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!
Up periscope lol. Looking nice and healthy… Let’s us know how it turns out. Rare darkness is one strain from rare dankness I looked at but never ended up getting. I have three or four of their strains, but have only run Scott’s og. Just looking for the time to run some more.
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Haha no doubt. Thanks man! I’ll try and keep this updated.
I have stopped wicking, and went back to pouring over the top. The plants definitely loved the wicking, and I found it to be pretty beneficial when just using water. When watering with amendments, and beneficials, I found that its messy to wick, unless you are able to clean out your tray(s.) I have a net up so it is hard for me to clean my trays. So not the best idea, because it attracts the fungus gnats. Thats my take on it.
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So do you purposely nearly drown the plants to kill gnat larvae, I’ve seen the pots saturated and Left for a while yet when it eventually dries and you feed again, they made/make a comeback… Lol.
I every now & then give my feed a small drop of hydrogen peroxide and some fly strips get lots of Adult gnat’s… But coz I’m perpetual, it’s hard for me to completely wipe them out , so its pest ‘management’ ATM for myself…
Good luck @Illyssian.
Gaz
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Moving my pic updates of this grow to one universal page : Miyagi's No-till Garden
Much thanks to everyone for their inputs, and lets keep it growing!
Peace
Miyagi
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As I said, I don’t even mind. Some Fungus Gnats are not destroying my plants. I keep my Moms Strong to have them resistant. H2O2 sets the Plant into an “alarmed state” where it does produce diffrent hormones, this can also help boosting the immune system of the plant. I also do it here and there now, but not necessery if plants are held strong and “upright”.
Be well.
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