Olderfart's Dive Down the Living Soil Rabbit Hole

[Ryno_nuggs]

A followup on the sand option. I think it is a waste of time, at least with the sand that I used. The sand layer on my SSSC pot stayed wet throughout, so it did not accomplish the objective or producing an upper dry zone unfavorable to gnats. Maybe the moist sand is less useful to the little buggers, but it accomplished nothing useful in my grow. I only applied it to the one pot, and all the other pots did just as well as the sanded one. I will not be bothering with sand again. If preventing the adults from getting at the soil is useful, I think it may be more easily accomplished with panty hose or similar barriers.

Good luck with it @CannabisMingus.

I never had any gnats until I got my autopots and coco. My medium stayed too moist on the top. I did have luck with some mosquitoe bits as a drench. Next round I soaked my coco with boiling water, with cal mag in it and ph of coarse, and that seems to have done the trick. That is less than ideal though in soil as it kills everything.

That CBD looks fire!!

 

[CannabisMingus]

If preventing the adults from getting at the soil is useful, I think it may be more easily accomplished with panty hose or similar barriers.

Funny you should say that. I have been using jute burlap (2-3 layers) on my soil pots for the last few weeks. It seems to be keeping gnats away and is also fairly effective in keeping the soil from drying out rapidly. Seems to be a nice solution, but it's winter and I don't have many gnats right now to begin with, so we'll see.

 

[Olderfart]

Greetings peeps. It seems that I will not need any more 24 Carat seeds for a while:
View attachment 1414758

There are still a few rejects in the pile, but >300 first class seeds works for me. These are from one branch off the slightly larger, slightly more Indica pheno. There is likely a larger pile pending from the pollenated branch of the smaller 24C pheno. And then I have the Fugue State run, and the 24C x Pink Kush cross in the solo grow. Another win for CS methinks.

Happy seeding peeps.

And, as expected, the branch on the second 24 Carat girl was more productive:

At ~1.6 grams per 100, I make this as more than ~600 seeds. That would make ~1000 total for my two 24 Carat girls, not bad for two branches. Mephisto Fugue State in due course, but it will be a smaller pile methinks. Not that I need 1000 seeds of anything.

Happy seeding once again peeps.

 

[Olderfart]

Funny you should say that. I have been using jute burlap (2-3 layers) on my soil pots for the last few weeks. It seems to be keeping gnats away and is also fairly effective in keeping the soil from drying out rapidly. Seems to be a nice solution, but it's winter and I don't have many gnats right now to begin with, so we'll see.


View attachment 1415021

Those plants are happy. If it ain't broke...

 

[Bob's Auto's]

A followup on the sand option. I think it is a waste of time, at least with the sand that I used. The sand layer on my SSSC pot stayed wet throughout, so it did not accomplish the objective or producing an upper dry zone unfavorable to gnats. Maybe the moist sand is less useful to the little buggers, but it accomplished nothing useful in my grow. I only applied it to the one pot, and all the other pots did just as well as the sanded one. I will not be bothering with sand again. If preventing the adults from getting at the soil is useful, I think it may be more easily accomplished with panty hose or similar barriers.

Good luck with it @CannabisMingus.

What if you do a layer of sand and on top of that a layer diatomaceous earth. Even if that get's wet it will still do it's damage to the infants bodies.

And, as expected, the branch on the second 24 Carat girl was more productive:View attachment 1415081
At ~1.6 grams per 100, I make this as more than ~600 seeds. That would make ~1000 total for my two 24 Carat girls, not bad for two branches. Mephisto Fugue State in due course, but it will be a smaller pile methinks. Not that I need 1000 seeds of anything.

Happy seeding once again peeps.

That's one mean harvest you got there mate! More then enough for a lifetime's supply of all the 24 Carat you'll ever need

 

[Olderfart]

What if you do a layer of sand and on top of that a layer diatomaceous earth. Even if that get's wet it will still do it's damage to the infants bodies.



That's one mean harvest you got there mate! More then enough for a lifetime's supply of all the 24 Carat you'll ever need

I don't know about the DE on top, if it is wet, it is buggered for bug tox, or at least that's my understanding. The larvae are easily dealt with by using Mossy Dunks, so that is pretty much covered. Next time round, I will likely just go with a combination of top watering Mossy Dunks and lots of stickies. I will think about additional barriers for the adults, most likely good ol' panty hose.

