ProfessorFlora's 10 Strain 200W LED Organic Soil Grow

[multiVortex]

Fungus gnats... HATE those pesky little bastards.

Gotta get that life cycle stopped. Take the mood out of the evening, if you will.

For the baby's in the tray(s), the following will break the cycle:

1) Water in the tray, let them soak it up.

This should keep the top dry vice dribbling from the top. Not 100% dry, but better. You may be doing this already, but just had to throw it out there.


2) Get some sand.

Just a bag of "play" sand like you would use in a sandbox. It's the fine kind, not rubble. It's pretty cheap for a bag. What you'll do with that is use it on top of the soil/potting mix. Don't need a lot, a good 1/4inch or so (.5cm - 1cm) will do.


See, those gnats are makin babies in that nice, moist medium you've got there. The plants love it, the bugs do too. That sand? Those bugs HATE that sand. It cuts them up, so they avoid it. No place for baby makin, no babies. No new babies? No new juveniles, and thus no new adults. Cycle broken. Any eggs in the soil that hatch, the babies get shredded trying to get out through the sand.

From there it's just getting rid of and cleaning up the current population. The neem/alcohol/h2o mix works well for that.


(Yes, this sand stuff really, really works. If I have soil/potting mix, you bet there is going to be sand on top of it.)

 

[ProfessorFlora]

Fungus gnats... HATE those pesky little bastards.

Gotta get that life cycle stopped. Take the mood out of the evening, if you will.

For the baby's in the tray(s), the following will break the cycle:

1) Water in the tray, let them soak it up.

This should keep the top dry vice dribbling from the top. Not 100% dry, but better. You may be doing this already, but just had to throw it out there.


2) Get some sand.

Just a bag of "play" sand like you would use in a sandbox. It's the fine kind, not rubble. It's pretty cheap for a bag. What you'll do with that is use it on top of the soil/potting mix. Don't need a lot, a good 1/4inch or so (.5cm - 1cm) will do.


See, those gnats are makin babies in that nice, moist medium you've got there. The plants love it, the bugs do too. That sand? Those bugs HATE that sand. It cuts them up, so they avoid it. No place for baby makin, no babies. No new babies? No new juveniles, and thus no new adults. Cycle broken. Any eggs in the soil that hatch, the babies get shredded trying to get out through the sand.

From there it's just getting rid of and cleaning up the current population. The neem/alcohol/h2o mix works well for that.


(Yes, this sand stuff really, really works. If I have soil/potting mix, you bet there is going to be sand on top of it.)

I battled with them right back at the begin of this journal. Luckily they went on there own then. Now the plants which they are attacking are much smaller with a smaller root zone. The suspected thrips never manifested but the gnats are in full swing....

Here's the veg tent now....

Random damage caused by the gnats....

Fizzy soil....

The bonsai mothers....

The remaining Hashplant D clones....

 

[multiVortex]

I battled with them right back at the begin of this journal. Luckily they went on there own then. Now the plants which they are attacking are much smaller with a smaller root zone. The suspected thrips never manifested but the gnats are in full swing....

Folks must think I'm nuts, but that sand stuff really does the trick in breaking the cycle and keeping them away.

 

[ProfessorFlora]

Folks must think I'm nuts, but that sand stuff really does the trick in breaking the cycle and keeping them away.

Lol. Don't worry. I think most of us are probably nuts on here. I'll see what I can do if this doesn't fix the problem. I checked on them a few hours after treating them and I can't find any gnats. Now I'll have to reintroduce the friendly micro-life after I've flushed out the H2O2.

 

[multiVortex]

Lol. Don't worry. I think most of us are probably nuts on here. I'll see what I can do if this doesn't fix the problem. I checked on them a few hours after treating them and I can't find any gnats. Now I'll have to reintroduce the friendly micro-life after I've flushed out the H2O2.

I first found out about the whole sand thing many years ago when I was fighting a house-wide infestation of the buggers. It was bad. Every window ledge, tubs/sinks around the drains, it was a buggin nightmare.

Tired all kinds of sprays, this and that. They would go away for a couple days and then they would always end up coming back.

Then I found the sand thing, and said to myself that it couldn't hurt. So I added it, sprayed, and haven't had another issue with them since.

 

[InTheShed]

I have used H2O2 and had that crazy volcanic thing happening. It depends on how tightly packed the soil is and how much junk there is to make the peroxide fizz.

I don't know what your dilution rate was on the H2O2 but I did manage to kill one solo-cup clone using it. I don't think it had enough roots to deal with the reaction. I'd rinse those out if you haven't already. I think within 15 minutes would be
fine.

