Help with plants/gardening?!?

[kme3388]

I live in Minnesota which is humid in the summer. I just started getting into plants/gardening the past 2 years.

Problem 1, fruit flies. I’ve replanted all of my indoor plants. I use a watering globe, and I refill that each time it empties. I also do an all over watering the first of each month. I have fruit flies beyond my control.

Problem 2, one of my plants is growing mushrooms. I take them out, and they just grow back.

I just replanted all of my indoor plants 2 months ago with no improvement. Is this due to the humidity here? Any advice is appreciated.

Photos are attached below.

 

[chris-md]

So, those arent fruit flies, those are fungus gnats. You need to get rid of the watering globes. Those are not good practice for watering Indoor tropicals. Fungus gnats are a sure sign of too much water. And we all know mushrooms need an awful lot of moisture in order to grow. The watering globes is keeping your soil too wet.

Replacing the top 2 inches of soil will help with the fungus gnats, if not fully replacing. They lay eggs in the top layer when there is sufficient moisture to sustain the eggs. But until you correct your watering habits, they won’t fully disappear.

 

[kme3388]

So, those arent fruit flies, those are fungus gnats. You need to get rid of the watering globes. Those are not good practice for watering Indoor tropicals. Fungus gnats are a sure sign of too much water. And we all know mushrooms need an awful lot of moisture in order to grow. The watering globes is keeping your soil too wet.

Replacing the top 2 inches of soil will help with the fungus gnats, if not fully replacing. They lay eggs in the top layer when there is sufficient moisture to sustain the eggs. But until you correct your watering habits, they won’t fully disappear.

Thank you I will try this to see if it helps

 

[TaylorLincoln99]

I live in Minnesota which is humid in the summer. I just started getting into plants/gardening the past 2 years.

Problem 1, fruit flies. I’ve replanted all of my indoor plants. I use a watering globe, and I refill that each time it empties. I also do an all over watering the first of each month. I have fruit flies beyond my control.

Problem 2, one of my plants is growing mushrooms. I take them out, and they just grow back.

I just replanted all of my indoor plants 2 months ago with no improvement. Is this due to the humidity here? Any advice is appreciated.

Photos are attached below. View attachment 52990View attachment 52989

Hi! I would suggest you repot your plant and put clay marbles in the bottom of the planter. It will help regulate the moisture levels.

 

[kme3388]

Hi! I would suggest you repot your plant and put clay marbles in the bottom of the planter. It will help regulate the moisture levels.

Thank you, this is a neat idea just encase I do overwater. At least then I won’t have such a huge fly problem. That’s only one of my 8 plants that are just saturated in these flies.

 

[ravvlet]

Yes, I don’t water my indoor plants more than once a week - although my spider plant I sometimes use to dump the bird water bowls into if I’m in a hurry, LOL.

For orchids and tropicals that like it, I mist instead of water. My orchids I feed every other week and mist a couple times a week. For palms and other indoor tropicals I really try not to water more than a couple times a week. I also have succulents that I largely ignore until they’re bone dry.

The flies could also be from your garbage disposal or sink? That’s where we get them. Hate those guys; we haven’t gotten them yet but it’s a matter of time here!

 

[chris-md]

ravvlet - you’re describing shoreflies. The yellow sticky trap in the photo is a sure sign of fungus gnats hovering at soil level.

FYI misting doesn’t do anything for orchids (I’m former tropical horticulturist and orchidist). Unless they are mounted of course. Otherwise, the misting you provide them dispersed throughout your home very quickly - it doesn’t stay around the orchids. It’s nothing more than a feel good exercise that can leave hard water deposits on your leaves. It doesn’t harm anything but there is zero benefit.

Please don’t add clay balls (also called LECA - light expanded clay aggregate) to the bottom of your pot. If you have to do that, your problem isn’t watering, it’s over potting/using too large a pot for your plant.

 

[ravvlet]

ravvlet - you’re describing shoreflies. The yellow sticky trap in the photo is a sure sign of fungus gnats hovering at soil level.

Well, they’re awful, whatever they are.

FYI misting doesn’t do anything for orchids (I’m former tropical horticulturist and orchidist). Unless they are mounted of course. Otherwise, the misting you provide them dispersed throughout your home very quickly - it doesn’t stay around the orchids. It’s nothing more than a feel good exercise that can leave hard water deposits on your leaves. It doesn’t harm anything but there is zero benefit.

Booooo. I thought for sure I read that misting the roots and soil was better than watering. Not sure what I’m supposed to be doing then, but I’m not here to hijack the thread; apologies for going off topic.

 

[chris-md]

lol!!!

Agreed. I had to argue with a gigantic corporation about the fly situation. Simply put they didn’t know what they were talking about and we prove them wrong.

Totally agree about reading stuff online. What you’ll find is that, just like information about parrots there is a lot of misinformation on orchids, especially surrounding things like misting. The correct answer here is you continue to do whatever makes you successful. Just understand that if the only thing you’re doing is misting your leaves you are in the .005% of successful growers treating their plants in such a way. Which means advising others to treat theirs the same way sets them up for failure.

