I'm so lost. Thought organics was all the same. Soil just gets better overtime. Whats this stuff called notill? I just keep the soil going
Irie The fogger nozzle has a flow-rate of 0.16 GPM according to their tech sheet which means it takes 6.x minutes to spray a single gallon. This tip really does get you 'almost' to a true mist and with the flow-rate being low you will get better coverage on both the bottom and top of the leaves, branches, stalk, etc. Complete and total coverage is key to suppressing the insect colonies. The other issue (for me anyway) with the polyurethane sprayers is that the actual nozzles are set by the manufacturer. With Chapin you have a minimum of 15 nozzles you can choose from and while these were not designed for gardeners you can take advantage of the different spray patterns. For example if you have a small personal garden it might be easier to hand-water your plants so going with a v-pattern nozzle you are able to control the width of the pattern by the height above the soil. With a sweeping motion between the stalk and the sides of your container and with 0.50 GPM nozzle you can get a complete and even hydration to the potting soil HTH
Ok, that makes perfect sense. I really soak my plants with my foliars, but I'm sure they're not covering as even. Do you cover your lights when you foliar, so you don't get spray all over your glass/bulb? I'm still outdoor currently (moving inside soon ) and I've been worried about getting spray all over my light and just curious how you guys avoid this. However with the fog sprayer it may not spray hard enough (no stream) to get everywhere like my sprayer does.
Irie If I'm spraying the plants inside the room I wait until the bulbs have completely and totally cooled down then I wrap the bulb/reflector unit with a towel and then spray. Usually I haul them to a bathtub and let it rip! Nothing gets missed. The poly sprayers are siphon-operated whereas the Chapin is a pressurized tank so you don't need to worry about flow-rates. The only thing that will limit that is the type & size of the nozzle you choose to use. The Chapin 1949 ships with a 0.50 GPM and a 1.0 GPM nozzle and the spray pattern is the v-shape. HTH
Here's what I would do and I believe it will work well for you. Do you have extra 'coot mix' from when you mixed the soil? If so I would take that and mix it with a high quality compost or vermicompost at the same rate you used in your soil mix. Preferably do this ahead of time and keep a stockpile of it ready to use whenever you need it. Topdress with this and you'll be good to go! If you're soil is heavily mulched move it aside and then replace on top of your compost/castings topdress. You can think way ahead and go a step further - after you mix the amendments (and I just use kelp/neem/crab/rock dust) with your compost add composting worms to it and let them have at it for a couple months or till whenever you need it. Lastly, the thickness of your compost topdress I would apply is directly related to the performance of your last crop. Did they stay healthy and green and yield well for you? I only put a thin layer like 1/4" to 1/2" because the previous crop is telling you the soil is already rockin and Rollin and not much is needed to keep it going another cycle. On the other side if the leaves yellowed out early and yield suffered this would tell me something is off balance and/or the soil lacks quality humus and I would apply a nice thick 2" layer of compost to boost life and help create a rich and healthy humus rich soil.
Some better shots of the garden - 5 days into flower. I'll need to raise the lights to the ceiling this cycle (9' ceiling) as several plants are going to need that headroom. LOL Heading into autopilot mode for the last stretch (thank god!). That foliar a couple days ago will be the last, most everything appears to be staked up that needs to be.....every other day waterings, done and done!
Blue, I have a question for next round. Since I'm going to be starting from regular seeds again next time, how do I go about sexing them? I will only have my 1 room to perform this. I figured I would sprout them and then plant them in solo cups. However, before they reach where they will show pre flowers I would imagine they'd need to be transplanted into the no tills. Which leaves my problem. If I sprout more seeds than I need (that way I can cull out the males or anything weak) I won't have enough space to transplant them. How would you go about doing this? Also what mix do you use in your solo cups for seedlings? Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Irie - I literally answered this question just yesterday with someone else so I'll do a little cut and paste job here In regards to transplanting, quite a bit could be situational and differ simply based on how one is setup. If I'm not running seed it's real simple, have rooted cuttings ready at harvest and transplant the little ones right into the notills they will finish in. That's all I've done for over a year. (Haven't started any seeds since Gonzo) There's a couple ways to approach starting from seed and growing in notill. 1. Start seeds in small pots and transplant into notills unsexed. Plant extra in each container so males or unwanted phenotypes can be culled - take cuts of everything you want to keep before flipping the lights. 2. Start seed in 6" pots or so (1gal or a little smaller) and wait until sexed then transplant females into the notills. This is what I prefer to do when starting seed. Pretty straightforward and easy, transplanting into the notills just requires a slightly larger hole - no biggy. 3. Another option is to grow them out in whatever size pot you want and then take cuttings from the ones you want to flower and put the cuttings into the notills, the seed plant never actually being flowered. If anyone else has some ideas please chime in! It's usually the clever ones that slip right by me!
Irie - in regards to the soil mix for seedlings - I have just one soil mix for everything, makes it easy
Hey BlueJay, Wonderful garden you have going! Found it via a link in Irons thread and been following since. In regards to your TP into the no tills, I imagine once you harvest and TP into the large pot you are still vegging to gain the root mass up before flipping am I correct?
Maybe GiMiK might chime in here on this one... I don't know that he's done it this way a lot, but I remember him telling me that on one or two occasions he has germinated from seed in solo cups under 12/12 lighting schedule. I do believe he said that the plants were sexed within three weeks, so at that point he was able to cull all of the males (or save the good ones for making seed!) and pull any slow growing or deformed ladies. Flip back to 18/6, space issues solved. I do believe that he experienced very little "transition" time being lost getting the plants to revert to veg' growth.
Thanks loneranger! Yes when freshly transplanting cuttings into the notills the lights to back to 18/6 until they're mature and the canopy is full thenights go to 12/12. For the first week or two of veg I keep the lights at 400w then they go to 600w. Also the last two weeks or so before harvest I change the lights to 11/13 with absolutely no notable difference than when kept 12/12 to the end.
Ah ok gotcha thats what I had figured with beasts like that! I was curious because these next runs I want to do notill but of course with my perpetual setup (and very limited space) I cant fit my teeny 7 gallons in the veg area . I almost thought for a moment of going from a 2 gal to the 7 and immediately to flower after a day or two of recovery but figured I cant take advantage of the pot size given that scenario
Thanks Blue... Disturbing the soil as much as adding in a gallon size pot is ok? Maybe I'll use the jute pots again and just drop them in the hole. Not disturbing the root zone I would imagine is extremely helpful. They're organic and 100% compostable. What do you think? Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
You can also put an empty gallon or whatever size container in your big final pots and get the soil up and going with a cover crop, then just pull it when ready to transplant.
BlueJay At one time were you working with sprouted fenugreek seeds (fungicide) or am I thinking of someone else? Thanks! CC