Fungus Gnats or too late of a transplant?

DankTankerous said:

Hey y'all i started two reg bagseed seeds in peat pellets and left them in those for 3 days. One of them did have part of their root coming out but by half an inch. Anyways I put them under a UFO LED light after transplanting them. after 4 hours the seedling with the root protruding was keeled over with a pinch in the middle of the stem. The second one started to turn to the light but the next morning I found it keeled over with the same pinch in the middle

I'm having a bad fungus gnat problem and after two sprayings I still have them. Was the death caused by fungus gnat larva? Or just being in the peat pellets or...? Here is a picture of the last one

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gg2 said:

Combine 1 oz. of hydrogen peroxide with 1 qt. of water in a water pitcher./ KILL GNATS...I also use this same recipe with plain dawn dish detergent n mix this in a bowl n just sit in where my plants are. it really does help my plants with gnat problem

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ThcGuy said:

I would toss it all and start over. Trying to grow in that soil again is just asking for trouble. Trying to save poor soil that doesn't drain and is infested just doesn't make sense.

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DankTankerous said:

Here's the deal the soil isn't cheap vermifire costs 25 a pound and it's in a closet rolled up in a bin. However I might because the second I open it up flies come from nowhere. I just really don't want to.
Also my apt is a 108 yr old house so I believe this will be an issue, I would just not like to toss all that soil.

What preventative measures could I take in not letting this happen again.

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Buba Blend said:

There was nothing you could do to save that seedling, it died from something called damping off.

The best way to control gnats indoors is to let your soil dry out between watering.
If your soil is constantly to damp, they will thrive.

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DankTankerous said:

Hey BB,

What ratio of potting soil to perlite or Vermiculite would you recommend? I use a potting soil called Vermifire which does have hydroton and perlite in there but clearly it's not enough. I looked at my two indoor plants and stuck my fingers in the soil it straight mud. Also now that I recollect my last indoor PC Stealth grow never really dried out on the top. Should I use something else besides perlite?

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Buba Blend said:

I have added perlite to recycled ffof, in my case about 10% perlite plus a bunch of other amendments. I am only familiar with using ffof. It has a nice amount of perlite already and can be used as is. Lots of people recommend adding 20% perlite to it and that seems to be a good guide line. So if you can view it somewhere to determine how much it has as a guideline to what you should have in your mix, maybe that can help. I'm a novice there, if you don't get a good answer here, create a thread in the Organics section.

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DankTankerous said:

Here's the deal the soil isn't cheap vermifire costs 25 a pound and it's in a closet rolled up in a bin. However I might because the second I open it up flies come from nowhere. I just really don't want to.
Also my apt is a 108 yr old house so I believe this will be an issue, I would just not like to toss all that soil.

What preventative measures could I take in not letting this happen again.

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E-rock8420 said:

Bake it in the oven on low (200-250) it'll dry it and kill the gnat larvae.

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DankTankerous said:

I'm also dealing with damping off and I think it's because my mixed soil that has compost in it. I'm going to buy some seed starter soon soil.

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