4th cycle in no till Earthbox

[7munkee]

Gonna be a good day!!

 

[7munkee]

Day 39 from seed, day 7 of flower. I decided to do a bit of defoliation and added a third fan.

I spent Wednesday in contemplation from Tuesday's escapade, and I feel terrific. It's been a few years since and I really needed that.

This grow has been flawless so far. The only input has been water and a light compost tea last week. No spots on leaves or burnt tips.

 

[7munkee]

Day 11 of flower, day 43 from seed. I made some sprouted seed tea (safflower, corn, barley) and took some cuttings from 3 of the four.

I soaked the peat plugs in the sprouted seed tea (SST)and popped the cuttings in. I've had notoriously bad luck at rooting clones and an old farmer friend suggested I use SST. We will see.

Temps and humidity right on point. 79 Fahrenheit and 63% humidity. I didnt expect this much stretch with all the horizontal training, but I have plenty of room in my tent.

I had to adjust my light at an angle to keep PPFD consistent across the canopy.

Ethos says it's a medium stretcher. I am an Indica guy, so I'm not used to lots of stretch.

 

[7munkee]

Day 21 flower, day 53 from seed. Filling each reservoir with 3 gallons of tap water every other day now. Had to reposition my lights because of uneven stretch. Must be slightly different amounts of prosperous in each box.

I expected a bit more stretch than I'm used to but this has almost tapped my tent out. I'm 6 inchers from the top now in a 6' tent. Hard to believe all 4 were the exact same height on the scrog when I flipped lights.

I cleaned up the bottom of leaves and removed a lot of pre-larf sites. I have done general defoliating each day or so since the beginning of veg. Temps have been rising in my tent and are up to mid-eighties now. In another couple weeks I will begin to drop them and lower ppfd. I'm at 75% power on all 3 lights and have a ppfd of 850 in the corners and 1100 in the center.

Frosty sugar leaves already. Hope my cuts of this one root.

 

[socks4free]

JUNE 29
Late June my jars began to run low. What started out in the beginning of May as 14 ounces of frosty Bruce Banner and 3 ounces of Knows Candy became 4 ounces of Bruce Banner. As I was looking through my seed collection, I noticed a pack of Banna Daddy fem photos that I didnt know I had. It's a cross between Banana Hammock and Grand Daddy Purple. I soaked some peet pods and planted 4 seeds in them.

I have been using the same 2 EarthBoxes for the last 3 cycles and have added nothing to the soil except 1 cup of seed meal and 2 cups castings at the beginning of each cycle. The pods go directly in the soil when the seeds pop.

JULY 3
Seeds popped and pods planted in EarthBoxes with some mycorrhiza. I added some seed meal that I made from organic heirloom corn and organic heirloom barley that was germinated until the root was about 1/2 inch long. I also added 2 cups of worm castings and then watered with some compost tea (made directly from my cold compost pile) to activate it with a plethora of microbes.

JULY 11
All four plants are growing, however the one in the back left seems to be having a small issue. It's quite a bit behind the other four and has yellow edges on a couple leaves. This one was planted w/o mycorrhiza because I forgot to add it to its hole so there is that.
View attachment 2016533

JULY 14

Growing rapidly, even the back left has started to pick up a bit more steam

View attachment 2016534

JULY 27
Just about big enough to add the metal trellis I made out of fencing and this will be the first time I fill the resevoirs. Each is an 18-gallon SIP with a 3-gallon reservoir...2 cubic feet of soil in each.
View attachment 2016547


JULY 29
Adding the trellis today and will begin the daily tucking.View attachment 2016548

JULY 31
The back 2 plants are a bit shorter than the front. This may take a bit longer to fill the trellis that i had originally thought. I was hoping to have it full in 30 days. But it may go 33.
View attachment 2016557

Remember, this is the 4th cycle in this same soil and I've added nothing but home-made seed meal and worm castings before each cycle. Water only from germination to harvest. Their health is exceptional, and the growth is explosive for being only 28 days old.

The trellis is 6 inches above the soil if you were wondering.View attachment 2016564

And the whole tent is lit by a 300-watt Maxsisun on 75% for 18 hours (average 575 ppfd) and air is circulated by 3 small clip fans. I also run a humidifier on medium to keep the humidity at like 65% for a tolerable VPD of ~1.06. with my temps running about 78-degrees freedom units.

I'm curious what you do at harvest. Do you remove the roots and shit? Or do you let the soil break them down?

 

[7munkee]

I'm curious what you do at harvest. Do you remove the roots and shit? Or do you let the soil break them down?

I leave them in. The worms and fungus eat them fairly quickly once the plant is chopped off. And then they become nutrients. Probably phosphorous.

 

[socks4free]

I leave them in. The worms and fungus eat them fairly quickly once the plant is chopped off. And then they become nutrients. Probably phosphorous.

