[greenfox]

Hey guys,

So I've been debating whether to feed the soil vs feed the plant and have stumbled upon a concern.. BUGS.

I've read that bug population is also important to the soil (part of the ecosystem duh) but I'm not sure I want to deal with bugs indoors.
My current plan is to utilize the garage, but I might have to move it indoors for more privacy.

Sooooo.. What are your thoughts on bugs?
Are they necessary for ALL soil grows?
Are they even necessary for living soil grows?
Could I do living soil with no bugs and maybe just worms?

All feedback is appreciated!

[gaiusmarius]

hello greenfox,

welcome to icmag.

im no expert on living soil, but i think it's referring to beneficial bacteria and maybe some earthworms, for the rest you don't really want creepy crawlies inside the soil, many of them feed on the roots. but i'm sure some more expert opinions about this will show up soon. living soil is a specialized subject i do know that much, so who knows, maybe you are supposed to have certains bugs in there lol.

growing in coco the last thing you want to see is shit scurrying or hoping around in the medium....

[greenfox]

Thank you for the welcome gaiusmarius!

My concern came from a post on the BuildaSoil instagram that mentioned the grower being overrun with mites. It got me thinking and then I discovered the beneficial bugs page on the buildasoil website haha. Hmmm..

[growinthehills]

Hey greenfox if you are doing a no till living soil i would assume you will end up with bugs in your soil. Bugs as in microbes you will be adding through compost or wormcastings or tea etc.
From my experience you will end up with insects in your soil as well and I believe this is healthy. I have seen springtail, soil mites, rolly pollies (sow bugs) and others. You may also have worms.
You will also want to look out for bad bugs in the soil the worst there could be in my experience is root aphids.
Good Luck and have fun with it. Living soil was the most fun, rewarding and simple way for me to grow and it produced the best quality.

[greenfox]

Originally Posted by growinthehills

Hey greenfox if you are doing a no till living soil i would assume you will end up with bugs in your soil. Bugs as in microbes you will be adding through compost or wormcastings or tea etc.
From my experience you will end up with insects in your soil as well and I believe this is healthy. I have seen springtail, soil mites, rolly pollies (sow bugs) and others. You may also have worms.
You will also want to look out for bad bugs in the soil the worst there could be in my experience is root aphids.
Good Luck and have fun with it. Living soil was the most fun, rewarding and simple way for me to grow and it produced the best quality.

This is encouraging, thank you for that.

[paradoxlost]

yea, you definitely need different organisms living in your soil the better. fill up as many different scales of life from chemical to cannabis

[Limeygreen]

I suggest hypoaspis miles (has a new name for years but I cannot remember it) hypoaspis aclulifer (I think that is the spelling) and atheta, two are mites that eat many things in the soil and atheta goes for mainly fungus gnat and shoreflies but can eat some other things in the soil as well. Expect to see earwigs, spring tails etc which are fine, I had a ton of spring tails making it look like a water leak when they were jumping when I first started my bed but then they slowly went down in numbers, simply decomposing organic materials and I believe they came in my compost or earth worm castings but still no problem from it.

[P-NUT]

Ive got roly poly, centipedes, earwigs, earthworms, soil mites, toads, green anoles, gekos, roaches of various types, once got stung by a wasp, and once found a small rat snake in my indoor room.

[nameless]

my no till living soil beds have a few creepy crawlies as well. no pill bugs for me (yet). they can mow down a stalk if you dont keep enough leaf litter or mulch for them to munch on. a strong no till bed will eventually attract all sorts of things thpugh. i have soil mites obviously, nematodes that i put there to keep away the fungus gnats, ladybugs, some centipedes, earwigs, and little spiders, worms... really you just want to pay attention to your plants. if they are happy, who cares whats creeping?

[dank.frank]

Think of it from this perspective. You need these different order of bugs to maintain a healthy soil as you are constantly adding new inputs. These things are eating each other, essentially, and not harming your plant.

Look at the compost food web. You have an entire biological process for digesting fallen leaves or cover crops into actual plant usable ions. It doesn't just include microscopic things.

https://compost.css.cornell.edu/invertebrates.html

Knowing what species are present during different stages of compost is a key indicator to how much biological activity you have, and how complete your ecosystem is. You know upon the addition of new raw materials, you should see an increase in primary consumers, etc.

Just more stuff to know.



dank.Frank