It’s an organic soil that I spent a lot of time on already. I’d feel it a waste to just toss it. Also getting new soil will be harder than cleaning this one. Unless I can manage to find a job that isn’t minimum wage asking me to move faster than my spine can send signals to my legs.
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They should have a couple of months left give or take a few weeks. I’m able to finish it to the end to get the full flavor and potency. I’m not growing to get high. CBN is just fine with me. I’ll take my super Stony bud that knocks out all negative thought on the first puff. Or even one that knocks me out until I get used to the high. I don’t really enjoy a intense high. It’s usually missing subtle aspects I can only get off fully ripened bud. I’m the same with my veggies. I love tomatoes, but fresh off the vine with a nice candy apple red color is my favorite. I get a sweet, salty, and sour note. Not anything like the flavorless ones at the store.
My opinion might be this way as I have multiple mental health issues I need to medicate when they get bad. I do my best to work on them when stoned or sober left with my thoughts.
Despite it all I try to use cannabis as a way to help me gain control over myself even without it. It’s the only thing I’ve ever tried in my whole life that had any impact on my mental health in a positive manner and as a result the first thing to give me hope of being able to feel normal and not a ball of issues I can’t escape.
Anyways my question was basically around the fact that without a dehumidifier I’ll probably see issues in a month or so.
I checked earlier today and the trichome heads are still forming and all clear. Not all thrichomes have heads, but most do. I’d post pics, but I crush trichomes to take those pics with my pocket microscope. Getting a in focus image without touching the buds with it is hard enough. I’ll be buying that digital endoscope I found at a good price. App enabled. Would make it easier to post pics of trichs
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I’m seeing a swarm of bugs today. Apparently something happened and they got even worse. I’m seeing what appears to be a fruit fly/fungus gnat hybrid in appearance.
They fly around like they’re drunk or a cricket. I’m going with that small bug I squashed before was probably a young one of them.
Either way that’s a strong change overnight. Hey we’re barely active for 2 days and now I see so many and a new one I’m a little concerned.
I’ll be buying a bti when I can, but is there anything else I should do? At this point if I can still smoke the bud IDC what I have to do. I just know they enjoy flying in my face a lot.
Update: the closest pest I can identify that resembles the newest one is a fat fungus gnat or a Hessian Fly. I’m hoping on a pregnant gnat and not a new pest. I already have drain flies, fruit flies, and fungus gnats. I’m finally able to clean and keep the place food trash free without a roommate.
I swear every time I would clean up the next day it got worse. It was a losing battle with him.
I don’t have any likes left at the moment but your girls are looking good. Just keep doing what you’ve been doing
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good read - reminds me of my CFL grows-
was growing hyper budget - made my own calmag, etc.
(i would bet money those are fungus gnats based on your description)
i had gnat issues that i wiped out with a bag of diatomacous earth- very cheap and works to physically block them from getting into the soil. i wouldn’t think they would take down full grown plants since you are already into flowering though…
do you have any fly tape you can put up to see how thick they are?
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Yes I do. I added some strips around the house yesterday during lights out. The one I put in the grow room caught some of the ones I spoke of I can’t identify. They’re definitely a lot more active today for some reason
is the tape covered? can you count how many are on it? if they fly around like drunk flies and get in your face they are fungus gnats … fruit fles hover more than they get in your face… they are also slower
it’s normal to obsess on your first grow- i think it’s worth peace of mind though… a bag of ground up diatoms is like $5 and will shred any insect trying to get down into the dirt… you lay it over the topsoil - it can get messy but it completely wiped out gnats/flies for me… and a bag will last you many grows
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I’ve used DE through this grow actually. Never really made any difference as I had to water usually soon after it getting dry enough to apply
I bet you;re fine- plants are big enough you’d have to be infested beyond hope for gnats to take them down…
ive seen grows where tape gets more black than yellow covered in gnats and the plants turn out fine
i guess with DE it depends on how thorough you are with it… i applied that stuff religiously for a good couple weeks and the gnats went away completely… they have a short life cycle and the goal is to stop them from getting back down into the soil to lay more eggs (you probably already know that just fyi). larvae down there are going to make it out (feeding on roots and fungus) but they wont be able to make it back down if they top layer is solid enough (i watered right through it, took a while to drain but… seemed to work).
there are other methods like peroxide in the water (sounds like you tried soap) … when i get back to alaska i’ll be mixing my own soil with some neem meal so i dont have to worry about those things again. dont really like the idea of mixing chems in the water to kill larvae but im sure those methods can work too.
are there dozens and dozens of gnats in your grow? like when you water does a bunch of gnats come off the soil?
