The capabilities of a simple soil (Outdoor edition)

[kratos015]

Up here my soil is black. Goes about 2’ deep then straight clay gravel. Roots don’t seam to go into the clay they just follow along the line between them. Adding gypsum is common to help break up the clay. Not sure how that works.

Black? As in, the top 2ft of your soil is compost? Amazing, sounds like Washington or something. Funny, here in hardware stores we have bales of organic matter. I hear in Washington, its the opposite, instead of hardware stores having bales of organic matter they have bags of sand.

I have something called a "garden claw" that I used to break up all that clay in my dirt. In some cases, it'd be impossible for me to dig holes without it.

Be nice if you could find some sand or something, mix it with some of the clay and the black soil you've got. But damn, digging 2ft deep is just a royal pain in the ass regardless of what it is. Fuck that lol

Ever experiment with growing in your native dirt after you've added some aeration/drainage to it?

Thanks for stopping in my man.

 

[myke]

Black? As in, the top 2ft of your soil is compost? Amazing, sounds like Washington or something. Funny, here in hardware stores we have bales of organic matter. I hear in Washington, its the opposite, instead of hardware stores having bales of organic matter they have bags of sand.

I have something called a "garden claw" that I used to break up all that clay in my dirt. In some cases, it'd be impossible for me to dig holes without it.

Be nice if you could find some sand or something, mix it with some of the clay and the black soil you've got. But damn, digging 2ft deep is just a royal pain in the ass regardless of what it is. Fuck that lol

Ever experiment with growing in your native dirt after you've added some aeration/drainage to it?

Thanks for stopping in my man.

No. I’ve only added organic things like compost leaves grass etc. I added a good amount of alfalfa pellets before the ground froze. Most veggies seem to grow fine but adding in some aeration maybe might help. I know some people don’t like to add it as it dries too quickly then.
can’t really say it’s native as I’m in a city so when the house was built 55 yrs ago I assume my topsoil is from my area. We call it black soil just from the color. No sand or clay unless you dig down that far and it mixes.

 

[myke]

Interesting just had a quick read about my native soil. They call it black chernozem. Will have to read up on it.

 

[kratos015]

Interesting just had a quick read about my native soil. They call it black chernozem. Will have to read up on it.

Woah, that's a trip. Would love to know whatever you find out about it, please feel free to post any interesting links/articles you may find about it here. Never heard of that term before, fascinated to learn more about it.

I'd be even more curious to see the results of adding a drainage/aeration amendment to your native soil, and seeing what it is capable of producing.








Like I was pointing out earlier in this thread though, things are all dependent on one's environment and region, and not all of us will take the same route to self-sufficiency. Its going to be entirely dependent on what's available to us individually, what we're working with, and what our environment is like.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I've personally been absolutely humbled by how little I have to buy now just with what I have in my own back yard. And I live in the desert!

 

[JimmyJackCorn]

Woah, that's a trip. Would love to know whatever you find out about it, please feel free to post any interesting links/articles you may find about it here. Never heard of that term before, fascinated to learn more about it.

I'd be even more curious to see the results of adding a drainage/aeration amendment to your native soil, and seeing what it is capable of producing.








Like I was pointing out earlier in this thread though, things are all dependent on one's environment and region, and not all of us will take the same route to self-sufficiency. Its going to be entirely dependent on what's available to us individually, what we're working with, and what our environment is like.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I've personally been absolutely humbled by how little I have to buy now just with what I have in my own back yard. And I live in the desert!

I do very similar work (holes in the garden like pots, locally source for materials, recycle, spend little money). I like to see the changes your soil undergoes!

I enjoy seeing what it's like to use such an approach in a desert climate. Considering the value of this thread to general knowledge, I'm tempted to post when I grow my garden again next year!

 

[kratos015]

I do very similar work (holes in the garden like pots, locally source for materials, recycle, spend little money). I like to see the changes your soil undergoes!

I enjoy seeing what it's like to use such an approach in a desert climate. Considering the value of this thread to general knowledge, I'm tempted to post when I grow my garden again next year!

