Lots of things moving in my handful of soil.

[GemuGrows]

Hey everybody i'm looking for some advice asap!

I was just staring at my organic soil for a few moments and I realized...its moving.

I know thats the point of organic soil, to have it literally be living, but i'm a bit uncomfortable with a few of the things I saw. There are 3 notable things.

1. Tiny fungal gnat looking dudes that wouldn't fly away when my fingers got close to them.
-No idea what these guys are, either gnats possibly (which i'm hardly worried about) or maybe root aphids?
2. Tiny worm like dudes, very very small but I could see 1-2 of them kinda "grooving" in the handful of soil I picked up
-Either large nematodes or some type of larva, they looked rather skinny and slender though so I don't think they are larva
3. VERY SMALL white bugs crawling all around. These are by far the most abundant.
-Not sure what these are. I have a feeling they could possibly be beneficial or they could be a HUGE pest problem waiting to happen.

My plants look healthy as heck, my soil has a ton of bacteria in it and i'm feeding them a compost tea i've been brewing up tomorrow; its getting seriously foamy. I use Oregonism (Roots organics beni innculant) which has several bacillus strains and I have a "Safer" product which contains a few Bacillus Thuringiensis species as well.

Thoughts? Sorry these little mofos are way too small to take pics of. I would say maybe 1-2% of leaves have MINOR issues, which is almost a white curling on the sides which could be from a few environmental factors or maybe from these little bug mofos.

Thanks in advance!

Also, what does your soil look like if you pick up a handful of it? Anything moving around?

Edit: A few other questions-

A. Will spinosad kill my soil life?
B. Will Azadirachtin kill my soil life?
C. Will Pyrethrins kill my soil life?
D. Will Bacillus kill my soil life?

Sorry if some of these questions seem basic, i've done a pretty considerable amount of research on every question i'm asking, i'm just unsure and don't want to mess anything up.

 

[drekoushranada]

I have a ton of things running around in my soil also. Being new to organics I started freaking out. Now I just let it be. The little white bugs are most likely springtails. Just google them. That might help you confirm if it's them or not.

 

[GemuGrows]

I have a ton of things running around in my soil also. Being new to organics I started freaking out. Now I just let it be. The little white bugs are most likely springtails. Just google them. That might help you confirm if it's them or not.

yep i read up and down about springtails over the last little bit.

These white little guys are considerably small, i imagine root aphids are notably larger?

 

[drekoushranada]

yep i read up and down about springtails over the last little bit.

These white little guys are considerably small, i imagine root aphids are notably larger?

Yes they are larger. How does the damage to your plants exactly look like? Any pictures?

 

[GemuGrows]

Yes they are larger. How does the damage to your plants exactly look like? Any pictures?

Pretty much the only issue is that minor bit of leaf curling. it really only is affecting a few leaves.

I just wanted to make sure if the bugs were an issue i got right on it, i'm not too worried about it if its not bugs

 

[green_machine_two9er]

Hey everybody i'm looking for some advice asap!

I was just staring at my organic soil for a few moments and I realized...its moving.

I know thats the point of organic soil, to have it literally be living, but i'm a bit uncomfortable with a few of the things I saw. There are 3 notable things.

1. Tiny fungal gnat looking dudes that wouldn't fly away when my fingers got close to them.
-No idea what these guys are, either gnats possibly (which i'm hardly worried about) or maybe root aphids?
2. Tiny worm like dudes, very very small but I could see 1-2 of them kinda "grooving" in the handful of soil I picked up
-Either large nematodes or some type of larva, they looked rather skinny and slender though so I don't think they are larva
3. VERY SMALL white bugs crawling all around. These are by far the most abundant.
-Not sure what these are. I have a feeling they could possibly be beneficial or they could be a HUGE pest problem waiting to happen.

My plants look healthy as heck, my soil has a ton of bacteria in it and i'm feeding them a compost tea i've been brewing up tomorrow; its getting seriously foamy. I u se Oregonism (Roots organics beni innculant) which has several bacillus strains and I have a "Safer" product which contains a few Bacillus Thuringiensis species as well.

Thoughts? Sorry these little mofos are way too small to take pics of. I would say maybe 1-2% of leaves have MINOR issues, which is almost a white curling on the sides which could be from a few environmental factors or maybe from these little bug mofos.

Thanks in advance!

Also, what does your soil look like if you pick up a handful of it? Anything moving around?

Edit: A few other questions-

A. Will spinosad kill my soil life?
B. Will Azadirachtin kill my soil life?
C. Will Pyrethrins kill my soil life?
D. Will Bacillus kill my soil life?

Sorry if some of these questions seem basic, i've done a pretty considerable amount of research on every question i'm asking, i'm just unsure and don't want to mess anything up.

Hard to say for certain without pictures. But it sounds like something is reproducing and your probable seeing different life cycles of the same critter. Some "organic based" pesticides will work. But all have side affects. I would try a good top dress of Ewc and some kind of mulch. Also get some chitin, or more i you already have some built into soil. Hell you could always top dress with some diatomaceous earth. That's my favorite Option. Good stuff. It's cheap and avail at Home Depot. Or what I do is mix coco, perlite, with crab meal, DE, kelp an neem. Put a half inch of this above good castings.if you interested Incan get you exact recipes. Bug control is all about prevention ahead of time in organics. Predatory microbes are avail for every possible invader as well. The bottles you mentioned i think should e avoided.
But again. Without proper identification it's hard to figure out how to disrupt bugs from reproducing. Amazon has cheep 40-800x USB scopes for 35$. Worth every penny.

