The Dessert Run

Growverse420 10 little seedling have popped up and finished their first week! They will be vegging for a minute in these solo cups and then moving into their final spots in the 8 30-gallon pots in the 5x9. One of these seedlings will be used to replace the runt in the 4x4. Also, thinking of sneaking in an autoflower run in our Veg tent! Many exciting things happening at the Growverse! 😎

Growverse420 The babies are doing well at the end of week two! I bottom watered them with Rootwise, Quillaja, and Thrive “Holy Cow” Yah-Whey concentrate today. They just now have roots poking out of the holes in the bottom of the solo cups. We are transplanting them Tuesday into the 30-gallon living soil grassroots pots in the 5x9 tent, where they will grow until they are harvested! This is the first run with this living soil mix, I’m so excited to get things growing in it. Week 3 should be a big week!

Growverse420 Week 3 was transplant week for the four Chicken ‘n Wafflez, 3 Jelly Donutz, and one Vanilla Frosting (all from Humboldt Seed Co.)! Before transplanting I added almost 2,000 worms to the new 8 30-gallon living soil pots to really start breaking down the recently mixed soil. This is the first run for this soil, and I’m hoping the 250 worms per pot will jumpstart the breakdown of all the nutrients and begin turning the soil into nutrient-rich castings. I also added worms from my other beds (before deciding it really would be easier to just buy more worms from Buckeye Organics). I transferred them by slicing avocados in half and placing them face down on the soil. After a few days they were filled with “worm balls,” with all the worms rubbing against each other, reproducing, and making even MORE baby worms. All I had to do then was transfer the avocado onto the top of the soil in the 30 gallon pots. I really was pleased with how effective this was, but decided ultimately to go with a larger order of worms. I began the transplant process removing the solo cup “placeholders” and adding Dynomyco to the holes, inoculating the soil with mycorrhiza, which I also dusted on the roots of the baby plants. After placing them in the holes, I top dressed with worm castings and Kashi Gold. I watered them with 1/4 tsp/gal of Quillaja, 1 tsp/gal of Rootwise “Mycrobe Complete” and 1 oz of Thrive “Holy Cow” Yah-Whey extract, and 1/4 tsp/gal of BuildaSoil’s Big 6 Micronutrients. After transplant, the roots should be exploding in growth, so while not too much appears to be going on above the soil, beneath it should be very active. In order to increase humidity in the 5x9, which became very dry this week, I added 2 beach towels with their ends dangling in 5 gallons of water. It has definitely helped, increasing the humidity from 35%-54%. That’s huge! We will see if it stays consistent… Excited to see an explosion of growth next week! 🤞Trying to manifest

Growverse420 Week 4 was pretty solid for the 5x9. The 4 Chicken ‘n Wafflez, 3 Jelly Donutz and 1 Vanilla Frosting have all taken to their new 30-gallon living soil pots and are thriving. I was excited to add new products to my watering lineup this week–the Rootwise Enzyme Elixir and Rootwise Bio Phos (both additions to the Rootwise Mycrobe complete). The plants really seemed to love the Enzyme Elixir alongside the Mycrobe complete, I was thrilled to see them fully praying after their initial watering earlier in the week. My understanding is that the Enzyme Elixir is supposed to do a few things– 1. It contains specific enzymes that signal the microbes from the Mycrobe Complete to “wake up” and begin colonizing the root zone 2. It acts as a catalyst for breaking down organic matter into plant available nutrients because it is essentially a concentrated form of the enzymes that the microbes already produce naturally 3. Also, because they are using the same organisms in Mycrobe Complete to make the enzymes in the elixir, they come from the same “family” and are, supposedly, tuned to the specific biological processes of those microbes. That’s the idea, anyway, what I care about, is how the plants responded: and they loved it! This week also came with new challenges… I have a fungus gnat issue that needs addressed and SOLVED before I flip to flower in the next couple of weeks. I have yellow sticky traps hanging around the tent, which had alerted me to our growing problem. I decide to do a soil drench and light foliar application of Organishield. I first used only a gallon of water with 50 ml of product among the eight pots, but that did not cut it. Yesterday, I did another application, this time with 4 gallons at a rate of 80 ml/gal among the eight 30 gallon pots. Hopefully, this knocks them down. I have not used Organishield for fungus gnats before, so we shall see how it goes! I also went ahead and ordered 5 million beneficial nematodes that I will be watering into the soil in the next couple of days. These little microscopic worms should take care of whatever infestation remains by eating the gnat larvae in the soil. I’m hoping they bring the soil environment back into balance, preventing me from needing to do additional sprays of Organishield in the future. This upcoming week is going to be about resolving this fungus gnat issue, focusing on continued vigorous growth of the plants, and making sure everything is planned and ready to flip to flower before flipping in 2-3 weeks. Thanks for reading and Happy Growing!

Growverse420 Week 5 for the Chicken ‘n Wafflez, Jelly Donutz and Vanilla Frosting in the 5x9 brought with it a snow storm for the ages and below zero temperatures! Luckily, we didn’t lose power, which was my biggest concern. As for -15 F, thankfully, the basement only ever dropped into the high 50’s. Not ideal, as temperatures below 60 F can have the effect of slowing growth, however, mid-50’s is not detrimental, in fact, they seemed to weather the storm just fine! An update on my fungus gnat issue: Last week I had watered in beneficial nematodes to start eating the fungus gnat larvae, however, because of the snowstorm, I was unable to water as often, and therefore, unable to maintain the moisture of the topsoil. Nematodes need a moist soil surface in order to live and thrive, and I’m concerned that the surface of the soil may have dried out too much between waterings, decreasing their effectiveness. It is difficult for me to measure how much of an effect they may or may not have had because, on top of it all, the snowstorm delayed my shipment of yellow sticky traps, and the ones I currently have up are COVERED and need to be replaced. This week I will replace the yellow sticky traps, which will allow me to monitor the infestation and determine whether another round of beneficial nematodes are necessary. I’m thinking in two weeks the 5x9 might be ready to flip to flower… I want to make sure I really maximize the canopy in this 5x9 and utilize the 30-gallons of living soil to their fullest potential. That gives me a couple of weeks to prepare and take clones of each plant in case one turns out to be a keeper! This week, I will be setting up the veg tent, which is where the clones will live until the 5x9 is harvested and any keepers are chosen to keep as mothers. I’m excited to get this veg tent up and running because I will also be using it to run autoflowers! First up will be Speedrun’s Frosted Cherry-O’s F3, grown in an Earthbox. Keep your eyes out for that diary, hopefully starting in the next week or two. This week’s watering procedures: I watered twice this week, around 1.5-2 gallons per 30 gallon pot - Thrive “Holy Cow” Yah-Whey Concentrate- 10 ml/gal (like a probiotic for your plants) -Rootwise Mycrobe Complete- ½ tsp (Microbes) -Rootwise Enzyme Elixir- 5 ml/gal (Microbe lighter fluid!) -Quillaja- ¼ tsp/gal (Wetting Agent) Happy Growing, everyone!