Pictured in the video is a "Gary Peyton" clone that a friend left with me a couple of weeks ago. I put it in a second solo cup to catch the runoff, and after noticing that the soil didn't seem to be drying out at all in the first couple of days, I stopped watering it altogether, removed most of the straw from on top of the topsoil, and stuck to misting it. Since then though, when I inspect the cup underneath every day, I've noticed these tiny, tiny bugs (and occasionally some ever-so-slightly larger ones) crawling around the bottom in whatever water collected there. I'm wondering if anyone knows what those are, as it's going to inform how I treat this tent in the coming days.
A little background: Around that same that my friend left this GP clone with me, I had observed other bugs crawling around in the soil of other plants in the tent where I placed it. I had noticed some dead gnats on top of the lights of this tent in the weeks/months prior, but had never observed any flying around. Additionally, the numbers of them appearing came to a near halt at some point, which suggested that if the gnat infestation wasn't effectively gone, it was being sufficiently contained. When I put these pieces of cork down in the soil one day though, and left them overnight, the contrast of color enabled me to see that there were tiny (not as tiny as the babies in the bottom of the Solo cup in the attached video, but small enough that you need to be looking for them, or have a high-contrast situation to see them)bugs crawling around on the cork and soil. There were maybe a dozen in that one spot, which suggested that, since nothing was flying around, these were not gnats.
After reading up on some common pests, I determined I was dealing with spider mites. I wasn't financially able to get any kind of pesticide for a while though. I was able to get a spider mite solution from a friend yesterday, finally, and I applied it to the plants (not the GP clone) in that tent yesterday. When I checked the tent this morning though, the bug activity was even more visible that it was yesterday, and I could actually see what I think were a couple of gnats flying around. Whatever is in there has already caused considerable damage to the rest of the tent, so I'm scrapping it today, disinfecting the tent and preparing it for the next grow.
Before I can do that though, I need to figure out to do with this GP clone. I'm wondering if it's worth trying to salvage, or if the continued presence of whatever that is in the video, combined with this never-drying soil that it's in, means that I should probably cut my losses and get rid of this thing so as to get that tent bug-free in preparation for the next plants I plan to grow in there.
Any help anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated.
If they are not thrips (black dots under the leaves from their excrement),
then the small ones look like springtails they live in your soil and digest dead things(beneficial) at bottom of your cup because no moisture in soil so they had to leave
Springtails, officially known as Collembola, are a small and incredibly common invertebrate and a big part of the soil mesofauna, worldwide. They’re objectively and categorically way better than horses, tigers, dogs, bush babies, koalas and hedgehogs.
Thanks very much for the robust reply! I will say that those springtail images don't look like what I've observed crawling around the other plants in this tent, but I think there is a decent chance that this GP is experiencing its own, separate bug issues at the moment, despite being in the same tent. Maybe because it's always covered with a soda bottle? I'm not sure. I will say that while there is some degradation of the lower leaves on that GP, it doesn't appear to resemble the image of thrip damage that you shared, and I can't see any black spots that would resemble droppings, so at least that isn't going on.
As far as how springtails behave though, am I misunderstanding, or are you suggesting that they may serve a positive function for a plant? I'm giving the GP back to my friend in the next couple of days, but I'd like to take care of her before that, and hopefully even address any issues with bugs before he gets it back. If the springtails aren't a problem though, that's a huge load off my chest.
I’d guess the bugs are related to your overwatering/misting. No reason to mist a plant of this size (unless you just cloned it). These are not mites. Springtails do live in the soil but are white and jump around like a flea (using their tail to “spring” around). Doubt it’s thrips as they nipple on leaves and you’d see the damage (and wouldn’t be around in runoff). There’s numerous soil bugs and many have larva, pupa and adult stages which can all look totally different. So I wouldn’t rule out gnats.
I’d guess the bugs are related to your overwatering/misting. No reason to mist a plant of this size (unless you just cloned it). These are not mites. Springtails do live in the soil but are white and jump around like a flea (using their tail to “spring” around). Doubt it’s thrips as they nipple on leaves and you’d see the damage (and wouldn’t be around in runoff). There’s numerous soil bugs and many have larva, pupa and adult stages which can all look totally different. So I wouldn’t rule out gnats.
