CaptainRon's Imaginarium: Off-grid, indoor growing, geothermal greenhouse build, a place to store my thoughts

[CaptainRon]

Good morning everyone!
The weather has been unideal the last 8 or so days up here. Rain or heavy overcast followed by rain… Truth be told this has been more of a blessing. I didn’t recognize how drained I was and taking the last week off from hauling stone has been much needed!
With that, I have only made minor progress on the greenhouse but was back out there yesterday plugging along.
The rain has shown me some new opportunities for the build as well as some design readjustments.

Next post I’ll dive deeper in but for this one the whole focus is plants!

All the DLA’s were up-potted to 2.5-gallon pots on Friday.

Root zone from Friday, only 16 days since last up-pot. This plant ended up showing his sex Saturday.

He was visually stunning with heavy leaf serration and rich green color, but also had the lease vigor, so not a major loss. One of the other original 3 also has shown sex, female! And the other is looking to be female as well.

Hard to see from the photo but you can see a pistil extending out on the left side of the steam. Needed a loupe to see them.

A collection of the DLA’s from the weekend:

From this morning:

Sunday I switched lights to 10.5 on 13.5 off to sex remaining plants. As mentioned above I have at least one female from my original pop, and I’m pretty confident the other will also be one.

I plan to only keep three females, assuming I get 3, and up-pot once more to 5-gallon pots before flipping to flower.

I moved the haze to the 2x2 for the time since they are fems and don’t need sexing. These are on 12 hours of light, 5.5 hours dark, 1 hour light, 5.5 hours dark. I picked this up from John of Snow High Seeds from his interview on The Potcast. Being energy limited I am stocked to try this out and see how the results are. He also said he flowers 10.5 on and 13.5 off as well as sexes with this. Claims to have sex in 3-4 days after the switch.
I can’t remember the time stamp for this info, but it’s towards the end of the first part of the interview. Just listen to the whole thing, it’s a must-listen for any enthusiast.

The haze:

These will also be potted in 5 gallons. I’m unsure how many I’ll keep as they are all looking similar and having the same steam rub. For now, we’ll assume all 3.

I have never cloned my plants before but did start cloning this run. I have a clone from the larger haze, as well as the 2 potential female DLA’s.

Hoping to have the rest sexed by the end of the week and back into veg. Will up-pot females next week and look to flip on Sunday, Sept 1.

Have a beautiful day everyone
-Ron

[CaptainRon]

@Thetravler Welcome brother! So glad to have you along for the adventure!
I teased the idea of radiant flooring in the greenhouse but was out of my budget and experience. That’s awesome your cousin made one! I’d love to see some photos if you’d like to share.
Looks like you got it going on with all those teas!
Curious on your onion tea, is that part of your banana brew or its own tea?

I love working with teas. Excellent way to use less feed for more plants and really build a thriving root zone.
I like LAB, bokashi tea, a blend of guanos and earth worm castings, etc. my favorite part of gardening!

@George please brother, clog the thread to learn!! This thread is as much mine as everyone else’s

[George]

Thanks, your plants are looking great and that rain might be a blessing to have some rest , I have bought fresh milk and cheese cloth to keep producing delicatessen , my dog loves them.

I would be interested in tea recipes, that onion tea intrigues me, willing to leave nutes bottles back …

[noknees]

@CaptainRon

These are on 12 hours of light, 5.5 hours dark, 1 hour light, 5.5 hours dark.

that’s an old greenhouse trick. gas lantern schedule, will suit your haze well (or anything else rly)

[CaptainRon]

@George I’m so glad you and your pup are enjoying! You can ferment most things in your yard with brown sugar and make exceptional ‘bottle’ nutrients that are rich in biology.
You can also throw most yard waste into a bucket with water and some leaf mold soil and make custom inputs. Some other uses for the LAB; put diluted serum in a spray bottle and use it as a deodorizer. I typically will spray in trash can and litter box. No smell! Use in my chicken coop as well. You can pour it into the toilet for a septic tank(if you have one), as well as an aid in composting.

You can also use the LAB serum to inoculate bran to make bokashi.
Bokashi means fermented organic matter in Japanese. Typically used to ferment food scraps including meat and bones, as well as a garden input via tea or just sprinkled on top and watered in. The bacteria it houses will help with breaking down anything in the soil that isn’t plant-ready. It will also add more biology to your soil!
I haven’t made my own yet but will be doing so in the next month or so.

Check out this book.
*Updated with the free PDF version @Heliosphear found and shared.

I’ll share the inputs I make tomorrow morning and will include how to make them. Teas to microbe solutions made from your local land.

