stealth sealed room for own consume

[Guest]

Ooooh,what a cool thread mate!
I am at least one month gnat free with BT israelensis...Looks like no need for chemicals.Only used once indoors,had to go twice outdoors.

 

[unnamedmike]

Ooooh,what a cool thread mate!
I am at least one month gnat free with BT israelensis...Looks like no need for chemicals.Only used once indoors,had to go twice outdoors.

Thanks bro ! nice of you for stopping by

Same here, the BT work great. I'm re-using my watering water in the home garden, and now either is no fungus gnats there.

 

[Fixer]

I'm at about $400/mth but elec. is expensive in Maine. I'm running four big LEDs in flower and four smaller ones in veg. I've also got two dehumidifiers, a heater fans, pumps etc.

 

[unnamedmike]

I'm at about $400/mth but elec. is expensive in Maine. I'm running four big LEDs in flower and four smaller ones in veg. I've also got two dehumidifiers, a heater fans, pumps etc.

I remember that in Spain i paid about € 100, for more or less the same equipment that im running here.


I have 4 days left to harvest, and I am thankful for being able to harvest. This time the culprits were: myself, Fungus gnats, 2spot mites, aphids, ph and eC problems, and power outages.
Obviously I have to fix this. A few weeks ago I bought an HM brand TDS meter. It has turned out to be a good machine, so I bought a ph meter of the same brand, I hope this year arrives. I will use these meters for support while I finish my DIY meters (it is costing me more work than planned)

To fix the pests problem, first dust off my old brain, it still works! and i started the youtube session.

Im gonna continue using beneficial predators, but instead of to eliminate the plague, i will use them as preventives, knowing the cycles of the most common pests in my area.



The last 2 RO membranes last only a few weeks. I need to send a sample of my tap water to the laboratory. And also i have to collect rainwater, to lower costs.

 

[thailer]

what do you mean the RO membrane only lasted a couple weeks? like it gave 0 ppm water but now it's not filtering it all out? i read that people who have high TDS water can still get RO water that has a ppm content. someone had very high calcium in his water and his RO lowered it to 120 ppm.

 

[Fixer]

I really like the HM meters. I have two of their TDS meters and that same pH meter as a backup. Can't beat them for the money.

 

[unnamedmike]

what do you mean the RO membrane only lasted a couple weeks? like it gave 0 ppm water but now it's not filtering it all out? i read that people who have high TDS water can still get RO water that has a ppm content. someone had very high calcium in his water and his RO lowered it to 120 ppm.

I mean that using new membrane and with new pre-filters, i had water at 57ppm. 6 weeks later the water comes out at 254ppm. My tap water comes out at 690ppm now in winter. The error this time was the wastewater solenoid valve, a salt "plug" had formed inside, almost completely reducing the wastewater flow ...

 

[Guest]

Hey Mike. What about physical barriers.
I saw a guy using polyester cut into a circle to fit the top of his pot, as a barrier for gnats. Polyester is inert and less messy than perlite or sand. He has a few lava rocks on top to hold it down firm. You can find it sold as rolls for aquarium filter fibre. I found some of this landscaping fabric to try.

Gnats like to come and go from the surface but some will still remain via the drain holes so how about a surgeon cap to prevent.

This is the neem that I use. The way it comes it's already emulsified (proprietary?) and much easier to use than pure neem oil, which is very messy and oily. I think it's also more effective than pure neem oil. Ever since I started using this years ago I've never seen another sucking insect on a plant, foliar once a week.
I no longer use it as a root drench. I dont want to upset the microbiome in the rootzone. For that I wanna go alternate route like physical barrier and nematodes.
The BTI I use in my rez but never saw much difference.

 

[unnamedmike]

Very good contribution, thanks Dots I found the commercial version of your suggestion, gnatshield. I think that finally im going to put some kind of physical barrier in the pots, can't eradicate the plague. They resist imidacloprid, azadirachtin, bleach, poolshock, 35% h2o2, permethrin and pyrethrins, and only nematodes and BTI slow them down, allowing the plants to bloom, but that dont eliminate the pest.

So the next round, i need the growing area updated to minimize the risk of pest entry. And start over with clean cuttings.

 

[thailer]

if you add an oscillating fan, doesn't have to be super strong either, but the fan blows back and forth across at soil level. gnats are clumsy flyers and they will avoid areas with strong breezes so they'll avoid the pots PLUS it will dry the top soil right after watering to also hinder their development since the larvae are in the first inch or so of soil.

i also hear from others the hypoaspis miles predator mite works great and they will proliferate in your pots if you watch which pesticides you use. the fan really helped for me.

