Hey G, im think the plant on the left is the Acapulco Gold. Its growing kinda wonky with no main leader. Will post pics below. My thought is this soil is somehow on point making the plants grow vigorously. I had this happen with a bunch of Deodar cedars. The normal soil ones grew slow and straight with one apical meristem or leader. I planted some in really rich organic soil and the trees grew many leaders that had to be trimmed and trained and the shape wasnt as majestic. Its a good problem to have i guess but i honestly dont know how to train/trim the Acapulco yet.
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Quick recap, day 30. Soaked seeds for 12 hours, planted in a mix of FFHF and FFOF with oyster shells and EWC into 5 gal SIPS. Sprouted in 3 days, watered the stem for about a week to encourage the roots to grow downward. Added Great White mycelium mix, filled the reservoirs about 2 weeks later, fertilized with Geoflora veg twice now or every 2 weeks. Light is on 50% about 20 inches from plant canopy. Quadlined the 3 gal and plant on the right, topped the plant in the middle and pondering the Acapulco, open for suggestions.
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Wow that Gal is bushy! I once had a purple Kush do that. I'm not sure if it was from the soil or not, but it was outdoors in the ground that I had amended heavily, so it was rich soil for sure.

It turned into a round ball 5 feet high and 6 feet across. I don't suppose that would fit in your grow space hey?🤣.

It looks like a good one to scrog.

In the pic of it's undersides it looks like 4 main tops with tons of smaller branches. Could it possibly trimmed out to just the 4 mains, or would that be too severe.

If you have the room, the PK that grew in a giant ball was a really big producer.

Nice myco😍👊. It looks like it likes the GF. They are off to a beautiful start😊
 
Hi growers and Gee Man,

I have a change of subject for you. I've got my used bags of soil, harvested plants still in them, sitting in the garden. A week or so ago we spoke about preparing soil for reuse and having it sit with the root ball still intact for a month. It was a month wasn't it?

I want to reuse my soil and I need to protect it from grubs. Do you remember the grub infestation I got in my roots two or three grows ago? I have Christmas scarabs aplenty in the garden and they produce big fat grubs in the soil that feast on plant roots. I'm wondering how I can minimize the chance of contamination. Unless I just recycle those pots straight into the garden. Sorry I am thinking out aloud. It seems wasteful not to have a plan going forward.

Do you have any ideas for me? I don't have space in the garden for more plastic totes! I have a postage stamp sized garden and I already have a stack of totes. Could I cover the surface of the pots with anything to prevent critters getting into the soil?

Also, before replanting, could I do a root drench with neem or something to kill critters, or is that indiscriminate?

TIA

Also, @Gee64 your Durbans are looking splendid!
 
Hi growers and Gee Man,

I have a change of subject for you. I've got my used bags of soil, harvested plants still in them, sitting in the garden. A week or so ago we spoke about preparing soil for reuse and having it sit with the root ball still intact for a month. It was a month wasn't it?

I want to reuse my soil and I need to protect it from grubs. Do you remember the grub infestation I got in my roots two or three grows ago? I have Christmas scarabs aplenty in the garden and they produce big fat grubs in the soil that feast on plant roots. I'm wondering how I can minimize the chance of contamination. Unless I just recycle those pots straight into the garden. Sorry I am thinking out aloud. It seems wasteful not to have a plan going forward.

Do you have any ideas for me? I don't have space in the garden for more plastic totes! I have a postage stamp sized garden and I already have a stack of totes. Could I cover the surface of the pots with anything to prevent critters getting into the soil?

Also, before replanting, could I do a root drench with neem or something to kill critters, or is that indiscriminate?

TIA

Also, @Gee64 your Durbans are looking splendid!
I put a 2 inch layer of sand on top to keep fungus gnats out, maybe that might help by making it look less appealing to other pests 💁‍♂️ not sure how it will go with Christmas Beatles though
 
Hi growers and Gee Man,

I have a change of subject for you. I've got my used bags of soil, harvested plants still in them, sitting in the garden. A week or so ago we spoke about preparing soil for reuse and having it sit with the root ball still intact for a month. It was a month wasn't it?

I want to reuse my soil and I need to protect it from grubs. Do you remember the grub infestation I got in my roots two or three grows ago? I have Christmas scarabs aplenty in the garden and they produce big fat grubs in the soil that feast on plant roots. I'm wondering how I can minimize the chance of contamination. Unless I just recycle those pots straight into the garden. Sorry I am thinking out aloud. It seems wasteful not to have a plan going forward.

