getogrow
Well-Known Member
I agree with this and i just dont see "letting them dry out" is going to help them gnats. You would have to dry out the whole pot for long enough to kill them which will also kill the girls.
How do I get rid of gnats
- Thread starter Toxic Deadite
- Start date
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
I agree... Hydro lacks in flavor.
kingromano
Well-Known Member
only way to kill larvae is to let the top layer of the medium dryout
not possible in hydro
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
I break my 5% water in two waterings per day at 2.5% each. Keeps my soil pretty moist, maybe too moist considering the gnat problem I have going.
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
The top layer is the most important to keep moist I thought. Isn't that where most of the microbiology takes place?
Budzbuddha
Well-Known Member
Sometimes the simplest shit is the answer ........
Top dress Neem Meal / or add it to a top dress of new soil layer . This amendment probably should be added to all bagged mixes before use. As more and more of the little bug assholes show in pallets.
Neemaseek works well too.
Top dress Neem Meal / or add it to a top dress of new soil layer . This amendment probably should be added to all bagged mixes before use. As more and more of the little bug assholes show in pallets.
Neemaseek works well too.
getogrow
Well-Known Member
Not really , its all over the pot. Biology is everywhere. It is true that you will get much better consistancy by keeping the whole pot the same moisture. So you are on the right path.
I brought home fungas gnats from a houseplant a few months ago , you cannot kill them just by letting the top layer dry out. They just go down deeper to the moist part of the pot so now your "top layer" is a few inches down.....and so on.
Mosquito dunks are the answer.
getogrow
Well-Known Member
Side note: keep in mind the microbiology is very hardy in there.... even if you were to kill most of it today , it will start to recover by tomorrow. If you treat it right it will be living soil within a week or so. Them microbes dont just die unless something is way off in the pot. They are fragile but at the same time there are 100's of millions of bacteria so it can repopulate very fast if treating the soil like its alive.
kingromano
Well-Known Member
i would never treat soil this way
you really want to do wet dry cycles with soil
the pots must become lighter before watering again
not excessively
honesty bro potting flies cant be a problem growing in soil if used properly
even in coco you cant really get them.. maybe during a long veg maybe, because veg stage=higher water content
in flower you start to let the coco getting clearer at the top, giving more dryback
they don't like that
personnaly in hydro i top feed every 2 hours so the top stay relatively wet, and gnats are my achille's heel
and i run sealed .. gnats love high levels of co2
green_machine_two9er
Well-Known Member
Also not good practice in soil. They are fungus gnats because they each fungal dominant decaying organic matter. How to you get fungal dominance? By drying out the medium, kinda creating a wheel cycle that makes the problem go on and on.
everyone has touched on the answers here. It’s multi-phase if you ask me. Top dress with neem and buildchiton containing amendments into soil. UseBTI (masqutoo dunks or bits).
topdress with the highest quality or homemade castings.
reuse quality built soil.
Here’s a side note. Gnats only bug me on first run soil. By secound or third recycle they literally disappear. No more treatments. Just nature has taken over. The right amount of nematodes and predator bugs are happy because the moisture level is constant( daily watering) and plenty of quality castings have been mixed in along with neem, crab Meals during recycle.
sticky traps were never meant as a treatment but a monitoring system... that’s the trutI. Buds catch just as many flyers as sticky traps. Focus on soil health snd longevity snd they will go away.
tstick
Well-Known Member
If anyone can scientifically explain why a plant grown hydroponically would lack more flavor than one grown in living soil, then I'm all ears. Plants which are supplied the proper nutrients will grow according to their genetic makeup. They won't taste like oranges if you water them with orange juice and they won't be sweeter if you put honey in the dirt. All that stuff is hype. Plants need light, water and the molecular elements essential for photosynthesis. Their genetic makeup is what makes their terpene, volatile ester profiles unique. You can't alter that no matter what you feed them or how you feed them.
green_machine_two9er
Well-Known Member
What kind of soil practice are you talking about. Sometimes we get confused because living soil, and bottled fed soil grows are two completely different games.
green_machine_two9er
Well-Known Member
Wellll..... I thought this was a bug thread. Proof is in the pooding.
kingromano
Well-Known Member
hydroponics are harder to master but hydro can surpass soil without hesitation ..
plus you can inoculate your medium in hydro and get the best of both worlds
tstick
Well-Known Member
I believe this is true, as well. I reckon that the biology in my soil would "reignite" after the H2O2 treatment in a matter of time. I'd like to try that experiment as a side note on my next grow..
Absolutely agree!
kingromano
Well-Known Member
yeah i speak about growshop soil+ liquid organic ferts (biobizz ...)
effectively if you make your own soil you maybe have a smaller water content than commercial peat (biobizz, canna, plagron..), more drainage so you get better results keeping the soil wetter
but with commercial soil dry wet is a must .. keeping it always moist is a big mistake
it has a high water content (i measure around 80% WC at saturation with my delta-t)
kingromano
Well-Known Member
personnaly i find soil grows very limited and unsuitable under HID
under the sun yeah what a pleasure to grow in soil
its an evidance
but for indoor grow .. hydro is so much better
plants grow crazy faster ..
that electricity is expensive man
need to make the shit efficient
under the sun yeah what a pleasure to grow in soil
its an evidance
but for indoor grow .. hydro is so much better
plants grow crazy faster ..
that electricity is expensive man
need to make the shit efficient
TintEastwood
Well-Known Member
Took a pic of my Gnat larvae soup.
Made from soaking and stirring 2 disintegrated dunks in water.
Then strain thru paper towels to filter out the corky dunk solids, and add to feed water/resevoir.
Made from soaking and stirring 2 disintegrated dunks in water.
Then strain thru paper towels to filter out the corky dunk solids, and add to feed water/resevoir.
getogrow
Well-Known Member
I disagree to the fullest. With all respect to you.
I do not see the "limitations" you speak of ? "Unsuitable" is just plain , the wrong word.
generally speaking, hydro grows faster. (in real life its because most "soil" growers are not there yet...)
In real life , i know plenty of dirt guys that cannot speed up things by switching to hydro.
I sit 100% opposite from this.
Organics is by far the hardest method to master but organics can surpass any other method without hesitation.
getogrow
Well-Known Member
I wish i could explain it but i have no clue. I can tell you its all in the terps. Some like their terps clean and hydro. Some like their terps dirty and skunky. I am NOT going to say the lab shows more or less terps then hydro , im just saying it taste way different.
My west coast friends love hydro....my mid west friends love skunk..... just a preference i suppose. One thing i have noticed is that almost every strain has skunk notes when grown in soil and when grown in water , it is more "pure" ?