Root Aphids INSIDE My Germinating Seed.

An1m0ssity

An1m0ssity

Active Member
So I'm on my very first grow. Just decided to grow out a few bag seeds. Only 1 turned out to be female and she's looking beautiful. In her 3rd week of flower and starting to smell gorgeous. I decided to germinate a couple more seeds I had saved. Went with the volcano shape since I've read everywhere that they're most likely female and looking at pictures of feminized seeds, they all have that volcano look. Anyway, I decided to germinate 2 more seeds just to get them started. I did the old put them in some distilled water for 24 hours or until they sank method and then dropped them in soil, just like I did with the other seeds. Now, for the soil I got Happy Frog because I saw a considerable amount of growers with years of experience say it's actually pretty decent soil, and of course the price wasn't arguable at all. Though, I did see the main complaint was that quite a few had problems with drainage. I haven't encountered that problem as of yet. If I should, I'll just add some perlite. Moving on... it had been about 4 days or so and they still hadn't broke surface yet. So, being curious *I know it's not good to do this and I don't recommend it unless you suspect something is wrong* I decided to dig out the 2 seeds to see what was going on. One of the seeds wasn't doing anything but I noticed it was slightly popped open, so I stuck it back in the soil and covered it up with some light water to seal it off a bit. Now here's where it gets interesting. I started to dig the 2nd seed out *noticed the soil was a little compact*, moving the soil around. Upon inspecting the seed, I noticed it was a bit cracked open like the first seed but had a little white thing sticking out of it, so I was like okay cool it's starting to take root. Then as I inspected it a bit further, that little white thing.... started moving back into the seed. I was totally blown away. I was like okay, wtf was that?? So I pulled out an aluminum pie pan I have *I use it for drainage of my seedlings* and put the seed in it and started to inspect even more. Upon cracking the seed open I saw probably 20-30 little white critters just moving around, and the inside of the seed was pretty much mush at this point. So I grabbed my jewelers loupe and took a peek and sure enough, they were just moving around. At this point I started scratching my head and body because jesus... they made my skin crawl. I did a bit of research and saw that they look very identical to root aphids. So my question is, should I be worried that seed could have possibly contaminated my grow tent, compromising my budding beauty? Was it in the soil itself? Do root aphids lay eggs inside seeds and maybe they were already in that seed before planting it? I'm at a loss right now. I have no idea how the hell they even got in there unless they were in the soil. Doing a bit of research I saw that there were some people saying that Happy Frog soil was contaminated with root aphids. Any feedback is greatly appreciated as I really don't wanna have to start from scratch.
 
M

Mitchician

Well-Known Member
I just wanna say that here in NZ I've found root aphids in bags of potting mix before, and I would assume your ones came in the bag, and since the radicle inside that seed was the closest thing to a root in the pot, they probably all 'smelled' it or something then infiltrated it 'cos they hungry.
Not sure why they other one hasn't been attacked though, you'd imagine they'd be pretty evenly dispersed throughout the bag..
I'd also like to say I really enjoy the way you wrote all that you seem to be a bit of a storyteller (in a good way). Cheers.
 
An1m0ssity

An1m0ssity

Active Member
Mitchician said:
I just wanna say that here in NZ I've found root aphids in bags of potting mix before, and I would assume your ones came in the bag, and since the radicle inside that seed was the closest thing to a root in there, they probably all 'smelled' it or something then infiltrated it 'cos they hungry.
I'd also like to say I really enjoy the way you wrote all that you seem to be a bit of a storyteller (in a good way). Cheers.
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Lol thanks man. I like to be as descriptive as possible. The Happy Frog soil was in a bag when it arrived, yes. Is this cause for concern or am I screwed? Also, thanks for the fast response!
 
M

Mitchician

Well-Known Member
It can be a pain in the ass, my ones kind of went away for a while and I thought they were gone, but now I think they just went dormant over winter because now the weather's warming up again they've come back with a vengeance and now they've got wings like mini fungus gnats. Should probably get into them before they get away on you like they did to me. Sorry can't help with preventative I haven't even looked into it myself I was just gonna scrap all my coco after this run and start with a fresh brick.
 
An1m0ssity

An1m0ssity

Active Member
Mitchician said:
It can be a pain in the ass, my ones kind of went away for a while and I thought they were gone, but now I think they just went dormant over winter because now the weather's warming up again they've come back with a vengeance and now they've got wings like mini fungus gnats. Should probably get into them before they get away on you like they did to me. Sorry can't help with preventative I haven't even looked into it myself I was just gonna scrap all my coco after this run and start with a fresh brick.
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Well damn. I haven't noticed anything with my budding lady as of yet, but tomorrow after I get home from work I'm gonna do a thorough search on her as well as the top part of the soil and see if I notice anymore. Doing a bit of research here, I see I can use ladybugs to get rid of most pests. I might just buy some from amazon and release them in my tent for about a week. According to my research, they even burrow down into the soil a bit to search for pests like aphids, so that might be something you too could look into as well. Cheers man.
 
