The James Gang

[H.A.F.]

Last year I grew a handfull of lions ear plants and the petals made into a tea is supposed to be a mild narcotic for sleep. I saved up a quart jar of the petals and just soaked them in Vodka to make a tincture I planned to reduce. I got that Vevor distiller and am pretty happy with it. I didn't feel bad dumping a quart of vodka in knowing it would be saved to be re-used.
So I used fresh vodka for the tincture then I ran it through a coffee filter before distilling. Since I am not just distilling water I can't just let it run dry (I distilled water and you can, and it has an auto shut-off). The process I have found is that I measure whatever I put in beforehand, then make sure to leave 200ml in the still. That covers the heating element with enough liquid that it won't make sludge.

Soooo I soak in a quart jar filled to 800ml, then that line on the out-put jar is at 600ml - and I have to be present. and not too stoned and wandering off .

But here's the interesting part. it boils hot enough to evap water, but alcohol flashes first. I tried that tincture (and it seemed to work) and there was very little if any alcohol bite to it. I think my jar labeled "re-distilled vodka" is probably edging closer to everclear. I got a cheap hydrometer to keep tabs on it, because I don't think a water tincture will last too long.

 

[SimpleJak]

I have a question for you, if i may. I apologize if you have covered it already. I am thinking about using rice hulls as a top layer like you do. How much of a pain is it to transplant, top feed/amend, or potentially add layer of fresh compost to the top of the pot. Do you remove the seed hulls before doing such? or just let them mix in and not worry and maybe top off with new fresh hulls?

Appreciate your thoughts!

 

[H.A.F.]

I have a question for you, if i may. I apologize if you have covered it already. I am thinking about using rice hulls as a top layer like you do. How much of a pain is it to transplant, top feed/amend, or potentially add layer of fresh compost to the top of the pot. Do you remove the seed hulls before doing such? or just let them mix in and not worry and maybe top off with new fresh hulls?

Appreciate your thoughts!

It can be a mess, so I have a large tray with a rim I do transplanting in. I think I end up with about a 1 inch layer, and I usually don't put down a cover crop until I put them in their final flowering pots - so it's mostly loose.

When it's loose I tip it into something then re-use it to cover the plant after I transplant. It's never enough so that layer gets covered with the pretty new stuff.

I have not been adding any compost or top dress except what I water in with the chuny sprouted seed teas. I will add fresh sifted castings at any time during the grow, and if you spread them around evenly you can ruffle the hulls with your fingers and get them to settle through. After a few waterings you can't tell.

After I harvest I pull all the cover crop and rice hulls off the top and I feed the green stuff to the worms. those rice hulls get mixed in with the soil when I reamend it.

Overall, they are a great backstop for when the cover crop doesn't do as well. cover crops grow through them easy though, and they don't compact like most mulches. They last the entire grow.

And don't hesitate to ask

 

[treefarmercharlie]

This is my first time using rice hulls and I’ve just been moving it with my hand to expose the soil in a 3”-4” spot. Then I top dress in the spot, cover back up, and then water on top of the spot with some recharge. It hasn’t been caking up on me and seems to be working well so far.

 

[SimpleJak]

It can be a mess, so I have a large tray with a rim I do transplanting in. I think I end up with about a 1 inch layer, and I usually don't put down a cover crop until I put them in their final flowering pots - so it's mostly loose.

When it's loose I tip it into something then re-use it to cover the plant after I transplant. It's never enough so that layer gets covered with the pretty new stuff.

I have not been adding any compost or top dress except what I water in with the chuny sprouted seed teas. I will add fresh sifted castings at any time during the grow, and if you spread them around evenly you can ruffle the hulls with your fingers and get them to settle through. After a few waterings you can't tell.

After I harvest I pull all the cover crop and rice hulls off the top and I feed the green stuff to the worms. those rice hulls get mixed in with the soil when I reamend it.

Overall, they are a great backstop for when the cover crop doesn't do as well. cover crops grow through them easy though, and they don't compact like most mulches. They last the entire grow.

And don't hesitate to ask

I appreciate the details! I figured these looked like the best option for a cover layer and they are already in my soil so i figured at the end of each run it would be easy to just mix them in while I am amending the old soil. Do you ever find you have too many hulls going back into your soil and throw off the ratio of what you would like your soil to be at? I am working on building my own vermicompost, so i dont have any worms breaking down the hulls over time, at the moment.

This is my first time using rice hulls and I’ve just been moving it with my hand to expose the soil in a 3”-4” spot. Then I top dress in the spot, cover back up, and then water on top of the spot with some recharge. It hasn’t been caking up on me and seems to be working well so far.

This sounds like what I will have to do as well. Ive been trying to evenly sprinkle my top dresses, do you notice it doesnt matter? Your method sounds simple. Ive seen earth boxes put it in one spot, but i feel those are a lot more soil and an ecosystem than my 5g pots without worms.

