Diatomaceous earth on top of coco coir

[Brimstond]

Hello everyone ... shame that company is so far away from WA .... ment to be great for chooks and keeping ants out of pots outdoors , my fruit tress are riddled with ants ........ 

link to a wa suppiler would be good....hehe ... I was just going to ask local stock feed to get some , I will have to see which way is cheaper or easier

 

Cheers Brimstond

Edited February 16, 2014 by Brimstond

[MediKat]

I looked into this a while back for my pooches. Was seek something natural for fleas and intestinal worms. Anyways the pharmas still are getting my money to treat my dogs atm.

[hermananian]

I know my responses have been, well, a little rambunctious?... however I do try and back it up with sound reasoning.

I understand silica is used in conjunction with coco as the coco fibre is an inert medium that contains no silica. I've used silica indoors but stopped bothering and saw no difference really... maybe a drop in weight? Dunno? stronger stems? hmmmm possibly, but then again growing 'the right size' colas and using fans to strengthen the stems works just as well too.

Faith is on the right track, growing in coco(and using hydro nutes) is about as close to organic hydro growing as you can get and most of the "zymes" seem to work especially well in coco from what I've seen.

New coco seems to get scarid fly straight out of the bag, but mix it with 1/4 of coco from the previous grow(preferably off the top with as much root matter removed as possible) where healthy bacteria are already established and the scarid fly problem doesn't happen

To my way of thinking, for what we grow, using diatomaceous earth is not warranted unless there are underlying problems.

 I am growing outdoors, with coco fibre , the threads heading states its about coco fibre, so no your reasoning is not sound, its not soil its coco fibre, I fully understand whats going on with my medium and also understand that hydro is missing silica  With the envoroment outdoors being much harder than indoors and being at the mercy of mother nature, having hard stems and making the plants as tough as possible is my goal. My hope was that someone had used this way of putting silica into the plants and that we could have an informative discussion rather than just crapping on the idea. I have found that playing with silica out of the bottle is a hassle, I would much prefer a product that doesn't change my ph because I don't like having to add acid, its much better when the nutrient buffers to the right ph, as I have found with canna, and my particular water. I don't like additives and don't waist my money on anything other than silica. Scarid fly is only one of the many insects that may enter the pots when they are outdoors so I see this as a cheap and environmentally sensitive alternative. I hope to hear from someone that has tried it !! 

 

Cheers Herman

Edited February 17, 2014 by hermananian

[bufo marinus]

 I am growing outdoors, with coco fibre , the threads heading states its about coco fibre, so no your reasoning is not sound, its not soil its coco fibre,

 

My reasoning is sound, depending on your point of view this is also a thread about you wasting your money... but hey if you think you're on the right track and have found a magic bullet by putting that shit around your plants go your hardest, just be kind enough to post; how much money you waste = actual worthwhile results

[hermananian]

My reasoning is sound, depending on your point of view this is also a thread about you wasting your money... but hey if you think you're on the right track and have found a magic bullet by putting that shit around your plants go your hardest, just be kind enough to post; how much money you waste = actual worthwhile results

I will do that bufo I will post my results. This thread is not about money, you have made it about money!. How do you know its shit if you haven't used it ?? I use expanded clay on top of my pots which is not exactly cheap, around $25 for 20kg, diatoms .05cm to 1.5cm are $35 for 20kg not taking freight into account. Anyway money is not the issue, the issue for me, is whether diatomaceous earth on top of coco coir has benefits that make it an alternative to be used in conjunction with expanded clay. If anyone has got experience using the stuff it would be great to hear from them.

 

cheers Herman

Edited February 17, 2014 by hermananian

[Badseed77]

I found clayballs on coco does not work , infact i think gnates love it . They just climb down through the clay balls to your medium , creates lots of dark places for them to hide . All you have to do it move all the clay balls ontop of the medium and see the little fuckers fly out from it .

I personally I do not like using it but other have had good success using   builders sand .

[hermananian]

Hello everyone ... shame that company is so far away from WA .... ment to be great for chooks and keeping ants out of pots outdoors , my fruit tress are riddled with ants ........ 

link to a wa suppiler would be good....hehe ... I was just going to ask local stock feed to get some , I will have to see which way is cheaper or easier

 

Cheers Brimstond

Hi Brimstond,

 

They will use ego couriers which is about the cheapest courier you can get.  Its suposed to be good for ants which can be a pain in the arse, also termites. Anyway if you do get some please update the thread with your results.

Cheers Herman

[hermananian]

I found clayballs on coco does not work , infact i think gnates love it . They just climb down through the clay balls to your medium , creates lots of dark places for them to hide . All you have to do it move all the clay balls ontop of the medium and see the little fuckers fly out from it .

I personally I do not like using it but other have had good success using   builders sand .

Hi Badseed77

 

Thanks for the info I will try some builders sand. I have always had good results with clay balls on top but I know what you mean about it being a good hiding spot for them. I find if you let your pots dry out enough fungus gnats aren't really an issue. Builders sand would be much cheaper though !!

 

Cheers herman

[Frank Reynolds]

If you are living in such a humid environment, I would be focusing on adding more perlite to the mix making it drain better, and really watch your watering schedules. You can put whatever the fuck you want on top of the medium mate, it may slow gnats down, but if the media below is perfect for them (moist, rotting organic matter) then they will find a way in there imo. Work on getting rid of conditions they love imo, rather than just dumping stuff on top of your media.

 

As for silica, well I don't use hydro outside can't really comment, but indoors when I am mixing my nute solution silica brings it up a bit, but the nitrozyme I use drops the ph into the sweet zone for me, no changing ph

[bufo marinus]

You can put whatever the fuck you want on top of the medium mate, it may slow gnats down, but if the media below is perfect for them (moist, rotting organic matter) then they will find a way in there imo. Work on getting rid of conditions they love imo, rather than just dumping stuff on top of your media.

 

Frank gets where I'm coming from