The James Gang

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
An alternative to the avocado skin could be a coconut shell. Just an idea
Mainly doing it becaise i am feeding them the avocado, but those skins get hard and cracked after a bit. I was thinking about some re-usable thing I could just put worm food in. I have those black solo cups I was thinking about cutting down to about an inch. It's like a humidity dome escape area as well as a food spot. So when the avocados crack they lose part of their usefulness.

The other thing that does is get breeding going. When they are all jammed in there touching each other it just happens.
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
This time I am not cleaning out the shell. I think leaving a 1/4" or so of meat along the skin will make it last longer. After this batch I may go with the cups - or try one now to see the efficacy.
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
Dropped both the Freakshow. The little one was 95g wet, so less than an ounce. The big one had two limbs that split on their own (no topping) and each one was 155g. Between the two there should be about 3oz, but I have a feeling a lot will go to single-strain hash. I know the leaves will wash well, but with that return I'm gonna be more selective about keeping an ounce or two of the best tops for smoke, then lots of hash. IMG_6692.JPG
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
About 40g of soil for the next drop. I like dumping it out to check rather than having a continuous bed. There were dry spots in the 15g.
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The 7's and 5's were fine. The smaller pots were the only ones I saw a lot of bid earthworms in. The red wigglers were prolific everywhere. I got the major rootballs out but left the tiny stuff, and some has way too much rice hulls on the top. Would have been perfect for a mulch layer but not with cover crop.

I am thinking about having both on the next batch. Leave an area with no cover crop and have a deeper mulch layer. Maybe a 1/4 of the pie for feeding worms and putting all the mown cover stuff in. Those areas were the thickest with worms. Letting this set for a few days evenly moist (now) and then I'll fill 5-gallons and try to have a good amount of worms in each.
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
I pulled the seeds for the next drop out of the fridge and have them just acclimatizing and getting a little humidity. Gonna warm up some RO water on the heat mat then mix the two at some point.

Out of the 5-packs I opened. Prana from Irie had 6. Thanks dude! ;)

I was gifted 3 each of the Cement Shoes and Big D Energy. The Cement shoes had an oddball. Two beauties and one lighter colored and smaller. Who besides me is dropping the ugly one first? LOL.

If it's not viable then I'll drop another. It's nature. But I would hate hanging onto that last bean thinking I had another fem to grow and then find out it's a dud.
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
Whenever I get seeds wet I get the cups ready. If I'm checking on them and see a tail it doesn't need to soak any more. After about 12hrs two were already cracked and tailing. One was the Querkle which literally blew half the shell off in the cup, the other was the weak looking Cement Shoes. This morning the rest were cracked and I should have a good turnout. IMG_6702.JPG
Still can't make sense out of the CBD plant(s). The little one looks normal but is not stretching, the funky one has growth but nothing normal yet.
I am leaning towards snipping the oddball and running the other one in a small pot.
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The others are almost ready to flip and the 9th will be 4 weeks for the three. I think that growing trees I am going to take the three-toed leaves and their sprouts as a standard. I already got the seed leaves, and all has sprouts with them as well. IMG_6694.JPG
The one plant (Chemdog) I was most excited about is ugly as fuck. The little one behind it by the clip-fan is the ChemD looking perfect...
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H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
These are getting close so I had to get off my ass and get the tent ready
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So after everything got water and these got individual 360 attention and lawn mowing
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I took the tent down to bare metal and started over with new hangers, wiring, remote drivers etc. I have 4 QB's now on two drivers.
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The front two have creative wiring with the independent height aspect.
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H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
The Vin Santo triplets are perfect little plants.
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Like the three bears - papa bear in the back is the bubblegum one.
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Same leaf pruning as the other two, but the leaf-tuck stuck on the lower ones. Getting purple in the shade again... IMG_6723.JPG
Bad pic but you get the gist of the frostiness.
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Here's the Mutt-n-Jeff Chem's
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The UK Cheese has a skunk look to it. I don't know about the lineage other than UK Cheese x UK Cheese reversed...
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The 007up is gonna make it to the finish in less than stellar fashion but she does have some respectable tops.
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And I could see no value in leaving crispy, non-photosynthetic, hanging mulch so now the Chemdog looks prettier, and the next layer of leaves can start dying between now and harvest ;)
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H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
I shut the tent back down until I flip the closet plants. I thought about leaving it running and spreading out the other tent but they all seem fine there. The only one I would really move is the Lurch (the chemdog) but then I am moving in plants that are a foot tall.

I may use the new bar light for the just flipped and shorties since the height will generally be similar. The variable/adjustable height tent for late flower and the QB's for finishing

Probably flip the three and rearrange next watering which is the one month mark for the three in the closet.
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
The UK Cheese has a skunk look to it. I don't know about the lineage other than UK Cheese x UK Cheese reversed...
LOL - Nailed it ;)

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This is the kind of familiarity that I want with the plant in general. The ILGM superskunk's I grew were the floral "skunk" bullshit - but the genetics are skunk regardless, and they all had tops like that. I am noticing that the Chemdog has very distinct bud strucure too and I have seen it elsewhere in crosses. Puzzle pieces are fitting together in the head ;)
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
Since I don't need the soil for a few weeks I put down a layer of both green and dead mulch, mostly weed trimmings. the Freakshow leaves are perfect for not forming a moist flat carpet that sticks together. With the excess rice hulls about a half inch deep the worms are loving it.
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I only had 4 plants for the avocado's, but 8 I'll need soon and you can't really do small batches. It's avocado, banana, pumpkin seeds ground in a coffee grinder and carrot run through a blender. I added some rock dust and mixed it. I cut down 8 beer-cups to replace the shells and the worms seem attracted. I am liking the idea of a re-fillable worm feeder. A snuff can would work well, or anything opaque.