 

[treefarmercharlie]

I appreciate the details! I figured these looked like the best option for a cover layer and they are already in my soil so i figured at the end of each run it would be easy to just mix them in while I am amending the old soil. Do you ever find you have too many hulls going back into your soil and throw off the ratio of what you would like your soil to be at? I am working on building my own vermicompost, so i dont have any worms breaking down the hulls over time, at the moment.




This sounds like what I will have to do as well. Ive been trying to evenly sprinkle my top dresses, do you notice it doesnt matter? Your method sounds simple. Ive seen earth boxes put it in one spot, but i feel those are a lot more soil and an ecosystem than my 5g pots without worms.

I was worried it would cake doing it in a small spot but it’s been working well so far.

 

[Fiddler's Green]

This is my first time using rice hulls and I’ve just been moving it with my hand to expose the soil in a 3”-4” spot. Then I top dress in the spot, cover back up, and then water on top of the spot with some recharge. It hasn’t been caking up on me and seems to be working well so far.

Would you use them again?

 

[H.A.F.]

Do you ever find you have too many hulls going back into your soil and throw off the ratio of what you would like your soil to be at? I am working on building my own vermicompost, so i dont have any worms breaking down the hulls over time, at the moment.

I think only mixing in that mulch layer after harvest works well for me. About an inch layer and about 10-12" of used soil from that pot seems a good ratio. Once it gets mxed in they don't take long to break down, but on top they seem to last forever.

As a disclaimer, I dump pots every run and reamend. I know you aren't 'supposed' to do that with living soil but it works well. I get one run out of a pot. At the moment I just did my re-pots and have 3 of those 8g tubs full of amended rested soil ready for use, and I have this, ready to be dumped from the recent harvests.

I have 4 new ones from the Macchiato, and I snipped some leccuce to go with taco's last night. The pots there on the bottom are older and have some bok choi going to seed for more cover crop. I also have a sweet potato and avocado plant that were growing in my worm bin. I let it rest (and keep them moist) until I need to dump them. usually the root ball is rotted away back to the 1g- or cup-size rootball once I pull it, s there's not much to sift. And I only put it through a 1/2" bucket-grid to get clumps of roots out so they aren' decomposing during the next grow creating hot spots.

 

[H.A.F.]

Updated the contest page, heres the other stuff. Two mutant Sour Hebrew left to sex. The three Rasperry are on the right, The JD Skunk is back left. All lost lower fans due to branches hitting them. The JDS got to keep a lower fan due to a runty limb under it. headline is in the middle and has perfect Christmas tree structure under those fans, but they aren't stretching to the leaves so everything is still there. Dirty Taxi is the other 7g and it lost a few lowers but kept some. All these may still lose lower limbs as the pistils start popping.

These got watered with everything else and tomorrow they get 5g pots and a few days before flip.

 

[H.A.F.]

This shows the branches better

 

[H.A.F.]

Here's the first three plants of the Macchiato. on the right that's the two shoulder nugs from just under the top. Not much from any plant, but you ain't picking up 4 sacks like this at a dispo.

I left the crows feet on them because they looked cool. I think of the trichomes like varnish in how it cures for storage. I like the solid containers to get them cured in so it doesn't get sqished as much. After about a month it can go in the sacks.

 

[H.A.F.]

I have one more of those Macchiato x Jaro left hanging. Dank and fuelly/cheesy smelling until I jarred the one this morning and it has a grape fuel thing instead of the cheese. Grape Gas? Hmmmm

The one still hanging went longest (obviously) but it also has a different, looser/puffier bud structure. Not much, but enough to make me think there's another smell coming. For now it has coffee and sassafrass undertones.

 

[H.A.F.]

I was repotting tonight then I got to sifting worm bins - wow. I have tons of worms and castings. The lower trays of the bins were mostly breeding clumps of worms in the corners and castings. I have enough stuff saved up that I can do a mostly-canna worm bin, or at least a few trays. I have woody limbs that I cut into pieces as I save them, dried foliage, leaf stems, bud stems from the ash tray, etc. to replace a lot of the cardboard I usually use for the bedding.

I was saving the woody stuff to do a hugel type bed, or a large pot I didn't dump, but I don't think I want to do that any more. The container that says "top dress" is just canna foliage sifted fine and malted barley. I used to add kelp until I learned about the growth hormones it can release at the wrong time if it is a big soil component. But I don't top-dress unless it's castings so It's more worm food now. I think I still need the cardboard so it doesn'e turn to sludge when wet. The "logs" were going to be the base of the hugel - now I have to either cut them up like the upper tray or just sift them out of the bins every time until they break down.

 

[H.A.F.]

Got the 6 plants potted. All fems and most will flip in a few days.

I also dropped 15 beans, mostly 707 regs. 2 Sherbet Sunrise, 2 Potion D'amour, 2 Catpiss Kush, 2 Comet Fuel, 2 Snow Cone, then 2 FrostyMacFish, 2 CLHP fems, and a NYC Piff x Lemon Tree fem tester also from 707.

 

[H.A.F.]

Thinking out loud...
I have the Cookie Breath that is a slow plant with 6 runty limbs. I always have to consider that I actually did get a runt and the rest of the pack is not as slow. But she's healthy amd should produce a little bit ofgood flower. No bigger pot for her because she vegged longer. Poor roots.

The Headlights is the free pack I got that was a mis-filled order. The NL5 Haze cross instead of the Shoreline cross I ordered. The tiny-tree Headline (Shoreline cross) I just flipped is to see how close plant #2 is the supreme fire that was plant #1. This Skunktek dude gets talked about in a Mean Gene interview, and is "the guy down the road that can't kill clones". The guy brings over jars to smoke and they decide which plants Skunktek should cull, then later the guy hasn't culled anything. Like a crazy cat lady but with plants. But he mentions the Headband reversal and the podcast was about a year old.

So there's that I did .25ml of a 1ml RSO syringe before bed last night. 8 hours later my ears are ringing. A bong-rip of Sour Puss was like a beer chaser in the morning for an alcoholic. But I feel much better this way LOL.

The Flamethrower (Cowboy Lemonade x Headbanger Truffle), Flashback '68 (???), Blue Jack City (Blueberry x Jack Herer) and Sour Puss (California Sour x Lemon OG x Critical Kush) are all fems that were freebies from MonkeyDog. I mentioned that I loved the Sour Puss and Peter at Dagga tossed in a 10-pack. So I have lined the dudes pockets quite a bit - but he doesn't hoard stuff he was given to give away, and return customers get treated aw rturn customers. No complaints from them or CSI.

In hearing a few different people on podcasts talking about how 'sour' is supposed to look, this is just a comparison shot since the pic ain't great. On the right is a Bees Knees from 707 (GMO x Kush Cleaner) Which is very nice but has oxydized a little more than the Sour Puss on the left. Both chopped last August, and both still reek and dump kief.

But they talk about the sour being "silvery looking spears" and this is the top of one of those spears. Very nice freebie so I dropped the selection. Nothing bad to say about this lesser-known breeder so far. I don't think he even sells packs there yet. The best publicity is free I guess.

Did I mention that I am pretty high right now? - Those terp bags don't seem bad for storage. I have the snap-lock/seal plastic containers with the big rH packs outside the bags. My little dorm-sized wine-fridge is only set at 60f so it's more like really cool room temperature than refridgeration. Makes the electricity cheap as hell too.

 

[H.A.F.]

All that - and I forgot I was thnking about flipping that veg tent and where they can fit. Since the tall two Chunksters in the closet have don't actually take much room, I can fit one or two more in there if need be. But those shade leaves are daunting. I think I could balance a roll of pennies on that big one. It has to be super important to the plant right? Best to leave them alone and if another WNBA chick shows up she can join the big girls club.

The 4 Chunks in the 3.5' x 3.5' are medium size plants, and are right at the decision point to lose lowerr stuff. The stretch is mostly done and the slower sites that eill make a decent nug are apparent. If they go now, better for the rest of the plant. And looking for spots to hook up wires and stuff makes pinching a shoot off easy. Tightening them up to make room seems the best option.

I can fit 9 per tent if I have a shelf set in the corner over the low fan. I don't like them blowing across the surface of the soil dryingsome plants more than others. The floor fan is stationary and just moves the air under the pots on a low speed. That fan is going 24/7 but the oscillators onlycome on with the timer, between the canopy and the lights. I had my first AC Infinity fan start clicking. I bought it as a pre-production release or shortly thereafter so it lasted really long for an oscillating fan. I e-mailed to ask if I could fix it or if it was trash. As I expected after hearing from others the replacement should be on the way this week.


I can fit nine 5g in the 3x3 if needed as long as they don't stretch past the pot edge up where it matters. I have 6 in the 4' x 4', 7 if the whorled Sour Hebrew pop's female. Not a fan of Best Coast so far. Dudes and duds. 10-11 plants in two tents leaves 7-8 empty spots and I need 6.

Veg flips tonight. I think I figured stuff out

 

[H.A.F.]

The Sour Puss is very sandy-sticky. If I was plucking the stems out of a bunch I would put on gloves. It has an effervescent lemon-lime soda kind of smell, but light on the fake citrus. There's a definite sour so maybe it's more like a fermented citrus. Real nice.

 

[H.A.F.]

I already have tracking info for my new fan. I was going to buy another one to keep on hand as the spare, now I don't have to. I learned early that the oscillating fans are pretty much doomed to fail so having a spare of that and a the exhaust makes sense if you have the room. Two things that would adversely effect the grow if they went down until you could buy a new one and get the replacement installed. Even as prompt as AC has been it'll be a few days.

 

[H.A.F.]

All full up again. Good thing I dropped beans last night LOL
Three Chunks

2 Chunks, Platty Ice, 3 Rasboogies and a Skunk.

And the just flipped with the Headline and the Dirty Taxi - and the androgenous SHN.

 

[Fiddler's Green]

You got a full plate vato