Well peeps, I have decided to shut down the soil grow. The results so far were one runt Northern Lights, and three of the poorest seedlings that I have ever grown. Only one of the seedlings that were at day one a day or two ago seemed likely to even survive much less thrive. I am done with it. The gnats win.
All the infested soil is now in the compost bin, and will not be coming in the house again. All plants including the Northern Lights are binned and will be replaced. The one minor exception is that I will try to save the last lemon seed which is still just barely started with a root, and I will transfer it from its cup to a peat plug this evening. The growdrobe has been cleaned and sterilized.
I may try a soil grow again, but not this time around, and if I do, it will not be soil cooked outdoors where the bloody gnats can get at it. No more recycled potting soil, compost, or worms for my indoor grows.
So, the Auto Lemon will be in its peat plug on a heat pad tonight, and I will be starting over with Sunshine #4. I would have gone with coco, but it is not available locally, and the Amazon prices are stupid, presumably due to shipping costs. I have been wanting to try a peat based grow indoors anyway, so I am not all that disappointed. I would have gone with ProMix HP myco, but again, not available, so Sunshine #4 will do fine. I have microbes, so that lack of myco will not be an issue.
And a final update on the soil attempt - the Seedsman Auto Lemon is also dead. I transferred it into a peat plug, but it did nothing for three days, so I binned it. I do not know what the problem was with this seed, there were no larvae visible when I did the transfer. Perhaps the transfer itself set it back. Anyway, the soil attempt is done for this year.
That's it for this one peeps, stay tuned for the Sunshine grow.
All the infested soil is now in the compost bin, and will not be coming in the house again. All plants including the Northern Lights are binned and will be replaced. The one minor exception is that I will try to save the last lemon seed which is still just barely started with a root, and I will transfer it from its cup to a peat plug this evening. The growdrobe has been cleaned and sterilized.
I may try a soil grow again, but not this time around, and if I do, it will not be soil cooked outdoors where the bloody gnats can get at it. No more recycled potting soil, compost, or worms for my indoor grows.
So, the Auto Lemon will be in its peat plug on a heat pad tonight, and I will be starting over with Sunshine #4. I would have gone with coco, but it is not available locally, and the Amazon prices are stupid, presumably due to shipping costs. I have been wanting to try a peat based grow indoors anyway, so I am not all that disappointed. I would have gone with ProMix HP myco, but again, not available, so Sunshine #4 will do fine. I have microbes, so that lack of myco will not be an issue.
And a final update on the soil attempt - the Seedsman Auto Lemon is also dead. I transferred it into a peat plug, but it did nothing for three days, so I binned it. I do not know what the problem was with this seed, there were no larvae visible when I did the transfer. Perhaps the transfer itself set it back. Anyway, the soil attempt is done for this year.
That's it for this one peeps, stay tuned for the Sunshine grow.