When I get ready to fill pots I am gonna scoop out each feeder with a good bit of dirt and set it aside for each pot, then scrape off the top 3-4 inches into a tub with all of the excess mulch. That should have most of the worms in it which I can sort out and re-distribute between pots.
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
I think the cover crop is an aspect of the living soil I haven't heard enough about but I'm learning. I'm a clean freak, so there were never any dead leaves left hanging around or anything. Mulch-mowing it seems to let it grow better.

The Royal Kush and PTK were pretty gnatty when I washed them, the Royal Limez had a few but the Freakshow had none. So I guess that has something to do with the pest resistance of the plants. The smell definitely matters for which attract gnats.

The soil now has no gnats. Not seeing anything since I have a decent cover crop and I am keeping it mowed, plus whatever beneficial buggies came in with the initial worm castings or have been made since.

I think that keeping the cover crop and worms healthy is now the primary goal. It's like everythbing follows from there. The soil on this second run should still have some of the original food in it, but keeping a rotation of what I top dress with and what I feed the wormd should replenish it. Without soil testing I can only watch the plants. Better to have too little and need to add than too much.
 

oldsilvertip

Really Active Member
These are getting close so I had to get off my ass and get the tent ready
View attachment 99998View attachment 99996
So after everything got water and these got individual 360 attention and lawn mowing
View attachment 99995
I took the tent down to bare metal and started over with new hangers, wiring, remote drivers etc. I have 4 QB's now on two drivers.
View attachment 99997View attachment 99994
The front two have creative wiring with the independent height aspect.
View attachment 99994
looking good haf
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
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I usually sift the castings with an 1/8" screen then put everything else back in the worm bin. This time I wanted some bigger stuff to divide between the pots so after I got the castings I resifted with a 1/4" screen and got a gallon of nice looking compost. That's about 3 gallons of fine castings in the 8g tub. I geep the lid loose and the paper to maintain moisture. If the humidity inside gets the walls wet I get little eyelash size worms all over the walls and lid.
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
The worms I sifted out all went back in the worm bin. I think there is enough already in the big pot as long as they end up fairly evenly distributed between the pots. The plants that did the best had big worms in the rootball. The red wigglers make lots of tiny castings in the mulch layer but big ones in the rootball can't be bad.

I think the wigglers breed faster hanging out in those avocado feeders. But in the big pot I have seen the "night crawlers" hanging out under the green leafy stuff when I pull the sheet off. The chop-n-drop mowing the cover crop is definitely gonna be a habit until I see a bad reaction. The plan is to have about a quarter of the surface with no cover crop. That area will be for the feeders, dead mulch and eventually layers of tops from the cover crop.

I put the excess mowed stuff in the worm bin and a few days later it was gone, except for the radish leaves. Not even touched. I also tossed several yard herbs in just to see. Sage is a no-go. marjoram and oregano are fine.

The ferment I tried with the bubblehash leftovers and brown sugar (with LAB culture) got an inch layer of mold on it. Still smells nice, and I stirred it a few times to mix in the mold layer before smelling. But I don't want to put it on the plants. I mixed it with water and stuck it in a 5g bucket outside with a loose lid. Garden food for next year. .
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
Are you going to rotate the quarter section around the pots or will that be the designated mess area?
If I regrow in the pots without dumping them I might do that, but for one grow I think keeping the cover crop going in the other 3/4 is gonna be the goal. I'll move the worm feeder around in that section.

After seeing the worms completely ignore the radish leaves and seeing all the radishes in the pots I think that I am going to bring in other stuff for mulch instead of just dropping the cover crop there.
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
3 days, 7 of 8. The Cement Shoes that popped a tail did nothing else. The tail fell off and the insides were oozy white mush. I have one of the pretty ones in water now.
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For the 4 storebought regs I'll know sex before the mystery plant competition drop, so I may re-run any that were male in that December drop. After that I'll keep that process up just to check stuff off my list of having tried. But I also have ones I know I like that I'll probably re-drop when I run out.

Hillbilly Bob's Grapefruit and Sangria Cookies from County Line both age well and are a good all-around high. The Grapefruit I grew out is very loud, but sweet loud. Like a bowl of candy though not like grapefruit - or any other fruit. So I'm betting there's more pheno's to find in that pack. The Sangria Cookies probably won't get made any more so I'll drop them more sparingly. I have 5 SC fems and that is one I could clone on for a while if I get to the last one or two.
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
I have been burping and sniffing on the CLHP clone weed for a few weeks, but I ground up some of the mom tonight and the smell finally clicked. I kept thinking chemical chicken or cheesy chicken, but it's those eleven herbs and spices giving it that "not just chicken" smell. County Line Hashplant might as well be renamed Kentucky Fried Hashplant.
 
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