I’m fed up with buying potting soil that is full of fungus gnats!! The problem seems to get wors
e every year. Potting soil is being sold that is already full of fungus gnat larvae just waiting for the right conditions to start eating the roots of plants. Unscrupulous companies seem to think that they can sell anything in a bag and call it potting soil. Is there one potting soil company out there that dares to say that their product is free of fungus gnat?
I purchase a product called Gnatrol that contains a type of Bt that controls the fungus gnat. It’s a product that is added to the water and applied as a soil-drench when you water your plants. If I suspect that I have a problem (see the info sheet), then I use it when I water all of my plants. I repeat in another week.
The best deal that I can find: http://www.bghydro.com/BGH/itemdesc.asp?ic=PCGNAT32&eq=&Tp=
For more information about fungus gnats: http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2114.html
Thought I was doing something wrong with my growing shelf to cause the gnat issue – but you say the potting soil is the culprit? AH HA!
But I think I’ve seen it all now: I bought 3 African Violets from local greenhouse Valentine’s Day (Hermon, ME). They were potted in all peat (?) – how do growers get them to thrive in that soil mix??
I repotted slightly them using a mixture of AV potting soil, vermiculite and Perlite – without disturbing the root ball too much since they blooming and I hoped they would continue. After a couple of weeks I picked up one to test it’s weight to see if it my watering amounts were working.
There was a 2″ slug curled up where one of the drain holes was set. ick!! Maybe I need to set out a lid with beer in it like the outside garden?
I have in the past had gnats. Embarrassing, to say the least. I have found that if I let my plants dry between waterings the problem usually takes care of itself. I also try not to leave anything else out bananas, coffee grounds or other bruised fruit. At work we were noticing alot of gnats, we starting checking plants and noticed the plants that had the gnats in it were the ones people were adding wet coffee grounds to. No coffee for our plants!