Is it ok to put Diatomaceous Earth powder on bottom of fabric pot?

[the123321]

I found a few very small bugs crawling around the outside of the bottom of my 3 gallon fabric pot. The bugs look almost like lice. They are very small and move fast and 1 looked white and 1 black on there. Is it ok to spray the Diatomaceous Earth Food Grade powder around the sides of the pot and the bottom of it? I plan to put it at the top of the coco in the pot but I have not seen bugs there but I have seen the bugs around the outside of the fabric pot. I plan to put the plants on autopots watering system in like a week if that makes a difference. I just want to get rid of whatever kind of bugs these are. I was thinking about watering with h202 peroxide water and then put the de on there.

 

[BII]

Watering with H2O2 sounds very radical to even consider, particularly since you don't even know if you have a problem or not.

Is Diatomaceous Earth OK - certainly in terms of toxicity, it's just inert silica/sand, a common food additive, with you even referring to using "Food Grade powder." Is it OK in terms of working to eliminate insects - Likely yes, but not as good as real insecticides with metabolic-based toxicity (vs. being a physical irritant). Consider spraying a harmless natural Spinosad bacteria-based insecticide.

And keep in mind, most insects are going to either directly attack the plant leaves or reside in the top media layers, not enter through the bottoms of fabric pots.

 

[the123321]

Thanks. I do not water to runoff and the plants are in the autopot trays though I have not turned on the autopots yet on there. I looked around the plant and did not find any bugs on the leaves or on the top of the pot. I have only found the 2 or 3 bugs down at the bottom of the outside of the fabric pot. It looked almost like a lice moving around on there so I figure it may be some kind of mite on there. You mention I may not have a problem. Then do some mites not make problems for the plants? I figured it would be good to get rid of any kind of bug I see in the tent on there.

 

[BII]

Overall, only a very small portion of insects attack cannabis plants, so it is likely what you see is not a problem. But since you see a few, you need to presume you could have or get some outright bad insects too. So spread some insecticide, whether diatomaceous earth, Spinosad, pryrethin, etc. where you are concerned; and remove food for the insects, such as decaying leaves.

And of course, always use a Bt toxin product in your feed to kill insect larvae.