Infested Soils....

[socalval]

I bought the last two bags of roots oganics . Had gnats and afids really screwed up my season . I never had any bugs in my room . My buddy gave me 25 awesome CLEAN cuts . Two weeks later i had mites on my tops afids sucking on my roots and 20 gnats buzzing around and 20 more on the sticky tape:sad0047: . I didnt have mites but as soon as i put them in cups i did . Ive been told you can bring mites home from the grow shop just by touching the counter . So im back to mixing my own soil :fighting0003:.

 

[green punk]

I have been saying for a year now that all Fox Farm and Roots Organics products are the cause of the Root Aphid epidemic sweeping the nation.
Some believe its coming from the warehouses the distributors are holding the pallets. Im not sure. I also think any grow shop with living plants in a living system are probably another source of the bugs infesting the bags stored in the shop. Particularly the gnats. All bagged soils and cocos have small holes in them where a gnat or aphid could easily gain access and hitch hike to your grow.
A larger scale grow that I am aware of has used every commercially available coco and nearly all had gnats from the get go. I think maybe just coir didn't. They would open a bag and let it sit and the fliers would show them selves in a few days. But I think its hard to say when they already had the gnats present in the main grow.

Bcuzz is one of the worse for the gnats.

I use the bricks. 2.5 cu ft for $5 and a little time rehydrating and rinsing is well worth it. Have yet to see a aphid or gnat in my coco plants or in my soil blend.

 

[El Cerebro]

I use the bricks. 2.5 cu ft for $5 and a little time rehydrating and rinsing is well worth it. Have yet to see a aphid or gnat in my coco plants or in my soil blend.

Funny, I just went to home de pot the other day and they still had a few of the big blocks of coco in stock. They are 11lbs and 3cuft expanded (that's like two big bags of hydrostore brand), price was $6 ea. There are 4 slabs per pack, which soak up ~10gal of water total, and def require soaking overnight unless you really want to work out some aggression busting them up dry. Soak water started 6.5pH and is 5.5 the next day so seems pretty neutral. Must say, quite a good deal for the fidyelvn gallon pots I use..

 

[tattoojim]

i think the local grow shops are letting these bugs get out of control also. for example we went to the local grow shop 2 days ago and i was walking by pallets of r.o,light warrior,fox farm and some other lines of dirt, i say your dirt is full of fungus gnats. the owner looks at me says nothing and walks away. the bags that were swarming with gnat were wet, belive it or not the roots organic soil was dry and not swarming. but we all know that shop is breeding bug for us.

 

[ogplatinum]

Man this makes me afraid 2 buy anything..

Straight up right? Anyone have any problems with Black Gold comin with any bugs? Been lookin' at that brand lately, seems pretty legit and organic!

 

[Danoid]

Not sticking up for the soil companies but they all most likely buy their peat moss from the same supplier I know that still does not explain the coco soils though. Maybe cross cotamination at the grow stores or storage facilities. Any way it goes still bullshit maybe get an ambulance chaser and do a class action. Good Luck

 

[convex]

I think the truth is, the supply chain is the vector.

Bulk storage, staging and distribution through the same shipping containers, trucks and warehouses and store fronts time after time after time ...

More likely than a conspiracy.

 

[1971]

sadly I've gotten thrips due to Fox Farms Ocean. :( IPM here I come :/

 

[GreenThumbBill]

There isn't a grow medium on the market I haven't heard somebody claim to get pests from. If I stopped buying every soil I heard somebody claim they got bugs from, I'd have very few choices.

I will admit that when I switched over to roots organic potting soil the number of fungus gnats I saw went up dramatically. But they were easily controlled by pre treating the soil with a little granular azomite. Once I started doing this I didn't see anymore gnats. But at the end of the day, if fungus gnats kick your ass, you probably shouldn't grow. =)

I'm personally going back to Happy Frog because I find other soils too hot initially. I like the control happy frog gives me and also it's the cheapest at only $14 per 2 cu ft bag at my grow store.

Also, my grow store keeps all the grow media INSIDE. That's important. I think a lot of hitchhikers make their way into the aeration holes on the bags while being stored outside at various retailers. I understand retailers doing this due to limited storage space in their stores. But I would never buy grow media that was stored outside. You're just asking for problems if you do imho.

 

[420bliss]

Roots 707 came chucked full of fungus gnats for me:help: RB

i got gnats with the 707 too, havent caused too much trouble

 

[Dz1PnK]

Thrips in ff light warior from dh in socal

 

[MakinGoo]

Straight up right? Anyone have any problems with Black Gold comin with any bugs? Been lookin' at that brand lately, seems pretty legit and organic!

I got a few gnats from black gold coco b4.. At the time I was super mad & changed 2 B'Cuzz coco 4 like $11 more cuz there coco is steamed & clam 2 b low in salt.. I got the same gnats in B'Cuzz coco plus the ppm rite out the bag is almost 2000 & u got 2 super rinse it 2 lower the ppm's.. I'm gunna go back 2 black gold it's cheaper.. I was really thinking of trying out Canna Coco but I read Logics post & changed my mind.. Good lookin out Logic I'm juss afraid 2 get anything at this point.. I think from now on I'm gunna pre-Treat the coco by adding some Met52 in2 the coco.. But that's gunna b pretty expensive but better safe then sorry

 

[PDX420Grower]

The bags I bought/buy were/are stored in their shop but they still contained bugs. I guess Im just glad the worst I got was thrips. If it would have had RA or SM, It'd be a different story.
Might have to try that granular azomite.

 

[BrianDirt]

A book it said you could bake your soil to make sure you don't get any critters, not sure at what temp but would say 300 ish.

 

[El Cerebro]

I'd bet the hitchhiker bugs aren't likely to go for the compressed and shrinkwrapped coco bricks..

 

[dankworth]

I'd bet the hitchhiker bugs aren't likely to go for the compressed and shrinkwrapped coco bricks..

Specially after you bake the bricks in the oven. Or so I read somewhere.

 

[green punk]

I will admit that when I switched over to roots organic potting soil the number of fungus gnats I saw went up dramatically. But they were easily controlled by pre treating the soil with a little granular azomite. Once I started doing this I didn't see anymore gnats. But at the end of the day, if fungus gnats kick your ass, you probably shouldn't grow. .

Huh? Azomite killed off your gnats. Interesting. I use azomite as a source for minerals and trace elements to aid in primary nute up take. I have never heard of it used to combat pests. I could see maybe mixing diatomaceous earth to beat down the buggars. You maybe on to something.

 

[El Cerebro]

Specially after you bake the bricks in the oven. Or so I read somewhere.

Yeah you can bake that shit in YOUR oven! Those things are super dry and maybe a fire hazard if you forget it's in there? Which I probably would..


I've always wanted to use one of these: :banana1sv6:

 

[tattoojim]

Yeah you can bake that shit in YOUR oven! Those things are super dry and maybe a fire hazard if you forget it's in there? Which I probably would..


I've always wanted to use one of these: :banana1sv6:

yes coir is very flamable...:mad0229:

 

[GreenThumbBill]

Huh? Azomite killed off your gnats. Interesting. I use azomite as a source for minerals and trace elements to aid in primary nute up take. I have never heard of it used to combat pests. I could see maybe mixing diatomaceous earth to beat down the buggars. You maybe on to something.

Yeah, I had never heard of azomite being used for pest control either until I heard subcool emphasize it at school of dank. I gave it a shot and I'll be damned if it didn't work.