Help ID This Issue

[J Obadiah]

First if you are doing an actual Living Organic Soil no-till then I assume you must be in at least 15 gallon fabric pots?
And you have a thick mulch layer such as barley straw?
If this is the case then all you need for fungus gnat eradication is Rove Beetles and predator mites.

Also in a LOS you do NOT let the soil dry out, unless your soil is shit with nowhere near enough aeration.
As far dry soil to lessen fungus gnats, your plant would be long dead before it made the slightest difference in gnat population.
I once opened a bag of compost that was stored in a nice dry space for over a year and had fungus gnats come out of the bag.

There are two guaranteed methods to get rid of gnats.
If in LOS and you're doing it right in large pots with thick mulch then Rove Beetles are the answer.
If you're in something that resembles LOS in small pots and no mulch then you need to get some BTI, best I found was Gnatrol, add that to your water everytime you water for 3 weeks and take several yellow sticky traps fold them into a tent and place on top of your soil.
Gnats will be gone in 3 weeks

As far as the LOS: she's made up of the following:
1 Base: ProMix M, Big Roots, Roots Organic. I use them because they have all the essentials I need, including Mycorrhizae.

2. Additives: Worms – Red Wigglers and European Nightcrawlers; Kelp Meal, Crab Meal, Alfalfa Meal, Worm Castings, Azomite, and Rock Phosphate. NO chicken manure.

3. Environment: 5 Gallon AirPots. Humidity: 45-55%. Temp Range: 85°F in daytime to ~50°F at night time.

4. IPM: Insect Frass, Aloe Vera, Neem Oil (w/a surfactant), traps, and Nematodes (Question here. Do you think it's possible these Nematodes will become an issue later? I have researched them pretty thoroughly, however I have some slight concern because I've seen "Nematode Control" products or outright Nematode pesticides. I used like 30 million I think, on like 10 pots, indoor and outdoor.)

Regarding the nature of this grow being LOS, the answer is probably no because there's things I don't have: mulch (the reason behind this, maybe a bad reason, idk, but the reason is because I didn't wanna give them any reason to create mildew, mold, or THIS VERY ISSUE–gnats. Ugh!) and my pots aren't large (to be honest I didn't know, and still don't know, if the size of the container has any dictation on it being classified as a true LOS). Beyond that they are no-till, and all the inputs are as organic as I can get them. I try to be cognizant of the fact that "organic' is both a bit of a misnomer and a hard thing to accomplish in reality. That's usually why I stay away from fish fertilizers as best I can because I can't guarantee their diet didn't have inorganic substances in it somewhere along the line.

I digress...btw I like the tent idea for the sticky traps I didn't even think about that lol

 

[J Obadiah]

Here's a visual update. The problem child. She's got some droopiness, and her internodal spacing is large. Since the topping a few days ago she's began to slow up a bit. She's not as limber as she was yesterday--VERY MUCH SO yesterday.

You can see the small divot I made to show you that she is indeed watered. I treated them with Neem Oil and a surfactant yesterday while I wait for the fungus gnat control to get here. It does have DTI I believe. I'll reconfirm that.

Also if you look closely you'll notice deformed growth on those apical leaves, and it's also visible in the node crotch below the cut.

 

[J Obadiah]

I think part of my problem here is that I mistakenly overwatered bthem which in turn caused the gnats. The part that's giving me issues is that overwatering can mimic so many other ailments, on both the toxicity and deficiency sides.

I'm utilizing everyone's feedback by:
1. Increasing airflow near the base.
2. Increased drying time.
3. Added Sticky Traps.
4. Ordered a control with DTI.

 

[Nunyabiz]

Well I just started coming on to some mushrooms so not sure how coherent I am atm.
But , in general if you really want to do LOS properly and also the easiest is your next grow I would go with a minimum of 15 gallon fabric pots, if you can manage it 30 gallon would be even better.
Add a cover crop, and a thick mulch layer, once it all comes up and settles in then get Rove Beetles and predator mites.
They will take care of any soil borne pest be it fungus gnats or aphids or whatever stands no chance vs a good population of Rove beetles.
With a 5 gal pot you're probably ok for first month of veg after that you'll need to top dress and add regular SST of corn and Alfalfa, some coconut water, Buildabloom in flower, some FPJ of Comfrey, Bokashi, feed worms some craft blend,, just to keep up with requirements.
Which is exactly what I am doing right now with my 7 gallon pot.
Ands its still about half the size of the plants in the 20 gallon.
Its coming out ok, but compared to the ease and size of the 20 gallon its more difficult to mess with, have to water more, have to phuck with more nutrients/amendments which just opens up chances to knock everything outa balance.

The larger pots just take care of themselves, are easy to create a good environment for your bugs and worms.
Took me about 30 minutes to type this out on my phone, LOL.
The shrooms have control.

 

[J Obadiah]

See I can definitely appreciate what you're saying, and I'd love to use bigger pots, but I can't because I'm limited to 6 ft due to my location. It's fine as long as not visible. I use the tents to optimize environment. I can still do the mulch and beetles though, that's great info. It's either gnats, spider mites, or aphids that I have to put up with.

I've always wanted to use Comfrey, but I'm scared to and frankly have no good reason s to why. So when you hit bloom do you continue the coots mix?

