NUte deficieny, fungus gnats, bad soil

First grow here and boy did I make some amature mistakes.
I mis-diagnosed a nute deficiency as nute burn. I flushed the plants heavily, which ofcourse made things worse.

I used an organic potting soil full of clays, bark mulch and very little perlite. As a result the medium is abseloutly soaked days after the flush. This soaked medium is ofcourse perfect for fungus gnats, who have now made a home.
I am controlling the gnats with yellow stcky traps (lots of them) which has helped a lot and continue to monitor. The next step is sanding the surface of the soil to prevent the gnats from laying eggs if things dont get better.

My problem is I need to get these plants nutrients, but I also need to get the soil dry. I need to dry out the soil to airate it and to control the gnats. So how do I add nutrients without watering?

Also is there a way to change the growing medium without killing the plants?

How old are your plants? If they are still in veg I reccomend transplanting them into new/better soil. Even if they are in early flower you can still put them into new soil. The soil you are using now sounds like mud or dirt and that can hold in crap, not allow oxygen to the roots, and is awful for drainage.....as you are experiencing now. Do you have access to nurseries or garden centers in your area? If so, and you can order online as well, try to pick up some soil called Black Gold or Fox Farm Ocean Forest.

brasmith said:

How old are your plants? If they are still in veg I reccomend transplanting them into new/better soil. Even if they are in early flower you can still put them into new soil. The soil you are using now sounds like mud or dirt and that can hold in crap, not allow oxygen to the roots, and is awful for drainage.....as you are experiencing now. Do you have access to nurseries or garden centers in your area? If so, and you can order online as well, try to pick up some soil called Black Gold or Fox Farm Ocean Forest.

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The plants are early veg, however I am very constricted for space. I have put them into the pots I want to flower in. I was hoping to not have to go to a bigger pot.
On advice from an experienced friend, the soil i bought to switch to is a soiless peat mix called pro-mix. It is high in perlite and has a wetting agent. I also bought some coarse perlite to augment it further. Do you think this soil mix will do well?

Coals said:

The plants are early veg, however I am very constricted for space. I have put them into the pots I want to flower in. I was hoping to not have to go to a bigger pot.
On advice from an experienced friend, the soil i bought to switch to is a soiless peat mix called pro-mix. It is high in perlite and has a wetting agent. I also bought some coarse perlite to augment it further. Do you think this soil mix will do well?

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Not necessary to go to bigger pots, same size is good, but different soil. Your freind reccomends good stuff, go with his guidance. As long as there is someone who can help out in person, go with it. The soil mix your friend speaks of is a light airy soil mixture, which the plants always seem to enjoy. Your roots/plants will thrive and love you for it. Keep going the direction you are going and watch the babys take off. Luck

I made the same mistake recently going the wrong way and deciding to flush... Oh well.

You can foliar feed both nutes and the deficient item directly on the leaves if you wanted and toss sterilized aquarium sand from the pet store on the top of the soil 1-2" and the gnats are gone. You then just water right through the sand.

If you swap to soilless mix now it may be just one more thing you regret. I'd leave such a drastic change for next grow but either way mary is tough and you could probably get away with doing whichever you choose even though a sick plant can't handle stresses as well as a healthy one and is prone to infections.
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ok, if I do decide to change soil now, how the heck do I do that and keep it in the same size pot? I guess I am confused as to how I get the soil out of the root ball without destroying the roots?

To control the gnats use sand, BUT try and get horticulture grade or sand made from limstone, gnats hate it and can't reproduce or get in your soil to suck the roots and make more gnats.

IF you use other types of sand you COULD have issues, I used landscape sand about an inch thick and my gnats were a thing of the past in 2-3 days.
Here is a pic, the sand didnt hurt mine, just was annoying to water I eventually removed most of it. Here is a pic to show Im not blowing smoke up yer ass.

Now as far as the soil in roots, what "I" would do is let it set it water until the soil comes off... But your plant is prob going to have shock from hell, so make sure to get more input before trying this one, and please someone tell me if I'm wrong here.

I did this myself in another soil problem and it worked but took a week for the plant to recover from the shock.

Hope this helps "Bud"

I had thought about setting the plant in water and working the dirt away as gently as possible as well. I have been searching like mad for a procedure on this and there is very little info out there. The limited info I have found has said to cut away some of the roots with a knife and pull out as much dirt as possible. Either way I figure I will be lucky if the plant survives.

