Zake

minipopsAutoFlowersSuck The medium is Canna compressed brick coco coir without perlite. It's been hydrated with General Hydroponic's Calimagic and a pH of 6.0 No other fertilizer has been added yet. So there is no Remo added at this time. These plants have been in solo cups for awhile, maybe close to a month. Fed with Mantis. Unfortunately, they have Thrips. I've been soaping them with insecticidal soap, but i just can't get rid of them. I'll continue to soap them every 3 days. I'll also use a Pyrethrin Fogger until flower. I can also try Diatomaceous earth around the base of the stem. I'll need to keep the coco dry on top to use it. I'm pondering to just soap them till flower. and order lady bugs to deploy for the flower stage. Undecided at the moment. PPFD at the plant tops is around 500. I think i Fimmed 1 or 2, but i can't remember when i did it. Anyways, last run of the season. Here we go again mother fucker!

minipopsAutoFlowersSuck The ladies are a little drought stricken. The wick ropes haven't made their connection to the soil yet. I had that problem before and that's why i stopped using the ac infinity wick bases in the past. Today i dumped 4 liters of nutrients into each pot right at the base of the stem so hopefully that soaked all the way down to the bottom and made contact with the ropes. Other than that, i can see thrip damage progressing slowly. I'll remove them tomorrow into the bath tub and give them a thorough insecticidal soap spraying and remove any severely damaged leaves. I'll try to dust the stem with Diatomaceous Earth and maybe a dusting of some of the bottom leaves after the soaping treatment has dried. Did i mention I HATE THRIP LARVAE?

minipopsAutoFlowersSuck I flipped these 6 days ago to 12/12. Thrips are there and chowing down on lower leaves. I'll hit them with a phrethrin based fogger soon. I got maybe 2 applications of the fogger before the buds begin to form. Then i'm at the mercy of the thrips.

minipopsAutoFlowersSuck Just finished insecticidal soap spraying these girls and picked off the most damaged leaves and cleaned up the bottom a little bit of lower leaves and dead foliage. I hope i can get this crop off with a good harvest. Thrips are just so damn annoying and TOUGH to get rid off if not damn near impossible. I've been battling them for 8 months and i can't beat them. If i can get the wick ropes to make a steady connection with the medium, then i can use Diatomaceous earth over the soil surface and dust the plants stems and some of the lower growth with it and that should stop them from advancing up the plant. For anyone dealing with Thrips, here's something many likely don't know. Thrips lay eggs in soil, coco, peat, whatever. If it's soil or a variant, they will lay eggs. However, i have 2 hydro gardens in the same space but different tents. 1 is with rockwool and the other is in clay pebbles. Neither of those gardens have Thrips. I mean Zero. There's no stipling on any leaves on either. I see nothing flying in those gardens and believe me they've been exposed numerous times. Food for thought... This will likely be the last soaping i can get away with because it won't be long and the pistils will start popping. After that i may get a phrethrin fog in around week 4 and then that will be it. I won't spray anything past that. I don't want to compromise the quality and produce a product with chemicals in it.

minipopsAutoFlowersSuck This is actually into week 5 of flower. I was lazy and missed a week. Thrips are still there and a pain in the ass as they devour the lower foliage. I have no lady bugs or any other predators so the plants are at the mercy of the thrip larvae. I've deployed Diatomaceous Earth at the base of the stems and onto the stems to maybe kill any that emerge from the soil and try to crawl up. I'll maybe do a pyrethrin fog soon after a defoliation before the buds fill in too much. After that its a race against time to finish the plants before the Thrips over run the plants and their health begins to suffer. I'll tell you something about thrips, THEY SUCK!!! I've battled them for 8 months to no avail. No matter what i do they are there. I insecticidal soap sprayed them every 3 days. Still there. I dump Diatomaceous Earth over the entire soil surface, but after a few days i had to water which ruins the DE so that didn't work. Once you have Thrips they are damn near impossible to eradicate. I know i could buy expensive mites that will kill them off but they are 0 and i'm not gonna spend that on little insects....fuck you! My solution is to shut down operations totally. I've thrown away all my mothers, which is costing me a lot of lost revenue as the growing season approaches. I'll finish these plants and then thats it. Till winter when i'll sprout new strains and have mothers again.

