42 days of flowering, have video, need advice pls!! Thanks!! First Grow

Adult fungus gnats are tiny black flies which spend time running around on the surfaces and sucking sap from the leaves. After the adults lay their eggs on the soil (medium), the young worm-like larvae hatch out and begin to feed upon the roots. The larvae initially eat the fine root hairs before moving on to burrow throughout the larger roots and even up into the stems. After feasting on the roots the larvae will pupate before hatching out as adults and repeating the life cycle by laying their eggs. The larvae resemble little worms. They have clear or white bodies with black heads.

Life cycle: Adults live about 7 to 10 days and deposit eggs on the moist soil surface or in soil cracks. Females lay up to 100 to 300 eggs in batches of 2 to 30 each in decaying organic matter. Eggs hatch in 4 to 6 days; larvae feed for 12 to 14 days. The pupal stage is about 5 to 6 days.

Damage from the fungus gnat larvae feeding on the roots shows up in the leaves as overfertilization and nutrient deficiency symptoms: yellowing, browning, burning and curling leaves.

Three fungus gnat larvae biocontrol agents:

Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti) bacteria which can be purchased as mosquito dunks or gnatrol. Bti is the most appropriate anti gnat biological control agent for DWC systems.

Hypoaspis mites.

Steinernema feltiae nematodes.

Occasionally a dry layer of sand is recommended as a deterrent to fungus gnats. This technique should be discouraged as the close packing nature of the sand particles reduces the quantity of oxygen which penetrates down into the root zone.

I would advise against putting a layer of DE on top of your soil, although sand might help. DE needs to be dry in order to work, and the particles are also very fine; this can lead to a sloppy mess. Dry DE spread around the floor, in crevices or wherever else you see them will help to kill the adults. Once they come in contact with DE they will die within 48 hours.

No pests strips? No where near my plants.

So, the root of the issue here is that indoors in your grow room fungus gnats have [virtually] unlimited food and no predators. The result is the potential for their populations to really get out of hand, in a relatively short period of time and before you even know it. The fungus gnat life cycle is about 4 weeks and there are 4 stages to this life cycle (egg, larval, pupal, adult). The adults are the ones which are most evident, and so they're the most often targeted by gardeners. But if you have an infestation you have to take multiple steps and target the fungus gnats while in larval and/or pupal stages as well.

Don't under-estimate the power of a good vacuum against adult fungus gnats. Vacuum your grow room while you water to catch the most adults. Do this as often as you can if you have an infestation. Here are some other safe recommendations I have given in other gnat threads.

Pyrethrin as a botanically-derived insecticide that kills on contact and breaks down within several hours, it is not toxic to birds, mammals or amphibians and leaves no toxic residues which is ideal for our purposes. The spray is widely available at most home improvement centers. I am pretty sure this is the same stuff as Dr. Doom, only that brand costs more than it should. This is also good for killing adults on the soil surface.

Mosquito Dunks or Bacillus thuringiensis isreali (Bti) is a natural bacterium that produces a larvacide which is toxic only to a handful of species of insect larvae including fungus gnats and mosquitoes. It is widely available in compressed circular pucks under the brand name Mosquito Dunks, sold in most home improvement centers. They also sell Mosquito Bits, which is the same thing and another brand is Gnatrol, but these products are usually less available. If you get dunks you use them by soaking in a bucket of water over night and irrigating. This should kill most of the larvae; although it is best used to prevent a gnat population from taking hold in the first place. If you already are infested this is still a very necessary step in order to kill the larval stages of the gnats. Re-apply every two weeks even when you don't see adults.

Then of course you should have yellow sticky traps around and Safer brand or Gnat-Stix sticky traps in the containers. But it is hard to bring absolute elimination if you have a lot of plants, house plants, etc. Biological controls are really the best. Someone mentioned Hypoaspis mites, which predate on the pupal stages of various insects including fungus gnats. I have these myself and they do quite a job. Given a sufficient food source (like gnat pupae) the Hypoaspis mite population can really boom; once they've eaten the majority of the pest insects their populations may drop although they can subsist on dead organic matter/vegetation.
Hypoaspis, Bti and beneficial nematodes are a sure fire way to rid your garden of gnats and keep them form coming back.

