Lots of trichs on those buds Radogast!
I've printed out the neem oil recipe for later use if needed. You keep diligent and they will decide it's not worth losing their lives to stick around. ;-)
Thans for dropping by Cannafan.
The neem oil foliar really seems to be working. Growth is obviously stronger. I only saw about 15 mites on two plants last night when I checked and sprayed - I'm sure there were more but the spray has reduced the mites by over 95%. Their numbers have stayed down for over a week. I'll be on 3x per week neem oil spraying for awhile.
The important thing is the vigor and health of my garden has returned !!!!!
The plants may look scruffy (we all wear our history) but I firmly expect to return to 2+ oz harvests per plant.
I am now free to focus on weeding out a few genetic lines to stop slowing plant growth by too much time in early veg. (To be fair, 5 of the genetic lines were 'forced' upon my schedule by outside decisions.) If I aim for 4-6 weeks in cloning and veg, I want no more than 14 genetic lines (11 large Living Soil pots plus 2-3 small pots plus clones.) I currently have 19 plants with 15 genetic lines representing 8 breeder strains, so I guess I'm pretty close to where I want to be. I just know I have to avoid too much time in the seedling pots waiting for a Living Soil pot to become available.
My assembly line flow of plants through a perpetual grow really suffered when growth slows down - and the plants in the seedling pots suffered the worst. So far as I can recall delays were caused by fighting fungus gnats (I did more harm than good), high PH (the worst slowdown), and spider mites(affected yield AND time in late veg.) In all these cases, having no pots and space to transplant seedlings meant my seedlings became root bound and woody. They never seem to fully recover.
so .......
I currently have 5 woody seedlings. As is, they aren't good transplant prospects. They will grow but not neccesarily thrive. They will be even worse prospects in 3-5 weeks when my next harvests comes due and 3 large living soil pots become available.
AK47 'Gaby' and Borderliner 'Bowie' (in small pots since late July) can be replaced with feminized seeds. They are both premium smoke, but I expect the same out of a new seed. If put seeds into soil right away, the seedling should be a good size to transplant in 3-5 weeks using 2 of 3 large pots.
Breeder Seed 'Big Bertha' (in a small pot since early July) can be dropped. She grew more foliage than bud and is second tier smoke.
Snocap 'Snow Queen' (in a small pot for 5 weeks) is a clone of 'Snow Queen' in flower. I expect her smoke to be premium, based on her appearance in flower and the locally avilable Snocap. I have a fully rooted clone in the daisy cloner (for 7 weeks) that I can replace her with. If put it into soil right away, this clone should be a robust transplant candidate in 3-5 weeks, using the third large pot.
Breeder seed 'Lachesis' is looking good in the flower room, but I can't make a guess on her smoke. Her clone (in a small pot for weeks) is the least woody of the small plants, so I will transplant her into a 5 gallon bucket of plain soil and giver her commercial nutrients until I decide whether to keep her genetic line going. I should be able to find a spot in the flower room for the 5 gallon bucket after she reaches a mature size.
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As you may have noticed, I made decisions while typing. Advice and criticism of my decisions is encouraged.
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Also, the Daisy cloner is looking like a better place for 'holding' clones than small pots. Cloning in rockwool they went green and tended to rot and lose leaves. It was a race between growing roots and losing the clone to rot within a 10-20 day window. so I initially moved the clones into soil as soon as I saw roots.
In the daisy cloner, they are not growing new leaves, but the leaves are staying fresh and the roots grow as 1 inch hydro roots then seem to stop and throw out more roots. I will begin 'timing' my plantings based on availability of pots and expected harvest dates. This should help my plants grow happier and healthier.
