Not really hitting my stride yet, any suggestions how to improve?

[bigbadbiddy]

Thank you a lot for the Feedback Yamaha and Microbeman!


@Yamaha
I also started out with a "less is more" mentality.
I have slowly upped the amendments in half cup increments over the last 3 times mixing a soil batch.
The reason I went with as far as doubling (in some cases) the nutrient amendments this time was my experiences from the last 2 rounds.
Granted, the buckwheat hulls were the x-factor but I distinctly remember a single pheno of the 50 critical mass beans I had popped that was unique in the bunch. It was much faster growing/vigorous than all the others and developed triple colas while topped once (all others developed two).
It was also flowering quite fast and putting on fat buds.

But it was a heavy, heavy feeder and ran out of nutrients about halfway through flower (seriously, the other plants were all green and healthy, flowering away and this one looked depleted. It was furthest ahead of all but it started to go through the signs of nutrient depletion in late flower, yellowing all over slowly and losing the leafs starting from the bottom.).


I tried to top-dress and use nutrient teas but it was too late.
Due to the buckwheat hulls, I didn't manage to get anywhere else with the clone either and lost it in the end.


That plant more than anything led me to the believe that I should rather overdo it a bit in terms of amendments and go maybe a bit more in the subcool line of thinking with the oversaturated super soil and stuff ...



Basically I would rather burn a plant or two then having a stellar pheno that I can't feed and see how stellar it actually is.
Pretty sure that CM pheno was something very special akin to the stuff they all rave about in Spain. And I just couldn't feed it to find out how special it is. Major bummer for me.


Regarding the calcium oversaturation:
I actually forgot to put epsom salts in the soil mix (just noticed the other day the bag was unopened ... duh).
Was figuring I top-dress or water them in.


But aside from that and not adding any more oyster shell flower and dolomite lime going forward, any suggestions what I should do now?


Should I PH down my water again? I have citric acid available and would PH down my res to about 6.0 as I have done in the past (and imagining the plants reacting positive to it)?


Should I increase the amount of perlite in the soil mix to combat compaction issues?


Anything else to watch out for aside from compaction and PH issues due to the calcium?








@Microbeman
The worms are standard earth worms (red wigglers?). Not sure for their scientific term.
I got them from an organic farming collective (mostly veggies) who all use them on their farm. Basically one of them has a bunch of worm bins and supplies them all.
I got about 500 worms, divided in 3 bins of soil mix.



I was thinking they are eating the krill meal, kelp meal, etc. etc. right now and breaking it down to stages that make it more readily available for the plants?
Am I making a mistake here?


Going forward, when I transplant the seedlings into 1 gal pots for veg, I plan to take out a bunch of the worms from the soil bin I use for veg and start a worm bin with them (I believe in the 1 gal pots, the worms won't be able to do much work anyway).


I did add some mycos and obviously the EWC to the soil mix.
I call it a soil mix, but am hoping it is a living soil? That's what I aimed for anyway.
I did water the soil tubs with plain water and am going to start a "tea" with molasses, malted barley and EWC and water the soil mix with it.
The soil will have another ~2 weeks to build up the microherd before the plants will be transplanted into it. It will have cooked for about a month overall then.



Seeds have mostly popped as of today, I give them another 12 or so hours then transplant them into jiffy plugs. Once they are established in those, they get moved to the 1 gal veg pots in the soil, with a myco boost during transplant.

 

[Buds Buddy]

I use a bowl of warm beer & a bowl with a little molasses in it to trap the flying gnats.
I use 1 qt. of peroxide mixed in 1 gallon of water to kill the larva in the plant pots. The peroxide water is also beneficial as it adds oxygen to the soil. It will not hurt your plants at all. Just use 1 gallon of the mix per plant & then let them dry out real good. Your leaves will droop & the plant will look like it might die once the soil is dry enough (4-5 days) but after you water again ... the next day your plants will look just fine. Gnats are gone !!!
Now either cover your top soil in dryer sheets or something like gnat nix which you can buy at a hydro store & the gnats wont come back. You can also use mosquito dunks to kill the larva.

 

[Microbeman]

PaulieW; I have no experience with these products.


