The last pack of mosquito dunks I bought
18 months ago cost $23 for a pack of 6 doughnuts from the local gro shop, I still have 2 left, might stick them on eBay $10 each plus shipping.
If the DE gets wet it turns to gooo, it will suck the moisture out of the soil.
I have been there and done it all. Best solution was predator mites, from a place in Toronto on Amazon, I think it was $55 for a 5’000 mite pack never had a gnat problem since they are still present in my soil, eating gnat larvae, and it was a really bad infestation, all gone in a few weeks.
Was looking into predator mites. Read that cold weather will almost guarantee dead preds on arrival. I may be hooped until spring.
You could probably go $15 or $20 a piece…lol. Desperation can make people open their wallets a bit more…and $15-$20 is still cheaper than buying the $40, 2 pack.
These mites I had just slow down in the cold, that’s why I got them after I ordered the nematodes, it was March when I ordered them, the nematodes I ordered were frozen dead on arrival. They store the mites in a cold room to put them into a sleep state. You have to warm them up when you get them if it’s winter time. If you’re not re using your soil mix then they probably won’t be as effective in the long run. I can find a link for you if you like.
Still using just the Maxibloom/Silica/calmag? Do you mess with the koolbloom at all or totally unnecessary?
You’re straight DLA Male looks very nice! I would’ve kept him too
Sucks on the hermie, was pretty nice looking except for that. I’ve actually been going through a bit of that myself lately
Best of luck on knocking out the gnats and whatnot, looks like you got the place pretty well covered at least so I’d think you’d be good… I Can’t stand bugs in the garden. My wife brought in a houseplant she had outside and it was totally infested with spider mites. Thankfully I had a separate tent and whatnot I kept it in. The only thing that worked for me was spraying spinosad daily on the plant for like a week straight. Doing it every other day, 3 days, whatever, the mites just laughed at me and kept producing. Was only killing the adults or something. Finally after a month or so of dealing with it I went to daily and that did em in. I’m just not sure if herb can handle that stuff on it every day like that, definitely wouldn’t want to do it in flower that’s for sure.
First, thanks for your compliments!!
As far as nutes go, I’ve kind of switched things up.
I was having N toxicity. Possibly because I wasn’t vegging at all and the N was building up or something.
For veg. I’ve dropped nutes entirely. I still add light Silica, but thats it for the vegging plants.
For flower picked up some monster bloom (0-50-30). I add it lightly…never more than half strength. I also lightly add the Raw K (0-0-50) but just bump up K the last few weeks for the oldest plants.
I haven’t busted out my tds meter in ages…mostly just try and read the plants.
One of my absolute worst fears!! I’ve made it extremely clear to the kids and gf that the only thing that comes inside from outside are the veggies we’re going to eat…lol.
Oh, snap! I’m not sure what I did differently…but I was able to find them on the HD site. They don’t sell them in store, but can get the in. May give the a try if I can’t get in front of this gnat issue.
Still $16 for 2…lol
And this is the one time the rollers at Canada Post would be helpful…busting up the doughnuts for me…lol
I got a big pack of dunks from the US on ebay for a decent price. 1/4 piece soaking in the water bucket for a while should take them out, no crushing required. Add fresh if they come back.
To be sure about ending gnats in soil at least 4 months after you see the last adult can you say you’re totally rid of them if using de. Learned about that with a houseplant years ago…
I ve been battling fungus gnats recently too. As well as a lock out which I think was a PH issue. I have since set up a box fan so it blows under the canopy. It knocks the little j holes around and dries the upper layer of the pots out. I imagine the DE would mess em up too.
It interrupts their life cycle. It shreds their soft bodies as they first emerge from the soil and causes them to dry out.
Words of wisdom from my granny,
Fungus gnats live in soil but not all soil gnats are fungus gnats.
You can also crush up eggshells and put that on top of the soil, or cover the top of the soil with a layer of sand, in order to kill gnats. The eggshells/DE/sand has to cover the surface to kill gnats, because they can’t lay their eggs. I used to make a concrete layer out of the DE to prevent the root maggot flies from laying their eggs and eating the cauliflower roots. Then I discovered a frost blanket works better.
(I couldn’t resist)