Super Skunk in an Earthbox

Almost a new year and I've made some upgrades to the setup. I now have 2 Earthboxes (14gallons each) I have been experimenting with, and holy shit these things are fantastic. I've grown some of the healthiest plants I've seen and with the extra size on the Earthboxes I can throw a ton of stuff at them. There are next to no purple stems, nothing but pure green all over. The soil has a ton of life in it, predator mites, worms, a ton of nematodes and microbes, and fungi. Needless to say, I probably won't be using smaller pots again. Had a lot of fungus gnats for the first little while but I hit them a few times with BTI(Mosquito Dunks) and EM1, which pretty much destroyed them. Still get the occasional few but they're very much under control now. I also have a new grow light, the Viparspectra P4000. Puts my old Mars Hydro TSW2000 to shame. I highly recommend the grow series from Jeremy at BuildaSoil ---> https://www.youtube.com/c/BuildASoil/videos He really knows his stuff when it comes to growing organic, and using the Earthboxes. EM1(Essential Microorganisms) used recipe 1: https://zenyrgarden.com/how-to-make-em1-effective-microorganism/ Lactobacillus recipe: https://growingorganic.com/ipm-guide/how-to-make-lactobacillus/ FFJ (Fermented fruit juice) : https://growingorganic.com/ipm-guide/using-fermented-fruit-juice/ Been doing a lot of experimenting in Veg and originally wasn't going to make any diaries for these, but things are going so well I thought, why not? Each Earthbox has the following: (Earthbox reservoirs get only de-chlorinated water) 25% Happy Frog 25% Ocean Forest 10% Seaweed Compost 10% Mushroom Compost 10% Worm Castings 20% Rice Hulls I use the mulch covers and top dress only, with the following every 4-5 weeks in Veg(most nutrients are from Gaia Green): (all dry ingredients accept for the compost, are added to a jar and shaken to mix) 1 Cup Seaweed Compost 1 Tbsp Gypsum 1 Tbsp Basalt Rock Dust 1 Tbsp Glacial Rock Dust 1 Tbsp Insect Frass 1 Tbsp Alfalfa meal 1 Tbsp Oyster Shell Flour 1 Tbsp Crab/Lobster shell meal 2 Tbsp Kelp meal 1 Tbsp Langbenite 1 Tbsp Mineralized Phosphate 1/2 Cup Karanja cake 1/2 Cup Bokashi 1/2 cup Malted Barley (Ground) 1 Tsp Yukka 1 Tbsp Gaia Green All Purpose Then watered in with De-chlorinated water, Molasses, Fishshit, TM7, EM1, LAB (Watering in consists of spraying the top dress with about 1/3rd gallon of liquid) Flower top dress: 1 Cup Seaweed Compost 1 Tbsp Gypsum 1 Tbsp Basalt Rock Dust 1 Tbsp Glacial Rock Dust 1 Tbsp Insect Frass 1 Tsp Alfalfa meal 1 Tbsp Oyster Shell Flour 1 Tbsp Crab/Lobster shell meal 1 Tbsp Kelp meal 1 Tbsp Langbenite 1 Tbsp Mineralized Phosphate 1/2 Cup Karanja cake 1/2 Cup Bokashi 1/2 cup Malted Barley (Ground) 1 Tsp Yukka 2 Tbsp Gaia Power Bloom Then watered in with de-chlorinated water, Molasses, FishShit, TM7, EM1, LAB, Rezin, Chitosal, Fish Hydro (Watering in consists of spraying the top dress with about 1/3rd gallon of liquid) Next week I start adding some FFJ to the mix. Happy New Year growmies!

She grew almost a foot since last week, flower development is looking good, and I can even see trichomes forming now. I can see the feeder roots coming up now, under the mulch cover, so I sprinkled them with myco and put on a light layer of worm castings. Watered in the rest of the goodies for about a 1/3rd gallon over the top of the medium. Also trimmed off some small shoots and leaves in the skirt to clean up the would be larf.

Light defoliation this week, along with better trichome production and she started making resin. Has a nice herb type of smell with no sign of anything skunky. Really nice node spacing and bud development is moving along well. No signs of deficiency so I may not top dress next week.