BBB: Red Wrigglers [eisenia fetida] are not earth worms. They are composting worms. They thrive on organic matter. The kelp meal and krill will feed them some. As you noted, they will leave or die without food.

Living Soil;
I'm so pissed off about the bull shit where people trying to cash in are calling these mixes living soil. When I began preaching living soil as well as recycling soil on this forum in 2008, there were only a few people practicing this. 3 Little Birds, Jaykush and I think Burn1. (If I missed someone sorry). [We had been using living soil techniques on our farm for years.]

Gascanastan did not even recycle let alone no till until I convinced him to try it. We formed a private group led by Jaykush to discuss details of these techniques.
Coming out of this, Gascanastan began the big thread about recycling soil and then with Coots input a water only soil mix emerged. I believe I have some posts in that thread pointing out the error calling recycled, living soil.

Some commercial guys grabbed onto this water only mix and researched it further in consultation with Coot and all power to them. Both successful ones are good friends. But this is not living soil as it has been branded. I think I've earned the right to say this.

This is a mix that purportedly can carry a plant from seed to flower.
It can become a living soil if it includes the correct structure, volume and ongoing organic matter. A living soil goes on for years undisturbed. It needs time and organic matter to come to life. It is impossible to keep living soil in one gallon pots.

The drainage material must vary in size and degradation period. Microbial hierarchies are formed ranging in diversity from surface to depths, destroyed by mixing. There are some folks now growing this way successfully.

 

[wetdog]

Microbeman, thanks for the 3 Little Birds shout out. Got a lot of information from them when I first switched to organics. Mainly because what they were saying had a big dose of common sense behind it that appealed to my own common sense and experience (I had been growing 'stuff' for over 30 years at that point). LOL, I also stole your Buddha quote (with credit to you), about common sense till GC limited Sig line characters and it was too long.

BBB, a couple of things I can relate to you from my own experience.

Compaction: Yes, by all means you should add more perlite, especially when using organic inputs like seed meals. I start with ~40% perlite and end up close to 50% aeration when the pine bark fines/mulch are added. The pine bark fines start out as aeration and end up as humus as they break down over time, usually a year or two. Pine bark has been a part of my mix since it was taught to me in 1972.

I firmly believe that most soil problems can ultimately be traced back to compacted, overly dense soil that has inadequate aeration.

Worms: Worms don't "eat" anything, they lack a jaw and teeth. What they do though is slurp up the bacterial slime from stuff that is decomposing, the goo that forms as stuff rots. Till that goo forms the 'food' mainly just sits there.

My main worm food is coffee grounds and fresh/frozen comfrey leaves. The coffee usualy just sits for several weeks totally ignored. Then, when it is nearly white with mold, I guess it's ripe for the worms and they flat out swarm it. Same deal with the comfrey leaves except they reach that point much faster than the grounds do.

I also aerate my peat based bedding. Worms breathe through their skin and though they like their bedding a bit more dense and wetter than a soil mix there is a point where it's too dense and too wet. I run ~30% perlite in my bedding mix.

MM is totally right about a LOS not happening in a 1 gallon container and pretty much neither are worms. You do need a certain amount of soil mass for both to work. For worms though, it's more about surface area than depth.

Hope this helps some.

Wet

 

[Klompen]

I'm not sure that mixing the soil is always a bad thing. One thing I learned from cultivating mycellium is that mixing can be extremely beneficial if done at the right time and in the right manner. Done too early, and mixing kills mycellium colonies, but done at the right stage and it greatly improves its colonization of the medium. Soil gets mixed in nature all the time for lots of reasons(trees getting up rooted is one example, animals digging is another, and of course earth worms). I think mixing has its place, but clearly shouldn't be done constantly like many growers do(at least not if you want healthy microbial colonies)

 

[bigbadbiddy]

PaulieW; I have no experience with these products.


BBB: Red Wrigglers [eisenia fetida] are not earth worms. They are composting worms. They thrive on organic matter. The kelp meal and krill will feed them some. As you noted, they will leave or die without food.

Living Soil;
I'm so pissed off about the bull shit where people trying to cash in are calling these mixes living soil. When I began preaching living soil as well as recycling soil on this forum in 2008, there were only a few people practicing this. 3 Little Birds, Jaykush and I think Burn1. (If I missed someone sorry). [We had been using living soil techniques on our farm for years.]