M

Mitchician

Well-Known Member
I think you'll be better off with some kind of soil drench or something because there'll be thousands and ladybugs surely wouldn't be able to find and eat them faster than they can breed. Good luck buddy.
 
Nizza

Nizza

Well-Known Member
yeah lol I've read books that even use microwaves to sterilize their soil. I use happy frog for germing seedlings and havent had this issue yet .. But I did have a bunch of slugs in my bag once and one of the slugs killed a seed sprout. It was around the base of the seedling and I tried to take it off and it ripped the thing in half.
If this is a huge concern sterilize the soil in the oven or in a microwave or with the compost process
 
Frank Nitty

Frank Nitty

Well-Known Member
An1m0ssity said:
So I'm on my very first grow. Just decided to grow out a few bag seeds. Only 1 turned out to be female and she's looking beautiful. In her 3rd week of flower and starting to smell gorgeous. I decided to germinate a couple more seeds I had saved. Went with the volcano shape since I've read everywhere that they're most likely female and looking at pictures of feminized seeds, they all have that volcano look. Anyway, I decided to germinate 2 more seeds just to get them started. I did the old put them in some distilled water for 24 hours or until they sank method and then dropped them in soil, just like I did with the other seeds. Now, for the soil I got Happy Frog because I saw a considerable amount of growers with years of experience say it's actually pretty decent soil, and of course the price wasn't arguable at all. Though, I did see the main complaint was that quite a few had problems with drainage. I haven't encountered that problem as of yet. If I should, I'll just add some perlite. Moving on... it had been about 4 days or so and they still hadn't broke surface yet. So, being curious *I know it's not good to do this and I don't recommend it unless you suspect something is wrong* I decided to dig out the 2 seeds to see what was going on. One of the seeds wasn't doing anything but I noticed it was slightly popped open, so I stuck it back in the soil and covered it up with some light water to seal it off a bit. Now here's where it gets interesting. I started to dig the 2nd seed out *noticed the soil was a little compact*, moving the soil around. Upon inspecting the seed, I noticed it was a bit cracked open like the first seed but had a little white thing sticking out of it, so I was like okay cool it's starting to take root. Then as I inspected it a bit further, that little white thing.... started moving back into the seed. I was totally blown away. I was like okay, wtf was that?? So I pulled out an aluminum pie pan I have *I use it for drainage of my seedlings* and put the seed in it and started to inspect even more. Upon cracking the seed open I saw probably 20-30 little white critters just moving around, and the inside of the seed was pretty much mush at this point. So I grabbed my jewelers loupe and took a peek and sure enough, they were just moving around. At this point I started scratching my head and body because jesus... they made my skin crawl. I did a bit of research and saw that they look very identical to root aphids. So my question is, should I be worried that seed could have possibly contaminated my grow tent, compromising my budding beauty? Was it in the soil itself? Do root aphids lay eggs inside seeds and maybe they were already in that seed before planting it? I'm at a loss right now. I have no idea how the hell they even got in there unless they were in the soil. Doing a bit of research I saw that there were some people saying that Happy Frog soil was contaminated with root aphids. Any feedback is greatly appreciated as I really don't wanna have to start from scratch.
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Damn... That sucks... To go from hearing good things about something and trying it,then to turn around and hear bad things is surely frustrating...
 
M

m99smith

Well-Known Member
An1m0ssity said:
Lol thanks man. I like to be as descriptive as possible. The Happy Frog soil was in a bag when it arrived, yes. Is this cause for concern or am I screwed? Also, thanks for the fast response!
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That's why it's always good to flush your soil befor you use it with some sort of organic pest killer
 
An1m0ssity

An1m0ssity

Active Member
Thanks everyone for the replies. Being my first grow, and indoors *in the dead of winter at that*, I didn't even consider pests to be something to worry about nor did I think it could happen so easily. Upon doing further research, I think what I'm going to do is either buy some live beneficial nematodes *30 million or so*, or make a hydrogen peroxide blend and drench the soil with it as well as make a diluted foliar spray. I'll probably try the peroxide mixture first. I know I have to be super careful though as hydrogen peroxide can damage the root system. I really hope it works because I don't want my first grow experience to be like this. Although, I can only learn through failure, so this is a learning experience for me and I will DEFINITELY make sure to pre treat for pests upon buying new soil before even considering dropping seeds in it. I'll be trying the potato trick that Renfro mentioned to see what happens and get back to everyone upon my findings. Cheers!
 
Frank Nitty

Frank Nitty

Well-Known Member
An1m0ssity said:
Thanks everyone for the replies. Being my first grow, and indoors *in the dead of winter at that*, I didn't even consider pests to be something to worry about nor did I think it could happen so easily. Upon doing further research, I think what I'm going to do is either buy some live beneficial nematodes *30 million or so*, or make a hydrogen peroxide blend and drench the soil with it as well as make a diluted foliar spray. I'll probably try the peroxide mixture first. I know I have to be super careful though as hydrogen peroxide can damage the root system. I really hope it works because I don't want my first grow experience to be like this. Although, I can only learn through failure, so this is a learning experience for me and I will DEFINITELY make sure to pre treat for pests upon buying new soil before even considering dropping seeds in it. I'll be trying the potato trick that Renfro mentioned to see what happens and get back to everyone upon my findings. Cheers!
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Good luck grow bro!!!
 
