Nature and Gardening

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All things green, outdoors, and nature-y. Whether it's animals in their natural habitat, hiking trails and mountains, or planting a little garden for yourself (and everything in between), you can talk about it here.

See also our Environment community, which is focused on weather, climate, climate change, and stuff like that.

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Need some advice with chilis, (beehaw.org)

submitted 4 months ago by sleepybisexual@beehaw.org to c/greenspace@beehaw.org

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So, the bag is labeled as "peperone" and they are growing well, but when do I water them, I've been doing daily. Also, how do I get rid of flies, baby flies are hatching in my pot and I want them gone, I need an organic and affordable solution for that too.

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[–] LallyLuckFarm@beehaw.org 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Fungus gnats are extra annoying but something you can do in addition to watering a little less is to have some clean sand as a mulch over your potting mix paired with bottom watering your plants. I check my pots by feel on the bottom regularly to help inform when I water. For our inside plants and seeds I'm starting, I have a tray with ridges into which I can place the pots and some water. Seedling trays are widely available and a local greenhouse or nursery may have some headed for recycling rather than having to buy new plastic. If that same place does claim and mulches in bulk they may have sand that's suitable for short money since you only need a little bit.

By watering from the bottom, your potting mix will wick the water upwards through capillary action but the water will have difficulty moving into the sand because of the difference in texture and porosity and this will deprive the fungus gnats of the habitat they need to reproduce and continue to annoy you.

[–] sleepybisexual@beehaw.org 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I prolly should get some seed trays, are the shrooms harmful? I don't mind them

[–] LallyLuckFarm@beehaw.org 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Harmful? Probably not but I wouldn't eat them. What they are is an indicator of the mix being wetter than peppers generally appreciate, in my experience. I've spread winecap mushrooms throughout our space and they'll come up around some of the veg, but not around the peppers, which (ime) are happiest with damp-ish but not wet soil

[–] sleepybisexual@beehaw.org 1 points 4 months ago

Oh OK, so.the mushrooms are a bad sign