Koncept's 1st Attempt - It's Time to Do or Die!

SoilGirl;2342539 said:

Hey there Koncept!! Sorry I've not been around a lot lately, this grow has been going very well!

Now gnats.... you're approaching them all wrong, no offense. I watched Radogast struggle with his scraggly clones and seedlings for 5 whole months because of approaching gnats the way you are. you may want to check out his thread here: https://www.420magazine.com/community/threads/radogast-2-return-clones.224576/

Now, if I had known what I now know back in the early stages of his issues, I would have spoken up and it could have potentially saved him months of a very sad-looking grow. Sometimes, the fix just plain does more damage than the problem... you using root aphid solution, or mosquito dunks, or azamax on your soil is NOT going to make your microbes happy. It's likely killing them, you don't just dump oils like that in organic soil... And in organic high brix soil that is most definitely a terrible thing. Gnats aren't that hard to get under control... microbes are hard to cultivate though once you kill your soil.


I highly, HIGHLY, SERIOUSLY recommend buying the following three organic ingredients and either incorporate them into your organic soil mix, or use them as a top dressing. They will become a mainstay in your gardens if you do, and you'll look back at your soil pest problems and giggle about your previous naivete, like I'm now doing at myself...

Crab or Crustacean Meal (crust is better, because shrimp meal is inlcuded with the crab)
Kelp Meal (down to earth brand works for me, but anything all natural with brown kelp will do)
and Neem Cake/Meal (preferably ahimsa brand)

.... this is the holy trinity of organic soil amendments, I recently started using them, and if they're not included in the high brix kit (idk much about the high brix kit, I've heard and seen good things, but I will from now on be using Clackamas Coot's rec'd living organic soil mix - see bottom of post #1 here for that: https://www.420magazine.com/community/threads/how-get-started-growing-indoors-organically-real-organics-w-o-bottles.231963/ and I'm having zero second thoughts) then IDK what's going on there, imo that would be a massive oversight. I've been having gnat problems for the past month or so because of my jungle of a grow room. My mulching approach definitely isn't pest-deterrant.... but once I top dressed with these 3 at equal parts... Gone. Finito. Gnats dead. Not a single spray, no harmful drenches, no messy DE. Just a nice organic top dressing that will make my plants stronger AND fight off disease/pests!!

Now let me explain why they're so effective against soil pests, and why you should otherwise incorporate these ingredients into your organic soil anyways. First off, when you're combining these three ingredients in your soil, you're providing the soil and plant with chitinases (pronounced ky-tin-aces) which are enzymes that break down chitin (what insect shells and eggshells are made of!) - effectively breaking the cycle of soil pests AT THE EGG - and consistently throughout your grow. These chitinases also activate your plant's systemic resistance abilities - resulting in a very disease and pest resistent plant above and below the soil! This also has an incredible side effect, because these chitinases signal to your plants to build up their defenses, they build up more terpenes/terpenoids, resulting in a more flavorful and pungent harvest, whether you're growing buds in that soil or veggies!! (one could speculate that this probably raises brix levels)

Neem cake is also especially important because of it's natural neem oil content (neem cake is a byproduct of crushing neem seeds for oil - but it still holds about 5-10% oil afterwards) which is another huge soil-pest deterrant/eradicator and which also adds to systemic resistance (people worry about getting a bad taste in their buds from using neem in their soil, but that's not how these things work, the plant isn't going to uptake bitter terpenoids into the buds, people that use neem in their organic soil actually say they notice more flavor profile)... the natural neem content is a big thing, because it would really harm your soil's microbes if say, you just poured a neem oil solution or straight up neem oil into your soil to kill your gnats.... yeah, it would kill your gnats, but it would kill your soil too!
...and Neem Cake/Meal is also a highly valuable organic fertilizer because of how it promotes Nitrification (slow release of organic nitrogen by converting ammonia to nitrites and then to nitrates)

What I'm talking about is Organic Integrated Pest Management; the only approach to pest control that is truly organic and affordable for pennies on the dollar compared to expensive things like Azamax or any other expensive pesticides (I also own azamax - and many others haha! But never buying more again now that I've seen the light!) - because what you're doing is creating a living cycle of broad spectrum resistances. Here's an awesome video you really should listen to on your down time, when you're in the garden or whatever.. on Organic IPM:

https://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-CtO4kbZ-0

They touch on all the things I'm talking about, but the real gold mine of information there is if you listen closely, then visit the buildasoil site's blog to get the free IPM Report with recipes and instructions and just a overall breakdown of the show. The ingredients I mentioned encourage microbe activity, are wonderful fertilizers, and are lifesaving OIPM amendments.

I could keep going forever honestly hahaha - but I think that's enough for now! Hope you'll look into it! Sorry if I hijacked your thread!!

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