Can anyone tell me more about using diatomaceous earth as soil amendment? I’ve heard it’s beneficial for pests, but what does it do for my soil? Do any of you use it? I have a lot of it & thought I’d add it to my soil, what do you think?
@dolphinluvr it works pretty good as a soil amendment at 5-10% ratio. It conditions the soil, increases water retention, is a source of silica for your plants, and it helps prevent heat stress and helps plants recover from heat stress.
When used as a soil amendment it doesn’t really work against pests though.
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Thanks @MDBuds it is good for pests also, right? I’ve been using it for both. In my soil & dusting my girl with it. It seems to be working as preventative so far. Cross my fingers it works through harvesting. Can I use it through harvest? I assume i can, but not sure.
@dolphinluvr dusting with de is great for pests but I wouldn’t dust the plant with it during flower. Just the soil.
De isn’t toxic but it can cause lung irritation and breathing problems so you definitely don’t want to breathe it in or smoke it.
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Mask, glasses and gloves also use “food grade”! Dont put it on your flowers.
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Unless you got bugs or mold in your flowers, the only thing I would recommend is an organic nano micelle…leaves no residue and can be used in flower…
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I have used ‘food grade’ for the last few years as ant control.
It seems we live on their sacred burial grounds and current mega colony.
The theory is the ants crawl across the powder and it cuts their bodies up.
It is somewhat effective until it gets wet…then it’s an unsightly white paste.
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make a mixture - granola, oatmeal, grape jelly and Boric acid…a paste…use it to feed the ants, they carry back to the colony for feed and destroy themselves from within
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We can always count on Mike for a workaround.
Any specific ratios?
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I bet wood chips could be a good substitute for the oatmeal if you had a chainsaw and some woods…. 
I’m on an anthill here too. Had a couple of them kill off some of my hot peppers in the veggie garden. I’m going to give that a try!
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you just want to make a paste…the killer is the boric acid…the attraction is the sugar, protein, carbs. It should be crumbly in your fingers…make pea-marble sized units. It is an attractant so it will attract ants. Spread them out as bait stations anywhere you find an ant trail.
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Thanks all! I’ll make sure i don’t dust during flower. Only in soil. I already mistakenly breathed enough of it in. Hopefully not gonna have long term effects. 
Mask & gloves from now on.
I just did my first auto grow. Six OG Kush seeds from HGCC and they all sprouted and thrived. I have 10 more but can’t remember where I hid them. Harvested 3 so far, a few more days for the others. I used diatomaceous earth as both a soil amendment and also for pest control. I am in Florida growing outside during day, inside night, and I battled caterpillars, aphids, thrips and white flies. When I found the white flies one night, I was crunk and just covered the bottoms of my plants with DE, half way through flowering. A few nights later, there was a huge caterpillar eating leaves that were white from DE so I don’t think it works for them. I never had another bug on my plants after that though. The bottom popcorn buds on a couple plants still are covered with DE that stuck to them. Hopefully it won’t kill me when I smoke it.
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Don’t bother as a soil amendment. It is not used for that mainly. It is used to control bugs. You sprinkle on leaves and ground. The bug walk through it and is cut. Don’t breathe it in it will hurt your lungs
It actually is a good source of silica to be added to soilless/soil as an ammendment, plus it retains moisture in a variety of loose media. But if you use beneficial nematodes to control insect’s, you must choose either them or DE., because DE will kill off beneficial and harmful nematodes of the like without discrepancy.
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