Gascanastan did not even recycle let alone no till until I convinced him to try it. We formed a private group led by Jaykush to discuss details of these techniques.
Coming out of this, Gascanastan began the big thread about recycling soil and then with Coots input a water only soil mix emerged. I believe I have some posts in that thread pointing out the error calling recycled, living soil.

Some commercial guys grabbed onto this water only mix and researched it further in consultation with Coot and all power to them. Both successful ones are good friends. But this is not living soil as it has been branded. I think I've earned the right to say this.

This is a mix that purportedly can carry a plant from seed to flower.
It can become a living soil if it includes the correct structure, volume and ongoing organic matter. A living soil goes on for years undisturbed. It needs time and organic matter to come to life. It is impossible to keep living soil in one gallon pots.

The drainage material must vary in size and degradation period. Microbial hierarchies are formed ranging in diversity from surface to depths, destroyed by mixing. There are some folks now growing this way successfully.

From the experiences I made, I can see the allure of mixing a fresh batch every time, not bothering with recycling, reamending etc.

But that is what I am aiming for.

I chose 5 gallon containers for flower, for the express purpose of aiming for a living soil/food web (I would've gone much smaller otherwise. 5 gal, to me, seemed like the smallest possible pot size for this).

Have been chasing my tail and wondering where I'm going wrong (having satisfying results after mixing a fresh batch each time) ever since.

Now have a good suspect with the buckwheat hulls and another going forward with the heavy calcium and adjusting amendments accordingly.

Also neglected the innoculant/tea/whatever I should call it (barley, ewc, molasses). Had to finish cleaning up the airlift thingy... had neglected that too. Brewing one now, going to "innoculate" the soil, as I mentioned, while still "cooking".

I feel I am on track, have to keep an eye on the calcium thing going forward but can't fix anything there at the moment.


Another thing I might need to look into is the staggering of different release stage fertilizers and the whole re-amending after a harvest thing.

Regarding staggering of ferts:
I think I basically have none. I have a coarser grade of kelp lying around that I could mix in with the finer kelp meal I used this time.
Aside from that, krill meal and ewc... rest is minerals and the neem cake (and epsom salt going forward).
If I am not mistaken, these are all "fast release" so should I consider some slower release stuff like the blood meal pellets I had before? Or bone meal? Or hoof and horn meal? or ...?

Regarding re-amending after a harvest:
I am still at a loss with this. I looked into some "re-amendment kits" and the like being sold here or there and it looks to me like I am supposed to just mix all my amendments in with some EWC and topdress that on each pot after transplanting a new plant in.

On the other hand I feel aside from that, I should maybe start a compost bin and topdress that? Or topdress with my coffee grounds? You know, some organic material not in powder/meal form?

Would really appreciate some help in understanding this whole thing ..


But my goal here certainly has been from the beginning and remains to get a no-till, living soil/food web situation going where I give back what I took out by harvesting the plant, through top-dressing, and therefore looking to achieve a long term balance within each 5 gal pot.

 

[PaulieWaulie]

This thread is pretty awesome, its a continuation from some of the old school cats from the ROLS thread here. Read that from the beginning to at least page 50 and youll have a pretty good handle

look up No-Till Gardening: Revisited by mountain organics on grasscity

https://forum.grasscity.com/threads/no-till-gardening-revisited.1400505/

 

[Yamaha FG-840]

I meant to say something Paulie but I was bullshooting along and forgot several times. Those fish safe water conditioners are safe for plants, a lot of aquariums have plants in them and water plants have nearly identical nutritional demands to land based plants, they just have modifications that allow them to not drown.

I bought this, is this safe to remove chloramine? I figure it is since it is used for fish. You mentioned them so figured you should know.

https://www.amazon.ca/Nutrafin-A793...704430&sr=8-2&keywords=water+conditioner+aqua

 

[Microbeman]

BBB; My living soil rant was not really directed at you. I apologize for sort of hijacking your thread for this.

To address what you are doing, I do not understand your one gallon vegetation process. Perhaps I'm missing something. In my opinion and experience, the living soil process involves vegetation and flowering (fruiting) in the same living soil.

