Growing Cannabis 101: Dean West’s Indoor, Multi Room Tent, Multi Strain, QB, Organic Micro Grow

[DeanWest89]

I’d definetly start a second flowering space.

Yes I was thinking the same thing , the only way I’m gonna be able to do it is to put the second space in my cold cellar , insulate the floor. And use that . I just need to have my stuff hidden from my kids is all . So I don’t have many options , I’ve considered the attic but the access hole is in my sons room so that’s no good . But I may have to set the second tent up. Maybe I’ll just run 4 in the 2x2 space , I’m doing an 8 colla training method . When then branches all turn up and start growing up the plant won’t be too much wider the the 2 gal pot . But if I did run 9 2 gals I think I would have to run from clone sea of green style transplant clone veg for until bounced Back from transplant and flip , just grow a bunch of donkey dick plants .

but this small space is a head ach man. I will talk to the wife and see if I can run my 2x4 in the cold cellar . I’ll install the4x8 on blue styrofoam insulation , then put my 2x4 inside of it , put a radiator style heater (oil filled) to maintain temps see where it goes . But ifnot then I’ll have some nice plants for outside , I could make my small tent into a 3x2 space and get rid of theveg side I have some 50w cobs I could add to cover the extra half a foot on either side of the quantum board

but there is to much going on for this small space . Some I plant to veg longer but it will have to be done in a seperate space for sure thanks for the input @Pennywise

 

[Pennywise]

Just take your time and think it all through.

 

[DonkeyDick]

just grow a bunch of donkey dick plants .

Stop right there.
You had me at “hello”

Hello
You have all the pieces of the jigsaw. You just need to find a corner or a piece of the edge...
Chuck everything in the cellar with a lock on the door. Use the big tent to grow the big flowers.
We know you wanna.

I like your thing, Dean ( that wasn’t supposed to sound rude). Learned a lot from your journal already. I will look forward to checking back in here now and again.
Cheers!

 

[DeanWest89]

Stop right there.
You had me at “hello”

Hello
You have all the pieces of the jigsaw. You just need to find a corner or a piece of the edge...
Chuck everything in the cellar with a lock on the door. Use the big tent to grow the big flowers.
We know you wanna.

I like your thing, Dean ( that wasn’t supposed to sound rude). Learned a lot from your journal already. I will look forward to checking back in here now and again.
Cheers!

Haha holy f*ck you had me laughing , glad to see someone else with my humour haha , idk if I would make that my name thoe , I feel like I would be false representation of myself..... haha man thanks for stopping by , I’m still learning everyday man don’t be shy to put your 2 cents in.I appreciate you stopping by and saying hello.
I do like that idea. I just don’t know if the wife will let it fly . I’ve pushed the boundaries a few times with a lot less but when I got this little tent she said nvm the 4 plant rule what can you really fit in there . Well I have a lot in a 3x2 atm and about 36 clones going so think if I can get her to allow me to flower in my 2x4 I can make it work . Only reason I want the big space is I plan on Doing pheno hunts and I need somewhere to keep a large amount of prized phenos in veg . My 2x4 can produce enough flower for me I just need to get my shit together. It’s like the older I get the less drive I have to do things and get things done
I do plan on throwing clusters of plants on crown land and I won’t go to it at all throughout the summer and harvest time if I get something yay . But my backyard is terrible for the outdoor growing. So all these plants aren’t destin for indoors .
But I would like to run the seed grown plants indoors . I really wish I could flower a 4x8 space I just don’t have the equipment or the funds to do so . I could veg the room but max I could flower with my leds is 4x4
Thanks again @DonkeyDick

 

[DreamingTrees7]

