FFOF Aphids?!

Just starting a grow... when I noticed 2 EXTREMELY little bugs crawling around the plant. It hasnt even sprouted yet. I have 3 other sprouts going. I have stared at the other plants for about an hour an can not see anything there.... Pictures can not capture these little guys. I only found 2. I chucked the seedling and the dirt it was planted in. I do not want future problems... Should i scrap everything? as the soil might be compromised? and just be glad I caught it early? Or should i just keep an eye on the others and try to re germ this one? Thanks guys!

When I buy fresh bags of Ocean Forest I always find fungus gnats. You are going to find the occasional insect in any soil. Get some sticky traps for flying gnats and it will keep them in check.

If you are that freaked out by insects then go hydro or soilless medium.

Thank you so much Julius...! Great to hear that.... I am not worried about the pests themselves, just more concerned about them ruining all my plants! I didnt know if it was one of those things.... if you dont kill them now, they will over run you. Or they would contaminate everything around them. It might be a fungus gnat. Thank you so much! Will monitor closly!

Julius Caesar said:

When I buy fresh bags of Ocean Forest I always find fungus gnats. You are going to find the occasional insect in any soil. Get some sticky traps for flying gnats and it will keep them in check.

If you are that freaked out by insects then go hydro or soilless medium.

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This is my experience with ocean grown. Another reason I don't use it. I got rid of those bastards with a neem oil spray and a soil drench with neem.

Ffof is a bag o bugs. I brought this up before as have others. Seems to be certain supplier or distributor as some ppl say this stuff is clean.

Is uncle sam is contaminating this stuff in legal states? Who knows. Could just be a very unsanitary distribution warehouse or a supplier that doesn't have good product or lacks sterilization procedures.

I personally have ditched any mediun I can't easily wash and sterilize (hydroton)

Could you recommend me another soil medium? Thank you ! Newb here! If there is something better then FFOF I did not do enough research as I thought I had. Thank you!

I've been using Fox Farms Ocean Forest for a litttle over 3 years and never even saw a bug. Maybe I've just been lucyky or I don't sees so well but I always get high quality kickass bud.

I've used FFOF twice and had fungus gnats immediately both times.

And I have right at 70 other houseplants inside my house right now, none others have FG's so it is not poor sanitation.

But FG's are super easy to take care of they really don't bother me.

Hmmm Maybe it is the Larve of fungus gnats? These this were TINY! And my humidity has been low until today, because i put a humidifier in the room to correct it. Do these gnats thrive on high humidity situations? Could the humidifier sprouted these guys?

Always buy your stuff from big stores like home depot etc, as they have a bigger turnover of stock, cheaper prices etc, for this reason is follows that the stock will be fresher, however its no big deal to find bugs in soil, its mostly made of bugs and shit anyways, for this reason I always have a spray bottle of neem around and once seeded or germed a quick pump of neem will take care of any hassles, including damp off fungi, ...to my journal

https://www.rollitup.org/blogs/blog32238-neem-oil.html

Johnxnyg said:

Could you recommend me another soil medium? Thank you ! Newb here! If there is something better then FFOF I did not do enough research as I thought I had. Thank you!

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I run with Roots Organic, I personally love the stuff. I've also used Coast of Maine's Gardeners Gold soil with good success as well. If you have a nursery/greenhouse near you anywhere check them out.

I've never gotten bugs with ocean forest that's odd that y'all do.

I have used OF for years and have rarely had any pest issues I could easily blame on the soil, and certainly never any root Aphids. Fungus gnats can get into the soil at any point during the storage/transportation of pallets of bags of mix, or shortly after planting in it (from houseplants, outdoors, etc.). It is less likely for pallets/bags that are covered and stored indoors. The bags themselves must be able to breathe, however, because soil is alive it respires, which is why all bags of soil are perforated.

Fungus gnats are fairly easily remedied with Bti products, especially when populations are low. Gnat eggs are very small, though numerous, you can find gnats as that larger pupae or larval stages in soil (where they look like little white worms), and the flying adults which are more irritating than anything.

There are other kinds of "bugs" that live in the soil, though, and many are very small. Some are barely visible and others even less so. Commonly in a soil you may have mites which feed on detritus, or fungi (e.g. Orabatid mites) and other mites which are more voracious predators and actually attack other small organisms in the soil, including pest insects or their eggs/larvae. Predator mites are sometimes added during soil manufacture, in potted plants and often in green-houses for this reason.

Another common and visible micro-arthropod are not technically considered insects, and are known as Collembola or Springtails. These can be seen if you look really carefully in any kind of decaying matter/detritus and particularly leaf litter. Many of species are able to "jump" by means of a furcula or lever-like appendage.