Talk is cheap, life is short

Still going to be up and running it sounds like, you have backups?
I have backups for my backups haha they are just really small..

Remember good years and great years. Keep doing what your doing
And learn from it. And most important thing is to have fun with it

Stay low and look shifty

I have some backups that I neglected and am trying to get back into shape indoors before putting them out. Transplanted them from 5 gal grow bags to 20-30's of Vermifire. So far doing well, no signs of shock only growth and signs of health seeping back in.

Last time I transplanted from the same group of plants, I had bright white healthy roots, but this time this neglected batch had some very UNhealthy roots. More stress. I didn't expect to need these, so they were taken off the HPS and put on a tiny little T5 fixture for over a week, maybe close to two.

I tried vertical/side lighting with a bare 1kw HPS bulb hung vertically from the ceiling with a box fan blowing up and around it, but I guess the plants were too close... heat stressed quite a bit on the side. Back on hoods.

Got some cucumber beetles. Haven't looked terribly close but don't remember seeing any on the light dep plants, but definitely on the veg plants.



Can't seem to tell what kind of damage the larvae do and where (root zone?), after a quick search. Hoping these fuckers aren't spreading any additional diseases. Funny thing is I found them while doing a foliar of spinosad.

http://gardening.yardener.com/Solutions-For-Cucumber-Beetles said:

A new organic insecticide is now avaiable that is very effective agains the cucumber beetle and hurts no beneficial insects. It is called Spinosad.

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http://www.extension.org/pages/64274/managing-cucumber-beetles-in-organic-farming-systems said:

Some effectiveness has been reported in controlling cucumber beetles...

Click to expand...

Also found a spot on the stalk of one plant, hoping it's damage from the concrete remesh cage after strong winds ripped off a branch and not a tunneling pest of sorts. It's hard to tell.

Not sure if this damage is from the cucumber beetles or something else.



I'll add in a BTk foliar next in the rotation, although I feel terrible using Safer's caterpillar killer that smells like gasoline with petroleum distillates. Are all BTk formulations like this, or are there better alternatives? Southern AG's Thuricide also seems to contain petroleum distillates, although I haven't smelled the bottle.

Also just got the neem cake and BTi in, so I'll follow Clackamas Coot's top dress method along with the BTi (perhaps in separate applications).

Most of the new growth seems to be looking a little better, though.



Guess I'll do a little more research and maybe make a cross-post in the infirmary if I can't figure it out.

Hoping not to have diseased duds. Not so professional to be reactive than proactive, but I'm starting to remember what real work and growing is about.

I thought this was gonna be a walk in the park...

Caught a bunch more on the plants today, they didn't seem to mind the spinosad. Either that, or the ones that ate spinosad are dead/dying, and these are the unaffected new arrivals. Either way, I'm not sure I'll be able to control the entire population with new arrivals and all.

Got my neem cake info mixed up on Clackamas Coot's neem cake usage. He does not top dress, he mixes it in with the soil. I think it was someone else who mentioned top dressing.

Clackamas Coot said:

I sprinkle a couple of tablespoons when I transplant my clones into their 5 or 7 gallon pots.

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It's too late for that, so I'll be doing a neem oil soil drench.

You could just get some Dipel DF for BTK

Pro or Rank Amateur version?

i can't stand the smell of dipel... its like urine in the stairwell of parking structures on hot days

BUT... it works well. I like to mix mine with Neem...

grow nerd said:

Pro or Rank Amateur version?

Click to expand...

I prefer things that have "Pro" in the name. It's usually and indication of how well it's going to work.

Backyard Farmer said:

I prefer things that have "Pro" in the name. It's usually and indication of how well it's going to work.

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That's exactly how I equate my reasoning for parking in the Home Depot Pro space without "Pro status": I figure my day will just work out better somehow.

Thanks for checking out my thread.

It's either day 29 (day of tarp) or 36 (day put outside in May). I'm leaning towards 36.

"Purple City"s GSC from Harborside. Buds so tiny and spaced apart I wonder if I'll even break even on the soil. Reminds me of that pre-98 Bubba Kush in ways...



