Prof's Lab: Diary Of A Bedroom Farmer

ProfessorFlora · Jul 8, 2020

TriangleCheese said:
All is well in my world thanks bro

Totally agreed and I'll even take thrips to high humidity any day I've noticed the PE and will be watching her closely I must tell you that I am an incredibly lucky person, eventhough I don't believe in luck at all. I think that PE needs my mojo

I've never tried peroxide on moldy buds but I know that is a common remedy. Still, I think extracts are way too underrated when it comes to salvaging and properly processing your trim. That almost pure stuff is amazing but if the nugs can be ready to smoke after a few dunks in h202, who's gonna bother right I just enjoy extracts more than the nug itself. I literally live to smoke hashish, charas or oil. But the joint wouldn't be complete without some coarsely ground weed and some tobacco. I think I'll make some oil tomorrow

Your garden is so diverse and everytime I visit here, I just end up looking for plane tickets and checking which genetics are available for me to buy from Amsterdam. With that being said, I'll go and check some Dutch seedbanks if you excuse me

We've got some serious humidity today. I checked the tent as soon as the lights came on and it was 88% :oops:

Needless to say. I'm hoping these hurry the hell up. I'm seriously considering pulling the Fat Purple and maybe the Hashplant D as well. Apparently tomorrow is the last day of poor weather then its a 7 day scorcher. My next problem will be trying to slow down the drying process lol.

Since changing to coco I have been using H2O2 like there's no tomorrow. It is one of the hidden costs of growing in coco. Fortunately I managed to find a 5ltr bottle for £15 which is very cheap. I have been trying to use it sparingly but with all of the root issues and re-using of old coco I'm using it all of the time. I'm thinking I might go back to soil again soon and see if I missed it or not lol.

Go on. Go get some more seeds!

syenite said:

You didn't think you were getting away that easily did you. I will wait for the weather to brighten up then do another stinky barrel update lol
:passitleft:

ProfessorFlora · Jul 8, 2020

Flowering day 54.

The end is drawing near and my stress levels are through the roof lol. Just like the humidity. There is about a week left until the chop and it couldn't come sooner. I find that the weather usually turns against me at this crucial moment.
The Tropicanna Banana is looking very nice now and is finishing up a little faster than I thought she would. Fat Purple is finished and I'm just letting her collect ambers. Hashplant D has just about finished and I wouldn't feel guilty pulling her right now. The Critical Jack is almost done.
Please don't go mouldy on me....

ProfessorFlora · Jul 8, 2020

Hashplant D....

Fat Purple....

ProfessorFlora · Jul 8, 2020

Tropicanna Banana....

Critical Jack....

TriangleCheese · Jul 8, 2020

ProfessorFlora said:
We've got some serious humidity today. I checked the tent as soon as the lights came on and it was 88%
Needless to say. I'm hoping these hurry the hell up. I'm seriously considering pulling the Fat Purple and maybe the Hashplant D as well. Apparently tomorrow is the last day of poor weather then its a 7 day scorcher. My next problem will be trying to slow down the drying process lol.

Since changing to coco I have been using H2O2 like there's no tomorrow. It is one of the hidden costs of growing in coco. Fortunately I managed to find a 5ltr bottle for £15 which is very cheap. I have been trying to use it sparingly but with all of the root issues and re-using of old coco I'm using it all of the time. I'm thinking I might go back to soil again soon and see if I missed it or not lol.

Go on. Go get some more seeds!

You didn't think you were getting away that easily did you. I will wait for the weather to brighten up then do another stinky barrel update lol

I'll definately get some too. Spinosad seems to be working as well though. Sticky traps are catching maybe a single one everyday. I'll do the H202 thang instead of a second round of spinosad. :passitleft:

BudShark · Jul 8, 2020

Humidity was 76 in my basement today, highest I ever saw down there. Plants looking good, H2O2, how is this helping you? cheers

ProfessorFlora · Jul 8, 2020

TriangleCheese said:
I'll definately get some too. Spinosad seems to be working as well though. Sticky traps are catching maybe a single one everyday. I'll do the H202 thang instead of a second round of spinosad.

Does Spinosad work for fungus gnats? I have some from last year but haven't used it on anything yet as I have been spraying everything with ISO. I haven't used that for a while though.

BudShark said:
Humidity was 76 in my basement today, highest I ever saw down there. Plants looking good, H2O2, how is this helping you? cheers

Last year I had 99% humidity in my tent when growing Barney's farm Blue Gelato and Strawberry lemonade. Total disaster! I lost probably half of the Strawberry Lemonade and a good amount of Blue Gelato to mould.

I'm using the H2O2 for keeping fungus gnats down and for root rot. I'm also recycling my coco and clean it before I re-use it each time by running a 3/4 mix of H2O2 and water through it.