April/13/20

INTRO:
Hey everyone ,
so I’ve decided to start a journal on my new upstairs grow space. I would have honestly started earlier but when germinating I didn’t use a nice soft medium, I put bokashi in the mix and the fungi created killed 3 of them and one I ripped its head off trying to help the seed off and 1 took so long to come up I dug it up there was 4” of plant suck under to soil lit was trying to come up like pushing a rope down a hallway . Complete fail . I over cared for them and I killed them so I lost 5 out of 8 seeds. The first seed popped flawlessly and started out the gate strong , but out of the 4 I stared only 1 made it, so I popped my last one , and she popped right away, when I was hardening it off I fell asleep and it was exposed to the light and dry air all night , by morning she was dry and crispy I was devastated so I put it back in the humidity dome and hoped for the best, it sat in a dome for a week then I noticed a small new set of leaves going LIFE. I was so happy I was jumping.
My good friend @Kingjoe83 felt bad for how many seeds I lost and started a seed out of his own seed collection to help me fill my grow space , I cannot thank this guy enough for all he has done for me. One of the best dudes I’ve ever met , so now I had my 4 plants to fill my space . I was going to run . Then my wife bought me 2 packs of seeds for Easter so that mixed things up. I was so excited I started 2 instantly .Things are starting to come around here
Prior to this failure I germinated 3 trays of hermie seeds and had 90% germination rate set and forget kinda deal . And as soon as it was an expensive seed it’s like I forgot all of that major rookie mistake , so I now have a whole new outlook . Let’s get into the details of this grow

TENT: this is going to be done in a 2x3x4’6 multi room tent. With a flower chamber that’s 2x2x4’6” and with 1 or 2 veg spaces 1st option is 1x2x4’6” but I’m not growing tall plants , so I will keep it as 2 veg spaces which are 1x2x2’3”
This is going to be a challenge for me because I’ve been growing bigger plants in my 2x4 vegging well into the 80-100 day marks so I hope to do some fast turn arounds in this tent

If I run out of room I will just throw the other plants in my 2x4x5’3” tent in the basement with 3 mars 300’s and 1 mars 144 reflector that’s featuring my sativa run that’s on day 64 of flower trichomes are almost where I want them their ph at as hell so any day they will go in the dark for 3 days then all will come down . So I will have lots of room to flower plants with lots of lights .

LIGHTS: 1st light in the 2x2 chamber is 2 photon phantom fusion board 240 only consuming 75w total on a dimmer , it’s a 3000K and 4500K with deep red . It supposed the heck out of me how bright it is. I do have a lux meter so I will be able to keep the light in the right spot Distance wise to Maximize the use of the 75 w, now I’m not sure if each pannel receives 75 w , I don’t have anything to see the power draw from the wall. This light was given to me by my good friend @Kingjoe83 and so was the light meter thanks bud . This light barley fits in the 2x2 so it gets an amazing spread wall corner to corner

2nd light is a 20w QB red and blue , at first I thought the light was garbage but then I got the light meter and realized how close I hade to put it to the plants and in seedling to early veg this light does amazing for what it is .

3rd ligjt is just 4 23 w 6500k cfl bulbs

I had bought a 200w 4 cob led grow ligjt and 2 of 4 weren’t working I paid 20$ so I got 3 out of 4 working and just waiting an a driver for the 4th . I will be tearing it down and making individual hanging cobs with some. One will go to my 2.0 space bucket build .where I will perfect the art if

MEDIUM/AMENDMENTS: For my soil I had to purchase a pre made super soil from my local grow shop. All my totes in the basement got infested with fungus gnats this winter so a few days from now predatory mites will show up and I will lace them all hard with them , I will put them in my worm bin , and from now on it and nematode‘s will be a preventive measure so this never happens again. it will go in all everything that pest live in. So I had to buy new everything to keep it separate upstairs so I don’t have any hitch hikers . So no fungus gnats upstairs thank god. But I hope in a month they will be gone, if I have to seal the basement off and bug bomb it I will but I hope I don’t have to
Enough about that, here’s my list of Amendments
- gaja green all purpose 4-4-4
-gaja green power bloom 2-8-4
-gaja green glacial rock dust
- raw npk microbes grow and bloom versions ( not an amendment but it’s one of the few things I use) it has replaced the need to brew compost teas anymore ( my wife hated when I brewed compost teas(
-predatory soil mites as preventative measure against pests
- WORMS and a mulch layers tops all my pots off. I try to creat a microbial rich environment

