The Hexapus's Garden

[Weaselcracker]

If you're extra lazy then let it settle for a few days after straining and it should settle right down. I have considered adding some of my wine settling ingredients but wasn't sure that it was something I should be smoking..

 

[Spitz]

Found you sir... Love your rambling random thoughts. I'm going to drop a Malawi tomorrow because of your complete refusal to do a smoke report! Lol. Sounds good!

 

[Weaselcracker]

Speaking of wine-settling though- it got me thinking last week when I was making that hash tutorial. One of the things I sometimes use for clearing my wine is a little something called chitosan.

Chitosan is also available as a grow additive, contained in bottles of mysterious 'grow enhancing miracle concoctions'. It's made from the shells of insects, or actually shrimp I believe- ( which, like crabs and crawfish, are actually just bugs even if we don't want to admit it). It supposedly causes a defensive reaction in the plant which thinks it is being invaded by bugs- causing it to form more resin. As I recall, it's quite expensive. I think.

Note- I haven't done any fact checking here. I could be just talking out my ass so feel free to correct me if anyone knows about this product. Maybe it's not expensive, maybe it's not made from shrimp, etc. I think it is though... I seem to remember it being pricey when I looked last. However- the stuff at the wine store is so cheap that the guy just gave me a pile last time I was there.

The point of the story is- I was making that hash and thinking about adding that chitosan to settle it- and that's when I realized that the stuff I've had on the shelf in the wine-making/smoking/trimming/guitar playing room (chitosan) and the stuff I had on the 'to research and get around to ordering someday' list ( chitosan) , are the same thing.
No doubt with a little engineering I could just wander down to the beach and scoop some crabs or shrimp and blend up some diy version somehow. One of the reasons I've put off ordering any for so long.
'Mmmmm... the wine does go well with the buds, and the piquant bouquet of insect shells delicately offset by overtones of crawfish is exquisite, you've really outdone yourself this time, Mr Weasel'

 

[GrizzWald]

Off topic.... We buy bug meat in Australia. Morton bay bugs, slipper lobster.... We admit it, lol.....its the best eating crustacean...

 

[santb]

MMmmm tasty bugs.. Haven't had any for ages. Off to the Fisho with me this weekend. Bugs, prawns and muddies.
The best eatin in gods own country. I grew up in Cairns, Grizz.. Fresh caught prawns, muddies and coral trout. Nothing beats that stuff on a barbie..

 

[Tead]

Off topic.... We buy bug meat in Australia. Morton bay bugs, slipper lobster.... We admit it, lol.....its the best eating crustacean...

DUDE!!! Crawfish... from another continent. Awesome!

 

[GrizzWald]

So you saying I know what you'll are talking about when you say crawfish now.... Doubly awesome, lol....
Caught some muddies when I lived in port Douglas... Bbq, now I'm hungry Santb

 

[Tead]

Yes! Morton Bay Bugs are the Aussie version. Some day I want to visit and try them out!
Do Aussie's eat them in a large social setting where beer flows like water and everyone has a smile plastered on their faces?
Do you cook them in a spicy brew with corn, artichokes, onions, garlic, potatoes, and sausage?
Pinch'in tails and suckin heads baby! It's crawfish season!

 

[GrizzWald]

Family friends Beer definately....I've seen some Cajun traveller fishing gator shows, I've seen those feasts... We don't cook that good. That's restaurant dining here.. Dipping sauce is what we use...

 

[Tead]

Oh man... it's such a social event for us.
Usually, one has some picnic tables set up with big holes in the middle and a trashcan under the hole to catch all the shells. The mudbugs are dumped out fresh from the pot into a big pile right on the table and everyone just dives in picking out whatever bits they want to eat. The garlic cloves come out awesome.
I've experienced some very fine meals and some very fancy restaurants. I'd trade them all for a good crawfish burl!

 

[lexort420]

Hahaha not content enough with making me hungry over at your journal tead, now you got me getting hungry over here too lol

 

[Tead]

And just how would you even THINK I could ignore a comment about Mudbugs Down Under....
Of course I had to turn it into a mudbug luv fest!

 

[lexort420]

Haha true true!

 

[Weaselcracker]

~Solo Cups~

This is an attempt to do a little housekeeping here and show the progress of the solo cups to date. Well not to date exactly but to whenever I was last there and took pictures. I'm copying and pasting the photos from the Solo Cup Competition thread. Apologies for boring to death the people above already seen them on that thread. I just want to show the previous updates for the sake of the Hexapus journal, so I can have the bookkeeping in order and do updates in future with a clear conscience.

It's a bit confusing because different plants were started at different times, and a couple were pulled for the crime of not being female.

