Cinnamon for Gnats
Hi I'm new to this forum and gardening... Ive been dealing with gnats as well( Miracle grow ) lol I'm growing herbs and tomatoes on my patio. I am trying to remain organic and was very pleased to see this cinnamon solution. My question though is something no one has answered anywhere that I can see. If I sprinkle cinnamon on my soil will it have any effect on my veggies and herbs? Will it kill them or weaken growth. Right now I'm drying my soil out to try and get rid of some of them (one tip I read from someone) but I'm anxious to try the cinnamon.. I was planning on sprinkling cinnamon on all the soil to try and treat it before I begin planting. I am ready to repot some tomatoes and don't want to ruin what I got left. I'm not having very much luck with finding a good organic soil either if anyone has any suggestions... THANK YOU.
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
Sprinkling cinnamon on the soil (in reasonable quantities, don't get into more is better) will not harm your plants. However, if the cinnamon gets sprinkled directly on the plants, it can burn the leaves. It still doesn't really harm the plant, just the leaves it touches.
The only place I have trouble with fungus gnats is starting seedlings indoors - that's a perfect environment for them, basement, limited air circulation, keeping the soil moist all the time to keep from drying the baby seedlings out. So for my seedling operation, I just put a little bit of cinnamon in the water I water with. Since I only water from the bottom, this makes sure that none gets on the leaves and it gets it to the area of the roots which is where the fungus gnat larvae would be.
The only place I have trouble with fungus gnats is starting seedlings indoors - that's a perfect environment for them, basement, limited air circulation, keeping the soil moist all the time to keep from drying the baby seedlings out. So for my seedling operation, I just put a little bit of cinnamon in the water I water with. Since I only water from the bottom, this makes sure that none gets on the leaves and it gets it to the area of the roots which is where the fungus gnat larvae would be.