Hey folks! Time for another update here. I have just about finished up-potting everything. Some of it could have waited, but I had the money, time, and help to get a bunch of stuff done, so I just did it. My Cannabis mother plant is almost hitting the ceiling, I actually had to tilt the light and offset the plant. I will be taking some cuttings to top her so she will bush out a bit more later this week. The clones I cut a few weeks back are starting to grow nicely
I have a bit of work to do to get the efficiency of light to optimal. I have just not really paid much attention to my Cannabis since I started this endeavor, but now that things are settling down onto a basic auto-pilot I have more time to fiddle with it.
The Sceletium tortuosm (Kanna) has continue to grow steadily. Not fast, but steady. It is growing some of the coolest patterns and spikes on it! This has been a really cool plant to grow. Really fun to watch!
The Anadenanthera peregrina were all a bust once more. I gave them 2.5 months before I checked them and all were rotted away. I began another round of 6 seeds. 15 minute white vinegar soak, 15 minute hydrogen peroxide soak, 18 hour GA3 soak at roughly 100-300 ppm. Will plant in a mixture of sand and perlite. Also, one of my Entada rheedi seeds also rotted pretty badly. I was speaking with a friend on these seeds in particular. He said he did not have great success with them either, and we thought perhaps leaving it soak in salt water for a week before planting, and for the first few days, up to maybe 2 weeks watering with salty ocean water. This would mimic it's natural environments a bit more. I may order a few more seeds to attempt this method.
The Nicotina rustica has taken off. I currently have one indoor and one outdoor. A little experiment I decided to do. The indoor is very short and stocky, while the outdoor seems to be stretching a bit. I may need to move it to more direct sunlight. The indoor one also seems to be flowering already. My light cycle is 16/8, but they get light through the windows in the early a.m. as well.
The Calea zacatechichi (Dream Herb) grow like a dang weed, as I have mentioned before. It was so tall I topped it and now it is bushing nicely. I dried the leaves and made a tea last night. I ended up in an argument with my partner and did not end up sleeping for almost 5 hours after I drank it, so, while I know I dreamed something, I was unable to remember it this morning, and besides a slight shift in perception while I was away, was pretty unremarkable. More tests are needed.
The Lactuca virosa (Wild Lettuce) have all slowed down a bit in their growth, but seem to be pretty healthy. I may try to up-pot one to see if it just needs more room for roots to grow larger. I think they grow pretty large in the wild, if I am not mistaken, so I will experiment with that a little bit and post it here when I come to any conclusions.
The Peganum harmala (Syrian Rue) still continues to grow outwards and toward the dead center of light distribution. The one that was outdoor was not very happy so I moved it in after a "decontamination" process to assure I wasn't bringing in any creepy crawlies. It was not growing at all and it was starting to brown on the bottom. I think I got it taken care of, though.
Desmanthus illinoiesis (Illinois Bundleflower) I ran into a bit of a snag with these guys. Apparently these little guys DO NOT like to be fed. They were given 1/4 strength Roots Organic Terp Tea. It is what I feed most of my plants, along with recharge, enzymes, cal/mag, and black strap molasses. This burned the bottom leaves off, but they are still alive. The one outside reacted much better to the one inside. I am not sure what variable made this occur.I also notice that the plant outside folds its leaves down much more often, which I thought was a direct result of light, but I have a theory that it may have to do with some combination of light, moisture, barometric pressures, and possible one or two other unknown stimuli.
The Voacanga africana cutting is really thriving after a good feeding. As you can see the leaves are really starting to take off. They have stayed at a pretty steady "praying" stance since they began to grow, which leads me to believe that it may be getting too much light. I think I may move it somewhere where it doesn't get so much.
