How do I get rid of gnats

getogrow

getogrow

Well-Known Member
MICHI-CAN said:
Kills beneficial microbes. I totaled a few plants and witnessed many more from neem oil in the soil. I use a spray. Or did. I use @xtsho based mix now.
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His very simple advice is how i got rid of mites. That was a thread i started about mixing neem oil. What kind of mix are you guys running now ?
 
getogrow

getogrow

Well-Known Member
Hollatchaboy said:
Good to know. I thought you could use a silicate like agsil for an emulsifier? I mixed the neem with the soap and water, but I was nervous to spray my plants. Also how does it kill larvae if you spray on the leaves only, is it systemic?
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When they eat it....if they eat it, then it fucks with their reproduction system. It dont really work on contact BUT the soap does. The soap will kill the stuff it comes in contact with by smothering them.
15ml of dish soap per gallon of water , 2 or 3 times in a week might be too strong but a regular few mls of dish soap per gallon can be used every other day if you really need it.
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
getogrow said:
When they eat it....if they eat it, then it fucks with their reproduction system. It dont really work on contact BUT the soap does. The soap will kill the stuff it comes in contact with by smothering them.
15ml of dish soap per gallon of water , 2 or 3 times in a week might be too strong but a regular few mls of dish soap per gallon can be used every other day if you really need it.
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Ok and the soap doesn't kill the bennies?
 
TintEastwood

TintEastwood

Well-Known Member
What they said.

Stickies for fliers.
BTi in your feed water.
2 weeks. Gone. coco with fabric pots.

I like to soak a couple dunks in a gallon jug of feed. Shake occasionally. Overnight.
Strain out any micro crap with a coffee filter - Then add it to my RES.
Then, my Coco is basted with BTi on ever feed.
 
tstick

tstick

Well-Known Member
I just haven't personally experienced a big difference between living soil or hydro grown weed in my 47+ years of growing and smoking. If it's well done, either technique will produce excellent weed. What I am trying to work out is a way to grow as if I am doing a soil grow, (except without all the bad bugs that come along with the good bugs). The next thing that happens is that the indoor environment becomes dirtier and more pest-ridden than it would if it had just been grown outdoors to begin with and usually end up chasing the pests down with some bad chemical anyway! I'd rather have good chemicals in a dead soil than I would to have bad pests and bad chemicals. H2O2 is basically water with an extra oxygen attached to it -not any residual effect. It all breaks down almost immediately.
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
tstick said:
I just haven't personally experienced a big difference between living soil or hydro grown weed in my 47+ years of growing and smoking. If it's well done, either technique will produce excellent weed. What I am trying to work out is a way to grow as if I am doing a soil grow, (except without all the bad bugs that come along with the good bugs). The next thing that happens is that the indoor environment becomes dirtier and more pest-ridden than it would if it had just been grown outdoors to begin with and usually end up chasing the pests down with some bad chemical anyway! I'd rather have good chemicals in a dead soil than I would to have bad pests and bad chemicals. H2O2 is basically water with an extra oxygen attached to it -not any residual effect. It all breaks down almost immediately.
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You say not a big difference, but a difference none the less? Which one in your opinion is better? Hydro is great. I started in hydro. It's a PITA though. Always monitoring, measuring nutes, air and water pumps going out, res temps. I swear I aged a couple years from the stress. Lol.... organics is more relaxing. Just these damn gnats! Lol
 
tstick

tstick

Well-Known Member
Well I guess my point is that there isn't a detectable difference in the quality of the marijuana with either method. Well-done hydro is as good as well-done soil and shitty hydro is just as bad as poorly done soil. I personally think the living soil indoors thing is great in concept, but, in practice, you get all the bugs and then you have to deal with them....and it just becomes a never ending circle. By the time everything is said and done, the living soil plants get treated with neem oil, pyrethrins, sprayed with soap, diatomaceous earth and dunked in mosquito killer. I think the idea of living soil is best applied to outdoor growing. The advantage of the indoor environment is that it's pest-free to begin with and can be kept that way with cleanliness. Nitrogen is Nitrogen, Potassium is Potassium and Phosphorous is Phosphorous....and so are all the micronutrients. There aren't good versions or bad versions...just molecules that the plant uses. Soil is great. Most of my grows are soil. But when the bugs show up, I kill 'em! And from that point on, it's all about feeding and watering -not dealing with pests.
 