Cheers brother

[George]

Thanks for sharing, you’re opening my eyes to an undiscovered world, already have all those elements so just lack of knowledge on how to use them, willing to learn and appreciate your input …

[Heliosphear]

Don’t have the money for the book but I did find it for free.
JADAM Organic Farming PDF

Plants look great Your shirt ships today, will getcha a Tracking number tonight.

[Thetravler]

haha ! with living off grid the LAB comes in handy if you have a goat or cow to make cheese hahah ! I have two worm exporter factories in my area so i get as much as i want free ! And I buy so much shit Bokashi is always my freebie ! So thats another reason i like teas. You should watch you N some of your plants you can see some claw footing . But you have some really beautiful stuff . I dont think it was raident heating it was some to do with the heat from the earth she too was off grid up near Timmins Ontario . They dug down far enough to get i believe it was the heat from the ground ! I know they were definitely below the frost line . They did it over 10 years ago so i don’t think there photos but i can ask what it was called it was a government sponsored program they got some kind of rebate or funding because of it being an earth friendly project . Well thats it for me you have a great week ! hey come over and check my grows out some time ! lot of nice pictures pot porn ! lol

[George]

@CaptainRon

There’s a video from that same guy that teaches how to take the cheese curd and make cheese.

Couldn’t find it , do you have a link? Already have my cheese cloth, many other interesting videos from him, thanks for sharing…

[CaptainRon]

Happy Sunday everyone. I hope you all had a solid week and the sun is shining on you today.

One week from today we will be flipping to flower! Veg has been a blast with the plants, and I cannot wait to see their buds !

Sexing has also come to an end and it is time to meet the ladies!

The DLAs were put back into veg on Thursday, 8/22, and the hazes were reunited with them in the 3x3.

Let’s start with the hazes as they are fems.

Soma’s Amnesia Haze:
For the lineage on this, Soma says, “Amnesia Haze is a very complicated genetic cross. You have the magnificent Southeast Asian genetics (Thai sticks, Cambodian, Laotian) of which were my all time favorites. Then you have the fine Jamaican Haze varieties with their high THC percentage and sharp flavor. It also has an Afghani-Hawaiian genetic crossed in, speeding up the flowering time and further enhancing the taste.”

AH1: She started with some mutations and was very slow to kick into gear.

It was enough for me to pop the rest of the pack as I wasn’t confident she was worth the 12-14 week flower.

Boy was I incorrect with that assumption! She is an absolute gem and has quickly become my favorite plant in the bunch!

I am still growing my library of scents so I will apologize now for my 2-dimensional terpene profiles…

This plant has a lot of layers of smell that are a bit too complex for me to pick out all the nuances, but overall the plant radiates a sweet and spicy tone that has a slight funk on the underside. It’s very alluring and triggers some nostalgia for me.

The upper stem rub is a sharp and sweet, fizzy citrus. Very pleasant.

And here are the other two, which I popped a few weeks after the initial one.

#2 has a slight mothball scent mixed with a sharp sweet.
#3 just smells sweet and pleasant.
For sweet in these cases, I’m getting sweet fruits but not one I can pinpoint other than citrus and sweet, not floral.

Now the Deep Line Alchemy 5.3:
Artifact1 f4(mex chocolate) x 88g13hp.
I know that artifact 1 is from a batch of old Afghani seeds Bohdi received from an old friend labeled ‘Road Kill’. After growing them out and knowing the community would be vocal with anything called Road Kill that isn’t Road Kill he renamed to Artifact 1. He said it’s acrid, spicy, B.O., etc. That was the original seeds and the mother in this case he refined to f4.
Source- The potcast ep10 w/ Bohdi. Somewhere toward the end he talks about the artifact 1 and where he got it. It honestly could be in part 2. Good listen if you haven’t!

I started with popping 6/13 seeds. All broke soil but one ‘decapitated’ itself while removing its husk, and the other was likely my fault. I believe I left it on the heat mat too long and cooked the tap. Left with 4.
One was a mutant I couldn’t get under control and ended up showing it was a boy early on.
Popped the rest of the pack, and 6/7 germinated.

After sexing we are left with 4 females and one that still hasn’t shown sex…

DLA1:

DLA4:

DLA10:

DLA11:

The scent tones on these girls are all very similar. The vegetation smells like lightly sweet chocolate. Very pleasant, and makes me smile on every inhale.
The stem rubs are:
DLA 1, 10, & 11 and have sharp B.O. with a little spice on the underside. I love this smell.
DLA 4 has a sweet B.O. with a slightly stronger spice underside. Very female musk.

The last one waiting on sex is the one that topped itself. I’m keeping around to sex just because it’s the only one that has a unique stem rub of the batch. Almost smells like the haze but less pungent. Seems the most interesting of the bunch.

