Well, you sure can’t argue with those results… 
I’d say you’re getting it nicely ‘dialled in’. As importantly, you are achieving 100% recycling on your growing medium (extra bonus points… 
).
Cheers
G
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Do you think it was the soil makeup that affected the taste, or drying and curing, or a little of both?
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It was soil make up. MGMC does grow plants twice the size. Horrible harsh taste. I also used disgusting low amounts of fox farm, grow, big bloom and tiger bloom. 48 ounces for the whole grow. 
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IME it’s kinda random & “up to nature” 
I was 'learned that you’re emulating animal teeth with your nails & not removing the whole growth node, just the top half. 
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Well, I’ll be learning what happens soon. I think I’ll top one more time on the main lateral bracts so I have 4 main shoots. Last season I topped again yielding 8 mains per plant, but I’ll FIM this time and hopefully nature gives me more.
The weather here has been beatiful, overcast and moderate. Vaped some of @ColeLennon’s BBM last night on the patio thinking if it could just stay this way forever things would be great 
But the hot weather is coming. By this time next month it’ll be too hot to work outside during the days.
I’d love to post pics of all the work I’ve been putting into the yards and house but it’s a little outside my comfort zone, I’m worried how recognizeable it might be.
Thinking about turbocharging my compost tea brewer because the airstones are kinda hitting the wall in terms of lifetime in a job like this - mixed clogs and I just don’t feel like they are bubbling as good anymore. Thinking a few feet of hard plastic tube with holes everywhere, like the bubble snake but wrapped around the floor of the rectangular bin, maybe with a tubular perforated down turn where I can stick my bubblebag. Should be easy with PE tubing and a heat gun to form it. I also have a 800 gph water pump I picked up a few weeks ago for something else, I was thinking about setting that up to swirl the water and get me better extraction/suspension. Could be a fun morning project today and I can tea them again Sunday morning. I think that’ll be the schedule long term - Friday fill and start bubbling to dechlorinate, Saturday AM setup the brew and Sunday AM feed it.
On the compost tea front, I kinda want to pursue making those more “nutrient” solutions like last season but it seems everyone serious just top-dresses nutrients and uses teas just for microbial activity. @Dirt_Wizard what ratio do you use for the Sucanat? I grabbed a bag instead of molasses, sucrose content is about 2x the molasses so roughly half the quantity?
The veggies are cruisin’ right along, slower than the weed but moving. I’m thinking about hitting up Cannacon today just to see what it’s like. It’d be interesting to find out what the industry is like in person.
If anyone here is going, let me know. There are some folks I can tell are from NM but I can’t remember when I want to.
.
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My experience with FIM’d plants outside is that they are more vulnerable to Branch splits, than a Plant that has been Topped.
Big winds last year pulled 2 of the Panama Red FIMs apart. Tape secured them, but we were lucky to catch it.
Have a great day Guys ! @FieldEffect @ColeLennon
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Maybe I’ll limit my experiment to half the plant. That’s a good point and something to be aware of. Thanks @MissinBissin, you have a wonderful day too!
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I think the same thing about the BBM high. It is one of my favs. Snap I just realized your talking about your weather.
I woke up with no likes wtf.
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I did lose half the SE side of that outdoor MAC I Fim’d “wind-rain” Used my cages. That was before I discovered zip ties to my cages.
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Yeah nothing worse that finding your half finished plants starfished on the ground after a heavy storm!
To support them Ive been using a short length of poly irrigation pipe, split down the middle with a box cutter and then cut most of the way across at equal distances from each end, then fold it into a triangle and slip it over the fork that has lor it looks like it’s about to break and tape it on with sports tape. It’ll support it so it doesn’t break at the fork and it will expand as the plant grows so it doesn’t strangle it… cheap too lol.
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I was planning on making a new batch of tea starting tomorrow morning to feed Sunday morning.
