Radogast 2 - Return of the Clones

Great news Rado! A new hobby is born. It's an interesting experience raising worms. They thrive on neglect but you have to remind yourself that they also need food on occasion. LOL They don't need much food in the first week or so as they acclimate and I'd bury those banana peels a bit to keep fruit flies down, although I'm not certain that one can keep them down with decaying food on hand. I have a seriously ripe banana peel that I'm planning to whirl in the food processor later. I've been letting it rot a bit in a plastic ziplock bag for a day or so. I always have to remind myself that it's the micro organisms that eat the food and the worms eat the micro organisms, so if I let the food begin to rot and pulverize it into smaller pieces it speeds up the process. The cycle of life and death. Nothing is wasted.

I like to toss in used herbal tea bags (without the staples of course) into my bin. I'm a fan of mint medley and chamomile, which keep the bin smelling sweet. The worms like the strings too. I read dryer lint, if one uses pure detergents and dryer sheets without perfumes, is a good addition to the bins, but I haven't tried that yet. I think about it every time I take a load out of the dryer though. Don't forget worms have gizzards and need some occasional grit added in.

Enjoy. :Love:
 
Things are starting to look up in your garden Radogast. The seedlings look great and the clones are bouncing back, I'm happy for you that things look much better now. "Keep The Green Side Up" :goodjob:
 
Two new seeds are looking like happy little trees.
Two other seeds seem to have issues finding their roots.
The worms almost finished their banana peel, less eating of coffee grounds.

Overall the clones appear to be recovering.
The older seeds are scrawny.

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I'm debating adding some white clover seeds to the larger pots, but might leave well enough alone for now.

Not bad since I can barely keep the temperatures up in the garden room.

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I feel your frustration. I had to turn off the fan because it was too cool in the grow space. Mine is wide open to the living room, so it's a constant 73 without the chilling breeze.
 
4 photos


Worm food: organic banana peel, unsalted peanut shells, (not pictured: onion peels, refried beans)
The mortar and pestle approach didn't work well, so I pulverized those peanut shells between my mighty fingers.
I also tore up about 20 pages off newsprint, soaked briefly in water, and applied as a worm bin soil cover.

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(See how I did a SoilGirl photo there) :)


Hawaiian Skunk (I think the wife named her Liliana)

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Recovering waterholic clones under 20,000 lumens of CFL

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Recovering waterholic clones under 95,000 lumens of HPS
(p.s. Their room is also warmer with lower humidity)
(p.p.s. they were also the bigger ones when they went under the HPS...but not by much)
(p.p.p.s. They also skipped the gnat treatments.)

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:rofl: awesome work Rado!! They're coming around! :slide: love the toes and mighty fingers. :Love:
 
Good 2 am laugh out of me "soilgirl photo bomb" haha toes and fingers be everywhere. There is a model service for these things ;)

I&I
 
Easy on that worm food in the beginning Rad. They need a couple weeks to acclimate. How many did you get to start with? I still have to remind myself to feed them, although, with the abundance of fruit flies we dig out of our cereal milk in the morning one wonders how I could forget at all! :laughtwo:

I never thought I could be so tolerant of small flying bugs.

Every time I take a shot with my feet showing I think "a SoilGirl shot". She's starting a trend. :green_heart:
 
Sweetsue said:
Easy on that worm food in the beginning Rad. They need a couple weeks to acclimate. How many did you get to start with? I still have to remind myself to feed them, although, with the abundance of fruit flies we dig out of our cereal milk in the morning one wonders how I could forget at all! :laughtwo:

I never thought I could be so tolerant of small flying bugs.

Every time I take a shot with my feet showing I think "a SoilGirl shot". She's starting a trend. :green_heart:
Click to expand...

I only purchased 250 worms, I figure they will either multiply or they won't.
'Twas not my intention to feed again after the first week, but ...

when I was showing off the work bin and I dug around where the banana peel was buried, I only found 25% of it.
Their medium is almost 100% coco coir so I chose a second corner of the worm bin and stashed new food there.
The little things deserve more than coir and rock dust after their long cold journey.

I don't expect to feed again until next month. :)

I considered doing the bin near the sink method, but a single banana peel and some meal prep scraps is plenty.
The bulk of our food waste still gets thrown on the porch or in the seed pit for the birds and critters.
 
Sorry Had to look. F'n gnats Oh My Science! I thought you were kidding. What a headache you have been dealing with, F'n frustrating too. I had a bout of the gnats and was victorious. DE from what I read was not good because it kills all organisms that are good as well. I tried the Safer spray crap too.

I later found that I really had two problems. I had the gnats which as you know eat the roots and seriously inhibit growth of the plant. But I also had THRIPS which eat the sap out of the leaf and inhibit stored energy from being delivered to the plant. I thought I was seeing gnat larvae on my leaves but, NO it was thrips. I spent months fighting gnats when I should have been fighting thrips.

