Alternatives for Top Soil?

[AZJ0SH]

So the "organic" soil I purchased ended up being infested with gnats and was generally poor quality soil that did not absorb water and just flooded out at the bottom, the soil turned to muck after 3-4 weeks.

I have some "sterlized" soil now but was wondering if I could do a layer of sand or moss on top of the toil to help with gnats, and to help keep it from draining out so quickly.

Thanks.

 

[Carlton]

So the "organic" soil I purchased ended up being infested with gnats and was generally poor quality soil that did not absorb water and just flooded out at the bottom, the soil turned to muck after 3-4 weeks.

I have some "sterlized" soil now but was wondering if I could do a layer of sand or moss on top of the toil to help with gnats, and to help keep it from draining out so quickly.

Thanks.

Is this supposedly for potting your cage plants or cage substrate? Generally we don't suggest substrates in their cages for several reasons...the swampy muck you just mentioned, the impaction risk, chronic bacteria, mold and fungus problems.

If for your live plants, the sterilized soil would help (won't be bringing in fungus gnat eggs anyway), but you'll still need to manage the water in the pots. The organic stuff you tried may have had a high peatmoss content. Once peatmoss dries out it can really resist absorbing water. The gnats thrive in overly wet soil where fungi grow. There will always be a few gnats around so life with chams means you won't get rid of them all. If you start seeing a lot of them you'll just have to re-pot your plants to get rid of their eggs. Moss won't block the gnats, in fact it might encourage them. Sand will cause problems for your plants...it is heavy and reduces soil aeration leading to rot. To avoid a huge gnat infestation you need to keep the soil draining well. Put some clay pot chunks or larger gravel in the bottom of the pots to allow drainage. Use a soil mix without perlite, but you can easily create a layer of fast draining soil by adding a layer of clean perlite about mid way down in the pot. Don't use pot saucers.

 

[EvilLost]

Yes I am a little confused as well...


if you are keeping him in a glass cage/aquarium that alone is a big nono (unless its a pygmy) and in that case you should NOT be using top soil at alL!!!

you need to make a false bottom or drainage layer and use a well draining mix ...check out dendroboard.com if you need more info on making an enclosed tropical viv

but again, unless you have pygmys you should not be doing that anyway!

 

[AZJ0SH]

I never said I was keeping him in a glass enclosure?

The problem is the soil in the plant that is is in his cage sucks, and I need to replace it with better soil and some sort of top soil that absorbs water better.

I am looking into Perlite as mentioned above, and I added a layer of rocks at the bottom for better drainage.

 

[clarkrw3]

I have had some similar problems in AZ. I have poured soapy water in the pot, replaced the top 1/2" with sand, added large rock to the bottom 2" of the pot and this last time I mixed in a few water crystal in the organic dirt before potting. Nothing has totally gotten rid of the nat problem. I am not sure the water crystals was a good idea but wanted something that would hold and release water. Now I have a MOUNDING potted plant LOL Good luck and if you fix the problem let me know what you did