Oni's 2nd grow. Lessons learned

I just got back home :sweat_smile: took much longer than planned, but doesnā€™t it always? :sweat_smile:

Humidifier moved out of the tent.

It doesnā€™t cover my house properly, but I hope being outside the tent will help. Letā€™s seešŸ˜ƒ

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Not ideal though if its a big room, you can use a heavy blanket or tarp for a makeshift tent around the dehumidifier so most of it goes into it the tent ā€¦the circulation fan will also help pull it in :wink:

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Humidity was at 16% at the lowest while I was out. All plants drank heavily while I was gone. Dianaā€™s soil has receded all over. Indigo already drank all the water that was in the bag and its back to crunchy dry from a slight touch.

I got another 2 gallons of distilled water for later. Since I was omw home and it was on the way back. Saves me a extra trip.

Anyways Iā€™m hitting end of night mode bouncing around all day today, so hereā€™s some pics of the girls.

Diana

Daisey

Zelda

GSC

Indigo

Group Shots

Hygrometer

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I mixed up the 4g megacrop in a gallon of water. Waiting for it to fully dissolve now. I now know it had arrived all clumped up, so it takes some extra time to fully mix.

Iā€™d like to switch to 18/6 ASAP. Do I just switch it or do it 30 minutes a night until Iā€™m at 18/6?

Also the garlic died finally. Makes sense with all itā€™s roots pulled out, placed in cold soil, and taken out of itā€™s light cycle in the tent while I waited to see how the soil is. :sweat_smile: Ah well. It still grew a bit. Itā€™s not actually dead, but as far as Iā€™m concerned itā€™s just alive looking. It stretched the neck down a bit, but I donā€™t see any roots forming. With no green growth on top Iā€™m unsure if it can recover anymore. Either way I wasnā€™t able to get new soil. Oh well. The soil in the garlic pot is extremely loamy nowā€‹:smiley: itā€™s warmed up and barely sticks to my skin yet will clump together with pressure, but break up very easily with a slight press.

Now I want to know how the soil can grow something after seeing this. Is my soil outside changing or is it just losing excess clay content?

If I can avoid it Iā€™ll keep from using this soil for the transplant, but based on the pattern Iā€™m seeing so far this went from experiment to finding out how to use it worst case scenario :sweat_smile:

IDK whatā€™s happening with the old soil, but if it can grow some quick growing veggies as a test Iā€™ll give it a shot assuming Iā€™m still not able to get new soil.

Iā€™m talking about this because itā€™s looking like high priority to transplant into new soil ASAP and I donā€™t want to use up the soil @MomOnTheRun sent me. For many reasons, but mainly Iā€™m assuming there enough for the lucky 7s, but not for much else past that. Either way Iā€™m just ranting while tired while thinking about my options as I find that soil was much better feeling than I thought it would be :sweat_smile:

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Okay officially given up on the hardneck garlic. As I was digging in the soil I couldnā€™t get any of it to stick to my fingers. The soil feels absolutely perfect IMO and I really want to use it again, but I donā€™t want to risk it on my plants without a test first. Otherwise Iā€™ll be condemning the plant thatā€™s in that soil possibly.

How should I test the soil? Iā€™m debating on using GSC in it to see how it is. Overall Iā€™m likely to get rid of them soon if I canā€™t get any sign she should stay. She is looking to show a pistil. Used my right eye to see up really close and the calyxes are not visible, but I do see something like white hairs near the top. They are barely visible in the pics from earlier, but definitely showing something.

Also Diana is looking close to done. Sheā€™s eating her fan leaves and is definitely at cloudy trichomes. Even without my scope I can see that. Come lights on or next time I go in the tent Iā€™ll be using my scope to see the heads for ratio. The smell is a nice mix of skunk, vanilla, and citrus. Reminds me of Concord grapes.

Now on that note I do see a trend with my grows that vanilla likes to express. I wonder what microbiology is responsible for that smell and flavor? :thinking:

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Just switch themā€¦I do it all the time rotating plants to different cabinets which are all set to different on/off times. Itā€™ll take a day or so for the plants to adjust though theyā€™ll be fine

Soil doesnā€™t lose Clay content though it is improved with organic matter: leaves, cover crop die back etc.

I canā€™t guide you with that as you said you dumped all your old nutrients into it so who knows what the composition isā€¦if you really want to use it, save up for a soil test so you know what is built up in it vs what is needed to balance it

Youā€™re right, I sent you just enough for the Lucky 7ā€™sā€¦maybe a little extra though not enough to spread it around :wink:

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It was draining until runoff any time it rained while out there this whole time. Nothing to keep the excess nutrients in the soil to my knowledge, but whatever the case it wasnā€™t all of my nutrients each time, but at least at the beginning. Iā€™m bad at communicating thatšŸ˜… after it froze I didnā€™t use it as a place for the excess anymore.

Whatever the case Iā€™m more about testing with a plant before I spend a lot of money just to say I need a few things when I could just grow something in the soil. Itā€™s a slower process, but I really donā€™t want to waste my money on a soil test.

Also how can it never lose clay content? If itā€™s water soluble enough going through the soil should flush some out even if only a small amount at a time. Also it gets used for nutrients too, so I just canā€™t understand how soil became a magical endless supply of clayšŸ˜…

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I donā€™t mean to be confrontational at all. Iā€™m just confused. Iā€™ve always been taught that nothing is infinite. Absolutely nothing.

