Damn Gnat Flies

Hello,


I'm new here, well, been lurking for some time acquiring info to get started on a medical grow. Since then I believe I've learned lots, and now that my license will be issued soon I have preparing steadfast.


That said, I intend to grow organically in soil which I have prepared in two batches. One if for the bottom half of the pot and the other for the top half. The bottom half amended for flowering. Approximately a month ago, I have prepared both soils as I've heard that the microbial organisms need to do their thing and make the nutes more accessible to the plants. Off the top of my head, the soil consists of:


Promix
Potting soil
Perlite
Worm castings
Bat guano
Bone Meal
Blood Meal
Azomite
Dolomitic Lime


So today I go to prepare some pots (yes I'm getting excited) and load the bottom half of the pots. I get to the container that has the soil for the top portion and the thing is CRAWLING WITH TONS of gnat flies. I'd been noticing them buzz around for some time and couldn't peg where they came from. I'd checked the other container twice (it was on top of the other) so I assumed that since that one was fine so was the other. But holy hell I was wrong.


So here be my dilemma. I'm quite upset that I've put this dedication into producing a microbial rich soil and fear having the back step the progress in my efforts to destroyed the little bastards. I live in a northern climate where the temp is still subzero. I'm not sure if putting the container outdoors to freeze will kill the gnats or only make them dormant. In either case, I'm pretty confident that the soil is riddled with eggs and freezing won't do diddly. My inclination would be to use a peroxide solution but fear killing all the microbial life I've put so much effort into attaining.


Any help or suggestions would be absolutely lovely and appreciated.


Cheers

top dress your pots with diatomaceous earth and leave a shallow dish of water on the floor to kill adults

Mosquito Bits®

Get some living worm castings and make a tea with just worm castings and the nematodes will devour em lil bastards I had fungus gnats months ago and they didn't survive the attack,
Use the method I stated and you will see progress take back your garden fuck em lil bastards

U doing living soil or u doing synthetics?

Just gotta ask I know u said u be doing organic and all just wondering if u meaning pseudo organic or true organics

My intent is 100% pure organic. Im trting to creat e a living soil that i can simply amend and reuse.

Im curious what you mean by "living" castings. I currently ran out of wiggly worm brand and just heading out the door to get some i ordered fom a local hardware store. Not sure what that stuff is until i pick it up in about 30 mins.

And thanks for all the responses people. Much appreciated.

CannaBrained said:

My intent is 100% pure organic. Im trting to creat e a living soil that i can simply amend and reuse.

Im curious what you mean by "living" castings. I currently ran out of wiggly worm brand and just heading out the door to get some i ordered fom a local hardware store. Not sure what that stuff is until i pick it up in about 30 mins.

And thanks for all the responses people. Much appreciated.

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If it's not sterilized then it should be living especially if it's omri listed and states organic on the bag I used sterile worm castings worst mistake I personally use gardners and bloom worm castings my plants love it

And if you wanna get a good technique going I highly recommend true living organics get book 1 n 2 off of amazon it changed my life to growing organics the results are phenomenal/supernatural

HemperorsKnight said:

Get some living worm castings and make a tea with just worm castings and the nematodes will devour em lil bastards I had fungus gnats months ago and they didn't survive the attack,
Use the method I stated and you will see progress take back your garden fuck em lil bastards

U doing living soil or u doing synthetics?

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I thought the bit about Nematodes (never heard of them till now) was interesting so I did a little research. I'm sure you are aware that there are products out there just are just for inoculating the soil with the Nematodes. What is your opinion (or anyone else's for that matter) regarding those products? Seems pretty beneficial, especially for outdoor grows.

CannaBrained said:

I thought the bit about Nematodes (never heard of them till now) was interesting so I did a little research. I'm sure you are aware that there are products out there just are just for inoculating the soil with the Nematodes. What is your opinion (or anyone else's for that matter) regarding those products? Seems pretty beneficial, especially for outdoor grows.

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Doesn't worm castings inoculate it? Lemme see if I can find a link to help the understanding of worm castings

From my limited understanding I believe that tea does so. However as with all things natural the process might take some time.

It will but the results should satisfy you I wanted to avoid anything that would end up in my medicine so I found out bout the wc just hope you get the same results I got

spinosad drench.

organic yes, http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/pest-control/spinosad-zmgz11zrog

non organic?

IMIDACLOPRID. is not organic and can be toxic.

