Diary Goji Grow

[moose eater]

The weekend is here and that means more rain. A low pressure system is moving across the Gulf and headed for our house. Another couple of inches to come down between this afternoon and tomorrow. I emptied the rain gauge for the occasion. On the up side of the down, an order of interlocking foam floor tiles is supposed to be delivered today.

Pictures and harvest tomorrow. Hasta lumbago!

A word of caution on foam layers where there's moisture, assuming that's what you're doing with them, and that maybe you've already considered this.

The foam traps the moisture in a tight stagnant area/layer with less escape and poor ventilation, and can promote really unhealthy growth of rot and/or molds/fungus, unless removed regularly.

I have a 36 year old boat and had cut some custom fitted rolled gym mat foam (black) as an anti-slip material, both to protect against our feet slipping on wet decking, and to help keep the batteries and fuel tank in place when trailering down rougher road or rough water occurred.

I didn't look under or remove the custom-fitted foam for maybe 4 years, and when I did so this last Fall, it had seemingly assisted in degradation of at least one small area of the treated, painted plywood marine decking.

I know your floor looks like concrete, so destruction of the concrete shouldn't be an issue, but plants can have poor reactions to some molds, as I'm sure you know.

Are you doing one 'tile under each plant, or the whole floor?

We were -35 f. yesterday morning, and -2 f. this morning. Supposed to be +16 f. tomorrow, so tomorrow I'll overcome the hip, leg, and spine nonsense and clear the driveway of the snow AGAIN with the track-drive Honda snow-blower, and transfer what I'm guessing (without having dipped the tank yet) what I believe will be about 180 to 200 US gallons of #1 heating oil from drums into the main 500-gallon fuel tank to top it off.

I need sherpas.

 

[buzzmobile]

I know your floor looks like concrete, so destruction of the concrete shouldn't be an issue, but plants can have poor reactions to some molds, as I'm sure you know.

Are you doing one 'tile under each plant, or the whole floor?

Winter rainy season and dormant vegetation adds up to groundwater infiltration under this old house. The tiles will only be there during the winter months. They are serving to keep me from busting my ass on the algae and moss that thrives in the sheet flow towards the sump. Concrete floor gets slick. At the moment the east wall has a slow flow going from south to north. I keep the air moving and exhausting and the rooms have been growing plants for 21+ years with all kinds of growths down there. So far everything has been benign. I have a product called Green Shield that does a pretty good job of knocking down the thickest growths, but it does not take long for the effects to wash away in the flow.

I intend to extend the tiles to cover the main traffic area which is about 4' x 8'. On the flower side I have each of the nine plants in a saucer on top of a styrofoam square to insulate root zone from cold floor. I have done the same in the veg room without saucers but that allows for the slick floor to develop. I won't need the styrofoam because of the foam tiles.

I need sherpas.

All the sherpas left here when the mountains tumbled into the sea.

 

[buzzmobile]

I cut the Animal Cookies x 88 G13 this morning. It rained all night and it is still raining. Radar says the front will be passed around 10:30. It will take a day or two to feel the effects of this latest batch of rain downstairs.

I'm going to make a video with some perlite going with the flow; or maybe launch a boat.

 

[buzzmobile]

I set my camera above a weep hole in the floor the other day. Then I stepped back a few feet and bounced in place on the floor. Groundwater is up.



I found some colorful additions to the veg and flower room floors yesterday. They're educational as well.

 

[buzzmobile]

Another weep hole geyser.

 

[moose eater]

View attachment 18935561 View attachment 18935562
View attachment 18935563

Another weep hole geyser.

"I'd like to buy a vowel, please."

Edit: That front row looks especially happy, buzz.

I'm over 4 months behind in mixing my soilless mixes that should've been mixed and activating long ago. Seeing a pain specialist today, so maybe the overdue 150+ gallons of mixes are in my near future?

 

[ost]

On Saturday 1/21/2023 there was a package in my mailbox. I opened the package and found a book and a container of seeds. I picked out a pack labeled Goji3 and there were three seeds. I picked another pack labeled Kashmiri Azad and there were many seeds. I chose three of the Azad. I usually plant seeds in multiples of three for no particular reason.

I use ProMix BK25 and start seeds in 2" pots. The healthy seedlings get stepped up to a 4" pot after a couple of weeks. Eventually they finish in a three gallon pot. I have Fluence Spydrx Plus fixtures in veg and flower rooms. I feed with MegaCrop. There are nine three gallon pots in flower. I harvest one plant per week and move a replacement plant from veg to flower each week. Most of the strains I run are ready in 9 weeks. If they need to go longer I have a bright corner where they can finish.