MrSauga · Jul 8, 2020

I dunno about fungus gnats but those Mosquito Dunks work really well on the eggs in the media for regular gnats. @carcass had the suggestion and it worked great. Kill the eggs and you can handle the problem.

BudShark · Jul 8, 2020

ProfessorFlora said:
Does Spinosad work for fungus gnats? I have some from last year but haven't used it on anything yet as I have been spraying everything with ISO. I haven't used that for a while though.

Last year I had 99% humidity in my tent when growing Barney's farm Blue Gelato and Strawberry lemonade. Total disaster! I lost probably half of the Strawberry Lemonade and a good amount of Blue Gelato to mould.

I'm using the H2O2 for keeping fungus gnats down and for root rot. I'm also recycling my coco and clean it before I re-use it each time by running a 3/4 mix of H2O2 and water through it.

Thanks Prof, Good to know, I am not growing in summer but might next. Cheers

BudShark · Jul 8, 2020

99 percent, I guess one could say you were swimming in it. I managed to get my humidity in basement to 60 percent with my small dehumidifier in about 2 hours, much more tolerable, I spend hours down there playing snooker. Cheers

ProfessorFlora · Jul 8, 2020

MrSauga said:
I dunno about fungus gnats but those Mosquito Dunks work really well on the eggs in the media for regular gnats. @carcass had the suggestion and it worked great. Kill the eggs and you can handle the problem.

I remember you and Cass discussing that very topic. I can get the dunks at a reasonably cheap price though it is still cheaper for me to get hydrogen peroxide which I like for the coco as it does other things like oxygenate your medium and generally clean the root zone. I will certainly be considering those for when I return to soil though as I would prefer not to kill the micro heard.

BudShark said:
99 percent, I guess one could say you were swimming in it. I managed to get my humidity in basement to 60 percent with my small dehumidifier in about 2 hours, much more tolerable, I spend hours down there playing snooker. Cheers

I did wonder if the hydrometer was broken so I went and got my other one out. It said the same thing lol. It has happened to me twice now and I think that it might have been close to that last night during the lights out period. I hate high humidity.

I should really get myself a decent dehumidifier for the dark period. During lights on the humidity always drops to a more acceptable level

syenite · Jul 8, 2020

ProfessorFlora said:
You didn't think you were getting away that easily did you. I will wait for the weather to brighten up then do another stinky barrel update lol

You got it all wrong, Prof! You almost lost me!!! Thank god the slime barrel persists!!

ProfessorFlora said:
I'm using the H2O2 for keeping fungus gnats down and for root rot. I'm also recycling my coco and clean it before I re-use it each time by running a 3/4 mix of H2O2 and water through it.

I highly recommend amending the substrate with diatomaceous earth for fungus gnat prevention!

Virgin Ground · Jul 8, 2020

Skeeter dunks FTW!
I just treat new soil now. Haven't seen a fungus gnat since last fall.

Virgin Ground · Jul 8, 2020

BudShark said:
I spend hours down there playing snooker. Cheers

I would never , ever leave my basement if it had a snooker table and plants.

TriangleCheese · Jul 9, 2020

ProfessorFlora said:
Does Spinosad work for fungus gnats? I have some from last year but haven't used it on anything yet as I have been spraying everything with ISO. I haven't used that for a while though.

Last year I had 99% humidity in my tent when growing Barney's farm Blue Gelato and Strawberry lemonade. Total disaster! I lost probably half of the Strawberry Lemonade and a good amount of Blue Gelato to mould.

I'm using the H2O2 for keeping fungus gnats down and for root rot. I'm also recycling my coco and clean it before I re-use it each time by running a 3/4 mix of H2O2 and water through it.

I haven't seen any suggestions anywhere about using Spinosad for fungus gnats or inside any medium. I decided to use it inside the medium and diluted it by reading manufacturers(Dow Agriculture) directions for foliar spraying. Foliar recipes are always lighter so I think that was a safe ratio to use for irrigation. I also think it is safe because Spinosad is already derived from some microbes or bacteria from soil.

I sprayed lots of Spinosad on my clones as well and watered them plenty with it. It seemed to work but I need to renew my sticky traps to be sure. No leaf damage on my big plants though.

Camaro1691 · Jul 9, 2020

ProfessorFlora said:
It was humid and warm and we had some rain so I didn't want the slugs eating my plants. You only have to throw a bucket of water on the ground here and 10 minutes later there'll be slugs everywhere.

