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!
