Roots matted up from Fungus Gnats

Discussion in 'Sick Plants and Problems' started by Katakoma, Sep 14, 2018.

  1. #1 Katakoma, Sep 14, 2018
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2018
    What type of medium; soil or hydro? Miracle gro potting mix (my first grow, sorry)
    What brand and type of soil? ^
    Indoors or outdoors? Indoor
    What strain? Not sure, came from a bag of bud
    How old are the plants? 75 days
    What type of lights and how many watts? Used a 600 watt HPS for the first few weeks then went to a 225 watt LED until flowering. I began flowering probably 3-4 weeks ago now and swapped to a 150 watt HPS light
    How far from the lights? About a foot away
    What is your watering frequency and source of water? Every 2 days I water, tap water with 6.5 ph or so
    What, how much and when was it fed? NPK? Since I’m using miracle gro I’ve been very careful feeding due to nutrient burn from the time released pellets. Over a month ago my plant almost died from nutrients getting stuck in the soil. After the ppm of the run off was down from 3000 to about 600 I began slowly feeding the fox farm trio at around 1/2 strength of the hydro fox farms feeding schedule. I began at week 8 I believe. I water every 2 days and every other watering I feed. It seems to be doing the job I haven’t noticed much discoloration or anything.
    What is the medium/runoff pH and PPM if in hydro? ATM not sure at run off has diminished
    What are the temps and humidity in the room? 78 degrees Fahrenheit, humidity I’m not sure.
    What size pots? 3 gallon
    Any bugs? Look real close. Yes, only present in the medium. Fungus gnats I do believe.
    Any other pertinent info? I noticed the amount of my run off was going down more and more as I was having what I think is a fungus gnats problem. I see small white-ish bugs coming from the drainage holes on my pot. When I was watering I would have NO run-off and it would just be the bugs coming into the bowl I was catching the run off in. At the point I have put rocks at the bottom of my pot to try and help with drainage but it didn’t help. I’ve gotten to the point where my plant roots are matted up tightly with what I think is the fesses from the gnats. When I water with my normal amount I used to have plenty of run off to check but now I get only a few drops and I don’t want to keep watering and over saturate.

    Any help would be appreciated and I’ll answer any other questions to the best of my knowledge. Just know I’m aware this is not a conventional grow, I’m using a shitty medium and it wasn’t the best conditions at the beginning because I didn’t expect the plant to grow. I can post pictures, I do have a macro lens so I can take close pictures if they help at all.

    Thanks
     
  2. So after 4-5 days of no water the top soil was really dry and it was dry about 2 inches deep into the soil. I wanted to make sure I killed all the larvae that I could.

    Before,when I knew the infestation was stronger in my soil, the run off was full of them but now I didn’t see any moving in the run off. I’m out about half a gallon of straight tap water that is like 75 ppm and around 6 pH. I got a considerable amount of run off compared to before when I was seeing the larvae. The plant didn’t seem to wilt or anything from not watering but I also did not feed with nutrients in about 6 days, during which time I wasn’t watering at all. I’m going to start back with full strength nutes next watering which will probably be 3-4 days until I do that because I want to give the soil time to completely dry before watering again. (The gnats form when you over water your plant)

    This is simply for anyone who reads this in the future and may have a similar problem.

    I still have a the roots matted up but as long as water is flowing all should be well I’d assume. I’ve heard the fesses from the larvae can slow drainage in the soil so I assume that’s what is happening here. If anyone knows better please comment.
     

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