VEG- I have pre mixed my first tote set up for veg so my veg ratios of gaja green is 75% all purpose and 25% power bloom. And 1 tbsp of glacial rock dust pet gal of medium and inoculated with raw npk microbes bloom. It sat for a few months and is now ready dor

BLOOM- my second tote I mixed for the flip and transplant for into flower , it’s a 50/50 ratio of all purpose and power bloom , with 1 tbsp of glacial rock dust per gal . I inoculated this with raw npk microbes bloom version it will sit until I’m ready to start throwing girls into flower
- mid flower depending on strain but I generally give a mid flower amendment , this is my ratio of gaja green 75% 2-8-4 and 25% of 4-4-4

WATERING- so in my organic super soil i rely on on the fungi and bacteria and worms in my soil with all keep my ph in check . So I water non ph’d water. I do check it with a ph meter to make sure it’s in range and hasn’t gone out to lunch if it’s below 6.5 somethings wrong . So I always have 2 resinous going . I let it air are with an airstone for 48 hrs before using it to be safe ( the use chlorine here I. The water) the ph is usually from 6.7 -7-2. The odd time I adjust the ph of the water I’m watering with lemon juice , but I found using hydroponic ph up and down was killing my microbial life and my plants struggled once I stopped everything has been amazing.

so we’ve gone this far and haven’t gotten to the good part yet , so let’s get into what kind of strains will being grown on this journal . I want to try and stagger harvests and hopefully be able to achieve a small perpetual grow. This may not be achieved the first run but after this harvest in the future I will start by placing one plant into flower a month and after 1 full veg and flower I will be able to harvest a plant every 3o days ish .I will do all my cloning somewhere else and my mothers will be kept somewhere else. I hope after this is done I have a few mothers to tuck away.

STRAINS-
#1: Northern lights (FEM) canuk
#2: Bubbas gift F1 and F2 (FEM) HSO
#3: White OG (FEM) seedsman
#4: OGKZ (FEM) HSO
#5: Mint chocolate OG (FEM) HSO

I am just waiting in 2 clones which will be added to the journal journal upon arrival ( I am super excited about the 2 strains that the clones are. I will be taking a lot of clones from every plant to ensure I do get one to put away for a potential mother, and I want to put some plants outside so the cycle will begin. I want to build up a nice selection of strains to have around for a long time

So here we go with the start of this journal , there’s so many photos so I think I will just pick the best ones to see the progress , I’m not gonna post daily photos on this post.

So first off here is the light my buddie @Kingjoe83 gave me. Again joe I’ve said it 1000xs and it probably won’t be the last time bu

Photon phantom fusion board 240x2 with meanwell dimmable driver

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

D4873760-2D63-4B15-BE87-F687C202B649.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

unit thing

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

Let’s you see what watts is dimmer to and how efficient it’s running

Okay here we go, I don’t know why my photos prior to this are gone but this is where we start,

march 17/20

Northern lights

Northern lights

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

March 17/20

bubbas gift #2

Bubbas gift 2

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

March 17/20

Bubbas gift #1

Bubbas gift 1

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

March 17/20

you can see that the bubbas gift number 2 had been left exposed and Her leafs dried up . Rookie mistake, I will never harden plants off when I’m tired again

March 20/20
NL

NL

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

March 20/20

BG#2 so don’t pay attention to the description I messed it it . So after a few days I started to notice new growth coming up , I was very happy to see it start to grow instead of

BG 2

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

March 20/20

I fell asleep hardening this girl off and she spent all night with lights on and...

BG#1

BG #1

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

March 20/20
She had her shell on for a few days before i was able to remove it

So the northern lights is starting to show deficiency’s so it’s time to transplant before they get worse, I’ve had soil cooking for months and it’s ready to go .