I lot of people mistake thrips for the gnat larvae. Thrips will be yellow-green and you will see black poop around what looks like weird white-ish scratches on the leaf under a magnifier. Those scratches turned out to be where the thrips suck out the sap or chlorophyll of the leaf. Almost like leaf miners. If you see a yellow-green thing just sitting there you might think its dust. Try to touch it and see if it starts to run away they can also hop like a flea they do have wings (which is why I think people get them mixed up). If it does then you have thrips. There is one product after hundreds of hours I found that is OMRI certified for organic. Look for Monterey brand Garden Insect Spray concentrate with "Spinosad" Make sure it says it has Spinosad on the front label with a cartoon worm on a tomato. I got the small pint concentrate uses like 1 oz mix in 32 ozs of water - so happens to be the size of a good water spray bottle. I sprayed the under sides of the leaf first then the top of the affected plants, until they were drenched. Do it again 4 days later due to the egg cycle,...then I did it one more time another 4 days later. My plants got immediately better in a day after the first application and in few days they looked like nothing was ever wrong I did that last spray out of spite and frustration. Anyway, never again have I had a thrips. I got 13 oz of concentrate still.

Gnats: I solved that with Mosquito Bits sprinkled on the top of the soil and in the trays, each time you water it will activate Bacsillus Thurengis or something like that which kills the gnat larvae while not harming other things. I also tried lady bugs - don't do that you will just feel sad about 1500 lady bugs running in circles and dying everywhere. I don't see gnats anymore either. Oh yeah I also tried Hydrogen Peroxide but that also kills all the micro-organisms which help the plant get the nutrients it needs in organic soil. So then I had a nutrient deficiency. And covering soil with the sand thing - nope doesn't work.

I'm in Colorado which is dry so you may be dealing with something I am not familiar with due to the humidity. Also I skimmed through and saw some pics of plastic covering the pots while leaving the stem and leaves out. I don't know how oxygen gets to the roots in that scenario but like I said I didn't read it.

:high-five:If you solved the gnat thing already then at least some others might see something they hadn't thought of.

Good Luck!
:peace:
 
xtrchessreal said:
Sorry Had to look. F'n gnats Oh My Science! I thought you were kidding. What a headache you have been dealing with, F'n frustrating too. I had a bout of the gnats and was victorious. DE from what I read was not good because it kills all organisms that are good as well. I tried the Safer spray crap too.

I later found that I really had two problems. I had the gnats which as you know eat the roots and seriously inhibit growth of the plant. But I also had THRIPS which eat the sap out of the leaf and inhibit stored energy from being delivered to the plant. I thought I was seeing gnat larvae on my leaves but, NO it was thrips. I spent months fighting gnats when I should have been fighting thrips.

I lot of people mistake thrips for the gnat larvae. Thrips will be yellow-green and you will see black poop around what looks like weird white-ish scratches on the leaf under a magnifier. Those scratches turned out to be where the thrips suck out the sap or chlorophyll of the leaf. Almost like leaf miners. If you see a yellow-green thing just sitting there you might think its dust. Try to touch it and see if it starts to run away they can also hop like a flea they do have wings (which is why I think people get them mixed up). If it does then you have thrips. There is one product after hundreds of hours I found that is OMRI certified for organic. Look for Monterey brand Garden Insect Spray concentrate with "Spinosad" Make sure it says it has Spinosad on the front label with a cartoon worm on a tomato. I got the small pint concentrate uses like 1 oz mix in 32 ozs of water - so happens to be the size of a good water spray bottle. I sprayed the under sides of the leaf first then the top of the affected plants, until they were drenched. Do it again 4 days later due to the egg cycle,...then I did it one more time another 4 days later. My plants got immediately better in a day after the first application and in few days they looked like nothing was ever wrong I did that last spray out of spite and frustration. Anyway, never again have I had a thrips. I got 13 oz of concentrate still.

Gnats: I solved that with Mosquito Bits sprinkled on the top of the soil and in the trays, each time you water it will activate Bacsillus Thurengis or something like that which kills the gnat larvae while not harming other things. I also tried lady bugs - don't do that you will just feel sad about 1500 lady bugs running in circles and dying everywhere. I don't see gnats anymore either. Oh yeah I also tried Hydrogen Peroxide but that also kills all the micro-organisms which help the plant get the nutrients it needs in organic soil. So then I had a nutrient deficiency. And covering soil with the sand thing - nope doesn't work.

I'm in Colorado which is dry so you may be dealing with something I am not familiar with due to the humidity. Also I skimmed through and saw some pics of plastic covering the pots while leaving the stem and leaves out. I don't know how oxygen gets to the roots in that scenario but like I said I didn't read it.

:high-five:If you solved the gnat thing already then at least some others might see something they hadn't thought of.

Good Luck!
:peace:
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Hey. Thanks for dropping by !

My working theory is when I added perlite hoping to help the soil dry out quicker, I instead made the water retain in the soil.
Then I over watered.
Then I killed the soil food web in various ways while continuing to over water.
I was watering once every 3-4 days convinced test my moisture probe had failed.
I had a bad concept in my brain that I stubbornly believed.

"Hello. I'm a waterholic. It has been 3 weeks since my last watering. I am in recovery :)"
 
With a rich organic soil mix and a smoothly operating SWICK system in place, watering concerns vanished in the wind. I cannot tell you enough how happy I am with this system. My fungus gnat population is vanishing, in large part to this watering approach.

