Can you help me to get something like this going, from basically nothing?
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Sure, Iāll take some. These and nematodes are great for the fungus gnats, but since I donāt notill, I use fresh soil mix with every transplant, I can only use them for one flowering crop and thatās it.
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I thinking of trying to maintain a population of them.
@lotus710 seems to have a trick that works.
I certainly can. if you have nothing, and its not frozen solid there you can go into the woods and collect tons of leaf mold off the forest floor. this will come along with these bugs plus millions more. you can also use some with rice and collect some imos!
I keep an organic compost pile which is teeming.
I really wasnāt thinking of having all of those fellas in here, but this seems to be what you are suggesting.
The bottom of that pile doesnāt freeze until we have the most bone chilling weather.
Maybe I can set up a bin in my garage with soil and a leaf cover; rarely goes below 32 in there.
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there ya go. also for winters you can buy soil warmers for compost piles. you can mulch super heavy also which helps a lot even without soil warmers.
if you have a compost pile I suggest filling the biggest smart pot you can fit in your house with it and add as many worms and malted barley powder that you can afford right awayXD
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Righteous! + 10 Characters
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Keep moist I assume. It will eventually dry out in there, even with a leaf cover.
Things got cold last night and I cleaned out most the goods at the end of this summer. Built a new flower bed.
Can probably scrape up another wheelbarrow full. Its going to be buried.
Iāll grab a couple of 25 gallon tubs from the pile this afternoon.
Many thanks @lotus710.
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yessir keep it moist. I notice the sides of the smart pots need watering more often but rarely the inside. I usualy give my worm bins the scraps of ferments and the leftovers of teas. oh and all the veggies that go bad when I buy too many. nothing non organic though
This is a given! - 
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taking woods soil - Iād be paranoid of bringing in some spider mite eggs, thrips, whiteflies, etc. However I could see a more controlled way of doing it - you could start with a bag of bio-active compost and just add the bugs you like it and keep that in the garage.
for example this compost is great and comes teeming with microbial life and no pernicious insects. Actually all Iād really need would be a larger vessel for mixing my soil - I currently mix 11-gallon batches in a big container. If I could expand that to 30 or 40 gallons at a time I could always leave it 50% full and start a population of bugs. Just beneficial nematodes alone would be enough to wipe out fungus gnats.
The finest compost-based soils and mulches combine decomposed marine and plant matter teeming with the naturally occurring micro-organisms all plants need for healthy growth.
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you are correct there is a worry for bringing pests into your garden that i should have mentioned.
you can compost it like muleskinner said or you can also freeze everything in your freezer! when i forage for mulch or dead wood for in my pots ill take everything and put it in the freezer over night. this is just a precaution. and always make sure to spray everything down with an IPM spray before adding it to your garden once its out of the freezer. plants and all!
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@lotus, it is safe to assume I wonā know what you may be refering to.
Frinstance
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Sorry IPM is integrated pest management. whatever you do to keep pests away
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Thanks +14 characters
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And the food chain continues. Glad you brought this information up. I know I have unwated visitors all around my house and now that winter is coming they will try and squat in my houseā¦ Going to look into all methods here, and @99PerCent let me know if you were able to replicate his breeding bucket with sucess
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