Hilarious commentary btw LOL I've never done shrooms, I just enjoy my weed lol.

 

[MarcoD1984]

If "overwatering" is causing you problems then the actual problem is lack of oxygen, and the reason really has little to nothing to do with too much water.
Letting the soil dry out is literally like putting duct tape on a flat tire, it might help slightly but it isn't addressing the real problem.
The root cause is lack of aeration and improper soil tilth.
If you have at least 30% aeration like Pumice, Rice Hulls and Pre-charged Biochar or similar, and you're in large fabric pots, especially if you have worms in the pot and a cover crop then you would damn near have to toss the pot into a swimming pool to deplete the oxygen.
I am in 20 gallon fabric pots and I usually water everyday especially in flower, my soil stays moist, not soaking wet but good and moist.
I have a thick mulch layer so even the top 1/2" of my soil stays moist at all times.
Everything in that pot requires moisture just as much as it does oxygen, the worms, rove beetles, microbes, cover crop, and the cannabis roots.
But even in small fabric pots without cover crop, not sure if there's a worm or two in there, I still have to water every single day, in fact its even more critical.
I have a 7 gallon fabric pot next to my two 20 gallon pots and if I don't water it everyday then it gets too dry after about week 5 of veg.
I can skip a day occasionally in the 20 gallon pots but have to water the 7 gallon everyday.
This is due to proper soil tilth and lots of transpiration from the plant by keeping my VPD at optimum levels as much as possible.
A healthy plant will suck a 7 gallon pot dry in 24 hours or less.
I also super oxygenate my water so when I water I am adding dissolved oxygen into the soil.

This was a good read.Couple questions...So I warm my water to around 69,and also aerate the water for sometimes 24hr[thats after I've already left the water uncapped in the sun.Is their such thing as to much oxygen?I'm currently trying in stoninton mix,basically just water and their nutrient Instructures .Its a super soil,so whatever I get for run off I suck back up with a note syringe and put back into the soil Is this ok?Sorry if I just jumped in like this

 

[Nunyabiz]

This was a good read.Couple questions...So I warm my water to around 69,and also aerate the water for sometimes 24hr[thats after I've already left the water uncapped in the sun.Is their such thing as to much oxygen?I'm currently trying in stoninton mix,basically just water and their nutrient Instructures .Its a super soil,so whatever I get for run off I suck back up with a note syringe and put back into the soil Is this ok?Sorry if I just jumped in like this

There's no such thing as too much oxygen to roots except ripping the plant out of the ground and hanging it in the air.
In general with a air pump and the very best stone you're only going to get about 8-9% dissolved oxygen in 68⁰ water no matter how long you bubble it.
Plus if you bubble a really long time the water just gets warmer which lowers dissolved oxygen.
Using o2 emitters you can get between 12-15% dissolved oxygen.
I run my o2 emitter for about an hour for 2-3 gallons of water and will get more DO than a bubbler running for a week.
In 68⁰ water 100% "saturation" is about 8.5% if I remember correctly.
To get higher than that is referred to as "super-saturation" and will require a different way to oxygenate.
Either o2 emitters or o3 ozone generator.
The o2 emitter is the happy medium, gets good DO of 12-15% and does quickly and easily without the dangers of o3.

You also need to be using fabric pots instead of plastic which allows more oxygen to the roots and need really good aeration in the soil such as pumice, Rice Hulls and Pre-charged Biochar along with worms both red wigglers for the top 4" or so and night crawlers for down deeper plus cover crop with shallow roots, all help with soil tilth and oxygen to the root system.

If you have heavy shit soil in a plastic pot then letting it dry out is about your only choice but that totally fucks your ecosystem, kills root hairs and tips, you can't have worms or bugs because they will just just bail.

In a living soil or super soil its best to water to where you have zero run off or very little.

 

[MarcoD1984]

There's no such thing as too much oxygen to roots except ripping the plant out of the ground and hanging it in the air.
In general with a air pump and the very best stone you're only going to get about 8-9% dissolved oxygen in 68⁰ water no matter how long you bubble it.
Plus if you bubble a really long time the water just gets warmer which lowers dissolved oxygen.
Using o2 emitters you can get between 12-15% dissolved oxygen.
I run my o2 emitter for about an hour for 2-3 gallons of water and will get more DO than a bubbler running for a week.
In 68⁰ water 100% "saturation" is about 8.5% if I remember correctly.
To get higher than that is referred to as "super-saturation" and will require a different way to oxygenate.
Either o2 emitters or o3 ozone generator.
The o2 emitter is the happy medium, gets good DO of 12-15% and does quickly and easily without the dangers of o3.

You also need to be using fabric pots instead of plastic which allows more oxygen to the roots and need really good aeration in the soil such as pumice, Rice Hulls and Pre-charged Biochar along with worms both red wigglers for the top 4" or so and night crawlers for down deeper plus cover crop with shallow roots, all help with soil tilth and oxygen to the root system.

If you have heavy shit soil in a plastic pot then letting it dry out is about your only choice but that totally fucks your ecosystem, kills root hairs and tips, you can't have worms or bugs because they will just just bail.

In a living soil or super soil its best to water to where you have zero run off or very little.

Thank you.perfect..using coast of maine in 5 gal cloth pots running their liquid squid,fish bone meal and the plant food.thanks for the info