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

[SoilGirl]

Happy New Year SoilGirl. Beautiful trichome crust on post 436 Euphoria buds. Real nice.

Thank you bright I appreciate the input haha. Still haven't gotten around to entering a nug for notm. Happy New Year to you and your awesome plants!

happy new year

Thanks girl!

Happy New Years...

May your buds stay frosty in 2015

And may yours as well aki

Happy New Year soilgirl! Here's to a greener 2015

Cheers to that doc - ok enough 'Happy New Years' that's SO Yesterday.

Happy New Year!! I cant wait to get this stuff together!! I should be able to get it soon here!! Thank You for all the great advice!! I cannot wait to get cracking!

Hahaha ok one more. Happy New Year!! No problem at all I'm excited for you! My gnats thought they had it made in my little mulch layer until I top dressed with Neem, Kelp and Crustacean Meal. Now the only sign they ever were infesting my veg room are the chomped leaves on RCB - who seems much perkier now without the gnats!! Lol I felt like I'm on a pro-gardener streak - but don't get too cocky lol or you'll do something stupid like leave a light on all night in the flower room right when they were a week into flowering >.< which I did last night. Argh... ok - I snuck in a little update in my response to you hope you don't mind LOL. Might as well finish it off with - I did some undergrowth management on the flowering Ghost OG, did a little foliage training on my flowering fluxers, and today I'm transplanting the final 3 clones into soil. Exciting! TTYL everyone - maybe I'll even have the first update of 2015 for me!

 

[SweetSue]

I agree with you about the top dressing SoilGirl. I need to get the order out for kelp meal to add to the neem and crustacean meal on hand and do one of my own. The dunks are a good quick fix and the bacteria are a naturally occurring organism but I prefer to remove the conditions that encourage the buggers to infest in the first place. The list keeps growing!

 

[SoilGirl]

Hey guys - guess what my dad is saying today... His New Year's resolution is apparently to quit drinking... this is news to me. Apparently he hasn't drank since New Year's Eve. Which, actually is very impressive...for him. Who knows... I guess we'll see how long this lasts.

Honestly I've been dreading my mom leaving tomorrow... lets just hope things get better now. just felt like sharing that.

 

[SoilGirl]

I agree with you about the top dressing SoilGirl. I need to get the order out for kelp meal to add to the neem and crustacean meal on hand and do one of my own. The dunks are a good quick fix and the bacteria are a naturally occurring organism but I prefer to remove the conditions that encourage the buggers to infest in the first place. The list keeps growing!

Hmm I think Coot actually only said he uses neem and kelp for a top dressing - but I just inferred that he already had a source of chitin for them to combine with in his soil mixes. If you listened to him on that IPM talk you'll know what I mean when I say Coot's a bit spacey hahaha. I imagine he could overlook that other growers probably dont have a source of chitin already in their soil - like I didn't for my flowering plants - so it made sense to me to add all three after I learned about the symbiotic relationship they have.

I even had oyster shell flour in my top dressing, because I know my plants can use the micronutrients and the extra calcium, as calcium tends to keep soil from compacting... a small issue I've been having in my rigid plastic pots. (a useful little bit of info*)

hahaha, I've been wondering why my list gets longer every time I think I'm making it shorter >.< what a curse! The curse of perpetual improvements to make

 

[Green Dreamz]

Happy news SG about your dad.....sending your way in hopes that he keeps with it.......

 

[SoilGirl]

OK - couple things, I completely dunked OG Kush PR in a bucket of Monterey Garden Insect Spray with Spinosad, I used a cardboard cutout to hold the mulch in. This was because of those little terrors, mealybugs. I'm hoping they'll be devastated by that, but so far they've proven pretty resilient.. I really don't understand how I got mealybugs :S I had no idea they were even a pest in CO, I've never heard any other cannabis growers mention them at all.

another thing. I saw (and destroyed) a gnat today in my veg room. ...one. I know, no big deal. Still a little upsetting though hahaha, after I was acting like I went Terminator on them. OK. Maybe not every gnat will be annihilated by neem/kelp/crab(or crustacean) meals, but, they really make a monumental difference. Like, I went from having dozens of gnats in the air at any given time, to having virtually none in around 2 days, because of a top dressing. No it isn't nuclear, ending all life, but you don't want to go nuclear in organic soil. Keeping things very manageable but still alive, personally I consider that just right.