Easy, a cup of lemon juice in all your pots will work. Simple cheap and works. Traps those little fuckers

Lemon juice will either raise or lower the ph which could make y our plants lock out the nutrients so I would stick with something not so cruel on your soils ph just my .02

They breed in the top of the soil. Let the top dry out before watering and they will die. A layer of perlite on top of the soil will kill them too by not being able to reach the damp soil to breed. No need to use anything but cultural controls.
Burn1

No need to use anything but cultural controls

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indeed best method

I recently lost my battle with fungus gnats so I would advise caution and staying on top of things.

I followed the same suggestions that were mentioned here:
- Let top layer dry out
- Use Nematodes
- Use BTI (mosquito dunks)
- Topdress with diatomaceous earth
- Sticky fly traps to catch adult flyers

I think a few more suggestions I tried. Did not try spinosad or imid.

Anyway, long story short:
I tried a whole bunch of stuff and I never got completely rid of them. Which always led to new outbreaks. Ebbs and flows, sometimes I managed to get rid of most of them but they always came back stronger than before.

A few mistakes I made that likely contributed to their returns:
- Overwatered the soil. I had to let them dry out so the top layer would be an uninhabitable zone for the gnats. So naturally I thought "when I water, I REALLY gotta quench their thirst". That was no good as the overwatering caused additional problems aside from offering an ideal breeding ground for the gnats for longer periods of time.
- I started fresh rounds of clones and seedlings in the same grow space. I did this twice and each time I lost all or close to all seedlings and clones while giving the gnat population a jump start to come back with a vengeance. This was big for me because not only did I loose clones and seedlings but I also made things so much worse for the existing plants. One time I had almost gotten rid of the gnats but they came back full swing after I popped some seeds.


So while many online seem to say "no big deal just do this and that" I want to advise caution as small mistakes can really make these beasts get out of control.

I am currently bringing it a totally mangled harvest that looks like someone grew them under T5s with a huge range of nute deficiencies. All basically because the plants have very poor root structure due to the gnats and overwatering.
After that harvest I decided to completely shut down, get rid of my old soil and restart a few months later when I had a chance to clean everything out and give it some time to die down.

I was told this isn't necessary due to the 21 day lifecycle of the gnats but I found a pot I had harvested and forgotten in a corner that had no living plant in it, yet gnats lived in that soil (that hadn't been watered) for more than 2 months. When I discovered the pot, it was still crawling with gnats...

Just don't underestimate the suckers, they did me in good.

Good luck in fighting the good fight.

Not a cup of lemon juice directly into soil... you put lemon juice in a cup and place in our top of your soil by the plant...

organic growers dont have issues with gnat flys.......so much solution out there....
and i dont kill them until all gone...to lazy for that....when you dont smoke youre trim directly a few flys dont matter(i had more then a few on one black domina plant on harvest)
there was no one on rockhard and good buds after trim...

but the trick to cut down the route to the eggs is really good...just have to use your finger to detect when next water...anyway i always to finger test..

often em5/mk5 is enough ,neem alone too........but you got to spray more then once or two...
find youre agent and stay with him and dont change agents often...im still with agent neem and agent em5...

but in the end it was my ignition fault cause i didnt mix and cook my first two soilmixxes indoors under isolation of gnats...

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]All basically because the plants have very poor root structure due to the gnats and overwatering.[/FONT]

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the root infecting gnats are rare...there are threads here about it...in the most of the time it isnt that gnats you talk about...

i think you mixxed organic approach with old chem style...that was youre misstake...forgive me..you did chems in your soil...cant say nematodes like that....

wasgedn said:

organic growers dont have issues with gnat flys.......so much solution out there....
and i dont kill them until all gone...to lazy for that....when you dont smoke youre trim directly a few flys dont matter(i had more then a few on one black domina plant on harvest)
there was no one on rockhard and good buds after trim...

but the trick to cut down the route to the eggs is really good...just have to use your finger to detect when next water...anyway i always to finger test..

often em5/mk5 is enough ,neem alone too........but you got to spray more then once or two...
find youre agent and stay with him and dont change agents often...im still with agent neem and agent em5...

but in the end it was my ignition fault cause i didnt mix and cook my first two soilmixxes indoors under isolation of gnats...
the root infecting gnats are rare...there are threads here about it...in the most of the time it isnt that gnats you talk about...

i think you mixxed organic approach with old chem style...that was youre misstake...forgive me..you did chems in your soil...cant say nematodes like that....

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Organic growers can too get them bastards I use nothing that isn't in nature already I avoid chemicals with my life and I've dealt with fungus gnats but you are correct about chemicals pissing the nematodes and other imo's indigenous microorganisms it's like a lil society that works together i.e. symbiosis which is why healthy plants tend to be less attractive to pests but that won't stop em all lol