Black Sugar 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. *This thing is an absolute beast. The trunk is almost three times as thick as the Super Skunk and I had to low stress train it to keep the canopy level with the Skunk. Could do with a little trim on the skirt but I'll probably wait until next week.* 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 by 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 VEG 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 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, trichomes are barely visible. I can see the feeder roots coming up 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.

Big and possibly last defoliation this week to open up the canopy. Trichomes are starting to coat all the way down the sugar leaves, and she starting making a nice sweet smelling resin this week. Feeder roots are everywhere on top of the soil now, and I might not have to top dress next week as there are no deficiencies. Bud sites are filling out nicely.

Feeding time this week, did some more defoliation to open up the canopy. Top dressed with the ingredients below and watered in with a 1/3rd gallon of the liquid nutrients listed above. Sprinkled some myco on the feeder roots, covered in top dress, then covered that in worm castings and watered in with de-chlorinated water containing the liquid ingredients above. Bud growth is looking really nice and smelling herb-like. 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 last week with some Bubblegum Breath and Tangie Cookies for kicks and giggles. Flower top dress this week: 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 1/2 Cup Karanja cake 1/2 Cup Bokashi 1/2 cup Malted Barley (Ground) 1 Tsp Yukka 2 Tbsp Gaia Power Bloom

Lots of nice growth this week, though not as much as the Skunk. Added another 2l bottle of sugar/water/brewers yeast to hang over her, like I did with the Skunk. Hopefully it's enough extra C02 to fatten her up a bit. Very sticky but not quiet as loud smelling as the Skunk, also no signs of senescence on her yet but some of the thinner branches are buckling so I had to tie them up. Mites are going ape shit in the soil, video is above. If you grow organic and see these in your soil, it's a good thing as they eat baddies and help to break down nutrients. Fungus gnats are very much under control, I see a few every now and again but the soil microbes/mites keep them at bay.

Packing on serious weight this week, almost every branch was falling over so I had to put up a scrog net and tie off most of the branches. Lots of new pistil clusters this week as well. Defoliated a lot of the inner growth to open up the smaller bud sites, and turned the light down a tad since I can see some leave ends curling. She tarted senescence on the inner growth that wasn't getting a lot of light. Fed her the above nutrients as 1/3 gallon on top of the medium. Smelling a touch sweet and herby.

Two of the bigger colas took damage from the cat-tastophe, so their now tied to the ceiling. There is one fat cola in the back that's fatter than the main, can't wait to see what this thing weighs. Buds are heavy and frosty, with barely any amber.. Supposed to finish in 8 weeks around the same as the skunk, but still plenty of new pistils coming in; take it week by week from here. No real senescence on her so there's plenty of food in the soil. Refer to my Skunk diary for info on the cat-tastophy.

She's done, and wow she had some heavy, solid buds. Nice sweet smell that's currently overpowering the dry tent with the Skunk. I had to use a saw to get through the trunk lol. No wet weight since the branches are attached, dry weight and smoke report to come in the next week or two. 8 Weeks was listed as max flower time, and I really don't want to try drying even fatter buds with my current dry situation not being cool enough. Full 8 weeks +1 day of flower. Tent is already cleaned and seeds picked for the next grow. Going to try to make some manifolds I think. I also got little camera so I can make time lapse videos of growth and get a better idea of how they react to the environment.

A pretty easy grow overall, especially in the Earthbox. Buds have starting curing in jars and have a nice sugar smell with a mild skunk. Trimming was pretty easy as she wasn't too leafy, but I got a lot of larf since I didn't spend a great deal of time training. My fault and my next grow will be trained properly. Some of the buds are super long, and all of them are nice and dense. Not as sticky as some of my other grows, but I'm not making hash or resin so not a big deal for me. Good genetics. Smoke report to come.