My first notill, trying to decide on an initial mulch

[Aphotic]

Aphotic; I've not encountered this. It sounds odd/unique. I wonder if there are some other unknown influences at play.

Is there a way that you could describe the events as they unfolded in detail and fairly accurately chronologically?

OK here is as detailed as I can get until next cycle. My mom room is 18/6 and flower is 12\12 the rooms share a wall but are sealed from each other or so I thought. The flower room draws air from the ventilation ducting under the house, all vents are sealed except for two vents on the other end of the house (I just realized I forgot a vent, the room next to the mom room, where the mom room gets her air!!!!!) So in essence the mom room has been sucking air from the flower room, into the adjacent room, and then into the mom room, that's how they are getting their dose of pheromones. I still do not know why its so potent. All my plants are exceptionally healthy. So above is the how.

Here is what happens, I flip to 12\12 in my flower room, this time around the girls showed the first pistles after the first week or so, a few days or perhaps at the same time so did all of the moms, once this happened the moms followed the growth patterns of the girls in flower right up until the stretch. Instead of full formed mini buds like the flower room the mom room plants grew very long single or double pistils and very swollen calyx, maybe groups of 4 calyx bunches at node sites each, they also started tricomb growth on the stems and smaller leaves, eventually spreading to the larger sun leaves, resulting in smelling quite pungent. From that point flowering stopped in the mom room, no new growth for two to three weeks as the moms reverted to veg, once they started growth again they rapidly stretched about 6 or 7 inches, with several inches between nodes, this happened for about a week then they returned to normal growth and filled out.internodal length went back to 1-2 inches. The mothers didn't stretch at the same time as those in flower it was,weeks later. All in all I lost at least a month in my mom room.

Last cycle I was reverting clones taken from flowered infested plants, so the induction of flower took several weeks longer than normal, though the mom room also had this lag before showing signs of flowering.

I wish I could be more specific, and as I said I will be recording events daily next run with as much detail as possible.

 

[moses wellfleet]

Looking great, did you try the perlite in the catch trays?

Hope you got some beans as back up!

 

[Aphotic]

Looking great, did you try the perlite in the catch trays?

Hope you got some beans as back up!

No sorry ihavent, I wanted to know more about it how much? What's the purpose of the perlite?

At the very bottom of my beds there is a few inches of granite grit, silica sand, pumice, and sodium bentonite, its all layered to sort of mimic natural soil and substrate layers. Anyways the bentonite soaks up major amounts of water so my trays rarely ever see any runoff. The only time a little gets down there is when some pools on the surface of the soil and escapes through the fabric. Even with such a thick planting and cover crops I only have to water once a week to once a week and a half.

 

[Aphotic]

And thank you moses! I have an afghan landrace beans and white widow, but nothing as far as the strains I'm running at the moment, and my best and most favorite strain is the last living specimen due to a fire last year, I need to distribute it to others soon. I also have a plan.......muhahahaha!!!!!!

I purchased a piece of scientific equipment to add to my collection, its a DC generator. I also purchased .999 silver, and I have some stir rods and a stirplate. All of this is to make colloidal silver. With the colloidal silver I can make any branch or entire plant go hermaphriditic, in the end I will aquire seeds from these plants. Unfortunately they will be feminized seeds. But if I stick with the process, eventually I will get a male. Or so I've read from several breeders. Plus I get to play mad scientist, I also plan on grafting and making tissue cultures. The cool thing about tissue cultures is they take up less space, and can be kept longer than seeds.

Basically the reason I want to graft is to make hybrids without sexual reproduction, the way I am going to attempt this is.....a secret and I'm not telling

 

[Microbeman]

OK here is as detailed as I can get until next cycle. My mom room is 18/6 and flower is 12\12 the rooms share a wall but are sealed from each other or so I thought. The flower room draws air from the ventilation ducting under the house, all vents are sealed except for two vents on the other end of the house (I just realized I forgot a vent, the room next to the mom room, where the mom room gets her air!!!!!) So in essence the mom room has been sucking air from the flower room, into the adjacent room, and then into the mom room, that's how they are getting their dose of pheromones. I still do not know why its so potent. All my plants are exceptionally healthy. So above is the how.

Here is what happens, I flip to 12\12 in my flower room, this time around the girls showed the first pistles after the first week or so, a few days or perhaps at the same time so did all of the moms, once this happened the moms followed the growth patterns of the girls in flower right up until the stretch. Instead of full formed mini buds like the flower room the mom room plants grew very long single or double pistils and very swollen calyx, maybe groups of 4 calyx bunches at node sites each, they also started tricomb growth on the stems and smaller leaves, eventually spreading to the larger sun leaves, resulting in smelling quite pungent. From that point flowering stopped in the mom room, no new growth for two to three weeks as the moms reverted to veg, once they started growth again they rapidly stretched about 6 or 7 inches, with several inches between nodes, this happened for about a week then they returned to normal growth and filled out.internodal length went back to 1-2 inches. The mothers didn't stretch at the same time as those in flower it was,weeks later. All in all I lost at least a month in my mom room.

