Living Soil rocks!🤘🏼

SleepyChow After three days, all three girls have sprouted. Lemon Tree was the first and quickly developed a strong taproot, followed by the CBD Skunk Haze, and about 12 hours later Wappa popped up. A day later I placed the fabric pots in the tent and hooked them up to the prepared Blumat system. A few days before, I had watered the soil again with a total of 10 liters of compost tea. When planting the jiffys, it became clear how nice, airy and soft the soil is – and how fat my compost worms have gotten 😂. The soil is also rich in nematodes, springtails, and various arthropods 🤩. In the photos you can also see the fungal mycelium growing on the hemp mulch, as well as some little inkcap mushrooms that are popping up everywhere 🙌🏼. Unfortunately, moist, nutrient-rich soil also attracts pests. But thanks to the heavy use of predatory mites, nematodes, and yellow sticky traps, the fungus gnat population has been massively reduced. Now, however, fruit flies have increased, so since yesterday I’ve also added blue sticky traps (which turned out to work really well) and small pots with vinegar and apple juice granules – which have already proven to be amazing in the rest of the apartment. Way too early on, I added a tiny splash of fish emulsion to the compost tea, worried that the last run might have depleted the soil a bit. But of course that wasn’t the case 😅. LT and Wappa are growing every day, while the CSH is still stagnating. All of them are showing signs of nitrogen excess – or maybe the fruit fly infestation is stressing them. I’ll keep observing for a few more days. I also need to reseed some cover crop/green manure. If the symptoms persist, I already have two ideas on how to fix it. To raise humidity, I keep spraying the girls with water every few hours and pour a bit of water on the ground so it can evaporate in the unfortunately too high temps of the last days and weeks. But today I saw a tip from another grower: soaking clay pebbles in a tray of water inside the tent. Maybe I’ll try that 🤔. Actually, I should have transplanted the girls into smaller pots first, or at least replaced the nutrient-rich soil with a lighter mix where I planted them. But I don’t want to measure pH at all costs – I wanted to see if it would work without it. It worked just fine last run, so I’m not losing hope yet. And since LT and Wappa are still developing… 🤷🏼‍♂️ Oh yeah, I only use water that has either stood for at least 24 hours or has been aerated for 4 hours beforehand.

SleepyChow So, the suspicion of nitrogen over-saturation did not confirm itself as things went on. Maybe the leaves were just showing stress signs because of the quick “transplanting,” or maybe it was the fruit fly attack. But the Empire strikes back. The blue and yellow sticky traps, the vinegar + fruit concentrate traps, and a fly catcher above the lamp wiped out the population for now. As for the girls: the Force is with them. At least with Lemon Tree and Wappa. The CBD Skunk Haze took the transplant the hardest and is about a week behind. Nevertheless, she’s also developing 🙌🏼. In foresight, I didn’t sow any more Little Helper Seeds. I figured the girls should establish themselves in the pots first. Anyway, the cover crop is only now really starting to sprout. Here and there I trim it back so the companion plants don’t crowd or overshadow the girls. The fan has been running for a few days now, blowing gently around the girls. Since then, humidity has also gone up 💪🏼. I switched it off for a day as a test, and humidity instantly dropped. Maybe I’m just uneducated or dumb that this surprised me, but it was my revelation of the week 😂😂. I’ve now gradually turned the lamp up to 75% power. And I cut off the damaged leaves with sterilized tools, before they could become easy victims for mold or other issues.

