I'm having a hell of a time eradicating fungus gnats. I've gotten em beat back to just a few random fliers, but if I relax for even a few days, they are back in force! You think a burlap cover would help me finish the war with those little bastards? You ever see any gnats moving thru the material? My next move is going to be weed-guard fabric if I can't find anything more suitable.Oh yeah, I'm all about that burlap. Noice! Let's start a trend (this pic's not current, but I do still have new burlap on hand and new seeds! Ready to rock!) . Thanks for the reminder of your project, Mellville. It's awesome. How much soil?
I'm with you here. I work on the same floor as the tent and they dive bomb me all day if I don't keep them controlled. What are you using to beat them back?
I started with Dr Zymes, it works good to kill stuff in the air and on the plant (double recommended strength) - but using it as a root drench and spraying the soil surface just seems to make the problem worse. Once the soil dried out on top I started keeping a heavy dusting of D-earth on it and placing yellow sticky traps all around the area. This is only minimally effective. I tried SNS for gnats and a couple Off-the-shelf products from Walmart, but they were less than useless. Might as well have just tried to squish them with a $50 bill instead of wasting it on sprays.
Thanks RD!Oh yeah, I'm all about that burlap. Noice! Let's start a trend (this pic's not current, but I do still have new burlap on hand and new seeds! Ready to rock!) . Thanks for the reminder of your project, Mellville. It's awesome. How much soil?
I would go straight for the weed guard if you decide to give fabric a shot. Burlap is a loose enough weave that they can probably just crawl right on through.
GB, your build is cleaner than the example in the Instructables link! Well done! Keep us updated, will you please? I'm using upside-down smaller buckets in 5 gal, also nested 3 gals in 5 gals w/net cup wicks, and false floors made from lids... Quite aI am officially a SIPPER!
Yesterday I built two 5 gallon SIP buckets following the instructions here.
Took about an hour (if you remove the time I spent fiddling about, smoking a doobie, and looking for the right tools).
The center hole for the "wick" is only about an inch and a half round - hope that is enough.
I used a grinder to notch the bottom that sits in the water. This should help airflow.
I read recently that airflow is important to the roots so instead of using the half inch PVC for the overflow I used 3/4 - same as the fill tube.
I'll put tiny fruit netting bags on both pipes to keep critters out. I used some blue painters tape to cover the bottom third of the buckets to help reduce algae growth. May not be an issue as the irrigation piping is black and not much water will sit outside of the donut.
Today I up-potted two plants into the SIP buckets. Took about an hour.
I used half FFOF and half used soil from last year (which was new FFOF). Also added lots of perlite - especially to the bottom third. I also added the GROW DOTS to the soil for timed-release nutrients. I placed about a third of the soil into the bottom of the bucket, thoroughly soaked the soil and lightly pressed it down into the center hole. Added another third and soaked the soil. Added the last third on top, soaked that, then transplanted. I ended up short of the soil I added DOTS to, so I just added some of the used soil mix on top - about an inch. This puts the DOTS goodies lower so no biggie. Soaked again until runoff out of the overflow pipe.
Here they are sitting pretty.
I'm a little worried about the DOTS releasing nutes in a timely manner. I may need to add some liquid nutes and top water. We'll see if they start to yellow a bit again.
Wish me luck!
Freedom Isn't Free - today we remember our fallen warriors.
I used this product specifically.
Thanks RD!
I tried mosquito dunks for a short period - but I didn't ground them up, just busted it into pieces. I also gave up on it after just a few days.
I think the cedar mulch was effective for my large SIP, where the soil surface never got wet. My smaller SIPs though, the surface never dries completely, and this seems to make it a nesting ground for gnats, cedar be damned.
@RedskinnedRhino
Careful with just adding fish directly to a non-innoculated container. I remember when I set up my aquaponics system I had to build it up slowly as the ammonia the fish produce will kill them over a short amount of time without the right microbes. If you're just doing it for a day it probably doesn't matter much, but for a longer term SIP application you'll want to set it up properly.
Perfect! Fill the reservoir for week 6 and it'll do a drought in week 7 for more potent buds. Almost like he planned it that way.