Sorry I've not actually updated in a while guys, I've been a little under the weather (as those of you at Mr. Teddy's journal know ) but I'll definitely get one up soon. Take care for now!

 

[Green Dreamz]

Happy SkunkDaze SG.........sorry to hear you are not feeling welll....heres to hoping for a speedy recovery i had fungus gnats bad when i first started soil......over watering issues.....but since i let them almost dry out between waterings i have yet to see one in the last month and a half i have been using soill again.....

 

[SoilGirl]

Ah thanks GD! Yeah I used to let my soil dry out and never had gnat issues - but with LOS, dry soil can really set back your microbe population...or annihilate them. So it's really important to keep the soil moist at all times. Just, soil pests love LOS growers for that hahaha. That's why we better be prepared with IPM, or worst case, with backup organic sprays.

Speaking of pests >.< UGH. My isolated issue with mealybugs just became significantly less isolated. I think I may have gotten them off of OG Kush PR, ........but they moved into my flower room on every plant!! It's early in the infestation so I'm going to be very anal today, sitting in there with rubbing alcohol and q-tip sabers, then I'm going to use some peppermint insecticidal soap. UGH I hate them. ...sucking the life out of my beautiful plants! And right when they're showing first pistils and starting to bud too!!! :O

 

[Teddy Edwards]

Damn, SG - so sorry to hear about your plant-sucking measly Mealybugs. *Chapeau* to you for putting the hours in. Good, good luck.

Here's a fact I picked up from BBC radio today that made me think of you and may bring a little cheer: There are more microbes in one teaspoon of good soil than there are people on the planet.

 

[Gfcollective]

im so sorry to hear about the mealybug attack.. i dont want to be the one to say it but it needs said.. the females normally are found at the base as well as inside any area it can reach roots, your mulch most likely has eggs and females inside it. i would recommend using some type of soil drench, but would recommend getting further information about these. as ive had a encounter with them about 3 years ago in my teachers garden. it was not organic so chemicals were used, as well as a fogger. aye aye aye

I&i

 

[drcannabi]

Dang soilgirl, sorry to hear about the mealy bugs. What do they look like? I don't think I've ever seen them before. How do they get into a garden to start with?

Just wondering if they hitch hiked or were in one of the ingredients of your soil. Good luck battling them, I'm pulling for you

 

[SoilGirl]

Damn, SG - so sorry to hear about your plant-sucking measly Mealybugs. *Chapeau* to you for putting the hours in. Good, good luck.

Here's a fact I picked up from BBC radio today that made me think of you and may bring a little cheer: There are more microbes in one teaspoon of good soil than there are people on the planet.

Hi Mr. Teddy! That fact does bring a bit of cheer at least a smile. Yeah - I spent all day in the grow rooms hahaha. Sometimes I forget that this really can be a full time job >.< But - the reward is that this infestation is under control for now. I can't say they won't come back, but I won't let them beat me - I was stressing A LOT about it, but after today I really think my worry was blown out of proportion. I did a number of things to put the fight on them today - but I'm going to do an update after this so let's save it for then. Thank you for coming by as always my Greekish friend, always my pleasure.

im so sorry to hear about the mealybug attack.. i dont want to be the one to say it but it needs said.. the females normally are found at the base as well as inside any area it can reach roots, your mulch most likely has eggs and females inside it. i would recommend using some type of soil drench, but would recommend getting further information about these. as ive had a encounter with them about 3 years ago in my teachers garden. it was not organic so chemicals were used, as well as a fogger. aye aye aye

I&i

Thank you for saying it Gfc! (and for not saying I TOLD YOU SO!!! ) I always appreciate the sharing of experience and good info here. But I'm confident I can beat them, as long as I stay proactive. I have Azamax for an emergency drench if necessary, but it may not be. Thanks for the support and as always for your concern, I really appreciate you looking out for me I know I can count on your years in the industry.