I buy the cheapest salt I can and I usually make a line around my plants, haven’t had a single slug crawl on my outdoors yet and I’ve killed at least 300 of them this summer soo far. They die when trying to cross the salt. You do have to reapply if it rains

ProfessorFlora said:
I'll be looking into a pollen shaker then. I like convenience though this bubble was definitely worth the mess and clean up

Do you have a drill? Pick up a cheap paint mixer, the one I have has a smooth metal ring at the bottom as to prevent tearing the bags and I mix right in my bags for at least 15 minutes with lots of ice to water, and each bag I pull out I have someone rinse the sides slowly with water as lifting out, this centers the kief on the screen and makes it easier to remove, once it has sat on cardboard for 15-30 minutes get some wax paper and a razor blade and smooth it out to almost paper thin, stick this on a baking sheet and stick in the oven at 250 for about 5 minutes, or until it turns to a slightly tanish/brownish color, take it out, fold in half and press it between the wax paper, repeat the heat/fold/press method until you get it the thickness you want. This method takes the moisture out, makes it easier to handle at room temps (actually stays solid) and from my personal experience, seems to be a more potent smoke. I learned this trick from “hippies” for lack of better term whose lives revolves around growing weed, shrooms, and processing both to get as much as they possibly could from each and bubble hash was by FAR one of their specialties. Learned a lot from those guys in a short time period

ProfessorFlora said:
I should probably just throw it or maybe I could take it out to the wilderness and set it free....

I’ve been known to set some free from time to time just to see what nature will do with them :meatballs:

speaking of which, I need to toss some more northern lights babies outside.
little behind on jumping into this journal though, soo I need to go back to page 10 and finish reading thru, loving the “small” grow though!

Camaro1691 · Jul 9, 2020

Not fully caught up yet, but I can’t help but put forth my .02 when I see the chance..

ProfessorFlora said:
To be honest I have had a bad time cloning over the last year as there was a problem with my aeroponic propagator. I was blaming myself for most of the failures but have made a recent discovery which may explain why the clones weren't taking in there. I opened up the pump and discovered that it was full of mould.

I have gotten lazy quite a few times and let the water turn stagnant in my cloner and it’s gotten pretty nasty/slimy multiple times. Each time I take everything apart fully, take the sprayers out of the bar and soak them in water and bleach once they’re opened up. And soak the pump in the same solution. Once everything has sat, flush the pump backwards with really hot water soo everything flows out the intake port. Reassemble everything and run the cloner with a strong water/bleach solution for about 10 minutes, dump it, disassemble everything and repeat the first process of rinsing, then reassemble and do another run of water/bleach for 10 minutes again. Dump that, refill with just water, run that for 10 minutes, then dump that. You should now be good to throw some cuts in there. When cloning I always put 3-4 drops of bleach in the cloner to be safe because I use semi warm water, never cold cold as it shocks the plants and makes rooting take longer. I generally see roots in a week-2 weeks and I’ve always had a 100% success rate. I hope this helps. And back to page 16 :rofl:

ProfessorFlora · Jul 9, 2020

Thanks for all of the info @syenite @TriangleCheese @Camaro1691. It is most appreciated.

Today we have the usual round of good, bad and ugly news. Lets start with the bad so we end on a high note. We have 2 plant deaths to report on. First is the Doz Z Doz. I decided to risk re-potting it as it was only getting worse in the pot it was already in. This gave me a chance to look at the roots which were brown and slimy. I put it in the fresh coco and ran some H2O2 through it. It just got worse and over the course of 2 days shrivelled up to next to nothing. I threw her out. The second plant to go was the Fro-Yo auto. It broke the surface and then died from damping off. My favourite fungus this year. Don't worry syenite, you're still not off the hook. I have replaced it with not 1 but 3 fems which will be started indoors and put out as soon as I can. We will see something grow outside lol.
The ugly news concerns some minor and not so minor issues regarding the landrace plants. My early opinion on growing landrace genetics is that it is like growing weed but on hard mode. The Balkh has stalled now as well as the Tashkurgan. It would seem that they really hate any kind of trimming. I have barely touched them compared to what I usually do to the hybrids. Just like the Tash, she looks absolutely fine but is frozen in time lol. What I'm thinking of doing is just dropping them into flower soon and rolling with it. I will put my plans to clone them on hold for now as I think I need to get used to what these are all about before dedicating anytime and effort to keeping them around. The Malana's are mostly good and are growing well. A couple are suffering from nutrient issues but other than that they are still good. I will be flowering these soon.
The good news is that everything else is going well. The harvest for the current flowering plants will be on the weekend and after that we have space to go mad and start flowering lots of plants. I'm going to pack the tents and see how It goes. There will be males to remove so I'm going to flower more than I have space to do. ~~Triangle Cheese's~~ The Pineapple Express, Romberry, All the Malana's, The Afghans, The monster-cropped Crumbled Lime and the 2 Barneys autos will all be flowering. Yep, It is going to be fun. After that we will be dropping some of @Lewydeville's crosses and maybe the X18's as well. We still have the Resoli's to get through too. Also I have a funny surprise for you all to reveal at some point. Something I started a long time ago and seemed so stupid I didn't even bother to document or even mention it. Now it looks like it is working. I will let you know what it is shortly. For now though it is time for some pics....

The poor Fro-Yo. This was as far as it got....