Help me dial in my Subsistence Grow!

[Nopalito]

So I've been fighting the gnats with my Karanja / Dr. Bronners spray. They're still around but definitely in lesser numbers. I've been saturating the mulch with the spray for the last day or so a couple times a day and spot killing the ones I see.

Today I released some Nematodes into the soil to eat the larvae.

Also got some of these sweet baking racks on the way that I'm going to use to raise the pots up off the ground a couple cm to get some airflow below the pot as these root trappers seem to collect moisture in the bottom.

[Tika]

Do you ever use those sticky yellow cards that do work esp cause they are yellow. Some stake in pots orhers you can hang. I prefer hanging ones.

[Beach_Town_Brit]

Good luck with the bugs, super cool grow.

[Nopalito]

Definitely need to try the sticky cards. Tried apple cider vinegar and also left out a glass of water in the tent. Weirdly, had more gnats in the water than the vinegar. Maybe I added too much soap to it, not sure. Still not an insane amount of gnats, hopefully in a week or so the nematodes will start doing their thing and hopefully the neem meal I ordered gets here post haste.

[Nopalito]

Latest progress. I installed a blumat maxi dripper in each pot and put some distribution drippers to get a more even watering.

[Tika]

you are well and beyond my head but I will say-that is one sweet image of your plants.

[Nsky]

You sound like a master gardener! Noob? I'm sure you'll rock it this time. Interesting to read appreciate you sharing. Good luck!

[Nopalito]

Thanks guys - Really I just have a couple (crappy) grows under my belt. This time I wanted to make sure I did my research extremely thoroughly since this will be my personal supply garden from here on out. Not to mention I've gotten some good personal advice on different forums that I have put into practice. Thanks for traveling with me on this grow, we'll see how good I am come harvest time!

[Nsky]

Feel ya! I'm Never. Buying. Weed. Again. When I'm more set up I'll start a journal also. I'm vegging out of a cabinet and will start posting when I get my tent. Completely devoted, will grow perpetually. Lovin your posts ty!

[Lakegal]

Good Growing Vibes to you Nopalito
sounds like you know a thing or three when it come to nutes
love to see these girls in a few months

[oldjarhead100]

hey Nopalito just read the whole journal lookin good I would how ever pull those grass shoots from the pots you dont want their roots interfering with the weed(haha kill the grass to let the weeds grow) other than that it sounds like you will rock this grow, will be watching

[Nopalito]

Latest update. The neem cake FINALLY got here. I feel like they took forever to ship that but this stuff smells insanely potent.
I top dressed with the neem, malted barley powder, and some ewc, watered it in with my Thursday nute soak. This time I mixed up some Ful-Power, Agsil, and some coconut water and gave the soil a good bath to water in the top dress.

It was like a mini Michael Bay movie when I sprinkled the neem cake on the top of the mulch, the gnats were fleeing in huge numbers to get the hell out of there like they were running from some giant monster. I think that's a good sign.

Otherwise, did some maintenance pruning, taking all the tiny stuff off the lower parts of the plants to keep the airflow nice under there.

[Beach_Town_Brit]

Bug murder is so truly satisfying

[Nopalito]

So here is the bigger of the two autos that I've been growing outdoors. Holy crap this thing is huge-- So much for ruderalis plants being scrawny. No topping or training of any kind (obviously) and I've just been having it on the same feeding that I've been doing for my indoor plants. It entered flowering maybe 4 days ago. Beauty.

[Nopalito]

Ahh! Should have put more time into researching it. I always thought that Autos will stunt their growth if you even look at them wrong. Didn't know they responded to topping. Although I also didn't know the plant would get this big.

[Beach_Town_Brit]

Check out the #automechanics grow journals on here, and green75 and LuckyAcres YouTube vids. And my little grow journal
Lots of hard proof that today's autos respond very well to hard training, topping and heavy defoliation.

[Nopalito]

Hmm I'll check them out. One of my main reasons for not going auto was because i thought they were sensitive and small. Looks like I have more to learn about that.

[Nopalito]

Update time. I think we're getting to the point where it's time to install the scrog net. I got one with 4 inch holes - I'm vacillating as to whether or not I should use that or something with smaller holes.

Anyway, some of the leaves have a weird thing happening where it looks like the tip has been snipped off but I can't see any bugs in my small tent that would be able to do that. Does that happen to fan leaves from tops that have been fimmed maybe? I don't know, doesn't seem to be spreading, it seems to be isolated to a couple leaves.

Also looking like we have some orange spots on some of the leaves. Hoping to figure out what's causing it. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with them, got a few tops and I fimmed almost all of them today.

Damn gnats are still around. this week, I put more neem meal on the mulch and sprayed with a spray of:

Karanja oil
Dr. Bronner's Soap
Agsil powder
5 drops eucalyptus oil
5 drops lavender oil


Also I foliar fed them with a little filtered water mixed with a pinch of aloe powder and a pinch of coconut powder. Maybe the salicylic acid in the aloe will encourage the freshly fimmed tips a little. donno, could be bs.

In other news the outdoor autos are rocking along. That little planter is getting crowded. I'm gonna have to do some serious training of that bagseed photo plant once I harvest these blueberries.

[Nopalito]

Quick little update. I've been manicuring the last couple days, making sure I have a good amount of colas. I was a little premature on putting the net in but it gave me an excuse to rearrange my fan / ducting so it's all external now. I raised the lights almost to the top of the tent so I can get a little stretch on them and start weaving them through the netting. The holes for sure look too big, probably will use a net with smaller holes next time. Also put a glass of water in between the pots last night and there was an insane amount of gnats floating in the water. Awesome. I also put a couple small glasses of water right on the soil, nestled in the mulch. Hopefully this attracts some more of those bastards.

Soil is drying out a little which is good. I might lay off the top watering this Sunday (my next feeding day) and just foliar feed. The blumats are working great as of now. The blumat maxi with the distribution drippers really did make a difference. I think I stunted the left plant because of how the smaller carrots were trying to keep the huge pots hydrated.

Also lifted the mulch and saw some happy looking worms. Hell yea! I was wondering if they were doing ok since I hadn't seen any since I put them in.

[Nopalito]

SO my timer for my lights has thrown me for a loop. This whole time I thought it was running 18-6 and last night around 1:45 am I noticed the lights were still on. The light controller is brand new and I've never used it before. What a bummer, kind of throws a monkey wrench in my confidence. I'm definitely going to have to figure out what the deal is before I flip to 12/12.

[OzBud]

What light controller you got?

[Marley]

Same thing happened to me with a digital timer. I thought it was on 18/6 and turns out it was 24/0. I swapped them out for mechanical timers.

[Nopalito]

I have this one:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Woods-7-Day-Digital-Outdoor-Heavy-Duty-Timer-2-Outlet-Black-50015/203638981?gclid=CL_f5_eMydQCFQiRfgody58GUA&gclsrc=aw.ds

It's way too complicated. I think I'm also going to get a mechanical timer.