Have a few questions about fungus gnats etc

[millergd77]

Hello everyone,

Kind of new here, have been reading a lot. I'm wondering if I could get some help here...

I ran into a problem with fungus gnats, used a few different things and then did a transplant, all seemed well..
now I'm starting to see them again... I believe that I bought them with the soil, my luck...lol I was thinking of
taking off the top inch of soil and replacing it with sand, and maybe spraying the soil before the sand and then
spray the sand too... Right now all I can find is Ortho fruit tree concentrate 70% neem oil, I was thinking maybe 2 teaspoons to a gallon of water, then just spray it on the dirt, then the sand... Does that sound okay, or a bad idea?

Also I was wondering if baking the soil before using would be a good idea. I went to buy more soil and it looks like a gnat breeding ground in their soil section...

Plants seem a little stressed, from everything, a little slow growing right now, maybe a few deficiencies, might be from all that they have gone through.... I will try to post some pics tonight when I get home...

Thank you for your time, and any possible help...

 

[ShiggityFlip]

Re: have a few ?'s fungus gnats... ect...

some Bt (Bacillus thuringensis) mosquito dunks will kill them. You can find them at any hardware or big box store.

 

[millergd77]

Re: have a few ?'s fungus gnats... ect...

some Bt (Bacillus thuringensis) mosquito dunks will kill them. You can find them at any hardware or big box store.

Thanks for the reply ShiggityFlip.... I used the dunks the 1st time, ground them up and sprinkled on the soil, along with diatomaceous earth.
The diatomaceous earth made the top of the soil hard, made watering a little different... I read something about neem oil and dish soap would work to....

 

[ShiggityFlip]

Seems like the dunks worked until you did the transplant. I would top dress with them again and I have also heard good things about SNS203 soil drench. So if soil drench to get rid of them is what you are looking for this should do the trick!

 

[millergd77]

Seems like the dunks worked until you did the transplant. I would top dress with them again and I have also heard good things about SNS203 soil drench. So if soil drench to get rid of them is what you are looking for this should do the trick!

Thanks again ShiggityFlip, I will check it out, will have to order though no place around here to get it... For now I took off the top 2 inches of soil, put crushed up mosquito dunks on the soil and wet it down with a little bit of soap and water in a spray bottle, then put 2 inches of sand on top. Will see what that does for now I guess...

They are looking a little ruff, and not sure what it would be... all 3 are blueberry, 4 weeks old, all treated the same...soil is regular potting soil, no additives, 60% soil, 30% perlite, 10% vermiculite...cfl and t8 fluorescents 6500k, 8000k, 5000k at 18 / 6.... and just started giving nutes last week foxfarm at 1/2 what they call for....could the problems be for stress for the gnats and transplanting, or is it something else...
Any ideas out there....

Thank you for looking and any help that you might have....

 

[swwilson20]

Dunks just worked for me. The soil I'm using had them in it. Like Flip said, you may have produced more. I'm not good at this but I overcame the gnats. A fan blowing on your plants will at least make it hard for the adults to land and lay possibly 200 eggs in a weeks time. That and help your plants. I sprinkled on soil and soaked them in the water that I used to feed them with.

 

[millergd77]

Thanks for the reply swwilson20,

I am putting them in the water too....so far so good, seem to be gone over night, but will keep up the treatment for 2 weeks yet, just to be safe...

Now just have to figure out what is going on with the plants....

not sure if I should repost this as a plant problem now too...