Finally the spare bathroom gets the recognition it’s been longing for and most righteously deserves!! I’m kinda surprised it doesn’t have it’s own account yet 
lol.
You really gave the tub and bathroom a good scrubbing!! That tile is spotless 
Are you going to be training that huge Black Snow before flipping the lights?
How does that smell when wet down ?
I forgot a article I was reading but it stated malted barley powder is highly beneficial to soil/plants
Everything’s looking good my friend
I’ve already done more training than usual, having topped her and pinched a bunch of growth tips. I suppose I could get creative with some wire and try to open up the canopy. This probably would have been a better idea weeks ago.
Much like the brew store from which I purchased the malted barley, akin to warm beer. It smells better than kelp meal and worlds better than the dry amendments.
I have similarly read many an article about the benefits of malted barley powder making such claims as reducing flowering time by 25%, promoting dense growth, and easing transplant shock. The price is right though, for $5 I picked up what appears to be a two year’s supply.
My approach has not exactly been the most scientific, I usually take about 200mL worth, blend it up, and distribute it evenly between all of my pots. Maybe it’s all just placebo, but the plants look happy.
Speaking of smells, thank you for reminding me. I started a small batch of fermented fruit juice on February 14th using berries, kiwi, banana, and apples- all the same stuff that makes up my morning meals. 
The resultant goo actually smells pretty good, but I’m not about to take a sip or anything. Either way I should strain and bottle this before my wife discovers where I’ve been hiding it in the kitchen.
My loosely established and previously unmentioned plan is to use the FFJ mixture on half of the Black Snow to see if there is any discernable difference in growth or flavour.
That’s a half truth. Lol seriously, you guys slay me…
The Half-Assed Guide To Home Appliance Repair
WARNING:
Not to be taken as electrical advice. Take only as prescribed by your physician.
Disaster strikes! The phone is ringing, will you answer the call?
No thank you. No I’m not at all interested. Yes please take me off of your list. Have a nice day.
There are times when it’s not so easy to get off of the hook, like when your dehumidifier decides it no longer wishes to function. Having no desire to lug this thing up a flight of stairs means only option remains, so let’s get down to business.
Perhaps no longer wishes to function is a misnomer. When plugged in the power light blinks periodically to indicate the unit is in standby mode. When the collection tank is removed from the unit the display reads “P2” indicating that the tank needs to be emptied or replaced but alas, with the tank installed the display goes dark and the unit returns to inactivity. This indicates that the problem is not with the water level switch, which is one of the cheapest and most common repairs.
So what’s the problem? The compressor? The fan motor? The relay? The problem is that consumers are getting fleeced by manufacturers who have for decades been selling shoddily made electronics.
What does all this mean? It means the power button was broken. The next step is to remove the controller board, desolder the component, clean up the PCB, and solder in the new component. But I’ve got weed to grow, I’m not running a repair bench down here. A quick tap with a soldering iron, a spot of hotglue and piece of electrical tape are all that’s needed to get back to operational. If it breaks again, I’ll use my whole ass.
The home improvements didn’t stop there, I really wanted to ride out this sense of accomplishment.
What are we looking at?
The panda poly that lines the shower curtain was always one big piece, and a big pain in the neck to secure out of the way while I work in the garden. I decided to split the piece right up the middle, and then kicked myself for not doing this sooner. Access to the tub has never been easier.
It seems I have made a liar out of myself. After three weeks of fermenting on my counter it was time to strain and bottle the fermented fruit juice. Curiosity got the better of me, this stuff is delicious. I Just hope the plants like it.
Guess what else!
What else?
Look what I found in the bathroom cupboard while I was cleaning. I’ve never even turned this thing on before.
Wasn’t about to break that record either, back in the cupboard it goes!
Cheers
G
From no-till to no-man’s-land, and back again!
I know things have gotten bad, that much is obvious. At first glance I’m not even sure what’s growing in here anymore… I guess it’s time for a haircut.
Much better!
With the excess foliage out of the way the garden can be seen once again. From left to right there is a Trizzler F2 courtesy of @Mr.Sparkle, some celery, and a patch of red clover.
I think my experiment in neglect has proven fruitful as I should have some more clover seeds for future cover crops. It turns out clover seeds are a pain to shuck as determined by a few practice shucks, but the future will flourish all the same.
The remainder of the clover was chopped up for mulch, along with the remains of my breakfast. I myself never developed the taste for strawberry greens, kiwi fuzz, or banana peels, but the worms seem to like them so we worked out an arrangement.
If that is fermented without sterilization, be careful of methanol production. It’s hard to poison yourself, but not impossible.
I added a bit of anti-freeze for just the right kick, but I’m having second thoughts now…
That’s interesting, I was not aware that this was even a possibility. I was more or less trying to follow the bulk of the documentation on KNF scattered across the internet except where most resources guide you through production by the gallon, I tried to scale the recipe down to ~50mL.
