Mulch. Just do it.

[bigshrimp]

I have ahimsa neem meal, and crab meal too, they have been amended in for a couple years now.

When i first began using them i noticed some effect over the course of a couple months.

Once they get bad the only way i have been 100% successful in getting rid of them it to tear up the mulch and bust out the shop vac and Bti.

We are just talking about gnats here, and i dont feel like a few gnats here and there are a problem. I usually just treat with Gnatcontrol (liquid Bti).

I mix it up in a sprayer - let sit for at least 12 hrs - and then thoroughly mist/saturate the mulch layer. This should be more effective (im guessing) than watering in.

 

[rasputin]

Always had "meh" results from top dressing neem and using the CC neem tea recipe for FG. Frequent applications created wild swings in substrate pH.

I've been on Dunks/Bits ever since.

I got gnats once from a bag of Sunshine coco, and what worked for me was top dressing crushed up mosquito dunks. The bare bulbs took care of the adults, the dunks took care of the kids. No more gnats.

 

[Medium Pimpin']

I just started a thread about applying neem and/or karanja meal to coco.
Any advice?
I see talk of a top dress, I have no idea on how much to apply.
Again, I do grow LOS and coco also, separately of course

 

[Team Microbe]

Fungal hyphae will develop under any layer of moist, living (teaming with life) mulch. Fungus gnats are almost certain to show up from what I've seen personally, and I've noticed some negative effects from back to back to back neem drenches (1 tbsp per gal).

I have actually found the most success from predatory mites - specifically Hypoaspis Miles. If they don't show up naturally you can order them from a number of sites online, (here's a good one) along with other beneficial insects like nematodes and praying mantises. My gnat population slowly dwindled over about a month's time, and now it's hard to find just one. This made the H Miles population grow immensely too, these things were small when I first saw them and now they're fat and fed lol. They also began eating the thrip larvae and completely took out their population as well (I brought them inside by accident last spring when I hardened off clones outside). I can't recommend introducing these insects enough, they're really a life saver and all you have to do is apply them once...

 

[rik78]

the other day I was helping a fiends in his garden to put some anti weed fabric or geotextil fabric
and I was thinking that it will be perfect to simulate mulch or to use as a mulch

has anyone use it?

I may give it a go and report back

 

[3rdEye]

the other day I was helping a fiends in his garden to put some anti weed fabric or geotextil fabric
and I was thinking that it will be perfect to simulate mulch or to use as a mulch

has anyone use it?

I may give it a go and report back

Why not just use actual leaves or other plant material as mulch? No need to buy anything and all natural.

 

[3rdEye]

Fungal hyphae will develop under any layer of moist, living (teaming with life) mulch. Fungus gnats are almost certain to show up from what I've seen personally, and I've noticed some negative effects from back to back to back neem drenches (1 tbsp per gal).

I have actually found the most success from predatory mites - specifically Hypoaspis Miles. If they don't show up naturally you can order them from a number of sites online, (here's a good one) along with other beneficial insects like nematodes and praying mantises. My gnat population slowly dwindled over about a month's time, and now it's hard to find just one. This made the H Miles population grow immensely too, these things were small when I first saw them and now they're fat and fed lol. They also began eating the thrip larvae and completely took out their population as well (I brought them inside by accident last spring when I hardened off clones outside). I can't recommend introducing these insects enough, they're really a life saver and all you have to do is apply them once...

If i'm not mistaken all you need is a nice thick diverse layer of mulch to keep these predators around. Are you aware of any plants that might serve as suitable hosts for these TM?

 

[exstr]

why thank you!

Here is a fresh container, newly seeded. Let's follow along as clover, purslane, and chickweed start to grow.

View Image

could someone please explain the tubing, bottle, and pvc function in this pic please? Is it some kind of gravity drip system?

 

[Mikell]

Blumat mini's (tubing, bottle) and I'd guess either "air vents" or perhaps anchors for a PVC screen.

 

[Team Microbe]

If i'm not mistaken all you need is a nice thick diverse layer of mulch to keep these predators around. Are you aware of any plants that might serve as suitable hosts for these TM?

Yep you're on the money there - diversity is everything in soil. The more predatory bugs we have the less impact invaders make ultimately, and I swear they just show up after a while in a good healthy system. I never ordered bennies asides from nematodes, everything else just showed up on it's own pretty much. The H. Miles don't eat plants but if you have gnats they may come say hello... if you wanna manually add them to your pots you can do that as well. I almost bought every beneficial bug there was one night when I was drinking - it came to be like $400 and at the last minute I cancelled the order

 

[Boyd Crowder]

just mulched with crushed dunks, clover seed and a layer of hay/straw
i hope i havent screwed up - i have nematodes on order so next week they go in as well

 

[heady blunts]

might as well bump this one too

 

[espresso420]

I'm starting to use hardwood mulch on top of my recycled soil. What happens to the mulch after harvest? Is it recycled with the soil, removed, or saved separately and reused on top? Or do I use new mulch for the next run and send the old mulch out to the vegetable garden?

I understand that a lot of mulches are incorporated into the soil mix since they break down quickly, but I'm curious as to how hardwood &/or pine bark mulch are dealt with. Thanks for your help.

 

[Slipnot]

Personally i let nature be my mulch i only add grass clippings as a mulch
just prior to the plant going into bloom phase i will add 20 gallons of Humus /compost as top dressing this is something new i am tryin this year the compost has been composting for 6 months lets have a look at where she is at
first up natural cover crop approx 60 years old where i planted into
and then my composted material i added fresh grass clippings then took a sample to see what is up

 

[Slipnot]

i then added saved rain water to make a slurry checked on ppm and PH for shits n giggles then applied it as top dressing on plant which has never been fed anything other then same organic compost and top soil mix at the beginning 5 months ago
No watering other then rain fall it was plant n walk away

after everything stabilized got 6.9 ph and 1064 ppm

 

[espresso420]

Thanks for your reply, Slipknot. Nice picture of your girl.

I should have clarified that I applied the hardwood mulch on indoor container-grown plants. My outdoor plants are mulched with compost & straw. I recently built a compost tumbler to speed up my composting projects, but it hasn't caught up with me yet!

 

[Avinash.miles]

went up in the mountains and collected a bunch of leaf mould, broken down wood and pine needles and top soil for my most recent mulch....

use cut grass and cut fresh alfalfa, clover, horsetail for my last mulch....

I recently built a compost tumbler to speed up my composting projects, but it hasn't caught up with me yet!

dump some em1 or lacto bacillus serum in your compost tumbler, that will really speed things up

 

[heady blunts]

with a hardwood mulch i'd remove it for transplanting/recycling and save it to put back on the containers after i'm finished working them.

i do the same thing with my hay mulch.

just be careful at the soil surface, there may be some very delicate feeder roots in that decaying layer at the horizon.

 

[Avinash.miles]

yo hb, why replace old mulch?

 

[heady blunts]

i meant use the old mulch again. you don't need to use new mulch every round.

my wording was confusing. i tried to edit it to make it clearer.