Best part is when you get bored and make more plants to neglect
Lmfao yall are cracking me up! Who is gonna be water boy and put the fire out?
TopShelf said he is doing well 
Spending time with his loved ones
Will be back next week
I said you guys love him and want him back btw
He is on a break
Yes, he needed to unplug a bit.
He was getting a lot of messages from people hitting him up for this or that. He already had a lot going on battling thrips and found it very stressful.
No one person caused that or anything, just how stuff adds up can be a lot of pressure and stress you know?
i am good about plant count so i only do that before my run and keep the best 15 usually out of 20 haha. but man when i get lazy and neglect i do it well !
Are we talking about the same person?
Oh sorry. Brain fart, you meant weednerd!
My bad hahaha @Hemlock
For me when I get caught up i always want more to doā¦ problem is I fall behind then, lol
thrips are such a nuisance.
They have pretty much found a way to infest the processing plants that produce the peat bales.
I get them with every bale of sunshine mix 4 for the last few years now.
I did a test recently where I isolated some plants , transplanted them with a fresh bale and while the main garden had no thrips, the isolated transplants showed signs of thrips within the first week of opening that bale. I alternate now with alcohol/h202 sprays and Monetereyās Garden Spray with Spinosad. Itās the one thing that really knocks them out but I donāt use it after the flip. Other availlable sprays donāt seem to affect them much, same with diatomaceous earth. I have been using various things to keep up my ipm so that the aphids canāt return but those fucking thrips survive it. They donāt survive the Spinosad.
i have not been visited by the scourge in quite a while now https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FKw5IiCy4rU what goes in stays in what is outside stays outside
I donāt know how big a bale is but on a smaller scale we pour boiling water through any medium that comes to our home. We slacked off on that shit this year cuz it can be a little time consuming but we also had a crazy infestation of fungus gnat bastards in all of our starts fresh from the store.
Iāve had thrips a couple times. Put Rove Beetles in the tent. That was all it took. 1st time it got nasty, but the beetles handled it. 2nd time I didnāt let them get bad, trying 14 different sprays 1st. . Went straight to the RBs. They work on spider mites too. They arenāt cheap, but I like the idea of not using anything harsher than soap based products.
In another few weeks Iāll let loose a few bags of Lady Bugs. Usually have a Praying Mantis or 2 show up.
Hey @SHSC-1 , is there a way to sterilize the peat before you use it? I bet a walk in freezer would do it. Any buddies own a restaurant? Heat might work. Spread it out under a black tarp will cook it. Just thinking.
Iām pretty sure the thirp eggs can survive freezing temps but Iām not 100% on that. I know they donāt like high heat or humidity.
Could probably put the whe bales under black tarps and put some pots of water under and kill them.
Rove beetles are expensive but if you plan it out, you only have to buy them once. They are VERY easy to maintain a āfarmā of. After getting them setup in their bin, you only need oatmeal and water to feed them. If someone needed them in US, and are within this threads group, I would consider sending a good amount for the cost of shipping. Not during summer though, they simply wont live in the heat.
@crownpoodle , when i start seeds and clones I bake the sunshine mix in the oven to sterilize it.
Gotta wet it out first, stick a temp probe in there (kitchen kind) and seal it up good with foil and when the internal temp hits 180F , it gets another 1/2 hour and itās sterile.
Baking a whole bale would take some serious time LOLā¦ would have to devise an outdoor cooker/oven. Thing isā¦ these bales are supposed to be sterilized in the packaging process ā¦ go figure.
It probably is, I bet they are getting them at the warehouse they sit in after or the store