I lost an entire $150 pack of solfire beans last month to damping off. I then remembered an old gardening tip to saturate my mix with boiling water. My next batch is 5 of 6 healthy !
I use whatever coco blocks the farm store has. Hydrate, then rinse til the ppm is same going in as going out. I’ve never sterilized, and haven’t had any problems… at least with the coco
I use strictly Mo Koko and in many years have never had an issue, I will second @DougDawson on the Canna coco as well. I know a few people who use it faithfully straight out of the bag. Tbh it does seem like a good practice though. “ better safe than sorry”
I was thinking about this last year.
It occurred to me that with some cardboard and tin foil I could build a solar oven for some backdoor cook’n…
I was thinking ‘pizza geometry’ (long an thin) could get the temperature up quickly for cycling through some soil.
Haven’t done it yet though…
Yes, for a couple of years. I pack soil into a wire basket and put it in an old instant pot. Add the minimum amount of water and put the basket on a wire rack to keep it out of the water. Let it pressurize and cool over night. Good way to moisturize old super dry soil too.
I tried putting hot (not boiling) water in coco but still got gnats. For me gnats are always present in ANY coco I’ve tried, canna, flora flex, earth juice coco. Idk I just use nematodes to kill them off. I usually buy kis or bas soils and don’t run any hot water.
I can give 6 months worth of reasons why I’d like to sterilize my soil from now on and can’t really cause I don’t want my old lady any angrier than she is but I’m just gonna stay way from promix from now on instead
… Would a nematode watering as first watering for any newly potted soil/Coco essentially cleanse it of any eggs and such?
There are a ton of things you can put on soil to clean it up, Nematodes are one, spinosad and BTI being the other two I would use if bugs were a constant problem iny growing medium
I can’t speak for the coco guys but when it comes to being an organic soil grower, if your building a soil or reusing your old stuff it’s extremely important to let it “cook” or pasteurize sitting in the sun for at least a month but 3 is most ideal. For those that don’t know what pasteurizing is or the science behind it, your getting your soil to temps of 140-180 with the 140-160 degree side being more beneficial than the 160-180 side of things. This is doing a few things for you, it’s killing off the bad detrimental microbes and allowing the good ones to flourish, well an abundance of good microbes charged up is what’s gonna unlock that nutrient in the soil. Your killing off any seeds that may be lingering in the medium and your taking out any pest eggs that also may be hanging in there. Taking your soil and baking it or throwing boiling water on it is gonna disrupt and kill off those beneficials and just makes me cringe when I hear ppl doing that cuz they are basically starting from scratch again with microbes. If you are gonna insist on manual pasteurization then make a soup out of your soil on the stove stiring frequently keeping temps consistent through the medium, get it to the sweet spot of 165 degrees and dump it in a Sterlite or Rubbermaid tub overnight, if doing enough volume that tote should keep that 140-160 degrees for majority of the night to accomplish a beautiful pasteurization
If u got fungus gnats, then back off on your watering and increase the airflow in the grow space. They are attracted to stagnant over saturated soil that allowed an unbeneficial fungus to grow, continuing to overwater or present an anaerobic stagnant environment and the lil bastards with always be a nuisance.
As an example, I’m growing in a greenhouse in the hottest and dryest part of the country in az, I’m only watering every 4-5 days, any of you guys that tell me you are watering every 2-3 days in soil and I’d still suspect it’s to frequent
I’m not sure about the nematodes. I think you have to use them up in a month then they start to die off. I’m also not sure if you can use them to kill off any fungus gnats eggs when you start fresh in coco. It takes awhile for the gnats to pop up imho.
For me personally it would seem every coco or peat product I’ve ever used has came with a little something extra!
That’s why a IPM is absolutely paramount!!
I shit the bed a little and slacked…currently have a fungus nat and Thrip issue…too late this round to do anything about it! But will be exterminated here shortly!!
The main issue I’ve found with coco is the extremely high salt content of most if not all brands of coco…flush flush flush flush!!
Miss those days lol that’s how I started growing: perlite, coco, castings and I never had an issue. That all changed when I went organic though lol, fortunately I enjoy the challenge.
lol, fortunately I enjoy the challenge.