I have a plant that is ailing in a way I’ve never seen before. I realized that the tiny white flecks floating on the surface of my octopup reservoir wasn’t actually perlite dust when I saw them moving! My hydro-expert @bu2b says he hasn’t ever seen this before, and he’s seen just bout every hydroponics problem, so I’m bringing this to the OG Braintrust for discussion.
Then they multiplied and began forming into clusters. This behavior seems intentional, if you scatter a cluster, they’ll begin randomly twitching about until they find a friend and one by one, reassemble.
They are very hard to photograph, but these show some structure. I think they are bright white, about 1 millimeter in length. They have a shape like SpringTails, but are they?
The Octopot reservoir in which they first appeared developed root rot before I got a handle on them and ditched the polluted water.
So far I have dosed them with Hydrogen peroxide, and Hydrochlorous Acid.Those both seem to kill them. I also purchased a submersible UV sanitizer light but it hasn’t arrived yet. I’m unsure what the best approach would be to also keep them from coming back.
Use a pond mosquito killer. Also put a pump or airstone in your resivoir as their eggs arent able to survive in moving water. Kind if how youll only find mosquito eggs in stangnant non moving water. Best bet is to make it so the water is constantly moving and they will never return.
These microarthropods are great at keeping your terrarium clean and a critical part of the bioactive fauna. They are often described as “Tank Janitors” and eat mold and waste.
Springtails, as suggested above, I have thousands of the same kind in each of my living soil grow bags. Harmless to your plants. When I water they come out and ride on the little flood of water like white froth on the ocean. People use them in vivariums as cleanup crew.
A period of complete dryness should kill them if their presence bothers you, such as taking a couple days between runs and getting your whole setup completely dry. That includes the soil though, and I read it’s got to be bone dry to kill them.
I think mine came in on compost from my worm bin, and I reuse living soil in a perpetual grow, so they’re here to stay. That’s okay though, I think they’re cute.
In addition to the above, one of the aquarium videos mentioned that you can also kill them with heat, say from a hair dryer. I borrowed my wife’s blow dryer and it worked quickly and cleanly. No visible survivors.
Good to know they aren’t supposed to be harmful, and maybe the root problems were just coincidental, but I’m glad they are gone!
When conditions or the habitat is right, springtails can occur in enormous numbers (50,000 per cubic foot). Springtails can be found outdoors in any moist situation, usually feeding on algae, fungi and decaying vegetation. There are a few species that can feed on plants but we haven’t found damage from springtails in nurseries. In most cases, springtails are beneficial by speeding up the process of decay and returning nutrients back into the soil. However, if you are finding large numbers you may want to monitor young seedlings.
Although it may be tempting to spray a large springtail problem with an insecticide, the products available are generally not very effective against them even with multiple applications. Controlling moisture levels can be an effective strategy as they are extremely sensitive to moisture. If their normal environment becomes dry, they will move to actively seek moisture.
I noticed half way through last grow, that there were what I first thought was tiny plastic shavings in my nutrient solution (when the 20+ gallon res gets near the bottom I sometimes pour it into a 5 gallon, then place the pump in there so that it can reach), thought maybe the pump’s impeller was off kilter and disintegrating, or some other plastics breaking down, etc.
After while, trying another pump, etc., I stared into a bucket and noticed them moving, and said “fuck” they are springtails. I’ve seen them before, in run off.
Here’s the thing that’s really confusing me. I’m running a drain to waste setup. How are they getting into my reservoir?!
Here’s the basic setup described for the reservoir, tubing and irrigation: Res. with pump at bottom > pump > pvc adapter > section of pvc goes up > pvc adapter to poly adapter > black vinyl tubing > poly adapter(s) transition to short section of vinyl tubing again > poly adapter to MPT > 8 port “drip” irrigation manifold > 1/8" green flora flex tubing > attaches to basic “drip” stakes, pushed into coco/perlite mix about 3-4" above coco (pushed through that perforated shelf liner material).
The pump irrigates about every 4hrs, the plants are in plastic pots, on top of drainage risers, set in a “flood/drain” table, the runoff comes out, collects into tray and runs off through a bulkhead fitting, and into a waste bucket. There’s no recirculation.
So how the hell are they getting into the irrigation res., under the the raised ebb/flow table?
All I can think is that they’re…crawling up the “drip” stakes, and back into the tubing, partially living in there, and when irrigation events come on and then turn back off, a small amount of water that comes back down the tubing and pvc through the pump into the res carries them down…?
It’s baffling. I don’t think there’s any way they’re coming from anything other than the coco. I’m running synthetic fertilizer. The only new input is a new brand of CaSO4 (gypsum), which is much better than the previous version I used. How can they get into my res!?
Going to tag @Heather420 as well. She had a thread with the topic being the same issue.
My res gets sprayed out thoroughly between every res change (4 days max currently). The pump is completely disassembled and sprayed out as well, every res change. The tubing is all changed to brand new every flower cycle. The hard pvc up-pipe, and the 8 port manifolds are thoroughly cleaned/soaked in hot water with cleaner of some sort (eg, spray-nine, or bleach) for hours and hours between cycles.
Can’t get anything with spinosad in it in canada (not easily - sometimes might be able to, almost by accidental listing on amazon, or an unaware store(?)). Are you talking about irrigating with this soap? Which insecticide - do you mean insecticidal soap?
I have doctor bronner’s castile soap - peppermint. I might try a bit of that.
Was going to make a batch of HOCl, and run some through the irrigation - but more to kill any possible biofilm in the lines (which shouldn’t exist, 'cause I’m not adding organics to the res/lines). I might hand water some fert solution with wettable sulfur in through the plants, duno if that kills them - probably not?
However - my main question was how the hell are they getting into the res?
Them getting into the res of a non-circulating system doesn’t make sense though. Duno if you’re getting what I’m saying.
Are the crawling up the plastic drip stake, into the 1/8" line, and manifold, and vinyl tubing… cause otherwise there’s no way they could end up in the feed res.
I have a few springtails in my organic citrus grove. Never seen them wind up in the water culture though. I just have some spiders I farm in the grove to handle lame critters like gnats and springtails. For me they are mostly underneath the plastic pots where organic debris gathers.
They are very good at finding moisture and decaying matter. I have no idea how they end up in the places they do. I keep a stash of gallon jugs of RO water on the floor of my veg room. There have been times when I unscrew the cap to add fertilizer I see springtails floating.
Clean up the dead and maybe consider a barrier of diatomaceous earth in the areas where they gather.
