I once had issues with fungus nats and was wondering if it would be beneficial or even possible to rid myself of all pest inside the soil before I use it. I am talking about promox HP, fox farms ocean forest, and happy frog. One line of thought was run boiling water through the bag soil ( saw that somewhere). I was thinking it might actually kill beneficial things in the soil. However was thinking when I mix any combination with worm castings that would bring back the beneficial items (maybe let the mix sit in a container a few weeks. On a side note is it possible worm castings might carry pests?
Anyway food for thought, whats your opinion and why.
Fungus gnats can be in bags of worm castings, too.
Don't put boiling water through your soil, unless you want to remove water soluble nutrients. There are lots of methods to kill fungus gnats, from using "mosquito dunks" to covering the soil surface with about a 1/4 inch of diatomaceous earth, to adding beneficial nematodes or other beneficials.
I sterilize peat which can be super buggy if not sterilized. I don't care about losing 'beneficial microbes' that are native to peat because I use salt nutes and add myco to the sterile peat.
Steam works well if you have the gear. 30 minutes of steam kills everything. Boiling does not work as well because the boil leaches the acidity out of the peat. H202 drench works pretty good. Another option is organic root drenches for pests. Often made from essential oils of edible plants.
OP mentioned Promix HP. That is peat. Everything else mentioned was dirt.
Had a thought, what if I took a bag of say...Happy Frog (I think a lot of my fungus nats come from this), and before I mix it into any supersoil mix, I just spread it real thin in the bottom of a plastic baby pool and water in WELL with moquito bit mixture. Keep it good and moist for a week and then let it dry out. Would probably have to keep it covered with a mesh of some sort so it does not get reinfected. I could also do the EWC and whatever other soils such as promix etc as well.
What do you all think?
Know anyone who grows mushrooms? Or do you have an insta pot or pressure cooker for canning? That’s the way it’s typically done time heat and pressure. I use a bubbas barrel and do 200# of substrate at a time for mushrooms. This kills everything but removes nothing.
Moe,
I kinda wanted to keep the good microbes and just kill the Nats if possible for a living soil mix. Anyway I was just brainstorming and DO appreciate your response.
Fungus gnats can and should be easily controlled with proper watering techniques. These little bugs have such a tiny/short lifespan that simply interrupting their reproductive cycle should be enough to kill the majority of them off and then sticky traps for the stragglers. Fungus gnats will lay their eggs on the top 1-3mm of your soil so if you allow your pots to properly dry out between watering you should effectively kill any and all larvae on the top soil just by letting it dry out.
That's my $0.02 on fungus gnats. I maybe get 5-10 over the period of an entire grow and I don't use sticky traps at all. Just slap chop just remember that sterilizing your medium also sterilizes any beneficial microbes that may be present as well
General hydroponics Defguard is what you want. It treats the soil for fungus. If you use this stuff you won't have gnats period. I use it in my organic grows too.