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I don’t like chems either. Yes they come out in droves around Holly (the one next to the analog hydrometer).
The lights turn off now 15 seconds before 1pm. LoL 
I guess I got the mechanical timer almost exact
I have pics now too
I took 7 pics to be safe. Some had other bugs in focus. One had really long legs like a hopper
Here’s today’s right before lights out pics. Without someone hyperventilating all day the temps and humidity appears to be more stable. Like he was raising them to unmanageable levels somehow
Ingrid
Sadie
Harmony
Holly
2 pics each. Flash on and off.
The flypaper is doing it’s job it seems. I don’t see a lot all over today. Still got swarmed when I woke up a bit, but I’m hoping soon that will change
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looking good to me
i would probably give them a longer dry cycle to try and dry the gnats out-
that tape doesnt look bad- smaller black flies are def. gnats. maybe put a fan even with the topsoil if you dont already have that to keep air on them / dry them out a little faster … if it got way worse i’d try DE again, personally but i only see a few of them on the tape… i think you’re fine
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Oh you haven’t seen the tape I had in there before I swapped out. No sticky paper left. All covered entirely in flies
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i would guess a moisture issue then - gnat larvae die without water and the top couple inches dry will knock them back… you could also try sponging them out by cutting a potato in half and putting it face down in the topsoil… larvae should end up feeding off of it
pull out soggy pieces of wood chips in the soil if you see any
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i grew in SE alaska which is a temperate rainforest (rains all year) … gnats thrive in that environment so i did a ton of research when i saw a couple show up… thick layer of DE did the trick for me like mentioned… but i’d try a bunch of stuff since your plants are looking good
- also- there seems to be other species of fly (good thing, imho) on the tape - i’d rather be dealing with shit i can see than damage to the roots under the soil. good luck - will be watching your thread
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I honestly have been assuming the soil drys uneven for awhile now. The front dries much faster than the side with the fans did.i had to move all my fans around the house. It was getting 100°f and up in my house with 80% humidity almost constantly. For awhile I felt what it’s like in the Philippines and I don’t like it 
. The plants have seen a drop in temps and humidity since then as well.
Whoops I just realized I kept typing during peak🤣
Anyways the middle dries slower now and the 4 corners dry at the same pace now. So far they all seem to be drinking at the same rate. When I watered last I was watering the middle with very little water. So far in my pic it seems that it’s starting to dry at the same pace now. Maybe it’ll be after the next watering that it dries at the same pace. Maybe even later after, but I will get the moisture levels even across this soil.
Well I guess I can’t say at the same rate. Because Harmony is a heavy drinker. Sadie dries at the same rate regardless of how much water I give her. I’m going to give her the same amount as Harmony next watering to see if that’s really the case. Holly doesn’t appear to be a drinker at all. More of a sipper. I give her as much water as I do Ingrid.
Also the soil level on top is definitely not even. When watering water has a tendency to roll to the center each time. It’s why I need to get more soil or something to put on top as well. I figured I could add something to it to help with the gnats if they keep trying to come back.
I just checked my calendar and I saw that the plants are 14 weeks and 2 days old and 6 weeks exact in flowering today.
I’ll be flowering these girls until they are fully ripened or just shy of 90% Amber. Anything left to finish ripening on the plant while still alive always tastes best. I love my vine ripened tomatoes fresh from the garden. I’m making chili with a bunch of them and dry kidney beans now. I cooked it on low for 3 hours until it was boiling and then now it’s sitting in the oven now to cool. I can add some of my homemade ghost pepper Sriracha to add some kick.
IDK what kind of tomatoes we have in our garden, but they’re savory, sweet, and salty. IDK why they taste that good, but I absolutely love them.
I’ll be finished making the chili sometime around lights on for the plants or maybe closer to my bedtime. Already on fumes. This’ll be an interesting night
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My guess on the tomatoes would be… no Monsanto flavor lol and fruit has more sugar right at harvest and dissipates the longer away from the vine, same with berries. Also, mass tomatoes aren’t generally left to ripen on the vine.
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That I’ve noticed. It’s like flavorless water sacks with seeds if you buy a tomato in store. Occasionally one has a citrus note, but without the skin it tastes like nothing
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The only ones I’ll buy are the ripen on the vine kind. And the little grape tomatoes that come in the plastic bowls. They actually have some flavor
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