Group shot from this morning.

Getting full…
I’m not sure of my plan for when it comes to flowering. I didn’t expect so many females
I have been cloning since I think I’m only going to take my top 4-5 to the finish line and flower the others next year if I like the smoke. Perhaps outdoors.

The weather this week was rough again. Rained until Thursday but was able to get some work done on the greenhouse.
Made some design updates/upgrades and now have a few new ideas I will share in time. I don’t know where I’ll end on progress this year, as I am quickly reminded that winter isn’t far. My goal is to be completed next year, 2025.

I’m getting pretty fried from typing on my computer while uploading photos from my phone so I’m not going to go into much detail on this post but do want to share some progress with you all!

Decided to build a set of stairs and move the entrance to accommodate!
Two of the steps overhang and will double up as shelves

Starting to look like something!

Have a beautiful week everyone,
Cheers

[CaptainRon]

@George I wonder if he ended up taking it down.
Here’s another video on how to make cheese from the curd. Lower quality on video and sound, and the gent can be a bit dry, but he’s an OG when it comes to natural farming techniques.

Sorry for the delay, the rainy days wouldn’t let up again this past week.

Also, BuildASoil is an amazing resource for getting into/using carbon-based amendments for gardening. Dude is wicked educated on all things soil and the likes.

[George]

Thanks a bunch, I made another batch but have to give it to my dog, he doesn’t want to chew pills (skin infection due to flies), so I smash the pills and mix it with the curd.

Can I make more just using one cup of pure labs and milk? Saw it in the other thread and thought it might work. Your plants look beautiful, appreciate your help on this …

[CaptainRon]

@George

Can I make more just using one cup of pure labs and milk?

Yes! The point of the rice wash water is to get the bacteria, since you have the bacteria already you can just add that to the milk!
If I had to guess, you should only need a tablespoon or two of the LAB mixed with the milk.
But that’s just my guess. I don’t think you’d have many issues with too much, but I don’t want to share misinformation.

Also, that Bubba Kush looks a bit off… Almost cheesy

[globalhead]

@George

Can I make more just using one cup of pure labs and milk?

If you heat up the milk a little and then add the culture it will spread faster.

DLA is just the craziest name for a strain @CaptainRon …plants look great and I’m finding your way super interesting
&

[HeartOfDankness]

Oh captain, my captain! Love what you’re doing here. Like many others here I fantasize about what you’re doing pretty much every day. I’ll be sitting here on the corporate hamster wheel watching you work!

Sounds like we’re gonna be DLA5.3 flip buddies! I’ve got 5 of em that I’m gonna flip sometime later this week. It’ll be my first Bodhi flower run so I’m psyched! Weed makes the rat race much more bearable

[CaptainRon]

@HeartOfDankness

Sounds like we’re gonna be DLA5.3 flip buddies! I’ve got 5 of em that I’m gonna flip sometime later this week.

This is awesome, are you documenting here? I’d love to see the similarities and variations in real-time. The last one just showed sex and is too female, so 5 in total as well.
This is also my first Bohdi run

I peeked at your current journal and your plants are finishing up nicely! The Farmers Daughter is very pretty.

Thank you and @globalhead for your kind words and support !

[Coffweed]

Beautiful work! Love the stairs :).

Plants are looking great! Never enough space though, eh?

[HeartOfDankness]

I haven’t really documented their veg cycle but I’ll start putting them in my thread once things get interesting in a few days.

[CaptainRon]

My brother, @HeartOfDankness , don’t put more work on your plate!
In a couple weeks maybe I’ll bug ya for some photos to see how they’re comparing!

[CaptainRon]

Howdy folks, hope everyone had a great week.
Unfortunately the new update rendered my computer unable to access OG as it’s a Mac from 2015 and can no longer update to an OS that can run updated browsers. Works great on my phone though. With that my posts will be shorter.

The last plant showed sex after my update last week, another girl. This one topped herself right after the first node. She was also the only one of the bunch to have a sweet stem rub vs. the b.o. tone of the others.

Up-potted DLA 1, 4, and AH 1 into 3 g pots and left the others in 2.5 g pots. The tent was far too snug with 8 plants so I cloned the other 2 amnesia hazes and removed them from the tent. They all looked the same with some variations to stem rubs.
Final count is:

• 5 DLA 5.3
• 1 Soma’s Amnesia Haze

Switched to flower yesterday, 8/31. It rained all day so to save power I killed lights after 6 hours.
Also switched in the ac infinity 300w light and will add the uvb-lights once stretch is done.

I was able to get some time in the greenhouse. Did some digging as well as filling in behind the walls.

Mellow week overall up here!

Have a great week everyone,
Cheers