I cant say.. ill let youknow in a week.

ok next weekend when i am back i will post another vid of up to date, with the progress, which hopefully there will b some, i will handle the nats by this wweeekend if they arent alrede dead!! i hope that shit doesnt kill my plants tho

RawBudzski said:

I cant say.. ill let youknow in a week.

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oh and i basically posted those ^^^^^^ up there about the nats for myself so i dont have to search for it each time, and for others!!

good info

There ya go, there is your air supply. Keep the bathroom window open and run a line from next to the window down to the floor of the grow area. that will supply fresh cool air. Then get a second fan and a short tube start that right above the lights and pump it up into the bathroom. the fans should be in the bathroom, exhaust sucking hot air out and blowing cool air in through the other duct. Ya wanna put like 1/2 inch sand over all the soil, not just the bottom of the stalk.

Feeding nutrients really depends on what you got but most of the time you wanna feed then water twice then feed again and keep that up till the last week then just water.

cruzer101 said:

There ya go, there is your air supply. Keep the bathroom window open and run a line from next to the window down to the floor of the grow area. that will supply fresh cool air. Then get a second fan and a short tube start that right above the lights and pump it up into the bathroom. the fans should be in the bathroom, exhaust sucking hot air out and blowing cool air in through the other duct. Ya wanna put like 1/2 inch sand over all the soil, not just the bottom of the stalk.

Feeding nutrients really depends on what you got but most of the time you wanna feed then water twice then feed again and keep that up till the last week then just water.

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****awesome very helpful, hahah the sand was only these 2 litttle asss bags, im going to get more. But say I put c02 air in my room, do u still neeed an intake?

no one else? any comments????

to use co2 effectively you need a sealed room. Preferably.

I pick up washed sand at home depot, like $2.50 for 40 lb sack.
C02 wont work in your case cause if you seal that room up you will cook the plants. CO2 is heaver then air, you will get plenty just by running the ducting.

I bought a shit load of sand, and got and inline fan that connects to ducting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wohoooooo im excited now, plus i got a thermoneter....

hahahh check this out i just rolllled this-----there is a water in it(quArter) in 3 dutch masters!!

LOL, Awesome dude.

Ok... Ive heard of getting sand to get rid of those pesky gnats.... But Ive also heard that the soil needs a good cool oxygen flow so you dont get root rot and moldy stuff in your soil ... So, wouldnt one be contradicting the other or am I reading something wrong ?? Ive got those bastards and used fly strips all the time... It controls them but doesnt totally drive them away... Im also afraid to put poison on my plant.. LOL Im trying to grow all organically as I can... Can I use Plastic wrap for a few days or would that totally do the soil in?

Good point there, most containers have holes on the bottom where oxygen can enter but I'm sure the soil gets some from the top too.
I dont think plastic wrap for a few days will do them in but I wouldnt leave it there. You can water through the sand so I have to assume some air does get through.

Where did you get your seeds? Genetics are the most important thing when it comes to having a succesful grow. Also I saw on the first you dont have a ph meter. If the ph is not at the right level your plants will not be able to use the nutrients properly. Invest in one the milwuake ph600 is only $20. I have tried topping and lst, and i personally prefer toppping my plants 1 or 2 times right before i put my plants into flower. As for nutes fox farms grow big is an awesome 1 part veg nute, I highly recomend it. For flower botanicare pure blend pro is good and cheap aswell.

bm31timp said:

Where did you get your seeds? Genetics are the most important thing when it comes to having a succesful grow. Also I saw on the first you dont have a ph meter. If the ph is not at the right level your plants will not be able to use the nutrients properly. Invest in one the milwuake ph600 is only $20. I have tried topping and lst, and i personally prefer toppping my plants 1 or 2 times right before i put my plants into flower. As for nutes fox farms grow big is an awesome 1 part veg nute, I highly recomend it. For flower botanicare pure blend pro is good and cheap aswell.

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i bought them from attitude, and i thought heat was an issue, it wasnt' i bought duct work at home depot, but returned it/ my thermoneter only says 83 high 78 low, so its fine, i know it woulda helped, but i am getttin out after this grow here...thanks man

What do you mean getting out. :O Oh Nos !

haha, welll i gotta get this ish outtta here within like a month in half, they better b done!!!!! Dont really want to get into details but someone will bcoming to my house randomly, so it neeeds to b out!! If i put my lights on a 10 on 14 off, would it speed up the process of budding?