Show Posts
1
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Fungas Gnat problem solved
« on: November 25, 2016, 11:08:29 PM »
These ideas were a huge help. I had battled fungus gnats last spring and ultimately 'won' by it getting warm enough that I could move all my plants outside. I tried many of the things you listed with similar non-lasting results.
This fall as brought everything back inside I drenched everything in neem oil and wrapped the top the soil with the garden fabric. All of my plants are in fabric pots and I put each into a 16" saucer. My plan was to water the saucer so the fabric pot would suck it up from the bottom. This way the top of soil would stay dry and combined with the fabric overlay would keep the gnats from laying their next round eggs. To be extra safe, I placed yellow sticky tape on each stem.
I was proud of this setup and was expecting it to be effective. Of course, within a few days gnats started appearing. That was expected since the soil would already be contaminated from being outside and last years infection. I was counting on them not being able to continue the cycle and lay the next round of eggs. I sprayed neem oil over everything again and waited. A week later and they were back again so I sprayed again. This continued for about 6 weeks. There were never that many gnats but it's not pleasant spraying neem oil inside on a weekly basis either. I obviously had some weakness in my defense.
Finally, I discovered the problem. As I was moving some plants around I saw some white wriggling movement inside the saucer where the fabric pot was previously sitting on top. Looking very closely I discovered this was the fungus gnat larva. They are about the length of a grain of rice and thickness as small as hair. I had never actually noticed them before and there were LOTs. The gnats didn't need to get into the soil for the next generation just somewhere that stayed damp. I had even sprayed that area underneath the fabric pot with each weekly neem oil treatment but that didn't matter.
The solution was to elevate the fabric pots above the ground. I did this with a few pieces of legos to create about 1/2 gap for air to flow beneath the pot. Now even after a deep watering everywhere will be dry in 2-3 days. It's been two weeks now and I've seen only 1-2 gnats. I'm pretty sure this is working and the cycle will be fully broken!
It is a bit more work to water everything now. I move each plant into a saucer with water and once it sucks up its fill I put it into another saucer to drain and then finally back to its resting spot on top of the legos. I'm hoping I can eventually keep the plants in the saucers all the time once the gnats are fully eliminated. For now, I'm happy and rather proud that I appear to be victorious over these tiny creatures!
Here is a picture of showing the final resting setup per container.
This fall as brought everything back inside I drenched everything in neem oil and wrapped the top the soil with the garden fabric. All of my plants are in fabric pots and I put each into a 16" saucer. My plan was to water the saucer so the fabric pot would suck it up from the bottom. This way the top of soil would stay dry and combined with the fabric overlay would keep the gnats from laying their next round eggs. To be extra safe, I placed yellow sticky tape on each stem.
I was proud of this setup and was expecting it to be effective. Of course, within a few days gnats started appearing. That was expected since the soil would already be contaminated from being outside and last years infection. I was counting on them not being able to continue the cycle and lay the next round of eggs. I sprayed neem oil over everything again and waited. A week later and they were back again so I sprayed again. This continued for about 6 weeks. There were never that many gnats but it's not pleasant spraying neem oil inside on a weekly basis either. I obviously had some weakness in my defense.
Finally, I discovered the problem. As I was moving some plants around I saw some white wriggling movement inside the saucer where the fabric pot was previously sitting on top. Looking very closely I discovered this was the fungus gnat larva. They are about the length of a grain of rice and thickness as small as hair. I had never actually noticed them before and there were LOTs. The gnats didn't need to get into the soil for the next generation just somewhere that stayed damp. I had even sprayed that area underneath the fabric pot with each weekly neem oil treatment but that didn't matter.
The solution was to elevate the fabric pots above the ground. I did this with a few pieces of legos to create about 1/2 gap for air to flow beneath the pot. Now even after a deep watering everywhere will be dry in 2-3 days. It's been two weeks now and I've seen only 1-2 gnats. I'm pretty sure this is working and the cycle will be fully broken!
It is a bit more work to water everything now. I move each plant into a saucer with water and once it sucks up its fill I put it into another saucer to drain and then finally back to its resting spot on top of the legos. I'm hoping I can eventually keep the plants in the saucers all the time once the gnats are fully eliminated. For now, I'm happy and rather proud that I appear to be victorious over these tiny creatures!
Here is a picture of showing the final resting setup per container.