tstick

tstick

Well-Known Member
Also, just for the integrated pest management for indoors people...All bugs lay eggs and poop -both the good bugs and the bad bugs. It's great that it's an organic system, but I don't like the idea of smoking bug eggs and poo, no matter how organic it is.
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
tstick said:
Well I guess my point is that there isn't a detectable difference in the quality of the marijuana with either method. Well-done hydro is as good as well-done soil and shitty hydro is just as bad as poorly done soil. I personally think the living soil indoors thing is great in concept, but, in practice, you get all the bugs and then you have to deal with them....and it just becomes a never ending circle. By the time everything is said and done, the living soil plants get treated with neem oil, pyrethrins, sprayed with soap, diatomaceous earth and dunked in mosquito killer. I think the idea of living soil is best applied to outdoor growing. The advantage of the indoor environment is that it's pest-free to begin with and can be kept that way with cleanliness. Nitrogen is Nitrogen, Potassium is Potassium and Phosphorous is Phosphorous....and so are all the micronutrients. There aren't good versions or bad versions...just molecules that the plant uses. Soil is great. Most of my grows are soil. But when the bugs show up, I kill 'em! And from that point on, it's all about feeding and watering -not dealing with pests.
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Point taken. I was just curious of your opinion. I just like the ease of organic soil. I just water. Every couple weeks I top dress. Never worry about over feeding, yellow leaves. I'm in Illinois so the bus aren't terrible, especially in the winter, just gnats, which in small, controlled amounts don't seem too detrimental. Unfortunately for me they've gotten uncontrollable. That's been my only headache so far.
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
tstick said:
Also, just for the integrated pest management for indoors people...All bugs lay eggs and poop -both the good bugs and the bad bugs. It's great that it's an organic system, but I don't like the idea of smoking bug eggs and poo, no matter how organic it is.
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Ewc, Worm poop, Guano's, manure.... all shit. Lol
 
tstick

tstick

Well-Known Member
I get it....There's all kinds of shit out there, in us, etc. But my main point wasn't about shit. It was to answer the question of how to get rid of gnats.The whole shit-thing was just to remind some of the people who suggest that the best solution is to introduce a "beneficial" predator. thinking that the things will just come in and Hoover everything up and leave you with a spotless, pest-free plant and then find their way out the door, thank you very much. But...nope.

I also don't understand why some people are hesitant to use chemical fertilizers to grow weed with....but then they will turn around drop acid. *shrugs*
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
tstick said:
I get it....There's all kinds of shit out there, in us, etc. But my main point wasn't about shit. It was to answer the question of how to get rid of gnats.The whole shit-thing was just to remind some of the people who suggest that the best solution is to introduce a "beneficial" predator. thinking that the things will just come in and Hoover everything up and leave you with a spotless, pest-free plant and then find their way out the door, thank you very much. But...nope.

I also don't understand why some people are hesitant to use chemical fertilizers to grow weed with....but then they will turn around drop acid. *shrugs*
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I agree with you to a point. I don't believe the beneficial predators are for givng you a spotless grow, but rather keeping the gnat population at a more acceptable level. You don't want an abundance of any bugs in your soil, beneficial or not. You want to try and copy nature. Keep it all in balance. I'm not against chem ferts. It's just easier to grow organic. Just the bugs suck..... and the shit. Lol
 
getogrow

getogrow

Well-Known Member
Yes , i assume the dish soap will kill off bennies. You are trying not to spray the soil directly though. And small amounts of anything that goes into the pot is not always going to hurt the bennies.
Chemical foods do not hurt bennies. Constant flushing and adding acid for ph down will harm them.

