I have never had fungus gnats ive had thrips and my cure is spinosad. And i put crab meal or crushed oyster shell in the top layers of soil this stops anything burrowing its way in to the soil.
Neems good as a deterant but. Id also use some crushed crab shell or oyster shell in top inch or top dress with it(good for slow relase calcium if your a notill dude) . And also use spinosad The oystershell acts like blades in the soil to.bugs just cuts them up should stop the borrowing in or back up. Spinosad is an awsome lil bacteria that will kill bugs on the leaves and soil and when I see a thrip or 2 ill spray and all living ones are dead but eggs can survive it thats why i spray it every 3 days for 2 weeks if i get bugs. Also with gnats yoy can use play sand or sand on the soil.about 1inch deep this tricks the gnats
Thanks Loki. Should I give them a light top dress of both the oyster shell and crab shell?? Also is it ok to give it to them now? I mean I won't be overwhelming the plants will I? Sent from my SM-N960U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
No top dressing it is fine yoy can rake some in with a like dinner fork but as your doing a no till approch later deffo add it all the way through your soil. But for now top dress is fine plus ya in flower so they will like added calcium that it gives plus are you planning to reuse the soil if so it will keep it topped up with cal and fight off bugs Oh and never spray a flowering plant with neem or any oil based liquids.
I can definitely agree on the not spraying in flower part. For me our weather is far too damp in late flower for much of any kind of spray. I'm still trying to figure out how to add amendments all the way through the soil in no-till. Seems like the only way I can get them throughout is to till which is not no-till. I've been pondering on this for sometime now and I feel like everytime I chop my cover, mulch, and then compost I will be burying the amendments further in the soil. I pretty much take all my amendments and measure them off in to a 5gal bucket, mix thoroughly once a month and top dress pretty good right over my cover crop of Clemson clover. The rain does wonders here in western Washington with watering it in. As for reusing the soil. I plan to keep the same soil from here on out. Even leaving the root balls intact in the raised beds from year to year. Once I harvest I plan to top dress all the amendments and plant cover every year. With monthly top dressing until I chop, mulch, and compost the month prior to planting. Sent from my SM-N960U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
You add amendments in the you can use top dressi g tea ect too add nutes but ideally you wanna mix it in first the buln of t It then use top dressing and teas to keep the soil topped up feed the soil.and the soil.will feed the plant Reason i said no oil based sprays is oil will dissovle / damage your trichomes