less plants more co2 cause it doesnt be used by plants...it have to be the way that the soil produces co2 too...especialy when its 110%alive....
are you able to exclude other sources of the co2 to youre room..`?
how much did you pay for the co2 meter...?
You are exactly right the microbes are giving off co2 during respiration. I think it was Lapides who was bragging that his living soil keeps his room at a constant 1000ppm without any artificial co2 source. I also run my veg room with no air exchange.So, I have a C02 meter in my flower room, but I'm not running C02. I switched to no till last cycle, and while my room was full of plants, I averaged around 400ppm. Now that the crops been cut, I'm maintaining 700-800ppm?
I have a small amount of plants still in the room that I use as amendments for my soil, so I keep the lights on, and everything running in between cycles. I exchange my air in the room on a timer, as my air conditioner takes care of the temps. Anyways, in between air exchanges, the c02 levels maintain between 700-800ppm. The air drawn in from outside is around 400. My soil is very alive, with lots of mulch. My best guess is that my soil is generating c02.
Anyone else encountering this?
wow...this is a great news...see organic growing...hehe...his living soil keeps his room at a constant 1000ppm without any artificial co2 source.
You are exactly right the microbes are giving off co2 during respiration. I think it was Lapides who was bragging that his living soil keeps his room at a constant 1000ppm without any artificial co2 source. I also run my veg room with no air exchange.
Good idea!
Hypoaspis Miles will most likely stick around and keep a nice balance between friend and foe I've learned. They could be eating some type of larvae (fungus gnats it sounds like) so that's a good sign. Weird how they started dying in mass amounts though.
I bet your plan works, they'll populate quickly in your mom room and should get a hold on things once and for all. If not, consider some neem meal mixed with EWC at 1-2 tbsp per container - this has worked for me for over 2 years now
A couple things about the neem meal. I already have a large amount in my soil, and I've repeatedly applied it to the surface to combat the fungus gnats. I'm worried about overloading on it, which can cause problems with seed germination, and certainly overload my nitrogen levels.
When you say 1-2 tbsp are you referring to the amount off neem, or the neem EWC mixture? I have large raised beds in my flower room, I would need an idea of how much to add per square foot of surface area. My beds are pretty tall as well, and the fungus gnats crawl down the sides where the soil seperates from the fabric as the soil dries. So while I can apply neem to the top, I can't get the sides well.
Thinking about it it's not strange to my why they died in large amounts, they're pretty small, there were many dead juveniles stuck to the outside walls of my fabric beds, I think they got stuck in the fabric, I found no adults that died this way, once they make it down the beds, and onto the floor, it's basically a desert, devoid of water and food, since the beds sit on carts with wheels, it's not easy to get back into the beds, as they only contact the ground at the wheels. I imagine that it took the ones that made it to the floor a good deal of time to get there, as they would have to find the small wheels to crall down. Once on the floor they are stuck, not being able to find another food or water source. Some of the dust piles of thier dead bodies were over an inch thick, that's a lot of dead mites. Moving as fast as they do, they probably need to eat regularly.
Why does mixing EWC and neem meal combat fungus gnats? With both neem and EWC in my worm bins how did the fungus gnats take hold in there?
I'll give it another shot next time I have an infestation, as it is now the predator mites are doing their job. The next thing I'm going to try is growing my own nematodes. If that's unsuccessful I'm going to buy the smallest amount I can and try to get them to multiply before putting them in my soil.
I also need to research neem meal a bit more, I think my predator mites were affected by it.
At some point I'd really like to get away from using neem products unless I can grow some trees in my greenhouse.