Dang soilgirl, sorry to hear about the mealy bugs. What do they look like? I don't think I've ever seen them before. How do they get into a garden to start with?

Just wondering if they hitch hiked or were in one of the ingredients of your soil. Good luck battling them, I'm pulling for you

Doc, mealybugs: How to Get Rid of Mealybugs | Planet Natural
horrible little segmented things that get covered in this pearly white cottony dust. Absolutely DISGUSTING. As to where they came from in my case, they hitch-hiked in with the herbs I introduced very very briefly -.- along with a number of other things. An interesting little bit of info I found on them in the link provided - that may have been important in causing my infestation, actually - ants actually protect mealybugs and raise them on plants as a food source (they love the honeydew/sap from their plant sucking -.-)..... I noticed both ants and mealybugs in my herb planters and in my veg room after bringing them in. Quickly removed the planters but the mealybugs hung around on one plant, OG Kush PR. I dunked them in MGIS the other day and OG Kush PR is pretty devoid of pests now - yet suddenly there's mealybugs on my flowering plants that definitely weren't there before. Makes me wonder if I didn't drown all the mealybugs on OG PR, perhaps some survived in the mulch as Gfc suggested, but instead of eating the Spinosad on OG Kush PR, they wised up and attacked easier, stinkier fruits. >.< Ugh lol. The war rages on... but I intend to overwhelm my enemy starting, now.

Thanks for coming by doc and take care! It's time I did an update.

 

[SweetSue]

So do yourself a favor and pull the mulch. Replace it with something newer and mealy bug deficient. Keep up the top dressing though, it's long term planning. From what I read living organic soil grows stronger as it goes (hence the value of no till). Trust the soil to work for the plant. Eventually you'll conquer the mealy bugs.

There are complications that accompany large grows that make me thankful to be raising only two. LOL ! I quit at two children too. I must know my limitations. LOL!

Glad to hear you're feeling better. My cold is a hanger-on variety, but I may be on the road to recovery at long last.

 

[akisunni]

Hey SoilGirl,

I gave Big Girl a hair cut today. I would love you opinions on how to wash and prep the buds.

 

[B A R]

Bad news about the Mealybugs but good news about Pops & even better news that your here to partake in 2015 with us in our humble 420 Magazine community SoulGirl...

I love sitting with my girls while i medicate.....the only problem is i tend to get creative and normally ended up snapping something.....if i could just look and not touch while medicated it would be fine...

Never happen! If your stoned and alone with your girls it's gonna be some type of manipulation happening (especially with you Dirty)...

 

[SoilGirl]

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE!!!

Big update today. (I have a memory card that actually fits for my camera now - get ready for Lots more pics!)

So it's probably on your minds what's going on with the mealybugs. Well today I swabbed lots of them on the 5 plants they've attacked with rubbing alcohol... The flowering plants and OG Kush PR, who's also now in flowering as of today, but more on that later... I also found something else after all that swabbing that could play a big roll in beating my infestation today. That smart pot worm farm I have going's surface is just covered in predator mites, I mean, hundreds if not thousands. I think they're eating springtails from my still-cooking flowering soil that made their way in hahaha.... it really is a jungle in my garage.

