Not unless there is a problem pops up
Cook it in the oven. (200-300F for 30-60 min) I do it every time and never have bugs. Youāll need to amend the soil with mycorrhizae - baking kills all the beneficial microbes. I also wet it down afterwards with a solution of RO and Hygrozyme just to jump start the decay of the medium. Let it sit for a couple hours or days and - voila! Bug free, nutrient rich growing medium.
Oh yeah, never take plants from friends unless theyāve been diligent to keep those critters out of their garden too. A clean garden is a happy garden!
@Countryboyjvd1971 - Iāve used fine āplay sandā before and it stopped themā¦ but you must cover the holes on the bottom of your containers (I used duct tape) or the little creeps start spawning from there! Lol!
Cool I use smart pots so no holes Iāll try that next time I have an issue with them thanks what is it about the sand is it that they canāt or wonāt crawl threw it @majicmarkers
I have 11 girls going right now and have only seen a few flies here and there so far Ive had them in soil now for about 4 weeks
Thanks again for the tip brother appreciate it
@Countryboyjvd1971- After the larva morphs into the adult gnat, it must get to the surface to complete its life cycle. The fine sand acts as a barrier to confine the fly to the soil/medium. So it canāt finish the cycle and lay more eggs. Essentially itās smothering the adult gnat.
You can water right through the sand. Just make sure to cover any spots free of sand. j
They can get out of control easily. So keep an eye on it. They lay hundreds of eggs every other day. The larva will eat your mycorrhizae and new root growth, basically starving your plantsā¦ but Itāll appear as necrotic leaves/nute lock out.
Nematodes are a great amendment to your soil/medium as well. They roam through the soil eating every larva they can findā¦ and that puts a smile on my face. Lol!
thanks @majicmarkers thatās what I was figuring that they just canāt climb there way up and out
@Oldstoner I need to know what DE is. Getting ready to start for the first and I donāt need a bug problem. Thanks
@Gonnatry2 itās diatomaceous earth. Itās a food grade bug killer. You can get it on Amazon.
So you can just mix it in the soil? I have two bags of unopened ffof not sure if it has bugs. I fought these bugs before and Iām dreading figthing these bugs again. I also have rapid rootz king soil anyone know if that is often contaminated too? I canāt bakeep the soil gf will flip . I found a spider mite crawling on the kitchen table weeks ago but donāt know were it came from and have not seen any since then.
For my auto grow I mixed in a few cups with the soil and put a inch of sand on top plus I used sticky pads. That got rid of the bugs I had
I had bugs too. Soil gnats though. Iām gonna cook what FFOF I have left on the grill. Just enough to kill the bugs.
I have been using FF Happy Frog and no bugs in them so far!
Nice I have a grill. You just throw it in a aluminum pan?
@Noctis420 I havenāt done it yet, but I have an old 12x12 baking pan. I was gonna run it up on one burner at about 180 for 10 minutes. Itās a delicate balance. Donāt want to ākillā all the nutrients, just the crawling/ flying ones.
My suspicions are the bat guano since their menu is bugs. So any soil with the guano could have bugs.
Iāve tried a bunch of different soils and Iāve had soil nates in every one including ffof I not sure you can prevent it 100% I find allowing pots to dry out enough between waterings and feeds plus keeping a few fans moving air helps keep the nats to a min a few fly trap sticky traps and all good at least with my experience
I still see a few here and there but usually only early in grow
Thanks now I feel like I shouldnāt of covered it up with sand damnit. The dirt was pretty close to dry though since itās in a pretty warm location.
I heard a layer of perilite works as well
Iām not sure if they still lay the eggs in the sand maybe ?
Try keeping a fan directed at the pots this will make it so the little bastards canāt fly and should help them die off or at least not lay new eggs
Ok I have some perlite on hand Iāll put it on now
So I sucked out about 90% of the sand with a shop vac and put down a layer of perlite. Hopefully this works. Iām just going to leave it there the whole grow. I just have the drain holes taped still but if I can stop them from laying eggs Iām good. Iām going to give it a few weeks if it gets nasty Iām trashing it. At least with the sand gone air can get to it and dry it up. I should of just bought a chiller and stuck to hydro
Oh and I read they canāt get through the sand so they canāt lay eggs