I’d love a critique of my baseline recipe:
20 gallons water
8 cups Colorado Worm Company EWC
1.6 cups Molasses OR 0.8 cups Sucunat
0.4 cups GEM Fish Hydrolysate
0.4 cups Age Old Kelp Extract
–BREW 23.5 Hours–
Add 1 tbsp Rootwise Mycrobe Complete or Mykos I’ll alternate
–BREW 0.5 Hours–
–APPLY–
*Note this is mostly based on Tim Wilson’s excellent write up @Dirt_Wizard linked somewhere in a post I was reading. http://microbeorganics.com/ but the site seems broken today
I intend to experiment with humic acid at the beginning of the brew and potentially fulvic right before application. It’d also be nice to do more of a nutrient tea thing adding ammendments. This is about the consensus for the best “base” microbe tea of limited nutritional value - all about the microbes.
Something I dealt with last season using more ammendments, especially the micronized stuff like Roots Organics Terp Teas (which I liked, they are easy) was the sludge that would build up at the bottom of the tank. I’d use a drill with paint mixer head to stir things as I poured so I could transfer those things to the soil. Anyway, I’d prefer to create a better mixing/agitation solution. Additionally, my airstones are clogging, and that’s just not the best way to start a season in my book.
I decided to add a pump intaking in one direction and splashing to create a pseudo-spiral flow. I got a 50’ dripper hose that I cut into thirds so I’m using about 16’ of it, coiled up to maximize bubble production. Seemed like a way better idea when I was browsing the hardware store than the prospect of drilling hundreds of holes.
In case anyone here is as neurotic as I am, yes, I am aware that this directionality is the opposite of what would be aided by the coriolis effect. That’s the way the hose was pointed with the adapter tightened into the pump, and I wanted to get water dechlorinating. Maybe next round I’ll flip it around for clockwise (northern hemisphere) proper operation.
Here’s what my prototype looks like - if all goes well I’ll mount things with suction cups inside so it’s still easy to take apart to clean. You’ll notice it’s super ghetto with wire holding things in place until serious suction cups arrive to make things more betterer.
Damn, does it ever bubble:
Feeling a little artistic, went for a long exposure hopefully @MissinBissin is proud
Any thoughts? Have I lost my mind on something that should only be thought about once during transplant and before flower starts? I know there will be a split crowd there. In any case, I think I’ll make some nutrient teas throughout the season so it’s not wasted effort IME. It’s actually pretty ghetto fabulous and inexpensive to duplicate. The soaker hose was only $15 plus scraps around the house and a $20 water pump. The air pump is a 70l/m one I used last year.
Back to the weed pictures that are the reason for the season and overthought of so much minutia.
The autos are popping up. These are the Fastbudz Original Bubblegum that I intend to partially reverse and use to pollinate a branch of my IBG - Fast Feminized Indiana Bubblegum seeds if all goes to plan.
It does appear my soil is living. I plucked a few of the cover crops around the seedlings to give them some light. Beatiful roots on them! Good signs for my cannabis! Very exciting.
Here’s the Panalawis (green pinch clamps) putting on seemingly inches a day. @noknees your concern/fear may have been waranted. It’s really a shocking growth rate compared to the IBGs/907s.
Then the IBGs (pink pinch clamps), really taking to their topping a throwing some sturdy shoots. I swear the one in the bottom right already has a stem rub scent leaning bubblegum. The other two smell like basil/oregano stem rub. Really hoping I get a rockin’ “Bazooka Joe” pheno, my excitement is increasing there.
907s (blue pinch clamps) are going a little slower, I think I need to move them out of their afternoon shade. That tree got way bigger than it was this time last year and is shading this spot more than planned. Nothing “blueberry” yet on the stem rubs there, but they smell like weed for sure. Even if I don’t get a true blueberry syrup pheno like I’ve read about I’m sure I’ll be happy with it - love those fat leaves and stout growth. Especially that one on the right here.
In conclusion, things seem to be going well here. I’m almost surprised the plants seem happy in the soil I was so worried about. It’s the same relief I get at work from seeing something that takes months of math/analysis to design and optimize, months to machine, fabricate and assemble - and at the end of it all - it WORKS. Fucking magic. I’m getting the same thing here, appreciating all the biology and sophisticated natural processes that I can’t engineer the same way as those things at work. At it’s roots, physics is the same sort of magic. This is just new, and therefore, more novel “magic” I guess.
Thank you all for helping me out and offering supportive comments when I’ve been confused or down. Tonight, I’m happy as a clover in one of the 50 gallon pots.
