use/misuse of de

Bengfan

Active Member
Hello all. I am new so thanks for having me. Also, I am a fairly new grower so I believe I made a stupid mistake that requires some help. You see, I had an insect problem. Hearing of the benefits of de for years I decided to give it a try(I was using neem oil and insecticidal soap from Garden Safe before using de). So, I purchase 100% food grade de, apply a 1" layer to top of soil and let it be. My problem arises upon my next water when I watered right over top of the de and I believe it has "caked" my soil to the point of very little runoff. I have raked the top of soil and poked bamboo sticks through to the bottom moving in a circular motion but think the problem is still present. I am two weeks into flower with a Wonder Woman strain. I am using 5 gallon pots with drain holes and lots of extra holes drilled into side of pots. I am using a mixture of ffof and ffhf with about 30% extra perlite. Mars 120 pro ll led, 24'x48'x70' tent with intake and exhaust(190 cfm), Go nutes and ro water. Sorry I cannot take pics at this time but please help!
P.s. Please excuse if I did this wrong.
 

Bear420

Well-Known Member
Diatomaceous Earth Shouldn't really do that, Not sure Why maybe you used to much.
Sounds like you're going in the right direction you have plenty of holes you your pots so the water should drain Okay, Just don't over water them, Sometimes it's hard to absorb water if there's to much in the soil. are the pot heavy or light when your watering ? It's better to be dryer than to moist. I think you should be alright.

I know people won't do this here but I had bugs (Mites) one time in many years of this and I Used a Pest Strip called Hot Shot and it worked and killed every bug in my room and worked well, Just Read the Precautions on the package, Don't stay in your room for more than 3 to 5 hours with those in your room it's not spraying anything it just sat on the floor, I would put mine in a 1lb baggie when I worked in the room and left it in for about a week killed every bug and did not affect my end Product well at least not in anyway I could tell. You can rinse before you harvest if you want.

Good Luck hope all works out for you.
 

Bengfan

Active Member
Hey Bear420. Thank you!! I have been watering when pots are light in weight and soil dry to second knuckle. I thought about pest "bombing" my entire grow room after harvest as a future preventative measure but will look into those Hot Shot pest strips also. Thanks again buddy!
 

Bengfan

Active Member
Hey Bear420, I forgot to mention last night I watered with yucca for the first time and I think just the one time has loosened the soil a bit. I gave her 1 gal. of ro water with 1/16 tsp. raw yucca extract and 5ml calmg+. Inlet ph was 6.4 and runoff was 6.6. Runoff ppm was 1030. Runoff of both may be a little high, but at least I got runoff and those are numbers I can work with!!
 
Top