My next course of action will be reading about fermentation with sterilization. 
lol to make human consumable alcohol… which is also a class 1 carcinogen, you heat sterilize the material first then add yeast. Any pectin left in there can convert to methanol. Yeast itself is incapable of generating significant methanol traces, but other micro organisms can. You’re safe as long as you don’t drink your KNF 
Yes its typically high pectin content mashes that will produce more methanol in the fermentation, though your not gonna get to any levels that would truly harm you and you’ll be poisoning yourself with the ethanol first. Though there is a reason why Wines will give worse hangovers as they do contain a higher methanol content than say beer or a distilled spirit.
Methanol is more dangerous in Distilled spirits if doing it yourself, though tossing the first bit that comes out of your still takes care of that as methanol turns to vapor before ethanol does and doing so in the end you will have a “cleaner” product methanol wise compared to say any wine or beer.
Also alot of things are fermented with natural yeasts that are present on say whatever fruit or in your air your using so sterilizing isn’t actually necessary depending, but thats a rabbit hole.
What a wuss. “My poison needs a sweetener” 
A Man Divided
For those just getting acquainted I am presently at the half-way point of flowering some Black Snow as crossed and provided by @anonymous4289.
Although these activities are taking place almost entirely in the spare bathroom after which this thread gets its namesake, I have been trying to keep most of my related posting in the official Black Snow Grow Show thread.
I don’t have enough bawdy limericks to keep everybody entertained for much longer so what is one to do in the interim? More specifically what am I to do? I’m not going to be able to get by on my looks or charms.
So as to keep the Black Snow thread on topic I will answer the spare bathroom related questions here.
One of my biggest challenges aside from the actual gardening part is making effective use of my space. Right next to that is the challenge of acquiring materials. Alas all you see is all pretty much all I have to work with.
My first instinct was to tear the fan apart and noodle with the circuitry. The electronic controls on the fan are less than ideal as the unit will not power on automatically after a power loss, but maybe you can see an easy solution if I show you what I’m working with.
As I am open to suggestion and this idea carries less risk of fire or electrical shock, I present you…
The grand tour!
On the right is the combination bathroom vanity and workbench, and on the left is my gardening chair with luxury bidet. The wire shelf across the sink makes a well-lit work area for admiring, pruning, potting, and trimming while the gardening chair is a great place to sit while I water the plants. Finally the dehumidifier sits next to the tub because the hot air helps keep the space warm, and also because the drain hose is really short.
You may have also noticed the dual shower rails across the ceiling. The shower and panda poly curtains are there to keep the space bright, cozy, and warm while potentially increasing the effectiveness of my extraction fan. The black shower curtain is there to block all light from entering or escaping, and hopefully to serve as a makeshift lung room to help keep my environmental conditions more stable.
100% Effective!
All of this helps me keep that bathroom a balmy 18° C through the colder months, but maybe the effectiveness of this setup is really dependent on the season.
Do you think the poly lined shower curtains are really doing me any favours, or would the shower be best left open with the fan external to the space? Perhaps none of the above?
That pretty much concludes the tour. It’s like looking into another world. My own family have never even laid eyes upon the spare bathroom, so I hope you had a fun time.
Another world?
Another world you say? Well I suppose we have time.
I know of a secret place away from prying eyes, hidden from the world, unnoticed in a lonely basement. This square metre is where the magic happens.
I hope you’re curious because I’m plenty excited.
Alright at first glance it’s kind of dirty and dank, but still magical. And dank.
After an easy start things have really gone into overdrive. Have look at these comparison photos taken 18 days apart.
This girl has since more than doubled in size even after I supercropped her on March 24th, now rivaled in height only by the celery stalk growing in the back of the pot. If she smokes as good as she smells I’ll truly be blessed.
I have to give the celery more credit as well, it was looking kind of depressed in the before picture.
The clover tastes like cucumber, but it’s not my first choice. The seed sprouts are supposed to be very nutritious but I have yet to attempt to prepare or eat any.
I wish all of my plants would double in size so readily. If only I could take credit for this phenomenal growth. It might have been that 2mL of fermented plant juice I watered into the soil last month, or possibly the couple tablespoons of malted barley powder. Maybe even that discarded half of an avocado.
It could be that the plant has fully come to the realization that it’s knee-deep in the dead, struggling to escape from a pot of rotting tissue while worms nibble at it’s toes.
I figure it’s the kitchen scraps.
Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen any fungus gnats in here for a while. It’s a lot tougher to keep them at bay in the bathroom where I think they can breed in the drain.
The malted barley powder always brings out the fuzz. Not sure what it is exactly but the plants seem to like it.