Do you have any ideas for me? I don't have space in the garden for more plastic totes! I have a postage stamp sized garden and I already have a stack of totes. Could I cover the surface of the pots with anything to prevent critters getting into the soil?

Also, before replanting, could I do a root drench with neem or something to kill critters, or is that indiscriminate?

TIA

Also, @Gee64 your Durbans are looking splendid!
Wow thats a tough one Carmen, I store mine indoors for 2 months actually, to keep bugs out of it, but the only real benefit from storing the old rootballs is that it lets the myco go dormant and spore out, so next run you have some indigeneous strains of myco already in the pot.

It's an "almost fanatical" thing. (Keff, Azi, and myself going down the rabbit hole a little too far)

It will up your game long term, but if you rebuild that soil immediately, instead of storing it, all the minerals, potassium and phosphorus being the prime 2, will be better every cycle, but you will have to add more myco instead of getting the free stuff. Thats really the only difference.

Myself,I think you would be better off rebuilding it in a bug free environment and paying for new myco, than risking grubs.

Grubs crackle like seeds when you smoke them🤣

The long delay prior to rebuild is purely to get free myco.

If you can keep 1 pot inside, or can protect it from bugs somehow, and after the cooking is done, divvy that pot of unprocessed dirt up between your new cooked pots about a week to 10 days before planting, the small amount you add to each new pot will innoculate them beautifully.
 
Wow thats a tough one Carmen, I store mine indoors for 2 months actually, to keep bugs out of it, but the only real benefit from storing the old rootballs is that it lets the myco go dormant and spore out, so next run you have some indigeneous strains of myco already in the pot.

It's an "almost fanatical" thing. (Keff, Azi, and myself going down the rabbit hole a little too far)

It will up your game long term, but if you rebuild that soil immediately, instead of storing it, all the minerals, potassium and phosphorus being the prime 2, will be better every cycle, but you will have to add more myco instead of getting the free stuff. Thats really the only difference.

Myself,I think you would be better off rebuilding it in a bug free environment and paying for new myco, than risking grubs.

Grubs crackle like seeds when you smoke them🤣

The long delay prior to rebuild is purely to get free myco.

If you can keep 1 pot inside, or can protect it from bugs somehow, and after the cooking is done, divvy that pot of unprocessed dirt up between your new cooked pots about a week to 10 days before planting, the small amount you add to each new pot will innoculate them beautifully.
Thanks Gee. I have an abundance of used soil and very little space. I certainly can bring the pots back inside. They've only been out a few days.

I just read this and I thought of you so here is a marvelous story to bring good cheer to the day.
 
Wow thats a tough one Carmen, I store mine indoors for 2 months actually, to keep bugs out of it, but the only real benefit from storing the old rootballs is that it lets the myco go dormant and spore out, so next run you have some indigeneous strains of myco already in the pot.

It's an "almost fanatical" thing. (Keff, Azi, and myself going down the rabbit hole a little too far)

It will up your game long term, but if you rebuild that soil immediately, instead of storing it, all the minerals, potassium and phosphorus being the prime 2, will be better every cycle, but you will have to add more myco instead of getting the free stuff. Thats really the only difference.

Myself,I think you would be better off rebuilding it in a bug free environment and paying for new myco, than risking grubs.

Grubs crackle like seeds when you smoke them🤣

The long delay prior to rebuild is purely to get free myco.

If you can keep 1 pot inside, or can protect it from bugs somehow, and after the cooking is done, divvy that pot of unprocessed dirt up between your new cooked pots about a week to 10 days before planting, the small amount you add to each new pot will innoculate them beautifully.
Also, the roots contain a buttload of carbon that gets reintegrated into the soil if you let them sit longer, so if you cook immediately, quite often the main tap root won't fully compost, so add a bit of carbon to offset that. When I cook my soil I add 10% coco , which is a primo carbon source that releases potassium as it decomposes, to ensure that there is enough carbon in the mix to cook properly. If the main tap is still solid after cooking 1 toss in 1 extra gallon of coco per 20 gallons of freshly cooked soil right before uppotting.

If you were a noob I would say use more, but you get your plants ripping, so you are producing plenty of exudates by stretch time to keep the microbes healthy for flower.

I have done immediate rebuilds many times. You just need to add more myco at potting.

When you rebuild your soil you need to ensure it is properly damp or it won't cook properly. I find that the dampness level that pots are at the day after you water, when they aren't too wet and they aren't dry either, is the pefect amount of moisture to cook the soil.

Make sure the tubs are located where you want them before adding the water, they get really heavy really quickly when you hydrate them.

