Spider Mite Problem

Insects usually attack plants with low health/high stress. This may have been caused by heavy defoliation which lowers the plants ability to produce energy, which causes a stressed metabolism, which can lead to increased risk of insect predation. Using old soil will bring the risk of all sorts of potential problems, including insects, as many of them will shelter in the soil while waiting for a new plant to feed upon. Seeds can only be produced by pollen and can not be caused by any sort of stress, mild or severe. The fact you did not find any bananas does not mean there weren't any, otherwise you would not have seeds. Seeds produced from flowers that are stress and have produced bananas during flowering will perpetuate a strain with a predisposition of always having plants that will grow bananas during flowering. Continuing to breed with seeds made this way will eventually result in acclimatized plants that are weedy, inbred and reverting back to hemp, rather than growing into psychoactive cannabis. It is prudent, if you are serious about breeding, to use only pollen from pure male plants for any breeding experiments. Also breeding with females that grow bananas will prove genetically inferior. Only pure females and males should ever be used for breeding. Seeds produced with banana forming females are not feminised and can be either male or female, depending all on luck. At the late stage of flowering that your plant was, leaving the spider mites alone and leaving the plant with her leaves was probably the lesser of two evils, for even badly damaged leaves will still produce some energy for the plant. Now that she has so many fewer leaves means a huge reduction in energy availability, meaning she is even more susceptible to further insect attack and the associated damage. With all her leaves she would pull through, but with the reduced amount of leaves from defoliation, the insects will feed more heavily on what is left, causing greater damage than had there been more leaves to feed upon. Anyway, my suggestions - make sure to scrub your tent thoroughly before next use and always use new substrate and pots cleaned with water with 5% bleach added and air dry them, preferably in the sun, for a few days before reusing for planting. Always use pure male and female plants for breeding, using hermaphrodites will lead to weedy hemp and not psychoactive cannabis. Defoliation is a bad concept in my opinion, no plant gets rid of its own healthy green leaves for no reason or biological benefit. Leaf removal only reduces a plants capacity to produce energy, leading to smaller/weaker/slower growth. Only remove yellow leaves and do not leave any fallen leaves on the ground or surface of the pots, this just invites insects and fungal attack. Use an 18/6 hour light/dark cycle, this is the optimal schedule for cannabis, obviously reducing it to 12/12 if growing photoperiod plants. Seedlings do not need "humidity domes" or other such contraptions, they need free air exchange, as do seeds while waiting for germination. Only clones/cuttings need enhanced humidity because they have no roots at first. Go easy on the nutrients, it is very easy to correct a slight under feeding but very hard to rescue an over fed and badly burnt plant. Do not be afraid to deep water, roots get to the bottom of the pot very quickly and shallow watering just next to the stem is pointless. Buy the best lights you can afford, you can't grow killer buds with a desk lamp! Hope this helps,......... Organoman.