An1m0ssity

An1m0ssity

Active Member
Renfro said:
I've heard of people tossing a chunk of peeled potato on the soil for several hours before using it to attract bugs so you can see if there are any bugs in it.
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So I did the potato trick you mentioned *I used sweet potatoes*, and sure as shit they're all over the potatoes. At this point I'm starting to panic. I've been sitting here for the past hour researching mites and aphids and anything to do with fox farm soil. Upon my findings, I see that everyone is saying that FF deliberately puts soil mites into their soil to combat fungus gnat larvae? When I went to use my jewelers loupe to inspect a piece of potato, I did see what appeared to be two little worm like things on it, as well as the little mite buggers. Could that be in fact what they are? Just soil mites? If that should be the case, maybe I should leave them in there? If it's something they added to the soil to combat those fungus gnat f*ckers, I don't wanna kill them as I'd rather have soil mites then fungus gnats. Or should I just say screw it and buy beneficial nematodes to just eat everything? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I0ZUGLK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 My mother doesn't show any signs of damage or anything and upon inspection, I see nothing on or under the leaves nor on the stem... so it leads me to believe they are in fact soil mites.
 
T

Terpenoid

Active Member
Fox farms does come with predatory mites and they will feed on decomposing matter in the absence of prey. If your seed maybe died for some reason that would probably explain you finding them in there. But I don't think they ever look like worms in their life cycle so that could be something else. I use fox farms ocean forest and do notice these mites seem really comfortable chilling on my seedlings, but once a couple leaf sets come out they pretty much stay off
 
An1m0ssity

An1m0ssity

Active Member
Terpenoid said:
Fox farms does come with predatory mites and they will feed on decomposing matter in the absence of prey. If your seed maybe died for some reason that would probably explain you finding them in there. But I don't think they ever look like worms in their life cycle so that could be something else. I use fox farms ocean forest and do notice these mites seem really comfortable chilling on my seedlings, but once a couple leaf sets come out they pretty much stay off
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Okay, so then they're probably just soil mites or something and nothing to really panic over? Like I said, I noticed that they were only in the 1 seed and the other seed was perfectly fine and healthy, so maybe that's in fact what they were doing. Maybe that 1 seed was in fact a dud and died so they smelled it and just went for it.
 
T

Terpenoid

Active Member
Without seeing them I couldn't say for sure but they're always running around in the top inch of the soil. If your mother plant is using the same soil and your not seeing any damage you might be just fine. Poke around the top inch of soil in your mother plant and see if you can find any there. Sometimes it can harder to find them around in a more established pot though
 
An1m0ssity

An1m0ssity

Active Member
Terpenoid said:
Without seeing them I couldn't say for sure but they're always running around in the top inch of the soil. If your mother plant is using the same soil and your not seeing any damage you might be just fine. Poke around the top inch of soil in your mother plant and see if you can find any there. Sometimes it can harder to find them around in a more established pot though
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Clumpyoyster said:
All I’m gonna say. Promix HP. Canadian tire. 40 bucks for 60L. Lots of perlite in it. Great soil. Fresh usually as well.
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I've taken the liberty of contacting FF directly about the issue, so fingers crossed. Upon searching my lady, I did notice the little buggers in the soil there as well, but no damage whatsoever and nothing on the stems. One thing I did notice, and I was completely blown away and seriously grossed out both at the same time.... I was inspecting the pot *cloth smart pot* and I noticed some little "white hairs" poking out of the pot towards the bottom. I lifted it up and sure as shit, there were fungus gnat larvae squirming in the bottom and going back into the pot through the fabric. Not only do I have these little mite buggers but I have worms too. I made a 1 part peroxide to 4 parts water mix and sprayed the f*ck out of the floor in the whole tent and made sure to even make a good thick puddle underneath where the pot usually sits and just sat the pot in it and let the fabric absorb the mixture. I even sprayed the outside of the pot all the way around as well as the plant and top layer of soil just in case. I waited about 2 minutes and looked under the pot again and the ones that were still on the outside of the pot were no longer moving so the peroxide does in fact kill them pretty much on contact. Not really sure what to do at this point though as even if they are soil mites, they should be fired because they're f*cking slacking on their job. I've made an apple cider vinegar/dish soap mixture in a small bottle with tiny holes in the lid in an attempt to catch any adults lurking about, should there be any. I've got a war on my hands, boys... but I'm not goin down without a fight. LMAO. Also, thanks for the tip on that soil, bud. I'll be taking a look at that next grow. I see now that much like my love for electronics, spending money where it's due is better in the long run. Sucks I didn't see that sooner but ey, gotta fail to learn. I'll keep everyone updated. Cheers!
 
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