SoilGirl's Indoor Organic Soil Medical Grow Journal - Mars II 1600 & Other LEDs

[SoilGirl]

A raised bed of cannabis... that would be a LOS grower's dream haha. I'm trying to imagine one indoors right now lol, under my Mars II. That would make life so much simpler in some ways haha.

But I can totally respect your reservations for the indoor growing lol. I've noticed lots of pests lately in my veg room, but the thing is, they're not really bugging my plants at all. I've seen lots of red colored mite-like things running on the concrete all the time where there's water or dirt left, I see grey ones on the plant pots but never on the plants, gnats (though not many), and just all sorts of tiny bugs. It really is a little ecosystem in my grow rooms.

Hope you're well tonight Gfc. I wish I could vape with someone from here right now haha, about to grind up some Euphoria (I've been saving it all day, putting it off) ... it gets old vaping alone haha. oh well, cheers guys

P.S. Thank you doc! I will definitely consult you when it comes time for the money spending.

 

[STOP]

great stuff .happydays

 

[Teddy Edwards]

So I take to my bed for a night's kip and it all kicks off here - worms, bins, compost, watering, mulch and a Euphoria seed. Love the information here, SG. Thanks as always. I'm also a big fan of rotted leaves. It's one thing I've got an endless supply of here on the mountain. It's a terrific soil improver. I'm thinking about using my raised bed next year just for cannabis. I'll be refreshing its soil with my compost, forest humus and wood ash as soon as my broccoli and cabbages have finished (and when it stops raining).

 

[colorfuldayze]

Cheers SoilGirl ! And here here + ditto what you said Teddy! Leaves and compost, my next project
Congratulations on MOTM SoilG, and cheers to that! Best all!

 

[COorganics]

Gfc has some good points about bugs. You are gonna have bugs in an organic soil food web powered grow. Many of the bugs are beneficial. Many of them are destructive. Without a solid organic IPM plan in place your probably gonna run into trouble. There are many things we can use to keep the system in balance and keep pests at bay. Anyone thinking of growing this way or similar needs to do their homework on IPM. A few quick examples of things that help us keep bugs under control are silica foliars/soaks, neem/crab additions (chitin), essential herb oil sprays (make your own sns type sprays for free, which is cool), pest deterring living mulch, introducing predatory insects, etc.

Organic IPM should be taken seriously and even the synthetic grower can benefit from learning about organic IPM. You can save big money, which for me IS a big part of why I grow the way I do. I don't use anybody else's proprietary formulas, and thru making my own soil and fertilizers, and bug sprays,etc, I get to know what I'm consuming and how things really work in nature, outside of the typical chemical fertilizer paradigm.

Watch/listen to the link, request the report, put the ideas into practice in your garden. It's pretty scary when you find out you have a pest infestation. It's much better to be proactive.

 

[Gfcollective]

Gfc has some good points about bugs. You are gonna have bugs in an organic soil food web powered grow. Many of the bugs are beneficial. Many of them are destructive. Without a solid organic IPM plan in place your probably gonna run into trouble. There are many things we can use to keep the system in balance and keep pests at bay. Anyone thinking of growing this way or similar needs to do their homework on IPM. A few quick examples of things that help us keep bugs under control are silica foliars/soaks, neem/crab additions (chitin), essential herb oil sprays (make your own sns type sprays for free, which is cool), pest deterring living mulch, introducing predatory insects, etc.

Organic IPM should be taken seriously and even the synthetic grower can benefit from learning about organic IPM. You can save big money, which for me IS a big part of why I grow the way I do. I don't use anybody else's proprietary formulas, and thru making my own soil and fertilizers, and bug sprays,etc, I get to know what I'm consuming and how things really work in nature, outside of the typical chemical fertilizer paradigm.

Watch/listen to the link, request the report, put the ideas into practice in your garden. It's pretty scary when you find out you have a pest infestation. It's much better to be proactive.

Rosemary is a great extract, i love making my own insecticides. the hippie friend that taught me a little about compost and growing out side grew in his homegrown compost in raised beds. he referred to it as "magic" and meant it literally, swore he seen a fairy flying around his outside garden and his inside house plants. must of been some good herbs grown in that composted raised beds

I&i

 

[SoilGirl]

great stuff .happydays

So I take to my bed for a night's kip and it all kicks off here - worms, bins, compost, watering, mulch and a Euphoria seed. Love the information here, SG. Thanks as always. I'm also a big fan of rotted leaves. It's one thing I've got an endless supply of here on the mountain. It's a terrific soil improver. I'm thinking about using my raised bed next year just for cannabis. I'll be refreshing its soil with my compost, forest humus and wood ash as soon as my broccoli and cabbages have finished (and when it stops raining).