Last cycle I was reverting clones taken from flowered infested plants, so the induction of flower took several weeks longer than normal, though the mom room also had this lag before showing signs of flowering.

I wish I could be more specific, and as I said I will be recording events daily next run with as much detail as possible.

Thanks for the description.

I take it that this happened only the one time so far(?)

Were there any power outages?
Did you change out your lamps or lighting system in your mother room?
What was the climate outside? (Spring, Fall, etc. - rainy, dry)
Are you in close proximity to power lines? (eg. big towers carrying lots of lines)
Is there any chance of foreign 'fumes' being carried in through the air exchange?
How old are your mothers?

EDIT: Here is a link to something slightly related but the references at the end of the page are incredible, some cost money but many are free; http://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/abs/10.1094/MPMI.2001.14.9.1035

 

[xmobotx]

my mini-cab was 2 2x2 sections. each blew warm air from the lights {CFLs} to the bottom of the other so that air circulated siamese/figure 8/yin&yang style warming each cab w/ the other's light heat. simultaneously, the veg cab drew fresh air & the flower cab exhausted stale air. the veg side ran lighting constant on, the flower side was always 12/12

i did all manner of experiments from seedlings to breeding to cloning ~even running the same exact plant as clones for a good 2 years plus

all this w/o any kind of sympathetic flowering-type activity on the veg side. the ventilation fans/ducts were added after a few cycles so, the cab even ran the same stale air w/ few issues for a while too. these issues were all growth related & no strange flower patterns were ever observed

 

[Aphotic]

Thanks for the description.

I take it that this happened only the one time so far(?)

Were there any power outages?
Did you change out your lamps or lighting system in your mother room?
What was the climate outside? (Spring, Fall, etc. - rainy, dry)
Are you in close proximity to power lines? (eg. big towers carrying lots of lines)
Is there any chance of foreign 'fumes' being carried in through the air exchange?
How old are your mothers?

EDIT: Here is a link to something slightly related but the references at the end of the page are incredible, some cost money but many are free; http://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/abs/10.1094/MPMI.2001.14.9.1035

No, this is the third time, it started happening when I got a set of three different strains. We get power outages from time to time, usually in the day durmetallights off, an hour at the most, and I've adjusted my timers to compensate for the time difference, since when the power goes off the timers get off.

Lighting is the same except for a cooled hood being exchanged for a normal hood.

Climate is Oregon. Rainy winter, hot dry summer. Cycles have spanned all seasons.

No proximity to power lines, though I run digital ballasts and the rf interference from them made my digital volt meter unusable, it was reading phantom voltage in everything metal, had to buy an analog meter to check my electrical work. Though I've run these with other strains without issue.

Our property is mostly forest, air intake is from inside the house, but of course like any system that exchanges air draws from outdoors at some point, my ventellation system creates negative pressure in both rooms, when on it's difficult to open the doors, air comes in through basic charcole inbeded furnace type filters. So as far as something coming in from outside such as other chemical signals from the forest, its possible.

I have no idea when any of my strains were started from seed, all my mothers are new clones from unknown aged plants.

Thanks for your time, I'll check the link when I've got a second.

 

[Aphotic]

my mini-cab was 2 2x2 sections. each blew warm air from the lights {CFLs} to the bottom of the other so that air circulated siamese/figure 8/yin&yang style warming each cab w/ the other's light heat. simultaneously, the veg cab drew fresh air & the flower cab exhausted stale air. the veg side ran lighting constant on, the flower side was always 12/12

i did all manner of experiments from seedlings to breeding to cloning ~even running the same exact plant as clones for a good 2 years plus

all this w/o any kind of sympathetic flowering-type activity on the veg side. the ventilation fans/ducts were added after a few cycles so, the cab even ran the same stale air w/ few issues for a while too. these issues were all growth related & no strange flower patterns were ever observed

I imagine that its strain dependant, perhaps even due to genetic defects from an infection or virus, hard to tell at this point, I plan on attempting to single out the strain responsible, if indeed that's what it is.

This is something to a much smaller extent that others have noted with some of their grows, only never having an adverse effect on growth. Some have had minor pollen release from fathers in the mom room, but that could've been stress.

