Zen’s Winter Run 2025

Pipecarver said:

Hey, I have my 12v fan with a transformer and I ordered a 12v timer $20. I have 3- 12" pizza boxes, My microplaner is in the freezer,

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Nice! You’ve been busy.

Pipecarver said:

I have vinyl gloves and parchment paper. I have a frozen water bottle to hold when I'm not microplaning my sht to keep hands cold,

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I’m fairly confident the rubber gloves over winter gloves will work for hot and cold but I’ve never tried it with cold.

Pipecarver said:

as I write this I remember I want turkey bags, cooking bags to work the hash in....Fridge is working well. timer should be here this week. I'll get it all working and start drying my hash....much longer a process than dry sifting I thinks, Margarita's are working well.lol

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Ya it sounds more involved but I’m thinking you get more quantity this way. IDK

I noticed, when I checked my seed book to pick what I wanted this run, I might have something you mentioned.

20251001: Grease Monkey

A quick check this morning showed me a nice tail so into the soil they go.

Hmm, turns out the other is split and bulging but no tail yet. So it gets more time. It was the smaller of the two seeds.

Had the pots ready since yesterday. Let them soak for a while then put them in the tray. All the water they lost they mostly soaked back up over night.

These pots have everything already in the soil. It smells more like forest earth than peat if that makes sense. Earlier I sprayed the tote with the JMS spray but when I went to use it again it was off, had a funky smell so I dumped it out. Only lasts a few days and it’s been weeks. I did add a couple pinches of gypsum and epsom. Stick is in the empty pot.

I’ll check the seed tomorrow. Keeping it on the hot water tank for warmth.

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Peppers, banana, bell, Thai and cayenne are turning red now as well as tomatoes. The big mammoth sunflower has finally opened too.

Worms are wiggling along okay.

Going to try and collect a culture with rice and the forest earth I have left. Wasn’t able to find cedar Saturday so I’ll try these tins my wife had with a cloth over the top and a elastic.

Enjoy the warm weather.

Finally got around to trying to get an IMO collection.

Plastic is bad, but metal worked for Stonemason and I have that.


Partially cooked rice NOT packed down to 2/3 of the container.

Covered with tissue and an elastic. Excess was cut off before placing in the tote of forest earth.

I’ll leave it for a week and let you know how it turns out.

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Checking the levels on the worm farm I noticed more castings are dropping in but also what I believe is an egg sack in the bottom left side.

Good news. Means they are doing okay.

Zen_seeker said:

Nice! You’ve been busy.


I’m fairly confident the rubber gloves over winter gloves will work for hot and cold but I’ve never tried it with cold.


Ya it sounds more involved but I’m thinking you get more quantity this way. IDK

I noticed, when I checked my seed book to pick what I wanted this run, I might have something you mentioned.

Click to expand...

Oh I'm sure it will work, I have the vinyl gloves, I don't have rubber gloves and my gloves are too big. I need fine control over this operation, all boxes checked, all parts in place,, tools at the ready...assistance on stand by....then I'll smoke a joint and fk it up some how......I'm the guy that falls off bikes every time he rides now....remember that in future discussions. I didn't grasp things quickly before my recent head whacks and its not getting any better........I've seen video's of guys getting head whacked and learning a new language or become math wizzes or artists......I'm not seeing any of that yet....lol

A quick peek this morning shows the seed has a tail now. This is a smaller seed and the tail might be 1/8”. I’ll check again tonight.

The seedling pots are at 21* and 77RH over night.

20251002: Grease Money

Ones up! Moved to the top section of the tent. Just need the other one to get a longer tail.







Edit:
Checked the second smaller seed at 7pm. No noticeable change. Roots still wrapped around the side but sticks out now at least.

The tents up to 88%RH and 24*c. That’s with the hydrometer sitting on the pots. It’s higher now as I added the second seed and squirted water on the top to settle it in.

If the little one fails I have one seed left to continue. The other ones already a little taller already but the helmet might be a problem.

So we’re off.

20251003: Grease Monkey

Not much to look at yet. Ones only just planted and the other, although taller, still had the helmet on.

Really hoping that casing doesn’t become a problem later.

Quantum board LED is set to the lowest setting and is at 6300 LUX at that distance. (I like 6000-8000 for seedling but 5000-10000 is typical settings.)

Temperature has stayed in the 22*-24* range. Humidity has been 85-99%RH. (Spike occurred after adding the second seed and watering it in.)

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Making a sieve set to catch the worms and separate the castings. Need to finish the lid and make another larger mesh screen or two. Plan to use it for all gardening needs.

Just a larger and medium screen left to print once the lids done.

Black is PLA+ for the screens and shaking bin. Tan is PETG-GF and used as the collection bin and lid as it’s waterproof. (It’s that crappy Amazon PETG I grabbed on prime days. It SUCKS! Trying to use it up on things that don’t have detail and blemishes don’t matter.)

20251004: Grease Monkey

Yesterday the helmet was still firmly attached but this morning I noticed it was just hanging on so I removed it. However the membrane was dry and keeping the cotyledon closed.

I sprayed it lightly with water and came back in a few minutes to remove it without issue.

The other seed hasn’t come up yet but it’s only been underground for a day.

So we’ll wait a few more days and see if I need to pop the last seed or if the small one gets going.

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Making a sieve set to process and collect the castings. However the second screen started to smear the mesh so I had to stop the print. No idea what went wrong so I’ll have to deal with it later today.

Never buy this crap filament.

The lid looks like it was cut out of a damaged one side good plywood sheet. And that’s after a lot of cleaning and trimming. Justmaker PETG-GF just SUCKS!

Still waiting on seedling two to raise its head.

Decided today was harvest the worm bin day. It’s full and the cantaloupe and watermelon were gone.

Used the second bin to make a clean bed with a bit of the old soil for microbes. Added some watermelon, coffee grounds, eggshells and used tea leaves to follow.

Turned the bin upside down on the sieve and started putting worms into the clean bin. Lots of eggs to move over and a couple sawfly larvae I disposed of.

Then I moved anything too damp to paper tower to dry out. The rest I shake for the castings.

Then I search for any worms that squeeze through followed by a hunt for egg sacks. I found 5 worms, 30 eggs and 3 sawflies. The rest is clean with a bit of crushed eggshell.


Not a bad harvest for two weeks.

I would have gotten more but I found bugs in the damp bottom bedding that was clumped. It usually means a dead worms inside so I let it dry out over night with a fan. When I pulled it open with the rest of the damp parts to sieve out came hundreds of bugs.

Reached out to a couple buddies but didn’t get a reply before we’d had enough and just bagged all the remaining soil and bugs. Turns out they were soil mites just doing their thing.

Not big on ANY bugs in the house but if any made it to the new bedding I’ll leave them going forward. To me they looked like aphids but I know they don’t live underground.

Ah well, live and learn.

Well my home indoor IMO collection isn’t going well. The first of three was checked last night. The top looked okay but the bottom showed multiple colours including a dark stripe that’s not acceptable. (Not the soil striping but the fuzzy dark areas.)

I’ll check one of the remaining two on Tuesday or Thursday.

Maybe I should use the rabbit pellets, they seem good to go as is.