What was the point of interest that we were supposed to be spotting?

Sorry about your Balzacs. The upside is it does make the clone decision easier!

@multiVortex Does using sand prevent the topsoil from drying out? I've always been curious about that.

 

[multiVortex]

Does using sand prevent the topsoil from drying out? I've always been curious about that.

That's a good question, and the answer is yes. It acts like a mulch, and helps decrease evaporation from the top of the actual medium.

If you're using the sand though, you have to water from the bottom up. Although I do suppose you could install drip lines into the medium below the sand, but I have not tried this myself.

The purpose of that is to keep the sand on top, and from mixing with the primary medium. By medium I'm meaning soil, potting mix, coco, promix, fauxMix, etc. Would be a bit shit in perlite, hydroton, hydro, etc.

I'm 99% sure my house-wide infestation was from when I brought my house plants in for the winter. Bugs in the dirt, bugs in the house. Bugs multiply way, way worse than rabbits. Just sayin.

The first couple years after starting the sand, I would spray the plants with neem oil before bringing them in. Then one year I forgot, and haven't done it since. You don't need to, as even outside the sand keeps them all at bay.

Warm, moist, dark is their favorite. This also just so happens to be where soil/soilless fits right into their playbook.


This is what kicked me into gear on sub-irrigation. I knew I needed to water from the bottom up when I put the sand on top, but then I dug into the whole sub thing afterwards. Ended up building a sub-irrigated rail box that's 8in deep, 8ft wide, and 12in high. Lined it with pond liner, and put 3" drain tile in the bottom to keep the dirt out of the water. I've run it 5 years now, and it's really great. Fill it up about once a week and all is well. It has an overflow on it, and a fill pipe. Real similar concept to an earth box, but missing the air pocket between the dirt and water. In lieu of that, I use a solar powered air pump with an air stone down in the water for oxygenation. (Learned this the hard way, just sayin.)

 

[InTheShed]

Great info there mV, thanks!

 

[multiVortex]

Great info there mV, thanks!

You're welcome.

 

[ProfessorFlora]

I have used H2O2 and had that crazy volcanic thing happening. It depends on how tightly packed the soil is and how much junk there is to make the peroxide fizz.

I don't know what your dilution rate was on the H2O2 but I did manage to kill one solo-cup clone using it. I don't think it had enough roots to deal with the reaction. I'd rinse those out if you haven't already. I think within 15 minutes would be
fine.

What was the point of interest that we were supposed to be spotting?

Sorry about your Balzacs. The upside is it does make the clone decision easier!

@multiVortex Does using sand prevent the topsoil from drying out? I've always been curious about that.

Ok. Best get to work then. I'd say they've been sat in H2O2 for getting close to 24 hours now lol. It was a 1/4 dilution rate. They actually look better than yesterday already. The leaves are a darker green and there's not a gnat in sight.

The point of interest was the Balzac....

It was pretty tricky to see. Especially if you didn't know what you were looking for to begin with....

I first found out about the whole sand thing many years ago when I was fighting a house-wide infestation of the buggers. It was bad. Every window ledge, tubs/sinks around the drains, it was a buggin nightmare.

Tired all kinds of sprays, this and that. They would go away for a couple days and then they would always end up coming back.

Then I found the sand thing, and said to myself that it couldn't hurt. So I added it, sprayed, and haven't had another issue with them since.

interestingly I was using a heavy sand mix for growing until recently. I didn't have any problems with bugs whilst using it. When I think about it. The thrips disappeared around the time I started using the sand mix. This is purely speculative but perhaps they didn't like laying eggs in it. Or maybe the larvae struggled to survive in it. Or maybe it wasn't the sand at all. I'll look into bottom feeding the veg plants and getting the top covered in sand. Thanks MV

 

[ProfessorFlora]

I am a major fucking idiot! I've just worked out why the Hashplant D's hermied. Basically I've just discovered that the extension lead in the tent which originally had the HD's in it has a red light on it

What this means is that they weren't receiving a proper dark period and as a result have hermied. It gets worse. That tent now has the Dos Si Dos 33 in it so I'm expecting her to hermie now. It gets even worse. That also means that I've thrown away some clones which may have been ok after all . None of this explained the Tropicanna Banana though. She was just straight up confused. Well shit me sideways. I knew something was up when I found the pollen sacks on the HD's. I picked up a different lead instead of the one I normally use by mistake. Damn! I've not had much luck recently. Time to sort 2021 out!

