scissorhands Posted November 25, 2021 Share Posted November 25, 2021 hello, im in my third week of flower and have discovered fungus gnats in my grow room. ive only spotted about 10 of them in the last week so wasnt too worried but last night as i watered my first plant i noticed a dozen of the tiny white lava floating together in a little group in the water in the tray so figured i better do something about it. i ordered some of the yellow sticky traps and after a lot of reading, some nematodes. i try and switch it up every now and again and do something different to see if i find any benefits and this grow ive decided to water my plants from the bottom. ive always watered by hand from the top and have never had any issues with bugs or mould or anything like that. my plants are in coco in 15 litre pots and i water once a day same as ive always done. with this bottom feeding, the top of my coco is always bone dry. so im just after some advice about my watering regime and using the nematodes. ive read that once i add the nematodes i have to keep the substrate wet so should i knock the bottom feeding on the head and go back to how i usually do it and water from the top? also, when i mix up the nematodes, should i add them to one of my feeds or should i give it as plain water? thanks in advance, i really appreciate any advice you guys can give me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highgrower Posted November 25, 2021 Share Posted November 25, 2021 (edited) Just used them on house plants and also in the drobe - was effective for me and after a day or so gnat lava were literally on the surface of the soil wriggling about. Have also got yellow traps about to catch the adults and since watering them in numbers have been drastically reduced. I just emptied the packet in about 8-10 litres of water and top watered every plant I have so there was a bit of run off in saucers. Edited November 25, 2021 by highgrower 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scissorhands Posted November 25, 2021 Author Share Posted November 25, 2021 ive got my sticky traps but my nematodes havnt arrived yet. do you think i should start top feeding straight away to get my coco nice and wet? its bone dry on the top atm even tho the bottoms are still moist. ive just been in there and i feel sick at the amount of wriglers ive just seen. ive taken the saucers and wiped them out with bleach (rinsed them well after) but as soon as i put the pots back on them more fall off. i hope these nematodes come in tomorrows post. thanks for your replies. im not very good with forums so i dont exactly know what im doing here or how to tag or anything but hopefully this will post correctly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highgrower Posted November 25, 2021 Share Posted November 25, 2021 I would just water as per normal - the nematode packet says to keep the soil moist for a week or 10 days after watering them in but I have tried to keep to a wet dry cycle but just not letting plants get too dry - you should be fine with coco and regular watering. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scissorhands Posted November 30, 2021 Author Share Posted November 30, 2021 hi folks, i dont think the nematodes are working. i made them up as per instructions on the packet and gave to my plants just before i turned my lights off at 8am not yesterday but the day before. so right now im about 36 hours away from when i used the nematodes. i made up the pack as per instructions, i added the whole pack to 2.5 litres of water and then added 500ml of that solution to 8 litres of water. i made up 2 of the 8 litre batches and used about one and half (so about 12 litres) to water 12 plants. so each plant had about a litre. before i added the nematodes i wiped all my trays out because lots of them had wrigglers in them. when i turned my lights on last night i checked the pots and there were very few wrigglers. i didnt know if this was because the nematodes had started to work or if it was because id cleaned out the trays the night before. ive just turned my lights on and only checked the tray nearest to the door but its full of lavae. there must be at least a hundred of them. i dont know how ive messed up the nematodes but clearly something has gone wrong and they arent working. can anyone suggest something else i can use to get rid of them? im 4 weeks in flower on a 7/8 week strain and apart from the lavae in the trays there are no other signs anything is wrong. ive had a few mis shapen leaves and maybe a dozen leaves that have had blotches or marks on them but no yellowing or anything. the buds are looking good and about as big as id expect at this point. i put yellow sticky traps out 4 days ago and havnt caught a single fly. i havnt seen any of them either. i hope theres someone going to read this that can advise me what to do because even tho they dont look to of done much damage at the minute, theres a long way to go yet and im sure they are going to be trouble if i dont get rid of them now. thanks for reading Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highgrower Posted November 30, 2021 Share Posted November 30, 2021 If you arent seeing any flies or catching any I would say the nematodes have worked - I only saw the gnat maggots on the surface a day after watering them in and after that didnt see them again with the numbers of the adult flies reducing every day to almost none now. If your on week 4 I wouldnt worry at all they seem to do far more damage to seedlings than mature plants and just finish off the grow as per normal and not worry about them anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highgrower Posted November 30, 2021 Share Posted November 30, 2021 Can you take a pic of them as I think you may have spring tails or something else you dont need to be worried about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scissorhands Posted November 30, 2021 Author Share Posted November 30, 2021 i can take a pic, im just not sure that i will be able to upload it. ill try. thanks for replying Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scissorhands Posted November 30, 2021 Author Share Posted November 30, 2021 i dunno if its worth mentioning but i havnt seen anything on the surface of the coco, they are in the trays under the pots. they seem to jump about if that makes any sense. ive got a pic and im gonna try and upload it now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highgrower Posted November 30, 2021 Share Posted November 30, 2021 The are spring tails and nothing to worry about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scissorhands Posted December 1, 2021 Author Share Posted December 1, 2021 ive tried to upload my photo but i cant do it. i dont know why it has to be so complicated but i cant figure it out so all i can tell you is that they are tiny little white things about a mm long and they wriggle about in the tray and they seem to jump in the air aswel. do you think thats what they are then mate? springtails? ive had a google but its a bit difficult to tell cz most of the photos i can see have zoomed right in for the picture but the creatures im looking at have no legs or heads or eyes or anything, not with the naked eye anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highgrower Posted December 1, 2021 Share Posted December 1, 2021 Really does sound like springtails and you can just leave them be - its worth reading the thread on here about uploading images and spending a bit of time to figure it out as people will be able to help you a lot more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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