Fungus gnats, brown tips, no strength to stand- What am I doing wrong!?

[Bluelove1111]

Thanks EVERYONE for all your help. Gonna just tear it down, clean and build from scratch.

 

[Dr Dog]

Ok

You want to know what is really going on

You do not have enough light, and it is most likely too far away

This is causing all your problems

Thus they plants are stretching upwards and not downwards, like you want at this time. Thus the roots are not growing properly, your medium is staying too wet, and thus a nice time for gnats

What you should do, is read alot of icmag, and see what you want to do, then do what that person did


Good luck

 

[slackx]

Couple things bro...Walmart sells hydrometer and thermometer for about 12 dollars. If i knew you i'd smack you upside the head for cheaping out on soil, you can cheap on out mostly everything besides the soil. You're taking care of the earth not your plants. It costs about 20 dollars to get a mixed bag of soil that'll pretty much just need you to water it for the first month, you can even use miracle grow nutrients (i dont recommend it) they work. I'd recommend using fox farm products, their relatively cheap and work great. You should get yourself some grow big, tiger bloom, and big bloom that'll do you great for a long time. Remember don't think about short term investment think the big picture...you buy the 60 dollars in nutrients and the extra quarter you get from just taking care of the plants paid for it already. I only use sterilized soil, it makes for consistent results everytime.

 

[jonnygreenjeans]

I agree with Dr Dog, if the light is too far away they will stretch to get it. Also I believe that you might not have a fan blowing on them which replicates the wind and gets the stems strong. Try adding a 4'' fan to gently get them wiggling around.

 

[2buds]

I use T5 bulbs for cuttings and young vegging, I run a 400mh for plants that have graduated to a 1 gal pot, you need a good strong light once the roots start. Nutrient brands are tough choices, I personally use floranova grow and bloom products and love my results but yours may vary. Young plants like a light breeze to strengthen the stems and will die quickly from root rot if you over water. The light breeze will help with drying out the soil too. Just pick up the pot, if it feels heavy, leave it be its still moist even if the tippy top looks dry, if it feels real light then she's ready to get wet. I like to run them dry once in a while to the point they wilt all in the name of preventing root rot.
The floranova grow/bloom products also mix true to the ppm chart on the back of the bottle. Good luck with everything and after a couple of years you'll have you a system that works for you and a big old bag of bud that is PAID for and ALL YOURS!

 

[Bluelove1111]

Couple things bro...Walmart sells hydrometer and thermometer for about 12 dollars. If i knew you i'd smack you upside the head for cheaping out on soil, you can cheap on out mostly everything besides the soil.

I just have to say, 1st off, i'm a chick, not a bro...lmao
2nd, if I knew you, I'd LET you smack me upside the head for buying cheap soil. I bet you that I won't do that EVER again! Last year I had used a miracle grow potting soil that did fine and this year it seems that I really took a step backwards. The best part about this is I learned what to do and what- not to do and I can always try again!

Thanks to everyone; I really appreciate everyone's advice through this.

 

[SmokeyPufmaster]

What type of light is that 180w? Floro, mh or hps. And yes it sounds like your light is too far. Also you could be ferting them too early. They need to be between two and three weeks old before feeding. And watch those chemical ferts they can burn plants in all stages of growth.

 

[beer batter]

Blue. The only way you could have fungus gnats so early in your grow is if your soil was contaminated or your room is hopelessly filthy. Use fresh sterile potting mix. Sterilize or throw away all your containers. Clean everything everywhere with mild bleach solution. Stress causes plants to become vulnerable to disease and insects. Poor nutrition, temperature variants outside the norm, poor water management, lighting issues, all contribute to bad outcomes.
That said, this ain't rocket science. Plants want to grow. You want to grow them. Do it.

I have something to add to that, if you work on plants in or near a bathroom the pipes can be lined with hair (or even the safety hole thing in the sink so that it wont overflow) these things can breed fungus gnats so push some steam threw them or at least think about that as well -I’ve seen them in the bathroom and noticed they come out of the Fing sink -we keep shit clean, but even otherwise -gnats are outside everywhere from cali to Washington state and elsewhere so its really an issue i think of inoculating the soil with gnatrol or gognats -2 totally dif products that i recommended to my grandma up in Washington state with gnats killing her poted flowers (she doesn’t grow gnaja but loves her flowers) i still use go gnats but only cause i ran out of gnatrole and decided to use what i have left. we originally ordered go gnats but decided to order the biological larvicide a week later after more and more gnats showed up on the monitoring cards. -the gnatrol is supposed to stop the larvae from feeding and the adults would still lay eggs but the gnatrol would stop them from maturing past the larval stage -weekly reapplications are needed for 3 weeks to stop the life cycle, what I did in the past was dribble some of the gnatrol solution down into the holes in the sink where I figured decomposing hair might have been propagating the gnats -i was lazy then but now i want to clean the pipes and will probably start with the shower cause i bet their alot of hair in their (gnats also live in out house plants so i inoculate them if i remember to mix enough solution)

they are like spider mites i think exept they can fly and lay eggs in your medium, i hear they like soil/soiless the most but problems still occur in rock wool/hydro.

i don’t clean my pots with bleach but if you do wash it out well, soil biology could be compromised. i use dish soap and rinse extra well, but hardly ever wash my pots. i gave up on washing everything all the time, still keep it clean but i know gnats are something we live with -i grow outside and gave a huge problem with gnats out their, been thinking about nematodes but those are $$. time to bite the $$bullet i think -for me anyhow.

ive had a fly come into the room before -or maybe more then 1, and they reproduced in my soil i think. i had a dosen flay a week later up on the popcorn ceilings -i used a vacuum to get them out of the grow area cause they where just sitting on the ceiling.

-This led me to use this bug vac that we pick up spiders with, cut a slice of gauze unraveled to 1 layer thick so that i could trap the little adult fungus gnats and let them go outside -opposed to taking the time to kill each 1. This is also the most organic method even though gnatrol from bghydro is OMRI listed this method was almost as organic as the fly swatter method lol