VARIGATED Mimosa Cake Auto | Living Soil

poloq_mauriceloetel Environment At the beginning, the focus was exclusively on providing a mild but humid environment so that the seedlings could establish themselves. See how there are random little plants coming up, as well as mycelium, moss, et cetera? The system already starts to stabilize and creates a breeding ground for all sorts of organisms that - in the end - will benefit the symbiosis and longevity of said system. Plants Besides that, the seedlings are happy and healthy. _______________ About this grow _______________ Introduction I took a lot of precautions because my last run got eaten by slugs (probably because of the top dressing (leaves) you can see in the very 1st image). Besides that, I just focused on a stable and humid environment for the 1st Week. A very exciting aspect is that I noticed a variegation on the Mimosa Cake Auto right from the start! Setup This is a low-noise, low-budget grow (331 € acquisitional cost (including fails and abundance of substrate for the next runs), 17 € for electricity per month, max. 28 dB). I don't use an air filter and try to minimize every use of electricity (the system can't draw more than 110 W). Living Soil The goal is to learn how living soil (and nature really) works - healthy plants are just a side effect. To this end, I am intensively engaged with the biological functioning of plants (which is also an important part of my profession as a product designer focused on biomimicry). Germination I germinate with the classic 'seeds in a glass of water'-method for 12 - 24 h and put them right into soil directly after. Mimosa Cake had water contact on 01.12.25, Gorilla Z on 04.12.25. Mimosa Cake broke through the soil on 04.12.25, Gorilla Z on 07.12.25. The documentation starts at 04.12.25 (so you have to add about 3 days to the Mimosa Cake to get the real age including the germination). 'Optimal' values (I try to reach) Soil temp.: 24 °C Air temp. : 26 °C RH veg.: 95 - 65 % (lowering while time goes on) RH flower: 50 - 60 % Temp. Gerneal min. 16 - 18 °C, max. 28 - 30 °C Soil: 20 - 80% saturated Exhaust air: ~ 1 tent volume per minute Circulating air: as low and 'chaotic' as possible Philosophy I take what I learned, compare it with knowledge from a wide range of disciplines, and try to develop a system that is as durable and as efficient as possible. I also wanted said system to be as modular and simplistic as possible to actually learn and feel what every components does - not just have a controller that I don't understand and can't manipulated to the point I'd like. So the leeway I have with these components can be used to influence other values. In the end: Yes, I could use higher PPFD + increase the substrate temperature to 26°C, but that would be inefficient (in my setup) because none of the values are in a critical range right now and stay like that naturally because of the ambient environment (just so that you understand my reasoning for this experiment). Further Info I used the nutrients tab to show the light intensity (ml/l) (I will rarely fertilize because of the living soil). I will try to add an Info tab as soon as I've figured out how. 😅 It's best to look at this diary on a computer (mobile version seems bugged/ does not show everything).. _______________ Lessons learned for the next run _______________ Pests Act faster and more aggressively when dealing with pests. (I was too hesitant and ended up prolonging the process - which wouldn't be a big problem with photoperiod plants, but is with autos. Also: Always keep the system in balance (dont fight Sciaridae e.g. with draught, cause it will create new stress.) Light Provide more light directly. (I had the theory that the plants' metabolism could develop more naturally if the increase in light intensity was simulated as it occurs in nature (iterative increase until summer, then decrease until winter). I still support this theory, but in a different spectrum: e.g., directly 500 PPFD propagation - 800 veg. - 1000 flower - 800 late flower. However, since my lamp can only reach a maximum of approx. 800 PPFD, and I wanted to be cautious in this first run, I adjusted the scale accordingly. Environment + Setup With that much substrate in such a small tent, the amount of moisture the soil has/ the amount of watering you give is the biggest and most consistent influence on the RH. The activation of an exhaust fan drops the temp by about 2 K and the RH by up to 20% (in my setup). The light can generate up to 1-4 K (20 to 80% intensity, depending on the exhaust fan). Plants + Training With a 60x60x160 cm tent and 2 plants, utilizing only 4 offshoots instead of 6 will be more efficient (less complex but 'enough' to fill the space).

poloq_mauriceloetel Setup + Environment With the seedlings stabilizing, I slowly and gradually lowered the humidity to about 75% RH by removing the cling film. Environment Removing the foil while increasing the PPFD also decreased the temperature by about 1K, which will be compensated for with an increase of light intensity over the upcoming weeks. Pests Because I started to see Sciridae, I also focused on a reduction of the moisture content within the first few centimeters of the substrate. This - in combination with more sticky fly traps - should disable the sciridae's ability to lay eggs.

