Fungus Gnats

[Pick]

Hello everybody,,question concerning fungus Gnats, I’m in second week of flower, today I noticed these very small creatures flying around in my tent, smashed em🤣, was only 2 ,, looked up and see is Gnats,, ordered Food grade HP form amazon, plan of action is mix up a dose and pour in to soil like a normal watering???

[Gingerbeard]

Nossir! HP is half a temporary solution. It won't get rid of your gnats/larvae longer than it takes for your soil to dry. It kills beneficial microbes and things. When you pour it in your soil, the HP makes your soil bubble like a cupcake in an oven. Been there. Tried various solutions. Nossir.

Get yourself some diatomaceous earth. Food grade. Scrape off as much as you can of the top of your soil without hurting anything, and mix it with DE. You might add some soil if you can't get more than an inch of soil. It doesn't take much DE. I mix it with soil until I can see it getting mixed in. Put it back on your pots and water in. Doing a dusting of DE is ineffective. It washes away and doesn't get the underside of soil bits.

The 100% cure for fungus gnats is circulation. You don't have to do anything except circulate air over the tops and bottoms of your pots. If you have holes in the sides of your pot, get them circulated as well. Don't give adults a chance to land and lay. You will have the larvae in the soil go adult and get blown away.

I love this subject!

[Pick]

Ok got DE on the way, thanks Gingerbeard👍

[alltatup]

Pick Gnatrol worked excellently twice in my hydro reservoir to get rid of gnats. That and the yellow sticky papers up above.

[Rwise]

HP did little to nothing, DE helps, I think, I baked the soil as I transplanted all the plants, mixed in DE with all the soil, fans 24/7. 3 I could not do have a 1/2" deep layer of DE over the soil. The yellow sticky pad can catch a few, waste of time/money IMHO.
I will pick up spinosad for mine and kill them.

[Farmall]

They worked well for me. I think in my case, the supersoil has them included free

[Rwise]

I am not saying they wont catch a few, I get more with a fly swatter at the window.

[Pick]

Ok guys thanks 🙏, DE will be here later today, so I have about 2” space I can’t put soil, how much DE is recommended for 1 plant in 5 gallon bucket ???

[Pick]

2” space I can put soil

[Rwise]

I used about 1 cup to each 3 gallons of soil, it was enuf to change the colour of the soil. I have used about 7 lbs of food grade DE so far.

[Toker1]

Yellows sticky traps for the adults. Mosquito bits in the water for the larva. If that doesn’t take care of the infestation, add beneficial nematodes to the soil. They will hunt out the larva.

[Gingerbeard]

Rwise gave a recipe. I'll go with that.

Pick Is that 2" without removing any from your pot? Get down as much as you can without hitting the roots.

My problem with those yellow traps is I get that sticky shit all over my fingers when I go to squish the bugs.

[Toker1]

DE will need to be replaced often. I used a paint straining bag on top covering the soil. Never washes away and will do the same thing as DE will.

[Farmall]

Maybe my gnats were not as severe...but within 2 weeks , they were done

[Rwise]

Check this out, the last 2 sacks one said it was 100% silica (Safer brand) the next says 85% silicone Dioxide 15% something else. Silica is good for the plants.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_dioxide

[Toker1]

Silica dioxide is not very soluble. Plants uptake silica acid. Most silica additives (Rhino skin from AN) are derived from silica potassium. This reacts with the other nutrients and makes the silica acid available for plant root uptake.

[Gingerbeard]

Calcium, too?

[Pick]

Yes correct 2 “ without removing any soil, still waiting on DE should be here shortly,, so I will be adding roughly 2 “of soil mixing in about 1 cup of DE,

[Pick]

After this,, is ok for feeding,, ??

[Gingerbeard]

Absolutely. As soon as you put the DE soil in the pot. Mixing it in with the soil will help keep it from washing down into your pot.