 

[unnamedmike]

if you add an oscillating fan, doesn't have to be super strong either, but the fan blows back and forth across at soil level. gnats are clumsy flyers and they will avoid areas with strong breezes so they'll avoid the pots PLUS it will dry the top soil right after watering to also hinder their development since the larvae are in the first inch or so of soil.
i also hear from others the hypoaspis miles predator mite works great and they will proliferate in your pots if you watch which pesticides you use. the fan really helped for me.

Hi thailer

These last few weeks I'm testing pesticides on growing plants, without much success, but as a last resort, I don't want to lose my mothers.

I never use pesticides on flowering plants. They also dont work against my problem, I think they came home with an ornamental plant, and the bugs were resistant to various pesticides.
On Monday the BTI arrives, the nematodes will take 10 days, while I'm surfing the infections with calcium hypochlorite.
I have very good ventilation in that room, to avoid stretch as much as possible, but it doesn't seem to affect them. They are very annoying, it is one of the most persistent pests that I have fought.

 

[thailer]

i don't think you'll lose any plants. they will eat seedlings tho, soif you have any expensive packs, i'd maybe wait. just had some get eaten and witnessed it.

i always thought the Mosquito Dunks bti product worked the best crushed up compared to their Bits product and other BTi products which were mostly liquid forms. i think it worked the best because i wasn't watering it in because the only time i got relief was when i let my plants go dry and get a little droopy. hope you get it solved. the flower pics look amazing!!

 

[Fixer]

I don't know if it prevents gnats but if you use cloth pots you can modify a second pot to cover the top of you medium. I cut a slit down the seam and across the radius of the bottom and wrap the modified pot around the top of the one the plants in.

 

[unnamedmike]

i don't think you'll lose any plants. they will eat seedlings tho, soif you have any expensive packs, i'd maybe wait. just had some get eaten and witnessed it.
Luckily, at the moment there are no fallen plants, the chlorine (poolshock) works very well. But I can't eradicate the plague with it.
i always thought the Mosquito Dunks bti product worked the best crushed up compared to their Bits product and other BTi products which were mostly liquid forms. i think it worked the best because i wasn't watering it in because the only time i got relief was when i let my plants go dry and get a little droopy.

BTI work very well, i use BTI in bits to. I don't know how the liquid presentation (gnatrol) works, i cant found liquid here, only chips and dunks. I found BTI bits quite cheap, in china... This time Im going to try adding the bits in the soil. Added to the tank, the filter clogs every other day
hope you get it solved. the flower pics look amazing!!

Thank you ! Im ok with the plants, but they can be healthier for sure

I don't know if it prevents gnats but if you use cloth pots you can modify a second pot to cover the top of you medium. I cut a slit down the seam and across the radius of the bottom and wrap the modified pot around the top of the one the plants in.

Thanks friend I definitely need to isolate the plants soil, im wasting a lot of resources due this pest.


Im testing 2 halogen bulbs... added to the 400w of COB cxb3590 3500k CRI 80. I would prefer to add 150w 2700k CRI90 led and some far red and deep red led, but for now Im satisfied. I suppose im going to add 6 halogen bulbs with dimmable transformer, while waiting for the new LEDs, the plants love the spectrum.

 

[unnamedmike]

cbd beauties

super silver haze

 

[Fixer]

Nice and green!

 

[unnamedmike]

Update after a while Ive bought a 12v, 5.5gpm, 60 psi RV pump and a pressure regulator, and a few more things, to complete the automatic watering.
Taking advantage of the dopamine rush caused by the shopping, im cleaning the osmosis filter. And as soon as they arrive, o'll change the RO pre-filters.
Pics tomorrow.

 

[unnamedmike]

I really like this water pump. Tomorrow I will try to buy all the parts of the installation, in a single trip to the hardware store ...

 

[Fixer]

Hey Mike, is that a DC pump? Do you know if it can pump in both directions? I'm looking for something to pump back and forth between feed tanks.

 

[unnamedmike]

Hey Mike, is that a DC pump? Do you know if it can pump in both directions? I'm looking for something to pump back and forth between feed tanks.

Not sure but i think not, the pump has an arrow indicating the water flow. Im not an expert, but I imagine that few pumps work in both directions. As far as I know, peristaltic pumps do pump in both directions.