Diary PCBuds mini-grow

[PCBuds]

Yep, for sure it is!

I have this crap growing on the surface of the coco too...














I decided to try to inoculate the plants with a soil transplant from my closet plant.
The closet plant has soil mites and springtails in the coco/perlite.










Then I sprayed the surface with anaerobic bacteria as well as watering some in with nute solution.










Wish me luck, I'm winging it again. Lol

 

[exploziv]

Soil mites and springtails are not always bad. That fuzzy stuff is some kind of fungi, and should not be a problem. I would sugest covering the coco surface with perlite or some kind of inert product. That way you limit the gnats populations a lot. Other things you should have are yellow sticky traps and BTI (bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis) products if you can find any.
Also water less, only what they need, and avoid standing water in the trays.

 

[PCBuds]

I'm not too worried.
I must have had them buzzing around my grows over the past 5-6 years that I've been growing, but I've had soil mites in my closet from the start.
I think they came with the sheep manure I bought way back.

The window plants were pretty much sterile though, so I thought I'd try a transplant.

 

[PCBuds]

Soil mites and springtails are not always bad.

I like them!!!
The mites should enjoy a nice protein snack.
They might be getting bored with their dead root diet. Lol

That fuzzy stuff is some kind of fungi, and should not be a problem.

As long as it's not on my buds.

I would sugest covering the coco surface with perlite or some kind of inert product.
That way you limit the gnats populations a lot.

I wanted to water in the bacteria, mites, and springtails.
I will let it dry up a bit and cover it up with perlite.

Other things you should have are yellow sticky traps and BTI (bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis) products if you can find any.

I might be able to find sticky traps but the BTI might be harder to find.

Also water less, only what they need, and avoid standing water in the trays.

I'll dump them.
I'll covert it from a SIP container back to a DTW.

 

[PCBuds]

I doctored up my plants.

And apparently, it's 27.2°C at 29% RH. Lol

 

[PCBuds]

 

[PCBuds]

 

[aliceklar]

I might be able to find sticky traps but the BTI might be harder to find

You can get Gnatrol BTi via ebay from the US, very cheaply. Also, I've found a top-dressing with sand & gravel helps to keep gnats down (and also reduces soil evaporation).


Think its a great idea to innoculate with a more varied soil life, if you got some critters out of balance. Watching with interest

 

[PCBuds]

Before I put the perlite on top of my pots, I added another cup of soil from my closet plant on the surface of the pots to cover them.

This morning I found a single gnat on the perlite of each pot.
They are really easy to see against the white perlite.
I just squished them. They are really easy to catch, they aren't very good fliers. When I see one flying around, I wet my hand and snatch it out of the air.
They stick to a wet hand.

I also sprinkled diatomaceous earth on top of the perlite.

I'm going to put perlite and diatomaceous earth on top of the closet plant too.








I looked into bennies and found a place that ships from Canada, but I would have to pick them up at the post office because it can't freeze.
I don't want to bother with that.


I think I'm doing OK.
I've only seen about a dozen and I wouldn't call it an infestation, however, the larvae take 2-3 weeks to hatch and fly around so I could see a lot more in the coming weeks unless they don't make it through the perlite and diatomaceous earth when they hatch?


If everything goes to complete shit, I should still be able to harvest all the plants, even if they just end up in the slow cooker, and turned into fudge, then I'll take some time off of growing while I try to sterilize my house.

I'll buy some bennies and try to reestablish a healthy substrate.

 

[PCBuds]

I decided to not dump my trays. That way I don't have to water them from the top to help keep it dry, and I really suck at watering.

My plants were always either flooded or powder dry and I just couldn't get the hang of it.

I like the SIP method, or whatever it is that I got going on? Lol.

It really is working for me and I don't want to give up on my method.

The plant takes care of its own watering.

I just PH'ed the water again.
It drifted up to 7.4
I brought it down to 5.4 so it can drift back up through the range again.

 

[exploziv]

That's too bug of a ph variation. Ph is a logaritmic scale so 5 to 6 = 1x more basic, 5 to 7 is 10 times more basic. Changes need to be slow and small.

 

[PCBuds]

That's too bug of a ph variation. Ph is a logaritmic scale so 5 to 6 = 1x more basic, 5 to 7 is 10 times more basic. Changes need to be slow and small.

Hmmm...

I have PH'ed the tray before and it seemed to be okay with it.

