Fox farms ocean forest soil has bugs in it

Not unless there is a problem pops up

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Cook it in the oven. (200-300F for 30-60 min) I do it every time and never have bugs. Youā€™ll 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 theyā€™ve been diligent to keep those critters out of their garden too. A clean garden is a happy garden! :wink::+1:

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@Countryboyjvd1971 - Iā€™ve used fine ā€œplay 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!

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Cool I use smart pots so no holes Iā€™ll try that next time I have an issue with them thanks what is it about the sand is it that they canā€™t or wonā€™t 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

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@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 canā€™t finish the cycle and lay more eggs. Essentially itā€™s 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 Itā€™ll 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! :laughing:

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thanks @majicmarkers thatā€™s what I was figuring that they just canā€™t climb there way up and out
:blush:

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@Oldstoner I need to know what DE is. Getting ready to start for the first and I donā€™t need a bug problem. Thanks

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@Gonnatry2 itā€™s diatomaceous earth. Itā€™s a food grade bug killer. You can get it on Amazon.

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@majicmarkers Thanks I will pick some up.

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 Iā€™m dreading figthing these bugs again. I also have rapid rootz king soil anyone know if that is often contaminated too? I canā€™t bakeep the soil gf will flip :sweat:. I found a spider mite crawling on the kitchen table weeks ago but donā€™t know were it came from and have not seen any since then.

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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. Iā€™m 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!

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Nice I have a grill. You just throw it in a aluminum pan?

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@Noctis420 I havenā€™t 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. Itā€™s a delicate balance. Donā€™t want to ā€œkillā€ 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.

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Iā€™ve tried a bunch of different soils and Iā€™ve 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

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Thanks now I feel like I shouldnā€™t of covered it up with sand damnit. The dirt was pretty close to dry though since itā€™s in a pretty warm location.

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I heard a layer of perilite works as well
Iā€™m 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 canā€™t fly and should help them die off or at least not lay new eggs

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Ok I have some perlite on hand Iā€™ll put it on now

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So I sucked out about 90% of the sand with a shop vac and put down a layer of perlite. Hopefully this works. Iā€™m 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 Iā€™m good. Iā€™m going to give it a few weeks if it gets nasty Iā€™m 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 :unamused:

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Oh and I read they canā€™t get through the sand so they canā€™t lay eggs