HELP!! I tried to get rid of gnats and it caused discoloration!

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GrimReefer1

New Member
Okay so the title is pretty straight forward about my issue. I had garlic plants in the house and gnats went absolutely insane over them, so I got rid of them but the gnats migrated to my precious weed plant! I did an hour of research about it a week ago and learned I can mix 2teaspoons of Dawn Dish Soap per Gallon of water. My Dawn Dish Soap does not say anything about being anti-bacterial, so I assume it's not. On the back is says "Contains no phosphate". So what the hell is the deal? I'll post some pictures. I do LST the plant. I took the picture with a phone so excuse the low quality. I will also add more pictures that are unrelated, but since I'm making a whole thread about this I would be nice if you guys can diagnose that too. The first FOUR pictures are the discoloration from the soap, the black spots that kind of look like burnt spots. And I DO know it is not little droplets from overhead watering or lights being too close. A- I don't overhead water. and B- There is no way in hell my light can burn my plant. I have my plant growing in a closet with nice white flat paint and a circular reflector with a 13w CFL bulb. Okay I know my last sentence is going to attract a lot of people dodging every one of my questions going straight to criticize my light. LOOK. It has been working okay it just grows slow as hell. I LST the plant with tons of reflecting surfaces, every part of the plant gets light. I don't have any more room for more lights so just forget about giving me lighting advice - It will be ignored. I have done tons of research and I already KNOW which lights are best, at which angle, and blah blah blah. I'm not looking for a pro grow, I'm just growing just to grow. I'm not selling it, and it's not a hobby yet. I only want the answer to my problem - Discoloration. I only water when it needs it, I let it get super close to drying completely out and then I water it about 8oz of water. THE FIRST FOUR PICTURES ARE SHOWING THE BLACK DISCOLORATION THAT HAPPENED A DAY AFTER SOAP TREATMENT. THE TWO PICTURES SHOWING THE WHOLE PLANT ARE JUST TO SHOW YOU THE WHOLE PLANT. THE LAST TWO PICTURES SHOWING ORANGE DISCOLORATION IS NOT RELATED TO THE SOAP AND HAPPENED BEFORE THE GNATS EVEN SHOWED UP. Which is what I want you to help me with also. I did research on that a long time ago and it said something about calcium deficiency.. I'm not sure if that's true or not. BUT IF MY PLANT HAS ANY DEFICIENCY I DON'T WANT TO GO OUT AND BUY FERTS - IS THERE ANY BLENDED FRUIT MIXTURE I COULD USE?
 

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Smokebomb420

Smokebomb420

Well-Known Member
Can't really see photos...
I got gnats too and didn't get any spots from them...
Did you wet the leaves with soap? Could be that the wet leaves magnified the light and burnt it.

If it's a deficiency just scoop out as much dirt as you can and put some more soil in it.
 
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GrimReefer1

New Member
That's a good idea about replacing soil. I never thought of that. As for wetting the leaves, I did accidentally but that leaf never got any spots. And I noticed it is getting worse and I will post more pictures. I really really really hope more people answer because now I am terrified. The last picture showing everything is pretty much just a description of my first post when I was talking about the setup.
 

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GrimReefer1

New Member
As you can see on the first picture is that the dark spot has changed on one leaf to where it is a diagonal straight line.
 
thegreensurfer

thegreensurfer

Well-Known Member
2 teaspoons of dish soap?!
Well there is your problem.......whoever told you that is either fucking with you or just really dumb.
Get some azamax and do it right.
 
pinkjackyle

pinkjackyle

Well-Known Member
thegreensurfer said:
2 teaspoons of dish soap?!
Well there is your problem.......whoever told you that is either fucking with you or just really dumb.
Get some azamax and do it right.
Click to expand...
dawn was not the dishsoap you needed to use that stuff is a powerful degreaser and it may well be all over for that plant . ask me how i know , those leaves r gonna prob all turn brown and fall off . should have used ivory as its much less powerful , i cant really advise using any dishsoap as a folar spray . buy u some cold pressed neem oil . safer insecticide soap at lowes/depot
 
TreeAgent

TreeAgent

New Member
Fungus gnats are a pain in the ass. The adults lay eggs in the soil and the larvae eat your roots. This can cause the brown spots as all the new root growth gets eaten.