Dream Queen:



Blue Dream:

Sour Diesel, forgot which vendor @ Harborside:



49# of neem & karanja cake:

HillBilly1 said:

I have been running neem meal in my tea, seems to be working
Well I am going lite at 1/4 cup per 5gals 1/2 cup was what I was
told to use.. Then spray weekly with neem one week the spinosaid
The next just to keep shit at bay

What the hell happened? You lost all the Younglings

Click to expand...

whats your foliar application rate for neem? is it meal or cake?

analogcricket said:

whats your foliar application rate for neem? is it meal or cake?

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It is the meal,I don't foliar with it just mix it in the teas.. I use
whatever i can get for foliar, using Bonide now and have used a few others
the one i won't use is Dyna-Gro neem others like it but i will never use it again
and all i use it for is a weekly or every other week with Spinosiad the next time

just to keep critters at bay With the bottle mix i add a touch extra with Ivory
dish soap like 4 drops and Safebrand soap and a few drops as well

Did I get enough shit for a basic microbial tea? Still got a ton of reading to do, just skimped over some basic AACT threads; thinking I should have spent 30 more minutes reading, maybe it'd save me 2+ hours later as usual.



It's amazing what most shops in my local area try to charge for this (about $30).



Grower's Choice in Hayward had it for $13. Probably still expensive compared to farm supply shops, but cheaper than the Whole Foods blackstrap molasses. Assuming it's undiluted and similar application rates.

Why are you trying to do so much stuff to your grow? You're throwing the kitchen sink at stuff.

If I was paid to be consulting on your grow we'd be sending samples of the plants you think are "duds" to a plant pathogen lab to get tested for a multitude of possibilities ... At the same time we'd supply samples of the soil and tissue to an Analytical lab for a read out on NO3 , NH4 P205 N P K Ca Mg S B Fe Cu Zn Mo and Si

After this point I would start spending $$ on other stuff to move the levels around and use further testing to determine necessary inputs.

Right now they're on "bottled" nutes. This will be my attempt at organics, as well as soil.

When I first got some of this soil, I was told that I wouldn't need anything other than plain water for the first month or so. Tried that, even pH'd to 6.2-6.5, and all I got were massive deficiencies and falling leaves. Which were quickly fixed upon application of bottled nutes, so I'm sticking to what I know for now until I can figure things out.

My interpretation, currently, on what's going on might be that my use of chlorinated tap water killed off what microorganisms were present in the soil, and never let them re-populate. So now with the full-term plants (which appear to be going in the direction of half-way decent now), I'm trying to revive the life in the soil. I was thinking/hoping that a bacterial tea would start the process of re-population.

Please help correct the flaws in my current logic/understanding, this is all new to me.

~~~

IMO the "dud" plants that I threw out this round were truly duds that looked off almost from the first week I got them; I think I tossed 3-4 out of about 50 (although only 20 were from that vendor, 30 from a fairly reliable/quality source), which is an all-time low % duds for me from purchased clones. Of the 30-ish "quality" Dream Queen's I got from the reliable vendor, none were duds; although half of the Blue Dream's from Harborside appeared to have "dud traits". Of the other half, all but 1 in the light dep (covered) were destroyed by some strong winds on a cold night only a few days after root-bound transplant from indoors.

In my past indoor experience, I never experienced "duds" when I grew out my own moms and cut my own clones. With more and more rooms & lights, I didn't have the time or organization to keep my own moms and cut my own clones in the numbers & schedule I needed, so I started to buy clones from "public" nurseries. That's when I started to see upwards of 50% duds.

I don't doubt they're pathogen-related, but I'm not sure I'm the one who introduced those pathogens.

If I could afford you, I'd be more than happy to pay you to consult. But we're neither here nor there, so...

Thanks for your participation and input. I can take criticism w/o sugar coating, so feel welcome & free to say what needs to be said. I'm here to learn & improve (and hopefully as a by-product, share); I always pay more time & attention to my grows when I have a thread online...

Past few days I've been using 500mg of plain vitamin C tablets (ascorbic acid) per 20gal in an attempt to neutralize the chlorine in the tap water. Too little too late for the light dep's, but it's a start especially for the fresh soil (no application of bottled nutes) that I'm now finally ready to transplant into.

I'm hoping you're just busy eating dinner, and not expecting consulting pre-payment for a response. If you type out a good response, don't expect me to pay the bill. I'm poor.

Waiting impatiently...