That would be dope man, I've always encouraged that people post journals not just for personal notes, but you may end up helping somebody out. I know we've all been here; googling about some issue we're having with our garden, and we stumble across some post/journal someone made with the exact same problem and solutions to it.




This is why I stress one's specific climate/environment so much. All to easy to read guides/recipes and think you're doing something wrong, but the thing to realize is people are often doing what works for their specific environment. Tons of good general knowledge out there, but after a while, it takes effort on our part to learn about our specific growing environments and how we can make the best of it. The answer to that will be different for every grower.

I'll never have to deal with snow, or below freezing temps (aside from the occasional few hours on a cold winter night). Conversely, the people dealing with snow will never have to deal with the heat issues I have. Everyone has different native dirt, different available resources, and different environments. After a while, one should be confident in exploring things themselves. They'll learn more than any guide can possibly teach, and the knowledge you gain will be for your specific environment.

 

[kratos015]

lol typed this up last night, got caught up and just now getting back to it.

Nothing too exciting to report on in terms of changes here. Still waiting for things to grow, fill out, and ripen.

Newest transplants are doing great, and everything on the medical side of the grow is going just as expected. Yet another waiting game, nothing for me to really do here aside from keep things moist.




The dill here seems to love the wood chips.



I actually planted dill seeds on these wood chips months ago when I first started laying wood chips down. I planted a mix of dill and cilantro seeds in around July, nothing really happened with them at the time. Now, dill and cilantro seem to be sprouting all over the place.

This pile here is where the dill seems to be doing the best, it actually started growing in the native dirt believe it or not. My waterings must have moved some of the seeds off of the wood chips and onto the native dirt. They grew, so I put some chips under them to help retain some water, and they seem to be blowing up.

Attempting to get random herbs/spices to grow in various places for companion plants, so that I don't need to use sprays to deal with bugs anymore.



Looking a lot more empty and manageable here. 9 of the plants pictured above will end up in the ground by December 1st, I'm hoping. Depends on how big they get. The holes aren't going anywhere, I can wait if I have to, but 1st of Dec looks like a good date.



New generation of plants for the next grow are ready to go, just need to wait for growth. 2 plants in solo cups are Purple Wreck, other seedlings in solo cups are the various strains I listed in a prior post ("Cheese", White Widow, LA Confidential, Holy Grail Kush, and Banana Dance), going to see how they grow in the next few months. And finally, in the dome, are multiple Maltezers and Purple Wreck clones.

Now that I'm finally planting some plants in the ground, I have the space to grow new strains/plants for the next cycle.

Always look forward, that way you're always one step ahead. Everything flows so simply for me because every grow I go through was planned last season, so things tend to come together fairly quickly.




Next project of mine, clearing out this crap, removing that spiky bush, and getting the area flattened out a bit so I can have this entire space ready by February to prep for spring.

Soil is working so well, its left me with very little to do lol.

In the process of getting more seedlings going, that way I've got some sizeable plants to fill up more space in my yard.

Thanks for stopping in!

 

[m4s73r]

I just want to say it makes me moist seeing all that soil on the floor in the tent. I get so much crap on FB about my tents that have soil on the floor. Poeple freaking out saying im gross and dont clean my tents. Thank you. LOL.

 

[kratos015]

I just want to say it makes me moist seeing all that soil on the floor in the tent. I get so much crap on FB about my tents that have soil on the floor. Poeple freaking out saying im gross and dont clean my tents. Thank you. LOL.

For real. Isn't it funny how the people with the biggest mouths are usually just some inexperienced dude with no projects going themselves.

"Your entire grow is textbook, and way better than anything I've ever done, but let me find one little 'mistake' to critique so I feel better about how little I'm doing in my own life."

Some people, man. haha.

I mean, the "mess" just kind of comes with the territory. I question the validity of someone's experience if they think they can keep soil/dirt off the floor of the tent.

I deep cleaned and sanitized the entire tent when I set it up in August. Didn't even take a month for soil to get everywhere. I'm in and out of that tent constantly throughout the day. If it isn't soil on the floor, its mud being dragged in from outside. I sanitize the room every 3 months or so when its empty. I feel that if one has to sanitize more than that, then perhaps there are other factors at play that need to be addressed.

