Bugs in runoff!

vitalsine

vitalsine

Well-Known Member
Hey all, so I've made it to week 5 of flower without any bugs or issues, but tonight when feeding the girls I noticed a shitload of little white bugs in the runoff. Very small. Seemed like they were all dead for the most part, but I also noticed another type of bug moving around in the water. I think the little white ones are springtails, not sure about the others. Also very very small, hard to get a good picture even with my macro lens and microscope... You'll notice that I circled the bugs in question in a couple of the photos. That's the best I can get for a shot. No visible plant damage, or at least anything obvious. A few leaves here and there are starting to die or whatever, but only a few, not many. Any insight?

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Bukvičák

Bukvičák

Well-Known Member
Never seen something like this! Springtails are beneficial when they are not out of hand, this looks like a colonies of them. R U running organics?
 
vitalsine

vitalsine

Well-Known Member
Bukvičák said:
Never seen something like this! Springtails are beneficial when they are not out of hand, this looks like a colonies of them. R U running organics?
Click to expand...
Yes, I am running organics. In the tent in question I am running a mix of promix/perlite/coco, I lightly amended it, top feed from time to time when it needs a boost. For nutes I am feeding it FOOP. I hit it with microbes once a week, alternating between recharge and mammoth, plus I use SLF100 and Photosynthesis Plus. I also added some incredible bulk, an organic P-K charge that you do once at start of flower and then last three weeks. I use RO water, PHd to 6.5 after adding nutes, then I add microbes. For a while I was bubbling the nutes then adding microbes, but I think it might have been overkill, so I since have not been brewing. I have top fed a bit of basalt dust, EWC and Grean Bicycles Ocean Bounty. This is my first grow still, I wasn't aware that the nutes I was using were basically trash without some form of microbes in the soil, so I switched things up a bit when they seemed really hungry. My other tents are running straight SS that I amended with Grean Bicycles Ocean Forest and composted with their Happy Endings tea. Loving that so far. Anyway, just wanted to give a better rundown of what I am feeding etc.
 
vitalsine

vitalsine

Well-Known Member
Here is a quick video I just took so you can get a look at the tent. My flood table is a bit dirty from nutes and shit, but I always vacuum all of the runoff out immediately after watering, or after testing it. Sometimes there is a bit that collects in a tote under the table but I don't always vacuum that out. I usually get the tote once a week, it looks kinda funky but doesn't smell too bad and I don't even notice bugs down there. Turn on 4k to get a better look.

 
Bukvičák

Bukvičák

Well-Known Member
vitalsine said:
Yes, I am running organics. In the tent in question I am running a mix of promix/perlite/coco, I lightly amended it, top feed from time to time when it needs a boost. For nutes I am feeding it FOOP. I hit it with microbes once a week, alternating between recharge and mammoth, plus I use SLF100 and Photosynthesis Plus. I also added some incredible bulk, an organic P-K charge that you do once at start of flower and then last three weeks. I use RO water, PHd to 6.5 after adding nutes, then I add microbes. For a while I was bubbling the nutes then adding microbes, but I think it might have been overkill, so I since have not been brewing. I have top fed a bit of basalt dust, EWC and Grean Bicycles Ocean Bounty. This is my first grow still, I wasn't aware that the nutes I was using were basically trash without some form of microbes in the soil, so I switched things up a bit when they seemed really hungry. My other tents are running straight SS that I amended with Grean Bicycles Ocean Forest and composted with their Happy Endings tea. Loving that so far. Anyway, just wanted to give a better rundown of what I am feeding etc.
Click to expand...
I am not familiar to bio grow like this. It looks little bit like small version of no-til living soil what you have made. So by all of things you have added I would say these bugs wont do nothing bad to your plants. Plants look well dialed in and without signs of damage so probably nothing to worry about. Trying to getting rid of them can do more harm than good.
 
vitalsine

vitalsine

Well-Known Member
jondamon said:
The bugs you circled look similar to a form of mould mite

Tyrophagus putrescentiae
Click to expand...
Just looked into them, but I don't know where the mold is... if there is any. I also looked into soil microarthropods and they look very similar, and would make sense to have them since I have springtails. Going to keep a close eye on things. What's crazy is I can't find ANY bugs in my soil. I've searched all 6 pots with my microscope thing and there is not a single trace of bug activity. They must be living under the pots and eating some roots that are sticking out or something? I have no idea... going to keep searching tonight after I finish some work up.

Anyway, some things I've read says this means I have healthy soil. Hopefully my soil is just kick ass and I am overreacting lol.
 
vitalsine

vitalsine

Well-Known Member
I decided to dig a little deeper into the soil for my next sample. I think I found something. It seems as if these "microarthropods" are feeding on the grokashi that I top-dressed weeks ago, maybe even a month ago! I have since top dressed with Ocean Bounty/Compost/Basalt... and then added some straw, so the grokashi was pretty buried! I am feeling a little better now, I think these critters are just loving the soil. Video coming shortly... have to wait for a project to finish rendering so I can cut these videos up.
 
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