They might be Springtails, and they are not bad. They are part of the composting ecosystem. They only eat decomposed foods and fungi and not your plants. Perfectly harmless. Here is a good read on them: https://thesquirmfirm.com/little-white-bugs-worm-compost/
Are these the guys that show up when I put fruit in my worm bin? I'm setting up a worm bin in my outdoor area that is just for watermelon rinds, berries, and all that sweet stuff that the predatory mites like. The first time that I saw that in my WormFactory 360, I threw the tray on the ground. I know better now lol...
Don't worry about the bugs, that only ones that are a real problem are gnats because they eat roots. I get gnats so often that I just have to keep mosquito dunks in my water, best if you let them sit in water for more than 24 hours...
Probably.
Not springtails, although I did have them too for a while.. seems like the springtails are gone for the most part, which I'm assuming is the work of the mites
If they are the mites that @PadawanWarrior is talking about, they are a little more aggressive than I thought. I was screening some worm castings and I came across some bugs like june bugs that had mites on them. The mites were in a bunch and they were eating the bug, I don't if it died first or if the mites killed it but they are active(I agree that they killed the springtails). I think that they will eat worms too, but they shouldn't bother the plants. It's like an added benefit of using organic soil, free predatory mites. One way to remember which are good/bad, the predatory mites are fast movers and the bad mites are slow.
Heres my springtails popping everywhere lol https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VRlnI3VDaaKBX1jAfYiD-ptU8ddEar7c/view?usp=sharing
This is good info for sure! I was thinking that 50gal was too big, but I couldn't think of a reason why.
I cant really give you the reason why, bc I never stuck around messing with them long enough to find out, but I think it really just holds too much volume of water at the bottom for the way this system works
I'm currently rocking these Earthboxes, but they will probably go inside of tents this winter when I don't have to use A/C to cool them. I have a built room in my garage with a mini-split, but it's starting to feel small. So, I bought a couple of 4x8 tents for this winter and I already wired another 220v outlet. I'm pushing to get my act together and get a commercial license along with a greenhouse in my backyard, like a 20'x60' hoop house. I'm rattling on now. These are Dynasty Seeds Pineapple Fields and StarDuster. This is my first run with them, so I don't know what to expect.
I had Malibu compost soil tested and I liked that it had low P availability, because that has been my problem when making my own compost. What I don't like about it is that it is high in salt and low in Mn, but it's still pretty balanced. I usually make my own, but I just planted my first outdoor pots this year and I used all of my leaf mold on it. https://www.rollitup.org/t/soil-test-results-for-happy-frog-and-malibu-compost.1008194/
I didn't realize that you were a Okla-homie lol... How are those Ethos seeds doing for you, I planned on checking them out soon!
I've found a few that are awesome, but as for cow compost yes I think it's the best
I just used worm castings only to reamend my old soil for this Leonardo run because I couldnt find shit for compost at the time but I originally made that soil with Bu's. I made up some new soil for the Temple Kush and I'll be using Coast of Maine Lobster Compost...also had to grab their kelp meal so we'll see how that goes, its a lot finer than the Down to Earth, Espoma, and Neptunes Harvest kelp I'm used to...the Coast of Maine kelp is a lot more fine like a kelp flour.
How much water to expanded EM1 do you use to water with ?
Go on EM1 website, they have a chart: