What’s your thoughts on gnats? I definitely have some, not a ridiculous amount at least I don’t think so. Inspected the soil saw what seemed to be a few crawling around in 1 or 2 of my 5 beds, could be in all and I just did not see. I would think it a bit early for them to be causing these issues at the root level considering I’ve only been in the ground here for 7 days. What is best way to get rid of them for you? I have seen many a remedy. I have flying skull nuke 'em which many of my friends use and they like what it does. I’ll probably treat tomorrow.
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A 1/4 inch layer of fine sand works well. Watering the outside edge of your pots helps by keeping the majority of the surface dryer. They like damp material. Yellow stickies. These are good starts anyways.
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I use those sticky yellow traps.
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I had gnats and tried the yellow sticky strips and caught maybe 3 or 4 but they lay their larvae just under the top of the soil and, trust me, if you see a few, there will be more. I sprinkled some mosquito pellets on the surface (just lightly) and sprayed the surface with neem oil twice a day (again just lightly). The gnats favorite breeding ground is wet soil so always make sure your soil is dry up to your second knuckle before watering again. If you use the ‘lift the pot’ method of watering you should be ok always. Your pots should feel as heavy as they did when you first filled them with soil.
@Caligurl. Thank you. They were overwatered. I am going to head out and see if I can find mosquito pellets and neem oil.
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Ok so I have some TDS numbers all soil samples soaked in water for 24 hours, then strained, taken at around 60 -68 degrees
Bed 1 - 476 ppm
Bed 2 - 588 ppm
Bed 3 - 722 ppm
Bed4 - 750 ppm
Bed 5 - 382
tap water was 57 ppm at 88 degrees 36 ppm at 72 degrees
Watered as everything had dried out Had some runoff from one of the beds Bed 3 it tested at a whopping 3370 ppm another area of runoff from same bed was 1750 ppm Is this astronomical? The beds have all been watered with the same liquid.
PH with nute mix is around 6.5- 7
I have taken off all effected leaves and watered with half strength of what my tea mix will be. Things look ok, have good growth in most of them and hope it was mostly shock. Would love your input on these numbers and any other advice is always welcome as well.
I wonder since I had your ear if you take a look at these buggers I am catching. I must add that just hanging out in the room for a half hour, certainly longer when working, I come out of there itching like crazy like sitting out in the evening at sundown in the summer when the no see ums (midges) are out. It is making it where I don’t want to be in there and I LOVE being in there.
Seems this is them? or fungus gnats? What is best way to eradicate them completely?
The numbers mean nothing without knowing growth stages and how the plants are responding. Soil readings that are premade, like ff and such, will always give really high numbers because all the food for 4 or 5 weeks of growth are in there and because there is supposed to be decent buffering and nutrient balance the test number will be much higher that a peat or coco hydro grow. So in other words, if you are seeing deficiencies in a built up soil and itbis showing 450 PPM it probably could use feeding if you see the same plant size at 1600 ppm and it looks burnt then the soil is too hot! Also the ph is a big factor. If soil is 1300 ppm and the ph is decent and the plant looks good then no worries, if the plant is 1300 and the ph is off then you need to deal with a ph issue.
But in most cases with built up soil, the older it gets the lower the ppm becomes and the more out of whack the ph gets. If you add more noots to older soil, often times it gets unbalanced because the plant may have left behind a bunch of P and some K and no Mag and then you come along and boost the N add some P and K and maybe some CalMag now the N is high and the P and K is lower and not quite enougj mag now if the ph is off, the plant may take N but not p or K? Or maybe no N and only P or K? Thats how the imbalance of salts begins. At this juncture it warrants a total flush and restart. At this point the grow is essentially a hydro grow going forward. Then the ph and EC or PpM is totally you. I hope this wasnt too confusing.
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Much appreciated These ladies have been in my setting for 11 days and have been vegging for around 35 -45 days from clone. As stated I have taken off weird leaves and am hoping it was mostly just shock. Most seem to be growing well and the new growth looks great. I understand all of what you said and am going to continue to gently feed at 1/2 strength for a week or so more and see how things go.
Any thoughts on those bugs? it has gotten to a point where I don’t even want to be in the room they seem to get everywhere on my body even after a shower I’ll feel a few spots of itchiness. .
No on the bugs? Cant really tell what they are from the image? Could be sand flies? I wasnt aware that gnats cause itchiness?
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I’ll take a better image, today. Perhaps not gnats. Seems like the no see um bugs that are experienced outside on a summer evening around sunset. At least that is exactly how these little ‘bites’ feel. It is to the point where it is extremely uncomfortable to be in the room for even 30 mins. They seem to even get through or maybe just underneath clothing.
Good luck with that? May need a fogger or something to rid yourself of them?
heard that thanks
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