Shaman Genetics seeds, organic soil, fabric pots, and a lot to learn

[Vas Deferens]

Oh no, sorry to see your caterpillar damage... little bastards

 

[Fuggzy]

Oh no, sorry to see your caterpillar damage... little bastards

Yeah it sucks, but it is at least a learning experience. Actually from that video you posted, I have came up with a multi level approach.

I went and watched everything I could about that dragonfly couple. I also couldn't find the book by the way, but would like to read it. Their instagram page has a lot of cool stuff on it. I really like their closed loop aspect of using what is already around you. One main reason I am choosing to go this route is they don't spry oils. I really didn't want to use neem oil (and canceled my order). They use the leaves, and meals of neem, but not the extracted oils.

I ordered a 10lbs 50/50 mix of neem cake, and karanja cake from neem resource. It is a bit pricey for my blood, but an investment. I also ordered from the source instead of a local vendor so shipping may take a while, but it was cheaper.

I'll cover my new IPM ideas more detailed in its own post. If you can't tell I like to talk (type).

 

[Fuggzy]

*Shaman update*


All plants got a layer of green mulch, and some purslane cuttings. The mulch is from healthy, robust plants in my yard, and garden. I will cover what it is made of in my IPM post soon to come. I am a bit concerned about whatever is wrong with my photo affecting these girls. The appearance of Mag deficiencies is how its down fall started. These look just like it did. #1 has also thrown 2 red/brown hairs too. So far the only necrotic spots are from caterpillar damage, so it may just be a mag def. I will be watching all the plants closely, and keeping them isolated from each other. Including washing hands, and using different tool. I may be paranoid, and playing Dr. Mom on web MD, but it's not worth wrecking everything I have worked on the last year.

Sorry for the sideways pictures. Going straight from the camera to the site prevents this from depositing on my ssd/hdd.

#1 is growing along pretty well. She only has a weak MJ smell, mostly just green smelling. Flower formation is coming along. I can see a difference the last few days. She is stretching outwards too.

#2 hasn't really changed. Now new caterpillars.

#3 also just looks the same. Still zero caterpillar damage. They don't even seem interested.

 

[Fuggzy]

*Micro update*

Amnesia,
This poor girls is sad. I gave her a make over, and removed 4 dieing leaves. These where from the bottom where is looked really bad. The new growth looks okay, but seems to have slowed down. She might just be done stretching though. She doesn't look to have got any worse over night. I just gave her plain water today. I could have gave her bad fpj, I'm not sure. I am discarding what I have and starting a new batch. She may not have a virus, but sure fits the build. I'll give her a few more days, but if she doesn't snap out of it soon, I'll discard her too. She is the only thing holding up giving my autos the light they need.


Azure rocket, and Crazy ape,
They look like green seedlings! :smoking:

 

[Fuggzy]

My go at creating an Integrated Pest Management.​

Okay I have been reading and watching videos the last couple of days and came up with a plan. This plan is not set in stone at the moment, but is where I will start. I am hoping to make my soil healthier, a create an environment that will either not attract, or repel unwanted pest. I am basing this on a large pool of resources.
A large chunk is currently by Dragonfly Earth Medicine, but other resources are AFN, ICmag, unconventional farmer, the almanac, google, and other smaller grow sites. Most of the people i read or watch have different environments than I do, so I am trying to take what I can and convert it to what works for me.

I am going to be heavily relying on fermenting, and harvesting fungi, and bacterias from my surroundings. Most of these will be made in to teas for spraying. I live on (property lines touch) a large chunk of protected cypress marsh/swamp. This area has a dense canopy so not much grows below the tress, but the edges of the forest thrive year round. I won't be taking from the forest, thats a BIG NO NO! However I don't cut my back yard often, and the thriving forest edge is well extended into my property. The yard it self is a thriving ecosystem full of wild flowers, trees, bugs, worms, birds... It just a natural beauty in my opinion. This of course comes at the cost of easy invasions.

