do you have aphids in your grow room well in this video you're going to learn how to identify them
what to look for and how to get rid of them you're here with mark bowell at perfectgardens.com please
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know so before i go any further i just want to show you real quick how to identify them this is
the clear sign of it pay attention to it because this is how it's going to show up in your plants
your leaves are going to be folding over kind of like in a taco shape but downward versus upward
and you're going to be seeing more curling on the leaves so as you can see this right here
it's a it's a nice little curl and then it's a concave downward for the leaves so as you
can see right here it's going long ways but also side to side this is going to be how you know you
have aphids in your grow room so let's go ahead and get into the rest aphids come in different
sizes and colors sometimes they can be reddish to pink yellowish to green orange purple to reddish
brown and black aphids really aren't the easiest to get rid of they actually have a short-term
predatory defense and a long-term residual and i'll get into what i mean by that aphids will
release a pheromone to stop predator bugs if that doesn't stop the predators they'll get assistance
ants milk aphids for the sugary substance that they secrete from their anus i know it doesn't
sound too pretty but that's their relationship in exchange the aphids will produce honeydew and in
this exchange the ants produce protection if that isn't banned the honeydew will actually turn into
a mold fungus which will end turning into black mold on your plants aphids do not need a male to
reproduce so from one single aphid you can get an infestation a generation of aphids is produced by
one single aphid and what i mean by that is an aphid that produces life and nymphs will
carry developing embryos with that said a female can sustain embryos in her ovaries and even her
daughter will already have her granddaughters this is called telescoping of generations in different
areas aphids can be known as green flies plant lice ant cows and many others so just be aware
depending upon where you're at in the world they will have a different name a lot of aphids are
picky in their food so it's really interesting all these different eighth grades are actually like
different crops so it's not just like one green aphid likes all of them you have the pink one the
orange one each of them kind of being attracted to different terpenes of different plants out there
if all that isn't bad enough aphids transmit vectors so what that means is the aphids will
actually transmit plant diseases from one plant to other as they're sticking their needle into it
aphids have tube shaped structures that disperse nutrients and synthesize food
throughout a plant so this is actually how they are not just sucking out the sap but they're also
transmitting diseases as well as they're also transmitting diseases through toxic saliva
the saliva is actually what creates the yellowing and the curving of the leaves so that earlier
picture i showed you that's caused by the saliva of the aphids so why do aphids like your plants
it is because they don't produce their own amino acids and what they have to do is they have to
take the sap from the plants to the chlorophyll and because aphids produce their own bacteria
through the process of taking the sap and them having their own bacteria it produces coenzymes
or amino acids which allows the aphids to mature fully without this co-relationship
aphids would not mature if that wasn't bad enough aphids also have wings so they can go
from one plant to the next plant transmitting diseases obviously through this process
there's going to be a reduction of nutrients throughout your plant we already talked about this
the mold that is produced by the honeydew will produce black mold and that's not what you want
your makes your whole product go bad and really there's only a few things that will actually make
your product trash and will instantly take into extraction even extractors won't want
to deal with it because it's a hazardous product at that point because of mold spores if they care
aphids really are those types of bikes that can really destroy your complete return your
investment other bugs are more forgiving so i'm going to talk about the least invasive way to
get rid of them to the most invasive way so the least invasive way to start off with is just to
pay attention to your plants check the underside of the leaves obviously you're not going to check
all the leaves look for that curling all the aphids normally start i see it every time on
one leaf and if you can just get to that one leaf that one plant and defolia it before it spreads
and creates the infestation you're going to get rid of all your aphids they always start on just
one leaf you turn that one leaf around and dislike hundreds of them and if you could just get rid of
this one leaf all of your infestation infestations going to be gone in many situations next thing
is pay attention to ant colonies are there ants traveling in your plants if there is then there's
a good chance that there's going to be aphids check for honeydew sometimes you can mistake
it as possibly being a snail once again look for the curling and the twisting of the leaves
