kratos015
Well-Known Member
I've seen a handful of threads concerning Diatomaceous Earth and even a few replies in pest control topics that bring it up, but I never really see it discussed much on the organics section here. The main reason that I post this is because of the problem a lot of newcomers to organics experience, fungus gnats/aphids. I read a very eye opening thread on another forum about gnats/aphids that completely explains why organics were giving me bad yields. I'll detail this information below in further detail.
My goal for posting this is to ensure that newcomers to organics know about this 100% organic pest control that will ensure they have an awesome and pain-free organic experience the first time around! Not to say that I'm not a newcomer because I most definitely am! I've just made plenty of mistakes and would like to help others avoid the simple ones I've made in the past if at all possible.
Forgive me if something like this has already been posted, I just thought I'd give a try at giving back to the RIU community since the RIU community has got me to the point I'm at now!
Anyway, this is pretty much just gonna be about what Diatomaceous Earth is, how it works, and how we can use it. The next few paragraphs contain a bit of info about DE. I'm not posting all of these to seem like a knowitall, but I find that with organics it is vital to know exactly what you're dealing with. Due to the time invested in making the soil and growing the plants out, it is imperative that you don't add anything to your grow unless you know everything about whatever it is you're adding. Again, don't add a single thing to your organic grow at all until you fully understand everything about what you're adding. Forgive me for sounding condescending by saying that, but I don't want people to be as mindless as I was and think "organics, can't burn lol. 1 cup guano per 5 gallons water lolol" Needless to say, I was horrified after I actually did research on guanos and have since found alternatives to them. So if you don't really care how it works/already know then just skip on ahead to the part on how to apply it properly on the next post. Anyway 
Diatomaceous Earth (or DE for short) is the absolute perfect pest control for an organic set up, if combined with beneficial nematodes you shouldn't ever see pests, ever. The reason as to why DE is so amazing (especially for organics) is actually due to what it's made of and how it works.
Wikipedia defines DE as "a naturally occurring, soft, siliceous sedimentary rock that is easily crumbled into a fine white to off-white powder. So how exactly does DE work? Wiki puts it pretty concisely;
"due to its abrasive and physico-sorptive properties DE can be used as an insecticide. The fine powder absorbs lipids from the waxy outer layers of insects' exoskeletons, causing them to dehydrate. Anthropods die as a result of the water pressure deficiency. This also works against gastropods."
and
"DE is commonly used in lieu of boric acid, and can be used to help control and possibly eliminate bed bug, house dust mite, cockroach, ant, and flea infestations. Medical-grade DE is sometimes used to de-worm both animals and humans"
To explain it in a more awesome fashion, SpicySativa (who posts a ton of awesome information in here btw) replied to a topic about fungus gnats with the following;
"DE is affective against hard-bodied pests with exoskeletons. Gnat larvae are soft-bodied. Also, as mentioned, the DE needs to be dry and powdery so that it will coat the pests in dry DE dust when they walk over it. The dust actually scrapes and slices up the outer layer of the insects' exoskeletons, causing it to loose too much moisture, dehydrate, and die."
Notice the key word in the last few quotes, exoskeleton. DE will not work on anything that doesn't have an exoskeleton, however beneficial nematodes will take care of whatever DE doesn't. Oh yeah, and DE doesn't harm nematodes. Neat huh?
I've been having a big problem with fungus gnats or aphids in my soil, it tends to come with the territory
I don't know which one I have and quite frankly it doesn't matter to me because I don't want either! With DE aphids and gnats are nothing to worry about in the slightest. Now, some of you might be like I was a few months ago and think "they're just little tiny annoying bugs. I'll just let them do their thing and the plants will be fine." NO!! I've recently come across a wealth of information that proved just how wrong (and fucking stupid) I was! And, because everything I did for my current garden was when I had that state of mind, guess who's soil is infected? These bugs in particular are bad for various reasons to us organic growers.
