Slammy Pajammy's Indoor Organic Supersoil Ladies, 2019! 2nd Ever!

Sunday's pics:

-Temp: 27-30 degrees Celsius
-RH: 40-50%

Definitely looking a little better for environmental factors at the moment. Hopefully these cool temps stick around for a little longer!
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Little ladies are looking great though! Soil plugging away. Little wonky will be ready for a water probably tomorrow, but I might see if I can hold off another day and get a tea started brewing tomorrow

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Rocky

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Chubby (hmm.... got some weird spotting going on with the lower leaves...)

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Speedy

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Cookie

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Wonky

Gotta reinforce that super cropping!

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Chubby

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Speedy (Oh no!! Whoops... I pinched off a little more than I meant to...)

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Cookie
 
Nice job

could you go over your process to make that???

I’m extremely interested

:Namaste:

It's Emilya's DIY CalMag+ that I've got linked in my signature, but basically you take some cleaned and dried egg shells, char them in a pan until mostly blackened, crush or grind them up nice and fine, and then cover with 5 parts vinegar and let ferment for 3 weeks or so. Then add some molasses and it's ready to be diluted and applied!
 
Yesterday's pics!

Temp was down around 23-28 degrees
RH 40-50%
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Little friends are still looking great. Waiting for them to really beg for water before I give it to them! Probably will brew another tea for next watering, too

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Rocky

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Chubby

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Speedy

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Cookie

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Wonky
 
Today's pics:

Temps have been 26-32 degrees Celsius

RH 38-46%

Thinking I'm seeing a little bit of spotting from Mg deficiency in some these ladies, so we'll probably get a tea brewing tomorrow at a more reasonable time (probably a little kelp meal, coconut meal, and soybean meal this time), and then I'll add some molasses to my egg shell ferment and dilute that into the watering they'll get. Pots are definitely starting to get nice and light

Still got some serious leaf curling on cookie, so I've switched her around with speedy to see if she didn't like her placement in the cab. I've also turned the lights down a little more and raised them up to about 800mm (roughly 31") above the canopy, so we'll see if that dramatic a reduction in light intensity will make a difference. She definitely has some burnt tips after the up-potting as well, so it's also possible this new mix is a little too hot for her at the moment; we'll just watch her close

Such tight internodes on all these ladies though!! Looking great! I decided Rocky has recovered enough to get the cropping treatment, and the others are really bushing out nicely!
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Wonky was ready for a water, so I got roughly a litre into that little pot, and we might pop her out to look at those roots soon to see if she's ready for a new pot. Sure is taking her time as of late...

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Rocky

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Chubby

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Speedy

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Cookie

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Wonky
 
Welp... they dead...
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Unfortunately had an unexpected very early start the other day before a long day of work for me and the missus, and the flower girls got whopped with a ridiculous heat wave, which was just too much. I figured I'd be coming back to some very sad ladies, so got them back inside when I could and under a much lower intensity light to see if they'd recover, but they were just too far gone. The girl scout isn't necessarily dead yet I don't think, but I'm not going to baby her for the rest of her poor, sad life. I've tortured them enough haha
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Unfortunately just not the right time to have plants outside, especially flowering ones; Canberra has been incredibly unseasonably hot in unexpected waves. But that's ok! It was kind of more of an experiment than anything else, as I'd mostly given up on getting anything amazing off these old girls after their starve out

Now I've just got to make the decision on whether I'm going to stick some new ladies straight into these pots, or if I should wait until my new batch is cooked, and then remix what is left back through the rest...

Unfortunately may be a while before my soil is done cooking; went and checked on it a couple days ago, and I had definitely put too much water into it and she'd gone anaerobic deep down in the bottom... yuck! :X quite stinky! So I've mixed it up (sorry microbeasties!) And am trying to get it dried out again so i can reinoculate with a tea.