SleepyChow Hi guys 👋🏼 The girls are now three weeks old. As you can see, the CSH is still about a week behind. Wappa and Lemon Tree are developing beautifully and at roughly the same pace. Wappa is growing more in width, while LT is stretching upwards. I’ve decided to mainline them to keep the height (especially of the LT) under control and to end up with more evenly growing plants. I’ve done this in a past grow already with good results. I don’t practice the classic mainlining method where you keep the third node and top above it so only that remains, but instead Jay’s version from Hyperactive Highs🔥🔥🔥 Super cool dude, hope you’re doing well mate. He also works around the third node, but checks which internodal spacing to the next node is shorter(2th or 4th). That’s the one he keeps, while topping and removing the rest.So we have four branches,not just two.I top 2 cm or more above the next node to prevent the stem from splitting. This way the plant stays easy to manage, while the yield increases. By topping, apical dominance is reduced, and the plant produces more auxins that promote root development and the growth of side branches. Jay already defoliates at that point, but I’m leaving the big fan leaves for now. As we all learned back in school 😁 leaves are the power plant of the plant. They might help the plant deal with the stress of topping better 🤷🏼‍♂️ plus, they don’t really get in the way. I already removed the first node from both plants yesterday to kind of spread the stress and see how they’d react. It’s normal that they first droop a bit – don’t worry 😬 I’ll mainline the CSH only next week, depending on how she develops. In the coming days, the girls will also get a compost tea to give them a little boost 💪🏼 https://youtube.com/watch?v=3vWL756OrMw&si=Jc3OzIfdxbHobAPn Go check out the shortest vid to jays Mainlining Method And also search for his GD account HyperactiveHighs.He's not been active since a while,but his old reports are 🔥

SleepyChow Hi folks👋🏼 We're back again with a new Episode of 'How we could beat the shit out of a plant'.Just kidding😁Yesterday i cut most of the covercrop, cause the humidity went a little to high (above 80%) and the tent was turning into a jungle. I also turned on the exhaust. First:What are the benefits of covercrop? →it holds the moisture of the soil →it benefits the soil life with exudates →it loosens the soil →Leguminosae,like clovers,produce tubers on their roots which contains ammonium/bioavailable nitrogen.They are able to convert nitrogen from the air into a microbe and plant nutrient →it saves microbes and arthropods from light and dryness →you can use its cuttings as mulch,which can be decomposted by microbes,arthropods and fungi and so be breaked down into plant food. →higher humidity in veg The Cons i already mentioned: →higher humidity (in flowering) →pure chaos😂 After that i fet my soil with a compost tea i brewed just for veg.It contains: -5 l of stale water or rain water (in this tea i used 7 l) -1½ to 2 tbsp of vermicompost→the kickstarter,rich in bacteria,fungy and nutrients -1tbsp of molasses→food for bacteria and rich in minerals -1tsp of EM→ for Lactobacillus.U can ad it before or after the brewing process -1tsp of malted barley→rich in minerals and food for fungi -1tbsp of Fish Mix by Biobizz→moderate amounts of Nitrogen and Potassium for the plants and amminoacids for the microbes -1hand full of dried alfalfa→fungi food,rich in minerals and phytohomones -1tsp of kelp meal→rich in phytohomones and minerals, also trace elemnts/micronutrients like Zinc,Iron,Molybdenum,Manganese,Boron and Copper -1pinch of bone meal→ just to buffer/stabilize the pH and rich in calcium and phosphorus (i add it after 24h) I brewed it under aerob conditions and about 36 h.The first litres i gave to the plants after 24 h,than a few hours later again and ca. at 36h the last litres. Half a day later the result was as i hoped for.The LT and Wappa seems to grow faster and more vigoroursly. The CBD Skunk Haze seems to have light nutrient burns. The CSH grows but it looks like a little homunculus of a Cannabis plant.Never the less i toped her Yesterday in hope for more development of the side branches.Also it seems that one sidebranch is far more developed than the others. Because of the very short internodial spacing i just cut the dominant branch a little😅 But it healed incredibly fast. The Mainlining went on for the LT and Wappa. I went by the third node on each branch again, kept that one, topped after the third, and took off the first and second nodes too. Now i have two new branches on every main branch. You could do this again and again.I'll stop the process of Mainlining here. I think that the LT and in particular the Wappa could bear more cuttings but im happy with the current state. Also i turned up the light intensity up to 100% a few days ago.