One adult lays 300 eggs per week. If you see 5 of those fuckers flying around, you probably have 1000's eating your roots.

For soil application, the product Gnatrol works amazing. It's a bacteria that eats away at the larvae. Using it in your watering application every other day will kill them off in less than 2 weeks.
 
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GrimReefer1

New Member
Yeah I'm sure they are gnats. Look I didn't know it was that horrible for the plants. It says it didn't have phosphate and said nothing about being anti-bacterial. There shouldn't be any reason it should cause such drastic effects unless I'm missing something. I thought I understood it as the 2 teaspoons of the soap I just described (Dawn) would be diluted enough to kill the larvae and eggs without killing the plant. Although it doesn't kill the plant it will just go to the leaves (It has literally just went into to vegetative state so no chance of soap going into bud after plentiful flushes) but would kill any gnats that feed on the leaves for a short time. If anyone gets the wrong idea I only used bold as the explanation I received. Is that information wrong? And to the person that asked what else I put in the soil besides water and soap? Well I had some stripped loam soil so I had to put some nutrients in about 1-2 weeks after sprout. The gnats migrated after I got rid of my garlic plants which was about the worst time ever because it was literally the day before I added ventilation and it only took them 5 hours to fucking claim it.

They wouldn't leave my plant alone no matter how much I killed them so I figured it was because my soil was already infested with eggs so I got desperate and found this link: https://www.rollitup.org/t/got-some-mites-will-dish-soap-work.504283/page-2

They made different methods very clear but the only thing I had around the house was Dawn dish soap so I worked up the mixture and it fucking killed the gnats for sure with 1 treatment every 80 hours and it only took 2 treatments lol. Downside is it kinda slowed down the growth a little bit and put weird markings all over my leaves. They aren't dying they are just marked up but still has a healthy thickness and level of moisture. So it looks funky and grows funky but at least the plant is free from gnats lol

I'll come back ever now and then to give you guys an update. I'm not sure if anyone ever tested this and posted but I will so the information can be out there.
 
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GrimReefer1

New Member
Okay so.. I might have some bad news. I don't know what happened but I am fairly certain. When I LST'ed it I did not know it ruptured some of the fibers inside the stem.
Here is what I think could have happened:

1. Whatever soap was left going through the system could have rotted it.
2. The gnats could have been attracted to the smell of the ruptured fibers (if they can even smell that it was super super minor to where I wasn't worried) and opened it up in a combination of hunger and trying to get away from the soil, only to die when they ingested soap.
3. It could be a combination of both.

But as you guys can already tell I'm an extreme amateur to the point all my knowledge is based on internet research instead of actual experience. To the really experienced people, I know you know that there is a difference between research and experience. So I really don't want anyone to tell me that there is no difference.

Here is a picture of the stem and if you guys disagree with my explanation please let me know AND provide your reason. I'm only looking to learn here and if I come off as arrogant I'm sorry I just try to put as much information as possible to decrease the time it takes to have it figured out.
 
Flagg420

Flagg420

Well-Known Member
Wash the wound, lotsa nice clean water, then wrap it in painters tape (plant bandaid) and let her heal, while keeping bugs off the wound at the same time
 
*BUDS

*BUDS

Well-Known Member
Ok i didnt bother reading any more after you used irish dawn dish soap. Ive heard other people recommend garlic ,cinnamon and lion piss. These methods are what idiots use.
Next time use yellow sticky strips ,Scarid 10 and dont re use old medium until you have got rid of them.
 
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