Im a little torn because I dont know if i should be chopping my cover crop or use it as a living mulch. What is more beneficial to the whole living soil aspect of things? I have Build a Soil fertilizers Craft Blend and Build a Bloom so im not too concerned with nutrients. Also didnt know when a good time would be to use the build a bloom because someone showed a chart at how long it takes for it to become available to the plant.
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BaB is fast acting. I still have a bag kickin round for lazy days, a quick booster, or seedlings. Craft blend is more like 3-5 wks.
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So would I need to build a bloom maybe on week 3? I wonāt put close to the seedling but border the pot to be broken down for when the roots reach out that way. I also think I have spider mites and thrips but not 100%. They somewhat look like predatory mites.
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Red spider mite. Not a good fella
BaB is great at any stage. If I have a germ sprout with reddish stem, I put a pinch right on/around it. Then give it a couple pumps of the mister. That solves that almost overnight.
If using BaB and craft blend. Add CB 2 wks before transition with gypsum, oyster flour and langbenite. Hit it again on Wk1 with more CB & gypsum. Do the end wk4 with CB & langbenite. Water weekly with BaB from before transition through wk6 flowering.
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I read spider mites have eight legs which made me think it was a predatory mite like the one in the link. Either way I hit up Arbico organics and bought persimillis mites and cucumeris satchets. Supposed to target spider mites and thrips so weāll see.
I appreciate the timeline of feed I was confused when people mentioned two weeks for it to break down and hitting the nutrients at the right time. I would assume my pot has the nutrients needed for an auto grow and I may only have to supplement towards flowering.
Are you biased to chopping the crop opposed to living mulch? I know you mentioned the bug issues but if I got that remedied would living mulch be more beneficial?
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That was a photo break down. Autos use way less nutrition and finish faster. I donāt grow them.
Maybe I am bias towards chopping and recycling the nutrition. Itās all a moot point once flowering hits, and it gets choked out from lack of light; maybe not with autos though. The mulch layer keeps things moist up top anyway. Iād say, do what you will and let the chits fall where they may.
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I wish the lab was accessible. Agrestic showed those red mites (bad ones) completely web tops of flowers and make web (rope) lines to all the branches for easy traveling. There were thousands upon thousand sucking it dry. It was cool and sad to see.
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Yeah the best way to learn, i just didnāt want to waste another 23 days of growing for something to happen. Last time was a true herm so out of my control but Iāve been growing almost month and a half now and only have a seedling to show lol
Iām still on the fence of them being spider mites but I went and soaked everything in spinosad before those predatory bugs arrive tomorrow. I see the issue in coating it all but I think I did a decent job. Now hereās to hoping I donāt kill my good bugs 
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Good call. I like to rotate Azamax, Spinosad & BT on a 4 day cycle for 3 wks. Thatās so they donāt build up an immunity.
Edit: if those are the good guys, what are they eating to stay alive? Also, where did they come from? @Bigcbud
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Yes @greenjewels donāt let me only harass @Budbrother
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Pop a squat ta talk pot and cover crop
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I have a lot of black thrips I believe and they are possibly eating them or there is a little bit of spider mites that I am not seeing yet. They have the pointed face and the three legs that they describe most predatory mites with.
Iām a little strange and I pull in cardboard pieces from my vermicompost that have springtails and soil mites on them to introduce to my soil like every 3-5 days. There are no living plants in it for the thrips or spider mites so not sure how I got thrips but I can see mite carcasses when I microscope the cardboard in the bin.
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spinosad on leaves has a half life of 2-16 days when exposed to sunlight. As long as you give it a week or so to beak down you should be ok. In case you ever have questions about pesticide use http://npic.orst.edu/ is an excellent resource. Just enter a pesticide in the search bar and it will bring up a fact sheet as well as links to sources and studies.
Also after the conversation about cover crop the other day I decided to cut mine down and see. I uncovered some small mushrooms which promptly shriveled and died within 24 hours, but I was having problems with high humidity which pretty much stopped in the same time frame. Not sure if those are pros or cons yet, but info none the less. It is a lot easier to water now that my watering can isnāt getting tangled in cover crop.
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Day 3-
Woke up to my girl praying and speaking in tongues.
The cover crop is starting to really crack out now so Iāve debated chopping the larger covers to prevent choking out light from my plant and the small ones underneath.
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Ya know, it just occurred to me. Did you use a bale of straw from the feed store or a packaged product? Straw that has been sitting outside un packaged is likely to be full of bugs and such. Could that be the source of your pests? I use local straw grown down the road and I pasteurize it before bringing it into the grow room to avoid such issues.
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I bought this because I figured there were no pesticides used because was for animal bedding.
Most of the bugs came from my vermicompost, it should only be a mix of decomposers and their predators. May not eliminate all the pests but definitely keep at bay.
2,000 of these
And 25,000 of these
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Looking good brother, looking very goodā¦ Iām going start my journals for fast buds in bout a week jus waiting on few items for my soil mixā¦I like to say tho your lil seedling coming along nice manā¦ I hope the best for you brother keep on growing an that wedding train auto Is amazing grew to 4 n half ft n gave me over an ounce an half after drying even tho I did chop a lot of branches off ā¦ I think your going really like wedding train when u get to grow her shit your going love all the strains I sent you ā¦ but I canāt wait to see how this girl comes out
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