Awesome, that's what I plan on doing with my outdoor plants this year as I'm trying to build a permaculture garden there with 4 kinds of clovers, alfalfa, yarrow, and other plants that grow in my area and have benefits for my plants too so just gonna plant cover crops right over it and hope it's completely gone by spring when I'm ready to bring my plants outside again.

 

[7munkee]

Awesome, that's what I plan on doing with my outdoor plants this year as I'm trying to build a permaculture garden there with 4 kinds of clovers, alfalfa, yarrow, and other plants that grow in my area and have benefits for my plants too so just gonna plant cover crops right over it and hope it's completely gone by spring when I'm ready to bring my plants outside again.

NEVER pull roots outside. And chop and drop any plant part that you are not going to eat. I like to keep recycling the nutrients that I don't consume back into the soil. The biology will process it quick.

 

[socks4free]

NEVER pull roots outside. And chop and drop any plant part that you are not going to eat. I like to keep recycling the nutrients that I don't consume back into the soil. The biology will process it quick.

I'm gonna be using the plant scraps to add to the jadam JLF I am making to use as a liquid fertilizer for next year's grow. But yeah I let the dead leaves stay where they drop. Last year.i.did pull the roots but I threw them in my compost pile and used the compost as part of.my growing medium this year so it ended up getting used anyways. But I'm gonna leave the roots this year and just let nature do it's thing.

 

[7munkee]

Had to add a second trellis. Things are gonna get top heavy in a couple weeks.

 

[7munkee]

My grandkids were laying on the trampoline tonight looking at the stars. They witnessed 21 lights in the sky going in a straight line. They appeared and disappeared one by one after traveling about 9 seconds each. There were I told them about Elon's Starlink launch tonight. They seemed visibly disappointed. 

Day 30 of flower, day 62 from seed. The Earthbox on the left is going through 3 gallons of water in 3 days and the Earthbox on the right is going through 3 gallons of water every other day. Lights on full now and I have no idea what PAR levels are. My buddy has my meter. But I'm assuming its well over 1000 becasue my lights are close to some buds.

The Maxissun is rated 850-1100 ppfd at 18 inches. I'm 3 inches from some. The Atriums are rated 800 950 ppfd at 18 inches. They are about the same...3 inches from some buds.

I

I've managed to keep temps tolerably, 85-day,75-night. (Freedom units) and humidity at a solid 48%. My ambient co2 levels are over 900ppm most of the day. No issues so far.

I've gotten the bottom as cleaned up as I want so there is decent airflow.

Another week and I'll start to dim the light back every 3 or 4 days.

 

[7munkee]

Day 38 of flower, day 70 from seed.

Been filling up both reservoirs every other day now. All four plants look good other than some light light-stress on a few of the upper leaves. Triches swelling up and becoming visible, even to my old blind eyes.

I had to bend the ones plants branches down to make my canopy more even. I fastened them with baling twine. I did my best to lay them between other tops. I'll have to watch for bananas on this one in the next few weeks.

Still water only since seed.

 

[7munkee]

One of these girls are farther along than the others.

 

[7munkee]

Day 45 flower, day 77 from seed. Everything going still along great. Still filling reservoir very other day.

I am guessing about another 25-days.

I started 4 more fem photo seeds for my first next grow.

Alien Gorilla Glue

Girl Crush

OG Kush

Blue Widow

My sons wanted more flavors and that is what they are gonna get. OG is my favorite

 

[7munkee]

Day 53 flower, day 85 from seed.

85 days with NOTHING BUT WATER. I love these Earthboxes!

Half the colas are laying on the sides from the weight above the top trellis. I have a few tied up with string.

I took some clones while I was defoliating during the third week of flower. I plopped them in half a bottle of water, placed them in my windowsill, and promptly forgot about them.

To my surprise they are still alive. I stuck them under one of my Atrium Hydras and will pot them tonight.

These things WANT to live!!!

Triches are starting to cloud up pretty heavily and a few on top are turning amber. I like 40% amber.

Started a few new seeds for next run.

 

[7munkee]

My son received an MM card today. It allows him a maximum 2000 grams per month. If that is right then it allows him 4.3 lbs per month.

I couldn't go through 4lbs a year on my own.

 

[7munkee]

Day 59 of flower, day 91 from seed. I cut the colas off of one of the four plants and now my canopy is pretty even. I lowered my light 8 inches to help the bottom buds swell up a bit in the next week and they will probly go in 10 days.

Seedlings are ready to plant. 3 of the 4 I started are looking pretty good.

Hope they can hold out another 10 days in the small pots.

 

[7munkee]

Dried, trimmed, and jarred. 436 grams of smokable trimmed flower and 116 grams of trim for bubble.

436 grams for 289 watts is 1.5 grams per watt.

I LOVE these Earthboxes!