March 24/20

Northern lights right after transplanting

NL

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

March 24/20

Just after transplanting , she wasn’t doing well in the solo cup so time to transplant

bubbas gift #1/#2 these girls aren’t looking so well themselves something needed to change

BF9DD479-5048-457F-8955-28FDA4DEB49B.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

So in between these posts I decided to transplant everyone to try and improve my plants health by improving the quality of soil.

April 1/20

heres the northern lights , complete turn around and is looking beautiful, but something incredible was about to happen with this girl

480354E4-AAF3-4FED-961E-68A60335EF3C.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

Bubbas gift #1 there has been big improvement but still not there yet , but the transplant was the right move

B68730D1-5E0B-4178-BD32-162D93C4D7E7.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

Bubbas gift #2 when I transplanted her and there was no roots in the solo cup , so idk what happened but things aren’t looking good, still gonna ride it out though

5E24F553-4494-4FFB-B09D-89950DAB3A56.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

I have this quantum board dimmed down to 51w at this point

66756F68-7C4C-4D70-B006-E2EA3468E56B.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

The plants are getting 12 000 lux at this point


April 4/20
NL is growing strong , she’s really starting to bounce back .

C6A490BE-2DC3-4435-85F1-D1FCB8B65A95.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

E059452A-9DCB-493E-8591-9736F1BDE8DE.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

Bubbas gift #1 still looks rough but she’s starting to look better ( don’t pay attention to that test germination was a hermie seed , and was a success for some reason a lot of my outdoor last summer was seedy found out there are hemp farms close by . So I used the seeds to practice my germination

Bubbas gift #1

• DeanWest89
• Apr 13, 2020

April 4/20

Bubbas gift #2 still sad as heck idk what’s up she may just get pulled if she doesn’t Liven up here

5E24F553-4494-4FFB-B09D-89950DAB3A56.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

April 7/20
Northern lights HOLY JUMPINS this thing blew up , I have never seen a plant side branch like this so early in veg I am amazed by this , it’s a super nice plant bounced back nicely from the rough start it had

Northern lights

• DeanWest89
• Apr 13, 2020

April 7/20

Northern lights

• DeanWest89
• Apr 13, 2020

April 7/20

April 9/20
introducing the new White OG thanks to my good friend I mentioned above

1FAE8766-1EF3-45F5-9C5C-6C74E4B79D14.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

April 10/20

Northern lights

A658F811-E2A5-4A2C-91CF-7E297072B940.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

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• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

E8738757-5110-4C59-BAA2-F39D58550511.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

D5E74F47-1571-431C-BF5C-0591355491DB.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

Bubbas gift #1
She finally looks nice and is in good health

8C0FB766-51B7-4235-ACE3-71F6D9F44F48.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

5106929A-863D-4FE4-8985-A1BE47993C60.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

Bubbas gift #2. BLAH

40DD325E-1149-453C-88B8-3F8C3EABD14B.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

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• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

White OG

1FAE8766-1EF3-45F5-9C5C-6C74E4B79D14.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

On April 9th my wife bought me a pack of OGKZ and a pack of mint chocolate OG so I started paper towel method ,next day OGKZ was germinated with 3/4 inch tap root mint OG WAS 12 hrs behind .

I set up solo cups with 3 1/2 “ of supersoil and promix HP ontop . Put the seeds in and here we go

OGKZ

DFE7DD51-B929-4BEE-8D97-3983F7805F20.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

5624FACF-A042-44BC-89DE-30CC5AFD2B0E.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

They were put into the heat Mat and the next morning we had seedlings

April 12/20

OGKZ. Looking wonderful , from all my shitty germinations id figured what works for me finally( I was getting 90% germination with my hermie seeds and as soon as I started expensive seeds I killed them and over cared for them
Now just set and forget

2515594F-FF9C-40B5-8B98-24EEE35FE041.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

77007C7E-553D-42C1-874F-9898CF74B43A.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

Mint chocolate OG

2D08CC9D-235F-487A-BB7F-AA5DCE2583B0.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

94E65AA9-3218-428A-B983-577F9BD1770A.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

Northern lights

94B6ED8E-736C-4E12-97E1-786E1E229A8F.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

