Dab Blasted Fungus Gnats in my MiracleGro!

I just opened a brand spanking new bag and out flew a bunch of itsy bitsy fungus gnats! This is the third year in a row this has happened to me, (with multiple bags), and i'm thinking of switching soil. For those of you who have never experienced the joy of fungus gnats, they are little flies that lay eggs in potting soil; The eggs hatch, and the larvae eat your seedlings' roots and then they keel over dead!

Best trick is to keep some mosquito dunks on hand. They have an organism in them that kills mosquito and fungus gnat larvae; You just have to soak the dunk in water and then use the water to water your containers. There's a product called Gnatrol that does the same thing, but it is lots more expensive.

O.K., end of rant, but maybe my tip will help someone out. -The first time I had this problem, I had no idea what was going on/what to do and lost lots of seedlings. Supposedly, the gnats are more of a problem in cool, mild weather so could be my climate is why I get lucky so often.

Info on Mosquito Dunks here:

http://www.marchbiological.com/L/mosquito_control.html

I've never (knock on wood) had a bad enough infestation to kill seedlings... usually, they're more of a nuisance for me than anything else. I guess you can't count on cold temps to kill most of the eggs in your WS containers, though! When I start seeds inside, I use little seed starting trays that don't need a huge amount of potting mix, so I sterilize it in the microwave.

The mosquito dunks for watering are a good idea!

I've also used a cap of lysol or Murphy's oil soap per gallon of water for house plants with fungus gnats, but I hesitate to use that on seedlings.

I wonder if H2O2 would also work?? Humm.. And my problems with seedlings are that as soon as it tries to break the soil surface, the tip starts shrivelling.. I still haven't figured out what that is.. Wonder if it's the same thing you're mentioning..

Is that happening with your winter sown seedlings, or indoor ones? I haven't had any trouble with damping off outside, but it could be damping off inside... sterilizing soil, H2O2, air circulation, etc. can all help with damping off.

Is that dampening off?? Cuz I have it mostly indoors.. The seeds I do outside usually don't germinate for me at all.. So most of my seed, I start inside.. I already water with H2O2 solution on a regular basis. That's why I was wonder if it was dampening off..

In 2 years of WSing I've had no dampoff, but once I did get fungus gnats in the outside jugs after spring monsoons. The BTI (mosquito dunks) worked well, and fast.

Karen

Iscoden, am I remembering that you've joined the DG writer's group? If so, you can sneak a peak at the damping off article on the upcoming schedule... otherwise, search for the topic on the propagation forum... I don't want to take this thread too far O/T since it's not generally a winter sowing issue. Dmail me if you can't find the info. :-)

Yup Critter.. I am part of that but I have a horrible procrastination traite. If only Dave assigned it as homework and had a due date.. LOL.. It's half done on my computer.. LOL.. I will check for that article.. Thanks. :)