Well, I ended up putting some leaves down in the smart pot worm farm to gather some mites, and when I came back they were just crawling with the angry little red specks. I've noticed lately that there just plain aren't any predator mites in my flowering room... they're everywhere in the veg room, but I've been in there all day and not a single one in the flowering room until I took those leaves, placed them in my plants foliage and in my mulch layers, left for a while, and came back. Now - I can see them crawling on my plants and on the mulch and on the pots and on the wooden beams they're resting on. They're everywhere now.

Between that and my swab attack, I think if I stay vigilant, re-introducing predators, maybe I can beat this without any oily sprays or drenches that could annoy my microbes. - but like I said earlier, I have Azamax in reserve if this becomes an emergency. These are the source of the problem - the eggs, these little insignificant cottony specks can turn into dozens or hundreds of little mealybugs if missed.

Didn't miss that one at least. let's move on...

OG Kush PR! Day 1 Flowering!!

So I decided to jump the gun and flower this one today for a number of reasons. One, I want all my mealybugs in one place. Two, the plant was showing female pre-flowers (even in constant light) and stinking to high heaven - so I'm deciding to interpret this as her communicating with me that she wants to flower... sometimes you just gotta listen to your plants! Three, I really need the space in the veg room, esp. after finding out that I physically can't draw any more power for this grow and Four, I just really want to see how this plant buds. I've been raving about the genetics all grow, now its time to see what she's really got. I don't think she'll disappoint. She got moved into a new 10 gallon smart pot full of my cooked flowering soil, with added Kelp, Neem, and Crustacean meals, as well as Oyster Shell Flour and Glacial Rock Dust. I Inoculated with Xtreme Gardening Mykos and Azos as always, but also some nice fresh moldy leaves I'd brought inside to rot in a smart pot. Aren't those some killer roots!?

Today I added a few more ceiling hooks, yo-yo's and lights to my veg room, but.... my circuit just can't handle it. I found my power limit out today for my grow. That's a big deal. Now every time I try to turn on this 100x3 Old Model LED (on top of everything else) - it's one 100x3 too far for this circuit. This is going to change ALL my plans for the future of this grow, but you know me, I'm just swinging with the punches hahaha. I rearranged the veg room entirely, again.

- I had been planning on adding more T5's to the veg room and filling it up eventually, (and then more LED's and filling up the flower room) but since I'm now finding out that isn't currently viable until we pretty much re-wire our whole house, I'm going to have to focus even more on making the best use of every last watt I have. In some ways, this is relieving, since now I don't need to come up with the money for lights and can focus on things I would otherwise deem less of a priority than having the light to produce lots of buds, like getting an ACT brewer, a better worm bin, more diversity of amendments and things for organic IPM, like the essential oil blend from buildasoil - which I've been dying to get.

In the flowering room, I took a 100x3 Old Model LED, and angled it inwards with some macguvery rope work for some extra light on one side. I like it!

And all of the ladies in flowering - Are Definitely Ladies!!! My All-Girls streak continues hahaha! Now, I didn't get a pic of each plant's pistils so you'll have to trust me about them but here's a couple sexy shots

CK#2 (the one I thought would be a guy! )

CK#1 (already starting to form that future nug, so beautiful! )

Hahaha and just saying - this soil is unquestionably doing something magical for me - these are the healthiest leaves I've ever grown!

Now, I found out that panel I JUST REPLACED on my Lighthouse Hydro Blackstar 240w Flowering LED Panel is already out.... BEFORE I EVER GOT TO USE IT!!! I'm going to see what Lighthouse customer service says before outright telling everyone here to never even consider purchasing their lights, but let me guess, it'll be something along the lines of, "Oh too bad well you can buy another replacement panel and install it yourself!" .... Oh, how I wish I had found TopLed's before buying a piece of crap, expensive, american made light. My experience with Lighthouse so far has been unending disappointment, if only for that, they ought to send me a free replacement. While the light worked, it worked great, but only for 6 months -.-

On a cheerier note, there's new life all over my veg room so here's a look in there.

Dinafem Diesel!

