Thanks for the head up there Lerugged. I may use your netting suggestion but at the moment it looks like the other side of the house will bear the brunt of it.
Thanks BA. My soil has had a lot of paramagnetic rock dusts added over recent years, I feel it is now pretty good, but the Silica content of the DE sounds worth including too, and plus as a bug deterrent too. Mostly I thought that the minerals take a while to become absorbed/accessed by the soil biology, but from the above study I mentioned, it sounded like they saw advantages of the Silica from the DE in the plants over a shorter time, but regardless, I am happy to add it even if it is just future grows that benefit. Cheers.
Another technique I used last season was pinch and twist with my fingers. Super strong branching. My preferred method now.
Know what, that makes sense if they used the powdered form. Would be bioavailable faster. No matter how we slice it, the plants absolutely benefit from silica. Drought resistance and stronger tissues.
Great update on all levels, and yeah, that Mulaje female is spectacular. She already looks like a ton of bud sites and like she'd produce a pound of bud. Crazy. How tall off the soil is the top of her canopy? I also am a little confused by the ant reference at the start of the DE info. Is there a relationship I missed?Update
Apparently Fiji is sending a cyclone over to us, thanks fellas!
The wind is already gusting to 50kph and likely to strengthen in the coming days, so it may be that I won't be able to open the balcony doors if the wind and rain is being driven at them, or maybe the meteorologists are just trying to freak out us small growers! But anyway, I'll do a small update tonight. I carried out some LST on the secondary growth of the 3 smaller ladies as I may not be able to address that in the coming days.
Re-arranging the lineup of the LST girls
I have had to rearrange the balcony lineup because the Mango Sherbert's larger container was beginning to stop the balcony door from being adequately opened, and it risked damage as the door being opened pressed against the canopy foliage. So I have moved the Mango Sherbert to be next to the Mulanje at the deepest part of the balcony, they are both in larger 50L/13gal containers. The smallest plant (not by much) is the Malawi/Ethiopian x Mulanje so I have put that at the extreme left and next to it the Honduras/Panama x Purple Honduras (both in 30L/8 gal) which is almost competing with the Mango Sherbert for growth, even though the Mango Sherbert is in a larger container of almost twice the volume.
The 3 LST girls can be seen below
Diatomaceous Earth/Silica
During the grows I've done, I always see a few ants traipsing around my plants, but I have never felt that they were exceeding their welcome by threatening the plant growth. But I do have a bag of Diatomaceous Earth (fossilised remains of diatoms) which is mostly Silica. I was reading a great thread by @farside05 Making your own silica supplement aka faux-tekt. Now, I don't use bottle nutes as such, but I very much appreciate the efforts of folk to share how they have made alternatives to shop bought. Anyway, he also provided a link re Diatomaceous Earth (DE) from an Oklahoma State University study, and altho the study was done on some ornamental plants not cannabis, but it was shown they were deriving Silica benefits from DE added as a top dressing.
I will add the conclusion that was drawn at the end in case anyone is interested. Since I am also interested in drought stress on cannabis during flowering I found it of interest that the DE was of benefit for water-stressed conditions. Needless to say, I sprinkled several tablespoons of DE over the mulch layer of each of the girls and then gave them all a nice worm wee watering to help 'wash it down' into the soil. I am not expecting anything huge, but I think it will be another healthy amendment to add to the organic soil of the containers.