Where do you get the one gallon container idea from? Living soil includes plants. The soil does not live without plant life.

Regarding your growing plan,

I feel I am on track, have to keep an eye on the calcium thing going forward but can't fix anything there at the moment.


Another thing I might need to look into is the staggering of different release stage fertilizers and the whole re-amending after a harvest thing.

Regarding staggering of ferts:
I think I basically have none. I have a coarser grade of kelp lying around that I could mix in with the finer kelp meal I used this time.
Aside from that, krill meal and ewc... rest is minerals and the neem cake (and epsom salt going forward).
If I am not mistaken, these are all "fast release" so should I consider some slower release stuff like the blood meal pellets I had before? Or bone meal? Or hoof and horn meal? or ...?

Regarding re-amending after a harvest:
I am still at a loss with this. I looked into some "re-amendment kits" and the like being sold here or there and it looks to me like I am supposed to just mix all my amendments in with some EWC and topdress that on each pot after transplanting a new plant in.

On the other hand I feel aside from that, I should maybe start a compost bin and topdress that? Or topdress with my coffee grounds? You know, some organic material not in powder/meal form?

Would really appreciate some help in understanding this whole thing ..

But my goal here certainly has been from the beginning and remains to get a no-till, living soil/food web situation going where I give back what I took out by harvesting the plant, through top-dressing, and therefore looking to achieve a long term balance within each 5 gal pot.

First of all if you are really growing and really wishing to go the living soil route, in preparation for growing on a farm, then stop listening to every Tom, Sally and Harry. Just use some local materials (like I already suggested) bulk up your volume as large as your circumstance allows and let your soil come to life.

This is not rocket science; it is soil science and it is what created us, we did not create it. Allow the soil/plant to teach you. If you keep scrambling for such and such an input and thinking every tip given to you on this forum must be followed, you will fail. Either go with one prescribed routine or follow your gut and the soil.

You are in Europe where the greatest [natural] horticultural minds originated (The Luebkes, Pfeiffer, Torsvik, Bonkowski, Clarholm, Griffiths). These were my teachers. Why try learning from a bunch of North Americans (mostly)?

 

[Microbeman]

This thread is pretty awesome, its a continuation from some of the old school cats from the ROLS thread here. Read that from the beginning to at least page 50 and youll have a pretty good handle

look up No-Till Gardening: Revisited by mountain organics on grasscity

https://forum.grasscity.com/threads/no-till-gardening-revisited.1400505/

Hey Paulie; Here is a quote from Coot which I find very applicable to BBB's current discussion;

Trying to micromanage each and every element as is the grow store orientation is a fool's errand.


"Oh! I need molybdenum? Where do I get that? What about manganese? Oh dear! What shall I do?"​

 

[Badfishy1]

MM your arrogance is on par with Sams. Congrats, that is a hard task to accomplish. Everybody knows only YOU can make a true LOS as Sam is the only TRUE breeder around. So congrats

 

[Microbeman]

MM your arrogance is on par with Sams. Congrats, that is a hard task to accomplish. Everybody knows only YOU can make a true LOS as Sam is the only TRUE breeder around. So congrats

Me thinks you misunderstand. I do not make LOS. Living soil makes itself. Regardless, thank you for the kind words.

A journalist asked Einstein what he would do if Eddington's observations failed to match his theory. Einstein famously replied: "Then I would feel sorry for the good Lord. The theory is correct."

 

[BerrySeal]

I use a bowl of warm beer & a bowl with a little molasses in it to trap the flying gnats.
I use 1 qt. of peroxide mixed in 1 gallon of water to kill the larva in the plant pots. The peroxide water is also beneficial as it adds oxygen to the soil. It will not hurt your plants at all. Just use 1 gallon of the mix per plant & then let them dry out real good. Your leaves will droop & the plant will look like it might die once the soil is dry enough (4-5 days) but after you water again ... the next day your plants will look just fine. Gnats are gone !!!
Now either cover your top soil in dryer sheets or something like gnat nix which you can buy at a hydro store & the gnats wont come back. You can also use mosquito dunks to kill the larva.

No wonder Az weed tastes like warm Rolling Rock peroxide breath and dryer sheets. Yall need to give up, let the other states do the weed growing.

