How to sterilize potting soil mix to avoid fungus gnats - Seed Starting Fundamentals

hello internet i'm curt from amazing herb garden and in this video i will show you how easy it is to sterilize your potting soil mix to avoid fungus nuts insects and other diseases killing your plants it is a great and necessary way to help nurture seedlings and delicate plants by removing pathogens and insects that potentially cause harm why do i suggest to sterilize spotting soil mix in the first place let's take a look what may happen if you don't sterilize your potting mix so basically what is the problem back starting mixes have components that come from outside and what happens is that there is a chance that insect eggs are laid on this soil and when they get into the bags there are no insects yet but there are eggs going with the components into the bags and that is the cause of the problem the problem is that fungus net x will see dry and dormant in potting soil mixes for a long time and this is typically what happens a lot with soil mixes with peat moss in it and when we use the mix we add water and you give the soil warmth and light and you end up with the eggs hatching and very often it are the fungus gnats eggs that hatch quickly here are some examples of insect plants that may be caused by unsterilized potting soil so why are these insects and especially fungus nets a problem female nets lay a couple of hundred eggs in the soil and it are these larva that caused most of the problems especially to young plants the fungus nets larvae primarily feed on organic material algae and soil fungus but when there is a high quantity of larva they require other food sources including roots and stem tissue they basically feed on your plants which creates wounds which open up the gateway to secondary infections and diseases seedlings and younger plants can die all the plants could stop growing causing the leaves to wilt in this color and uptake of water and nutritions will slow down the fungus nets larvae are relatively difficult to find in the soil mix or in the stem tissue of plants and when they feed on root hairs of newly planted crops cuttings or seedlings it is hard to tell that reductioning growth is caused by this little lara so we need to prevent these parasites from spawning by sterilizing the soil before use there's a couple of possibilities of killing the fungus gnats and their eggs some people bake their soil in the oven others like to steam the soil in a steam cooker or in the microwave but to avoid the need to have all this extra equipment i prefer the method of using hot boiling water in this video i will show you this easy process i use it every time i want to use fresh potting mix for a new plant or seed start prevention is far better than using pesticide sprays or other solutions or cures later on and i simply don't want insects in my potted plants and especially not indoors so how to sterilize a potting mix i've already prepared the amount of potting mix i need partially soil mix coming out of a bag i bought in the garden center and some perlites i boil water and i pour the boiling water on the soil the heat of the boiling water will kill any kind of insect eggs that are hidden in the soil mix next i mix it with a spoon to make sure that the insects the insect eggs are cooked and killed then i cover the soil with aluminum paper what i like to do after good mixing is to pack the earth down a bit just to make sure the heat remains in the earth longer so it can kill all the fungus eggs next i'll let the heat and steam do its job killing all eggs for at least 15 minutes then when the soil is starting to cool down i can distribute the soil into smaller pots with holes and i will let the hot water drain out of the pots and cool off slowly when the moisture level of the soil is good the soil is ready for sowing seeds or use for other plants two more tips or things i have learned that i want to share right now if there are fungus nets in the soil mix they will continue feeding on the fungus that grows from the decomposing organic materials such as wood this means that wood chips like these are terrible components for potting mixes and obviously never take soil from outdoors if you mix it through your soul and seed starting mixes you definitely get problems soil from outdoors are even more problematic with fungus insects diseases and molds and you don't want to import that into your indoor potting mixes so basically i do this i am soaking the potting mix in boiling water killing all the eggs for a while until it cools down and then i pour the liquid muddy soil into some big pots with holes to drain it and cool off then the potting mix is ready and perfect for seed starting and i promise you if you do this you are not going to get any problems with fungus gnats diseases or with insects now that i have shown you how i sterilize my seed starting mix a good follow-up video is this video where i actually start using the sterilized soil for healthy herbs and plants hope you enjoyed the video and that it makes sense to you it is really a good way to prevent any insects coming into your indoor seed starting mixes please also check out my blog at amazingherbgarden.com and also check out my other youtube videos

Channel: Amazing Herb Garden

Views: 11,232

Rating: 4.9240508 out of 5

Keywords: fungus gnats, plant disease and pests, gnats larvae, how to fertilise potting soil mix, amazingherbgarden, herb garden, herb gardening, gnats, fungus

Id: 0biky9lU_oE

Length: 5min 51sec (351 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 13 2020