obviously the reason why i'm recommending to go a natural way versus a pesticide way first
is because like you already know dangerous synthesized chemicals essentially when used
around cops that ultimately will be in your kitchen or in your lungs is not good it also shuts
down your microbiology and if you're spending hundreds or thousands of dollars in a microbiology
direction why put a pesticide onto your crop that's only going to piss all that money away
so once again right microbiology is in line in my directions if you could solve your problem
in a natural manner i would highly suggest you do that before you go into the other direction i've
always found that aphids like synthetic fertilizer especially the lower quality synthetic fertilizer
we've talked about nitrogen fertilizer a lot so i won't get too heavily into it but i have shown
you in my past video the natural pathway nitrogen is absorbed in the chemical compounds from the sky
down to the earth and how it's recollected if you don't have those types of nitrogens in your soil
and you have other types of nitrogens there's a really good chance you're going to see an aphid
infestation that's not always the case aphids also really love weeds so if you're in an area like the
middle of a field and you have a lot of weeds you might want to create a barrier of five feet around
your entire greenhouse five to ten feet around your greenhouse or just remove all the weeds
within a certain area so that the aphids are hanging out on your weeds aren't getting onto your
crop so there's actually plants that naturally repel aphids like these four right here obviously
growing natural plants that repel when you're growing commercially or in large crops don't
really work out but if you're growing in a garden you only have a couple plants you're
growing in a greenhouse you have your tomato plants and your lettuce and leaves and all
all that sort this would be a great way to get rid of your aphids because obviously you're growing in
a more biodynamically alive garden if you're growing a little more commercialized and kind
of only growing one crop ladybugs actually love aphids green lacewing larva parasitic wasp soldier
beaters and this specific type of fungus acts as a parasite for soft body insects including aphids
you can use diot tenacious earth dashing nature's earth is a microscopic little seashells that as a
ants crawl over it they get cut up and die that's also a very natural way to take care of it you can
put it on the tops of your crop and that will actually be calcium for your plants as well so
that's another way you can take care of aphids monitoring weed population so we already talked
about that clearing out a section of your weeds if it's around a greenhouse or outdoors protector
covers actually work pretty well i when i use protective covers i'm actually using a shade cloth
over my entire greenhouse and i live in colorado and i am dealing with leaf hoppers grasshoppers
aphids spider mites rodents rabbits and a few other things besides mold obviously white flies
and gnats those are all the pests i deal with just in my little garden and the shade cloth removes 60
of those pests and that's yeah it kind of hurts my yield a little bit but overall i'm able to
bring in a crop that's super healthy without using anything like a pesticide or fungicide now we're
going to get a little more intense if you see a plant that has an infestation you might want to
just remove the plant altogether or completely defan or prune the plant once again look for
winged aphids because they're going to be hopping from plant to plant to plant and i've actually
seen where aphids will jump on the backs of the winged aphids and transport to other areas or
they'll jump on the backs of a bee and travel on that bee or beetle and then as the beetle shakes
the aphid off it ends up going to the rest of your plants a little bit more mechanical control
you can rub the bottom of the leaves it's kind of a little disgusting because they squish on your
leaves you can also get a wet cloth and rub them off other types of organic insecticides that you
can use to control aphids before you get into heavier intense pesticides are neem oil castile
soap marigold cow urine garlic cloves cinnamon and you can even create a garlic aphid spray
last but not least you have the harsher chemicals like this like perithium the as a dur der ansching
which is azomax and these other ones that will come up in different brand names can also be
used to control your aphids don't look for the brand name turn the bottle around and look for the
actual name of the chemical that they're putting into their products guys aphids are not fun
the most expensive crop i ever lost in my entire life was due to rude aphids and i battled them
and battled them and battled them and they just never went away good luck guys we got about two
and a half three more months in this growing season so let's go ahead and get out there pay
attention to the plants and get rid of these problems so we can bring in a successful crop
thank you so much please remember to like share and subscribe have a great grow everyone over the
years i've actually changed my technique instead of clipping the leaves i just give more space for
the clones i don't cram in 50 clones even if there's 50 plugs i will put in 35 or 30 clones