 

[GemuGrows]

Hard to say for certain without pictures. But it sounds like something is reproducing and your probable seeing different life cycles of the same critter. Some "organic based" pesticides will work. But all have side affects. I would try a good top dress of Ewc and some kind of mulch. Also get some chitin, or more i you already have some built into soil. Hell you could always top dress with some diatomaceous earth. That's my favorite Option. Good stuff. It's cheap and avail at Home Depot. Or what I do is mix coco, perlite, with crab meal, DE, kelp an neem. Put a half inch of this above good castings.if you interested Incan get you exact recipes. Bug control is all about prevention ahead of time in organics. Predatory microbes are avail for every possible invader as well. The bottles you mentioned i think should e avoided.
But again. Without proper identification it's hard to figure out how to disrupt bugs from reproducing. Amazon has cheep 40-800x USB scopes for 35$. Worth every penny.

I've got access to crabshell maybe i'll get that for some chitin. In the past i put clay pellets on the top few inches of my soil, that was pretty killer in keeping bugs away; ill probably do that again as well.

Right now i'm mostly tryign to figure out of these are benifical bugs, negative bugs or if they just bugs you know O:

i've got a million options readily avalible for how I go about taking care of them, i'm just trying to figure out if they need to be taken care of!

I was considering calling up Aurora Innovations and seeing if they have $0.02 on the subject



Also i'm not using any FFOF so theres no crab shell in my soil right now, just straight up roots organic with several fungal/bacteria innoculants

 

[greasemonkeymann]

View attachment 3469071 View attachment 3469072 View attachment 3469073

Pretty much the only issue is that minor bit of leaf curling. it really only is affecting a few leaves.

I just wanted to make sure if the bugs were an issue i got right on it, i'm not too worried about it if its not bugs

what are your temps at? or humidity?
A fan with low humidity and/or high temps will cause damage EXACTLY like that.
looks like heat or wind damage.
The lower left picture is a good example of it.
I suspect either low humidity, high temps, or a fan blowing right on them.
Or a combination of two or three of those.

 

[GemuGrows]

what are your temps at? or humidity?
A fan with low humidity and/or high temps will cause damage EXACTLY like that.
looks like heat or wind damage.
The lower left picture is a good example of it.
I suspect either low humidity, high temps, or a fan blowing right on them.
Or a combination of two or three of those.

Temps are like 81, but they do have a fan hitting them a little hard. Its probably wind damage.

Humidity is between 50-60 usually.

The leaf damage isnt as much my issue as trying to make sure that these bugs arent a problem.

I do like the suggestion of wind damage though; as that is probably what that issue is.

My fan is kinda a pain in the ass, i flipped them to flower about 2 days ago. As i'm able to raise my lights i'll be able to move my fans to better places though so that problem will fix itself.

So yeah its probably a combo of slightly high temps (but i've grown in much higher temps quite successfully) and wind damage. Especially considering the only plants effected are ones closes to the fan!

 

[greasemonkeymann]

Temps are like 81, but they do have a fan hitting them a little hard. Its probably wind damage.

Humidity is between 50-60 usually.

The leaf damage isnt as much my issue as trying to make sure that these bugs arent a problem.

I do like the suggestion of wind damage though; as that is probably what that issue is.

My fan is kinda a pain in the ass, i flipped them to flower about 2 days ago. As i'm able to raise my lights i'll be able to move my fans to better places though so that problem will fix itself.

So yeah its probably a combo of slightly high temps (but i've grown in much higher temps quite successfully) and wind damage. Especially considering the only plants effected are ones closes to the fan!

ahh, well I wouldn't worry about the little bugs really.
to be honest.
If you see fungus gnats, that's the only concern i'd have, but from your description I don't think you do, not to mention fungus gnats HATE fans so in that regard your fans are good...
If you got a microscope and REALLY looked at all the shit goin on in your soil, compost or EWC, and it'd look like a prehistoric battlefield of all sorts of horrific lookin monsters and such..
Totally normal man, totally normal..
Off topic, I have preferred to use fans as good circulation UNDER the canopy, but above or at the soils level. I use compost to keep the soil from dryin out under the circulation, keeps leaf damage to a minimum, mold to a minimum, and doesn't burn the pistils (hairs), which can sorta make the calyx form a lil weird, smaller, at least in my experience. ANYTHING that fries the pistils (heat, sprays, wind) will stunt or simply fuck up the calyx development.
One of the reasons why I don't train my plants close to the soil, I don't like the transpiration of both the soil and the leaves together, that closely... recipe for powder.
I train to a maniline six pack or four depending on the strain and the room I have, but I train that to at LEAST 8 inches off the soil surface, that way it leaves room for the fan.
Keep in mind I grow in a redwood froest so it's somewhat humid out here, and I have to take a lil extra precautions (side note, simple AACT and silica kicks ASS on the beginnings of powder mold, just strain and spray)
anyways... coffee rant..

 

[hyroot]

If you have gnats then there's larva in the soil eating roots. . Topdress castings and compost - vermicompost. And you will be good. The bugs will go away within a week.