Under the 90w Sunshine Systems GrowUFO (which by the way gives me some hope for american LED manufacturers - this is my oldest most used LED, still going strong after countless thousands of hours of use - unlike SOME LED's YOU MIGHT FIND - ehem) doing great! Not a blemish...

Now, I decided I'm going to use the Milliard T5 I recently bought for my earlier vegging plants, and my high output T5 for later ones. Here's the lineup under the Milliard from left to right... Blue Blood (a clone in one of my first LOS No-tills), Red Cherry Berry, Dinafem Diesel, Corleone Kush #1, and another Dinafem Diesel

Now a closer look at those plants, in the same order.

Quite the jungle getting started huh? Hahaha. I love it...

Now since I feel bad for not doing the big, colorful, personal introduction for those I just went through...

OG Kush PR Clone

Still not looking the best, but showing signs of new growth. Soon, I keep telling myself. Soon.

Corleone Kush #2 Clone

Yowch... Yeah, I should have gotten this one its own CFL. Had plenty to spare. Instead I had it sitting between the 100x3 I'd been running in my veg room and the 90w GrowUFO right after transplant for a couple days of neglect. The truth is though, I don't know if I have the room to keep this strain running, so if it doesn't pull through I won't be disappointed. At least I know I have a hundred of those seeds left if it's mom turns out amazing in flower.

Corleone Kush #1 Clone

This was the worse-off of the two horribly ugly CK#1 clones.... now showing new growth! Don't give up so easily on your clones people!

Ghost OG Flux!

Did its first stripping today. In a flux, you remove ALL the low growth on your branches, because you just want one big cola. Problem is, this is easier said than done so you really have to be disciplined, and really hit your plant with defol when it gets too leafy. So far, this one has 10 main nodes to sculpt into 10 giant (hopefully) colas.

Red Cherry Berry!

Moved under the high output T5 for now, and I think I'm going to move it into a big plastic LOS pot tomorrow. Maybe. It'll stay in veg for probably another 3 weeks, then flower time I'm also going to do a bit of defol soon but for now this is how she's looking... for some reason she's always droopy lately, dry or wet.... definitely time for new soil.

Blue Blood!

Still recovering from all main 4 branches being topped but otherwise looking great. I'm really thankful to have this strain going. My dad's been sticking with not drinking for a few days, and he kind of seems to want to get better again. Well. If that time is really coming, I'll be ready to go outdoors with dozens of BB cuttings for him in the spring.

Hope everyone's been well!! Thanks for coming by, stay green 420 friends!

 

[colorfuldayze]

Absolutely brilliant update SoilGirl - and might I add what nice feet and jubilant and cute blue toes you have You have an awesome setup and I really appreciate your comprehensive approach to everything you consider and implement in your grow. Thank you so much for taking the time to provide so much written and visual detail in your updates. Where did you get the predator mites in your garden and how do they attack the mealy bugs? Do they just make a one course meal out of them? I'm also not familiar w/ the predator mites' life cycle/habits...is there any downside to them in the garden? Also, I really admire the extensive diversity of genetics in your garden. Choice and POSH dear lady. Thank you for sharing your most excellent efforts with us. Truly enjoyable reading your updates. Cheers SG

 

[daTenshi]

Healthy and happy girls





Can wait to try fluxing as well!

 

[SoilGirl]

So do yourself a favor and pull the mulch. Replace it with something newer and mealy bug deficient. Keep up the top dressing though, it's long term planning. From what I read living organic soil grows stronger as it goes (hence the value of no till). Trust the soil to work for the plant. Eventually you'll conquer the mealy bugs.

There are complications that accompany large grows that make me thankful to be raising only two. LOL ! I quit at two children too. I must know my limitations. LOL!

Glad to hear you're feeling better. My cold is a hanger-on variety, but I may be on the road to recovery at long last.