SleepyChow Hey Folks,welcome back to another episode of "Fifty Shades of Green"- my beginners guide for Low Stress Torture (LST),gentle cruelty,also known as topping and Plant Bondage aka Mainlining 😬Before that my first move was a foliar feed — nothing fancy, just dechlorinated water shaken up with powdered rock minerals (microfine, 0-20μm).Great for fast feeding minerals and trace elements to boost the immune system and prevent deficiency symptoms.Then i had to give the cover crop a haircut. It was getting way too wild in the pots. With all that chaos, there was no proper way to keep mainlining. I shredded it a little and added it as Mulch,mixed with worm fodder. What are the benefits of mulch? →it holds the right amount of moisture in the soil →it'll be decompose by the microbes, prothozoa and fungi into plant available nutrients like Potassium,Nitrogen,minerals,trace elemnts.It adds also carbon fiber,which is essential for the soil structure. →its a great fungi food →it boost the activity of athropods,prothozoa and worms. →it protects the microbes in the first inches of the soil against UV and dryness +side fact: in the very fist inch of a healthy soil lives bacteria which decompose trace elemnts like manganese.very important. It is important that the mulch for young plants is based on easy to decompose materials like covercrop,compost or/and hay.These material are also rich in nutrients. Materials like bark chips and wood chips arent suitable for our girls.They cause nitrogen deficiencies in the first inches of soil cause of the amount of energy the microbes have to put into decompose those,they derange the c/n ratio of the first inch and also contains a certain amount of tannine,which also challenge the microbes. Never the less these materials are great fungi food and often already contain benefitial fungi,so that they are great for plants older than 2 years. I went on and gave the CSH same treatment as the other two,Wappa and LT, last week. Because the right branch is underdevelopet and the internodial spaces are very short i semi accidently fimed her.Time will tell if it worked or if i have to top again. The CSH is unfortunatley a disapointment.It grows slow and anomalous.I really hope it has no Hlvd😓 i didnt sanitized my scissors between plants and am afraid now that i also infected the Wappa and LT. I’m keeping a close eye on the girls for another week 🌿👀, and soon it’ll be time to flip them into the 12/12 mode

SleepyChow Hey folks, welcome back! We’re now in week 6 of veg. I had to defoliate both the Wappa and the Lemon Tree – the leaves were just getting way too much. The cover crop also needed another haircut, that stuff grows like crazy. I decided to just let the Skunk Haze do her thing after i toped the formerly fimed branch (it didnt developed as hoped) . At this point she looks like some kind of genetic anomaly. Still keeping my fingers crossed she’s not sick and hasn’t infected the others. On the Wappa I snipped off a little branch that was all crippled and basically an open invitation for pathogenic fungi. Both the Wappa and the LT had to be tied down with wire at the rim of the pots, because especially the super strong Wappa managed to break free from my mainlining clips. The LT, on the other hand, shaped a beautiful symmetrical crown – just like it’s supposed to 💪🏼 Meanwhile, Wappa is more on the wild side 😅 I added each 1tbsp of soft rock Phosphate (very slow release calcium and phosphate.this will only show its effect in a few weeks,maybe not until the next run) and 1tbsp Bokashi(rich in nutrients,minerals and effective microorganisms) per plant as top dress.I usually use soft rock phospate only to enrich the wormcastings in my wormbox,but i was thinking "Nah,why not🤷🏼‍♂️" I also brewed up another compost tea: 5l dechlorinated water 2 tbsp worm castings 1 tbsp fish mix 1 tbsp potassium-rich FFJ 1 tsp seaweed meal 1 tsp molasses 1½ tbsp EM's 1tsp CalMg That should help strengthen the cell walls and boost growth. For my arthropod and worm buddies, I placed banana slices on top of the soil. They were a big hit. In the next few days, I’ll slowly flip the girls to 12/12. Taking it step by step so they don’t get too stressed out. They’ve already been through enough 😂