 

[kratos015]

Couple new projects coming along. One step at a time. I work slow, and am a big advocate of "baby steps". Ensures one is always motivated, yet never overwhelmed.

Silly as this sounds, never thought to grow in my front yard. Silly right? All this empty space doing nothing, perfect time to prepare this area for spring (well, mid-February here lol).



Someone clearly loved the succulents here prior to my landlord living here (I moved into this place when they left). Those large saguaro cacti are actually over 100 years old. Gotta wonder what the soil web on the roots of those cacti look like after more than a century.

Lost some aloe this year, you can see some of it in the compost pile on the right. Normally, rains here are enough to water the succulents here, and I never have to water at all. Lived at this property for near 5 years now, never had to water these. But this year there just wasn't enough rain, and I lost some of the aloe. Sad, but great excuse to make a pile of compost out of aloe ;p

You can see my tomato "experiments" in the photo as well. I planted them directly in the native dirt, no fancy pre-made soil or nothing, just pure native dirt. Stoked to see how they end up turning out come spring.



Hit them with some wood chips, help retain some of the water/moisture and provide organic matter. Even if these tomatoes don't produce any fruit, I can still turn the plant into compost or fermented ferts. And, regardless of all of that, the tomato plants will work the soil for me. So, even if these plants don't produce anything for me, they'll still be putting in a tremendous amount of work for me.

With new organic soil set ups, its good to just grow whatever the fuck you can. Get roots in that soil ASAP. Who cares if the plants produce nothing for you, they still produce something, but in the form of soil. Nothing is waste here, everything is repurposed.





Good amount of free space I've made up from the looks of it. The trick here will be that I can't plant anything too close to the succulents. Don't want to risk overwatering the aloe or the cacti, so I'll certainly be mindful of that when planting out here.

Silly as this sounds, I've not paid much attention to the front of my yard until recently. Its just kind of done its own thing without any involvement on my part for a little over 5 years now. But, that fact fascinates me. How deep and complex are the root systems and soil webs of some of these plants? How long have they been alive? How many microbes below have existed for longer than my own parents have in this world? Truly fascinating.

As with anything else I have going on, I'm just along for the ride, and clearing space up and sowing seeds to see what happens.

 

[kratos015]

Big reason I'm so stoked with living soil growing is how simple things get once you do the initial start up work. My back is deteriorating, sciatica issues. Haven't been working since June, when I started this garden in the first place. Donations for meds has been keeping me going, but I'm looking into produce now mostly. I figure, if I'm going to have my own private produce section in my own back yard, why not take some of that produce to my local farmers market?

Truth be told, with how saturated the marijuana market is, produce is the big money maker here. I make a very modest living, cost me <$1.5k/mo to live for me and my family. Medical donations have proven to be a huge boon, but produce? Huge deal. Especially with the shortages we've been seeing in stores lately (or, perhaps, just my region).

I figure, I only have to work so I can eat and pay the bills, right? But what if, by gardening with such low margins, I could not only feed myself for near free (and eventually, purely free), but can make a few side bucks on top of it?

The garden helps me still retain feelings of usefulness. Despite my back deteriorating, I can make baby steps toward being so self sufficient that back issues are no longer a hindrance.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

 

[kratos015]

Going to continue to be a waiting game until January-February it looks like, which works out just fine for me. Too busy with life to even post, let alone do anything else. Case in point, all the photos I'm posting now were from 4 days ago!

First batch of medical plants should be ready around mid-January, and by then I should finally have some ripe tomatoes and peppers to pick!



Tomato clone came back to life! Looked like crap for a week, but now its looking much better. Should be a decent sized plant by the time February hits and cold weather is over. This cutting came from my volunteer Black Cherry plant, figured if the volunteer was kicking so much ass, why not clone it and rewards it's efforts for volunteering for me?

Love those little radish sprouts, they're great to munch on. Pretty much just a microgreen with a nice radish flavor to it; goes great on chicken salad sandwiches. Going to be leaving these alone, hoping they'll go to seed and completely seed my entire yard. If I have to buy more seeds, I will, but I'm trying to avoid that.