I have been growing and harvesting one a week for 21 years.

The Goji3's are above ground and the Azads are still sleeping. The first Goji emerged with a very tight helmethead. I was able to remove the husk with some effort and left it overnight. The next morning the cotyledons were stuck closed from the membrane that had remained after the husk was removed. My old hands were a bit fumble fingered and I damaged the cotyledon. I think it will be able to generate a true leaf, but we shall see.
View attachment 18806511

OOPS!
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The last to surface
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A few weeks ago I started an assortment of a dozen seeds: Killing Kush, Sour Princess x Chocolate Trip, Northern Lights #5 x Big Sur Holy Bud, Stinkyfruit x Oaxaca. I moved them into the bright corner of the flower room yesterday to sex them.

View attachment 18806515


This is a Wedding Cake x Oaxaca from an open pollination in the flower room I did a few months ago. It entered the 9th week in flower yesterday. It may need time in the bright corner to finish. I have not looked at trichomes yet.
View attachment 18806516 View attachment 18806517

I have a stud Oaxaca male flowering in another room. While collecting some pollen yesterday morning there was a visitor.
View attachment 18806518

a drop of fresh aloe on a helmet head is all it takes, no fumbles, plant lives!

 

[buzzmobile]

"I'd like to buy a vowel, please."

Edit: That front row looks especially happy, buzz.

I'm over 4 months behind in mixing my soilless mixes that should've been mixed and activating long ago. Seeing a pain specialist today, so maybe the overdue 150+ gallons of mixes are in my near future?

I missed an opportunity to arrange four letter words down there. If the front row looks happy around the middle of March then this exercise will be declared a success. 150+ gallons x 8 lbs = a lot heavier than my near future can handle. You may have to take the "eat an elephant" approach.

I hope the pain specialist visit went well.

Thanks for the tip, @ost.

 

[moose eater]

I missed an opportunity to arrange four letter words down there. If the front row looks happy around the middle of March then this exercise will be declared a success. 150+ gallons x 8 lbs = a lot heavier than my near future can handle. You may have to take the "eat an elephant" approach.

I hope the pain specialist visit went well.

Thanks for the tip, @ost.

Without wasting a bunch of bandwidth on the 'specialist', he was presumptuous with a weaker than normal ego and has the idea that data being skewed by a current med isn't really being skewed by the current med (as though *I don't know what I'm eating or how I'm living but he does?).

It was, for now, a waste of time..... and money.

The soilless mixes are mostly a peat base with volcanic pumice/vulcanite replacing most of the perlite I once might've used due to the temporary nature of perlite and the fact that it contains a good amount of aluminum. The pumice makes the mixes heavier than they'd be with perlite, but other items add some heft to it, as well.

I keep the mixes in (9) 27-gallon totes to activate once hydrated, and they're likely filled to about 26 gallons. They ideally need to sit in there, hydrated moderately, for about 4 months.

So, I may need to cheat this next (overdue) round, and use a blend of a local greenhouse's custom mix, along with some Ocean Forest, a minor cut of BX Pro mix, some vulcanite and a bit of specific micro-nutes. We'll see.

Edit: Even before this latest loss of spinal strength and nerve issues going bonkers, I asked for help lifting the filled totes; ever since spine surgery 5-1/2 years ago.

 

[buzzmobile]

Major surgery happened yesterday afternoon. It appears the head chief seed planter put two seeds in a single 2" pot.

That is not acceptable. I moistened the mix and turned the pot over, tapped it sharply on the bottom, and the rootball slid out into my hand. I teased the mix away from the rooted seedlings until I had the two tangled root systems in a small bit of mix. I then dipped the two into a cup of water and shook them gently to release as much mix as possible before separating them. They came apart easily and I stuck them back into their individual pots.

Here they are this morning.

 

[buzzmobile]

Christmas is winding down and that means I don't have to sequester the male Jackberry from family and the cable guys. He spent Christmas day tucked in between a filing cabinet and an armoire. For the cable guys he ducked into a utility closet. He is now standing on a table near a sunny southern window.

