Might be a good thing, it’s like with cultivars and crossings, F1’s always have more vigor. We’d be adding more diversity to our soil, never a bad thing.
It would become more advanced.
In my world anyway!
But gnats are not the problem, they are simply symptoms, indicators of overwatering.
It’s exactly the worrying and handwringing about them that causes all the trouble, people putting things in their water to kill the gnats, or putting some kind of stuff on their soil and then watering it in, while it’s simply the water that keeps them alive.
Water from the bottom and water less. Or wait until your plants start wilting. Problem solved.
Gotta have the patience to let the top layer dry out.
The eggs can survive for quite a while.
It can take a month or more.
In other words: LITFA
Edit, I’ve just scrolled through the entire thread again.
You topdressed with fungi, might wanna avoid that as that’s why fungus gnats are called fungus gnats.
Thanks for making this thread, now I realize it’s another reason why I had so many fungus gnats in my previous grows. I haven’t topdressed with fungi anymore and now they’re almost totally gone.
It’s like Mother Nature is saying,
“Child, there are thousands and thousands of different species of fungi in your soil, and every single one is necessary. Stop trying to understand me and have faith,
I fucking made you.”
Well I do have multiple beds with different mixes of soil. The 3x3 that you are pointing your finger at has had ZERO gnat issues and has had lots of fungi in and around it. Literally not even 1 dead gnat on top of the light or anything. The 3x3 bed even went through a number of watering’s that were MUCH heavier than the 2x4 bed and there was no issue ever. Also the 3x3 bed had much more decomposition on the top layer that you would think would bring some around.
Now the 2x4 bed (experimental bed as I mention somewhere at the beginning of the diary), I threw that soil together on the cheaper end of things to see how it would work compared to the other mix. This mix had 3 different types of compost (2 that are trash and brought on the gnats…) I also used this mix in my earthboxes and I have used BOTH soil mixes to pot seedlings into.
Interesting enough, the 2 earthboxes with the same soil as the 2x4 also have gnats. Granted they are not as bad as the 2x4 but still there and bad enough, but luckily easy to take care of since they only crawl out the hole by the stem and are easily trapped with yellow traps for the most part.
I try to keep my seedlings on the drier side but the gnats still come out of the pots with the 2x4’s soil in them.
Yes they thrive in wetter conditions, but an extra few cups of water is not the difference between me having gnats and not having gnats in that 2x4 bed, it is simply the trash compost I used.
It only made things worst that I was unaware the 1 type of compost I still had a bag of, was some of the very stuff that brought them to begin with. If I had known, then I would not have topped the bed with that very compost to snuff the gnats out with, therefor bringing them back in even higher volume.
It is what it is: live, learn, keep moving forward and thrive
Tossed on a few training clips so they can breath and start to enjoy all their extra room. Also put the Ice Cream Cake S1 from @TestOfOath right in the center after I was done training. Should be an interesting test with all these different plants mingling together lol.
I might be down for that. I am sure there would not be many critters in there I would not want lol. If you have a dense population of beneficial, I would be down for that possibly. I could either pay for shipping or send you a few crosses from the 3x3 bed or whatever, you know I am flexible heh.
From my experience it matters a whole lot.
Stopping with watering altogether is what made all the difference.
They never even wilted even after weeks.
I still throw in little bits of my leftover tea that I drink, occasionally.
But stopping with that too from now on.
Just sharing my experience, it’s all different for everyone, not telling you what to do, just thinking out loud because I know how annoying they can be.
I’m simply amazed at how well a living no-till soil regulates and retains its own climate and moisture levels. It seems that so long as I keep throwing fresh organic matter at it I don’t have to water it because the fungi suck up the water from the fresh organic matter which are mostly kitchenscraps.
Most fruit and veggies are like 70-90% water, something like that?
Slow release, instead of a deluge.
Do you have a mix of worms @Rogue? how do you manage so much decomposition directly in the soil?
I would think that would attract the gnats as well, especially banana peels and such. Does the matter dry out when you top dress with it, or does it get consumed fairly fast?
No idea if there’s any worms left in there, I have added some to all my pots a long time ago but I don’t know if they survived and laid eggs.
I have a LOT of rolly pollies though, they are great recyclers and I see lots of their droppings on the bottom of the container. They all eat and excrete so that’s a constant supply of nitrogen and moisture as well. And aeration from their tunneling is another plus.
The organic matter dries out in a matter of days and then turns into a goo, then dries again, all the while it sinks so that you can place more organic matter on top.
It’s very much an constant ebb and flow of moisture levels at the topsoil.
It’s the fast drying times that are keeping the gnats away I think.
Mycelium transports huge amounts of nutrients and water over long distances and very fast.
Why water when you have fungi, seems to be the lesson I’m learning.
One thing I don’t have is the rolly pollies, I hear they can be pretty aggressive so just didn’t go there yet but sounds like they do you a lot of good.
I bet you have worms if your matter is sinking down into the soil.
rice hulls quillaja powder is how i got rid of fungus gnats.
i don’t know how well rice hulls will work as a cover for a SIP though. they might work, but you’d probably need a good thick layer of them - at least 5" is my scientific wild ass guess.
Ys I put too small of a layer in the first time I did. I added 5 more gallons to the top yesterday and poofed some DE on top a little bit ago. They must die!
My SIP/earthbox containers I am not too worried about, it was pretty easily controlled for the most part in there so far.
I usually don’t take the time to trim to heavy, but I was going to give some out so figured I should clean them up a bit. Still will give a final shave before any leaves the nest heh.
Sorry, I’m a bit late to the party… I tried rice hulls and DE myself when I first got fungus gnats. The issue with DE is that as soon as it gets wet it doesn’t work anymore.
If you still have gnats, try beneficial nematodes. You can find them on Amazon. I got these ones that come in little packets. Bury the packet in the soil about a 1/2" and just keep it moist. The nematodes will eat all the gnat eggs and larvae and your yellow sticky traps will catch the adults. I haven’t had gnats in years now after I introduced the nematodes! Happy living soiling my man!
