dopeweed
Active Member
I thought id just give anyone who is searching for a solution to fungus gnats or root aphids (or both, you probably have both) in NFT some help.
If you just go out and buy this stuff, you should be able to ditch the chemicals and prevent infection in the first place.
Neem - used as a foilar feed this will keep them away, will probably stop a couple of fliers from producing young, but will not stop or cure an infestation. Fungus gnats are unable to hatch from their larval stage and aphids don't like neem, but it won't help you with a serious problem just help you prevent it getting bad. Use as a foliar feed because mixing it with the nutrient kills off roots if you get the soap concentration too high. The oil also starts to rot in the nutrient and collect on the spreader mat. Its horrible stuff to use really....but a light misting of your plants daily isn't a bad thing as long as you keep it to a light misting and don't let any run off travel down the stems. . You don't need that when your roots are already damaged.
Gnat off - works well, but if you stop treating you will probably see the population come back within days. We use it permanently in our NFT trays at 1ml per litre as per recommendations. We also spray the NFT deck and spreader mat with this a couple of days before we transplant.
Prestop - brilliant product! Even when we had a full on infestation, we had complete Rams horn leaves, but the plants refused to damp off. They died due to their roots diying off and being unable to support the plant but have you ever seen a plant that still had green tips that were pointing skyward where the rest of it had died off? The plant literally ran out of time in veg to repair. We use this permanently. What's also nice is that it stops bud rot too! So feel free to veg that sativa for 10 weeks with that 1000w bulb you have...your buds won't hide secrets when you start to crop. You can foliar feel it for bud rot.
Met25 - supposedly meant to work on root aphids, we take 20g of this rice with mould grown on, lightly soak it and use a pestle and mortar to rub off the mould in a bit of water to make a mould smoothie lol
We then dose the NFT nutrient with the green mould and should help control our current problem with root aphids.
I'll report back about the met25, Ive heard good reports.
Cannazym - digests old dead root materials. We use this permanently. Keeps our NFT decks clean with nice white roots and should help clean your decks or system up after an attack.
If you have these products, you are likely to be able to prevent and cure any sort of root aphid or fungus gnat infestation.
Most importantly when you transplant your plants, seal up any hydro system like your life depends on it. You can have a full on infestation in coco next to a NFT tray that is untouched if you do it right.
- fwiw - dopeweed
If you just go out and buy this stuff, you should be able to ditch the chemicals and prevent infection in the first place.
Neem - used as a foilar feed this will keep them away, will probably stop a couple of fliers from producing young, but will not stop or cure an infestation. Fungus gnats are unable to hatch from their larval stage and aphids don't like neem, but it won't help you with a serious problem just help you prevent it getting bad. Use as a foliar feed because mixing it with the nutrient kills off roots if you get the soap concentration too high. The oil also starts to rot in the nutrient and collect on the spreader mat. Its horrible stuff to use really....but a light misting of your plants daily isn't a bad thing as long as you keep it to a light misting and don't let any run off travel down the stems. . You don't need that when your roots are already damaged.
Gnat off - works well, but if you stop treating you will probably see the population come back within days. We use it permanently in our NFT trays at 1ml per litre as per recommendations. We also spray the NFT deck and spreader mat with this a couple of days before we transplant.
Prestop - brilliant product! Even when we had a full on infestation, we had complete Rams horn leaves, but the plants refused to damp off. They died due to their roots diying off and being unable to support the plant but have you ever seen a plant that still had green tips that were pointing skyward where the rest of it had died off? The plant literally ran out of time in veg to repair. We use this permanently. What's also nice is that it stops bud rot too! So feel free to veg that sativa for 10 weeks with that 1000w bulb you have...your buds won't hide secrets when you start to crop. You can foliar feel it for bud rot.
Met25 - supposedly meant to work on root aphids, we take 20g of this rice with mould grown on, lightly soak it and use a pestle and mortar to rub off the mould in a bit of water to make a mould smoothie lol
We then dose the NFT nutrient with the green mould and should help control our current problem with root aphids.I'll report back about the met25, Ive heard good reports.
Cannazym - digests old dead root materials. We use this permanently. Keeps our NFT decks clean with nice white roots and should help clean your decks or system up after an attack.
If you have these products, you are likely to be able to prevent and cure any sort of root aphid or fungus gnat infestation.
Most importantly when you transplant your plants, seal up any hydro system like your life depends on it. You can have a full on infestation in coco next to a NFT tray that is untouched if you do it right.
- fwiw - dopeweed
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