1) The larvae need to eat something right? Well they eat a lot and it isn't the dirt they're eating, it's all the nutrients that you cooked for a month or more. And after that, it'll be your roots. All of the larvae devour your organic nutrients at a faster rate than the microbes in the soil can. Not only does this take food away from your beneficial microbes, but these asshole larvae will grow into flies that will lay a grip of eggs. One female can lay 200 eggs weekly according to Grizzly's Guide to Pulverizing Pests on here. Even with just 5 gnats they can lay up to 1000 eggs a week, when they hatch that'll turn into up to 200,000 (that would assume all 1000 are females, but you get what I mean). And that all started with 5 female gnats.
2) There's another negative side effect to the larvae eating your organic nutrients and that's the fact that these fuckers eat your roots! Grizzly puts it best when he says "These creatures infest root systems, damaging larger roots and consuming root hairs. This causes your plant to weaken, slow its growth, and fading in the foliage. These wounds to the roots make marijuana insanely vulnerable to several types of fungus. Maggots love dying plant matter and will only infest more heavily the more damaged your plant becomes." This takes us into reason #3
3) They cause diseases, which make your beneficial microbes suffer even more as well as your plants/roots. To add insult to injury, the larvae as well as harmful microbes love the environment these larvae are creating and will help to cause even more problems.
4) Symptoms of gnat/aphid infestation will resemble various symptoms of deficiencies. If there are leaves yellowing on you for no reason, you likely have aphids. Gnat infestation has similar symptoms to cal/mag deficiencies. This sucks because people like me see these "deficiencies" and start brewing the necessary teas or we break out the cal/mag. So not only are our poor plants suffering from the three things listed above, now we're accidentally over-fertilizing too!
As you can see, these bugs just got a lot more scary! This might explain why some people have been having the problems I've been having. You follow subcool's recipe EXACTLY, but you still get crap yields. That's because what you're seeing isn't a nutrient deficiency, your organic medium is infested with gnats and your roots have taken significant damage! This is why I'm posting a book right now, because when I stumbled upon all of this information everything all made sense. I WAS doing everything right, I just didn't know that I had a gnat problem! So how do we apply DE to take care of these freeloaders?
My goal for posting this is to ensure that newcomers to organics know about this 100% organic pest control that will ensure they have an awesome and pain-free organic experience the first time around! Not to say that I'm not a newcomer because I most definitely am! I've just made plenty of mistakes and would like to help others avoid the simple ones I've made in the past if at all possible.
Forgive me if something like this has already been posted, I just thought I'd give a try at giving back to the RIU community since the RIU community has got me to the point I'm at now!
Anyway, this is pretty much just gonna be about what Diatomaceous Earth is, how it works, and how we can use it. The next few paragraphs contain a bit of info about DE. I'm not posting all of these to seem like a knowitall, but I find that with organics it is vital to know exactly what you're dealing with. Due to the time invested in making the soil and growing the plants out, it is imperative that you don't add anything to your grow unless you know everything about whatever it is you're adding. Again, don't add a single thing to your organic grow at all until you fully understand everything about what you're adding. Forgive me for sounding condescending by saying that, but I don't want people to be as mindless as I was and think "organics, can't burn lol. 1 cup guano per 5 gallons water lolol" Needless to say, I was horrified after I actually did research on guanos and have since found alternatives to them. So if you don't really care how it works/already know then just skip on ahead to the part on how to apply it properly on the next post. Anyway Diatomaceous Earth (or DE for short) is the absolute perfect pest control for an organic set up, if combined with beneficial nematodes you shouldn't ever see pests, ever. The reason as to why DE is so amazing (especially for organics) is actually due to what it's made of and how it works.