Feeding time this week, since I saw a few yellowing leaves in the underside. Top dressed with the ingredients below and watered in with a 1/3rd gallon of the liquid nutrients listed above. Found a very tiny mushroom about the size of a grain of rice, which is very nice to see. Sprinkled some myco on the feeder roots, covered in top dress, then covered that in worm castings. Bud growth is looking really nice and smelling even nicer but not skunky at all, more sweet. Also added CO2 to the tent in the form of a mushroom grow bag for oyster mushrooms, (adding the shitaki later today) and ye olde sugar+water+brewer's yeast. I pollinated a few of the branches this week with some Bubblegum Breath and Tangie Cookies for kicks and giggles. You can see the bracts swelling up already. Flower top dress this week: 3 Cups Worm castings 1 Tbsp Gypsum 1 Tbsp Basalt Rock Dust 1 Tbsp Glacial Rock Dust 1 Tbsp Insect Frass 1 Tbsp Oyster Shell Flour 1 Tbsp Crab/Lobster shell meal 1 Tbsp Mineralized Phosphate 1 Tbsp Karanja Cake 1/2 Cup Bokashi 1/2 cup Malted Barley (Ground) 1 Tsp Yukka 2 Tbsp Gaia Power Bloom

Some remarkable growth this week, and the myrcene has really kicked up that skunk smell. Super sticky with resin, louder smells and some of the hairs have started turning orange. This one has been a lighter drinker than the Black Sugar (likely due to size difference) and I've only had to fill the tank every 4ish days with 2 gallons. Top watered with the above nutrients for 1/3rd gallon. I can't wait to see how they fill out this week. No signs of senescence yet, but this is my first Earthbox grow so it will be up to the genetics to finish as opposed to nutrient availability since I've just been shoving liquid nutrients in there every week.

Lots of new pistil clusters forming this week as she continues to put on weight; the main cola is massive. I had to add a scrog net to the tent to keep the lower buds from falling over. Defoliated a lot of the larger fan leaves to open up the canopy, no signs of senescence yet. Smells have changed to a hint of lemon, and a touch of sweetness with the skunk. Same 1/3 gallon of the nutrients above to the top of the medium. Fungus gnats are completely gone now 👊. Home stretch is in sight and they can only get better from here💪

Had a bit of a cat-tastrophy this week. I left my tent open to go and fill a bucket of water, came back and zipped it up. What I didn't know is that the cat got in. Not 5 minutes later I can hear all sorts of shit moving around so I came in to find I had zipped him and and he went bonkers and bent almost every branch on the Skunk. So I had to do emergency tie jobs, but I ended up losing 2 medium colas and 1 small one. Could have been much worse if the skrog net wasn't there to stop them from snapping. Injuries look like bent plastic straws, so I'm going to be watching her closely to see if she herms from that massive amount of stress. Some of the pics have cat hair in them, thank the little brat. Anyway, Skunk is a 45-50 day finisher so I'm going another week and then she gets the chop. Lots of microscope videos today and finally found an amoeba. Also something moving in an egg...what is it? That's at 400x so I think it's a nematode egg based on what I found online. If you look closely at the super zoomed in trichome shot, you can see the reflections of other trichomes...just fucking epic.👏 All the food stops now, too much in the soil for her to start senescence. Nothing but water and FFJ now. New pistils are still coming in so who knows, maybe she'll keep going a few more weeks.

End of the line for Super Skunk. While she didn't yield as much due to some cat related circumstances, these colas are fucking fat and bulbous. Sweet and almost chocolate smelling in the end. She's pretty loud and when combined with the Black Sugar in the dry tent; it absolutely reeks of goodness in there. Max flower time was 7 weeks, but I left her an extra week and a day to harvest at the same time as the Black Sugar. If the colas were bigger I would be concerned about my current dry situation not being cool enough. Chopped at 8 weeks +1 day. Smoke report and dry weight to come in the next week or two. Tent is clean and ready for the next grow.

Growing her was a breeze, and I really liked her shape: short n' stocky with think colas. Didn't train her at all so the lower yield is on me, and the cat for wrecking some of the branches. Buds are absolute chonks and easily the biggest I've grown to date. A few seeds have found their way into this one though, from my first time pollen chucking one of the branches=/ lesson learned. Super sticky, with a sweet/fruit smell. Looking forward to the smoke=) Report to come.