So I made myself some CalPhos...

[calliandra]

So I made myself a wormbin - finally!
Rushed it on by ordering the worms, who arrived today in the post.

It's in the kitchen/dining space, so exactly where the food for the bin is produced and preprocessed. Optimal logistics? haha!

So the bottom part has an integrated drip space, just in case the bin ever gets too wet. I'm looking forward to seeing how humidity is in this wooden box, the first bin I had in care was plastic, I didn't like that.
Mesh is 0.6x.0.6cm, bunny fence


Bedding first: cardboard & some 5L of the woody chips & leaves from outside, wetted up with -- aloe spray haha
I had mixed it up when I opened the box the worms came in.
There a´was a stench in there of dead meat, and the worms were looking grayish
So thinking of the soothing qualities of aloe, I sprayed them with it.
But back to the bedding:

More cardboard and a few handsful of hay as starter food so to speak, but mixed in so it doesn't heat up



Then a hole in that, and in the worms, with the compost they came in.

wuaaah bad smells
more bedding over, oh eggshells, some raw and chunky for aeration, some toasted and ground.
covered with a nice layer of leaves. I'm braced for the bugs I may have brought in haha
No matter, I'm happy I'm sourcing locally, it looks yummy and it even felt kind of intuitive throwing it together (pending outcomes )


I checked the bin a bit later and found that the compost spot was heating up, nothing in the surroundings, just the compost with the worms. The icky thought I had was that maybe the worms that died (and were causing the putrid stench) were hi N and hence heating up everything. So I mixed - gently, the worms still look sickly - in some of the bedding.

Hope they'll be more comfy now!

 

[iHearAll]

So I made myself a wormbin - finally!
Rushed it on by ordering the worms, who arrived today in the post.
View attachment 3799305
It's in the kitchen/dining space, so exactly where the food for the bin is produced and preprocessed. Optimal logistics? haha!

So the bottom part has an integrated drip space, just in case the bin ever gets too wet. I'm looking forward to seeing how humidity is in this wooden box, the first bin I had in care was plastic, I didn't like that.
Mesh is 0.6x.0.6cm, bunny fence
View attachment 3799297

Bedding first: cardboard & some 5L of the woody chips & leaves from outside, wetted up with -- aloe spray haha
I had mixed it up when I opened the box the worms came in.
There a´was a stench in there of dead meat, and the worms were looking grayish
So thinking of the soothing qualities of aloe, I sprayed them with it.
But back to the bedding:
View attachment 3799298
More cardboard and a few handsful of hay as starter food so to speak, but mixed in so it doesn't heat up
View attachment 3799299
View attachment 3799300

Then a hole in that, and in the worms, with the compost they came in.
View attachment 3799301
wuaaah bad smells
more bedding over, oh eggshells, some raw and chunky for aeration, some toasted and ground.
covered with a nice layer of leaves. I'm braced for the bugs I may have brought in haha
No matter, I'm happy I'm sourcing locally, it looks yummy and it even felt kind of intuitive throwing it together (pending outcomes )
View attachment 3799303

I checked the bin a bit later and found that the compost spot was heating up, nothing in the surroundings, just the compost with the worms. The icky thought I had was that maybe the worms that died (and were causing the putrid stench) were hi N and hence heating up everything. So I mixed - gently, the worms still look sickly - in some of the bedding.
View attachment 3799304
Hope they'll be more comfy now!

ballsy move doing it indoors. but since you've started fron scratch indoors i think youll be safe. apply roach eating nematodes? i gad mine indoors for a few days but it was outside first hahah pretty stupid decision. i ended up getting bsf all over the floor for weeks. i think i told you this story a while ago.... in snail talk..

 

[iHearAll]

So I made myself a wormbin - finally!
Rushed it on by ordering the worms, who arrived today in the post.
View attachment 3799305
It's in the kitchen/dining space, so exactly where the food for the bin is produced and preprocessed. Optimal logistics? haha!

So the bottom part has an integrated drip space, just in case the bin ever gets too wet. I'm looking forward to seeing how humidity is in this wooden box, the first bin I had in care was plastic, I didn't like that.
Mesh is 0.6x.0.6cm, bunny fence
View attachment 3799297

Bedding first: cardboard & some 5L of the woody chips & leaves from outside, wetted up with -- aloe spray haha
I had mixed it up when I opened the box the worms came in.
There a´was a stench in there of dead meat, and the worms were looking grayish
So thinking of the soothing qualities of aloe, I sprayed them with it.
But back to the bedding:
View attachment 3799298
More cardboard and a few handsful of hay as starter food so to speak, but mixed in so it doesn't heat up
View attachment 3799299
View attachment 3799300

Then a hole in that, and in the worms, with the compost they came in.
View attachment 3799301
wuaaah bad smells
more bedding over, oh eggshells, some raw and chunky for aeration, some toasted and ground.
covered with a nice layer of leaves. I'm braced for the bugs I may have brought in haha
No matter, I'm happy I'm sourcing locally, it looks yummy and it even felt kind of intuitive throwing it together (pending outcomes )
View attachment 3799303

I checked the bin a bit later and found that the compost spot was heating up, nothing in the surroundings, just the compost with the worms. The icky thought I had was that maybe the worms that died (and were causing the putrid stench) were hi N and hence heating up everything. So I mixed - gently, the worms still look sickly - in some of the bedding.
View attachment 3799304
Hope they'll be more comfy now!

is the drip pan like a slide out tray or something? do worms breath out co2???? im googling that..