Aw thanks Sue! - but so sorry to hear of the lingering cold. For me winter is always a godsend - believe it or not its the only time my nose isn't runny. (Unless I'm on a snowboarding trip hahaha) Fricken allergies drive me absolutely crazy during the spring and fall.

Hmmm about the mulch, I may do that if the mealybug issues keep progressing, but for the time being I think the mulch is ok. Honestly my plants weren't teeming with them, I may have made it sound like a more devastating issue than it is so far hahah. Its just very very upsetting to me to see them on my plants :S - but one way or another... we will, we will, rock them. (I've been listening to a lot of Queen today hahaha)

Hey SoilGirl,

I gave Big Girl a hair cut today. I would love you opinions on how to wash and prep the buds.

Of course aki as soon as I saw your post I rushed over, just sorry it took me so long to write my update and see it!!

Bad news about the Mealybugs but good news about Pops & even better news that your here to partake in 2015 with us in our humble 420 Magazine community SoulGirl...


Never happen! If your stoned and alone with your girls it's gonna be some type of manipulation happening (especially with you Dirty)...

Aww thanks so much Reg! you're so kind and soulful. (Only a soulful guy comes up with SoulGirl as a nickname hahaha ) Isn't it great about my dad? If he really stops drinking, just... like its hard for me to even imagine, I'm cautious to even dare to hope, but just maybe he can do it and things will be better for me here...not to mention for him.

And hahaha I'm right there with Dirty Dreamz. - today my victim was a BBK Flux branch

Absolutely brilliant update SoilGirl - and might I add what nice feet and jubilant and cute blue toes you have You have an awesome setup and I really appreciate your comprehensive approach to everything you consider and implement in your grow. Thank you so much for taking the time to provide so much written and visual detail in your updates. Where did you get the predator mites in your garden and how do they attack the mealy bugs? Do they just make a one course meal out of them? I'm also not familiar w/ the predator mites' life cycle/habits...is there any downside to them in the garden? Also, I really admire the extensive diversity of genetics in your garden. Choice and POSH dear lady. Thank you for sharing your most excellent efforts with us. Truly enjoyable reading your updates. Cheers SG

Hahahahah you might very well add that Colorful! Glad you liked them lol. Thanks so much for all the kindness and praise, I do try to be thorough here Hahaha from what I can tell, when predatory mites encounter a mealybug, they just suck the fluids right out of it and move on. I hardly ever find a mealybug moving around, they usually just attach to the newest young shoots of growth and suck the sap until they're fat enough to stick out. The Predator Mites definitely seem to prefer the other pests I have running around on the floor in my veg room though, they don't seem to actively seek out mealybugs, they just will chow down when they stumble across them.

As far as down sides to the predator mites, I can't see any haha, except maybe getting them so overpopulated that they kill every pest for miles and then die off because they run out of food - making it really hard to re-introduce them naturally where I am in the case of re-introduced pest problems. (I can't imagine any mites surviving in 20 degrees F outside) but this is hardly a downside hahaha - that they'd ravage all your pests.

And thanks! I'm excited to have so many strains going too - for me this is altogether a brand new exp. I used to only ever have 1 or 2 strains at a time. But a funny thing - pretty much all of my plants' genetics trace back to Hindu Kush or Skunk (or both) one way or another, so as much diversity and uniqueness as I pick up on in each of them, its not like I've got an encyclopedia of strains going hahaha.

Healthy and happy girls





Can wait to try fluxing as well!

Thanks daTs! Aren't they looking great? I'm so excited for the coming flowers

You're going to try fluxing some time?? No way! Surely with a photo plant? (I say this half expecting you to say "no way!! I'm going to flux a killer auto!" ) glad I can inspire more fluxers though hahah! Anyways its my bed time, goodnight everyone!

 

[daTenshi]

Yep a photo-plant for sure



Would be amazing to flux an auto!!! I just proved you can monster-crop one, fluxing will be just a falling cfl away

PS: Started a new grow journal do stop by when you get the chance.