I've also gotten 15L of biochar to mix through, to add long-term aeration to try and help this not be as much of an issue (although the real problem was just too much water in a tote without enough drainage). So we'll have to just wait and see how much cook-time that will add on to the soil! :(
 

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Today's Update:

Temp: 27-32 degrees Celsius
RH: 39-46%

Still a bit hotter than I would like in the cab, but nothing outrageous. I'm seeing a little bit of what may be mild Mg deficiency in these ladies, or maybe K? I've also read that the leaf curling like the girl scout can be from K (although usually less likely than heat, humidity, or light stress; although they're not quite folding in the center like canoes/tacos as much as folding over the serrations at the leaf edges, which makes me lean a little away from heat/humidity as the culprit)

But there's definitely some spotting and rusty colouring moving up the older growth, as well as yellowing that still leaves some of the veins with a little green, which is what is pointing me towards Mg

So here's the solution:

As promised, started a tea brewing for a watering tomorrow (I probably could've waited a little longer to water, but wanted to get those microbes into the mix and the pots are definitely feeling light, so we can't be far off)
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Malted barley, soybean meal, coconut meal, and kelp meal into the mortar
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Ground up and mixed 1:1 with the good ol' EWC
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And then into the molasses water for a 24hr brew (and if I can get my new batch of soil all dried out enough by tomorrow evening, maybe we'll add a very conservative amount of the excess tea to reinoculate with some good aerobic stuff; I'm not going to push it though, need to get this stuff dried and not stinky anymore!)
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Other than that, ladies are looking amazing!! So bushy!!!

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Rocky

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Chubby

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Speedy

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Cookie

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Wonky

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Bonus pic of wonky's roots! Possibly ready for an up-pot... but I might wait just a little longer and let those thicken up a bit first and fill the rest of the container.
She'll probably get some of tomorrow's tea as well, since yesterday's watering didn't quite soak all that peat; that stuff can be tough to rehydrate once it's really dried out! The top and bottom is wet, but not all the way through. Need to be patient and slowwwwwwwww
 
Yesterday's Update:

Temp: 27-34 degrees Celsius
RH: 36-46%

Bit hot today, but i got some stuff done!
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Started with getting the supersoil laid out on a tarp, so she should be dried out enough probably tomorrow? To reinoculate with some good microbes. We'll see! But she definitely doesn't smell stinky anymore like she was!
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The new tub I got has these big channels in the bottom; no-go if you're in a big container, especially a large one with some weight of soil; it compacts the soil into those grooves and no oxygen can get in. That's where it starts to go wrong! So I'll be avoiding things like that in the future
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Tea looks good and foamy! We'll give them a drench!
*update mid-water*
This organic potting mix does NOT have the retention you want for these plants; probably will avoid non-customised mixes like this bought straight from the store in the future! (Damn can't wait for that supersoil to be done...)
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But ladies are still looking great!!!

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Rocky

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Chubby

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Speedy

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Cookie

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Wonky
 
Sorry to hear about the outdoor experiment. It’s all a learning experience

you’re plants look great! Love the compost tea :high-five:

Thanks buddy! Your kind words are very much appreciated! :high-five:

Yea, it was kind of a shame, but I did dehydrate the cute little buds offa them and managed to get two nights of being slightly buzzed with the missus, so not a total loss I guess! Haha and it frees up more room to focus on the next round anyway

As for the supersoil tote; I did think of drilling some small drainage holes in it, but then was on the fence about whether I wanted to go hacking up a new tote, in case I still needed to lay it out somewhere flat anyway. So if the tote ends up being fully dedicated to being my soil storage, I'll probably grab like a 1mm drill bit or something tiny like that and put some holes all around the bottom and sides to give it some airflow/drainage, without letting any of the actual soil escape

Funnily enough, I didn't actually need holes in the tote the first time. I think I had a little bit smaller batch, so not as much weight pressing down, and it definitely seems like the rice hulls and boichar maybe don't break up and aerate the soil/wick moisture quite the same as the perlite did. I've got roughly 45-50L of aeration amendments in 125-150L of total volume, as well as a healthy amount of coir, so I would've thought that would be pretty good... but as you say, it's all a learning experience! :thumb:
 
Yesterday's pics:

Temp: 28-33 degrees Celsius
RH: 33-37%
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Ladies looking pretty good! I think they appreciated the potassium tea; not nearly as much leaf curling happening on Cookie, and I've raised light intensity back up to about 30-40%. Probably will be ready to move up into bigger pots again soon! Uh-oh! Sure wish my soil was done... haha i should've started preparing it much sooner

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Rocky

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Chubby

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Speedy

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Cookie

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Wonky
 
Today's Update:

