A bit of bad news to report--some of the dreaded borg v2.0 have appeared .... hemp russet mites. They do not make webs, and are so tiny they are difficult to see, and their damage is also harder to spot than normal mites. They have been making inroads to Oregon from Northern Cali over the last several years. Apparently, they like to ensconce themselves inside the buds as they suck the life out of host plants.
How they got here, well, I have my suspicions...a few weeks ago I was taken by a friend to an outdoor grow location. It is possible they were harboring an infestation even without being aware of it as they are much harder to see. Whether this was the vector or not is sort of unimportant at this point, but I likely picked some up onto shoes or clothes or whatever, and now here they are.
Mostly, they were on Amber's lower fans. I did quite a bit of defoliation today on all three, only finding some few mites here and there and a few fans that had several juveniles and egg deposits.
At this point in the grow, being about 3 weeks from likely harvest, there seems little I'd want to do or spray. I won't use any fogger or hot shots on my meds, don't even really want to spray anything "natural" either that I can think of. I called around for predator insects, and the recommended species is called amblysieus swirskii. It is a smaller mite for the smaller target russets. They are hard to get on short notice though, and by the time I could get them established it's already harvest time. I guess just defoliate/inspect with rigor over the next days and coast the plants to the finish line. At this point they are minimal but I have to keep checking for eggy leaves and such to keep them at bay.
I was planning to break from the growing for a time anyway, so timing will be good for deep cleaning here at the end and will use more preventative in the future, there is neem in the soil but will use that as a spray as well, rotate with nuke em (a natural spray) , and perhaps other systemics next grow cycle. These are difficult to eradicate, may use predators early in the next grow as well.
Any of you other Oregon/Cali growers with additional experiences, information, or product knowledge ... your comments are greatly appreciated.
Fortunately the situation is low-level at the moment, but I'll need to deploy more countermeasures in the future I'm sure.