The first post of the Hexapus (at that time it was a septopus) was from Jan 23. No real 'day 1' to this grow- but for the sake of making something up I will call Jan 20 the first day (might be BS but whatever...) So that makes the first post day 3.
At this point most of the plants were new seedlings, except the older Thai Stick clone. The Thai Stick has long since been murdered for being male though so it doesn't matter.

 

[Weaselcracker]

DAY 3- January 23

here's what i've scratched together so far. A thai stick clone. And from seed- a critical cheese, white widow, and a couple 'ace mix' freebies. And a couple lemon skunk sprouts which are from seeds that have been in my freezer for almost ten years. All under a watering octopus. Well, actually a septopus at the moment but i'll scrounge up something to put under the eighth arm. Three are supposed to be hempys. The other four are coco/perlite with a little hydroton on top. I may do a rockwool one. This autowatering thing will be the death of me, or more likely- of the plants. Major tweaking yet to be done as this is the emergency prototype. Lots more obstacles- including the fact that the sativas and indicas will have different feeding requirements but will receive all the same slop from the same trough. I have no dedicated light for them either- just the spillover in the center aisle of my flowering room.
Challenges challenges...

DAY 9 - January 29

Incredibly, the victims have survived another week Mama Thai/Thai Stick cross is planted and just starting to sprout up in the empty looking blue cup, which has rockwool for a medium.
For now I've retained the containers with screws into the plywood. Kinda hokey but works way better than my other, fancier, ideas. Three screws to a cup keeps the buggers from constantly jumping on to the floor. Anyway, everything is going to be reconfigured often as they get bigger, turn out male, and/or die

 

[Weaselcracker]

DAY 24 -- February 13

the solo cup prisoners after another week away. Still all alive, and doing ok, with a couple issues here and there. The critical cheese in brown pot in back was dried up and wilted when i returned. Not quite sure why just that one but it will survive, and i'm going to move the timer to two waterings a day now since the littler ones may be past the danger of overwatering, hopefully. The ace malawi in scrog screen behind them is overdue for harvest now. Maybe tomorrow...

 

[Weaselcracker]

Day 30 - February 19

the solo plants are still alive after another week
I see that six of the seven have now sexed as female. The only unsexed one is the newest addition to the herd- the mama thai/thai stick cross which is in the closest blue cup.
I did sprout a thai stick replacement for the departed mr stick, but i'm not going to put it in with these plants. Contest cutoff is long past and anyway i don't want to complicate things by adding a sprout to the equation.
I'm really loving this drain to waste hydro growing! The growth rate is vey impressive to me, there's a certain glow to the foliage i haven't experienced before, and a different feeling of connection to the plants. It's instant gratification, or instant failure. They rely on me to give them what they need for food and water, and couldn't live a day without it, poor things.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Day 46 - March 2

I reconfigured the cup retaining screws for the six remaining plants under the hexapus. Replaced the 5 gallon bucket res with a ten gallon tote because i set it to 3 waterings a day now.

The plants had some minor issues from ph troubles. Basically- i was adjusting the level in a hurry and should have mixed up the slop the day before and let the ph settle to double check before putting it in the feeding trough. Was running at 5.3 -ish.

This is a mystery ace mix seedling. You can see the slight leaf damage, but still a pretty plant, i think.

 

[Tead]

So... I've stolen these words from my thread because I think the subject is better discussed here. This time the cross thread action is intentional.

By the way, my plants in the perlite are doing great. I don't think I could call it a hempy because they are being fed three times a day, so it's just regular DTW. But since my auto watering system is working I'll probably keep running it for more plants in the future, bigger ones, or experiments that I want to test out, and maybe do a real hempy if I can get my hands on some more perlite.

I'd like to see you start a girl off the hexapus and do her on a 2-3 day feeding cycle. Preferably clones from the same mother brought up side by side. I'd do the task myself, but you're the one with the water pump going.
Any chance you could spare the room and resources for just a week or two?
Of course, I'm trying to discover if there is an actual difference between constant DTW and the 2-3 day feeding cycle.

 

[Weaselcracker]

I would need to set up another complete watering system ( a Monopus ) and res, timer, etc. for the plant, and of course use a bigger pot. The solo ones are getting pretty dry between waterings even at three times a day.
So suppose what it amounts to is - I would run two complete auto watering setups, with two regular size plants. One would have holes in the bottom of the pot. The other would have one hole on the side- hempy style. Is that what you're thinking?
Sounds like a worthy experiment. I may try it. I do have all the stuff, except the perlite but I found a place here that sells small bags of overpriced shitty perlite.