As to the harvest, I am definitely well supplied. Even as they age, I'll just germinate more to find a few good ones. Definitely a lifetime supply for this old bugger.

 

[Olderfart]

I never had any gnats until I got my autopots and coco. My medium stayed too moist on the top. I did have luck with some mosquitoe bits as a drench. Next round I soaked my coco with boiling water, with cal mag in it and ph of coarse, and that seems to have done the trick. That is less than ideal though in soil as it kills everything.

That CBD looks fire!!

The only gnats I have had have been in my two soil grows. My one coco grow (not counting the current solos) was gnat free. I might have just been lucky with the first coco/autopot grow. I may do a couple top watered coco girls next grow, so I'll get to give the little buggers another chance at my coco.

As to boiling the coco, it is just a hydroponic medium, so no biggie. Starting sterile is unlikely to hurt, and if you want bennies in there, you may get more by adding the good ones after sterilizing it. More than one way to do it, and most of them can work.

 

[Ryno_nuggs]

The only gnats I have had have been in my two soil grows. My one coco grow (not counting the current solos) was gnat free. I might have just been lucky with the first coco/autopot grow. I may do a couple top watered coco girls next grow, so I'll get to give the little buggers another chance at my coco.

As to boiling the coco, it is just a hydroponic medium, so no biggie. Starting sterile is unlikely to hurt, and if you want bennies in there, you may get more by adding the good ones after sterilizing it. More than one way to do it, and most of them can work.

Yep yep, that's why I was willing to pour boiling water on coco. It is inert and carries zero microbes or beneficials, and pretty much kills all bacteria and fungi, which we want in soil.

Adding bennies to a hydro or coco is a whole different topic!

You know, one alternative I have read to putting sand on the topsoil to prevent gnats was, to put about an inch of perlite on top. I haven't tried it, but I can see how that would keep the top layer dryer than just sand. It might have even said to put a layer of sand over the perlite. Can't remember.

 

[Olderfart]

Yep yep, that's why I was willing to pour boiling water on coco. It is inert and carries zero microbes or beneficials, and pretty much kills all bacteria and fungi, which we want in soil.

Adding bennies to a hydro or coco is a whole different topic!

You know, one alternative I have read to putting sand on the topsoil to prevent gnats was, to put about an inch of perlite on top. I haven't tried it, but I can see how that would keep the top layer dryer than just sand. It might have even said to put a layer of sand over the perlite. Can't remember.

Yeah, the bennies in coco is another topic. I expect that they might help a tiny bit, but coco is not soil, and it can't be made into soil any time soon. Too many grows suffer from confusion between the two, in my humble. A coco grow is, at least in top watered configurations, in essence a drain to waste hydroponic grow, with plants supported physically by the coco medium, and the nutes delivered to roots via wicking through the (almost) inert coco. Other than the need to deal with the weird Cation Exchange Capacity of coco, it might as well be just about any other inert stuff to provide physical support and nute wicking.

I thought about perlite to make a dry barrier, but given that it is sometimes used for wicking beds, I figured it might also wick too much. At this point, I am thinking that a mesh barrier might be the best way to keep the adults out of the medium, and Mossy Dunks the best way to kill the larvae. Absent changing my mind, those will be my tools next time around.

Good luck with your grow, and thanks for checking in.

 

[Olderfart]

And for the finishing touch, the Mephisto Fugue State seeds:

A more modest harvest at ~220 seeds, but still quite nice. I was not expecting this many from the MFS, but it turns out that seeded bud is not as apparent on this strain, at least not to my noob eye. I was pleasantly surprised once I started digging. This was a smaller branch than the 24C branches, otherwise it would have been comparable. @Kyote, given our recent, you might be interested in this one.

The last seed result for this winter's effort will be from the 24C X PK cross in the solo grow, which should be ready in three or four weeks and will be reported in the solo thread.

All told, I certainly made more than a thousand seeds this grow, with more to come from the solo grow. So far, I am batting 100% with CS on three different strains of pollen plants, Dinamed Auto CBD Kush, Mephisto Fugue State, and Mephisto 24 Carat, and successful pollenation of five strains including those with the pollen collected. Definitely works for this stoner.
Happy seeding peeps.