I am going to try to stay away from using oil coating. I don't have a hardcore belief on this, I'm just not wild about using them. I will be looking for oily leaves to use, and hope to extract some in to the teas I make. If I decide to go the route of neem oil, it would be rotated daily with a botanical tea sprays to keep the microbes active on the leaves and not create a build up of oil. That idea comes from a breeder that spoke at the emerald cup, Bamboo, or Bam i think.

Some thought behind this.​

Create diversity through multiple plant choices. Including many colors, flowers, roots, leaves stalk types.

Create cultures of healthy plants to introduce its microbial life to my garden.
Have a constantly changing rotation of sprays made from local resources.
Attract beneficial life form.
Get to the point that I can have a completely closed loop system.

Soil and root IPM​

I have ordered some neem cake, and Karanja cake mixed at 1:1. This will be used for top dressing and for making foliar sprays. This will make an oily layer over the soil layer making it more difficult for insects to dig in.
Along with the N/K cake I have started to use green mulch. The mulch and cakes should also help feed the soil, and create a more resistant plant. When I chose the plant for my mulch I looked for robust growth, pest free, and something that may make it inhospitable to pest. My radishes fit all three of those. The new growth has stiff hairs (like a nettle) so I added a good amount of their stalks to it. Another trait I am looking for are oily leaves. I don't really know the oil production or how to tell, but thick waxy appearance is what I am looking for.
I'm not sure what the red flowers are but I call the humming bird feeders.
The cluster has hundreds of flowers when it is full grown, and last 2.5 months. These grow wild here, and I have 100+ here. I have yet to see anything besides pollinators, and humming birds on this plant. Every single plant looks great, and also has the thick waxy look to it. The banana tree leaves also fit this build. besides getting old and dropping they are always healthy.

We also have a wild dill that grows here which is a good repellent from what I understand. If it was healthy, and looked happy, it went in. The soil will also be befitting from all the foliage sprays I plan on doing. EWC act will still be part of this also.

I have also took some purslane cutting and added them to my pot. They offer nice low coverage, and also will attract other insects. Plus it makes the pot look really nice with bright pink and yellow flowers. I personally believe that a plant responds to how you treat it. Not just what you feed it. Maybe I can put a smile on its leaves.

Plant IPM
​

This is going to be a heavy rotation of teas. I am not 100% sure of what they all will be just yet. Some of the ingredients will be rosemary, garlic, peppermint, lavender, radish, comfrey root, turmeric roots, banana tree leaves, and hearts. Anything listed in the green mulch will be used also. A fast google search reveals that just about any herb will help repel one pest or another. This is where I am going to heavily rely on making cultures. A subject I need to do some more research on.

Besides my own property, I have a few places I can go to get cultures. All being chem fert free, and legal.

So far this is a mix of items from my yard. In total there are about 15 different plants, and about 9 different flowers. To this mix I have added water, some brown sugar, and yogurt. I was fermenting some scraps for my worms, so I added some pumpkin, and banana peel that where already fuzzy. This is just to give it a go, and more ingredients than I plan on using in 1 tea at a time.

This is the turmeric I am growing. It was small, but I didn't want much. The bulbs went in the mix, and the roots are feeding the worms.

The worms are also going to be a step in this approach. Nothing more than it was before, but good ol' fashion worm poo doing its job.

I am working on a multi tea brewer design. Something that I can have constantly running, and be able to make 3-4 for at a time. I have some ideas, and will post on that when I get the chance to make it.

Thats about all for now. I will be modifying this plan as I got and find something to work for me. If the multiple teas do not work I will be using neem oil. This is going to be a full time job, but my veggie garden will benefit from it also. Worth the time in.

I would like to hear some of your guys thoughts.
Sorry for the walls of text too. I read a lot and posting it gives me a chance to refer back to it, or get community opinions.

Till next time, stay pest free.

 

[Fuggzy]

To add to the line of defense, and fertilization I have ordered some crab meal too. I went with the Down to earth brand and got a 5lbs box. It is rated at 4-3-0, and has Chitin in it. The chitin is what I am going for. It is know to suppress lesion nematodes (Pratylenchus) and improve plant health by strengthening the cell walls. in the book "Kick-Ass Cannabis & Veggies" it also claims chitin will trick the plant to "excreting substances to ward off pest as a defense mechanism". Chitin is found in crustacean, and insect exoskeletons mainly. It is also found in squid, and octopus.

