Like the Title says, I am using recycled soil, current flowering is finishing its second run with the soil. Some premium bagged soil was used as a base and combined with bulk compost, lots of wormcast, char, kelp, azomite, rock dust, and more goodies as well. plants loved it, but so do the fungus gnats.The gnats have gotten away from me the last couple weeks and there are quite a few crawling/flying around the soil surface of about half the plants. What would you do to deal with the gnats while still reusing this soil? I don't think I can bring myself to chuck it and make new soil, I'm talking about around a yard of dirt here. I did neem the soil surface when I first noticed the gnats and also later used some clove/rosemary oil(SNS 203). It helped for a little while but, by the time I discovered the gnat larvae are abundant on the BOTTOM of the pots(where it stays moistest) it was so close to harvest I decided to just ride it out and I spent time daily hunting down all the flyers I could find in lieu of drenching anything.
So now I am harvesting the room and have to deal with these gnats as I look to recycle the dirt once again. What would you do? I will be using an ozone generator in the room as per usual between harvest cleaning routine. I thought about leaving the soil in while ozone the room but I feel like it would take a loong time for the ozone to penetrate deep into the soil and get the gnats/larvae as I'm sure they would retreat to the interior of the pots (felt pots btw). Of course I'm not that into sterilizing my soil either after all the work I've done to cultivate a rich living soil. Another option I'm considering is to drench the soil with neem once the plants are out. like 2-3 times over the course of a week or so. In my veg the neem drench seems to have taken care of the gnats nicely, so I think this is a good option. maybe I'll ozone for a few hrs and kill whatever gnats it will, then neem drench...
MY other thought is about freezing, winter is fast approaching here and this dirt will certainly freeze deep before I finish the next upcoming flower cycle( using soil that has been sitting in an outdoor bin and amended) and need to use it again. will freezing kill the gnats? is that all I need? If you have any thoughts/suggestions I'd love to hear'em!
Thanks all!
<3
gOurd
So now I am harvesting the room and have to deal with these gnats as I look to recycle the dirt once again. What would you do? I will be using an ozone generator in the room as per usual between harvest cleaning routine. I thought about leaving the soil in while ozone the room but I feel like it would take a loong time for the ozone to penetrate deep into the soil and get the gnats/larvae as I'm sure they would retreat to the interior of the pots (felt pots btw). Of course I'm not that into sterilizing my soil either after all the work I've done to cultivate a rich living soil. Another option I'm considering is to drench the soil with neem once the plants are out. like 2-3 times over the course of a week or so. In my veg the neem drench seems to have taken care of the gnats nicely, so I think this is a good option. maybe I'll ozone for a few hrs and kill whatever gnats it will, then neem drench...
MY other thought is about freezing, winter is fast approaching here and this dirt will certainly freeze deep before I finish the next upcoming flower cycle( using soil that has been sitting in an outdoor bin and amended) and need to use it again. will freezing kill the gnats? is that all I need? If you have any thoughts/suggestions I'd love to hear'em!
Thanks all!
<3
gOurd