 

[ravvlet]

lol!!!

Agreed. I had to argue with a gigantic corporation about the fly situation. Simply put they didn’t know what they were talking about and we prove them wrong.

Totally agree about reading stuff online. What you’ll find is that, just like information about parrots there is a lot of misinformation on orchids, especially surrounding things like misting. The correct answer here is you continue to do whatever makes you successful. Just understand that if the only thing you’re doing is misting your leaves you are in the .005% of successful growers treating their plants in such a way. Which means advising others to treat theirs the same way sets them up for failure.

Back to Googling, or maybe I’ll just buy a book… I only have an assortment of them because I take pity on the ones the grocery store keeps putting on clearance. I should probably instead stop anthropomorphizing plants.

I hope you can get rid of the flies and sort things out, kme!

 

[DonnaBudgie]

So, those arent fruit flies, those are fungus gnats. You need to get rid of the watering globes. Those are not good practice for watering Indoor tropicals. Fungus gnats are a sure sign of too much water. And we all know mushrooms need an awful lot of moisture in order to grow. The watering globes is keeping your soil too wet.

Replacing the top 2 inches of soil will help with the fungus gnats, if not fully replacing. They lay eggs in the top layer when there is sufficient moisture to sustain the eggs. But until you correct your watering habits, they won’t fully disappear.

You should purchase a soil moisture meter, available at Home Depot, Lowes, etc. for about $15. These electronic devices have a probe (usually two probes, one for moisture and one for pH) that you insert deep into the soil and the scale tells you how dry/wet your soil is. They make it easy to determine when your plants need watering without having to stick your finger in the soil.

 

[kme3388]

I even have these flies in my cactuses that are bone dry.

I was told they only need a shot glass of water monthly. These flies must spread easily.

 

[chris-md]

They can spread like wildfire. So I’m not sure what you’re growing area is like but if one or two plants are properly infected, and they are nearby, it’s entirely possible those are all simply migrants flying about and not actually successfully living in your succulents. I’ve never seen succulents infected.

That last photo, the Madagascar palm, that wants far more water. They can actually be water hogs relative to other succulents. Do keep in mind there is a difference between cactus and succulents. Succulents can’t all dry out like cacti can. Some tolerate it better than others, but generally don’t want to be straight bone dry.

Also, did you use cactus soil for those succulents, or regular potting soil?

 

[chris-md]

Back to Googling, or maybe I’ll just buy a book… I only have an assortment of them because I take pity on the ones the grocery store keeps putting on clearance. I should probably instead stop anthropomorphizing plants

Join an orchid forum, or a Facebook group like the American Orchid Society group. Lots of great knowledgeable people willing to share their knowledge and experience, just like here.

 

[kme3388]

They can spread like wildfire. So I’m not sure what you’re growing area is like but if one or two plants are properly infected, and they are nearby, it’s entirely possible those are all simply migrants flying about and not actually successfully living in your succulents. I’ve never seen succulents infected.

That last photo, the Madagascar palm, that wants far more water. They can actually be water hogs relative to other succulents. Do keep in mind there is a difference between cactus and succulents. Succulents can’t all dry out like cacti can. Some tolerate it better than others, but generally don’t want to be straight bone dry.

Also, did you use cactus soil for those succulents, or regular potting soil?

Yes, when I was in AZ the guy who sold me the cactus’s told me I have to use the cactus soil on both the succulents, and cactuses.

The flys started on the plant that I originally posted about. Those traps on that plant fill up every other day. Now all of my plants in my house have them.

The cactuses are probably about 6 inches apart, but the other plants are about 12 ft apart.

I can’t figure out what I’ve done wrong. These flies honestly gross me out. I am fairly bummed out as my hobby has been ruined by these flies.

 

[kme3388]

This is the plant that these flies started in. I didn’t add cactus soil to this. I think it’s a palm of some sort. I’ve had it for 10 years.

 

[chris-md]

that’s a dracaena, Dracaena massangiana, also called a mass cane or corn plant.

This has overwatering written all over it. The gnats, the yellowing leaves.

The pot is problematic. First, it’s too big for the plant, it’s over potted. Overpotting leads to overwatering because the volume of soil retaining water that isn’t being sucked up by the plant or evaporated.

Also, Does that pot drain? It looks more like a decorative container with no drain hole at the bottom.

 

[kme3388]

that’s a dracaena, Dracaena massangiana, also called a mass cane or corn plant.

This has overwatering written all over it. The gnats, the yellowing leaves.

The pot is problematic. First, it’s too big for the plant, it’s over potted. Overpotting leads to overwatering because the volume of soil retaining water that isn’t being sucked up by the plant or evaporated.

Also, Does that pot drain? It looks more like a decorative container with no drain hole at the bottom.

Yes, it does have a drain hole. I bought a bunch of ceramic pots this year (a few are plastic). I painted them to get them to match my house. I did have a watering globe in that plant. I took it out yesterday after you had mentioned the overwatering.