LouDog's LED Lounge

[LJ farming]

Here is a great police song for you bud. If you don’t have Spotify look up Corey Smith Fuck the po po on YouTube. I all but guarantee you will enjoy!

Good luck on your new run! Fungus Knats have decided they will do everything they can to ruin my current run. It’s back and fourth daily and I have hit them with everything accept DHFs new recommendation of Cinnamon and DE which will be added tomorrow!

 

[LouDog420]

Gnatrol, boom!

Good luck on your new run! Fungus Knats have decided they will do everything they can to ruin my current run. It’s back and fourth daily and I have hit them with everything accept DHFs new recommendation of Cinnamon and DE which will be added tomorrow!

 

[LJ farming]

Been there done that these California knats must be tougher than everyone else’s. I’m honestly $200+ into trying to kill these bastards and all I have done thus far is slow them down here and there

 

[gmanwho]

hey @LJ farming , Knats are one of those things that seem to be a forever plague. especially with coco.

Sometimes these issues call for drastic measures. But I guess it all depends on how one perceives the issue...

nematodes for the larvae.

ive painted bands of tangle foot around my containers, stakes, and at the base of the plant stalk. works but its messy. but again it only slows them down.

i wish to eradicate them!

beside the bacillus strains like in gnatrol, or yellow sticky traps, ive seen some put a few inches of daitomaceous earth ontop of their medium. But then you still have to figure out how to block the bag or container drains. I havent used diatom yet despite the 2 boxes in storage.

Guess the idea there is the diatom is rigid and sharp like glass shards. As the larvae or bug crawls through it will pierce the exoskeleton of the bug. Leaving wounds that the pest will succumb to. Hopefully the knat never making it to the reproductive stage.

Some say watering from the bottom helps reduce the population. If your setup allows, or is redesigned. I personally dont want water mingling from plant to plant.

What i am gonna try next is paint strainers around my 3 gal grow bags. and use some sort of elastic tie at the stem base to allow for stem expansion, and the dripper line pass thru. far as i know they make only 1 gal and 5 gal strainers.

for something larger then the strainers, I do know that there are different size mesh screens for bug netting. and with some research online you can find the netting by the yard. only issue i see atm is getting a mesh small enough to block the smaller knats from passing thru the screen. however i do not believe an adult knat will pass thru the paint strainers ive worked with before.

Maybe the solution will be a combo of the gnatrol, diatom and paint strainers. All i know is it's worth the effort to stop knats. Because when they start bouncing from plant to plant carrying other pests and spores with them, they must go! That can become a slippery slope.

just brain storming as the coffee runs through me. Anyone have any other thoughts on how to fight these fuckers WITHOUT heavy pesticides?

bsafe bwell!!

 

[DunHav`nFun]

The cinnamon`s a natural fungicide that eliminates their food source in the rootzone , and the diatomaceous earth is to rip the exoskeleton of the adults and dehydrate em as they emerge and become fliers........Once they fly they only live a week , but the lil fucks lay 3-400 eggs every few days with 4 different stages to get through before they cycle out and croak .....that said.....

I told LJ , BTI has a shelf life of a year if you`re lucky when usin the old Gnatrol , skeeter dunks and bits as a top dressing to be watered in to kill the lil bastards but........

It`s been proven that the new Gnatrol WDG/ water dispersal granules have a shelf life of up to 2 yrs , but I think LJ`s just had a major infestation before attackin the issue and hopefully by now he`s seein results and knockin em back to interrupt the 4 cycles they go through......anyways......

Just wated to stop in and show respect to the Dawg......Keep strokin my buddy and......

Peace......DHF........

 

[LouDog420]

I think the biggest thing with gnats is persistence. But a beauty and the beast relationship, with coco bringing the gnats... And the gnats are a vector for mold in late flower when they get stuck in buds and die off.

Making sure you're looking at the life cycle and applying bti to hit the generations coming out. 4 or 5 applications, every 5 days or so; I'd be surprised if that doesn't knock them way back if not out, assuming the bti is still active. I use the Gnatrol WDG and add it to compost teas after diluting and brewing for hand watering.

Sticky traps/tanglefoot for identification, but once they're flying, they're already fucking. I think tanglewood on the stem will be a bit more effective sooner because you have the crawlers before they're flying and a few sticky traps for ID.

I've never had good luck with DE, as soon as it gets wet it loses effectiveness or just turns to mush if you get the real dusty stuff, ime.

Hope you can get it licked LJ.

Good vibes,
LD

 

[LJ farming]

Thank you for all of your help guys. I’m going to hit them with the majority of the above recommendations for the rest of this run and try to limp through the finish line in 3 1/2 weeks.

Then I’m going to all but tear my room apart and sanitize, run an ozone generator for several hours, and finally hit it with a high powered Agricultural pest fogger before anything goes back in. Possibly also see if I can get the room up to 140 degrees for a couple hours as well and try to bake anything still living. Does anyone have any other suggestions for getting rid of these fuckers before I start a new run?

Thanks again for all of your help.

Peace out,

LJ

 

[StickyBandit]

Thank you for all of your help guys. I’m going to hit them with the majority of the above recommendations for the rest of this run and try to limp through the finish line in 3 1/2 weeks.

Then I’m going to all but tear my room apart and sanitize, run an ozone generator for several hours, and finally hit it with a high powered Agricultural pest fogger before anything goes back in. Possibly also see if I can get the room up to 140 degrees for a couple hours as well and try to bake anything still living. Does anyone have any other suggestions for getting rid of these fuckers before I start a new run?

Thanks again for all of your help.