poloq_mauriceloetel Pests The amount of sciridae increased a lot (as expected, because the population should be about to collapse), but I also noticed that they were being accompanied by exactly 1 premature spider mite (drop in RH). Because my environment seemed to fall out of an equilibrium, I thought about using fine quartz sand (0.1 - 0.4 mm) and nematodes to hinder the adult Sciaridae from laying eggs and also actively hunt for their larvae, while being able to get back on watering regularly... In the end I actually ordered those - but decided not to use them because the process of drying out the substrate was already in its final stage [foreshadowing: bad idea]. Plants Also, the variegated plant got cellular damage... most likely because my temp. and RH varied too much (VPD and temp. spikes were too extreme and rapid). [Variegated plants in general are less resilient and need a more stable environment]. Setup Until now, I didn't use any fan so that I could keep the moisture and temperature up, but from now on, I will start to activate an exhaust fan at about 0,5 -1 air exchanges per minute. This should homogenize the environment but also decrease the temp. by 1-2 K, and the RH yet again by another 10%. It also allows the plants to transpirate more efficiently, and with that, normalize the VPD. Living Soil In general, when the pests are in control, I will yet again focus on the 'right' environment rather than battling those pests. With this approach, I can keep the moisture content in the tent the way I want to without worrying about anything else.

poloq_mauriceloetel Pests + Setup As expected, the RH dropped - but below 45%. To counter this, I actually exchanged the exhaust fan with a circulating fan. This allowed the RH to climb up again, while giving the plants the same VPD-benefits from the setup before. It's just strong enough to get the air inside the tent moving but is not adding too much stress to the plants (it's giving them more resilience while allowing them to transpirate and also makes it harder for the sciaridae to lay eggs). The change in the setup + the increase of light intensity yet again raised the temperature by more than 1 K - although I chose to not increase it by only 60 PPFD yet again, but by about 160. This is due to the observation that the plants are a little bit behind, and I still have around 250 PPFD (at 30 cm distance) left as 'room for improvement' (especially for the flower). Pests At this point, I decided not to use the nematodes and sand (for now). The drying process seemed to work, because I got a lot more adult sciaridae at first but ([foreshadowing] what seemed like...) a continuous drop over the next days. At the end of week 4 there were still a few left, so I decided to wait until I don't see a singular one for 1 whole day until I get back into watering - and with that, giving the nematodes to prevent another colony from inhibiting the substrate. The sand, on the other hand, can be stored and used next time or for other projects. Plants + Environment By now, the plants also started to shoot their side branches, showing that they were close to their next stage: Topping. Also, the Mimosa Cake yet again showed signs of cellular damage. This makes it unclear at present whether the initial damage was caused by suboptimal environmental conditions or whether it might have been a fungal infection. Either way, stabilizing the environment and strengthening the plants should counteract this, because in both cases there is nothing that can be done directly except to spare the plant further stress.

poloq_mauriceloetel Environment + Pests + Setup This week (at day 31) I decided to end the battle against fungus gnats. Even after almost three weeks of dried-out soil, dozens of adult insects could be seen, which told me that there were pockets of moisture that I couldn't influence. Accordingly, I went back to the original plan I had outlined earlier: bring the system into balance and use sand and nematodes. Since I should no longer have any problems with low RH, I have also reactivated the exhaust fan, which lead to the values you can see above. Nutrients + Environment From the outset, the plants showed a slight nitrogen deficiency, which was evident in their rather pale, light green color. This is probably due to the fact that the substrate (until now) did not contain enough moisture to allow metabolic and decomposition processes to proceed efficiently. Directly after watering I got reassured that my choice was right and the soil still alive, healthy, and ready to 'get back to work': Look at the amount of springtails and how fast new growth appeared! Plants On day 30, I topped the plants. Both had already formed three nodes and started to develop healthy side branches at all of these nodes. So, according to my plan, I removed the main shoot, leaving enough space for the stump to encapsulate without damaging the healthy plant. I also removed one shoot from each of the middle nodes, as I don't want branches that already grow towards the center (the branches will grow towards the light anyway, and this way I can ensure that there is enough air circulation and room for expansion). Besides that, I sadly feel like the variegation - and genetic really - ain't stable. By the end of week 5, you could see that the offshoots differed a lot in their 'quality' (asymmetrical, some very weak, etc.), and the variegation didn't appear again.

poloq_mauriceloetel (Pre written) Plants + Training This week was the start of the LST and, with that, a continuous gentle defoliation to ensure that the new shoots are getting a lot of direct light. Leaves (especially sun sails) growing over new shoots are either pressed down or, if necessary, removed. When LSTing, I always focus on gently bending the branches in the desired direction every day, without disregarding the natural structure of the plant. Once they reach a length of about 5 cm, I start to secure them with training stakes. This way, the risk of damage (as well as overall stress for the plant) is kept to a minimum.