 

[InTheShed]

If the red light was in there the whole time I don't know if that's your cause. The plants are supposed to be okay with a constant low level light if it's always there, like a distant streetlamp or the like. Unless it's the red that through them off. Or it's really bright.

 

[ProfessorFlora]

If the red light was in there the whole time I don't know if that's your cause. The plants are supposed to be okay with a constant low level light if it's always there, like a distant streetlamp or the like. Unless it's the red that through them off. Or it's really bright.

Yeah, the light has been on the whole time. It was quite bright as it is illuminating a small and reflective area. So do you think that the HD's never went into flower at all? That would explain why the Wilma plants look further ahead then the HD's even though they are both on the same flowering day. What about the Dos Si Dos though? She went in on the third week of flower. She looks like she's still flowering and no sign of sacks or nanas yet.

 

[InTheShed]

Figuring out a hermie can be a tough call, as well as how much/little light it will take to keep it from flowering to begin with. And maybe the TB was more prone to hermie generally and the DSD isn't? On the plus side, you still have some of the clones!

More than anything the lesson is don't do that again. Dead frogs are okay, lights in flower are not. Easy!

 

[ProfessorFlora]

Dead frogs are okay, lights in flower are not. Easy!

What about phoning the police by mistake whilst in the grow room and then having to persuade them that I was fine and hadn't been kidnapped? That actually happened

 

[InTheShed]

That's worse! In order: don't disappear for long stretches of time and make others wonder where you are, don't leave lights on of any kind in flower, don't let frogs die in your tent.

 

[multiVortex]

This is purely speculative but perhaps they didn't like laying eggs in it.

Guarantee they don't like sand. It's like wading/crawling through/living in broken glass. Cuts them all up, they die. So they no likey.

 

[ProfessorFlora]

Guarantee they don't like sand. It's like wading/crawling through/living in broken glass. Cuts them all up, they die. So they no likey.

It was a corse sand which I used to bulk up some pots which I didn't have enough soil for. It worked but didn't hold much water. It was becoming a bit of a chore having such heavy pots which were more than 25k when dry. I never weighed a wet pot lol. I will get some sand for the mothers soon and I was looking at getting another self watering tray to make things easier.

 

[ProfessorFlora]

Flowering Day 17....

Hey 420. I've given the Hashplant D's a good trim today. This'll make it much easier to spot any pollen sacks which may have gone undetected. The good news is that I haven't found anymore since the other day and the plants are continuing to grow healthily. I really don't want to mess this tent up as it's currently my "safe place" lol. These are the plants I come to stare at when I need my mind soothed. If I want a laugh I'll look in the Wilma tent and if I want to bring myself back to reality I'll look in on the Dos Si Dos 33 lol. These though are nice and easy to manage plants. No weird or unusual growth. Normal looking leaves and a normal structure. I like these. I really wish that I hadn't tainted them with the red light but we live and learn. That won't happen again this year. Now I have the option to get those branches bent down and open up the lowers to the light better. It looks like there'll be no problem with light penetration now but in 2 weeks time we'll have a busy looking tent again. I still wish I had one more plant in here though. I've come to realise that this new soil is going to be hard work. It has really poor water retention properties which weren't an issue before flowering . In the first week of flower they didn't get a watering at all. It was day 9 when they received their first feed. Now they're feeding every 2 days. The trim will slow them down for a few days but I think Im going to have my work cut out for me over the course of this one. Not to worry. Life is about making mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake....

 

[multiVortex]

It was a corse sand which I used to bulk up some pots which I didn't have enough soil for. It worked but didn't hold much water. It was becoming a bit of a chore having such heavy pots which were more than 25k when dry. I never weighed a wet pot lol. I will get some sand for the mothers soon and I was looking at getting another self watering tray to make things easier.

I've hopped on the floraflex wagon recently. Those drip trays are excellent. Added a small res I top up every few days, and a small pump that I plug in when I'm ready to water. (This can also be automated with a timer, and I'm doing this when I'm away.) I've found you want to account for about 300l/h (75-100gph) per plant.

They have round and square ones. The square ones are a bit more in cost, they are thicker material, but good stuff.

Of course those are for top-feed.


For bottom watering, you could get an aqua valve setup from autopot. That will let you use your own tray, but their valve. Of course then you have exposed water in the tray, so maybe not. Lots of ways to set up sub irrigation though. When I do the tray thing, I just water the tray and let them soak it up. Then add a little more at a time and try to keep the amount in the tray pretty low. End result is a little left in the tray, but it typically gets sucked up fairly soon.