 

[iHearAll]

nope the breath by diffusion. crazy

 

[calliandra]

is the drip pan like a slide out tray or something? do worms breath out co2???? im googling that..

nope this one is just a black foil I had lying about glued onto wispy wood - the whole thing is a prototype actually

Yes, the drip thing should be removable, nice to clean that once in a while. Though I don't tend to have much runoff the way I tend to my worms.
I still have to think something up for air circulation too. It'll be integrated into the lid construction. Oh and there's a 2nd tier, not done yet but also not needed for another while, for migration when the bottom box is full.

Yeah bad shit can happen, always I knew the risks and did it anyway
So I brought something in? well bring it on, we're here with our digital microscopes haha!

At the moment just hoping most of the worms will recover - so once again, we begin with a life-saving operation
I'M thinking to just let them settle in for a few days and just keep an eye on moisture, the stuff I put in was all very dry and takes a while to rehydrate.

Hey cool thing about the respiration!
Cheers!

 

[calliandra]

Sour Stomper gets a makeover!

So I followed up the calPhos foliar with an aloe one the next evening (more diluted now - just the tip of a coffee spoon to 1/2L), and she got watered with tomato shoot & flower juice last night.

She's doing well, but there seemed to be a congestion in her growth - all the tips were just about same height (ah, after having a self defoliating plant I now have a self-canopizing one? haha), and it seemed she was getting in her own way all over the place.

Side shot after lights out, showing how the first tier side branches are same height as the main cola, tight up with everything else scrunched in between.
This is not strain-typical, normally the main cola would be a good 5cm above the side shoots.

OTOH I don't mind an even canopy and would actually hate it if this plant grew to over 1m as she did at TangPeng's place. But she was looking cramped.

So although originally I didn't want to interfere with her growth at all, I LSTed the bottom 4 side branches out just a bit, to open that crown up and allow easier growth.



Just a bit of apical dominance for the main cola.

She grew 3 cm over night
Before and after:
day25 evening, 22cm tall

day 26 morning, 25cm tall

And the side views:


So there we have it, from bouquet to bush overnight

 

[calliandra]

And despite all this growth, I am not so very happy with the soil life!
Took a look again yesterday before watering, and woa, it was pretty quiet in there?!

The general picture was bacterial diversity and lots of rather big testate amoebae floating about, a few dozy flagellates, an occasional bit of fungal hypha.
Here a pretty cool-looking testate amoeba:


I must've screwed up taking the samples?!
I took 3 half way between stem and the dripline.
Maybe that's just not where the activity is (well obviously lol)
But I'm not going to start digging around in the pot for the root zone just to get a nice sample haha
OTOH I do know where some roots are, right by the stem
So I may take another sample from there to compare.

 

[DonBrennon]

Sour Stomper gets a makeover!

So I followed up the calPhos foliar with an aloe one the next evening (more diluted now - just the tip of a coffee spoon to 1/2L), and she got watered with tomato shoot & flower juice last night.

She's doing well, but there seemed to be a congestion in her growth - all the tips were just about same height (ah, after having a self defoliating plant I now have a self-canopizing one? haha), and it seemed she was getting in her own way all over the place.

Side shot after lights out, showing how the first tier side branches are same height as the main cola, tight up with everything else scrunched in between.View attachment 3800333
This is not strain-typical, normally the main cola would be a good 5cm above the side shoots.

OTOH I don't mind an even canopy and would actually hate it if this plant grew to over 1m as she did at TangPeng's place. But she was looking cramped.

So although originally I didn't want to interfere with her growth at all, I LSTed the bottom 4 side branches out just a bit, to open that crown up and allow easier growth.

View attachment 3800334

Just a bit of apical dominance for the main cola.

She grew 3 cm over night
Before and after:
day25 evening, 22cm tall
View attachment 3800326
day 26 morning, 25cm tall
View attachment 3800335
And the side views:
View attachment 3800327 View attachment 3800336

So there we have it, from bouquet to bush overnight

Looks like she really appreciated the LSTing

 

[calliandra]

As for the wormbin...
Checked this morning. I have no worms

I did get a sample of the compost the worms came in before mixing it all in yesterday.
and it was a spectacular show!

At that point, the bedding-compost was at around 45°C
So this gives us a bit of a picture of whats going on when a pile starts heating up too

 

[platt]

rave party!

 

[TheStickMan]

Sour Stomper gets a makeover!

So I followed up the calPhos foliar with an aloe one the next evening (more diluted now - just the tip of a coffee spoon to 1/2L), and she got watered with tomato shoot & flower juice last night.

