6 month old plant Miracle grow Organic soil Female/ re-veg (4 weeks re-veg) One month in noticed kitchen gnats enjoying my garden. made efforts to clean environment, h202 the soil and the gnats disappeared. Flowered the plant as a random, packed with crystals first 2 weeks so I decided to keep her and re-veg. She re-vegged slow at first, but has recently started really bushing out with all kinds of new growth. Last night I noticed little bugs all over the outside of the pot and around the rim. My search results pointed me to spider mites, but I don't have any leaf damage? I actually found none of these bugs on the plant itself. I took the pot, dumped it out and noticed I could see the bugs in the dirt. My problem here is that I believe they are springtails? they kinda jumped a bit in the soil if I give it some water. I have no root damage whatsoever. My roots were bright white all at the bottom of the pot. The only adverse effect my plant seems to have is purple/brownish looking stalk. I cut the roots down and replanted her into a smaller pot. I still have the bugs obviously but not all over the pot like a plague. I am wondering if these are indeed springtails and how come they did not kill the plant? I thought these bugs fed on the roots and such. I have a another female 6 weeks into flowering that I let flower out and she is showing no adverse effects either. My other potted plants with a different medium (coco) does not appear to have any of these bugs. I feed all of my plants Bio Thrive and other bio products? sooo are these bugs eating micronutrients? what should I do here? another concern I have is, perhaps the bugs are living in harmony so to speak with the organic soil.....what about my other plants with a coco mix? at any point can these bugs become a threat?
If you got springtails, leave 'em be. They're not hurting anything and are somewhat beneficial. Without high magnification it can be difficult to identify springtails but if they jump fast and far, they're probably springtails, hence the name. They use their tail like a spring and can launch really far and extremely fast. Large populations (And I mean large) of springtails can be harmful but I've pretty much always had springtails in every grow and I've never noticed any problems, even ones documented in research studies. They eat what you don't necessarily want. Like fungi and mold. If you really want to get rid of them, let your soil get really dry (Plant will not like that).
The bugs are living in 'harmony ' with your soils and your plants eating both, you gotta ask why, ....the M.grow soils may not be fully composted and still active with live pathogens, (where do you think potting soils come from?) and healthy insects is the first sign. Consider changing you soils to a more upmarket brand, more so if the soils smell of dirt or shit! Otherwise 1 teaspoon of Neem Oil to a pint hand sprayer and spray your babe/s 1x time a day for 1 week, then 1x time per month
Thanks guys for the clarification. I think I am going to let them be for now considering I don't really notice anything wrong with my plants. I suppose if they get too out of control I will use neem oil. I understand there is different types of neem oil? and lets say I wanted to do a spray during flower...can this neem oil be used during a watering? or is it a foliage spray only? I smoke Marlboros laced with battery acid so I am not concerned about chemicals and whatnot. Thanks again.