Grow Mediums Fungus Gnats in New Soil

[WildBill]

Wollastonite
Anyone use this?
Interesting mineral/

 

[Jpkindbud]

also grow in my basement, due to where I live. Upstate NY's winters are cold, my basement ranges 55 to 60 this time of year. Hoping the ruderalis present in autos make it more resistant to temps below 60. I'd rather not run an infrared space heater down there during "lights out."

I had to do this running my photos this time of year (if starting up in Jan or Feb).

I'll have pics up soon. tent went back up today, the AC Infinity T6 got installed and the HLG 550 v2 Rspec went up. Waitin on a RocBud order, but have other auto seeds I can run. I'll wait on RocBud a few more days........if he fails me I have Nirvana Original Glue auto, Emerald Triangle's "Headlights Kush" and Sensi Super Skunk auto........thats the backup plan.

High five to the other guy on this forum that lives I upstate NY and... grows in a basement lol!

 

[Jpkindbud]

Also, wouldn’t diotemaceous soil work for killing gnats? Not sure of spelling

 

[Couch_Lock]

Also, wouldn’t diotemaceous soil work for killing gnats? Not sure of spelling

It kills them but not larvae I believe. And its not good to water THRU dia earth, renders the soil useless killing useful microbes. If you BOTTOM feed your plants its ok to top the soil with dia earth.

 

[WildBill]

It kills them but not larvae I believe. And its not good to water THRU dia earth, renders the soil useless killing useful microbes. If you BOTTOM feed your plants its ok to top the soil with dia earth.

How does DE kill microbes???

 

[Couch_Lock]

I read somewhere its not good for soil quality, guess I assumed it hurt beneficial microbes. Its been a few yrs since I have dealt with dia, have a big bag of it. Tried it once. In the tomato patch out back, I'd not use it in a closed environment.

 

[Flux]

I’ve had this happen especially when buying soil from a greenhouse they get into the bags from the breathing holes and my local greenhouse leaves the bags on the cement outside where they get really damp........... if this is possible what I do is mix & break up my soil in big blue totes I bought for $8 each at Walmart and leave it in a room open for a few months stirring it every two weeks or so when it comes time to use there gone and haven’t come back. Oh and I use the yellow stickers at the soil for the first two weeks as a per caution.

 

[Couch_Lock]

Hydrogen peroxide will kill gnats, but any beneficial microbes do get affected. Apparently DE will not hurt these microbes, its probably good if you BOTTOM feed your plants. Sprinkle it on the top of ur soil, in that case.

 

[bulldog1952]

How does DE kill microbes???

D.E comprises the silica/glass skeletal remains of Diatoms...microscopic organisms that live in water, they die and fall to seabed where they build up in dense layers over time, this is the mined/ processed and it becomes a fine powder that is fatal to insects with an exoskeleton...they die from a thousand cuts when the glass gets into the creases and hinges on there exoskeleton when they crawl/ walk through it...hence it needs to be kept dry to be efficacious.....i just use Bti, nematodes and sticky trap cards....

 

[Flux]

D.E comprises the silica/glass skeletal remains of Diatoms...microscopic organisms that live in water, they die and fall to seabed where they build up in dense layers over time, this is the mined/ processed and it becomes a fine powder that is fatal to insects with an exoskeleton...they die from a thousand cuts when the glass gets into the creases and hinges on there exoskeleton when they crawl/ walk through it...hence it needs to be kept dry to be efficacious.....i just use Bti, nematodes and sticky trap cards....

Annnnnd over my head lol I’m outskies!