Sand ontop of my soil?

[Kronikal_kiwi]

Hey there people.

I have recently done batle with gnats and have used about half an inch of sand ontop of my mix (peat, vermiculite, perlite, neem pellets, lime, and worm castings). Combine with sticky traps and spraying with neem oil and this method had worked very well indeed (no signs of any more in the last 24 hours)

Now do I leave the sand on top of the soil? If so for how long? Is it gonna fuck with my PH or anything? And does it hold heapsa water or will the water sink straight through into my mix below?

I appologise but I seem to be a bit useless and can't find a search feature anymore? I would have searched if I could.

Cheers

 

[CheifnBud2]

The topsoil is usually well dry by the time i go to re water. You can rinse the sand with ph adjusted water and it will have no affect. It may make the soil hold water a bit longer overall, but sand dries pretty quick.

 

[Kronikal_kiwi]

Hey CheifnBud. I usually make sure soil is super dry befor I re water. It can be painful though as my mix refuses to take water if it gets to dry and I end up having to drible it in ever so slowly otherwise it pours straight out the bottom of the bags. I can't keep it damp though otherwise I encourage the nasty gnats.

 

[CheifnBud2]

I dont like those bags. Use plastic pots.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

If you water from the bottom up and never get the top 2 inches of soil wet, the gnats go away.

 

[CheifnBud2]

I dunno, i dont get gnats and i grow sevral types of plants.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

I missed that you're growing in bags. No, bottom up watering doesn't work with those.

I never had a gnat problem until I started growing veggies indoor. Would occasionally see a gnat flying around my soil mums but no more.

I've dumped all the dirt veggies.


Really Really Need to get rid of them???
Gnatrol or Mosquito dunks will take care of the problem. Make sure you buy fresh product as it's a live product. (Dunks sitting on a hardware store shelf exposed to sunlight won't be very effective, if at all)

 

[MynameStitch]

I would remove a lot of it only if there is a lot of it on top, sand on top of soil slows down the rate of o2/air exchange to the soil/medium..... can cause soil to stay wet a big longer too...... when it's heavily coated on top, so remove a lot of it if you can....


Hello hydro whats up man? Got a question for ya, how do you do bottom up watering? I think I know what your talking about, but just want to make sure that is what I think it is......

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Hello hydro whats up man? Got a question for ya, how do you do bottom up watering? I think I know what your talking about, but just want to make sure that is what I think it is......

Howdy
It's what you think it is, dunking a pot in another container of solution. If you set yourself up correctly the top inch of soil never gets wet.

It's labor intensive without setting up an E&F type system but I only have a few mums that I keep in soil. I won't flower in anything but hydro for now.

 

[Kronikal_kiwi]

Hey wicked cheers for taking the time to answer people!!

I will remove most of the sand, and Im contemplating placing around an inch of course perlite ontop to keep it dry. I will also make sure to water by dunking so as to keep the top 1 inch of soil plus perlite dry. Gnats are nasty litle pricks, when I went to bag my plants up there were hardly any roots that didnt brake off very very easily. Some of my plants were prety much just in there jiffy still! Cheers aye people!!

 

[MynameStitch]

Hey hydro, you have any pictures of these???? I Would really love to see how these things work!!

THanks for letting me know what they were, cause I knew that what it was, but I just could not get an image of how the thing would really work lol

Are you using jiffy pots kron?

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Hey hydro, you have any pictures of these???? I Would really love to see how these things work!

Ummmm.... Not sure what you mean.

I keep my mums in soil. 7oz plastic cups with holes poked in the bottom.
I fill a 7oz cup about 1/3rd of the way with RO or Nutes and drop the mum in it.

It slowly sinks down and soaks up the water. Once you do it a few times you can figure the right level to fill the cup at. You just want the plant to sink all the way in and soak up water to about an inch below the soil line.

After about 30 seconds or so I pick it up out of the cup and put it back into it's own 7oz light-shaded cup with a rock in the bottom of it. The rock keeps the cup off the bottom. Not sure if that's good for the plant but it lets the roots grow through without getting mashed up in the bottom.


Or were you talking about a little E&F setup to do this?

 

[Kronikal_kiwi]

Hey there.

Yeap sure do run in jiffy's. They're in a soilless mix (12 are in a coco based mix called Max Yield by Canadian Express and 13 are in a Peat based mix called Gro). They really have come away in a HUGE way since I looked on the sick plants thread and followed your instructions TITCH thankyou very very much I was devastated whern I bagged them and their roots were stuffed but already I'm seeing VERY WHITE litle roots popping out the bottom of the new bags. Also I will feed from the bottom from now on. I scraped all the sand last night and filled the bags up with perlite and yeah havnt seen any bugs in a few days now!!

 

[MynameStitch]

Hey hydro, I mean do you have a picture of this upside down thing

You seen those tomato upside down pots... I wonder what it would be like having all those hanging containers with pot plants!!!!

Wonder how cannabis would grow in one of those.....



Hey there kron, good to see things going up for ya!

 

[Hermit43]

If you water from the bottom up and never get the top 2 inches of soil wet, the gnats go away.

I am curious about watering from the bottom.....could someone float me a link to this technique or clue me in?
H43

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Hey hydro, I mean do you have a picture of this upside down thing

You've gotten confused somewhere Stitch?
I don't have any upside down thingy like the tomato thingy. I just mentioned I don't pour water into the top of my containers so the top dirt never gets wet.
Bottom up watering.

Sorry for any confusion.

(If it helps, I tend to confuse people a lot. )

 

[MynameStitch]

How do you do bottom up watering....

Oh, I know you don't have the upside down tomato thingy, I was just talking about it making conversation about it

 

[Hydro-Soil]

How do you do bottom up watering....

Oh, I know you don't have the upside down tomato thingy, I was just talking about it making conversation about it

LOL Ok.

See post #12

 

[CheifnBud2]

you just dump the pot in a larger bucket filled with water, so the winter sinks through the holes of the pot with the plant in it.

It takes a long time, and its a work out, and plants dont like having wet feet.

I would water from the top (heavy watering every few days to a week) and then put the coarse perlite/whatever on top aftewards, so it dosent even have to dry off the first time.

 

[Weedman Herb]

I think someone is clueless ... how do you think an ebb and flow table works? They don't mind the wet feet ... unless it's stagnant ... they want to breathe as well ... I don't think anyone is saying they leave their plants in a tub soaking for days at a time ...