LIVING SOIL | Mimosa Cake + Gorilla Z

poloq _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. Water contact Mimosa Cake = 01.12.25 Gorilla Z = 04.12.25 Broke through soil Mimosa Cake = 04.12.25 Gorilla Z = 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). *Sadly didn't take photos in the germination process. _______________ 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). _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). I used the nutrients tab to show the light intensity (ml/l) (I will rarely fertilize because of the living soil). The PPFD measurements are performed using the PHOTONE app. I calibrated it by using the PPFD data sheets for my lamp as reference + experimenting with the app settings until I obtained values that matched those specified by the manufacturer (+/- 10%). The lamp distance is always for the closest branch - the height differences can be seen within the text for the '_Plants'. _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). _'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: 40 - 55 % Temp. Gerneal min. 16 - 18 °C, max. 28 - 30 °C Soil: 20 - 80% saturated Exhaust air: ~ 1 tent volume per minute Circulating air: as high but 'chaotic' as possible VPD Vege. = 0.7 VPD Preflower = 1 VPD Flower = 1.3 * I'm just starting to get a feel for VPD, but I think these values are a good starting point (they also match my general knowledge and experience with plants). _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 It's best to look at this diary on a computer (mobile version seems bugged/ does not show everything). In most cases, I took the pictures with a smartphone. This is why the colour values, especially the white balance, sometimes vary significantly. Please disregard the hygro-thermometer, which can be seen in some of the pictures. The values shown here appear to fluctuate greatly, but this is because I do not always take the pictures immediately after opening the tent. This documentation is pretty much freestyle (didn't make a plan what exactly i wanted to observe et cetera), so please excuse any inconsitencies (e.g. in the way i wrote everything down) or logical gaps. _______________ 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.) Nematodes (+ sticky fly traps) worked incredibly well to battle the Sciaridae - quartz sand on the other hand is a lot of work and didn't seem work very wellin my setup. _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 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 100% intensity, depending on the distance and exhaust fan). In particular, the recirculation fan must be more powerful to ensure the full transpirational rate of the plants.Plants + Training With a 60x60x160 cm tent and 2 plants, utilizing just 4 or even only 2 offshoots instead of 6 will be more efficient (less complex but 'enough' to fill the space). Next time, I would prefer to grow the seedlings in smaller pots so that I can arrange them directly according to my LST plans (x vs. +) when repotting them into the Living Soil bed. [To much bending can result in the stems cracking while growing and should be avoided.] Do NOT use plastic containers. I literally have fine fibers all over the buds and have to hope that they fall off on their own. _Living Soil Even though it's a nice idea to take rich soil directly from nature, I definitely won't be doing that again. Even though it may work in the environment in which it developed, the chances are pretty slim that the same soil will work in different circumstances. In my case, the soil was most likely infested with sciaridae and contained too much clay/sand, making it too dense for cannabis plants (it was, after all, a 100-year-old orchard). The savings are definitely not worth the extra effort. ...but even if I would, I definitly need to put even more focus into creating an airy substrate (much more perlite + cocos et cetera). _Genetics All in all, auto-genetics certainly have their uses (fast, can be finished outdoors in summer, etc.), but they're not for me. I want to have full control, do what I want with the plant and not be stressed by an internal clock. I also like the living soil approach, which requires high genetic resilience. In fact, I actually wanted to test a single photoperiodic genetic, but decided on the 'new, modern, fancy’'varieties simply because they were there. _Training My general believe was, that it's best for the plants, if you defoliate continously, not aggressivly every other month/ twice per grow or so. At least for autoflowering genetics I can definitly say that this is not true, because instaed of stunting the growth for 1-2 days, its solwed down siginifcantly the whole time (as far as I can tell). [A friend of mine started with similar geneitcs and setup about 1 month before me so I got a good comparison.] _Fertilization (natural) Magnesium: Epsom salt Calcium: calcium lactate (selfmade: 1 Eggshell - heat treatment (180°C for 20 min) - turn into powder - add table vinegar 5% (until everything's covered / about 50 ml) - wait 24h (until no bubbles) - 1ml for 1 l of water)