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Gnats. Combined with overwatering, I was ruined in my first attempt at growing cuttings. However, I have some little figlet survivors, and they're starting to put out new growth again. As a bonus, I haven't seen a gnat in 2 days. I thought I would share how I got rid of them, for anyone who was interested.
1) Fly traps. The yellow sticky ones. I got these early on, which curbed the infestation. I put 10 of them up about 2 months ago, and each one has between 50-300 gnats stuck to it. Can you imagine if I hadn't used them?
2) Fly traps weren't enough. I bought some gnatrol. 20 bucks online, and its enough to last years. I started watering my cuttings with it.
a) Give the gnats a new target...a deadly one. I took some sphagnum left over from rooting, and dampened it heavily, and coated it with gnatrol. I then lined my bins with it. The gnats love it, which is a shame for them, because their larvae can't survive in it (being coated with gnatrol and whatnot), and I also let it dry out in between wetting it, which desiccates any larvae in there.
b) Water only from the bottom with gnatrol infused water. The little jerks still get in the holes at the bottom, but this helped resolve my overwatering issue. You see....I couldn't treat the cuttings with gnatrol properly without drenching them...kind of a "pick your poison" scenario. Watering from the bottom only seemed to help immensely, as the roots could still find some less wet places, if they needed, and the gnats quit going through the top, since the top inch or two of potting mix was dry.
3) Sevin dust. I took my 2 most infested cuttings, and sprinkled a touch of this stuff on the top. Within 24 hours, no more gnats were flying out of them (at least out the top).
4) Thumbs. Every morning and evening I took out my cuttings, tapped on the sides gently, and watched a few gnats scurry out. Smashed them all with my thumbs. The first day was terrible...20+ gnats. Then 15. Then 10. Each day was less and less. So very satisfying to kill the little scum-suckers.
Overall, I'm sure that prevention is WAY easier than all of this. Also, I'm sure that I haven't completely destroyed the infestation, but I've severely crippled it at least. However, if you find yourself with a gnat problem, these steps helped me immensely. 2 weeks ago I was sure that I was going to lose all my cuttings...they were all dropping one by one (I went from 20+ to less than 10), and none were growing actively (tops or roots). In fact, most were actively dying. Now several are rooting like mad again, and 2 of them are actively putting out green, with another breaking bud.
1) Fly traps. The yellow sticky ones. I got these early on, which curbed the infestation. I put 10 of them up about 2 months ago, and each one has between 50-300 gnats stuck to it. Can you imagine if I hadn't used them?
2) Fly traps weren't enough. I bought some gnatrol. 20 bucks online, and its enough to last years. I started watering my cuttings with it.
a) Give the gnats a new target...a deadly one. I took some sphagnum left over from rooting, and dampened it heavily, and coated it with gnatrol. I then lined my bins with it. The gnats love it, which is a shame for them, because their larvae can't survive in it (being coated with gnatrol and whatnot), and I also let it dry out in between wetting it, which desiccates any larvae in there.
b) Water only from the bottom with gnatrol infused water. The little jerks still get in the holes at the bottom, but this helped resolve my overwatering issue. You see....I couldn't treat the cuttings with gnatrol properly without drenching them...kind of a "pick your poison" scenario. Watering from the bottom only seemed to help immensely, as the roots could still find some less wet places, if they needed, and the gnats quit going through the top, since the top inch or two of potting mix was dry.
3) Sevin dust. I took my 2 most infested cuttings, and sprinkled a touch of this stuff on the top. Within 24 hours, no more gnats were flying out of them (at least out the top).
4) Thumbs. Every morning and evening I took out my cuttings, tapped on the sides gently, and watched a few gnats scurry out. Smashed them all with my thumbs. The first day was terrible...20+ gnats. Then 15. Then 10. Each day was less and less. So very satisfying to kill the little scum-suckers.
Overall, I'm sure that prevention is WAY easier than all of this. Also, I'm sure that I haven't completely destroyed the infestation, but I've severely crippled it at least. However, if you find yourself with a gnat problem, these steps helped me immensely. 2 weeks ago I was sure that I was going to lose all my cuttings...they were all dropping one by one (I went from 20+ to less than 10), and none were growing actively (tops or roots). In fact, most were actively dying. Now several are rooting like mad again, and 2 of them are actively putting out green, with another breaking bud.
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