Fruit Flies/Soil Gnats

I recently started growing wheatgrass in my living room (only place with good light) and have had some success. I was trying to plan out my sprouting, planting and growing cycles to keep myself supplied with 1-1/2 to 2 ounces of wheatgrass juice a day. After 6-7 trays I thought I had a workable system, then trouble started, fruit flies or soil gnats. They’re brown with red eyes (more like fruit flies than soil gnats) and went from none to a lot rather quickly. They were mostly annoying and the vinegar/cone traps I learned about were getting a lot of them but then I noticed patchy spots in my wheatgrass trays. A tray would only yield about 1/2 to 1/3rd the amount of grass, the rest was dead.

When I flipped a tray to dump the soil I noticed there wasn’t the root structure that I was used to, I could barely see any roots. From some research I discovered that it wasn’t the flies/gnats that are the problem, it’s the larvae that hatch from the eggs they lay. They eat the plant roots. I assume that the local organic top soil I was using had dormant eggs in it and they were eating the young sprouted seeds roots. I called the company and they said that with all the wind we’d been having that it wouldn’t surprise them that there were fruit flies in the soil.

So I bought new soil, potting soil this time, and got healthy plants again, but the flies were still in abundance. They’d land on the plants and even get into the trays right after I planted the sprouted seeds, lay eggs and the larvae would start eating the roots. Not as bad as with the previous soil as I got a good yield without the patches. When I flipped the harvested plants over they still had a good root structure but I could see colonies of larvae infestations where they were destroying the roots — looked like an aerial of big city’s highway system.

The advantage to the new soil was that the eggs were laid after the seeds had sprouted so by the time they hatched into the larvae the roots were already established. So while they could still damage the roots, the plants were just about ready to be harvested, so the yield was fine again. Disadvantage was that I had a house filled with the flies/gnats (and vinegar smell from the traps) and they were now getting into my sprouting jars laying eggs there destroying the sprouts. I moved the plants outside but in the summer in Phoenix, AZ that’s not going to work. So I stopped growing them for now. Figured I’d wait a few weeks to give the flies time to go away and die off.

I read everything I could find but there seems to be no real cure/preventative for these critters other than having fans blowing on the plants to keep the flies off of them, doesn’t keep them out of the freshly planted trays though and it’s the larvae, not the flies that’s the problem. Any suggestions?

I have some photos that I’ll add to this thread once I’m allowed to post them.

Iv'e same problem I think, iv'small brown flies don't see any red eyes though on the wheatgrass... it's most annoying, has anyone had the same problem and found a solution?

I've aforementioned botheration I think, i accept baby amber flies don't see any red eyes admitting on the aureate grass... it's a lot of annoying, has anyone had the aforementioned botheration and begin a solution?

__________________
web design companies

FreetryDurb <a href=kuygkyudu.com>jufufduy</a> frerseLug