It doesn’t need to wet the top, but I don’t put small plants in big pots, I do a series of up potting.
The plant likes dry ground to breathe in as well as saturated ground to drink from.
I do more top watering w small plants, once they get big enough and have established root systems, I shift towards bottom watering. By the time I hit flower I am bottom watering 3/4 of the time and then top watering w any microbes or top dressings that I might want to add
It does if you want the microbes to break down the organics.
Water carries things down, the microbes will find them. Trust.
They definitely don’t need the top inch to be frequently wet, at least mine haven’t.
Exactly. That’s why I water from the top. I’m not trying to be confrontational, I just think there are more variables than just “water from the bottom.” Pot size, medium, organic or non-organic, etc. Mine go straight from solo cups right into the 10 gallon bags. In my set up, I have to feed at least twice during flower which means I’m top dressing twice and need to water from the top down.
My own personal take on it is plants are fed from the top down in nature. Leaves fall, decompose, microbes break them down and rain carries them to the roots.
I could be wrong, you do what works for you 
I don’t mind the convo at all, you don’t seem confrontational, sorry if I do, I don’t mean to.
Well yes and no, for me I have let my soil go both indoors and outdoors, use compost from my yard, and I keep houseplants that provide home for f gnats as well, so I have a pretty good idea of how bad they can get. But, in the end for me, when I gave bottom watering a try, it wiped out my fungus gnats better than anything else. So I do like to give it props; that’s all. Definitely agree, to each their own:)
Not at all. More information, intelligent conversation and debate wins every time. I appreciate your input
Personally I would not be worried about that. I also wouldn’t use those Brillo pads. Stuff is pretty cheap so no reason it couldn’t be swapped out a time or two to minimize any harm. As I say though, I have seen this a number of places but have not tried it myself.
SF Nematodes (Steinernema Feltiae) are working perfectly for me in say 95% of cases.
I use Biologics Scanmask. They are live nematodes and less expensive than Arbico (they may get theirs from them). You simply add it to your feed / water, wait for about 15 minutes, and apply. No spray needed but water any exposed soil etc evenly with the mixture. I usually go for a strong dose. Oh, and nematodes are microscopic. I wouldn’t imagine a solution would clog anything.
If you keep the soil moist (not wet), the nematodes will survive for quite awhile.
If you have a bad infestation, it’ll take a bit attention and application. In that case, sometimes it’s easier to go for something a bit stronger for an initial knockdown.
I don’t even mix the nematodes water. I just pull aside the mulch and topdress. I didn’t know if it’s better or worse, but it’s very effective combined with rove beetles.
CO2 is attractive to a lot of bugs, hence crawling up yer nose is like a total jizzfest for them.
Anyone mention slices of potato on top of soil to attract the larvae? Gives a good indication of how bad infestation is as the larvae will go to the potato to eat . Replace with new potato every couple of days and they will be attracted to the starch instead of your roots. Get yellow traps for the flyers at soil level and problem will be sorted within a couple weeks. Hydrogen peroxide, neem or purecrop for a soil drench can help to eradicate the larvae after lifting a bunch with potato tech.
Yea in my 4x4 tent in the same room that is my usual coco/perlite and bottled salt nutrients. Im seeing none.
Ah ok cool I’ll check them out.
Thank you everybody! I’m trying to give soils a shot after years of just coco/perlite and bottled nutes for a couple reasons but if I end up not liking it after a few fair try’s then I will be going back.
I’m not about to feed their colony 
Better them eating the potato than the plants roots getting eaten. This is a tried and true method to get an idea of how bad of an infestation in the soil because they will abandon the roots and go for that tater plus you remove loads of gnats every few hours by discarding the potato and adding new. Highly recommended. Potato tech for the win
I had trouble with pests in living soil initially. But once I started managing my microbiology with predatory mites, rove beetles and beneficial nematodes, I haven’t had problems.
Now I occasionally transfer handfuls of soil between pots to inoculate. Fungus gnats are still there. Every once in awhile I actually see one. Yesterday I was digging for a seed that was taking too long to sprout because in the past I’ve had fungus gnat larvae eat seeds, I saw one hanging around my seed. Then I realized it was a rove beetle larvae.
They say rove beetles die after wiping out everything. But that’s not what happens with me. There are just enough rove beetles to feed on most of the larvae. But between the nematodes and beetles, they seem to miss just enough gnats to ensure the next generation feeds them.
do the predatory beneficial bugs not get loose in your house though? or is that cool?
im not throwing shade on the concept at all thats just my perspective, at the moment at least.
Predatory mites seem to just die out. If they made it into the house I wouldn’t notice because they’re so tiny. Rove beetles rove, so it’s possible. I originally added them because I had a huge fungus gnat epidemic. So rove population exploded. Rove beetles fly, so once they started running out of food they started flying around the tent and I’d have to swat them back in but it was no big deal.
Two or three escaped into the rest of the house, but that’s all I noticed. Their population drops once the epidemic is over. Now if I want to see them I have to start digging into the mulch layer. I rarely see them except when a couple fungus gnats survive to adulthood. Then I see a couple of the rove beetles fly around the tent occasionally. It’s almost like they’re on the payroll.