I don't claim to be an expert in the field but gaining some experience over 40 years has taught me some things that work for me, maybe they'll help you at least a little.
The most organic pesticide I have found is plain old water. I should clarify, the best matricide is water. The spider mite explodes as it absorbs the liquid. Make sure to get the undersides of the leaves very well and the stem areas also. I have a hand held pump sprayer I use with a worm tea mixture. Don't spray cold water let it set out before mixing (if you’re going to flora feed also) otherwise you could end up with leaf spotting. I turn my fan away until they are dry. I give them a gentle shake to get a little excess water off. Because of the egg laying cycle of the mite I try to follow some sort of 3 sprays within a 4 day period, usually 2 days of spray and a day off followed by another on the fourth day. I have also found myself in the sad condition of webbing all over flowering plants 2 weeks from harvest, most resort to a loss of crop or use a pesticide at whatever toxicity level? In an effort to remove a heavily infested plant from those yet to harvest I took it to
the shower and left it there to dispose of later. The year before I had 2 Blue Dream that were transplants a foot tall. It was April and I thought if they survived maybe the bugs wouldn't. We had rain, wind, seasonal temps for April (I did set them under a glass table for frost protection). Mother Nature worked her way and I harvested those in the fall after transplanting them that May. So I thought what the heck so I took the hand held and gave her the 4 day treatment and it worked. Looking for bugs on sample leaves with a magnifier how's only exploded carcasses. After the shower the second day the webbing seemed to dissolve away too, nice. I did make sure the water was not hot or tap cold, and while my spray was thorough and drenching it was not high pressure. I got everywhere under the leaves especially. If you don't stake your plants you will want to here, they have a tendency to fall over. A gentle shake drops of the excess water. Leave it there if you can for the
4 days, believe me your not loosing THAT much in harvest weight being away from normal grow light. I do try to adhere to the same light cycle even if just using the bath light switch. Try it out once and see if it works. Happy Harvesting,
A Friend of the Friend
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