It is a young clone, which is why I'm misting it exclusively at this point, along with the fact that whatever soil this clone was placed in doesn't seem to be drying out.
I definitely haven't been seeing anything jumping around the soil, so maybe that rules out the possibility of springtails? Gnats definitely seem like a reasonable guess, especially considering the soil isn't drying out, but I guess the reason I was doubtful, and why I wanted to see if anyone else had any ideas, was that I hasn't seen anything airborne up to this point - though, as I mentioned in OP, there was evidence of gnats having been in the tent before I got the GP, in the form of dead gnats on top of the lights. I haven't seen any new dead gnats there in weeks though. Maybe what's going on is they're trying to thrive at the bottom of this GP, but I'm repeatedly killing those babies when I rinse out the drainage cup every day.
I guess I'll just continue to monitor it over the next couple of days. Hopefully it is gnats, in which case I'd expect it's just a matter of misting the leaves and letting the soil dry out for a while before beginning any proper watering again, and continuing to clean the drainage cup every day so as to get rid of those babies.
Thanks very much for the reply!
I'll be sure to post updates in here if there are any, in case anyone looking into a similar problem comes across this thread in the future.
I'm actually taking the clone back to my friend today, and gutting/disinfecting the rest of that tent in prep for my first batch of clones (that I hope will take well). That sounds like a fascinating technique that I plan to look into when I get back home later today. Thanks very much for the heads up!
Pictured in the video is a "Gary Peyton" clone that a friend left with me a couple of weeks ago. I put it in a second solo cup to catch the runoff, and after noticing that the soil didn't seem to be drying out at all in the first couple of days, I stopped watering it altogether, removed most of the straw from on top of the topsoil, and stuck to misting it. Since then though, when I inspect the cup underneath every day, I've noticed these tiny, tiny bugs (and occasionally some ever-so-slightly larger ones) crawling around the bottom in whatever water collected there. I'm wondering if anyone knows what those are, as it's going to inform how I treat this tent in the coming days.
A little background: Around that same that my friend left this GP clone with me, I had observed other bugs crawling around in the soil of other plants in the tent where I placed it. I had noticed some dead gnats on top of the lights of this tent in the weeks/months prior, but had never observed any flying around. Additionally, the numbers of them appearing came to a near halt at some point, which suggested that if the gnat infestation wasn't effectively gone, it was being sufficiently contained. When I put these pieces of cork down in the soil one day though, and left them overnight, the contrast of color enabled me to see that there were tiny (not as tiny as the babies in the bottom of the Solo cup in the attached video, but small enough that you need to be looking for them, or have a high-contrast situation to see them)bugs crawling around on the cork and soil. There were maybe a dozen in that one spot, which suggested that, since nothing was flying around, these were not gnats.
After reading up on some common pests, I determined I was dealing with spider mites. I wasn't financially able to get any kind of pesticide for a while though. I was able to get a spider mite solution from a friend yesterday, finally, and I applied it to the plants (not the GP clone) in that tent yesterday. When I checked the tent this morning though, the bug activity was even more visible that it was yesterday, and I could actually see what I think were a couple of gnats flying around. Whatever is in there has already caused considerable damage to the rest of the tent, so I'm scrapping it today, disinfecting the tent and preparing it for the next grow.
Before I can do that though, I need to figure out to do with this GP clone. I'm wondering if it's worth trying to salvage, or if the continued presence of whatever that is in the video, combined with this never-drying soil that it's in, means that I should probably cut my losses and get rid of this thing so as to get that tent bug-free in preparation for the next plants I plan to grow in there.
Any help anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated.
I'm actually taking the clone back to my friend today, and gutting/disinfecting the rest of that tent in prep for my first batch of clones (that I hope will take well). That sounds like a fascinating technique that I plan to look into when I get back home later today. Thanks very much for the heads up!