These ones might not look like they like it, but they were sad looking when I put them into the pots. I’ll see how they look next week.
It’s hard to take a good picture of fuzz
This is probably nothing new if you’ve taken the time to visit @Rouge’s Stacked pots of joy topic. While I admire his work and philosophy, I’m not about to let him take all the glory for negligent gardening.
feel free to post in the grow show if you’d like. whichever you prefer.
Hard at work in the lab
Whipping up a fresh batch of LABS this week and it’s coming along nicely, I think… Won’t get any better looking from here but with any luck I’ll be rich with bacteria by next week.
It’s about time to mix up with a bit of milk at any rate.
My first attempt at making labs just turned to mold on me. It looks as though I was too thorough in rinsing the rice but I’ll never truly know. Although these pictures were taken five days apart the mold started by the second day, I just didn’t get around to dumping and cleaning the jar until the time that I took the second picture.
My first successful attempt and second batch of LABS was a complete success. I forget why exactly I decided I needed to make LABS, but I ended up using it like crazy for a week straight for every gardening and household need imaginable.
Ultimately I did not want to field such questions as “What is this?” or “What is this doing in the fridge?” so it’s final job was cleaning all of the drains. For being made with curdled milk it’s surprising what little smell LABS has. The fact that it can defeat other smells seems like a super power.
I was neither daring nor curious enough to eat the curd. It’s supposed to be very good for you, but so is not smoking. Soft cheese has never been my thing either but it worked great on the drains.
At 1:1000 dilution even a little jar will go a long way. Provided this batch turns out properly it’s my intention to mix it with some sugar and store for a longer term in the fridge… Right after I kick-start all of my soils, clean all of the drains, and feed that curd to the worms in my compost bin.
Speaking of worms…
Along with this afternoon’s rain came some worms from the yard. There’s nothing quite like prowling through the yard with a spoon to abduct some worms. Now it really feels like Spring has arrived.
I snapped a couple of photos in the dark while I was resettling the newest worm-napping victims. The Trizzler F2 is really coming along. While original projection on the calendar had this girl finishing up by the 26th April, I’m not so sure this will be the reality but what do I know? A lot can change in three weeks, I’m just enjoying the ride.
That would be sweet though, because I can’t wait to get a taste of these buds.
Final friday follow-up
These cuttings are starting to look less forgotten about. Not any better, but less forgotten. Judging by these pictures I might have to refill the reservoirs this evening as well.
That’s it for now, have a good evening!
Today is the day
Even marked it on the calendar, see?
Sadly writing arbitrary dates in the calendar doesn’t make the world bend to my whims.
At the 13 week mark the Trizzler F2 is looking like she needs a little more time. As much as I’m excited to taste this delicious smelling reefer, I don’t want to rush perfection.
Also I have no idea how long celery takes to grow, but I’m hoping some of those stalks protruding in the back will be ready to eat soon. Some home made celery would be perfect with home made soup. I just hope it doesn’t taste a bit cellar-y having been grown in a basement.
Still got time but the heir to the pot is being baptized right now. Hoping to keep the living soil momentum going the next seedling is going to grow up with a rich bed of trizzler mulch.
Thank you to @Oldtimerunderground for the baptism gif
What of the titular bathroom?
The Black Snow have been joined by a pair of Skynet that are just thrilled to meet the bathroom lights.
The toughest part of this grow is just accepting that the plants for the most part don’t need me, and the best thing I can do is leave them alone.
Not to be anti-climactic but there should be some great bud photos a month from now.
Booooooo!
Yes. Mine just tell when they need to be fed.
Looking good.
Awesome update Loph!! 
That Trizzler is looking fantastic
How are the trichs lookin? Seems like she’ll be ready any day now.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen the spare bathroom this packed with awesomeness!!
I can’t wait to see them 
hopefully you throw in some nice close ups with the microscope too 
I want to say more but gotta run and throw my kids on the bus lol.
To me, that’s the easiest part. The hardest part is getting in there and watering them, especially when they start chuggin like a camel fresh out the Sahara. If I had mine in the spare bathroom I would’ve been using that showerhead every time 
What do you think I’ve been doing? I don’t have any of these fancy gardening supplies like watering cans. I just reach in and turn on the cold.
The driver is IP68 rated and connects right to a GFCI. I get about a 10mA jolt before the whole thing trips and the lights turn off. 10-15 minutes later I hit the reset on the socket and we are back in business.
WARNING: Not being sincere
Who likes short shorts?
Big thank you to @Oldtimerunderground for upgrading my digital imaging capabilities. Without further ado, let’s get some closeup trizzler shots!
Edit- Grid view not working with my images this morning…
What irony I was unable to get any of my shots in focus this morning…
I meant to take some meaningful microscope shots sooner but instead I got baked and spend the night looking at my hands.
