Cocoa shells as a top mulch is nothing but a huge fungus gnat attracter. Ive never seen fungus gnats home in on a single place so much. Ones without cocoa they could care less about. Ones with they want to lay babies in. Gnat gnix doesnt even stop them unless its a 2 inch or more thickness. I will never use cocoa again as a mulch. If i use it at all it will be under the mulch or lightly mixed in as aerator. But perhaps not. Its the biggest fungus gnat attracter ivd ever used as when its watered it retains moisture for far far too long and becomes a soggy gnat attractant. They will dig under the gnat gnix of about 2 inches to try to get at that cocoa. Fuck cocoa shells. If your cool with gnats ( personally i won't accept one one is even too many none is the only acceptible amount) go with cocoa shells only thing that stopped them was i cleared off the whole mulch layer replaced with manure based compost reapplied a ton of gnat gnix nearly double or about 2 inches or more of it. Then they die because they just cant dig through the soil or from the soil up. But once they lay eggs in that cocoa youre fucked and you gotta dig the larvae from the mulch layer out into a trash bag throw it out and reapply and add more gnat gnix. Worst idea ive ever read to do. But thats all that stopped them from trying to get in it. Let the soil dry out whatever doesnt work when the cocoa shells retain moisture and get soggy for a week or more without any watering period. Perhaps it would work better as a vermiculite.
Ive seen people talking about using it etc . i would never use it again anywhere near the surface of any plant period.
Sooooooooo .... Tell us your REAL feelings on mulching with cocoa shells. Don't hold back, or anything.
I read it honestly on gro kashies website to use and blah blah blah. Ive honestly heard that but tell us your real feelings lol its jjst the type of person i am. Id hate to see anyone follow grokashis gnat attractant idea and have to deal with it like i did. Fuck that. If i learn a lesson i dont want anyone else to recreate it you dig
How can something that eats your root hairs and stop your plant from optimum health be a minor nuisance. Thats a major pest in my world.
For now topdress you plants with garden sand atleast 1half inch to avoid further infestation, the sand barrier will not allow gnats to lay new eggs and and new hatchling will not able to come on surface for sex production.. Sent from my Z1 using Tapatalk
No gnatrol No BTI No diEarth no dung's No nothing will work on gnats those fucks immune to every fucking thing you try and eventually you see plant die Sent from my Z1 using Tapatalk
See the problem i found with the cocoa shells is even after your under soil dries, the cocoa stays soggy long after and thats what they try to get at. Sand yes. Thumbs up to sand. I went with gnat gnix. I doubled up on it. Then sprayed misted with water. To further compound and make it heavy. They those gnats can only lift and dig through so much weight. Havent seen a gnat since. Bless them. I know most wpnt go to such extremes to stop them etc. But i see no other way as stop them asap and prevent from coming back. Gnat gnix seems to also give a mild dose of silica being it from glasses. Sturdy growth after. But yes of course dry out appropriately but i noticed as a top mulch they suggested 1 inch. Or a half. Too much. Far too much. Stays soggy for over a week. And turns into a messy squishy fiber that fungus gnats seem to go crazy over. I dont like that idea. In a perfect room where noone will have to ever deal with a gnat maybie. But for the average joe like myself, you will fuck yourself on a bigtime adventure of organic gnat ridding with out soil drenches. I top dressed with a bit of neem seed and do insect frass crabshell meal in compost teas. They seemed to have left the building faster than elvis after a banana and peanutbutter fried sandwich. Gnat gnix seems to kill them quicker than sand. Sands free if you live by a beech but it aint free here.
Thanks for sharing that info. I wonder if the shells would be better for someone that grows in low humidity. Like winter time inside, where it is cold outside. The poor folks battling humidity in the teens might have found a silver bullet. A mulch that stays moist. You learned something. I am always trying new stuff. Some works, some doesn't. I give ya kudos for trying something new. Did you happen to try them as aeration in the soil? Just curious, sounds like a good aeration for outdoor plants. I'm interested in anything that eventually breaks down in the soil, but has good water retention. Coco hugel conculture perhaps cheers os
I ended up buying a leaf mulcher this year. So my mulch is all leafs from the yard now, should be interesting to see how it works. Trying to close the loop fully. Going to toss a clone into a pot with 45% leaf mulch/ 45% cow poo compost that comes from where my neighbor throws down hay for the winter. 10% homemade biochar left chunky.
like i said, a fan. get a big ass fan and point it at the soil. gnats cant land where its windy. also, drip irrigation will hydrate your soil without getting your mulch all soggy.
It's not the substrate. Fungus gnats eat decaying organic matter. If fungus gnats are chewing on your plant it's not healthy. The larva are similar to maggots. They don't like healthy tissue. This is a challenge all of us face. I do weekly soap nut tea and i also use caps foliar pack AKA OG Biowar. Spinosad, nematodes, neem/karanja cake, mosquito dunks, chitin, essential oils. You have your work cut out for you. Here's what I notice. As your soil is turned into humus gnats slowly disappear. 0 bad bugs can live in pure worm castings. There's no food source and its also loaded with parasitic nematodes and protozoa. I have 2x300g smart pots outside and the first month it was covered in gnats. Now...i only see rove beetles [natural fungus gnat predator]. You can purchase rove beetles but most mountain compost have them. They're in my backyard. I live 60 miles south of the blue ridge mountains. My back yard looks like a nature hiking area. I only feed forest floor compost and dump some lactobacillus over it. I make kombucha. Dump a quart of that to 5g of rain water over your pile and watch that bitch disappear. Cant wait for this worm reactor to be ready. That's a lot of worm poop! I have made a ghetto wind trap. At each corner of my bed I put a bamboo stake and run the sticky traps from 1/2" above the mulch and keep running them down in a staggered fashion until it's about 3' tall. I bend the cards slightly and used the holes provided for ties. When i do this it almost shapes them like a scoop. Gnats get blown right into them because of the way my fans are set up.
My shredded leaves break down fully in one year if that helps your planning. I add composted chick manure in the beginning. Happy leaf mold making os
use a spray bottle with 3 drops of dawn and mint extract in it. The mint will kill them and the soap will.. also kill them but will then provide a protective layer on the plant the bugs don't like. Use this in all my grows and never have a problem.