My SO has worked for a very large (indoor) commercial grow operation for the past year.
@Griffin, you are correct - I have met several owners of these types of operations, and I wouldn't
trust any of them as far as I can throw them, including the one he works at. Many are just a bunch of
get-rich-quick schemers. A used-car salesman mentality, if you will
The pot end of it has been fine, quality plants, grown properly with no misrepresentation as far as whether
it is organic or not and that kind of thing,and all the required testing has been on the up and up.
It's the way the employees are treated that is the problem -- The owner is forever complaining about all of them,
constantly looking for reasons not to pay them, pitting them against each other, cutting hours as punishment and fostering an all-over environment
filled with negativity. I have never seen such an unprofessional work environment.
Many owners of these grow operations have no experience with pot other than smoking it. They have to rely on the expertise
of their employees and that brings a multitude of problems, especially when those employees are treated well to begin
with.
It's the way the employees are treated that is the problem -- The owner is forever complaining about all of them,
constantly looking for reasons not to pay them, pitting them against each other, cutting hours as punishment and fostering an all-over environment
filled with negativity. I have never seen such an unprofessional work environment.
Many owners of these grow operations have no experience with pot other than smoking it. They have to rely on the expertise
of their employees and that brings a multitude of problems, especially when those employees are treated well to begin
with.
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As far as mildew goes, hands down the most effective treatment/preventative I've ever used is milk. Yep, plain milk.
Dilute it 30% milk - 70% water and spray all the leaves, making sure you hit both sides. The lowest fat milk has been found to work the best, like
either !% or skim.....but unfortunately, once your plants are heavily infested with mildew, there isn't much you can do.
Many benefits to using milk as opposed to chemicals -- It is organic, cheap, convenient, and it provides some degree of foliar feeding. It has been widely tested
and found to be equally, if not more effective than sulfur treatment. There is a lot of information available online on the subject.
You can spray your plants once a day and the mildew will be gone almost immediately.
I spray all my plants prophylactically about every 3 days, especially in the spring and fall (which seems to be prime time for mildew where I live).
They tried the ladybug solution in two of the warehouses at the "farm", with limited sucess. They were expensive (like $15 for a little mesh bag of them) and
after about a week they had mostly disappeared, followed by the return of whatever bugs they were trying to kill. Personally, I use neem oil for bugs.