My best performing pepper plants out of the entire bunch. These are Sugar Rush Peach peppers, supposed to have a smokey peach flavor to them, and have heat that is between that of a Serrano and Habanero pepper. Should make for some interesting sauces and rubs.

Catch with these peppers though, apparently they take between 90-120 days just to ripen to the orange color! Long ass time, so hopefully they're worth the wait.

With everything I've been growing here, my main goal has been collecting seeds. Pack of seeds only had 10 seeds in it, but look at how many seeds I'll be getting out of just this batch of peppers alone! Awesome! Less money for me to spend, and one step closer to my $0 grow goal.





These Atomic Grape tomatoes are completely unstoppable. Most of the tomato plants I have are doing amazing, but these ones in particular are prolific. Incredible flavor too. Used some of these on Thanksgiving. Made some Pesto with Basil from the garden, spread the basil on baguette crisps, topped with Proscuitto and Panchetta, topped with these tomatoes, and a little dill sprinkled on top. Delightful.

Not quite at the point where 100% of my ingredients come from the garden, but 25-50% is pretty damn good for only technically having this garden up for one season.



Believe this one is a "White Tomesol", supposed to turn completely white when ripe, sounded pretty neat to me. Things are getting big, they're larger than the beefsteaks even!



Volunteer Black Cherry is still doing amazing, can't believe this thing legit sprouted from the native dirt outside of the raised bed. This plant actually produced my first ripe tomatoes. Definitely going to be cloning the shit out of this bad boy.

Poor lima beans have been getting completely murdered by bugs, as you can see from the photos. But it doesn't seem to have affected their production too much, been getting a decent amount of beans from this tiny plant. I like to grab a handful of pods and munch on the beans while I'm wandering about the garden. Tasty stuff. Just need more companion herb plants in the garden to help me deal with the bug problems.

While there are bugs everywhere in the garden, interestingly enough, the damage to the plants is negligible at best and harvests haven't really been effected negatively by their presence.

Eventually, as the months and years go by, the pests population will dwindle and be replaced with predators and beneficials. Already seeing ladybugs, wasps, and even mantids popping in. Also got a handful of toads that have taken residence in between two of my beds, lots of bugs for them to munch on.



One of the beefsteak plants I have. Its interesting, one of the beefsteak has these wide beefsteak looking tomatoes, but the other one doesn't have fruits that are as wide. The other beefsteak has longer fruits that aren't as wide as these. Going to see how they both perform and taste and decide which one I want to clone for next season.

They aren't getting too enormous, but they get a lot more shade from the trees than I'd like. As I've said before though, not wanting to trim the trees at all, because I'll be needing that shade come late spring going into summer.



Covered this bed with more chips, did this for two reasons.

1) I was curious to see if the radish sprouts would grow out of the woodchips I covered them with. Many of them have, and this was taken 4 days ago, many more have popped up through the chips.

2) This particular bed is closest to my mesquite tree, which is a nitrogen fixator. Same with those other legumes you're seeing in there, of course. I needed extra chips to suck out some of the excess N in this bed.


Can't really tell at a glance that there's excess N in the soil, in fact, going off of just the leaves it'd be hard to even notice there's excess.

The issue is, I can see leaves growing out of my vine clusters of tomatoes. If leaves are growing out of one's tomato vines, excess N is likely to blame.

Easy enough fix though. I'll just murder the bed with wood chips and stop supplying this bed with Nitrogen entirely. No more 4-6-4 blends for flower either.

Only products I'm using for macro and micro nutrients are now Bone Meal, Langbeinite, and TM-7/Cytoplus. Simple and cheap.



Totally shocked this plant even produced, let alone peppers this long. This poor Banana pepper plant has spent its entire life looking pretty sad, but to my surprise its still producing!

Ants and aphids have been a pain in the ass for any sweet peppers I have out here; surprised to see the sweet peppers producing despite the fact they're infested with ants and aphids.