Temp: 28-33 degrees Celsius

RH: 32-36%

Ugh FINALLY had some (slightly unwanted) guests leave our house after the holidays... so I can finally get back to giving these ladies the attention they deserve!! Still need to get my egg shell ferment strained and add some molasses, so these ladies will probly be ready for that tomorrow! (As well as maybe another water; I should have more time to go slow enough to get as much water into the soil as I'd like this time)

Everybody is definitely looking better after our potassium tea though! It still amazes me that this works... I'm still new enough to the whole living organic soil that I doubt myself and my soil mix a little bit whenever I see a deficiency; like, is a microbe tea really going to be all I need to fix a deficiency?? Surely not.... but I love to be proved wrong by my plant friends!
I still have that original bottle of Canna Bio Vega unopened (bought for emergencies, because I am new to this style of growing) and I haven't needed to crack into it yet! It's amazing what plants can do when we recreate the conditions from before humans came in and mucked everything around... hahaha xD

But back to the matter at hand... ladies are looking beautiful!! :') so much bushing out since I started daily bending their tops down

I'm still waiting to see whether the clover pops up in the big pots, to see if I should even try putting anybody in there. Still too early to tell, but I'm hoping in the next couple days I'll see a good cover crop, or else I'll be very suspicious of that old soil...
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But for now, still some beautiful colours and good looking ladies!

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Rocky

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Chubby

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Speedy

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Cookie

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Wonky
 
Today's Update:

Temp: 27-33 degrees Celsius

RH: 30-35%

Finally got around to bottling up my egg shell ferment! Haven't used it on the ladies yet, unfortunately... tomorrow must be the destined day!
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I strained out the solid bits

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Then topped up with molasses

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(Here is the leftovers that'll get fed to the wormy bin! They're still working through my leftover granola mix that went mouldy and had to be sacrificed, but I think they can make room)

Ladies are still looking better every day! I think we'll see another spurt after the CalMag boost from this egg shell ferment, so I'm keen to get it into them! But somehow I feel like I have even less time when I'm on a holiday break from work! Haha
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My soil batch is looking great, and I'm seeing the beginnings of my clover crop popping up now, so I think we're thinking back to a nice aerobic mix now that I've spread it out! May have set me back a week or so, but I think I can figure out a way to holds these ladies back while the soil gets ready! Just another few weeks now!!

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Rocky

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Chubby

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Speedy

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Cookie

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Wonky

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Wonky got her first training session today! One good bend and she made a bit of a snappy sound, so hopefully i wasn't too rough!! But no juice or visible breakage, so I'm thinking it was just rough enough!!
 
Sorry for the long break! Has been crazy busy here, and very smoky! Actually bad enough to the point where I cannibalized my exhaust fan and carbon filter to run in part of the house for us, to try and make the air inside a little more breathable (Air quality has been pretty bad; smoke and particulates have been around 10-15 times the hazardous threshold! Like, wear a mask any time you go outside bad; picture doesn't quite do it justice, but it's been unbelievably hazy 24/7)
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Ladies finally got their first watering with the homemade CalMag solution today! They were definitely incredibly light and ready for some water, so I diluted roughly 1 tbsp of my CalMag mix into a gallon of water (roundabout 4 litres) and started to water; and was reminded again how bad this potting mix is at actually retaining water. Just about every drop just falls right through and exits the bottom... so you know what that means!!
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Today's Update:

Temp: 23-28 degrees Celsius (doors to the cab are left ajar as the exhaust fan isn't currently hooked up to it, and the smoke blotting out the sun has kept things a little cooler!)

RH: 35-50%

You know what time it isssss! Had a nice batch of clover shooting up all over my supersoil outside, so I went ahead and made the executive decision that it was ready! Has been cooking for roughly 3 weeks, with a little bit of time spent with the very bottom being a little anaerobic, but I think she should be mostly cooked enough that there shouldn't be too much pH fluctuation all at once, so I guess we're going to find out!

I was mostly just sick of how little water they were holding on to in the potting mix that I'd bought. So this should be much better! They looked ready anyway.
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Looking beautiful! Let's see how they like that CalMag watering today! Rocky and wonky are in smaller fabric pots but that will still probably be their final pots and I'll flower them first once they've filled them out nicely (mostly just cuz I'm not sure how graphic it would get trying to up-pot them again out of these fabric pots...). The other 3 will go into bigger fabric pots once they're good and ready again! Yippee!

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Rocky

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Chubby

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Speedy

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Cookie

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Wonky
 
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