If you add coco, cut it with perlite until its the same fluffiness as your soil before you add it, so 2 gallons of coco will turn into 3-ish once you add perlite. It still counts as 2 gallons, not 3, for your formula, but now it's areated properly.

So to be clear on that one, if you have 20 gallons of soil, and you add 2 gallons of coco, you will also add 1 gallon-ish of perlite to total 23 gallons.

Any time you cut soil, if you figure your ratio out (how much new you are adding) never count the perlite as part of the additive volume.

If you want to add 1 gallon of EWC, or anything that requires perlite, don't count the new perlite as part of the addition.

Add what you want, to build the recipe, then cut it with perlite to areate it properly.

I hope that makes sense. If you count the perlite you will get weaker soil.
 
Wow thats a tough one Carmen, I store mine indoors for 2 months actually, to keep bugs out of it, but the only real benefit from storing the old rootballs is that it lets the myco go dormant and spore out, so next run you have some indigeneous strains of myco already in the pot.

It's an "almost fanatical" thing. (Keff, Azi, and myself going down the rabbit hole a little too far)

It will up your game long term, but if you rebuild that soil immediately, instead of storing it, all the minerals, potassium and phosphorus being the prime 2, will be better every cycle, but you will have to add more myco instead of getting the free stuff. Thats really the only difference.

Myself,I think you would be better off rebuilding it in a bug free environment and paying for new myco, than risking grubs.

Grubs crackle like seeds when you smoke them🤣

The long delay prior to rebuild is purely to get free myco.

If you can keep 1 pot inside, or can protect it from bugs somehow, and after the cooking is done, divvy that pot of unprocessed dirt up between your new cooked pots about a week to 10 days before planting, the small amount you add to each new pot will innoculate them beautifully.
@Carmen Ray I want to mention the process of heat to kill bugs. When I worked in a greeng=house we had a steam box for "sterilizing". That would kill any bugs and seeds we didn't want in the new soil. so it went 212F/100C for an hour to do it. They used synthetic nutes there. This kills all the microbes along with the bad so I don't know if you can rebuild them. I think you can. What do you think about this Gee?
 
Thanks Gee. I have an abundance of used soil and very little space. I certainly can bring the pots back inside. They've only been out a few days.

I just read this and I thought of you so here is a marvelous story to bring good cheer to the day.
Yeah this is a bittersweet thing. This is just high brix growing, but the governments of the world have been slinging synthetics for a long time. Now they need to change and they know it, so to save face, new remarkeable discoveries must happen, instead of just saying they were wrong.

Don't get me wrong, it's an incredibly good thing thing, but would have been far more incredible 75 years ago if they had of respected the reality and value of it then.

Trees storing sugars in their roots has been known for decades. All plants do it.

Our parents used to lime the lawn to "sweeten" the grass. The sweeten part is using calcium to raise brix. Every time it gets dark a plant moves it's sugars to the roots to protect the sugar. Sugar is petroleum to a plant.

But it is heartwarming to know the trees will live, and they will store new sugars again very quickly. As soon as the needles grow back they will start to store brix again.

Sorry if that sounds a bit jaded, but my country has cut down a lot of trees, and almost all the forests I played in as a child are gone now. It's far more devestating when you actually see it. Millions of homeless animals trying to survive in a barren wasteland. It's an ugly thing.

Thank You for the link though, the big trees are my favorite plants. I grew up under the canopy of the giants. I love hearing stories like this. ❤️❤️❤️.
 
@Carmen Ray I want to mention the process of heat to kill bugs. When I worked in a greeng=house we had a steam box for "sterilizing". That would kill any bugs and seeds we didn't want in the new soil. so it went 212F/100C for an hour to do it. They used synthetic nutes there. This kills all the microbes along with the bad so I don't know if you can rebuild them. I think you can. What do you think about this Gee?
You can, but if you kill the soil it won't compost the rebuild, so after you sterilize it, you need to reinnoculate it, then cook it. But if it's infected that will certainly work.
 
Hey I need you folks to help me out here. I want to be able to quickly search back in my journal. In the past I have used asterisks so I can search "*" and get a list of all my notes, then scan through for the one I was looking for.

This search engine won't search asterisks. Any ideas on how I can notate certain posts to be able to search back at a later date?

I mean I could use my safety word "Constantinople" but it might confuse Mrs Gee if I use that outside of the bedroom🤣🤣🤣🤣
 
I just read this

Thank You for the link though, the big trees are my favorite plants. I grew up under the canopy of the giants. I love hearing stories like t
Anyone else find the correlation of the guys name in the article with things being consumed as one form of energy and transformed into another " Peltier" .
I love trees and the bush with everything that entails 💚
 
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