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Potential overwatering and concern about gnats. Hi! I just repotted… | Pests, diseases and problems | Planta-Community

Nix Nox

Potential overwatering and concern about gnats. Hi! I just repotted my plant, Cherri, for the first time since getting her. I know repotting in winter is risky but I could see her roots through the drainage holes and I could lift the entire plant and soil out of the pot. She was in a plastic starter pot from where I got her and is now in a glazed ceramic pot, 6 inches across, that has a hole on the botttom (shown in picture). I'm worried, though, as when I got my plants I also got potting soil - Organic Miracle Grow - and because it wasn't needed right away we put it in the garage for storage as our dog likes to get into EVERYTHING (except plants, which we find odd). It's been cold here, below freezing and typical severe midwest weather, so the soil was VERY cold... I have to sleep during the day and knew I wouldn't have time to do it this evening so I warmed some water for 15 seconds in the microwave and as I set up the soil into the new pot I mixed the soil with the water to warm it up as well as some of her original soil. I think I overwatered the soil but I didn't realize until Cherri was repotted so I spent about 15 minutes sitting there trying to soak up water through the drainage hole on the bottom, and I added some drier soil on top in hopes that would help. Another concern is gnats. I read online that organic matter isn't good, and my last plant who I tried to repot - Groot, the lucky bamboo, who moved from a water habitat to soil as a last resort because of root rot - had a bit of white mold(?) growing over where he died and around him, and we were noticing a few gnats around the house in the middle of a really bad winter which we found odd... and I'm worried they came from the soil which I used for Cherri. My questions are as such: did I do enough for the potential overwatering and should I just get new potting soil that was kept inside and repot again?

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  1. Eva

    Urgh, Miracle Grow compost has been the source of all of my gnat problems, then the same thing happened when my mum bought some. I use sticky traps in all my pots so I can see if a problem is forming, and I recently managed to clear my house of gnats by making traps with water, apple cider vinegar and a bit of a liquid probiotic I noticed they were swarming around, with cling film over the top and little holes so they could go in but not come back out. It took a couple weeks but it’s the first thing that’s got rid of them all for me. Then overwatering – if it’s one instance, I wouldn’t worry at all. I’ve regularly watered mine from the bottom and forgotten them sitting in water for hours and they haven’t shown any ill effect. What I’d be a little more concerned about is whether the soil has enough drainage, like maybe a little extra perlite. As long as the water is draining freely and the soil doesn’t seem sludgy, you’re probably fine!

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    • Nix Nox

      Thank you thank you!!!! Is the gnat issue a common problem with miracle grow?

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    • Eva

      There are enough issues that when my mum said she had gnats everywhere I knew to check if she’d bought Miracle Grow compost 😬 I’m sure other brands have their issues too, but I won’t touch Miracle Grow again and have started buying the slightly more expensive soils from House of Kojo (which is now owned by GrowTropicals) because I couldn’t handle not knowing if each repotting was going to kick off my gnat population again. The other thing you can do is microwave or bake soil in a hot oven to sterilise it before use. And I have sticky traps everywhere even when my plants don’t have gnats so that I get advance notice of an infestation starting and can immediately tell which pot(s) are the issue and quarantine them. Can you tell I’ve had a lot of gnat problems? 😂

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