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Great write up brother. That bubbler you made for the teas is killer. Your companion plants are taking off hardcore. Looking forward to your plants picking up speed. I keep staring at mine thinking come on come on. I did the same thing last year. Nothing moves as fast as my brain.
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A watched pot never boils right 
Are you also one of those people who always opens the microwave when it’s still a few seconds to go because ‘screw waiting it’s close enough ’? …maybe that’s just me lol.
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Yeah, I do that too. I don’t want to hear it beep 3 times. lol
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Oh Man I am sipping a coffee and laughing my Ass off, good Morning @FieldEffect
Bubble Madness has arrived and your project is so solid Bro.
I love your recipe, I am now looking into the Fish Hydrolysate for my own efforts.
And your Comment about the roots on the Cover crop is just perfect.
One happy bag of Dirt!
Thanks for poking me on your Awesome Motion-shot 
. You’ve nailed the bubbler.
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absolutely not. if you’re growing organic. getting handy at making good tea is more than useful.
i’d be tempted to grow a couple tomatoes in containers to be used as space monkeys
they look great, and won’t be small.
surely a good sign 
you did some testing, and put in the work. 
plants look great.
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@ColeLennon @slain I also pop the microwave door open at 1 second remaining to avoid the beeping. But I’m definately impatient for plant growth…right now anyway. I know come July we’ll both probably be fighting untameable beast plants and think fondly of when they were a manageable size
I remember vividly thinking in August “Fxxx I wish these tomatoes didn’t grow so big!” It’s a lot of work maintaining big plants, crazy how they come from tiny seeds. Or the weed and how overwhelmed I was last September/October. Hoping for a tinge of deja vu there, but less plants this time 
@MissinBissin thanks man! I have that Bluewater Bridge star trail time exposure card featured prominently on my desk. I can’t pull off that kind of work but I liked the 1s shot of the bubble spiral.
The fish stuff is a result of me reading a bunch of things and trying to fuse it into an all-around best plan. We’ll see how it goes, but when I asked for it at the grow shop (the guy knows me from last year, the drying cabinet, the soil testing, general scientific excess) he lit up and showed me to the jug talking about how much he loves it, and potentially excluding the sugars or reducing them in favor of it. And it’s dual use as microbe food/fertilizer depending on doseage. Reading up about it seems pretty favorable in several ways. It sure was an expensive jug though, like $60 USD, but shelf stable for a few years so I’ll have it around until its empty.
Mother nature has put the kibosh on my tea plans this morning - it’s going to be raining hard the next few days so the last thing I want to be doing is putting gallons of extra water in those pots or beds. Probably make the brew next Thursday before I go to work and then feed it Friday morning. I need to see if we have a conventional lab microscope at work, I’d love to see what’s going on and what changes cause tangible effects. I could also see if any of my old professors are around at the University a stone’s throw from the house.
@noknees appreciate you taking the ride with me. Are you suggesting a few container tomatoes to use to test the teas? I’ve already got 6 tomatoes going, still small and unpictured here. They’re in beds of very similar soil with peppers and same cover crop. I could pretty easily fill a small pot or two now that I think about it…good idea. Maybe some cherry tomatoes on the patio.
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Thanks for the detail of possibly reducing sugars with Hydrolysate use… Reading-time, Yes it is @FieldEffect
And I’m just jacked that you like the Card. My Second Card is delivered next week. Shot in the Sand Dunes of the Pinery Provincial Park, on Lake Huron.
I told the UFO, when it got to the Southern-edge of Lake Huron, to turn Left
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Yeah, the real mystery is I’m antsy for the plants to grow some foliage but already freaking out a little that they are going to be to big.
It is not even June. What am I going to do with these when they are 14 feet tall?
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@MissinBissin That’s a great shot. I think there’s actually 2 UFOs…BTW is that gonna be your new “gift” card? Maybe we need to trade some more 
@ColeLennon I KNOW that feeling. Went out and checked the Panalawis, I swear they are almost a foot tall already. Last week? 4" I’m going to mark some bamboo sticks so we can keep track of 'em. You have the hoop rings to guage with. For now anyway…hopefully soon you’ll be applying for radio tower permits and using a helicopter to attach a flashing red light to the tallest cola
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