Fungus Gnats in my New Philodendron
So I recently (23rd) bought a lemon lime philodendron from ACE hardware for like 6 bucks. So once I got home I quarantined it immediately and my plan was to wait till the soil dryed out more and then repot it (the soil was dripping wet when I bought it). However on the 25th I noticed it had fungus gnats 😒. Now I've never owned a philodendron before, so I figured it'd be best to ask, should I repot it immediately and dispose of the old soil and then spray it with insecticide (or some other gnat repellent), or should I keep it in its original pot and spray it? #pestcontrol #newplantmom #gregang fungusgnats">#fungusgnats
0ft to light, indirect
4” pot with drainage
Last watered 3 years ago
5
I'd say it depends on how bad the infestation is. If it seems like just a few are visible in the top soil I would scoop out the top inch of soil, treat the remaining soil with with mosquito bit tea at the next water day, and follow up with a systemic insecticide in the soil a few days later. If you pick up the cache pot and see them crawling all over the inside of the pot or out of the drainage hole in the inner pot I'd say dump the soil and repot now.
I wouldn't worry with insecticide. I would go ahead a just repot it. Wash off the plants and place it in some nice dry fresh soil. Cinnamon helps keep gnats away so you can mix it into the soil and put some on th top soil. Then just wait a few days before watering again and go about as normal just make sure your soil dries in a reasonable time.
Thanks to @KrunchyWrap and @didikillit for their help! I went with @KrunchyWraps plan because I didn't have mosquito bit tea on hand, but as I was repotting the plant, I found out that it was a bunch of propagations! I don't know if that's normal for buying plants from non-plantshops, but I think it's pretty interesting 🤔. I also put a sticky trap in there, just in case🤞.
@NiftyCentro it is definitely common to have many small plants in a pot in order to achieve a fuller look. Harold looks great in his new home!
@NiftyCentro you're very welcome! And remember cinnamon is a natural rooting hormone too so helps keep bacteria out so not infections, helps root, helps keep gnats away, and also smells nice 😊 my favorite thing about these plants are that they provide and basically are made up of no stop props and their props almost always do wonderfully. Congrats A