Aw, and as always thank you for stopping by and being so nice Mr. Teddy yes - leaves! So simple! Idk why I wasn't doing any of this before haha. your garden sounds just lovely. and its in Greece! (which is a major exotic bonus lol)

Cheers SoilGirl ! And here here + ditto what you said Teddy! Leaves and compost, my next project
Congratulations on MOTM SoilG, and cheers to that! Best all!

Aw thanks, but I'm not MOTM yet! Just nominated haha. I think that's a couple of the best simple steps you can take in organic growing. composting and leaves

Gfc has some good points about bugs. You are gonna have bugs in an organic soil food web powered grow. Many of the bugs are beneficial. Many of them are destructive. Without a solid organic IPM plan in place your probably gonna run into trouble. There are many things we can use to keep the system in balance and keep pests at bay. Anyone thinking of growing this way or similar needs to do their homework on IPM. A few quick examples of things that help us keep bugs under control are silica foliars/soaks, neem/crab additions (chitin), essential herb oil sprays (make your own sns type sprays for free, which is cool), pest deterring living mulch, introducing predatory insects, etc.

Organic IPM should be taken seriously and even the synthetic grower can benefit from learning about organic IPM. You can save big money, which for me IS a big part of why I grow the way I do. I don't use anybody else's proprietary formulas, and thru making my own soil and fertilizers, and bug sprays,etc, I get to know what I'm consuming and how things really work in nature, outside of the typical chemical fertilizer paradigm.

Watch/listen to the link, request the report, put the ideas into practice in your garden. It's pretty scary when you find out you have a pest infestation. It's much better to be proactive.

I was just watching this over catching up on your no-bottles organics thread! But thank you for posting it here! Yes I definitely want some neem and crab meal to include in (and on) my soils - I know somewhere I can get ladybugs in a pinch, and I'd love to start growing my own rapid accumulators and begin to source some local amendments that could help with IPM. I think it's all very fascinating. About to listen to part two

Rosemary is a great extract, i love making my own insecticides. the hippie friend that taught me a little about compost and growing out side grew in his homegrown compost in raised beds. he referred to it as "magic" and meant it literally, swore he seen a fairy flying around his outside garden and his inside house plants. must of been some good herbs grown in that composted raised beds

I&i

I'd love to start making my own rosemary extracts. Speaking of that. I think I have some Rosemary to put in my veg room lol
.... gotta go!

 

[Gfcollective]

Aw, and as always thank you for stopping by and being so nice Mr. Teddy yes - leaves! So simple! Idk why I wasn't doing any of this before haha. your garden sounds just lovely. and its in Greece! (which is a major exotic bonus lol)

Aw thanks, but I'm not MOTM yet! Just nominated haha. I think that's a couple of the best simple steps you can take in organic growing. composting and leaves

I was just watching this over catching up on your no-bottles organics thread! But thank you for posting it here! Yes I definitely want some neem and crab meal to include in (and on) my soils - I know somewhere I can get ladybugs in a pinch, and I'd love to start growing my own rapid accumulators and begin to source some local amendments that could help with IPM. I think it's all very fascinating. About to listen to part two

I'd love to start making my own rosemary extracts. Speaking of that. I think I have some Rosemary to put in my veg room lol
.... gotta go!

Essential oils take some time to make. my fiance wanted me to make her a Essential oil distiller..

right now i am far from having the time to sit down and mess around with making one of these. i do plan on making myself one, specially when i ordered some Cinnamon bark essential oil, could Retire just off making that oil

looked online to find the tree they get that bark from (it was a long confusing name) but you can not buy that plant online anywhere.. i tried, ended up finding a Weeping willow tree online, ordered it for 5$ and it arrived alive! i didnt read it was a live plant ha, i figured it was from seed. i wanted to bonsai the willow but i dont think i can manage it now, it came tall! weird how they can ship things now...

I&i

 

[SoilGirl]

That would be really cool to learn Gfc and hahaha you ended up ordering a weeping willow looking for cinnamon bark? You sound more like me to me every day lmao. I just spent the last of my catering money because I've been stressing over how to keep a mother plant in my veg room, and do all the fluxing I want to do, and have enough light left to flower plants, argh, well I ordered another t5 for a much better price >.< only 90$ for this 4 foot t5 with a built in ballast, 20,000 lumens. but what I went online looking for haha, naturally were shoes. darn it I wanted those boots. stupid purchase history!! You know me too well!!

A little more to share...

First off, training starts early for little Ghost OG #2 and Blue Blood #2. - I think both will be fluxed, to what degree I know not lol. Maybe just Ghost OG though.

Here are some new herbs in the veg room haha. There's some Rosemary, German Thyme, Spearmint, Parsley and some lemony herb I don't know behind my cannabis now. Hopefully they'll help with pests, not bring more in.

