Yeah, it is a little guy. There are some fungus gnats in the grow bed, but from what I’ve read it’s something you have to deal with in living soil. I have dosed the soil with DE ( diatomaceous earth) & neem meal. I will also do a tea a little later that has neem oil in it. I’m not sure what else to do for the bugs except predator bugs, but any and all suggestions are welcome.
Thanks @Shadey
@ReikoX do you think the bugs are an issue?
Fungus gnats just need to be controlled. Yellow sticky traps work great for keeping the population under control. They are more of a pest than anything, but will nibble on young seedling roots.
Also my plan is to have the extraction fan on during the day and another fan bringing in Co2 rich outside air during the early morning. Problem is it has been rainy high RH outside the last few weeks so that isn’t helping either. In the summer time here our RH is in the 20-30% most of the months.
Thanks will do, the DE has already started to take them down a bit. From what I’ve been reading they come in the bagged peat and compost and you just have to deal with them. Part of natural growing. I was thinking of throwing in some lady bugs just for good measure as well, but the DE will hurt them as well.
As ReikoX says they are more of an annoyance but if they do get out of control they can be a real pain in the butt. I have had a bad infestation and nothing seemed to work other than the yellow sticky pads, I got some stratios mites about 3 weeks ago and the fungus gnats have almost disappeared now, when I watered there would be a cloud of them coming off the pots. If you can afford them get some they will save you a lot of money in the long run on yellow stickers alone. They keep breeding so unless they run completely out of food they will stay in the soil. Grow a good cover crop and the gnats will attack that instead of the roots on your weed plants.
We get high humidity here as well being near the coast, if you get a controller for your extractor it will run when needed and not 24/7, save burning the motor out fast.
Awesome, my clover cover just started sprouting yesterday. So it is good to know they will go after it. I also have some basil and mint that I was going to throw in there to help with the problems 
. I think I need to get this established before I put in any more seedlings 
. I can’t afford to keep loosing the auto seeds.
My auto seeds should be ready in a couple weeks. You’re already on the list. 
As @Shadey has mentioned I may need to add some calcium and other minerals to this mix. How does everyone feel about using the egg shell method (with Or without vinegar) to add calcium? I have access to a large # of organic free range eggs and wanted to try them, but I feel like the vinegar would spike the ph.
Has anyone used this method?
Yes, rinse the shells and remove the membrane. Heat them until they are well browned and crispy. Cover with vinegar and wait for a few days. Strain and use at around a teaspoon per gallon as a foliar spray.
The pH of the egg shells will neutralize the acid in the vinigar.
Great good to hear, will do… 
Tons, any specific questions?
Remember that pH works on a logarithmic scale, so the vinegar is unlikely to be able change the pH by more than 0.1-0.3 in total, after applying a lot of vinegar.
I guess my main question is how to control the RH. Seems like the living soil has a much higher RH off gas than the Coco I’ve used before. Crazy thing is both are in the same grow trailer.
Left side is living soil 80% RH and small mother/ clone room is in CoCo 50% RH. I have dehumidifiers on their way this week to get this under control.
Are your temps the same in each room. Humidity is Relative to it. The humidity changes, and lowers as heat rises. Then when the room cools the humidity will rise. Less numbers or smaller plants mean less expatriation from the plants also, they suck that water up and breath it out like a dog pants to get rid of heat.
Is your air being drawn in, coming into each room separately, or one then the other. Last year I ran my air from my veg tent, through my clone cabinet, and exiting that, saving me having to use another extraction fan, and heater at night, but the controls only covered the veg tent, so sometimes it was good, sometimes it wasn’t, depending on how much heat, and moisture was being vented.
That’s why its important you try and keep your lights, on, off temps, in a max of 10 degrees F difference between lights on and off. It helps avoid a big swing in your relative humidity, and lessons the chance of PM.
Mulch. It sounds stupid or too simple, but you just add a bunch of mulch. Toss on whatever you’ve got, but leaves (new is fine, but the older the better) are the best, followed by bark, twigs, wood chips, and don’t forget the weeds out of the yard (weed seeds and all). I usually use an inch of mulch if it’s dry stuff, and 1/2-3/4 inch if it’s wet stuff. If it’s both, just add an inch total.
It will prevent a massive amount of water loss to the air, which will better moderate the RH and will reduce your watering needs!!!
Cannabis doesn’t care if it’s neighbor is some ragtag dandelion from seed that survived a million nukings with roundup. The cannabis does care if it’s fungal network get’s bridged to another plant that can direct nutrients it needs away from the plant that doesn’t need those nutrients!
I have a dehumidifier in my grow shed and I only need it before I mulch. Then it just collects dust.
The pots that I use, that have the most cover crop growing on, are always more evenly moist longer, than the ones with sparse cover, you would think with all the extra plants, they would dry out quicker. With a good thick covering of clover the worms will come right up to the surface.
The temps are currently the same in both areas and being fed by one A/C unit. The second portable A/C & dehumidifier will be installed this week in the 6’x9’ area where the living soil is.
This sounds great, I figured wet mulch would add to the RH, but I will deff give it a go.
It does, but it reduces it even more. The mulch, of any kind, creates a vapor barrier blocking the soil from losing tons of moisture, more than what’s produced by wet mulch. In a growing environment it’s always the plants themselves that produce most of the humidity.
Let me get this straight, with this mix you are ONLY giving them water, no teas? Do you PH the water? How is this working?