Yeah I definitely see the OCD and Autism RNšŸ˜…
I canā€™t understand what Iā€™m being told as I canā€™t wrap my head around the phrasing and itā€™s not going past face value when I know you were trying to say something else than what was insinuated. Everything lowers levels over time, but also with excessive water too. I havenā€™t smoked in a bit now.

Sorry for my confusion and manner of speech. I can barely word this right and unfortunately I canā€™t seem to get it to not sound abrasive :sweat_smile:

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Thatā€™s the thing, there is no telling what the clay portion is holding vs what it has let goā€¦that is its job - to hold nutrients while sand and silt allows for draining like perlite and vermicilite does

I hear ya and do that alot unless its something I am about to give up on or its an important crop then the soil test is invaluable to ensure success

It doesnā€™t lose clay content though it can be broken up/disrupted with organic matter then we inadvertently add clay with amendments for the soil to digest for needed nutrients hence more organic matter is needed for the soil to digestā€¦its a process every organic/no til/water only gardener must learn otherwise the clay and salts will build up in the soil becoming unusable unless drastic measures are taken. Its a process :wink:

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Okay that makes sense to me :slight_smile:

My tired brain makes it even harder to process info RN, so thank you for understand that Iā€™m not being confrontational and just really want to know what is confusing me

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Oh I almost forgot, but I switched the cycle to 18/6
Now 1am is lights on. I have to try and stay awake as itā€™s time to water Diana and Indigo in the morning. Zelda and daiseyā€™s soil is dry to 2" both easily now.

Should I be worried about root rot if I have them in water while I let the pots soak it up? Theyā€™re exposed coming out of the bottom of the pots.

I just want a good idea of how long I have to make them sit in water for.

Without weed to smoke I really canā€™t process info well. Whoā€™d have guessed?:sweat_smile:

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No worries :wink: These are concepts that can be difficult to understand especially when learning organics with so much technical info available, its helps to simplify it :stuck_out_tongue:

Personally I wouldnā€™t worry unless they will be submerged longer than an hour though with just soaking up a bit of runoff, iā€™ll remove it if/when I remember lol

30 minutesā€¦ Whatever they havenā€™t back up by then is good to toss

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Is there a depth I want to make sure I have them in when I soak them? It seemed like even the tall skinny bag soaked it up nicely when I tried it from the Bottom the other day.

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Idk, when I do bottom feeding I fill whatever container/tub to 1/4" up the pot/peat pellet then dump out/remove after 30 minutesā€¦when I do top feeding, iā€™ll dump it in quick to the top of the built in container border then wait 30 minutes and remove excess if anyā€¦either way, it gets removed if its alot or iā€™ll prop up the pot to get it out of the water and let it evaporate if its a little. Much depends if its run off or soaking to eliminate dry gaps

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Iā€™ll be soaking to eliminate dry patches. It should be easier to not spend a half hour actively moving the plants around to keep the leaves from getting wet.

Nice and simple soak and sit.

I screwed up indigo and GSC the other day and they were soaking for too long. Around 2-3 hours.

Will I want them out of the tent when they soak? Plain water is one thing, but IDK how megacrop will behave exposed to all that light or will the time frame not matter?

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It doesnā€™t matter as your not letting them sit in it til it goes stagnant (~3 days)

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I have a question about what I smell in the tent sometimes. I get a whiff of ammonia once in a while. One could say straight pine Sol smell :sweat_smile:
Should I be concerned Diana or another plant is going bad?

Every time I get that smell, its because there is some fermentation going on (nutrient breakdown)ā€¦this makes a lot of gas that tends to remove oxygen within the soil and smother microbes. This isnā€™t a bad thing as the soil tries to balance. Just add 1/4 tsp 3% peroxide per gallon water once a week if your worried about it as this supplies the roots with a bit additional o2 though really I wouldnā€™t worry about it atm as a lot is happening to your environment and will need a couple days to stabilize with its own air movement/currents

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Okay cool. I crashed last night right at the endšŸ˜…
I tried to stay up. Itā€™s whatever. Iā€™ll water the plants now. The tap water is insanely hard. The buildup in the humidifier was disgusting last night when I cleaned it. It looked like it was covered in shitšŸ˜… it was a calcium, iron, and idk what else buildup on what looks like a diode inside. I scraped it all off, cleaned and scrubbed it, gave it a ISO bath, and then I filled it and placed it in the room.

Either way Iā€™m actually a little concerned that the steam may be carrying nutrients in it like a foliar feed. Should I be concerned about the hard water steam?

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Watering now for GSC and Indigo. Thinking of my options on Zelda and Daisey. Dianaā€™s soil was very accepting of water. Almost too well vs the rest of the soil LoL :sweat_smile:

Hereā€™s the pics before I watered. Zelda is last to water. I found a old Halloween candy bowl the 3 gallon pots can fit in and Iā€™m watering Daisey first and then Zelda last. Diana was the only one to get a top watering. By the time I finish this post itā€™ll be time to empty the dishes on GSC and Indigo. 20 more minutes longer for Daisey and then obviously 30 minutes once Zelda is in the bowl soaking up her water.

Diana

Daisey

Zelda

GSC

Indigo

Group Shot

Hygrometer

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