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Post by Dennis Z on Sept 22, 2014 21:37:40 GMT -5
These buggers do more damage than good for me. Though they feed the pings, I have recently discovered that some larvae had eaten all the roots of my poor P.debbertiana, P. jaumavensis and P.florian. I found out when suddenly all three rolled off their pots during some rearranging. Also my S.debile had a battle with them in the beginning and after a few re-pottings it's back in health.
Does anybody have this problem? I'm not sure how I can prevent it, there are too many fungus gnats!
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Post by lloyd on Sept 22, 2014 21:41:13 GMT -5
For pings, go to a complete mineral soil. That should keep the gnats away. Also keep them on the dry side, watering lightly whenever the medium dries out.
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Post by cory on Sept 22, 2014 21:53:39 GMT -5
I use capensis and regia in my tanks. It helps dramatically. I keep a few soft grown capes around just for these events. It's a communal use. Wherever I'm having issues is where the cape goes. It's not often these days I think I have mostly had them all eaten
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Post by Dennis Z on Sept 22, 2014 22:15:51 GMT -5
Lloyd- Mineral soil? I'm fairly new to pings so I'm not sure what that means. I thought that minerals were "bad" for pings since they are carnivorous plants. I did some research and apparently top dressing with sand can prevent fungus gnats from laying eggs. Would any limestone free sand suffice? I have fafard's sable: horticultural sand that I use for my cacti and succulents.
Cory- Unfortunately I'm terrible at growing capensis. I have one in room humidity at the moment and it's not doing great, though I did take some root cuttings so I can hopefully try growing them again.
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Post by shoggoths on Sept 23, 2014 8:02:20 GMT -5
Hi Dennis,
I don't know if you remember but this is the mix recipe I talked to you when you bought the pings. It is an almost 100% mineral mix and should do the trick.
Media : Equal part of perlite / vermiculite / aqualite. To each pot, I add 1 table spoon of worms cast compost. I’m actually doing some tests with additional part of silica sand or cat litter. A small amount of calcium seems to give better green color to the leave.
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Post by lloyd on Sept 23, 2014 8:49:25 GMT -5
I've used pure aquatic plant soil (Schultz) lately. Shoggoth's mix sounds good, too. Coarser silica sand is better than fine sand.
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Post by Dennis Z on Sept 23, 2014 20:01:02 GMT -5
Hi Dennis, I don't know if you remember but this is the mix recipe I talked to you when you bought the pings. It is an almost 100% mineral mix and should do the trick. Media : Equal part of perlite / vermiculite / aqualite. To each pot, I add 1 table spoon of worms cast compost. I’m actually doing some tests with additional part of silica sand or cat litter. A small amount of calcium seems to give better green color to the leave. Oh right, sorry shoggoths, I nearly forgot about that. I even bought the vermiculite but I couldn't find aqualite for sale. I was just wondering how often you would water a ping in a course mix.
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Post by lloyd on Sept 23, 2014 20:08:37 GMT -5
I like to let my ping mineral media just dry out and then mist to wet the top of the medium.
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Post by Dennis Z on Sept 23, 2014 20:19:18 GMT -5
I was always under the assumption that pings should be constantly moist, but I guess they are succulents so drying out would be okay.
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Post by shoggoths on Sept 23, 2014 20:36:50 GMT -5
Yep, I think I gave them water only 4 times last summer but I keep the humidity level high.
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Post by WillyCKH on Apr 11, 2015 10:59:53 GMT -5
I hate Fungus gnats! Their larvae are annoying and eat thin roots in moist soil. They have killed many seedlings of mine, Drosera Capensis, and non-CP like Pitaya, Purslane! The seedlings would look okay for the first few days, but then you would realize that they have no more roots and fall down I had to hunt them (the ones come out to the soil surface from time to time) down one by one. Don't feed these larvae to your sundews or Pings, they can get away easily if they are still alive. I don't feel bad seeing Fungus gnats being eaten alive by my sundews! If you see these near your seedlings, watch out!
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Post by lloyd on Apr 11, 2015 21:47:49 GMT -5
I'm sure some Neem spray on the soil would control them.
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Post by amanitovirosa on Apr 11, 2015 23:15:07 GMT -5
...I feed these to my little Flytraps when I find them, they don't get away. You know they are in the pot when you can see a shiny, slimy gunk on top of the media, kind of like what snails leave behind. They are usually just below the surface. I've lost a few seedlings to these pesky maggots! Welcome to the forum by the way Willy, I can see right away you have some excellent photography skills. Cheers!
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Post by WillyCKH on May 4, 2015 21:02:29 GMT -5
Good bye, Fungus gnats.
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Post by lloyd on May 4, 2015 21:35:41 GMT -5
If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em.
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