I am curious if this last part is on a terpen level. I read somewhere recently a guy stay he thinks some genetics are mold/pest resistant is due to their trepen build.

The wiki on chitin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitin#cite_note-9

A close-up of the wing of a sap beetle; the wing is composed of chitin.

"Glanzkaefer" by Zituba at the German language Wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glanzkaefer.jpg#/media/File:Glanzkaefer.jpg


The crab meal will also help the microbial life, which in turn will hunt the problematic bugs. The following was found at: http://www.natureswayresources.com/nl/102OrganicFertilizer33.pdf

"The exoskeletons of some pathogenic fungus, parasitic nematode eggs, and many species of insects contain chitin. When these meals are applied they encourage the growth of chitin consuming microbes in the soil. Over a few months these microbes can grow to very high numbers as they eat the chitin in the meal. When all the chitin has been consumed they start looking for other sources of chitin to eat that can be found in the bad fungus, pest nematodes and other insect pests, killing them in the process resulting in a natural control as a side benefit.

For example chitin digesting bacteria produce enzymes (chitinases) that degrades chitin hence it attacks insects and other pest that use chitin in there exoskeleton. One of the chitinases called Chitosan has been shown to increase photosynthesis, stimulate plant growth, activate natural plant immune system defenses, increase nutrient uptake, increase seed germination and sprouting, and increase overall plant vigor."

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On the brighter side of thing my wroms have been getting it on! I gave them a feeding tonight, and found a shit load of egg sacks, along with loads of baby worms about 1-2cm long. The vermacompost is looking pretty damn good too. I think in a few weeks I am going to split them in to 2 farms. I have had a few soldier fly larva got out and hatch. This is kinda funny cause it freaks my wife out. I can't catch them so the just are buzzing around the house.

 

[curlygirl420]

Ugh. Bugs. Get 'em good, Fuggzy!

 

[Fuggzy]

*Shamans update*


They all seem to be in general good health. No new damage, or ill looks. I'll give them some epsom tonight, they look a bit mag def'd. I added worms to both the smaller plants today. They also got about a cup ea of my own vermicompost. This is the first time I have used it, and I must say... I'm proud of how they look, feel, smell, and the general healthy look. The casting are full of cocoons, and baby worms. I also will be adding some EWC ACT with the soil feeding tonight. Tonight I will start my spraying regiment. I'm not sure if it will be a EWC tea, or a diatomaceous earth spray. Both are ready to go.

Separating the worms just to see the "ingredients"-------------Cocoon-------------------Babies (small 6-7 there)
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#1 is sitting pretty in her pot. Reaching for the rays, and thanking the sun.

#2 is still pretty stressed, but shes holding on tight. The new growth looks good, and healthy. She started to preflower already too. I like to give all the ladies a pretty flower, and remind them how special their are.

#3 is just trucking along. Not to fast, but steady. She has still had no problems, and is just holding on to the cotyledon, really green too.

 

[Fuggzy]

*Micro update*

The amnesia is still slowly degrading. I have decided to take her out of the cab, and change the lights to 18/6. She will most likely just be trashed. Sad I was really enjoying her. I also was not a big fan of 12/12 from seed. Maybe if I was doing like 9/ft, but 1 doesn't seem worth it.

A.R, and C.A. are doing good. Beautiful green color. A.R. is a bit shorter with wider blades and stem, but C.A. has it's second of leaves already. C.A already seems to be light hungry too. I need to modify my cab some, if I get a chance to finish tonight, I'll go to 18/6 tomorrow.

 

[Vas Deferens]

#2 is still pretty stressed, but shes holding on tight. The new growth looks good, and healthy.

Hey Fuggz, I has a super cali haze decimated by a slug at about 7 days old. left all but 1/2 a true leaf, i'd written her off, left her for dead. she hung on and fought back well, this her it is at 9 weeks old, 71cm , so hang in there with #2 !