers, and which had just showed signs of rooting a couple days prior.
I then turned the lights back on in my flower box, but left them off in veg areas (mothers and clones) for a couple hours to let the plants dry. In hindsight, I should have left the 600w flowering light off as well, thought it might not have made too much difference since I didn't test the stuff on one plant before going ham on all of them.
Within a couple hours I came back, and 5 of the flowering plants in the tent were covered in rust-colored spots. I wish I had a picture, it happened really quick and much moreso on the top leaves. Clearly either the IC3, or the IC3 with a hot light on top right after. So I check the veg plants...
Same thing on all 5 mothers, including one strain I don't know the origin of, but I'd love to keep her spectacular genes! Orange rust spots. Same on the 8 clones as well. Within hours the spots turn black, curl, die, and leave crunchy black leaves in their wake. It destroyed large sections of every plant sprayed, and I had to kill 8-10 of them by the next day. There just wasn't enough undamaged leaf surface left to save, especially on the smaller plants. Luckily, there's green still showing on all 5 mothers, and I think with a lot of time and careful patience, I can save them. The one of unknown origin but spectacular genes has about 3 tiny leaves left after I cut off all the dead black burned leaves. And all the leaves I cut off were 75% of more black, crunchy, and clearly of no more use to the plant.
It's been a sad couple of days in the grow room to say the least. Not only am I fighting broad mites, but something I thought might slow the infestation down a little backfired and bit me in the ass! So my question is... what gives? Yea, I made the stuff up medium strength and not the weakest they recommended. But I don't think I made it any stronger than they suggest for broad mites, possibly even weaker. They say you can pour it on plants, and I don't see anything crazy listed on the ingredients. So why did plants with both direct light on wet sprayed leaves, and wet leaves left in the dark, all turn rust-colored, shrivel up, die, and turn black and crunchy? I've never seen such a fast death of so many of my plants before. Do people use this stuff? If so, how?
Last edited:
