nathenking
Well-Known Member
green houses are the way to go my man..
I took a quick read at your thread. I like how things are turning out!Hey VG, you have an awesome garden. What do you think of my first attempt do far? Thanks for your advice to get me started.
View attachment 1120611
really awesome transplanting method..OK, I'll try to get this right. I'm still trying to figure out how to insert the photos into the text.
View attachment 954569View attachment 954640
These are pix of the ingredients that go into my potting mix for transplants. I used young Tomato plants for this tutorial.
Epsom salts(Magnesium)
Liquid Ironite(A good mix of Micronutrients)
OreGro(unavailable unless you run into someone who used to sell it, as I did. Volcanic ash will replace it.
Superthrive(which I use any time the possibility of stress exists.)
Cytozyme Lab's Soil(Derived from bacteria, this product accelerates bacterial activity, making more nutes available.)
Depending on my mood or observations, I'll often add, in small quantities,
Sulfate of Ammonia 21-0-0
Fish emulsion
Seaweed Emulsion
Beneficial Fungi
Guano
It is easy to over do this!
Err on the light side.
View attachment 954642View attachment 954677
These pix show the potting soil and additives before adding water. Water helps the nutes to mix evenly in the potting soil. Note how this inexpensive potting soil has little perlite in it. This is a good thing.
View attachment 954645
Another shot, showing the bottle of Superthrive and newsprint I use to line each pot. This replaces gravel to help keep soil from washing out the drainage holes.
View attachment 954704View attachment 954644View attachment 954706
The middle pix shows the consistency of the mix, which resembles runny oatmeal. Not how I line the pots with newsprint, taking care to keep it below the soil level, to avoid wicking moisture away from the roots.
The paper helps during future transplants by protecting roots from the air. The roots easily penetrate the paper into new soil when placed in a larger pot.
View attachment 954643View attachment 954641
I use a small tub to catch runoff from the slurried mix, returning it to the bucket, periodically.
View attachment 954647
I add slurry up to the desired level. I usually remove lower leaves so that I can place the young plant deeper. This adds stem that can generate more roots.
With Cannabis I usually add rooting powder to help new roots form. Not so, with tomatoes.
View attachment 954646
I place the young plant into the slurry.
View attachment 954735View attachment 954649
I pour slurry around the root ball, taking care to hold the plant upright until the plant is stable.
There are a lot of reasons to use the Slurry Method.
The water washes the soil into all the gaps around the root ball.
The water compacts the soil to a perfect density, making good contact with feeder roots, while leaving plenty of tiny gaps for air to carry oxygen to the roots.
By adding small amounts of nutrients to the soil, the transplant does a light but thorough feeding, that would be very difficult to accomplish with most other methods.
View attachment 954648View attachment 954736
All done. I placed them in a greenhouse, where they vegged until the weather warmed up.
View attachment 954562
One of the plants a few weeks later, just prior to going in the ground.
A couple are only showing a few flowers. None are really showing buds, yet.
Yes, this is the latest I've seen things bloom. Many other things in my garden are very slow, as well.
We got the net over the big girl. It is serving its purpose, but agreed, it was a lot of work. By next Spring, I'm going to come up with a solution. Had I known this cross would get so large, it would have gone outdoors. Hybrid vigor is amazing.Hi gardener,
Hows the net working for you? In my case it was just to difficult to put over them so I removed the panels and used pvc and plastic.
I took off the front panels and used it there though, works good, holds up the lower branches:
Thanks for the idea man.
looks like you got the central cali caterpillar problem too hahahaThanks for the kind words!
Yes.Hey there VG, I see on post #695 you have a pic of the stock of one of your plants...I notice the dry crumbly leaves near the inside and bottom of plant. As my beauties continue in flowering stage I to am getting a lot of these type of crispy leaves. Normal is it?
Once the buds begin to tighten, if we get rain, I shake the buds/plants to remove excess moisture. Wind usually takes care of the rest.VG, in post # 671 you talk about things slow to bloom this year. I was wondering, with this late bloom possible bring us into a later harvest month, where we are going to have to worry about rain and protecting our plants from rain. What do you do about rain with your plants that arent inside a greenhouse. I really dont want to have to deal with problems rain may cause. Any suggestions?
I was told about bud worms in 1980. My Grandmother suggested Bt for tomato horn worms about the same time. I found it worked on bud worms, too. In all these years, I've seen fewer than 100 bud worms, total. Last year I saw one live one, and another dead. Both were about 1/4 inch long. I've seen 3 tomato horn worms over the same periodlooks like you got the central cali caterpillar problem too hahaha
I'll bet a pic of a butterfly called "Fiery Skipper" will look a lot like your butterfly.Whats up Veggie plants still looking nice. Have been seeing more moths lately a reddish brown colored one in particular. Stop by I put up some new pics of the gurls. dirrtyd
The only serious infestation i've had was about six years ago.I too have found a few of the caterpillers even though I spray every third day, they seem to like one plant in particular...