The one thing I remind all of our gardeners to do, is to spray Bt on the plants as they go into flower. That’s it! No other pest or disease presentation is required for 90% of our growers, and you are saving yourself from bud rot in the Fall when you harvest.
What is Bt?
In short, Bt is a soil dwelling bacterium that you should spray on your plants, it is available at every garden shop I’ve ever been in, by tons of different companies, and you just follow the directions. It is also OMRI listed, so safe for organic gardening.
Bt stands for Bacillus Thuringiensis, and whatever spray you have is formulated to work great on your plants.
example product here
When to Spray
I like to spray last week of July/first week of August. Your plans will start flowering around now, and that is what attracts the white moths to lay their eggs. The white moths land just in the flowering parts, lay eggs, those eggs turn into caterpillars weeks later and eat their way out of your dense bud. This leads to bud rot.
I spray my plants 1-2 times, others spray every week in August, it’s really up to you.
How to Spray
This is not Febreeze. You do not spritz it everywhere in your garden. Just apply the spray to the flowering parts of the Cannabis plants, and you are good to go. It takes so little product to prevent so much damage in the Fall!
What about all the other butterflies?
Bt will take out the larvae of butterflies as well. The trick is to not Febreeze your garden, just spray the flowering plants. We have many gardens successfully stewarding Monarchs on their milkweed plants in the same garden as their Cannabis and they report no ill effects.