If you're talking small plants not in flowering and think it's spider mites. Rinse those puppies in your kitchen sink with the pressurize hose. Use warm water warmer than would ever be encountered in nature. They aren't used to being blasted with water when exposed they evolved to survive rain which hits leaf tops. So flip them over test the water like you would a baby bottle hot but not scalding. Maybe do it twice. Then use a magnifying glass and manually hunt the rest down and crush them under your finger and thumb. I actually enjoy squishing spider mites because I hate them. If you can get Suffoil X one or two applications will suffocate them it's not systemic leaves very little residue and is not phytotoxic that I can see but I apply it during the dark cycle. Phytoseuilis Persimlis are a beneficial insect that will eat them spider mites are the only thing they eat, but it takes 4 or 5 applications to eradicate them for the most part. Go hard and you'll get the little bastards.
Pictured in the video is a "Gary Peyton" clone that a friend left with me a couple of weeks ago. I put it in a second solo cup to catch the runoff, and after noticing that the soil didn't seem to be drying out at all in the first couple of days, I stopped watering it altogether, removed most of the straw from on top of the topsoil, and stuck to misting it. Since then though, when I inspect the cup underneath every day, I've noticed these tiny, tiny bugs (and occasionally some ever-so-slightly larger ones) crawling around the bottom in whatever water collected there. I'm wondering if anyone knows what those are, as it's going to inform how I treat this tent in the coming days.
A little background: Around that same that my friend left this GP clone with me, I had observed other bugs crawling around in the soil of other plants in the tent where I placed it. I had noticed some dead gnats on top of the lights of this tent in the weeks/months prior, but had never observed any flying around. Additionally, the numbers of them appearing came to a near halt at some point, which suggested that if the gnat infestation wasn't effectively gone, it was being sufficiently contained. When I put these pieces of cork down in the soil one day though, and left them overnight, the contrast of color enabled me to see that there were tiny (not as tiny as the babies in the bottom of the Solo cup in the attached video, but small enough that you need to be looking for them, or have a high-contrast situation to see them)bugs crawling around on the cork and soil. There were maybe a dozen in that one spot, which suggested that, since nothing was flying around, these were not gnats.
After reading up on some common pests, I determined I was dealing with spider mites. I wasn't financially able to get any kind of pesticide for a while though. I was able to get a spider mite solution from a friend yesterday, finally, and I applied it to the plants (not the GP clone) in that tent yesterday. When I checked the tent this morning though, the bug activity was even more visible that it was yesterday, and I could actually see what I think were a couple of gnats flying around. Whatever is in there has already caused considerable damage to the rest of the tent, so I'm scrapping it today, disinfecting the tent and preparing it for the next grow.
Before I can do that though, I need to figure out to do with this GP clone. I'm wondering if it's worth trying to salvage, or if the continued presence of whatever that is in the video, combined with this never-drying soil that it's in, means that I should probably cut my losses and get rid of this thing so as to get that tent bug-free in preparation for the next plants I plan to grow in there.
Any help anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated.
If they are not thrips (black dots under the leaves from their excrement),
then the small ones look like springtails they live in your soil and digest dead things(beneficial) at bottom of your cup because no moisture in soil so they had to leave
Springtails, officially known as Collembola, are a small and incredibly common invertebrate and a big part of the soil mesofauna, worldwide. They’re objectively and categorically way better than horses, tigers, dogs, bush babies, koalas and hedgehogs.
It's kind of look like fungal knat larva have any of you ever poured hydrogen peroxide solution onto the soil It kills the larva and they get so pissed off they scramble for the top of the soil and they look just like that I mean that's the only thing that they look familiar like that I've never seen anything else looking like that in the soil I've been growing for 20 years I've had commercial operations I've just spent a year in Oklahoma consulting and I've learned more about bugs than I ever have in my entire life There is a reason why they have a town in Oklahoma called Bud tussle That's what that looks like Try to forgot fungle Just take 3% hydrogen peroxide and mix it 50 to 1 and water in a few seconds they'll start scrambling to the top if you got larvae I may come up and look like little white worms