Indoor Mom's AutoPot, MegaCrop, AutoCob, Soil Grow :-)

[Prez2.0]

Surprised by fungus gnat issue in auto pots, thought the bottom water system was supposed to help that? Feel your pain lost my last round to the lil buggers. Best of luck on rest of the grow!

 

[WildBill]

I've seen so many growers lately having problems with those fungus gnats! There are products you can buy but I'm trying to find a cheap/free method. I keep a layer of quick-draining substrate atop my soil - so for your setup I think that would be a layer of perlite atop your coco. The gnats don't take any interest in dry conditions. That dry layer keeps them largely at bay.
I don't grow hydro but I believe it would be even harder to keep the top of the coco medium dry than it is for soil.
Neem oil is a blessing and all my houseplants get a foliar spray if I spot a mealybug anywhere on my property :smoking:

I'm sure now gnats put a hard knock on the growth on my girls and led to a nute problem here at the end of the grow. I thought I had them under control with early dunks. They came back, so I applied neem. LOL! Didn't do a thing or enough.I wasn't breaking the life cycle was the biggest problem. I heavily applied DE to the topsoil and only bottom watered for about 10 days to give the DE a chance to do it's work. DE must be dry for it to work. It did the deed! The biggest thing is to break their life cycle.
This should work on any style of growing where you can bottom water. I doubt if it will work on EarthBox grows though. I think the top of the soil will be too wet for the DE to work.
Just remember that DE is a very fine powder and can be an inhalant danger, but that's mainly possible when using outdoors. I don't see how it could be a problem in a grow when applied very heavily like I did, but I've only used it outdoors in soil, never used in a container. It is a source of silica. I just don't know if it's in a form available to the plant.

Anyway, it worked quite quickly. I should have used it FIRST in my grow. Lesson learned!


When I say I heavily applied it, I mean it looked like a blizzard had hit my topsoil! LOL!

DE= Diatomaceous earth

 

[MassMom]

10/20/2020
DAY ONE AGAIN, SIGH.

Well, I lost both of my Auto Mazar ladies. I figured I would after all the gnats and constant replanting. Poor babies. Anyhoo, I was germing a couple of Low Flyer Dwarf Autos in jiffy pellets when I came across a cool challenge~
“2 ladies one cup”. I decided to join and have some fun.

SO....as my backwoods hick town has no Solo cups in sight, I cut down a Gatorade bottle to 16oz. I taped it with Gorilla tape so it is black, drilled holes to mimic an Airpot, filled it with moist 50/50 FF Strawberry fields/perlite with a touch of DE, dropped in the little DP Dwarf Low Flyer Auto twins, and then topped with play sand to deter gnats.

They are sitting under a 55W CFL with temps hovering around 80. Humidity is low, but I will NOT spray the tent and ladies as I am deathly afraid of gnats again and want to keep their sand dry. I do have a little bowl of vinegar, honey, and dawn dish soap in the tent to attract any little fu**ckers that do appear. That is all the humidity they will get.

The ladies will be “dunk watered” every few days in a kelp/recharge/mosquito dunk mixture and set aside to drain any excess before being put back in the tent. I dont believe they will need any nutes until bloom at which time they will be fed Megacrop. I use tap water, so I am not adding any Calcium....yet.

I am also planning on joining another challenge...The “Welly Boot Challenge”. I have an Auto Mazar seed in a paper towel now. I will update on both these challenges soon.

Come join these challenges with me! Hey, why not have some fun in these trying times :smoking:

Sorry this thread has taken such a turn, but "stuff" happens, LOL. I will post pics in a few days when everything is settled.

 

[MassMom]

Surprised by fungus gnat issue in auto pots, thought the bottom water system was supposed to help that? Feel your pain lost my last round to the lil buggers. Best of luck on rest of the grow!

Hi hon...I had not even gotten them settled IN the autopots yet, i was still hand watering. I HATE those little things...

 

[MassMom]

I'm sure now gnats put a hard knock on the growth on my girls and led to a nute problem here at the end of the grow. I thought I had them under control with early dunks. They came back, so I applied neem. LOL! Didn't do a thing or enough.I wasn't breaking the life cycle was the biggest problem. I heavily applied DE to the topsoil and only bottom watered for about 10 days to give the DE a chance to do it's work. DE must be dry for it to work. It did the deed! The biggest thing is to break their life cycle.
This should work on any style of growing where you can bottom water. I doubt if it will work on EarthBox grows though. I think the top of the soil will be too wet for the DE to work.
Just remember that DE is a very fine powder and can be an inhalant danger, but that's mainly possible when using outdoors. I don't see how it could be a problem in a grow when applied very heavily like I did, but I've only used it outdoors in soil, never used in a container. It is a source of silica. I just don't know if it's in a form available to the plant.

Anyway, it worked quite quickly. I should have used it FIRST in my grow. Lesson learned!


When I say I heavily applied it, I mean it looked like a blizzard had hit my topsoil! LOL!

DE= Diatomaceous earth

Awesome job. Yes, they are relentless, and I guess us taking a little time at the start of the grow to deter them is a LOT easier than trying to get RID of them. I use a mask when i spread it around because it floats around in the air, but I dont think after that it should be an issue. One thing I learned, dont put much IN the soil because once it hits water it turns to thick MUD!~

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Hi hon...I had not even gotten them settled IN the autopots yet, i was still hand watering. I HATE those little things...

Long term solution especially if you reuse soil is nematodes. Short term is Mosquito Dunks. I like the idea of nematodes - a little army of worms fighting worms

 

[WildBill]

Long term solution especially if you reuse soil is nematodes. Short term is Mosquito Dunks. I like the idea of nematodes - a little army of worms fighting worms

Damn! Thanks for reminding me about nematodes! I'll add them after I re-amend the current grow media and let it fire back up. Once it won't heat back up, I'll add those little buggers! I've used them quite a lot in the past in my veggie garden.

 

[MassMom]

I am going to be closing this thread and just posting on the WELLIE BOOT CHALLENGE thread and the TWO GIRLS ONE POT thread. Come join in the fun XOXO