I’ve had fungus gnats and they’ve ruined my very first grow! Sad face!! I know I know, rookie mistake. Lesson learned.
So I’m growing in my apartment and I’ve got the rest of the soil in a plastic container in the apt. I’m worried there’s some larvae laying dormant in there. How can I make sure? I’ve read ppl saying baking in the oven works… How much dirt per “batch”, what temperature, how long??
Any and all help much appreciated
Captain Cannabis
Don’t bother baking the soil, just just it as normal and put a good layer of Dichotomous Earth on top to stop them getting the chance to breed
Having fought that battle (and now continuing due to some less than clean compost) - I would strongly suggest not reusing that soil. I am a big proponent of no-till gardening, but If you can avoid the situation in the beginning, that would be preferable.
That said, you can top dress with some BT-i (Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies israelensis.) available commercially as mosquito dunks, mosquito bits and others. Water it in and the bacterium will infect any larvae present and kill them before they can become adults and reproduce.
Repeat applications are necessary to ensure more tight control.
HTH