Lactic acid bacteria is the best way to boost organic crops in every aspect. I dont see enough people talking about that. LAB is essential in no-feed gardening. Growers getting stupider every year. Using fukkin dryer sheets in the grow room smh. What the hell is wrong with Arizonians, cant believe the tainted garbage people smoke out there.

 

[bigbadbiddy]

Thanks for the feedback y'all!


@Paulie
I skimmed through the ROLS thread previously but did not read it in depth.
Will do that and also check out the other thread you posted. Thanks for that!


@MM
The one gallon veg thing is admittedly a compromise of sorts. One that I had hoped would not too negatively affect what I am trying to achieve vis-a-vis living soil.


Basically, I do not have access to clones or an existing library of plants. I want to breed long term and therefore can't or won't (or both) go with feminized seeds.
Therefore simply popping seeds, vegging them in 5 gals to satisfaction and then flipping them to flower did not seam feasible to me. As I would have to cull the males, end up with half a flower chamber of females etc. etc.



I chose the alternative route which is a classic veg chamber. There I veg until maturity so I can identify the females by their pre-sex flowers. Transplant them to 5 gal pots, veg them another week or two and then flip to flower.
This way I can make sure my flower chamber is at capacity with females even when I go from seed (as long as I pop enough of them and not more than half turn out male).


The sizing of 1 gal veg was basically determined by the size of the flower pots (5 gal). I have 2 gal pots for veg as well and wanted to use those first but then there is very few soil in the actual flower pots when I transplant. So I stuck with 1 gal in veg.


Also has to do with space constraints.


The way I grow at the moment is basically:
Pop about 50 beans, select up to 24 females from those for flower. After vegging in 1 gal pots and being cloned, transplant them to 5 gal flower pots. Veg for a week or two, then flip them.


In the meantime I veg a second batch of the same 24 females in flower (if I had more than 24 females from the 50 beans, I throw out the least wowing females from the first round and replace them with the ones that were left out before).


Then I harvest, cure and in the meantime flower the clones of the seedplants.


Now while the clones are flowering, I get to testing (smoking) all the different phenos and try to hone in on a keeper or two.



The latest when I harvest the clones, I will have decided on a keeper or two. In the meantime, there are copies of each plant in veg.


I then go to my veg chamber, throw out all the females but the keeper(s) and am left with the males and one or two female keepers of the strain.


Haven't gotten past that point so far but I had always imagined that if the strain is wowing, I would select up to 8 males and flower them in my smaller flowering chamber to select a keeper for future breeding.


Aside from that, I would now either pop seeds of the next strain, starting the next cycle, or cut clones of the keeper(s) and start a mono grow to fill the stash.




I think this would be the earliest stage where I could go a full run (including veg) in 5 gal pots. When I can fill each pot with a female for sure and ideally a keeper clone. Then I can just transplant the clones to the 5 gals, veg them in the flower chamber, then flip the lights.


But even here I might not skip the 1 gal veg phase, because I can reach the plants MUCH better in the veg chamber for training, pruning, topping purposes than I can reach the plants in flower.


Right now, I am hesitating to install my Blumat system (which would immensely lower my workload during flower) for this express reason. Once I have installed the Blumats, I have an even harder time to reach all the plants and prune/defoliate them for example. Or to top them off with an ACT.
I would have to disconnect the Blumats one by one, take each pot out of the flower chamber one by one, work them and put them back in. Gruesome work and even harder with the Blumats (have to keep them in water while I take out the pot and work on the plant, if I am not mistaken).






Long story short:
It's all compromises I made due to my space constraints or my goals in mind. I am aware that it would be ideal in terms of living soil, to turn my entire flower chamber into one large bed and grow seed to finish in said bed. And have not ruled out going that route in the future at all. I am just trying to see if I can have my cake and eat it, too, by trying this hybrid method or whatever you want to call it.


So far, indications are that it might not work as planned or at the very least, I am making my life a bit difficult. But if I can make it work as I had hoped, it might be worth the struggle.