Bubbas gift #1

48D1FF23-56CE-4D53-B214-3BF334DC7462.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

Bubbas gift #2
Is not work sharing the picture .

white OG

F07D0690-288C-4008-9A02-2B670653A601.jpeg

• DeanWest89
• Apr 12, 2020

just after taking this photo I decided to transplant her into her into a 1 gal pot

so this brings us right up to date , I will post more frequent smaller posts from here on out , most of you may scroll through most of my Blabbering so lets

You got this

 

[DonkeyDick]

Cool man. You seem like you got it sussed. My wife doesn’t quite understand grow creep either. A huge tent full of bonsai mother plants and a flower room to suit your needs - I don’t just like your plan I want it.

On @Amy Gardner’s felt pen and cardboard perpetual planner. I, too, had my imagination captured by that. It turns out there is a table function on the notes in my iPhone which cut and paste nicely in to the tables we can use here.

Month	May					June				July					August
Week	1	8	15	22	29	5	12	19	26	3	10	17	24	31	7
Isabelle Red	4	5	6	7	8	9
Isabelle Purple	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Hulklato 1.1	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
Critical Purple Kush 1.2	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10

It slides along. Maybe you can use this?

 

[DeanWest89]

Cool man. You seem like you got it sussed. My wife doesn’t quite understand grow creep either. A huge tent full of bonsai mother plants and a flower room to suit your needs - I don’t just like your plan I want it.

On @Amy Gardner’s felt pen and cardboard perpetual planner. I, too, had my imagination captured by that. It turns out there is a table function on the notes in my iPhone which cut and paste nicely in to the tables we can use here.

Month	May					June				July					August
Week	1	8	15	22	29	5	12	19	26	3	10	17	24	31	7
Isabelle Red	4	5	6	7	8	9
Isabelle Purple	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Hulklato 1.1	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
Critical Purple Kush 1.2	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10

It slides along. Maybe you can use this?

Mann this is amazing I have an iPhone XR but not too tech savvy , I am going to mess around with it and work something up I love that idea man thanks for sharing that with me brotherman. I am super excited to get mine worked up .
Also my wife did approve me using my second tent to flower in , so things can start rolling here . I was looking at my control panel and I have a 20 amp circuit with nothing on it , plug in is inside of the panel box so I will run power into my cold cellar from that .
My wife like why do you need so many plants , I said hunny these will not all be ready at the same time I would like to have at a plant atleast every 30 days it will probably lay take a while to get there , but I have done the grow one strain fill a tent kinda thing and I get really sick of smoking the same thing over and over again . To the point I just grind the weed up remove the trichomes and the rest gets tossed into a destine for edibles bag . So doing a bunch of 8 cola trained plants I should be able to do 6oz each once I can dial things in.

like I do okay but the qualityis not where I want it to be , I am aiming for A++++
And right now I sent some of my last harvest to my father in law he’s been smoking since the dawn of time and he said it was just medeoker .
You smoke a joint get a decent buzz sativa dom . So it’s not what I’m used to . It’s a good day time buzz and for the guys who prefer sativas May appreciate it more then I do . But i think I’ll go for more of a 60 sat 40 indica like the green crack . I really enjoyed that strain it was perfect ratio for me in the day to keep me going .
One thing I noticed thoe is after smoking a few hours later if I don’t go back out to re elevate I burn out and could not stay up if my life depended on it.


Man do I ever get side tracked
But I am super happy to be able to use my second tent to flower in
I will just need to upgrade my lights , on my mars hydro lights all my blue lights are burning out

@SmokeSara I have the old school mars hydro lights and my blue LEDs all have black heads on them . Do you guys sell replacement ones ?? Or what do you recommend I do . I can solder and do stuff myself, would I be better to buy just the blues or get replacement pannels ( idk if they even sell them anymore)

 

[DeanWest89]

You got this

Hey @DreamingTrees7 thanks for stopping by , any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[bebecillo]

You could use the LED housing to build a new one. You can buy LED panels that just need soldering, so I see the replacement as an easy fix.

