The compost iam using has bugs in it, is it normal or okay , iam growing autoflower seeds?
New Grower Compost question
- Thread starter Juneasjuni
- Start date
All depends on what the bugs are that are in it. Growing outside? I grow outside and bugs on plants are just something I have to deal with. Bugs like caterpillars, slugs, earwigs and aphids are insects I have had to fight against. Insects like those I either pick off and kill or aphids I spray off leaves with high pressure water spray before they get bad.
What bugs do you have?
What bugs do you have?
Simple answer , Bugs are good for compost . At the right time . 
I use in my tents but only as a part of my overall mix I sift screen the Larger bugs out but I try and not dry it out. I mix diamatious earth some clay/ sand and current top soil I have along with crushed volcanic rock. This has worked for me for over 10 years be it house plants or my tamatoe/ peppers and my current grows of autoflowers. I use a product called recharge its not overpowering and has a lot of micro organisms in it. I try and use my own imos for my outside plants we use our compost as is for a top dressing and let it leach over time usually close to the stem most of the time white clover for a cover crop. I encourage mantis to lay in garden along with allowing chickens to have a go every week
Decades ago I was operating a school greenhouse which commercially sold plants in the Spring. Being inside all bugs in soil were killed off by sterilizing it in a heat device we placed the soil into before using it inside the greenhouse. If we didn't do that first the entire greenhouse would get infested with bad bugs. Just me, but I never can bring myself to introduce my outside soil into my house for use in a tent. I rarely grow inside anymore except for seedlings that I intend to grow outside in the Summer. I use bag soil once inside and then dump it into my outside grow area if I grow in pots.
With my lights and tents and all I find I rarely use them anymore other than about 30 days each year. Since I am in an area where growing outside is legal I have moved to growing outside straight in the ground under the sun. I find my plants grow better and have no issues growing in the ground with no or very small amounts of added nutrients other than composted cow manure, occasional addition of bagged soil, goose droppings from my yard from wild geese and back when I could get it hundreds of pounds of fresh nightcrawler dirt from a commercial nightcrawler business that unfortunately went out of business this past Spring.
When I grew autos in pots I had a 50-50 chance of screwing up my grow with autoflowers. Once I went to growing straight in the ground I found that my auto plants thrive with little care at all. When I find the right photo plants that can mature in my short growing season they do even better as long as I keep an eye open for bugs like aphids, caterpillars, earwigs and slugs. I have a pretty big yard on an island in the middle of a lake and I encourage frogs and toads to make their homes in my grow area to keep beetles under control at ground level.
I have been seeing plenty of wasps in my grow area and have left them alone as I believe they prey on the caterpillars, but yesterday I reached under something blindly and stuck my hand right into a wasp nest. I ended up eradicating them all after getting stung. I've seen very few lady bugs this year probably because I have yet to see a single aphid. Aphids usually turn up in mid August and get bad in September.
With my lights and tents and all I find I rarely use them anymore other than about 30 days each year. Since I am in an area where growing outside is legal I have moved to growing outside straight in the ground under the sun. I find my plants grow better and have no issues growing in the ground with no or very small amounts of added nutrients other than composted cow manure, occasional addition of bagged soil, goose droppings from my yard from wild geese and back when I could get it hundreds of pounds of fresh nightcrawler dirt from a commercial nightcrawler business that unfortunately went out of business this past Spring.
When I grew autos in pots I had a 50-50 chance of screwing up my grow with autoflowers. Once I went to growing straight in the ground I found that my auto plants thrive with little care at all. When I find the right photo plants that can mature in my short growing season they do even better as long as I keep an eye open for bugs like aphids, caterpillars, earwigs and slugs. I have a pretty big yard on an island in the middle of a lake and I encourage frogs and toads to make their homes in my grow area to keep beetles under control at ground level.
I have been seeing plenty of wasps in my grow area and have left them alone as I believe they prey on the caterpillars, but yesterday I reached under something blindly and stuck my hand right into a wasp nest. I ended up eradicating them all after getting stung. I've seen very few lady bugs this year probably because I have yet to see a single aphid. Aphids usually turn up in mid August and get bad in September.