She's doing well, but there seemed to be a congestion in her growth - all the tips were just about same height (ah, after having a self defoliating plant I now have a self-canopizing one? haha), and it seemed she was getting in her own way all over the place.

Side shot after lights out, showing how the first tier side branches are same height as the main cola, tight up with everything else scrunched in between.View attachment 3800333
This is not strain-typical, normally the main cola would be a good 5cm above the side shoots.

OTOH I don't mind an even canopy and would actually hate it if this plant grew to over 1m as she did at TangPeng's place. But she was looking cramped.

So although originally I didn't want to interfere with her growth at all, I LSTed the bottom 4 side branches out just a bit, to open that crown up and allow easier growth.

View attachment 3800334

Just a bit of apical dominance for the main cola.

She grew 3 cm over night
Before and after:
day25 evening, 22cm tall
View attachment 3800326
day 26 morning, 25cm tall
View attachment 3800335
And the side views:
View attachment 3800327 View attachment 3800336

So there we have it, from bouquet to bush overnight

Oh wow, she's looking great! And looks very thank full for the LST!

 

[calliandra]

Oh wow, she's looking great! And looks very thank full for the LST!

Thanks for dropping by Stick!
Yeah it was just the right thing at the perfect moment!
And it was just a question of a few cm here and there too, that gave her all the freedom she needed.
You know things are going right when a minimum amount of effort leads to maximum results

Here she is, at 4 full weeks and standing 31 cm today - I've had to move the pots to the left a bit to give her more horizontal space, she was bumping into all the closet walls




It's the strain, I'm just here to support her natural growth the best I can
I just hope I don't let her down along the way!
Cheers!

 

[calliandra]

Well I keep having to go back and measure again, the way this girl is growing.
Three days later, she is now standing (wait, let me check again!) 47cm tall


She's drinking 2L a day at the mo (small wonder?) and got her second calPhos foliar yesterday.
Aloe foliar to follow tonight (I get a bit nervous when I use the calphos haha)
The closet is getting really tight for her, and I'M glad she'll have it to herself by about next week!

 

[DonBrennon]

Well I keep having to go back and measure again, the way this girl is growing.
Three days later, she is now standing (wait, let me check again!) 47cm tall
View attachment 3804469

She's drinking 2L a day at the mo (small wonder?) and got her second calPhos foliar yesterday.
Aloe foliar to follow (I get a bit nervous when I use the calphos haha)
The closet is getting really tight for her, and I'M glad she'll have it to herself by about next week!
View attachment 3804468

Looks like she's going through the stretch phase, should be seeing buds crowning soon?

 

[calliandra]

Looks like she's going through the stretch phase, should be seeing buds crowning soon?

Yep she's starting, at the rate she's going at, a matter of a day or two? lol we'll see

 

[calliandra]

And the Pineapple express, doing her frosty thing...
I really like this strain for her yummy pineapply aroma and the light and cheerful high.
And am already thinking of growing her again sometime haha

 

[TheStickMan]

Well I keep having to go back and measure again, the way this girl is growing.
Three days later, she is now standing (wait, let me check again!) 47cm tall
View attachment 3804469

She's drinking 2L a day at the mo (small wonder?) and got her second calPhos foliar yesterday.
Aloe foliar to follow tonight (I get a bit nervous when I use the calphos haha)
The closet is getting really tight for her, and I'M glad she'll have it to herself by about next week!
View attachment 3804468

Jesus, anyone would think she was in dwc with that growth rate! haha she's amazing!

 

[TheStickMan]

And the Pineapple express, doing her frosty thing...
I really like this strain for her yummy pineapply aroma and the light and cheerful high.
And am already thinking of growing her again sometime haha
View attachment 3804488
View attachment 3804489

She's beautiful, how longs she got left? I bet she smells amazing, I love pineapple! I'm gonna stick the Pineapple Chunk onto the massive list of strains I want to grow! lol

 

[calliandra]

Jesus, anyone would think she was in dwc with that growth rate! haha she's amazing!

Haha yeah she is!
But it really IS the strain - scary to think what she might do in DWC! lol

She's beautiful, how longs she got left? I bet she smells amazing, I love pineapple! I'm gonna stick the Pineapple Chunk onto the massive list of strains I want to grow! lol

Well according to official grow times (63days) she's done. Last time I chopped at 75 days, and she's at day 73 today.
So it'll be soon, depending on trichs maybe even this weekend.
My internal battle of having to chop her has already begun lol

 

[TheStickMan]

Haha yeah she is!
But it really IS the strain - scary to think what she might do in DWC! lol


Well according to official grow times (63days) she's done. Last time I chopped at 75 days, and she's at day 73 today.
So it'll be soon, depending on trichs maybe even this weekend.
My internal battle of having to chop her has already begun lol

I've always toyed with the idea of doing an auto in DWC, I've got loads of auto seeds, and one called Red Poison that I've grown before, goes a really nice dark reddy purple colour!
Looks like the Mephisto guys really are the dons of autos!