 

[DeanWest89]

You could use the LED housing to build a new one. You can buy LED panels that just need soldering, so I see the replacement as an easy fix.

Hey thanks for stopping by my friend appreciate the input . I would definatly re use the cases for sure , do you know where I could buy new pannels ?? You don’t think just replacing all the blue diodes would be easier ??
Have you done something like this before ? I am pretty handy and can figure most stuff out with a little guidance . Where do you suggest I get new pannels from ?? Could I even switch them to cob style grow lights ?

 

[DonkeyDick]

I am aiming for A++++

Why settle for less, right? With long dries and slow cures 420mag (ftw!) is making connoisseurs of us all.
And Yes! to keeping a mix of strains current so your ECS doesn’t get bored.
Just because it’s medicine doesn’t mean it has to stop being fun.

my wife did approve me using my second tent to flower in

 

[bebecillo]

COB sounds like a great idea considering you have the housing. I'm no electricity expert, but some COB, aluminium disipators (you can buy old computer CPU coolers or any passive dissipator on amazon/ebay/aliexpress) and some 120mm 12V PC fans to cool everything down.

 

[DeanWest89]

I have 100 gal of soil infested with fungus gnats , I released nematodes and preditory mites into them a month ago . But when I open the top I still can find atleast one fungus gnat so there 300 eggs right there . So my question is what would be the best way to eradicate the fungus gnat , should I just put the soil is.steel garbage pales and throw em on a fire to kill everything and start fresh at this point I don’t care how amazing the soil is it’s garbage to be if there’s fungus gnats . So doing 100gal of soil what would be the best way to kill everything , I’ll just start the process over to building a living soil again after wards , I do have 2 totes upstairs with about 60 gals of soil so I do have soil that has been set to cook in my bedroom . Not risking anything at this point.

let’s hear some ideas , I don’tcare if the soil is lifeless after I can start over and build it up again . I’ll try introduce red wigglers And plant matter

one question I have , say it does get cooked over the fire , Will this soil still contain the dry amendemtns nutrients , I know after their broken down and pooped out by microbes their available to the plant , but when this happens if the soil is heated up does anything change within the soil other then killing everything alive ?

 

[Pennywise]

Ask @Van Stank or @bobrown14

 

[Van Stank]

Fungus gnats are going to be an issue until your soil is completely 'cooked' or broken down. Just part of the game when you play with dirt. I would suggest getting you some mosquito bits. I have had good success with using them. Since Fungus Gnats are related to mosquitoes....it works the same on them. I ran out here during the pandemic and stopped using them for a couple weeks and my fungus gnat issue came roaring back. Supposed to have some delivered from amazon either today or tomorrow. Also you can use lots of yellow sticky traps

One thing you can do is lay the soil out on a tarp and have it completely dry out. Fungus gnats ain't gonna stick around dry dirt, they need wet soil and will go find somewhere else to live and breed. Just know that you will need to wet it again in order to activate the natural fungi and bacteria in your soil and of course there is the threat of another infestation when you wet the soil again....but its part of the game.

 

[Pennywise]

Thanks @Van Stank

 

[Emilya Green]

I have 100 gal of soil infested with fungus gnats , I released nematodes and preditory mites into them a month ago . But when I open the top I still can find atleast one fungus gnat so there 300 eggs right there . So my question is what would be the best way to eradicate the fungus gnat , should I just put the soil is.steel garbage pales and throw em on a fire to kill everything and start fresh at this point I don’t care how amazing the soil is it’s garbage to be if there’s fungus gnats . So doing 100gal of soil what would be the best way to kill everything , I’ll just start the process over to building a living soil again after wards , I do have 2 totes upstairs with about 60 gals of soil so I do have soil that has been set to cook in my bedroom . Not risking anything at this point.

let’s hear some ideas , I don’tcare if the soil is lifeless after I can start over and build it up again . I’ll try introduce red wigglers And plant matter

one question I have , say it does get cooked over the fire , Will this soil still contain the dry amendemtns nutrients , I know after their broken down and pooped out by microbes their available to the plant , but when this happens if the soil is heated up does anything change within the soil other then killing everything alive ?

bake it in stages to sterilize it and then reapply microbes afterward to get things going again and to chew up the larvae debris. Since you are prone to the annoying things, use a 1" layer of pine bark mulch on your soil surface, and the flyers wont know how to burrow through to lay their eggs. Totally natural, and it effectively breaks their life cycle.

