Hope ya'll had a wonderful holiday season! Ok I have two questions. Last week I mixed my soil together and I would like to get some input into what I have put together. I would hate to have left out some major components here. As you all know I ordered a lot of stuff and am limited on what is available in orgainics here. Next question, Looking at my soil closely today, I noticed something moving. Tiny little bugs. I have attached a video, the first min is about all you can make out. I was trying to focus and made it worse. Please help!! I have not planted any plants in this soil yet. I have sprayed them with neem oil mixed with proteck and they seem not to mind it. The room also holds my two plants that will harvest within two weeks. P1010442.mp4 video by Evilt1967 - Photobucket I will order neem meal online, but it will take a while to get here. What do ya'll think, should I put the dirt out in the cold, start over or what??? Ok, This soil has been at room temp for 1 week the ingredients are as follows: 3 gal peat moss (sphagnum peat from Canada) 2 gal coir 1 1/2 gal perlite 1 gal Vermiculite 2 1/2 gal EWC 1/2 gal pine and hardwood fines 1/2 gal mushroom compost 3 cups alfalfa meal 2 1/4 cups kelp meal 1 cup soft rock phosphate 1 cup fish meal 1 cup Epsoma lime 1 cup blood meal 1 cup bone meal 1 cup sul-po-mag 1 cup Dr Earth's organic 7 (4-4-4) with mycorrhizae 1 cup Dr. Earth's Bud & Bloom Booster organic 8 (4-10-7) with mycorrhizae OK now, Be Easy on Me, this is my first organic rodeo and I have not planted anything in it yet!!
evil t, get online to neemresources.com and order the karanja cake and neem cake. put that on the soil and not the neem oil. also, if you don't want to order it, try the diatomaceous earth. I recently used that and Mosquito Dunks on fungus gnats. Are your bugs flying?? I couldn't tell for sure what you have, but they may be fungus gnats. They seemed rather dark and looked as though they may be winged. Look up fungus gnat control on the web and you will find a few different suggestions - all organic to some extent. One thing I do know is the neem oil foliar spray, Mosquito Dunks and drying the soil out REAL WELL did a great job knocking down my outbreak. So, if your plants aren't in the soil yet, dump it out on a tarp, spread it out well and let it dry real good and repot with the DE or the neem and karanja cake. Read my thread on Organic Fungus Gnat Control. everyone gave me some great suggestions. JaK
Jak, Thanks, They are not winged. I had gnats before and know what they and their larva look like. I will order something, but what should I do mean while?? From the list above where do you think I brought them into my soil mix. Everything was bagged except the EWC, they were local. How can I be sure not to get them again?? How can you know if something has eggs in it and what can you do to get rid of them without hurting the good stuff? Heat, freeze, microwave?? Evil T
Put all the new soil in microwave to steralise it... No need to use pesticides unless uve already planted in infected soil, just my two cents
Add neem seed meal to your soil and water with ProTek. Go easy on the ProTek and can be used throughout the grow as a foilar spray, or drench. Jak has a thread going on the fungus gnat and the methods suggested by LD are proper and sound methods.....
evil t, I guess any of your ingredients like the peat moss, fines, compost and EWC could have potentially carried the little buggers. Anything left outside than can get overly moist and exposed to the elements on a daily basis has that potential. Let us know if you get them ID'd. I would like to know what they are I think either way, you should go with the neem cake/karanja cake. I have a 5lb. bag of each coming to me from neemresources.com. Costing me $27.00 for both with the shipping. The DE would also be a good way to go.I got a small bag at Lowes for a little over 9 bucks. It'll go a long way. Of course, the quick way to eradication would be the sterilization. I have never tried it but heard it is best to do on your gas barbeque out in the yard!! JaK
Thanks all of you! I went to Lowe's and they are starting to stock the garden center for spring. Low and behold I found the diatomaceous earth. Thanks Jak!! I sprinkled the top of my soil with it and I'll let ya'll know the outcome in a few days. The directions say it takes 48 hrs to kill all the crawling bugs that come in contact with it. (we'll see about that)! Would some of ya'll, that have been around the block a few times, let me know your thoughts on my soil mixture... Please.... Peace, Evil T
Your soil mix looks good to me bro. Have you looked into biochar or EM-1? You might find them useful with the osil mix you put together
Golden, Thanks for the info. I have on order BioAg.VAM & Activator,it should be here any day. Will that cover what you think I need? Thanks and peace, Evil T
Evilt, Just to let you know, knowledge is at a fairly beginning level, and my experience in terms of implementing soil mix techniques and what not is unfortunatley perhaps a bit more limited. I'm learning more every day though. I have no experience with the VAM by BioAg, though I have heard good things about it. I just got in 2 of their other products, cytoplus, a humic poweder and some of the fullpower fulvic. I would recommend looking into EM solution, either purchasing it or making it yourself. I'd recommend making it yourself as it is so cheap and easy to make. I'd suggest you take a looka posts by FormerLumperDawgz, Lumperdawgz, Chunkdaddyo, Possum38North, maina, Stankie and the organic forum in general. ultimately, you will have to digest this information, and apply it to the specific genetic and environmental conditions that you are working with in order to make your ladies shine. Particularly Lumperdawgz and Chunkdaddyo seem to have a fair amount of implementation experience, and the others are certainly worth their salt and full of excellent ideas and thought provoking questions. When you say need, are you talking about for the bugs or your soil grow in general?
