Secret Garden

Day 57 - December 18, 2023 I accidentally topped the tall girl. Her last node stretched too much, I knocked it just right with my elbow...clean off. Oh well, maybe it'll help the bud sites develop better if it doesn't stress her out too much. Day 59 - December 20, 2023 Flowers are starting to take shape (and color). Took some pics today. Day 60 - December 21, 2023 Well, last week I tried to combat fungus gnats after finding a couple flying around. If you remember, I thought it was because I was being me and dumb as usual, by mixing a new batch of soil in my grow room. I don't think that was the reason at all anymore. Here are the facts: - I saw a couple adults flying around in my flower tent about two weeks ago, and immediately took action to get rid of them, knowing my soil is fungus gnat proof with the solution I water my plants with. - A couple days later, I saw the same amount of them. Mostly crawling around on the floor. That is when I decided to empty the tent, clean it good with isopropyl alcohol, and wipe down their fabric pots with isopropyl alcohol too. I also misted the plants down 2 nights in a row before lights out with a citrus-based fungicidal and insecticidal organic product. - A few days later, yesterday, they were pretty much swarming my tent. - I inspected the soil closely, especially after watering, by digging around and looking really close. If you know what to look for, you can see fungus gnat larvae if there is an infestation from hatching eggs. They look like very tiny maggots with a black head and white body wriggling through the soil. Very hard to see and have to know where to look, but it's possible. I did not see a single one in any of these three pots. - I waited until today to let the soil dry out completely from the last watering, and then I knuckled the soil to test moisture, before covering the top with about an inch of diatomaceous earth, using a paint brush to cover it evenly, and also the inside and outside rims of the fabric pots. Normally, you don't want to use this stuff in flower, but I have a plan, and this is only a temporary preventative measure for the existing adults. Considering that the soil seems to be fungus gnat free, except for the adults dancing around on the top, and nothing like previous outbreaks, where I could clearly see where they were coming from (hatching larvae in the soil), this is new to me. But, I have a pretty good idea what is wrong. My theory, is, on the other side of the basement where my grow room exhausts into, is a covered 20gal tote of compost and a covered 20gal tote of peat. I am willing to bet, the recent colder temperatures caused them to evacuate and look for moisture. Well my exhaust hose is fairly far away, but it's not sealed with pantyhose or anything, so I will need to fix that. Additionally, I learned that I was running my tent a little too cold in the daytime, which doesn't help matters. I have since corrected that as well, while keeping the same optimal VPD levels. The last watering I did, was with an insecticidal solution of neem oil and citrus ferment, as when I inspected the soil, I did find some tiny bugs that looked like soil ticks. I am going to kill off some microbiology with this, but I am doing everything I can here. Since we have D.E. on top, and D.E. is worthless when wet, we now must bottom feed. I think a final measure is going to be to move my soil totes into my garage, where it is freezing, unless I am "cooking" a new batch, in which I will probably allocate a new sealed space for, somewhere. If you have any other suggestions, let me know in the comments!