I spread the flower girls out so I could spray for white flies. They are a pain and I have wrestled with them more than once. Suffoil X and Botanigard combo was applied yesterday. Today I'm going to trim up some lower branches in early flower. I also cleaned up the OxyCloner and soaked everything in a Physan bath overnight. Cool weather temps (33.3 F currently) make the cloner functional now.
The seedlings are growing up. The two on the left were the Siamese twins.

 

[buzzmobile]

The JackBerry male is dropping lots of pollen now. The first shot is from the Jan 5 and the second I collected yesterday. There are several more packets stored in the refrigerator.

There was a respite from heavy rains for a few days, but that ended Friday night early Saturday when I collected 1.78" of more rain. Today is forecast for rain starting this afternoon and 100% chance of rain, thunderstorms, and high winds tomorrow.

I have a Sunshine Daydream to groom and I cut down a Rosetta 78 yesterday. I brought a bag of ProMix downstairs to pot up a couple of 4" overgrown clones into 3 gallons. Spritzing the occasional whitefly intruder is troubling because I have fought them before. It does not take them long to multiply into clouds of critters. Easy to kill, hard to control.

 

[buzzmobile]

This is what the rooms looked like yesterday. I fed the thirsty plants and called it a day.

The foam floor tiles are holding up well.

 

[moose eater]

Looking nearly equatorial rain forest, buzz.

Very nice.

 

[buzzmobile]

Looking nearly equatorial rain forest, buzz.

Very nice.

It's the cushioned flooring that makes the scene.
After a stretch of lows in the 20's we are warming up with accompanying rain. Plants are doing well enough and the OxyClone cuttings have finally pushed out some roots.
I have my regular dentist visit this morning so I am about to motivate. I'll do some chores downstairs afterwards and pictures are in order.

 

[Hombre del mont]

It's the cushioned flooring that makes the scene.
After a stretch of lows in the 20's we are warming up with accompanying rain. Plants are doing well enough and the OxyClone cuttings have finally pushed out some roots.
I have my regular dentist visit this morning so I am about to motivate. I'll do some chores downstairs afterwards and pictures are in order.

I have a fantastic dentist. A 65 yr old Serbian gentleman who speaks 7 languages and plays the fiddle and violin to a professional standard. He is a regular meditator and Qi Gong practitioner and offers alternative treatments as well as the more conventional.
He very much enjoys "munching my cobs"; I know that sounds perverse, but thankfully you are aware of cobs.

He never charges anyone for a cheek up and can do fillings without an injection, Or any pain, though it takes a long time, stopping every few seconds before the pain builds up.

One of the kindest and most honest men one could ever hope to meet. He actually tries to save his patients/friends money. He also gives some awesome 30 second hugs.

I hope your trip to the dentist is a pleasant as possible.

 

[buzzmobile]

I hope your trip to the dentist is a pleasant as possible.

After reading about your dentist I have to say,
"My dentist can beat up your dentist."



The real story is my dentist is a great guy who does excellent work. He has a gentle touch, friendly demeanor, and he knows how to administer a needle. We have been with him for probably 20+ years and before him we had another dentist we saw for 15+ years before he retired. I have good teeth and gums so it is usually a twice yearly cleaning. My wife on the other hand has helped the Good Dentist make mortgage payments on his vacation home in the mountains. LOL

How are the rains in Spain? Are they staying mainly on the plains?

 

[Hombre del mont]

The rains in Spain...we've not really seen any rain in our mountains for the best part of a year! We've had the occasional storm, but so intense that they wash away the land and roads. We should have had deep snow on our mountain tops since October, but we have virtually nothing.

Perhaps the rain has been falling on the plains, because we certainly haven't had it.

Today we had 24c! And it's predicted to be 27 on Thursday... ¿in January?

 

[buzzmobile]

The rains in Spain...we've not really seen any rain in our mountains for the best part of a year! We've had the occasional storm, but so intense that they wash away the land and roads. We should have had deep snow on our mountain tops since October, but we have virtually nothing.

Perhaps the rain has been falling on the plains, because we certainly haven't had it.

Today we had 24c! And it's predicted to be 27 on Thursday... ¿in January?

We have had more than our fair share of rain and cold so far this winter. It is finally warming up to the mid 70'sF with rain chances this week.

Now for the pictures I promised yesterday, but we all know yesterday's gone. Here are today's photos.


C99

GELATO

TESTERS

ASSORTED FLOWERS

 

[buzzmobile]

Yesterday I harvested another C99.

The five testers spent three nights iin the flower room. Yesterday I moved them back to the veg room. Let's see if any of them show sex in the coming week.