Normally, I'd just pour boiling water on the ant's nest and call it a day. But, the ants have made their nest at the base of the plants, not exactly wanting to dump boiling water on my roots



Pretty sure these are Pepperoncinis; they don't quite look like them yet, but they're the only thing that makes sense. These aren't hot peppers, only sweet peppers I got were Banana, Pepperoncini, and various Bell Peppers, so this is very likely a pepperoncini. Time will tell. Can't wait to have a bunch of these to put on some sammiches


I'll take some newer photos as soon as I'm able, things look much different in just these past few days.

Next up, the medical side of things.

 

[kratos015]

These mothers have been very good to me. They look small, but I've taken dozens of clones from them already.

I will very likely be phasing out the Bruce Banner and Banana Sativa plants. They produce pretty decent quality, but the quality pales in comparison to DNA Genetic's Purple Wreck, LA Con, or the G13 Zkittlez pheno of Maltezers. Night and day difference in quality.

I'll talk seeds/genetics in another post on here when I get time.

Seems like its way harder to find good quality genetics/seeds than it was when I started over a decade ago. So much shit genetics from pollen chuckers that are flooding the market.



Only 5-6 plants left to go outside, the rest of the plants are for next season. Come mid January-February, I'll have another 24 plants vegged out and ready to go for a light dep run before the big summer grow.



Again, all these photos were taken 4 days ago. I've got WAY more seedlings going than this at the moment. Got the following strains

LA Confidential - DNA Genetics
Holy Grail - DNA
Banana Dance - Freedom of Seeds
OG13 - G13 seeds
Cheesilicious - Europa Seeds
Super Shark - 710 Genetics
Citron - Greenpoint
The Sweets - Greenpoint
Lemon Tree Punch - Greenpoint


I've heard mixed things about Greenpoint, some say they're amazing, but others say they're garbage and produce lots of hermies.

I'll be confirming this for myself. Most people that write bad reviews tend to not know what they're doing when it comes to growing. However, from the looks of it, most of Greenpoint's gear is just more of the same S1 crap that every seed bank is doing now.

Pretty much, only the DNA Genetics gear will be going in next season's light dep. I don't need to grow out any of DNA Genetics stuff to know if its good or not. Anything from DNA Genetics has always produced top shelf fire for me.

Most other seedbanks stuff has produced inconsistent results. Pretty much seems that for every 10 pack you buy, you'll be lucky to find one keeper in the pack. 9/10 of the seeds will produce some decent smoke, but nothing truly memorable.






Plants are filling up pretty nicely, coming along as expected for approaching week 4 of 12/12. Cold temps are making the Purple Wreck purple up pretty nice from the looks of it.



Just gets more incredible every day I come out here. Cannot believe this used to be empty a few months ago.

As always, thanks for stopping in.

 

[kratos015]

Almost forgot, I did a little experiment a few weeks ago that seems to have been a success!

This poor Amish Paste tomato plant has always looked like crap in this spot. Too shaded for a tomato plant to do good here.



This is the bed I had to dig up and rebuild, so this plant had to be yanked out. However, it was my first tomato plant to produce a tomato for me, I felt bad about killing it for no good reason.

So, I had a thought. Why not just yank it out of the ground, and attempt to transplant it somewhere else? Give it a chance at life before throwing it into the compost pile.





Nothing too crazy, just a tiny hole that I dug up and filled with some quality potting soil.

And, here's how it looks nearly 2 weeks later.



It actually kept itself alive! If you look close enough, you'll notice there's even a tomato on it now. Looking like it'll survive and produce for me in the spring.

Just goes to show just how resilient plants can truly be. Plants can take a shit ton of abuse. In fact, the only thing plants can't handle is being over loved.

 

[dwc420letsgo]

does the somke taste like urine?

 

[kratos015]

does the somke taste like urine?

Nah man, same compost undertone that everything else has. Pretty much everything I grow, be it medical marijuana or produce, they all have the same compost undertone in terms of flavor.

In fact, this is how you can tell whether or not something was truly grown in a living soil or not. If it doesn't have that compost undertone to it, it likely isn't grown the same way we're growing things here. No compost undertone? No organics. That simple.