Regarding trying to learn from Americans:
I agree with much of what you say MM. However, the way I see it, here in Europe things have gone massively towards industrialized agriculture and I have mentioned in other threads (not sure if here) that it is basically impossible to get simple, basic organic fertilizers like Kelp meal or the like. All you get is pre-mixed, artificial/chemical fertilizers that are simply advertised for this or that plant (group).
They have a fertilizer for each common flower, vegetable and fruit grown here and they all have similar (low quality) ingredients pre-mixed in this or that factory. But god forbid you want to buy those base ingredients and mix your own.
I am serious, even organic/bio farmers looked at me like I was a retarded caveman who overslept the industrial revolution or sth and what I want with worm poop anyway?!? Just by RadFert XYZ with the good blue shit inside, ya know? Makes me sick.




Conversely, in the US and Canada in particular, and I credit the cannabis revolution with this, people are actually trying to understand what is going on with the plants and the soil, they actually put in their heart and soul into this stuff and don't just go "well big corp XYZ surely has this all figured out, which is why they offer their RadFert line for each plant individually and why would I go and try reinvent the wheel? Surely big corp XYZ has way more resources and have done a way better job than I ever could" and that's that ...


We don't have a MicrobeMan and the like over here, simple as that.
Or at least they have no outlet/platform and the market doesn't care.




And one last edit:
Regarding not overcomplicating things, letting the soil/plants guide me or sticking to a simple method and see where that takes me. I believe I have tried just that and simply run into some hurdles. Chief among them the buckwheat hulls (which by the way, another EU grower told me he would wager were soaked in anti-fungicide or something the like, which is probably why they were so detrimental).


Aside from that, I do try to keep it simple and just let the plants and the soil guide me, observe and listen and adjust.
But sometimes I am at a loss, usually due to lack of fundamental knowledge/understanding on my part, and then I need guidance from people who have that and best place I found to get that is places like here. Added bonus is discussing a mutual interest with interesting and usually friendly people, which is fun.


I expect great things from this upcoming round. With the buckwheat hulls eliminated, the calcium surplus seems the last remaining issue on paper and the last hurdle will be reamending the soil "properly" in between grows, not letting it dry out and keeping it alive.
But I know from the 2 runs with fresh soil batches that I was doing something right because the plants looked amazing and grew amazing. It was only in flower when the issues from the buckwheat hulls started to take hold and even then, I was just missing bulk in the end. The quality, smell etc. was amazing and it was still, by far, the best herb I ever grew and I would go as far as say among the best I ever enjoyed.

 

[bigbadbiddy]

Quick update:
10 out of 11 G13xSkunk MRN above ground (the last one won't make it, I accidentally clipped the tap root when removing it from the paper towel ...)
11 out of 11 Crumbled lime from Karma Squad above ground (looking great!)
7 out of 15 King Lambo from Karma Squad above ground (really bad... under 50% ... from the remaining 8 I give maybe half a chance of making it, at least 4 were not showing a hint of cracking/tap root after 5 days in paper towel)
6 out of 15 Blueberry from PeakseedsBC above ground (even worse than the King Lambo .. had previous bad experience with these germing... from the remaining 9, I say maybe 4 can make it. 1 showed a tap root that turned brownish and 4 others only had a hint of the crack shelling, ever so slight white line on the shell... after 5 days in paper towel ...)




I also brewed a "tea" with crushed malted barley, EWC and molasses. Threw some more crushed and uncrushed malted barley on top of the soil composting in the tubs, while the "tea" was brewing.
At first the worms didn't react too much to the malted barley on top of the soil but when the "tea" was done and I watered it in the soil mix, there was almost immediate development.
A few hours later I removed the tarp and the worms were going crazy, immediately retreating into the lower levels of the tub when I removed the tarp but there was sooo much movement for a second!


Seems like they really loved that stuff and I hope it was as beneficial for the soil as it seems.


I am a week or two out from transplanting the seedlings.


At that time I will dig up a good amount of the worms and use them to start a worm bin, then fill up the 1 gal pots and transplant the seedlings and see the magic unfold.

 

[Ncali]

Those blueberry from peak are notoriously hardshelled. They need vigorous scuffing and even cracking the shell by hand... best of luck man, very curious to hear your adventures with your new mix.

 

[bigbadbiddy]

Yeah, the Blueberries were a bit weird.


