[heady blunts]

hi friends, it's been a while, but I'm legal again! proudly in compliance with all medical cannabis laws in the great state of Maine! that means I can share my garden with you fine folks without giving myself a heart attack! hurray!

I look forward to friendly conversations that respect my sensitive queer nature and engage my nerdy brain.

I also prefer respectful language when referring to the lovely ladies so i would greatly appreciate if we could avoid violent sexual metaphors in here I do swear like a sailor so feel free to let the f'bombs fuckin fly

my new garden is a 10' x 10' flower room with 6 gavita DE fixtures tuned down to 600 watts. recommended canopy distance at 600w is 2ft min, which is about all we can afford with these basement ceilings. rafters bottom out around 7' from the floor, and the ceiling height is 7'8", so we tucked the gavitas' perpendicular ballasts up into that space to squeeze in every inch we could. all the lamps in the flower room are controlled by a the el-2 computer, which is really fucking cool so far.

I've got this new can q-max 10" fan I really love so far. being polite about sound and odor was a top priority so it was worth the hefty price tag in our situation. that's hooked up to a can 125 hanging from the rafters. at 1019 cfm I'm exchanging air roughly 4 times every three minutes. intake is passive through four 12" x 24" home made light traps (shouts to scrubninja and my micro roots!) with 3m allergen filters.

veg is 4' x 12' lit by two 400w MH lamps and an 8 bulb 4' t5 in the middle. total watts 1200+. 8" vortex turned down a bit.

we've also got a little dad room for future pollen chucking adventures. they have to make due with a 4 bulb 2' t5.

those three all connect to a central room that functions as a lung. all credit goes to DHF for sharing his designs with the community. thanks Fred!

we could totally use a 4 ton mini split down here but we're gonna try to eek by with a couple inherited portables until we have some more moolah to invest. as soon as autumn rolls around I'll be able to port cool air in from outside.

I try to give everyone blumats. hand watering was always a weak point for me, although I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it! anyway blumats still do a better job than me and I love the way they mesh perfectly with the whole living soil situation. I've got a 45 gallon tote as my reservoir sitting 4'8" off the ground on a very sturdy industrial steel shelf. this res feeds both the flower and veg rooms.

dead res. no aeration! straight tap! gasp!

I did vents and loops with the blumats. I'm not expecting any air bubbles or pressure imbalances. I got some great red silicone 8mm feed line that was much nicer to work with than that stiff black stuff they give you in the kits. also got a huge spool of the 3 mm line so I could give all the pots long drip lines and they would have lots of mobility with the blumats in place.

the dads get my old 5 gallon bucket res of their own. this may look like overkill but I fucking hated hand watering those bonsai motherfuckers 2x a day.

the new soil mix is wicked lobstah in true Maine fashion. I played around with a few mix ideas but what you see here is what we finally ended up using based on availability and economy. I try to use as many locally sourced amendments as possible because it makes sense ethically, financially, and practically.

the most important input when building soil is quality humus. we in the north east are blessed with coast of Maine which is a great company that makes really nice, consistent products. for our purposes their lobster compost is ideal. they use lobster shells, a waste product of local industry, to enrich the compost with chitin, promoting plant health and pest and disease resistance. lots of calcium in them as well! I found another local compost that used crustacean shells plus cow manure. I like a bit of cow manure based compost in the mix to improve water holding capacity and diversify the biology.

my back has been super fucked up for the past couple years so nowadays I forego the pumice I used to use for perlite because it is way lighter. I still use and love biochar. I've put more than ever in this mix, and the plants are loving it so far! also added some buckwheat hulls to keep it interesting.

I've been really into tons of rock dust lately. we used granite and pragmatic basalt mined from the pioneer valley. that's cool cause I lived there for 7 crazy and beautiful years in the 00's, so im feeling the magic EXTRA. also some granulated azomite because diversity.

the one thing I had to fold on was the liming agent. I really wanted to use oolithic aragonite sand mined in the Bahamas. I did all this research I was so psyched on it! but the distributor was out when I needed it of course. so we used down to earth oyster shell shipped all the way from San Fran. tisk tisk, I know. oh, and the neem I guess...that's not local. although I heard there is a neem farm in Florida so I need to check that out before the next soil building session.

okay get this: after a bunch of research and talking to some smart people I respect, i decided not to add any specific phosphorous amendments. no guano, no bone meal, no fish bone, nada! you can all follow along and we'll see whether my mycorrhizal populations can make efficient use of what's available or if I shot myself in the foot and ruined everything!

heady's wicked lobstah mix

makes 2 yards

3 bales of peat fluffed and hydrated with aloe or yucca (one 3.8 cuft compressed bale =~6 cuft decompressed)
9 bags of coast of maine lobster compost (1 cuft each)
6 bags of benson farms "surf & turf" compost (1 cuft each)
1 bag chunky perlite (4 cuft)
1 bag super coarse perlite (4 cuft)
2 bags buckwheat hulls (2 cuft each)
4 bags royal oak lump charcoal smashed and precharged with neptune's fish and seaweed (17# each)

50 cups oyster shell meal
1 bag granite dust (50#)
1 bag "brixblend" paramagnetic basalt dust (50#)
1 bag "richmix" mineralized biochar (25#) (not necessary but I had it)
1 bag granulated azomite (44#)

1 bag neem seed meal (20#)
1 bag neptune's harvest crab shells (50#)
1 bag maine harvested kelp (50#)

we are about ten days into flower with eight plants. I'll be throwing in another eight in about three weeks to try and get a staggered harvest schedule happening. never having more than 16 plants flowering at any time has us way below our plant limit---we're keeping this all strictly compliant.

flowering in 10 gallon geo pots with handles. two blumats per. velcro cable ties for easy training with the fabric containers.

it's gonna be several weeks before things get really interesting, but I'll try to get some pics up over the next few days to whet your appetites!

[Coba]

way to go Heady! there should be some good things to see going on in here. I'm subscribed.

[Weird]

tagged

[Mikell]

Sounds like a great start

[2dialed]

man that's one heck of lot of charcoal for 2 yards.... 4 x 17 =68lb + 25lb of biochar. seems like allotta amendments for only 3 bales of peat with all those full sacks going in heady

[Bmac1]

Pulling up a seat.

[trichosaurus]

Sounds like a winner. Definitely can respect the fact that you are using that many local sources. Interested to see how it all works out for you.

[stoned-trout]

the real maine adventure awaits outside...yeehaw...kick ass bro...looks like a good soil mix...I have eaten a lot of maine lobsters..we used to toss shells on roof and let sun dry then crush up latr...yeehaw

[hicksticky]

subbed..... liking the mix for sure.
Use the lobstah compost myself...... wicked good stuff.
Good luck and karma

[Bueno Time]

10x10 flower room, you've come some way from your 400w cabinet. Should be a fun show with that much room to play in.