Golden, I was referring to my soil. I have been reading and studying on this organic growing section since I found it. It is wildly interesting. The most interesting to me right now is the organic journal by Chuckdaddy. They are coming up with some great info about grows with soil and kelp only. Just my luck, I go spend maga bucks on mixing this soil and before I can get a plant in the soil they figure out organic soil and kelp was all I needed. LOL If you have not, check it out!! Peace, Evil T
evil t, don't get too rattled. I know how it is when you start. You can't keep track of all the things you think you need. One day soon, you will find your perfect mixture. It doesn't have to be a big complicated mix. One thing I did was put together MY amendment mix in a 4 gallon bucket. For each 1 cuft. I put a cup of it in my soil mix. It has lasted for quite a few grows and I still have some left. As far as the soil, I use a quality potting soil, EWC, compost and pumice. This has been the cornerstone of three grows that seem to be getting better each time. I am just on #4 now. So, amendments+soil mix, let it stew for a couple to 5 weeks with a little moisture (AACT/FPE) now and then, stick in your babies and you are off to the races. Yeah, you will need the water+supplements for drenches and foliar sprays along the way, but it gets second nature after a year or so. You will catch on and have braggin' rights in no time. Hey, if I can do it, you can. Hang loose, evil!! JaK
Jak, Thanks for the words of encouragement. I'm cool, it takes more than a few bugs to rattle me, I've lived to long for that. (I will admit they made me itch when I first saw them.) Have you been keeping up with Chuckdaddy's organic Journal? Very interesting!! Peace, ET
From what I can tell from your video is that those are composting mites. Do they look like really tiny little white/reddish spiders? If I were a betting man, and I am, I would bet all my $ on those being composting mites brought in from your using local fresh EWC. Not all mites are the dreaded 'spider mites' that everyone is ultra paranoid about. Generally speaking, composting mites are a normal part of a healthy compost bin/pile and feed on decaying matter, much like worms. Nothing to worry about and they would probably be gone before too long on their own. It is understandable to see those crawling in your soil and become anxious. If the Diatomaceous Earth doesn't solve it, mix in some neem seed meal. EDIT: Actually you should mix in some neem seed meal anyway.
Stankie, Yes they look like tiny whiteish and reddish spiders and you are more than likely right. Thanks for the help! I am getting some neam seed meal ordered. All of you are GREAT!! Peace, ET
EvilT, Thanks for the plug on my thread and FYI, the jury's still out on the kelp only grow. While the upward growth is more extreme on the kelp only plant, the plant in our go to soil/fert mix seems to holding her own as far as budsites. I don't think that you wasted your dough on all your amendments, and in the end, you'll have great luck using the go to mix we all promote here. It is interesting to see how well a plant can do when it's most basic of needs is met. Take care ma'am,( no "bro's" from ole chunk) chunk
evil t, how's the bug thing going today? I looked up a few things online, as I am sure you have. My eyes cannot see too well to ID what you got in your movie, but I looked around trying to find some info on what it could be by Stankies description of what he thought they looked like. Anyway, hoping to learn how you might have resolved your issue. Always good to learn and hoping you found your solution. JaK
Jak, From what I have read it appears that the mites are a totally normal part of EWC, just like Stankie said. There appears to be many species and I have more than one. The diatomaceous earth has kept them off the top of the soil, however as soon as I dig a little they are there again. I am going to add the neem meal when it arrives, but other than that I'm going to live with them (literally, the dirt is in my house). I have dusted a good little bit of the de around the edges of the dirt container to make sure they stay in the dirt. Can't help but itch everytime I look at them up close. I guess being raised in the south... they just look like red bugs!! Thanks everybody!! peace, ET
evil t, sounds like you are dealing with things just fine. The other thing you may want to do is work the DE down into the soil the first 1"-2". Might help out curbing the proliferation of them. I have a dinner fork that I have put aside with my gardening stuff to do the working of top dressing into my soil. Works pretty well when the plants are in the pot. I wonder what their life cycle is and if they are laying eggs with resulting offspring. If not, you may be looking at a brief life cycle. BTW, you getting pounded with that snowstorm or did it miss you? I imagine your kids are looking forward it. Be careful if it comes your way. JaK
I saw a bunch of tiny little parasite looking worms in my soil today. Hoping they are beneficial nematodes. Less than 10 feet from my bed