Rivea corymbosa is chugging along, slow and steady wins the race with this little guy. Probably due to the lack of light it got where it was in the back window, so I decided to move it a bit under the light to give her a bit of encouragement
Cathula edulis (Khat) has been quite the slow grower. Same as my Erythroxylum nongravatense (Javanese Coca), which are much older than the Khat. But I personally wonder if perhaps the stimulants may take longer to grow for this reason: Stimulants give you a lot of energy, well, in a world where energy is not created or destroyed, it would take a lot of plant energy to create the energy we experience when partaking in these sacred plants. Just an idea, but I like it
Nelumbo Nucifera is doing great. 3/5 grew successfully and all now have healthy shoots! This was a fun endeavor, and I have learned very much. And another cool thing is that the N. nucifera helped me learn to the point to where I also not have a Nymphea carulea sprouting as well, which gave me the confidence to plant the remaining carulea seeds I have left in an entirely new aquarium.
Datura stramonium [And I just realized I have Datura wrightii seeds too lol.] had showed up as a surprise. Just interesting to watch this beautiful plant grow. It seems so harmless right now, but I know better!
Took about 1/2-3/4 of an oz of mushrooms and put them in some honey to micro-dose. Now up in the cabinet for 2 months they go.
Heimia salicifolia (Sinicuichi) seems to be doing alright. Looks healthy enough, but I am not noticing any new growth on it. It may need more light. Also, it is a shrub, so the growth is different, so I may just be missing it. Also, I was wondering if perhaps it would grow faster/larger with a good trimming from time to time. Any insights?
Withania somnifera (Ashwaganda) is another interesting plant to grow. The growth comes in on the tips in a very wispy way, before flattening out an becoming a more uniform bottom leaf, as new growth wisps in above it.
I
my plants!
Papaver somniferum (Poppy) round 2 has come in so full that I am really confused at how to trim it back at this point. I may just let it go and see what happens. I am sure that a few will just take over and the others will just wilt away and become food. I will have to be more sparing when I plant these in the future. I planted 2 new pots of these yesterday. I will be keeping them in the same room as my Cannabis.
Trachelospermum jasminoides (Star Jasmine) continue to grow well. I also have one inside and one outside. The one outside is a bit fuller, despite being in almost complete shade. It gets about 4 hours of sun in the AM. The one under the lights has begun to come in better, though. There are no more goofy colors on the new growth
Nothing new to really report on the Areca catechu (Betel), but here is a photo for funsies
Couple cacti, I believe perivian torch, idk because I dropped it and the labels came out of the soil lol
The Echinacea purpurea, after a long period of stagnance, has taken right off. Not much else to report and I am running out of time. It's my step-daughter's birthday and they will be home in 10 minutes, so I am trying to wrap this up lol.
Mitragyna speciosa (Kratom) is growing, although very slowly. I think I over-watered it when I first got it, so the roots need some time to heal. It is growing though, ever so slowly
The Hyssopus officinalis (Hyssop) is going along quite nicely, and seems to be much happier in direct sunlight. Ever since I moved it back inside under the lights, she seems to be very happy.
Last, but not least for the slide show. I think I made a mistake with the Lion's Mane mushrooms, but I may still be able to correct it. I overlooked the fact that LM are a wood loving mushroom, and probably aren't the best for a manure based substrate or vermiculite, so I boiled some pine chips in water for 2.5 hours, cooled them, and mixed them with the substrate. I am hoping this hits it out of the park lol. Also, this gave me an idea about the Amanita muscaria spores and culture I have. Not only will I attempt to form a symbiosis with the roots of the living tree, but I may try to cultivate some using the spare wood chips from my livestock. I am fully aware that this may not work, but hell, it's for science. Photos are of both the Ancient Pine and the substrate/pine chip mix.
That is gonna do it for me this week. As always, if anyone has any questions (not like I have millions of followers, lol, but I like to put it out there), please ask and I will do my best to answer. I did not take photos of any of the morning glories, this time (sorry, Void) They are all still alive and well, but they look like this tangle of a mess that just doesn't look very photogenic, currently. I may do some work with them this week and hopefully have some photos next week. I also have noticed that the ones in the window in back are flowering, as well at one of the ones on the front porch, but a few have not begun yet, so I will have to do some reading to answer the question of "why" on that subject this weekend as well. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed.
Have a blessed week.
May we continue to be blessed