Mist more often or put plastic cover over to help retain moisture ..... When I did open pots, I misted 3-4-5 times a day - I was constantly misting the mulch but be careful and don’t mist the plant or stem just the mulch ..... And I normally am running 4-5 fans in my tent so plenty of air movement, I’m a strong believer in constant air movement so mulch drying can be an issue ..... Another tip is to bring straw into play soaking wet - add some rock dust and / or finely ground egg shells, make sure the shells are mechanically ground fine and then run thru a screen to further chop them down - egg shells and rock dust help the worms digest their food - so important to add to mulch, BEFORE you add mulch to pot, good luck!
Lots of updates. I used to keep this site open all day, but in it's current state it trashes the browser. Too bad.
I'm starting to get the mulch game. Now that I have ~50/50 mix of straw (which I chopped up post application) and chopped up cover crop, it stays moist at the bottom. So far I've been chopping up all greenage and finger mixing it in to get it primed. From here on out it will be chop and drop for a blanket. Not sure how much grit I have in there, maybe I'll add a little play sand to the mix for the worms.
Applied 2nd round of nematodes. My gnat pressure is still very low. Less than a dozen a week so far. Had a little scare so I did a full on scout of everything, everything -- including my soil bin, compost. Found some mites, but after some research -- they are good guy soil mites. They are new, so perhaps from the lobster compost. Little red dudes that move super fast. Mild panic, because they looked spider..ish. But there were none on the plant, only the soil. So... good.
After the scout, I think I found out where the gnats are coming from. It's not the soil -- didn't see anything moving in there except the couple of worms that I dopped in there for yucks sake. The bagged compost. Either the Alaskan Forest stuff, or the Detroit Nutrient EWC. I still have a bit left, I'll deal with it. If I nuke it, it kills the whole purpose of compost.
I slapped a BTI dunk right into the autopot res. BTI all the time probably is what is keeping the gnats very, very low.
Stopped feeding about 2 weeks ago, I have PLENTY of nitrogen -- lol. Still got a bit of curl, but they are growin good. Lesson learned in autopots. Don't top feed too much the youngens. It blows out the bottom. haha. I really dig the autopots, I put a float valve on the res + BTI dunk and I don't even think about water anymore. It just happens.
The non-cannabis plants are doing great. Flowers coming along. Herbs are just starting to pop. It's kind of surprising how fast MJ grows relative to the other things in the tent. 3 weeks to germ on some. Flowers grow slooooooooooow comparatively.
I've been listening to KNF podcasts lately. Think I might do some IMO in the state forests around here (and perhaps my yard as well). Wondering if I could just add a few drops of FPJ to the autopot base. Still learning a ton.
For the 2 pots where my germ failed, I direct planted right into the pot. Got two little seedlings trucking along. Finally got a Man Bear Alien Pig to take. 1 for 5 on those suckers. Hope it's good. Otherwise I have 2 mango smiles, and everything else is onesies in various stages and sizes.
Next nutrient might be this weekend. Just bokashi on the mulch. That should help things along and the worms apparently love that shit. I have some grokashi as well, perhaps a little deeper into flower.
My tentative reamend plant will be: handfull of bokashi, some BAS top dress, layer of compost, fresh mulch and cover for a week or two. Then I'll direct plant next to old one.
Fun times. Y'all stay safe in the apocalypse.
