New type of soil to battle dreaded Gnats.

[Bongo]

Recently I have had to put 90% of my SD plants outside as mold gnat infestation was out of control. I know people have had good success with various methods of extermination of gnats however where I am in East Asia it is not possible to get any of the products such as Neem oil, diatomaceous earth or any effective insecticides.

So, washing the roots. stems. leaves and repotting is the only way to go.
Anyway, I just found this new type of soil which they claim gnats will not live in and also that as the soil is in pellet form it allows much more oxygen to the roots as you can see in this photo.

Left is a tomato plant Right Egg plant.
It supposedly shows greater root growth than in regular potting soil.




Soil with vermiculite although I added about 20% perlite to it.

Anyone tried this type of soil with SD?

[winder]

It looks much like my potting mix of 2 part coconut coir, 1 part Turface (a hard kiln-fired granular porous clay product) and 1 part hydroponic clay spheres.

As for the fungus gnats, let the plants' pots get dry to the point of the plants drooping some.  This will kill the gnat's fungus food source.  A few cycles of such will do a lot to reduce the gnats and will strengthen the plants.

Repotting is an option also.

[Bongo]

Oh yeah..I remember when you started using the turface windy.
How is that working out? Probably very fresh green leaf & stem color I imagine with all the oxygen?

[winder]

The mix has worked out nicely.

For the salvia, only 1 out of 16 was lost.  The one had very few roots and probably stayed too wet after being transplanted.  The older plants with more roots (really these are root bound) are fine.  I water them so water runs through the pots onto the floor (the pots are elevated on a plastic grating that had been a garage shelf).  Plenty of water, nutrients, AND oxygen.  The casualties stayed damp too long.  The thriving dry out faster, much faster.

[Bongo]

Glad it worked out for you Windy.

I have three casualties right now.
The paradox is, the new soil was watered too much and is wet but now the plants need a humidity device over them as the root ball has been disturbed too much from washing the roots to get rid of the gnats. :oops:  :oops:  :oops:

[Chris W]

hey Winder  do you have any Salvia clones to get rid of this year???  I bought a dying one last year and she didn't make it  :cry: .    PM me if you do       Thanks
   
     I know you have the healthiest clones  I have ever seen