 

[Microbeman]

Aphotic; Seems that you've eliminated my guesses at influences...hmmm

 

[Aphotic]

Aphotic; Seems that you've eliminated my guesses at influences...hmmm

Perhaps not, there might be something going on with the RF transmissions from my digital ballasts. In my rooms, when tested with a quality digital multimeter, I found that any bare metal surface registered a voltage anywhere from 1,600-1,800volts, and depending on the conductivity or size of the object it would max out my meter. At first I was only testing things connected to the system, wires, outlet screws, timer boxes, hoods, etc. I went through every connection from the breaker to lamp about 4 or 5 times and ran continuity tests every time, and could not find a thing wrong. It was driving me mad. The voltage checked correctly at every splice, every plug, every timer etc, even the ballasts when on but not under load checked correctly. But when under load, voltage readings went crazy, the bulbs fired up and ran correctly, and nothing ran hot, but the readings from the plugs, splices, and timers all maxed out my meter. Even the splice a few feet away from the breaker maxed out, but the reading at the breaker read normal?!? The only thing that could of fed voltage like that into the system would have to have been current from the bulb side/output of the ballasts, so I decided to check the bare metal reflector on the hood, as the lamp socket was connected directly to it, when I did this the reading bounced between 1,700v to maxed out. I was terrified, and slowly stepped back from the reflector. But I thought, if that much voltage was being backfed through the system, there would be heat, sparks, fire, and magic blue smoke, my wiring from the breaker is rated to something like 600v Max, and with everything in the rooms running, including 4 ballasts, it was cold to the touch. I went around both rooms and started to test bare metal objects that weren't connected to the system, and the readings were 1,600-1,700v, I was dumbfounded!

I didn't feel it was safe to have things running as they were, but I could t just let things sit in the dark, so I dug out one of my old magnetic ballasts, hooked it up, and the strange voltages dissapeared. So I changed all the digital ballasts back to the old magnetic ones, and spent a month or so researching my issue online and posting to countless forums, I started with grow forums but quickly found that while many growers were running digital ballasts, and had done their own wiring, the majority had little knowledge of electrical work, did no testing of their wiring, other than turning it on, and certainly didn't own or know how to use a multimeter. Out of the few that did own a meter, and ran tests, hadn't noticed anything like what I was experiencing.

Digital ballasts are well known for producing RF interference, messing up cell signals, radios, etc. I even found one thread where a grower running 15-20 1,000 digital ballasts had actually inturupted several of his Nieghbors cell/cable/internet (I can't remember which one of these services it was), he ended up purchasing a device that somehow knocked out the RF transmissions from his ballasts, I'm guessing it uses phase cancelation? It's enough of an issue that my local grow shop carries these devices, though none of them knew how it worked.

I decided to continue my search in electrician forums and HID forums. I had many conversations, and was repeatedly told that I must have wired a hot to ground, and to run a continuity test. Not being an Electrician, they didn't seem to even read my posts all the way through.
I also poured through those industries publications, and manufactures notices, etc.

Eventually I had a thought that perhaps an analog multimeter wouldn't be as susceptible to RF interference, and that the RF transmissions coming from the digital ballasts had to be the culprit, the next day I went to the hardware store and picked one up for $8.00, hooked my digital ballasts back up and tested the system once again, and picked up no phantom voltage.

I guess that's a long winded way of saying maybe it's the RF signals coming from my ballasts, maybe some plants are more susceptible than others?

 

[Microbeman]

Well, electromagnetic energy is one barely explored frontier. A wild eccentric scientist friend of mine created (so he claimed) a method of gathering electrical power from overhead high power lines using a homemade 'receiving antenna' and 'heavy storage box' in 1970. Who knows?

 

[Team Microbe]

I like using barley straw for no till containers, I used to throw clover down but it really doesn't make much sense anymore because it dies back towards the onset of flowering and we really don't need that extra N at that point in time.

I'd go soil, compost, then a thick layer of straw. Avoid the "weed free" stuff though because it's sprayed with pesticides!

 

[Aphotic]

Well, electromagnetic energy is one barely explored frontier. A wild eccentric scientist friend of mine created (so he claimed) a method of gathering electrical power from overhead high power lines using a homemade 'receiving antenna' and 'heavy storage box' in 1970. Who knows?

Its actually a pretty plausible idea, receiving power wirelessly is something Tesla new tone possible, and it was that concept that prompted the smear campaign against him and drove him into obscurity. In fact these gadgets are just hitting the market now. You have a transmitter you plug into an outlet, and a receiver you plug into the device needing to be powered.

The transmission lines that comprise our power grid are incredibly inneficient, in fact the majority of the power we generate is lost in its transmission. The main issue is the conductivity of the lines, what we need is a cheap reliable material that is superconducting at room temperature. Our current lines have a high resistance, you can equate them to an old garden hose with many small holes with a sprinkler attached to the end, the sprinkler and diamreter of the hose causes back pressure in the line, and much of you water is lost through the holes before ever reaching your sprinkler head.