The piss is long since decomposed, similar to how the smoke doesn't taste like cow/chicken/bat/etc shit. Unfortunately, that is akin to believing that banana peels in your soil will make your plant taste like banana. Doesn't quite work like that friend, though it would certainly make things easier!

Every time I piss in my compost pile, or in a bottle for nutrients, I'm not flushing the toilet. By not flushing the toilet, I'm saving 1-2 gallons of water per flush. As someone who drinks coffee religiously, I'm saving between 5-10 gallons of my well water simply by pissing in my compost or in a bottle for nutrients, as opposed to wasting water.

Not trying to virtue signal, nor imply that makes me a good person, fact is I'm simply making my well work less than it has to. I mean, why the fuck should we guys waste water when we can easily take a piss on a pile of compost, or even on a damn tree?

1-2 gallons of water to flush away a bit of piss? Fuck that. One days drinking water flushed down the toilet just because I need to take a piss? And I normally piss 3-5 times a day, equating to 3-5 gallons of water wasted just because I can't take a leak in a compost pile?

I can give my well a break, while simultaneously providing nutrition to my plants. Doesn't get more win-win than that.

Truth be told? Not quite sure why people are paying for sources of Nitrogen when we literally piss it. But, different strokes I suppose.

 

[JimmyJackCorn]

Nah man, same compost undertone that everything else has. Pretty much everything I grow, be it medical marijuana or produce, they all have the same compost undertone in terms of flavor.

In fact, this is how you can tell whether or not something was truly grown in a living soil or not. If it doesn't have that compost undertone to it, it likely isn't grown the same way we're growing things here. No compost undertone? No organics. That simple.

The piss is long since decomposed, similar to how the smoke doesn't taste like cow/chicken/bat/etc shit. Unfortunately, that is akin to believing that banana peels in your soil will make your plant taste like banana. Doesn't quite work like that friend, though it would certainly make things easier!

Every time I piss in my compost pile, or in a bottle for nutrients, I'm not flushing the toilet. By not flushing the toilet, I'm saving 1-2 gallons of water per flush. As someone who drinks coffee religiously, I'm saving between 5-10 gallons of my well water simply by pissing in my compost or in a bottle for nutrients, as opposed to wasting water.

Not trying to virtue signal, nor imply that makes me a good person, fact is I'm simply making my well work less than it has to. I mean, why the fuck should we guys waste water when we can easily take a piss on a pile of compost, or even on a damn tree?

1-2 gallons of water to flush away a bit of piss? Fuck that. One days drinking water flushed down the toilet just because I need to take a piss? And I normally piss 3-5 times a day, equating to 3-5 gallons of water wasted just because I can't take a leak in a compost pile?

I can give my well a break, while simultaneously providing nutrition to my plants. Doesn't get more win-win than that.

Truth be told? Not quite sure why people are paying for sources of Nitrogen when we literally piss it. But, different strokes I suppose.

Awesome piss post.

Heh. I'm trying to be funny, but I truly do love it. I typically #1 in my backyard every time. Why put it in the toilet?

I don't save my urine, but I definitely spray my leaf piles. I have enough leaf piles that I wish for more bladder!

Funny thing: the nitrogen/leaf pile pissing is secondary. I am a CHEAP ASS dude! I literally piss outside to save money on my water bill. That is all.

 

[kratos015]

Awesome piss post.

Heh. I'm trying to be funny, but I truly do love it. I typically #1 in my backyard every time. Why put it in the toilet?

I don't save my urine, but I definitely spray my leaf piles. I have enough leaf piles that I wish for more bladder!

Funny thing: the nitrogen/leaf pile pissing is secondary. I am a CHEAP ASS dude! I literally piss outside to save money on my water bill. That is all.

Haha, piss post, I like it. Hilarious to me, because it goes a lot against the status quo. Fact is, I can literally piss in a bottle, dilute it with water, and it'll be more effective than half of the products on shelves in hydro stores.

I've just always been "weird" about water, so to speak. I've been broke and even homeless, lucky to get a shower, let alone a hot shower. Taught me the value of water a whole, and how easy it is to take advantage of the convenience we have concerning water.

