SIP thread -- (Sub-Irrigated Planter)

Help with Earthboxes and Fungus Gnats Please
My first Earthbox run was a great success. I ran 3 earthboxes with a 12 week strain, and made it to finish with no issues. No bugs, no deficiencies. I posted pics on this thread a few times.

I now started a bigger run, and mixed 10 new boxes. Plants are about 12-18" tall and still in veg. I notice some Fungus Gnats around and sure enough the sticky traps only took one overnight to collect many specimens.

My earthboxes have DIY organic living soil. No mulch layer.

Earlier this week, I did a spray of N Force Foliar (https://nforcebiotech.com ; cinnamon oil, tea tree oil). Then 24 hours later per their instructions I did a rinse with water. I am to repeat tomorrow (twice per week total). The gnats came flying when I applied it... but if I just rinse off a day later, I don't see how it will stop them propagating in the soil? Its like you treat then rinse twice a week so how is that to help? By the way my soil mix has some neem meal in it.

Purchased today ; more sticky traps, diatomaceous earth, and "pot poppers" which are Nematodes. (NemaGlobe Pot Poppers).

My understanding is the problem with using DE in a SIP is that then you can't top dress... or rather when you top dress you have to remove all the DE first. Do I have that right? Since these earthboxes were just mixed, maybe a good course of action would be to cover with DE for a couple weeks until flip to flower and first top dress?

How should I use the nematodes in light of the DE? Can they work together? Show me the way please :)
 
Never had luck with nematodes myself. DE doesn’t work when the top soil is wet and mine are always wet. Covered. If you catch it early enough maybe you’ll have luck. Myself I’ve just started covering everything with sand. Can still top water through it but a pain to move away to add food. Good luck, stay on it you’ll get them. 5AD712C7-6AD8-4F27-BED3-3222B348998C.jpeg
 
Last time I had a runaway gnat issue, I used Mosquito Bits (BTi), following the instructions on the bag about leaching the bacteria off the pellets with water first. Then I top-dressed with some homemade EWC to fortify the hypoapsis miles population. Over the course of about five days, the gnat population fell back into my IPM parameters. That was in a 15g living soil pot filled with a custom, mulched soil.
 
JimmyJackCorn said:
Last time I had a runaway gnat issue, I used Mosquito Bits (BTi), following the instructions on the bag about leaching the bacteria off the pellets with water first. Then I top-dressed with some homemade EWC to fortify the hypoapsis miles population. Over the course of about five days, the gnat population fell back into my IPM parameters. That was in a 15g living soil pot filled with a custom, mulched soil.
Click to expand...


agreed, i through some bits on top during an outbreak and it seemed to subside shortly after
 
hot_box_enthusiast said:
Help with Earthboxes and Fungus Gnats Please
My first Earthbox run was a great success. I ran 3 earthboxes with a 12 week strain, and made it to finish with no issues. No bugs, no deficiencies. I posted pics on this thread a few times.

I now started a bigger run, and mixed 10 new boxes. Plants are about 12-18" tall and still in veg. I notice some Fungus Gnats around and sure enough the sticky traps only took one overnight to collect many specimens.

My earthboxes have DIY organic living soil. No mulch layer.

Earlier this week, I did a spray of N Force Foliar (https://nforcebiotech.com ; cinnamon oil, tea tree oil). Then 24 hours later per their instructions I did a rinse with water. I am to repeat tomorrow (twice per week total). The gnats came flying when I applied it... but if I just rinse off a day later, I don't see how it will stop them propagating in the soil? Its like you treat then rinse twice a week so how is that to help? By the way my soil mix has some neem meal in it.

Purchased today ; more sticky traps, diatomaceous earth, and "pot poppers" which are Nematodes. (NemaGlobe Pot Poppers).

My understanding is the problem with using DE in a SIP is that then you can't top dress... or rather when you top dress you have to remove all the DE first. Do I have that right? Since these earthboxes were just mixed, maybe a good course of action would be to cover with DE for a couple weeks until flip to flower and first top dress?

How should I use the nematodes in light of the DE? Can they work together? Show me the way please :)
Click to expand...

Fungus Gnats

Yellow sticky tapes, and, fresh good quality duct tape, or the stickyest tape, maybe tuck tape red. Roll a bunch of that and place it over the medium, over the whole hole. Pointing up and down. It will be covered in no time. You can also change your air exhaust hose ls around, and suck the...
www.rollitup.org
 
GrassBurner said:
@myke you ever water in your dry ammendments with humic acid? Doesn't it speed up the breakdown and availability of nutrients? I've got some fulpower, curious what you think.
Click to expand...
I’m not up on humic/fulvic acids. I think it’s fulvic that’s does that? Not sure.if ya find info please share. Merry Christmas.
 
Quick search shows this "Fulvic acid is a humate which is the result after decomposition of organic matter such as trees and plants. Fulvic acid speeds up nutrient uptake by solubilising minerals such as Iron(Fe), Silica(Si), Potassium(K) & Calcium(Ca)." I'm gonna skip the salts these next couple waterings, and lightly top water in some of my Ful-Power.
 
GrassBurner said:
Flipping these girls tonight. Fed them some liquid fertilizer 2 days ago, top dressing them with 3tbsp flowergirl and a cup of ewc tonight. Got another bottle of Neptune's Harvest on the way.
View attachment 5040862

Dracarys in the 4x4 is filling out the net, it's been flipped to flower as well. She's been chugging water. Did a lot of weaving in the net tonight.
Click to expand...

Do you have a build log for theose square tubs. they would fit muchbetter int he tent than my one big huge SIP
 
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