Peace out,

LJ

I know it's not strictly the right way to go about it but desperate times call for desperate measures. I got one of those auto fly spray things like you might have in the kitchen. We've had an explosion of fungus gnats in the lawn due to all the rain and humidity this summer and they get everywhere. There have been absolute clouds of them. There's no stopping them so we had to make a decision based on whether we wanted weed or not! Usually it's only needed when the plants are young and fragile and after that BTI keeps them in check. This might not suit some people but I have to keep Mrs Bandit happy as all costs!
They don't seem prolific any more now that summer is nearly over

 

[gmanwho]

Wondering how well the those uv light traps would work? the ones u see in commercial kitchens. If the knat would be attracted to the uv light? Set it up so it doesent interfere with the plants and turns on and off with the light cycle.

After a few minutes of research it is claimed to attract fungus knats.

 

[Hotrods_and_hounds]

@LouDog420 yoo dude, ran through the thread and you mentioned an automated irrigation system. What kind of set up do you run and when you gotta be out of town for like 4 days does it stay pretty true?

 

[LouDog420]

@LouDog420 yoo dude, ran through the thread and you mentioned an automated irrigation system. What kind of set up do you run and when you gotta be out of town for like 4 days does it stay pretty true?

Irrigation system is covered on pages 4 and 5. As long as there's water in the res, it's good to go.

in general...

submersible pump --> filter --> pvc manifold --> 1/2" mainline --> 1/4" feed lines with 1gal/hr emitters, 2 per pot

 

[Hotrods_and_hounds]

Irrigation system is covered on pages 4 and 5. As long as there's water in the res, it's good to go.

in general...

submersible pump --> filter --> pvc manifold --> 1/2" mainline --> 1/4" feed lines with 1gal/hr emitters, 2 per pot

Right on, I saw that but I may have missed something I’m guessing my question is really more about the automation, are you just running the timers or do you have a controller? And if running just timers do you have pretty good consistency when just letting it roll or does it require some monitoring and a little trial and error? Also sorry I’m starting to dabble in the dripper systems for something funny. I have always just done soil and hand watering.

 

[LouDog420]

I daisy chain two timers, one with the ability to set for intervals as short as 1 second and the other a simple minute/hour timer. Pump plugs into the second timer which is plugged into the main minute/hour timer.

For example, the main timer (minutes/hours) is set on from 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, and 8-9, while the second timer (plugged into the main timer) is set for 1min30sec on and 28min30sec off. This gets two watering events per hour, whenever the main timer is set on. Under this setup, there would be 8 watering events for 1min30sec each every day. Customize however you want.

Much cheaper than an irrigation controller.

Will take fine tuning to figure out number of watering events and duration needed for proper runoff based on pot size, appetite, and transpiration, but that's the same with any irrigation controller.

Soil, you want to hit the wet/dry cycles, so not quite the same as coco with multiple watering events every day.

 

[Hotrods_and_hounds]

I daisy chain two timers, one with the ability to set for intervals as short as 1 second and the other a simple minute/hour timer. Pump plugs into the second timer which is plugged into the main minute/hour timer.

For example, the main timer (minutes/hours) is set on from 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, and 8-9, while the second timer (plugged into the main timer) is set for 1min30sec on and 28min30sec off. This gets two watering events per hour, whenever the main timer is set on. Under this setup, there would be 8 watering events for 1min30sec each every day. Customize however you want.

Much cheaper than an irrigation controller.

Will take fine tuning to figure out number of watering events and duration needed for proper runoff based on pot size, appetite, and transpiration, but that's the same with any irrigation controller.

Soil, you want to hit the wet/dry cycles, so not quite the same as coco with multiple watering events every day.

Awesome thank you dude!

 

[LJ farming]

Hot rod I’m not sure if LD mentioned Brand of the timer that goes down to the second but it took me a minute to find mine. So perhaps check out Autopilot. Same as every other white digital timer just does seconds as well as minutes and hours!

Now for the hound part of your handle. Here’s my new one. I lost my last 2 way too soon!

Peace out,

LJ

 

[LJ farming]

Also it’s probably incredibly different with soil running drippers. I don’t have 10% as many runs as LD under my belt but I would caution the need or expense for a drip system for soil. Unless like you say dial it in and need to be gone for long periods of time. And IMO soil would take longer than a minute to dial in. Coco top feed (drippers) DTW is baby shit simple as my mentor DHF has always said. Soil seriously scares me since I made the switch to COCO!

Peace out,

Ole man LJ bedtime.

 

[Hotrods_and_hounds]

Hot rod I’m not sure if LD mentioned Brand of the timer that goes down to the second but it took me a minute to find mine. So perhaps check out Autopilot. Same as every other white digital timer just does seconds as well as minutes and hours!

Now for the hound part of your handle. Here’s my new one. I lost my last 2 way too soon! View attachment 18818701 View attachment 18818700

Peace out,

LJ

Thanks dude I’ll check it out, grabbing drippers and tubing tomorrow to start dabbling around and make a res. Also I’m sorry to hear that, I lost mine about a year ago to cancer. But I did adopt my foster pup. They make the days better. Is that a female? I’m gonna go with a her for now lol! But she is super cute! Is she a pointer?

 

[LJ farming]

Definitely a female. I asked my daughter to name her a good stoner name and she was Marley for about a week until my 88 year old grandmother asked why her name wasn’t BLAZE because the stripe on her forehead is called a blaze on a horse. So she became BLAZE about a week after I got her.
Needless to say my daughter was not impressed but grams has since passed away and she nailed it IMO!

 

[LJ farming]

What kinda hound is yours?

 

[LJ farming]

These damn GSP puppies have more energy than 2 of me these days!