A micro living organic soil grow

Indoor Growing Growroom Diaries
261

I feel you; get by with what you have. Nothing wrong there.

I complicated my mix a bit because I heard negative things about certain ingredients and their sourcing. Pete moss, blood meal, things like that. I like sustainability. I would source all locally too if I could find what I need. I’d almost rather grow in some good soil I dug up in the forest than buy another bag mix. But that’s the idea behind living soil (especially with worms in the pots) is that the microbes and small bugs keep everything functioning like it would outside. Keeping those worms alive on the small scale is the challenge. But ideally, your soil beds are self composting. The worms eat whatever organic matter you give them and boom. Need potassium? Banana peels for the worms.

It’s suppose to be easy; it’s us that makes it complicated. The planet does it effortlessly. Or so I’ve read. I have a mighty one harvest under my belt.

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262

That may be the hardest one buddy. :grin:

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It better be!

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For sure, I agree with basically all of that…

I’m not sure about the peat moss whole deal… It seems Leighton Morrison is very against it, but others say that it is the “bog” peat moss that is messed up to remove, but apparently the spagnum is ok?

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From what I can tell it’s mostly a UK based movement, since here in NA Canada is still supplying plenty of peat. The peat moss is the stuff the have to dig up, destroying the biome. Sphagnum is the moss on top that didn’t become peat yet. I would think that would be ok, but I’ve heard it’s just not sustainable in the quantity we are collecting it. So people using alternatives helps that. Maybe if your small scale grows work well you could test a few alternatives side by side… I’m curious about replacing my pearlite with rice hulls as well.

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That guy Leighton likes Pitmoss, maybe I’ll try that some time.

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I used half rice hulls, half pumice in the last batches I mixed. Ive also been using the rice hulls for mulch.

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Day 12 Veg Tuesday

Found a couple holes on some new growth, looks like I have to step up my IPM game:

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I couldn’t find the bugs or I maybe found the tiniest specs here and there but thought it was a loose piece of dirt.

Currently, on hand, I doctor zymes (anyone know if this will harm the red wigglers), OHN, and Spinosad… I have been meaning to make it order some LABS as well…

Anyone have any suggestions amongst all that or other?

Any thoughts on what bug it might be?

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White dots like that are usually from piercing insects like spider mites. I would suggest looking under your leaves toward the base of the plant, thats where they like to hide.

Dr. Zones should work, Google for application rates and frequency.

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I still think it’s nothing lol but it’s based on “things” I’ve seen. Welcome to my grow:

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hah hah sorry for all the photos, but I thought I’d show what two normal plants look like up close. I’m sure there are more “strange” holes, but I ain’t searching all night for 'em :upside_down_face:

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For sure, I appreciate it tho, thanks @JoeCrowe & @ReikoX

I think I’m gonna spray and a slight soil drench with the Doctor Zymes whether it’s a treatment of preventative.

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Day 15 Veg - Friday

Ok so I have been spraying some Doctor Zymes the last nights and the plants have possibly coincidentally started to look pretty good as far as I know, however, the funny thing is I don’t believe it helped with the pest issue!!! I wonder if it’s just the plants getting into the new soil (altho I realized I didn’t pack them very well, seems fairly airy and possibly not a great connection to the old soil) or if the citric acid of doctor zymes helped with the ph of the soil… I also think that there might be something to me spraying the top of the soil every night, where it’s not a full on watering but also enough to keep the soil moist while maybe the cap mats are getting it from the bottom?)?

Not 100% sure, but almost certain, that what I might have goin on are caterpillars.
I still have not seen any pest, and now am seeing leaf damage on two plants, but what I did realize is that I think I am seeing their shit on the leaves as well. I had seen this before but just thought it was dry/loose dirt that had blown on them from the fans…

But reading more, I think this is the likely cause.

So tonight I have switch to BT which I believe should work better for caterpillars over the doctor zymes, only time will tell I guess. I won’t be doing this three nights in a row tho, only once a week, maybe switch to spinosad or maybe the LABs I got collecting right now.

Besides that, a kind of funny update, well funny to me at least, I found my Catnip seeds, the package is still sealed!!! @JoeCrowe @ChemicalDependant or whoever else was asking which kind they were lol

All those in my pots are all Purslane! And speaking of which, I got more coming and am exciting to taste it but need to read more about it, no idea about harvesting and I’m not sure these are a viable cover crop for me as they are getting a lil tall:

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Here are some close ups of the hopefully gals:

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UK2 Solid, but a few bites here

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BB the worst looking of the bunch, not sure what’s going on, giving her more time before a cull is decided.

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SS Solid

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BB First bites on this plant and odd growth where the furthest point of fan leaf is the smallest?

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UK Solid

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273

The marks on your plant, that one has extreme variegation on the leaves. The other little holes are probably from rough handling. Those goddamned caterpillars roll up the leaves. I know I scrape and scratch my seedlings when I am dissecting them and it causes marks very similar in appearance.
That seed package photo is exactly the same as the cat mint I grow in the garden :wink: never tried the portulaca though(purslane)!

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classic variegation on the seedling. Zinnia.

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Your plants look fine. There’s a little bit of variegation going on on that one plant, that’s nothing to worry about.

Caterpillars? Seriously? Have you seen one in your garden? How would they have gotten in there?

LITFA. You’re stressing too much about a plant that’s incredibly resilient and easy to grow. Chill.

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I completely agree, unless I actually SEE the bugger, he’s not real. On the other hand, mmm I love that BTK biologicals will wipe out thrips and aphids as well as caterpillars. I spray the plum and apple trees like a maniac with that stuff.

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Haha

But you’re always stress-testing your plants, aren’t you? This dude does not have any fucking caterpillars in his garden. They’re indoors!!! How the fuck is a caterpillar gonna get into an indoor garden? Unless you pick up a caterpillar and put it on one of your plants, it seems impossible to me. Or I dunno… maybe there’s just, like, hordes of caterpillars roaming around inside…

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@JoeCrowe are you saying the discolored one is the variegation?

@minitiger apparently I think, if I remember correctly, they can come already in the soil you buy just like fungus gnats… specifically., I think I read also that they can come in chicken manure which is one of my inputs.

Some times they can be hard to see cause they are green and also maybe it goes back to the ground under the mulch.

I don’t think the holes are from rough handling, I know ladies like it rough but I’m a gentleman :wink:

They have been getting some pretty serious LIFTA besides the night time sprays, don’t even really check on them besides that, mostly cause now that I changed the height and light intensity as well as the temperature setting, the environmental can get a lil off when I open it. Might have to make a viewing window like a zoo hehe

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yah I had an outbreak of caterpillars the moths flew in when I opened the door to the grow room. They were fun to squish!!! You would have thought the moths would fly into the high pressure light and die, but they didn’t.

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Then that’s not LITFA. Sprays? You’ve already foliared your plants multiple times, even though they’re only 15 days in veg? That’s a lot. On the rare occasions when I do foliar, it’s only once or twice the entire grow. The reason your plants are looking better is because you transplanted into bigger pots. Maybe the foliars have had something to do with that, but my guess is they’re just getting comfortable in their new homes.

Do what you want, dude. Spray them every day, if that’s what makes you happy. Just one last time: you’re worrying too much. You don’t have caterpillars. There are no caterpillars in your garden. You’d see them if they were there. It’s not like spider mites or whatever, where you have to bust out a magnifying glass.

Growing weed is supposed to be fun. You’re stressing me out just watching this grow…

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