Xtrchessreal, where did you read that about DE? I would like to see that myself. If it were dangerous to the soil community at large it wouldn't be recommended as a viable additive or soil amendment. My understanding is that it will scratch the exoskeletons of invasive insects and nothing else. When watered in I believe the microscopic skeleton structures break down and it becomes an excellent silica source. As an insect destroyer it works best as a fine dusting that the insects can't escape. One of Rad's mistakes was to use it as a cover layer, hoping to smother the buggers. Not an effective use. That's why they sell puffers to disperse DE in a fine, fine layer.

That "I'm a waterholic " made me laugh out loud too. What a hoot Rad!
 
SweetSue I found this "Diatomaceous earth sprinkled around you’re your plants base of the stems will help keep out slugs and snails, but it can also stop other beneficial insects." Here in the Growers forum under Problems and Pest Control Pictorial sticky. :)

Yeah the waterholic thing was a good one Radogast

:peace:
 
Sweetsue said:
With a rich organic soil mix and a smoothly operating SWICK system in place, watering concerns vanished in the wind. I cannot tell you enough how happy I am with this system. My fungus gnat population is vanishing, in large part to this watering approach.

Xtrchessreal, where did you read that about DE? I would like to see that myself. If it were dangerous to the soil community at large it wouldn't be recommended as a viable additive or soil amendment. My understanding is that it will scratch the exoskeletons of invasive insects and nothing else. When watered in I believe the microscopic skeleton structures break down and it becomes an excellent silica source. As an insect destroyer it works best as a fine dusting that the insects can't escape. One of Rad's mistakes was to use it as a cover layer, hoping to smother the buggers. Not an effective use. That's why they sell puffers to disperse DE in a fine, fine layer.

That "I'm a waterholic " made me laugh out loud too. What a hoot Rad!
Click to expand...

You have no idea how impressed I am by the fine system you assembled for your girls, SweetSue.
I almost used the word envious, but if I were truly envious I would have built new soil by now.
Rest assured I am VERY IMPRESSED. :green_heart::circle-of-love::green_heart:

One thing I am not ready to change is my desire to be nearly self-sustaining indoors as I try to be outdoors.
I have raw inputs of living soil, leaves, trees, moss, compost, sand and worm castings. Also left over bat guano and myco.

Do you have a recommendation for making a no till, reusable, living soil from these?

(That's an open question for anyone, not just SweetSue.)
 
xtrchessreal said:
SweetSue I found this "[3]Diatomaceous earth sprinkled around you’re your plants base of the stems will help keep out slugs and snails, but it can also stop other beneficial insects." Here in the Growers forum under Problems and Pest Control Pictorial sticky. :)

Yeah the waterholic thing was a good one Radogast

:peace:
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Click to expand...

As I understand it, DE will kill anything larger than a flea that is chitinous, slithery or clumsy.
Spiders will be ok. Worms will get their guts tore up.

Most of the soil food web, (mycelium, microorganisms, molds and webby stuff, etc. ) will be fine.

BUT ... My knowledge is sciency book knowledge, which is why I never heard about a DE puffer until this year. :)
 
I just found out about the puffer yesterday. And all this time I've unnecessarily been making a huge mess :)
 
I tried many things to rid gnats, those sticky traps too, I am very science-ee too. But I was frantic and tried everything I read in the forums. It was my first time, I was very young, and I really didn't know the consequences of my decisions. lol
As I said though I had misdiagnosed the problem, I had gnats and thrips. When I read that DE would kill other beneficial insects I stopped reading right there because I wanted my spiders to hang around and the statement was coming from a credible source here at 420. There are a few other statements that are similar I think Jorge Cervantes says it in his Guide to Indoor Marijuana Horticulture book. I am an environmentalist so I don't like being bad to the earth. I usually completely research something I decide to use before using it while at the same time once I decide not to use something I stop my research to not waste time. So my knowledge of DE might be limited. I do not claim to be an expert on DE. It was several months before I even saw those yellow green thrips, those poor lady bugs, and then another couple weeks of investigating what they were and another couple weeks of research to figure out how to kill them while being good to the environment. All my lady bugs were dead by the time I saw thrips. Spinosad is OMRI listed as a organic insecticide/pesticide as it breaks down and biodegrades within a week I believe in the concentrations used for thrips. Generic Materials Search: spinosad | Organic Materials Review Institute
Thrips are killed as adults and larvae immediately using a spinosad spray which is why you need to spray again 4 days later after the eggs hatch. The Mosquito bits kill the egg and the larvae of gnats not the adults. Both products are safe for the environment.

Hydrogen Peroxide breaks down too but it kills all the micro biology while doing it so it may give your roots a good dose of oxygen but then leaves them plain and without help to receive nutrients from the soil and no help from the micro organisms that were there before. Essentially you render your soil into a soil-less medium and then you have to start adding nutrients or just transplant like Jorge says. Transplanting is the single easiest way to help get your plants back to health when dealing with nutrient issues in soil.

Speaking of transplanting I need to transplant a mother as she it root bound so I have to go buy some soil.

:peace:
 
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