I've had been watering from the top, at the stalk with about the same 5.4 PH.

I'm going to just add water/nutes to the tray now, so I thought I should PH the tray to what I water it with.

I could bring it up a bit to maybe optimize things a bit.

 

[PCBuds]

Check it out!!

My favorite bennie is still hanging around!







She'll take care of those gnats for me!


I don't think I'm going to put the perlite/diatomaceous earth in the closet.
I'm thinking my closet grow is fine and I don't want to hurt my favorite bennie.
She is good luck.

 

[Sampas92]

I like a lot of that bennie

 

[PCBuds]

I like a lot of that bennie

I had spider mites a while back and did some research to find out that you can buy Lady Bugs and have them shipped in the mail.

Then you set them free in your grow room and they eat all the spider mites.

So whenever I find a Lady Bug outside, I bring it in the house and put it in my closet.

She's been in there for over a month and she seems to be quite happy.


That may not be a good thing?
She didn't starve to death so she has been eating something.

 

[PCBuds]

That's too bug of a ph variation. Ph is a logaritmic scale so 5 to 6 = 1x more basic, 5 to 7 is 10 times more basic. Changes need to be slow and small.

I remember reading that it's good to let the PH drift up and down in a hydroponic set up so that the plant has a chance to absorb all the different nutrients at their different PH availability range.


I was going by this...







Apparently, some nutrients don't get absorbed until the PH is 5.55 or lower.

My runoff, or the water in the tray, always drifts up to 7.3 or more so I have been feeding my plants at 5.4 and just let her drift back to 7.3 then bring the PH down again.




My closet plant was looking really pale and I just thought it was light bleaching.

The water/runoff at the bottom of the cooler was reading 7.4
I figured that wasn't good so I flushed the cooler with nute solution set at PH 5.4 then siphoned it off and it still was at 7.3 so I PH'ed it down again and poured it back through.

I had to do that 3-4 times, with the PH going in as low as 4.2 before I finally got the runoff down to 6.4 or so.

Then I dumped it out, made a new batch, PH'ed it to 5.4 and refilled my cooler.



I'm pretty sure that is what turned my plant around. She darkened right up and looks Really healthy now.

I did do some other changes to my closet later though. I reduced my lights on time, added some heat, and increased my nutes.

But I'm pretty sure that it was my PH flush that turned things around for me.

Now I feed all my plants with a 5.4 PH and the runoff PH doesn't go all the way up to 7.4 anymore.

 

[Sampas92]

I had spider mites a while back and did some research to find out that you can buy Lady Bugs and have them shipped in the mail.

Then you set them free in your grow room and they eat all the spider mites.

So whenever I find a Lady Bug outside, I bring it in the house and put it in my closet.

She's been in there for over a month and she seems to be quite happy.


That may not be a good thing?
She didn't starve to death so she has been eating something.

If its a good thing i dont know, do you notice anything on the plant itself? If you dont see anything bad let it be, if its happy and your girl is happy

 

[PCBuds]

If its a good thing i dont know, do you notice anything on the plant itself? If you dont see anything bad let it be, if its happy and your girl is happy

I don't know how long they live without eating so I don't know if she ate any bugs?

I don't see any bugs in the closet but maybe I should give my plant a good inspection.

I Googled how to take care of pet Lady Bugs. Lol

Apparently, you can soak a raisin to soften it and she will eat it.


I'll have a lucky Lady Bug and a lucky raisin in my closet. Lol

 

[Sampas92]

I don't know how long they live without eating so I don't know if she ate any bugs?

I don't see any bugs in the closet but maybe I should give my plant a good inspection.

I Googled how to take care of pet Lady Bugs. Lol

Apparently, you can soak a raisin to soften it and she will eat it.


I'll have a lucky Lady Bug and a lucky raisin in my closet. Lol

Thats the universe talking to you my friend

 

[PCBuds]

I've got a shit load of diatomaceous earth on top of the pots and I was worried about smothering the roots, so I put a bunch of holes in the pots.

I don't want to let bugs in, but I didn't want them to smother.









After finding those two gnats this morning, I found one more flying around the house and one more crawling on the side of the pot.

I've got some sticky pads coming in the mail.

I'll keep my eye on the numbers and if things start going crazy, I'll get some neem or something.

I haven't found any in the closet, but I guess that doesn't mean that there aren't any in there.