Just kind of never sat right with me that I'm using gallons of water to flush out a little piss that I could have just dumped on a tree or some shit.

Excess leaf piles though? Being out in the desert, I'm jealous of those leaf piles.

Tell you what, I'll trade you some piss in exchange for part of your leaf mold

I kid!



Seriously though, the piss is mostly going into the compost now, but I do dilute it and use it as a N source for newly growing plants in my veg room. Anything I plant in the ground doesn't seem to need any extra N, as there seems to be plenty in the ground itself already from my Mesquite and Palo Verde "trees" in my yard fixating nitrogen into my entire yard.

 

[kratos015]

Finally got all of the plants in the ground. I'll have having various harvests between 1/15/22 and 2/15/22 from these plants that are all in the ground. 10 will be harvested around the 15th of next month, and as you'll see later, I've already got plants growing that are ready to replace them.



These plants are nothing super big, however they're also better than nothing. Should pull between 8-12oz from these 10 plants, keep my patients happy until the other plants finish.





Florescent light area is looking a bit lonely, but that's because the bulk of the weed seedlings have been put under the DE light now. Floro lights will be used to start various seedlings for the spring. Attempting to get various broccoli and greens going, since my germination rates outside have been absolutely abysmal.

Weed, as you can see, is totally "solved". Tons of great mothers and clones, and even new strains/seedlings to experiment with. Weed is dealt with just fine. The biggest hurdle is getting the produce/veggies going.



Pretty much the only products I'll ever say is worth spending money on, BioAG makes great products.

I've tried TONS of different Mykos products: BioAG VAM, Great White, Mykos, and various off brands of mykos. VAM is the undisputed winner. Coots was right, VAM is THE best mycorrhizae, bar none and it isn't even a contest.

Cytoplus is pretty much TM-7 but with added kelp and potassium; if you don't need extra potassium, just stick with TM-7. Ful-Power and VAM are incredible products.

As you can see, only things other than that I have in bottles are my bottle of Spinosad, bottle of ProTekt, and my box of Langbieninte.

My hope is that in a few seasons/years, I'll be able to phase out many of those products are well. Only time will tell!

 

[kratos015]

Peach peppers are still waiting to ripen, who knows how long it will take. However, I'm optimistic about the flavor, this is kind of reminding me of weed actually. These peppers are said to take between 2-4 months to ripen. Sounds outrageous, at first. But, consider how that is also the "perfect" curing time for weed in jars as well? Keep busy, but also exercise patience. A lesson I wish I could have told myself when I was 10-15 years younger, but I digress.



The White tomosels, none of my Beefsteaks are anywhere near this large. Though, that isn't quite too surprising, seeing as these get the most sunlight in these "winter" days. That said, its hard to believe it is even approaching "winter" here. I'm usually breaking out my heaters in the house by this time of year, but its legit 70-80F out here. Crazy, but a tremendous blessing for my garden should it continue.

















For how little work and time I've put into this, I'm pretty stoked with the results I'm getting.

It truly isn't too much, yet. Just a handful of tomatoes or cucumbers here and there, or a tiny jar's worth of peppers to pickle.

However, I remember when I first started growing weed. Learned a lot of shit the hard way, yields were beyond discouraging, but I refused to give up.

Point is? Everything ultimately starts with planting a seed; a literal plant, an idea, etc.

While things can be better (and they always can!), I'm also incredibly thankful for what it is that I do have right now.

I am beyond humbled with the results that I am receiving for what is technically my first "season" out here, so to speak. Typically, tomatoes start to make strides toward going dormant during this time of year (week or two overdue, actually), but not only are the tomatoes barely ripening, I'm still getting veg growth on the tomatoes.

Definitely not the behavior I'd expect of plants that typically go dormant this time of year, so I'm quite eager to see what happens with that. I'm used to tomatoes looking like they're ready to die off by this time of year, not continue producing. See what happens and roll with it.

In the meanwhile, I'm in the process of germing various seeds in the veg shed, eventually I'll reach my dream of seeing nothing but pure green everywhere I look. Definitely not today or tomorrow, but soon. One step at a time.