Wikipedia defines DE as "a naturally occurring, soft, siliceous sedimentary rock that is easily crumbled into a fine white to off-white powder. So how exactly does DE work? Wiki puts it pretty concisely;
"due to its abrasive and physico-sorptive properties DE can be used as an insecticide. The fine powder absorbs lipids from the waxy outer layers of insects' exoskeletons, causing them to dehydrate. Anthropods die as a result of the water pressure deficiency. This also works against gastropods."
and
"DE is commonly used in lieu of boric acid, and can be used to help control and possibly eliminate bed bug, house dust mite, cockroach, ant, and flea infestations. Medical-grade DE is sometimes used to de-worm both animals and humans"
To explain it in a more awesome fashion, SpicySativa (who posts a ton of awesome information in here btw) replied to a topic about fungus gnats with the following;
"DE is affective against hard-bodied pests with exoskeletons. Gnat larvae are soft-bodied. Also, as mentioned, the DE needs to be dry and powdery so that it will coat the pests in dry DE dust when they walk over it. The dust actually scrapes and slices up the outer layer of the insects' exoskeletons, causing it to loose too much moisture, dehydrate, and die."
Notice the key word in the last few quotes, exoskeleton. DE will not work on anything that doesn't have an exoskeleton, however beneficial nematodes will take care of whatever DE doesn't. Oh yeah, and DE doesn't harm nematodes. Neat huh?
I've been having a big problem with fungus gnats or aphids in my soil, it tends to come with the territory
I don't know which one I have and quite frankly it doesn't matter to me because I don't want either! With DE aphids and gnats are nothing to worry about in the slightest. Now, some of you might be like I was a few months ago and think "they're just little tiny annoying bugs. I'll just let them do their thing and the plants will be fine." NO!! I've recently come across a wealth of information that proved just how wrong (and fucking stupid) I was! And, because everything I did for my current garden was when I had that state of mind, guess who's soil is infected? These bugs in particular are bad for various reasons to us organic growers.1) The larvae need to eat something right? Well they eat a lot and it isn't the dirt they're eating, it's all the nutrients that you cooked for a month or more. And after that, it'll be your roots. All of the larvae devour your organic nutrients at a faster rate than the microbes in the soil can. Not only does this take food away from your beneficial microbes, but these asshole larvae will grow into flies that will lay a grip of eggs. One female can lay 200 eggs weekly according to Grizzly's Guide to Pulverizing Pests on here. Even with just 5 gnats they can lay up to 1000 eggs a week, when they hatch that'll turn into up to 200,000 (that would assume all 1000 are females, but you get what I mean
). And that all started with 5 female gnats.2) There's another negative side effect to the larvae eating your organic nutrients and that's the fact that these fuckers eat your roots! Grizzly puts it best when he says "These creatures infest root systems, damaging larger roots and consuming root hairs. This causes your plant to weaken, slow its growth, and fading in the foliage. These wounds to the roots make marijuana insanely vulnerable to several types of fungus. Maggots love dying plant matter and will only infest more heavily the more damaged your plant becomes." This takes us into reason #3
3) They cause diseases, which make your beneficial microbes suffer even more as well as your plants/roots. To add insult to injury, the larvae as well as harmful microbes love the environment these larvae are creating and will help to cause even more problems.
4) Symptoms of gnat/aphid infestation will resemble various symptoms of deficiencies. If there are leaves yellowing on you for no reason, you likely have aphids. Gnat infestation has similar symptoms to cal/mag deficiencies. This sucks because people like me see these "deficiencies" and start brewing the necessary teas or we break out the cal/mag. So not only are our poor plants suffering from the three things listed above, now we're accidentally over-fertilizing too!
As you can see, these bugs just got a lot more scary! This might explain why some people have been having the problems I've been having. You follow subcool's recipe EXACTLY, but you still get crap yields. That's because what you're seeing isn't a nutrient deficiency, your organic medium is infested with gnats and your roots have taken significant damage! This is why I'm posting a book right now, because when I stumbled upon all of this information everything all made sense. I WAS doing everything right, I just didn't know that I had a gnat problem! So how do we apply DE to take care of these freeloaders?