minipopsAutoFlowersSuck Same pictures as last weeks diary post. I missed a week so i'm catching up today by adding 2 weeks to the diary so all the pix were taken today for last week and this week. Sorry if thats disappointing. Next week i'll be sure to do a better diary entry.

minipopsAutoFlowersSuck Still plugging along. Thrip larvae are chewing away. I'm thinking i should be able to get this crop off before the Thrips over take the plant and cause withering. I still have the Diatomaceous earth at the bases of each stem so any newly hatched larvae will have to crawl over it and ultimately die as a result. Thrips lay eggs in soil so i thought if i blocked access to the plant with the Dia Earth then there wont be any new larvae getting onto the plants, and the existing larvae on the plants will become flying thrips and will no longer be consuming the plant material, and no new larvae will get onto the plants via the stem. Thats my theory anyways. Few weeks to go. We press onward!

minipopsAutoFlowersSuck Did a little maintenance with some defoliating. Mostly lower Thrip damaged leaves and some dead crispy stuff in the internal plant. Seems the back plant is a little pissed off and showing some signs of possible potassium or phosphorous issues. There's no problem with the nutrients i use so it's either a pH drift causing a phosphorous and potassium issue. Maybe some stuff is locked out. I have noticed that back plants stems are quite red for the typical plants i grow. Thrips are still chewing away on the plants. Thankfully it's looking like the plants will reach harvest without any serious consequences from the Thrips. I hate thrips!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mix up 4 gallons with each nutrient mix and i'm not strickly filling the bottom water reservoirs with 1 gal each every few days. I put distomaceous earth around the base of the plant stems to stop the larvae migrating from the soil so i'm not watering over the top anymore. Probably gonna have to stake them up soon. We Press On for the last time in 2025!

minipopsAutoFlowersSuck This is going to be my last crop for awhile. I've been rolling crop after crop in 4 different tents since last September and I'm burnt out! I defoliated 1 plant a bit but have basically just said fuck it and let them grow. They are bushy and will likely produce whispy buds in the thick of the plant but i just don't care. The back plant has some weird shit that went on with some of the fan leaves. I never bothered to take a close look at it. I just kept hitting it with 6.0ish ph'd food and it's seemed to stabilize. Stems on that one are quite reddish purple but over all the plant is growing and looking good and is performing the same as the other 3 plants. Since i put the diatomaceous earth around the base of the stems, the thrip damage progression has significantly slowed. My thought was that the larvae that were feeding on the plants will eventually turn into a flying Thrip which will lay it's eggs in the soil. When they hatch they will emerge and try to get to the plant but have to pass over the D.E. and that spells death for the larvae. If they can't access the plant, they can't feed. Right? I had hydroponic gardens in tents that were right beside a coco grown tent with thrips and the hydro garden never got infected. I think that because they had no soil to lay eggs in, there was no infestation that could occur. I've had Thrips since last summer and have done 2 hydro crops since then. 1 using rockwool, and the other using clay pebbles and the only crops with Thrip issues were the coco grown crops. Anyways, i fucking HATE BUGS! I can't wait for this crop to be done so i can shut down and clean and tear everything down so i can move. We're starting week 7 and they are still filling out so we'll see how much farther they will go.

minipopsAutoFlowersSuck Crop is winding down. Leaves are getting purple and yellow. Less and less new pistils appearing. 2 weeks remain i predict. The big fan leaves are crisping up on some of the plants. A deficiency for sure likely due to a ph problem or a lock out from conflicting elements. I can't be bothered to try to remedy it because it's so close to being done. Thrips remain and the plants are damaged from their larvae, but the crop will make it to completion, thankfully. I nearly pulled the plug on the entire season because of them. Between lady bugs, soaping, and Diatomaceous earth, i've battled them for 9 months. I can't win. I've destroyed all my mother plants and this Zake crop will be the last one. Then i will shut down for the summer. Having some difficulty keeping the temps in control. It's gotten warmer of late and 78F is the constant. That is where my extraction fan kicks on, but because it's at 78F always the fan never kicks off during lights on which is reducing the humidity to as low as 30% Oh well, almost done!

minipopsAutoFlowersSuck Almost finished. Starting to yellow a bit. Nice shades of violet coming in. Still feeding. I don't flush. No point to flush it achieves nothing other than reducing terpenes and shaves a little nutrient cost i guess.