Several growth and flowering characteristics were improved, depending on the rate and application method, by application of DE. Benefits of DE included increased height, width, shoot dry weight, stem, and flower diameter. An increase in nutrients, such as N, P, K, Mg, and Ca, was seen mostly for dahlia ‘Dahlinova Montana’ and black-eyed Susan ‘Denver Daisy’. The adverse effects that typically occur under water-stressed conditions were alleviated and plant quality, as well as transpiration, was maintained in all three plants due to Si supplementation. Silicon is known to play an important role in cell membrane integrity, in which osmosis, photosynthesis, and transpiration all occur. Diatomaceous earth as supplemental Si was beneficial for plant growth, flowering, and nutrient content under both well-watered and water-stressed conditions. For growth and flower characteristics, MM + Si was similar to the control (MM) with no added silica, and equivalent to most treatments with supplemental silica. To conclude, this research supports that DE, one of the many Si sources, is beneficial to plants; however, this is dependent upon species, Si rate, and the method of application. Benefits of DE include an increase in growth parameters, leaf nutrient content, and tolerance to stress, in which plant quality can be maintained. Future studies should further assess the use of DE on other crops and stress conditions.
Mulanje male
I am growing him out solely for his pollen. He mostly only gets tap water, because the balcony girls tend to drain the worm wee before he gets a chance of it.
Mulanje female
And this is the current star of the lineup! Noticeably fine structure compared to the others. Her stretching stems got a bit of a beat up with the supercropping I gave her 2 days ago. I used needle nose pliers with electrical tape wrapped around the jaws. The bud stems on her are quite frail looking but hopefully they don't get any infection or are attacked where they were mildly crushed. Maybe the application of the DE will be of particular benefit to the Mulanje.
So that's it for now, I am not sure how much the weather will batter the plants in the coming days, hopefully they will be ok.
All the best folks, thanks for dropping in, stay safe!
I added regular DE to a couple of plants a while back and it didn't seem to make them any different from the ones that didn't get it. Of course, the stuff added to the soil in the OSU study was a very specific brand and a lot more expensive than the Safers brand I used. I have no idea if the difference is just be part of their marketing though!
I moved to using pliers last grow, but the Mulanje stems are quite 'slight' so maybe for the next round, that pinch and twist with the fingers might be better than metal jaws.
I have some bird netting I will put it over if it is looking bad.
Thanks Jon. I only mentioned ants as DE is usually mentioned in relation to controlling pests, but I have used it more for the Silica content.
Thanks Otter.
Cheers Reave. I tell you, that it is bloody nice to have plants growing on it after the long outdoor off season!
That's interesting. I added mine as only a few tablespoons of DE top dressed over the mulch layer. So I imagine that repeating waterings will wash it into the soil layer and then the worms can mix it around a bit, and hopefully that breaks down a little and releases some Silica for the plant to use if it wants.
For resistance to PM doesn't it need to be sprayed on? The DE I got last summer had directions for mixing it up with water to be sprayed onto the plant. It's extremely finely ground, and it makes the plant look like it's got PM, but it'll kill anything that tries munching on the leaves, or anything with an exoskeleton lurking on the plant when you spray.The plants are all looking happy in their ignorance of the oncoming storm!
I added regular DE to a couple of plants a while back and it didn't seem to make them any different from the ones that didn't get it. Of course, the stuff added to the soil in the OSU study was a very specific brand and a lot more expensive than the Safers brand I used. I have no idea if the difference is just be part of their marketing though!
All I ended up with was a very dusty rootball after harvest with no stronger stems or resistance to PM.
I have used DE for pests as a spray, but only on the undersides of the leaves where the bugs live! And I hadn't read that DE works against PM as a foliar, but if you spray the tops of the leaves you'll never know.
It does a bit. But it's better than earwigs eating your leaves. I almost lost a Blue Dream seedling to those little bastards. Sprayed her with DE and put a bunch of it as a perimeter to keep them from reaching her in the first place. Didn't seem to slow her down, she grew nearly twice as fast as anything else I grew that year.I have used DE for pests as a spray, but only on the undersides of the leaves where the bugs live! And I hadn't read that DE works against PM as a foliar, but if you spray the tops of the leaves you'll never know.
Also, coating the tops and making them white seems like it would reflect the light and slow down photosynthesis.
Excellent caveat! Yeah, I never used DE after September or when I even thought they were starting to flower. Great reminder Shed.