 

[DeanWest89]

Ask @Van Stank or @bobrown14

Thanks for responding penny

Fungus gnats are going to be an issue until your soil is completely 'cooked' or broken down. Just part of the game when you play with dirt. I would suggest getting you some mosquito bits. I have had good success with using them. Since Fungus Gnats are related to mosquitoes....it works the same on them. I ran out here during the pandemic and stopped using them for a couple weeks and my fungus gnat issue came roaring back. Supposed to have some delivered from amazon either today or tomorrow. Also you can use lots of yellow sticky traps

One thing you can do is lay the soil out on a tarp and have it completely dry out. Fungus gnats ain't gonna stick around dry dirt, they need wet soil and will go find somewhere else to live and breed. Just know that you will need to wet it again in order to activate the natural fungi and bacteria in your soil and of course there is the threat of another infestation when you wet the soil again....but its part of the game.

Hey okay thank you for that . I am going to find mosquito bits tomorrow and try and get this fingered out . I will also purchase a bunch of sticky traps aswell . I really appreciate the advices
So putting the soil out on a tarp will the eggs in the soil survive . I’ve been battling this for almost a year from having a bag of soil being left outside for only a couple hours my wife out it out and when I noticed I brang it in but I think it was doomed at that point I should have just throw the soil in my garden. But since then I’ve had issues, and I’m at wits end . I have tried letting the soil dry out the the point it was lifeless but they did come back over time again . I have not plants in the basement at this point so I will buy the mosquito bites I’ll add them to every drain I have in the basement. Just in case the hide in there . Do you know if mosquito dunks are safe to use in watering plants , I’ve never used the stuff . Is it possible to have an organic grow without the fungas gnat being involved.

Thank you very much

bake it in stages to sterilize it and then reapply microbes afterward to get things going again and to chew up the larvae debris. Since you are prone to the annoying things, use a 1" layer of pine bark mulch on your soil surface, and the flyers wont know how to burrow through to lay their eggs. Totally natural, and it effectively breaks their life cycle.

thank you very much for your advice, cooking the medium in the oven will kill any larva in there and I think this will be the best choice I am pulling my hair out over these buggers and just want them gone , I know I will be more dillagent in the future. Can I add mosquito dunks to my water buckets as a precaution, just incase a flyer gets into the tent and past the pine bark ?? I’ve read therea certain type of bacteria but I just don’t know how it will affect the plants I’ve never used the stuff .
I will be heading out to the bush tonorrow and scoring some pine bark in some fallen trees , thanks for the advice . I would just love to have a grow without these buggers . But I am going to throw mosquito bites into all my drains I don’t want them just moving to another moist spot.

I think I am going to look into some kind of device to put on my air intakes on all my tents where a fungus gnat could not even venture into the grow space unless it went through the door when it’s open. But putting the pine bark mulch will stop them from diggin in so hopefully this is something I can laugh about later instead of being a year long nightmare .
Thank you emilya

 

[Emilya Green]

I don't think the dunks will hurt anything, but I know them to be unnecessary for this particular pest... you can beat them. I used to have a bad problem and tried the yellow cards, sprays both natural and unnatural and even a hot shot... but nothing worked. The pine bark mulch was amazing though... I would watch the flyers land on it and not know what to do... their tiny brains just are not equipped to solve that problem and soon the gnats were gone for good. Also, as an added advantage, the mulch blocks the bright light from directly hitting the surface and that layer of protective bacteria will live there, further protecting and nourishing your grow.

 

[KingJoe83]

Thank you stank