Plants are growing so fast now I've had to trim them twice a week, I might have to trim them again tomorrow. Everything 3 or 4 days I can no longer see thru the middle on the top down shots and I'm out of space for training outwards. Mulch layer is over an inch and a half thick now, moving it reveals worms and even some worm cocoons so they're getting enough to eat.
Going to push them into flower soon, the only thing holding me back is waiting for any loose pollen to become inert from my breeding tent that I just washed down (Those plants are looking hella seedy=) ) I'll probably take a day or two and spray everything in the main tent down with water and let it dry a few times.
Lot's of bro-science on the pollen subject but I found a study I posted below:
"The study found that pollen collected during different growth stages has different periods of longevity. Researchers collected the pollen during four different stages of flower development over 21 days; Early, Mid, Mid-Late and Late. The only stage that did not lose viability after 7 days in storage at 4°C (39.2°F) was Mid. The pollen collected during the Mid flowering stage retained its viability for the longest period which was 22% of pollen grains after 21 days stored at 4°C."
This is based on pollen stored at low temps for longevity, and I certainly don't have low temps. Greenhouses also use fogging machines to help prevent pollination as well, so we'll see what happens with the spray-downs.
Hey man I'm about to switch to an earth box soon as I harvest my OG kush. I was curious what your base soil is, I was planning on using Promix BX+ with Gaia Green then top dressing with worms and wormcastings. I also wanted to use the plastic mulch cover and bokashi to essentially compost any trimmings I take off the plant. Does this sound like a good plan to you? I'm familiar with BuildASoil but I was curious if you had any other good sources of information on this specific topic?
@PhunkyPhallus,
Sorry for the late reply.
My soil base is 1/2 Happy Frog, 1/2 Ocean forest, mixed with worm castings, rice hulls, and seaweed compost. I moved away from Promix when I started the Earthboxes because I wanted to maximize the microbiology. This is actually my first grow without the mulch cover, they work great though and you get nice mycelium growth if you put Bokashi and ground barley on top of your top dress nutes. Things tend to break down pretty quickly under the mulch cover since it's always dark and worms/fungi love that.
I have a 1 inch mulch layer from chop and drop stuff on my current grow. A bit late posting it actually=/
Everything I learned about Earthboxes came from the BuildaSoil 10*10 grow series.
I learned soil microbiology from several books and vids, mostly Dr Elaine Ingam