Uhm oh yeah, I just wanted to share a closer up look at Dinafem Diesel

... I just love the way training has been going for her. there's one node left a little bit towards the middle I'm going to keep growing out and then it will be a nice perfect circle of nodes lol. This plant's grown so perfect for this training style, with all 8 of its branches pretty much pointing off in the perfect direction from the start. Not every plant needs to be fluxed to get a good result haha, I'm sure these nodes will all produce great, like-sized colas in the future...despite that there is no central "hub" of dispersion really.

I want to get this one into flower though...maybe slightly after I start flowering those 4 under the 1600. so I might not keep it as a mother. too bad, at least I'll have her clones to clone off of. Almost time to go vertical with this one!

..... now I just wanted to show you guys I was right.

Ghost OG

.... that this plant definitely wanted to go vertical haha. this one is loving the blue spectrum of that powerful mars II. I may get some decent colas this coming flower yet!

That's all.

 

[drcannabi]

The fact that you have Rosemary and Thyme in your grow room makes me happy!

 

[colorfuldayze]

Great pictures and update SoilGirl. That is a fine looking herb garden you have - love it. Thanks for sharing your handiwork which is looking mighty nice!

 

[COorganics]

Soil girl, those red mites running around are predator mites, you're lucky to have those running around!

 

[Gfcollective]

they are gnarly to look at, but corganics is right. you are lucky to have them, they are what i was talking about needing on the outside to help combat the pests for that soil theory. really hard to notice them, but those, ladybugs, and Feltiella acarisuga (had to google the spelling hah) are great outdoor helpers. if you find them in the inside, in your situation they are your best friends

I&I

 

[SoilGirl]

The fact that you have Rosemary and Thyme in your grow room makes me happy!

Me too!

Soil girl, those red mites running around are predator mites, you're lucky to have those running around!

they are gnarly to look at, but corganics is right. you are lucky to have them, they are what i was talking about needing on the outside to help combat the pests for that soil theory. really hard to notice them, but those, ladybugs, and Feltiella acarisuga (had to google the spelling hah) are great outdoor helpers. if you find them in the inside, in your situation they are your best friends

I&I

Oh snap really?? I kind of hoped they were, but I've been smashing them with my thumb when I find them!

Ok that stops now. I wonder if they're eating the grey things. Good thing there's way too many for me to smash! No Shit. Predator mites... So cool!

Lmao, feltiella acarisuga, all I've got is red things and grey things! This is why I did well in geology and failed at biology. I suppose I need to work on that if I'm going to get into LOS!

I'm kind of feeling like a badass anyways right now. Predator mites!!

thank you guys for telling me!!

 

[SoilGirl]

Great pictures and update SoilGirl. That is a fine looking herb garden you have - love it. Thanks for sharing your handiwork which is looking mighty nice!

oops. missed your post there in my little bulk reply. Sorry for that! Thank you, you're too kind! I love it too. You're very welcome for the shares haha, I hope people enjoy them and maybe learn a little along with me. On a random note, I accidentally broke off the tallest branch of rosemary moving it >.< ... if you didn't notice.

Haha I doubt it will have any really positive effects, but not negative either so why not let it be part of the mulch.

 

[SoilGirl]

Predatory Mites - or Not?

So here are those red looking things! (they're surprisingly fast when you're chasing them around with a zoomed-in camera hahaha)

A verdict? Predator or problem? :S they sure look mean to me either way lol. I hope you guys can see the legs in the pics.

P.S. > OMG my floor is dirty. That cracks me up, in a guilty sort of way, because I was just laughing about Adam Dunn's show saying "A lot of people just think organic growing is dirty growing" >.< But I don't want to go sweep up predator mites! hmmm...

And actually. I was paying attention and, there's lots of other bugs in there too, not all good I'm sure, but they seem kept well in balance..

 

[COorganics]

It's hard to exactly see in the pic, but I don't think they are anything other than beneficial predator mites. I haven't yet have the pleasure of spider mites in my garden, but aren't those smaller, and found on the plants?

 

[SoilGirl]

Thanks CO! Yeah, in my experience anyways spider mites seem to vary in color and aren't fast movers... and are on your leaves or buds, and are tiny (most of them, I can see some fat ones with the naked eye when its bad). I haven't seen a single one of these on a plant so... I think you guys are right! Natural predator mites...for free... hows that for a start at IPM!! Lol

 

[drcannabi]

Those aren't spider mites. I've had spider mites and they can barely be seen by the naked eye. To photograph them you'd have to use serious magnification.

 

[drcannabi]

And yes, by the time you see one it's too late. Normally you will spot the damage they cause way before you spot the mites themselves.