Coals said:

I had thought about setting the plant in water and working the dirt away as gently as possible as well. I have been searching like mad for a procedure on this and there is very little info out there. The limited info I have found has said to cut away some of the roots with a knife and pull out as much dirt as possible. Either way I figure I will be lucky if the plant survives.

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I wouldn't try to wash the root ball away; that would do too much damage.

What size pot is it in and for how long? The root may be stunted in soil like that anyhow. I would first pop it out of the container, and see what the root structure looks like. If the roots are swirling around the bottom of the pot you're going to have to cut some roots, otherwise if the roots haven't even reached the bottom of the pot much of the bad soil may be crumbled away from the root ball.

Of course whatever you do, you're going to have a plant in shock from the soil change, and some sort of root damage. Compensate by cutting back the vegetation. If you have to cut 30% of the root-ball away, prune 1/3 of the vegetative growth, and keep the humidity up until the roots come back.

Hope this helps

Phenom420 said:

To control the gnats use sand, BUT try and get horticulture grade or sand made from limstone, gnats hate it and can't reproduce or get in your soil to suck the roots and make more gnats.

IF you use other types of sand you COULD have issues, I used landscape sand about an inch thick and my gnats were a thing of the past in 2-3 days.
Here is a pic, the sand didnt hurt mine, just was annoying to water I eventually removed most of it. Here is a pic to show Im not blowing smoke up yer ass.

Now as far as the soil in roots, what "I" would do is let it set it water until the soil comes off... But your plant is prob going to have shock from hell, so make sure to get more input before trying this one, and please someone tell me if I'm wrong here.

I did this myself in another soil problem and it worked but took a week for the plant to recover from the shock.

Hope this helps "Bud"

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Absolutely true. I use sand on all my soil plants now. In fact, I pre-treat my soil with Imid to avoid bugs altogether. And then the sand goes on top of the soil. I have not seen one bug or anything remotely looking like a bug since.

When I first started, I was totally against prevention. Why waste time, right? Now that I experienced a bug problem, I pre-treat everything. And the IMID has a decent amount of N in it, so it's been working well as a starter soil.

Coals said:

I had thought about setting the plant in water and working the dirt away as gently as possible as well. I have been searching like mad for a procedure on this and there is very little info out there. The limited info I have found has said to cut away some of the roots with a knife and pull out as much dirt as possible. Either way I figure I will be lucky if the plant survives.

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You can remove soil from your roots. Just be careful. I've read posts where growers dip the plants in water until the soil falls away from the roots, and then they replant. I've only seen this done with bug problems and people switching from soil to
hydro mid-grow.

I tried it on one plant. It went ok actually. I removed as much loose soil as possible and then dunked it in water. The soil came away fairly easily by hand and with minimal visible damage to roots. I couldnt get all of it out of there without inflicting major damage, but I figure I changed at least 70 percent of the soil. I then flushed with a half strength nutrient solution and now I am just going to wait and see how this plant reacts befor doing it to the other ones.

SO you said they were in early Veg? How early? If you did mention it, then sorry I missed it. I only ask because you are gonna have some pretty significant stunted growth after all this... If you are only a few weeks in, perhaps just starting new, healthy plants in the new medium would be your best bet? Sometimes you just have to live and learn. to your girls! =)

Topher89 said:

SO you said they were in early Veg? How early? If you did mention it, then sorry I missed it. I only ask because you are gonna have some pretty significant stunted growth after all this... If you are only a few weeks in, perhaps just starting new, healthy plants in the new medium would be your best bet? Sometimes you just have to live and learn. to your girls! =)

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I dont mind if they take a long time to recover, just as long as they recover. I'm not worried about stunted growth as I am limited in height and overall space. The plants right now are only about an inch away from the height I want them at for flowering. I just dont want to flower them untill they are healthy again. I just want to get them healthy enough to be able to choose a mother and flower the rest. If they dont grow at all, but green up and perk up I will be happy.

Coals said:

I dont mind if they take a long time to recover, just as long as they recover. I'm not worried about stunted growth as I am limited in height and overall space. The plants right now are only about an inch away from the height I want them at for flowering. I just dont want to flower them untill they are healthy again. I just want to get them healthy enough to be able to choose a mother and flower the rest. If they dont grow at all, but green up and perk up I will be happy.

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I see! Well good on yah then! Hopefully the girls turn it around. Good luck!

I switched from hydro to soil and talk about stress and shock AND Nute burn
https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/209561-2-problems-please-help-me.html
they recovered and are doing nicely after a week.

cool I'd appreciate some rep if I helped ya out.