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Coincidence or is there something to this?

For part of last year i did some half assed tests with a few small plants inside. Just to see how they would react to a few things. Of course i got just a little bit of gnats until......I put a thin layer of worm castings on top of each pot. Not only did they respond well to the castings but the gnats/bugs vanished.
 
I just started up potting them. Ive got 2 rocotos done and in the window sill. Nice dose of Happy Frog nutrients, kelp meal and crab shell in a pine fine/compost/peat mix. Topped them both off with a thin layer of worm castings. ATM i have 2 happy looking rocotos including a very nice little pod on one of them. :D They seem to enjoy that coolish window sill.
 
Cool observation! I noticed having leca balls on top of my soil has also prevented many pests from settling on the plants. Those without the leca did get gnats etc, so I'm considering always putting a little layer on top from now on

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Always cool to hear how tests play out.  And it seems totally reasonable that the castings could interrupt the fungus gnat life cycle. I always heard it recommended to put white sand as the top layer, which is purported to do 2 things: not look like soil and dry out fast. The adults no longer look to it for egg laying and can't lay into it effectively or feed off it, so, theoretically, no more gnats after the underground stages change into adults which fail to survive or reproduce.  I tried sand once, but was not set up for bottom watering. My top watering mixed the sand layer with soil and the plants ultimately went outside before the problem was totally gone.
 
Seems like worm castings would dry out more quickly than many soils and perhaps be more resistant to colonization by fungus, so perhaps it's effective at creating an environment less suitable for egg-laying and fungus growth. Also, IIRC once a casting layer is watered in it doesn't disrupt as easy from future watering as sand, so maybe it's got that going for it too.
 
FWIW, I had a short-lived fungus gnat issue on my current indoor grow because of the soil staying too damp during the early seedling stage, but as soon as the root systems developed enough to restrict watering I could let the top layer of soil dry thoroughly between waterings and the gnats went away.
 
Sofar the castings stay on top of the potting mix very well. Granted this is inside and carefully watered. It seems to dry very quickly too. I didnt even do it to stop the gnats. The plants were dying and i wanted to see if the castings had any effect on badly nutrient lacking plants. The improvement caused me to save them and keep them going this winter. Im not even going to bother keeping them under lights. The window faces south. Its not ideal but they look pretty good so im just gunna wing it for now.
 
As it turned out our local garden shop is going out of business and offering huge 60%-80% off discounts. So i grabbed some mostly organic stuff thats normally pretty expensive and im testing it out. Gives me something plant related to do for a few months.
 
moruga welder said:
Good ol' friend of mine  " 96STRAT " taught me , microwave  growing med.  and I  always keep my plants thirsty , and a good fan , so far been good for me ,     
 
Last two years i've boiled a pot of water, filled a 5 gal bucket with soil and dumped the water in and put a lid on for a bit. Kills everything in the soil... probably all the good stuff too but don't get any gnats. 
 
D3monic said:
 
Last two years i've boiled a pot of water, filled a 5 gal bucket with soil and dumped the water in and put a lid on for a bit. Kills everything in the soil... probably all the good stuff too but don't get any gnats. 
 
buts o.k. if we kill the good stuff ,  it gives a total control what to feed them right from the start till the end ,    :party:
 
moruga welder said:
 
buts o.k. if we kill the good stuff ,  it gives a total control what to feed them right from the start till the end ,    :party:
 
yea I add some mycorrhizae and soil boosters after. 
 
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