Greetings Growmies,
Here's an update with some pics from tonight.
I've got a bit of a complicated harvest about to happen, and at the same time, trouble with a couple plants in the veg house. Both of these things are going to require some
anti-fungal tea, so I'm going to make 3 different types of tea, just to mix it up and try some different things...
TEA #1) An aerated worm compost tea, featuring worm castings, willow bark powder, kelp meal, potassium sulfate, and apple juice (for sugar). For this I'm going to brew up about 4 gallons of concentrate using my air stone setup (I'm pre-soaking the stone tonight). This tea will be used in a foliar spray as well as in a drench. I consider this one to be nutritive, microbial, and anti-fungal. I will maybe add a little bit of Bronner's peppermint soap as a wetting agent/surfactant to the foliar spray version... what do you think?
TEA #2) An anaerobic tea, featuring willow bark powder and worm castings, 1 qt. This one will be for a foliar spray, and is microbial and anti-fungal. I will maybe add a little bit of Bronner's peppermint soap as a wetting agent/surfactant... what do you think?
TEA #3) An infusion, featuring willow bark powder, thyme, rosemary, fennel seed, and cumin, 1/2 gal. I'm going to pour boiling water over the herbs in a 1/2 gal. jar. This one will be for a foliar spray, and is anti-fungal. I'll make this tea tonight, so it's ready in the morning. I'll add a little bit of Bronner's peppermint soap as a wetting agent/surfactant.
I will measure the ppm and pH of each tea when they are ready.
Flower House
In the flower house, I've got 3 plants that are near to harvest: HI-BISCUS, Blueberry, and Sweet Critical CBD.
For bud rot prevention...
The HI-BISCUS is almost ready and has no sign of bud rot. I may harvest it tomorrow, or wait a bit longer, depending on how it looks. I'll give it a foliar spray of TEA #3 in the morning.
The Sweet Critical is a bit less ready than HI-BISCUS. She had some minor signs of bud rot today, which I clipped off. She'll also get some TEA #3 tomorrow.
Lastly, the Blueberry is looking spectacular, but still has a ways to go, and is also showing a little bit of minor bud rot, which I clipped off. She'll also get some TEA #3 tomorrow, and then I'll reassess what she might need Sunday or Monday.
For leaf mold spots...
The above 3 plants, plus Seedsman 30:1 CBD and Blue Widow, will also get TEA #3 sprayed on their leaves. So this will be a first test to see if willow bark and the other high-salicylate herbs will have an effect on the downy mildew I've been seeing. Note that I'm also seeing a bit of septoria leaf spot fungus, but only a minor amount. I will also try TEA #1 and #2 as needed on the leaf spot organisms, when those teas are ready.
Veg House
The below pics show the situation in the veg house. The two plants that need help are a Blueberry clone and a Grape Ape clone.
Here's the Grape Ape clone. Some of this droop is due to nighttime, but she droops some in the day as well. Her color is way off, she's somewhat limp, and she's just not growing normally. I'm sensing that a pathogenic soil fungus is disrupting root growth and nutrient uptake. She is not drinking and feeding normally, and the pot tends to stay wet too long (even though I've kept to the wet/dry cycle). I'm planning on giving her some healthy doses of TEA #1 – nutritive, microbial, and anti-fungal – as both a foliar spray and a soil drench.
Leaf clawing on the Grape Ape.
A Blueberry clone. She's in similar shape as the Grape Ape, but not as bad. Her color is off * and she's not growing very fast. She's a lot more perky than the Grape Ape, so hopefully this is a minor problem. I'm hoping she will also respond to TEA #1.
(* Her mom in the flower house has always had deep green leaves.)
In comparison, here's a Humboldt Dream clone... she's doing just fine.
Here's my DBL CBG seedling, showing a little nighttime droop. She's also doing just fine.
Top view of the DBL CBG. (This is the sativa-leaning pheno.)
Here's a clone of my legacy CBD #18 pheno... the queen of green. She's small and always loaded with deep green leaves.
That's all for tonight! Have a great weekend.