I called it on the remaining seeds and dug them up if they hadn't come up yet.
The Karma Squad King Mamba were pretty much ungermed. I sometimes struggled to find the seed in the jiffy plug. Most looked a bit transluscent/brownish, some had a hint of a browned/rotten tap root poking out the shell but most didn't even have that.
Conversely, the Blueberry all had a tap root sticking out, it was just mushy and dissolving and didn't grow into anything.


I remain with 7 King Mamba and 7 Blueberry (one did come up unexpected in the end).


Filled up the ranks with 15 of the new G13xAfgHz testers from Shanti. 15/15 germed within 48 hrs and put in jiffy plugs.




On the blueberries:
What irks me with those is that when I bought them, Peak had a mention in the strain description that these are hard to germinate and might need a little extra help/support to germinate.
When I bought them from him, I asked him what he would suggest as germination method, if I should scuff them with sandpaper slightly or if I should go straight for giberillic acid or what.
His answer was that the website wasn't up to date and he needs to take that info offline because this problem has since been fixed and they germ fine as any other strain.


Took him by his word and germed them as any other seeds. Sure enough, a bit less than half of the seeds did germ fine as any other seed. But more than half either didn't develop a tap root in the paper tissue, even after 2 more days than all others, and when put into jiffy plugs, they did eventually develop a tap root but it turned to mush and they died off, not making it above ground.




These are not throw-away beans for me, even though the price wasn't insanely expensive (3 bucks per) but I had to get it shipped all the way from Canada, had to exchange into dollars and all that jazz, was quite the adventure to get these and that makes me double mad that I might have been able to get a few more above ground, had I scuffed them with sandpaper.


Well, what you gonna do. Still have a hand full more of those, when I germ them I will scuff them ...






In the meantime, the seedlings have their first set of serrated leafs and are looking like they are ready for some nutrients.
I haven't seen any roots protruding out of the jiffy plugs so far, so I didn't feel in a rush.
But as luck has it, one of my power strips apparently broke and I need a replacement before i can fit my timer on the remaining strip.
Not sure if that was clear at all... Anyway as it stands I had to put the T8s on 24/0 and the first signs of yellow are showing on the seedlings.
I assume the 24 hour light cycle made them grow a bit faster and thus use up any available nutes faster.


Long story short, today or tomorrow I will transplant the seedlings into their 1 gal veg pots in the new soil mix.
Fingers crossed


I checked out the soil mix in the meantime. After I had watered with the malted barley/ewc/molasses tea, there was some definite composting going on there. The room was reeking. A little bit like a garbage can but not as unpleasant, a lot sweeter (malted barley I topdressed, I assume). The worms were loving it.


To check it out, I dug a little bit into the soil and the worms have moved much further down into the soil mix (used to only stay around the top). While there is still the most activity at the top (layer of EWC and malted barley here), they have moved down as well and seem to be happily digging away.


But it looks like the soil is composting quite a bit and I will get some more perlite today and cut it for the veglings. Probably something like 20/80 perlite/soilmix. Just to make it overall a bit lighter and airy for veg.


I then need to finish up work on my aero cloner (had it finished for a while but need to seal some spots where the lid apparently doesn't completely seal and water gets sprayed out when its running) and finally install a proper fan in the veg chamber (so far only had a clip fan that doesn't rotate) and I should be cruising for the next month of veg.


Oh I also drilled holes into the top of my veg pots for training purposes.
I plan to top as soon as the plant will allow me this time and then start to vigorously train the plants for the entire veg.

 

[PaulieWaulie]

this thread needs pics

 

[Ncali]

KISS

No nutes, let um chill. Organically amended soil doesn't need food this early.

 

[bigbadbiddy]

Oh I meant the soil when I said they are ready for nutrients.
Not much nutrients in the jiffy plugs/water. Enough for early seedling stage but once they have a set or two of serrated leafs, I think they are ready for some additional nutrients i.e. getting potted into the soil mix.




Yes, thread needs pics.
Going to transplant the seedlings into the 1 gal veg pots in the coming days and snap a pic or two.


Kinda boring to watch seedlings in jiffy plugs in propagators, no? Not much more I could post till then. Maybe I can snap a paparazzi pic or two of my worms xD