Sometimes its better to give the plant what she wants right now rather then wait for the organics to break down. Not only will that help the plant , it will also help the soil to recover. Its all symbolic.

I agree and disagree with a lot being said here: 1 i do not agree that hydro is even close to soil in terms of preference. Thats why we do two different competitions. One for soil and one for hydro. If it was just one or the other , then one would win every time depending on where the judges are from. west coast = water weed, they love it... its clean and watered down. If they are from the midwest then they want dirty weed with loud skunk tones.....east coast is in between.
2. Bugs are GREAT for the soil....almost all of them! Dr. Laura Ingram once told me that to have black gold in your backyard , you will need to see several different species of bugs with one shovel scoop. The more , the better.

Of course there are several bugs that we dont like , like mites and gnats , those get the chemicals or the harsh treatment and then the soil is recovered by adding back life and food.

3. Organics is by FAR the hardest method to perfect. EVERYTHING is a guessing game unless you have access to soil tests by a lab very often.
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
getogrow said:
Yes , i assume the dish soap will kill off bennies. You are trying not to spray the soil directly though. And small amounts of anything that goes into the pot is not always going to hurt the bennies.
Chemical foods do not hurt bennies. Constant flushing and adding acid for ph down will harm them.

Sometimes its better to give the plant what she wants right now rather then wait for the organics to break down. Not only will that help the plant , it will also help the soil to recover. Its all symbolic.

I agree and disagree with a lot being said here: 1 i do not agree that hydro is even close to soil in terms of preference. Thats why we do two different competitions. One for soil and one for hydro. If it was just one or the other , then one would win every time depending on where the judges are from. west coast = water weed, they love it... its clean and watered down. If they are from the midwest then they want dirty weed with loud skunk tones.....east coast is in between.
2. Bugs are GREAT for the soil....almost all of them! Dr. Laura Ingram once told me that to have black gold in your backyard , you will need to see several different species of bugs with one shovel scoop. The more , the better.

Of course there are several bugs that we dont like , like mites and gnats , those get the chemicals or the harsh treatment and then the soil is recovered by adding back life and food.

3. Organics is by FAR the hardest method to perfect. EVERYTHING is a guessing game unless you have access to soil tests by a lab very often.
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True, but In organics, the idea is to feed the soil. The soil will take care of the plant. If you give a lil of everything to the soil, you shouldn't have to guess. Getting as close to nature as possible is key. Bugs, all of them can be good. It's when you get an imbalance of any of them that you have problems. At least that's how I view it all. I could be and probably am wrong. Lol
 
tstick

tstick

Well-Known Member
Not to mention that you can only dial in a strain at a time. Whatever works for Grand Daddy Purple, isn't going to be the optimum method for Gorilla Glue....and so on. All these methods are great for outdoor growing. No argument there.

On a molecular level, plants don't care if the NPK comes from fish guts or a bag of chem fertilizer. On a molecular level, Nitrogen is Nitrogen, Phosphorous is Phosphorous and Potassium is Potassium.

There's all kinds of hydroponic growing techniques, too. I now like to start out with super soil in veg. Almost always, I get soil-born insects like gnats. At that point, I kill them with H2O2 and then the soil becomes inert and I switch to chem fertilizers to finish out the grow. It's just waaaay easier to do and cleaner and my plants and buds are bug free and they have no soap residue, pyrethrins, neem oil or any of those nasty "good" chemicals on them.
 
getogrow

getogrow

Well-Known Member
In organics , the idea is to maintain the life of the soil* and IF all the stars are aligned, then each element of food is avilable to the plant when it needs it. Its never that easy but it can be with a lil work.
Its fun and cheap too!

I also agree that the plant does not care whether its chemicals or organic matter....food is food.
My personal preference is that organic feeding make the end product taste better but if i were to compare to good soil grown weed with chemicals i dont think i would notice much of a difference.
Weed grown in water taste bland.
 
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