Power lines leak like your hose does in the above scenario, if you create a simple receiver you could collect that radiating current and indeed power things with it.

 

[Aphotic]

I like using barley straw for no till containers, I used to throw clover down but it really doesn't make much sense anymore because it dies back towards the onset of flowering and we really don't need that extra N at that point in time.

I'd go soil, compost, then a thick layer of straw. Avoid the "weed free" stuff though because it's sprayed with pesticides!

Where can one get organic barley straw? Or any other straw that's organic? If I had a resource in my area I would be bedding my goats with organic straw as we'll. I know for a fact that most conventional wheat is drenched in roundup to force it to all mature at the same time, its responsible for the new rash of "wheat allergies". I'm guessing they use this practice with other grains as well.

Next year I'm planning on growing an acre or so of barley and a few other grains, and as a bonus I'll have organic straw!

 

[Aphotic]

I'm looking for any and all info on 2 strains I was recently gifted.

1. Sweet Irish kush
2. Lieutenant

I've found mentions of sweet Irish kush, but cannot find lieutenant anywhere, the only thing I can find on sweet Irish kush is that its a parent Mickie kush.
I need to know more about these so I can decide whether they're worth making room for and keeping.

 

[Aphotic]

Well it's getting close to harvest time thought I'd share some pics! Unfortunately my lights are running a little close to my ladies, I can't raise it any more so I'm just going to ride it out. I turned up my fans to dissipate some heat, some of the leaves are getting a little stressed but that's ok.

I'm really excited about this harvest. It's funny I've been really busy lately and I haven't been checking in on my room every day, but it seemed like buds were dissapearing, and they were. When I was watering today I found several giant colas hiding under the canopy laying on the trellis. They had been toppling under thier own weight, they are all about the size of beer bottles.

 

[Team Microbe]

Where can one get organic barley straw? Or any other straw that's organic? If I had a resource in my area I would be bedding my goats with organic straw as we'll. I know for a fact that most conventional wheat is drenched in roundup to force it to all mature at the same time, its responsible for the new rash of "wheat allergies". I'm guessing they use this practice with other grains as well.

Next year I'm planning on growing an acre or so of barley and a few other grains, and as a bonus I'll have organic straw!

Try your local nursery, just ask them if it's sprayed with Roundup before buying and if they don't know then avoid it like the plague

 

[Aphotic]

Try your local nursery, just ask them if it's sprayed with Roundup before buying and if they don't know then avoid it like the plague

I've delt with all of the feed stores in my area at one time or another. There are no "organic" feed stores, though a couple now carry one or two organic products. They are geared for conventional agriculture, and when I've brought up that most conventional wheat is loaded with roundup, it doesn't bother them. No one that I've spoken to has any idea if their hay has been sprayed. These days your lucky if any sales person has any amount of experience with the items they're selling. Youre lucky these days if the person helping you at your local hardware store has even held a hammer before.

Honestly I think a lot of people who grow "organic" and use straw as a mulch or in their compost piles, are most likely using conventional straw, unless they grow their own organic wheat or barley.

The only thing I've seen is organic straw and grass for rabbits, you get an ounce or two for $10, far too expensive for my needs.

I will however be planting barley as my next cover crop.

 

[Aphotic]

After the harvest is finished I'll be doing two runs for seed production. First will be Afghan landrace, next white widow. While the afghan seedlings maturing I'll grow a cover crop in my beds, I'll run a soil test first, but I'm pretty sure my soils running a little hot, my compost had a good deal of goat and chicken manure. So I'll probably steer clear of nitrogen fixers this go around. We'll see if f there's any sign of deficiency in the cover crops, then I'll decide on what to amend with and flower out the seedlings. From this last harvest and what I'll get from a few outdoor plants I'll be covered for medicine through the seed production phase.

I'll get some better pics up when I have time.

Thanks for stopping by!

Aphotic

 

[Aphotic]

I want to try a new seedling/clone mix, so I altered my Notill mix.

I normally use a cloner for my cuttings, so will this be acceptable?
What do y'all think about LCs mix? Searching for a seedling mix on ICMAG LCs mix is all I could find?

Anyways this is my mix, it equals about a cubic foot

65c. peat
06c. Compost
13c. Perlite
13c. Pumice
13c. Silica sand
06c. Biochar
02c. Granite grit and fines
1/4c. DE
1/4c. Azomite
1/4c. Oyster flour
1/4c. Crab meal
1/4c. Myco
1/8c. Alfalfa
1/8c. Kelp
1/8c. Bentonite
1/8c. Neem meal