How do you no-tillers feel about flooding as opposed to pouring over top? So far in my experience, the plants have been loving it. I just don’t see how certain things would get through the fabric. Like if you are feeding the microbes and worms. I had to start flooding my pots because i topped my pots off with neem , karanja and diatomaceous earth, to fight off Fungus Gnats.
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Do you mean dipping your pots in to water as opposed to watering by hand.? Are the gnats gone now, if you still have em then you’d be best watering from the top… good luck
Gaz
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Yeah, like pouring to the bottom tray and it wicks up.
Still fighting them. I will go ahead and stop doing that. I can see how that attracts them more.
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Id consider that wicking not flooding. Flooding is top watering to the point it runs out the bottom of the pot.
Wicking is great for no till because it allows the soil to get as moist as it needs to be without being overly wet. Just make sure they’re not sitting in a pool of water for days, as it can cause anaerobic conditions.
Flooding in no till is a no go because with that style you’re building the micro life and nutrient stores. When you over water to the point of run off, you’re washing away the micros and water soluble nutrients you’ve worked so hard to build up literally down the drain.
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Hello,
the two reasons for a overpopulation of fungus gnats are overwatering (rotting roots) and a too cold climate.
Having a few fungus gnats flying around isn’t too much of a problem. Let the pot dry out before you water and the population should decrease in a few weeks.
If your Plants are happy and healthy, they produce enough hormones to make them less weak and strong enough to fight their enemys.
Be well.
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Couple questions.
What are the dimensions of your no-till pots?
How high up the side do you flood them?
And how long do you let the water stay there?
There are a couple variables that will affect the performance, and if those are dialed in watering would be a breeze. You heard of sub-irrigated planters?
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this has never worked for me, the population explodes without some kind of organic or other pesticide
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Same here. At the height of the infestation, there was a solid three inches of bone dry material on the top of the pots.
If there’s enough water for plants to survive, there’s enough water for fungus gnats to survive.
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I’m starting to think of mixing some form of Bti into the soil to make it easier. I wonder if you could just add 1-2% of mosquito bits to the mix like vermiculite and control them. Right now I’m doing 3-4 waterings with Gnatrol to kill them off and it gets expensive, it’s $35 per pound. Nematodes are great but even more expensive.
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Yeah that is what I was doing, wicking. I would pour a watering can full into the bottom tray holding each fabric pot once and then once completely absorbed about an hour later i repeat. Never leaving any access water in the pots for longer than an hour or two while they wicked up.
I can definitely see that going on right now to where, even though there is an infestation of fungus gnats, the plants couldn’t be healthier, and doing better. I just released some nematodes this morning, poured over top. Hopefully this will help with the larvae, and slow them down.
4x4 tent with 4 '10 gallon fabric pots. I would just almost fill up the bottom plastic green water tray, and the water would wick up, and not leaving the water in there longer than an hour or 2. I believe it being winter and i have to blame myself for over watering in veg to really get to where i am at now. Lesson learned.
I believe i have heard of sub irrigated planters. Ill look into that,
flood and drain… ebb and flow… is like growing on auto pilot.
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Sounds good. After a couple cycles, after you build up good amounts of micro life, you’ll stop seeing the fungus gnats. There will be enough predators that the larva won’t stand a chance. The addition of good nematodes should add a nice shield until the soil life catches up.
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usually they do a complete wipe-out within two weeks. There used to be a health-food store in my town that stocked nematodes in their shop for only $16 per sponge, since they closed it’s been too expensive for me to use them.
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Yeah. It’s pretty much the same idea. The bottom is lined with grow stones to give room for water to flood the soil from beneath.
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Yes, it would be easier, if you stop seeing them as enemys. Instead of fighting the bad, do the good. In other words, make your plants strong enough to withstand the attack. Bring Microorganisms into your earth, if you have an upbuilding climate, Fungus Gnats will have no chance. Because they basically live from the destroying climate. Because: Rott = dying material / needs to get processed. Think about it.
Or do something funny, do the exact opposite. Drown you plants like there is no tomorrow, this makes them also resistant enough for withstanding attacks, but mention: Veg times will take the 2-3th of normal, but once you got that plant thriving again, oh boy. This is how I harden my plants, it get’s saved via EPI-Genetics and voila, the Genetic Code changed, this is the only way it should be manipulated in my opinion. All other changes bring big contrarys and a looooot of instability.
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Very dope set-up! I wouldn’t mind running something like that!