Sooo my cilantro is “floppy”. The stems are thin and leggy. Reaching for the sky. Heh. Neem for fungus gnats. Mistake with sunflower microgreens?
My Wise Gardening friend advised me to turn the pot so that they straighten up; I did that, and we’ll see.
I asked her then about the tiny bugs I see intermittently flying around right over the soil here and there. I mentioned that there was no sign of them on the plants, just the soil.
She said they’re probably fungus gnats. Normal, but not desirable; they’ll get in your face.
I asked how she might recommend getting rid of them, and she said there are several (natural) ways; neem will do the trick. She said the larvae live in the soil, so mist the top of it with neem every 3-4 days. She gets hers at Home Depot or True Value. Home Depot usually has the concentrate that you can use if you already have a spray bottle. True Value has some premixed too.
She also said that pyrethrin, another natural antimicrobial, will kill the adults.
I told her about how I’d seen a video of a guy that planted cilantro much more densely, maybe 30 seeds in a 5×5″ container. It looks like he’d gotten them to grow pretty well! His method differs from the standard 3 seeds to a pot, but they were bushy and a nice rich green.
She said he was probably using them like microgreens, harvesting them all at once. I answered that that’s what I’d thought, too, but then he grew them to the standard 4-6″ height with the true leaves and harvested them from the outer perimeter.
I updated her on my sunflower microgreens, trying to figure out if I’d made a mistake with them. Many information sources advise soaking the seeds for anywhere from 12-24 hours, but I’d also watched a video of a guy who didn’t soak his at all. He had recommended misting the soil a lot, so that it wasn’t saturated but almost. She couldn’t comment or advise me much on that, because she’s allergic to them.
Sorcha's Jungle 