This will be an ongoing diary of the goings on in my 2x2, 20 gallon living soil tent.
I just chopped these girls, some Spirit Train F2s courtesy newb2.0, Sebring, & Bodhi. Drying now, fantastic variety and aromas - one smells like pickles, another like sweet hard candy. Can’t wait to roll some Js and treat myself to a green Christmas.
The tree trunk in the back is a marigold that is still producing flowers so it gets to stay and help restock the soil buffet. A swath of seeds were planted about 7-10 days ago. I sort of jumped the gun thinking the chop of the Spirit Trains would happen sooner so some of them stretched a bit in the shade. No worries though I may drop some more to ensure density in the canopy and to help maximize the usage of my light. Here’s a list of what was planted:
white yarrow - daisy
scarlet flax - flax
dwarf godetia - evening primrose
dwarf alyssum - brassica
amaranth - amaranthaceae
lady phacelia - borage
blue flax - flax
johnny jump up - violaceae
foxglove - plantain
illinois bundleflower - legume
borage - borage
chicory - daisy
garden sorrel - buckwheat
roman chamomile - daisy
carrot - Umbellifers
radish - brassica
kale - brassica
cabbage - brassica
catnip - mint
verbena - verbena
parsley - umbellifer
oregano - mint
luffa - curcurbit
pole bean - legume
sunflower - daisy
thyme - mint
garlic/chives - amaryllidaceae
cilantro - umbellifer
dill - umbellifer
onion - amaryllidaceae
The Illinois bundleflower is a nod to those who know. If ya didn’t know before, I assume you do now
This list contains 17 plant families, unless I’ve counted wrong (totally likely). I still have a few grass seed species I’m going to throw down and with the cannabaceae that’s just gone in today the grand total is 19 plant families represented in the soil seed bank. Some will come up sooner than later, that’s fine. I like letting the beans and curcurbits establish some big leaves early and then training & pruning them to the sides as they’ll produce root exudates without necessarily generating shade, AKA free carbon.
Here’s a summary of how I do seeds:
(EDIT: forgot the kelp meal in the original - provides a small amount of food for the soaking microbes and provides biostimulants)
Basically, put a very small amount of vitamin C in some tap water and let it sit for 5 minutes to dechlorinate. Then add a small amount of everything else. Talking about pinch and drop amounts of this stuff being plenty for soaking seeds. Drop the seed in, keep it warm, let it soak until it sinks and then put it into the soil. I pre-wet the spot I’m going to plant with the liquid used for the soak as well to make a very microbe rich and bio-stimulant rich environment for the seeds to start life. The sludge that’s left over can be distributed elsewhere on the soil. Since these never sit for too long, and the quantities of food are quite low, I’m not worried that I’m dumping a bunch of anaerobes in the honey hole. I’ve also spent a fair chunk of time staring at these mixes in the past under a scope to know that I’d be surprised to find a lot of ciliates & rotifers after such a short incubation period. Not to say I shouldn’t look every time, but hey… whaddaya gonna do?
Bang-for-buck, I’ve found treating seeds to be an extremely high value proposition. Developing the rhizosphere immediately at germination protects against infection, but also provides immediate returns as the plant begins its symbiotic relationship and multiplying the microbes. Not to mention it starts getting fed at birth. You can use way less at this stage and get way more in return by leveraging the grow light & plants to generate food for your microbes. The Fish Sh!t I use is their tiny sample bottle of which I use less than 1mL when doing this procedure. That’s not to say I wouldn’t spend money on their product, I think it’s great, I just haven’t found a need to use a lot of it in a living soil system where I am consistently multiplying those microbes for free.
Alright enough babbling. After the long previous cycle, I wanted to go with something faster… a LOT faster. So this round is going to be a 24/0 or 20/0 start to finish starring…
The seed started soaking yesterday after the chop and planted this morning when it had sank. In the meantime, I get to get these Spirit Trains dried up and get the rest of the cover/companion seeds into the soil.