Ep 030: Grow Vegetables Inside the 10x10

0:19 — 4:09

Quadrant one — Halitosis recycled vs non-recycled

Jeremy opens at day 37 of flower in quadrant one where both plants are Halitosis but one is in a recycled EarthBox and the other in a non-recycled 3.0 box. The non-recycled plant produced more early on while the recycled box had moisture-wicking issues and has grown slower but is darker and has more nutrition. He peels back the cover showing rove beetles, a stray fungus gnat, orb mites, feeder roots, worm movement and a healthy bloom of fuzzy white mycelium triggered by last episode's ground-up gnarly barley, kashi blend and liquid fish top dress. He reassures viewers that this fuzzy white growth is beneficial, not a problem.

1. 1. Walk quadrant one and compare recycled vs non-recycled EarthBox Halitosis
2. 2. Pull back mulch cover to inspect soil biology
3. 3. Identify rove beetles, orb mites, feeder roots, worm movement and fuzzy mycelium
4. 4. Explain previous top dress: ground gnarly barley, kashi blend and liquid fish
5. 5. Note the recycled box broke its moisture connection — plan top watering to restore it

4:09 — 6:14

IPM philosophy — bugs with jobs

Jeremy reframes IPM as recognising that most creatures in a no-till bed are beneficials with jobs — rove beetles, predator mites, worms — and that a fungus gnat on its own is rarely worth killing a plant over. He warns that for people who can't stand bugs in the bedroom, hydroponics may be a better option. The rule: if you pull back the mulch and see rove beetles, worms and predator mites, don't freak out — that's exactly what you want.

1. 1. Pull back cover and look for rove beetles, worms and predator mites
2. 2. Identify rove beetles as short and black
3. 3. Ask — is the cure worse than the problem
4. 4. Take notes, learn as you go, don't ignore but don't over-react

6:14 — 9:20

Quadrants two and three — the 3x3 bed

Jeremy tours the 3x3 Halitosis and Branson's Royal Revenge beds. More soil volume means easier growing — he left town for weeks and the bed did a ton of work for him. Halitosis is a stretcher and filled the bed, Branson's didn't stretch much. The Branson's in slot 12 is finishing fastest. He discusses the trade-off — faster finishers equal more rounds per year but longer-flowering strains often taste better.

9:20 — 11:21

Lower defoliation, senescence and par meter plan

Jeremy notes some lower leaves inside the canopy aren't getting light and are fading — the plant is moving nutrients from older to newer leaves and entering senescence, the natural trip toward death since cannabis is an annual. He announces a par meter comparison between the Apogee and the built-in Pulse Pro sensor to see if the Pulse's par reading is a worthwhile part of the unit's value.

1. 1. Do a little more lower defoliation on fading leaves
2. 2. Keep feeding small containers to avoid early starvation
3. 3. Line up the Apogee par meter and the Pulse Pro in the same spot
4. 4. Snapshot readings via phone app for the next episode comparison

11:21 — 13:24

Quadrant four vegetable plan

Jeremy outlines the day's plan for quadrant four — replant the old lettuce section with a dense mixed lettuce for cut harvesting, dedicate the back of the bed to carrots (two colors), chop and drop the clover under the kale bed and sow Easter Egg II radishes, start cherry tomato, Tulsi holy basil and Carolina Reaper red pepper seeds in cups on the rack, and tease a sprouted seed tea with easy sprouts for next week.

1. 1. Re-sow the old lettuce patch with a dense mixed lettuce
2. 2. Dedicate a strip to carrots in two colours
3. 3. Cut back the kale and chop-and-drop the clover underneath
4. 4. Plant Easter Egg II radishes around the kale
5. 5. Start cherry tomato, holy basil and Carolina Reaper pepper seeds in cups
6. 6. Plan easy sprout sprouted seed tea to start on Monday

13:24 — 14:58

Prepping the water and conditioning the soil

Jeremy mixes Roots Wise Microbe Complete with water in a bucket and adds a few drops of Therm X70 (a saponin-based wetting agent) so the soil surface — which has gone a little crusty and dry — will moisten evenly. He pours it into the Chapin pressure sprayer so he can pre-wet the bed before sowing to stop seeds falling into dry pockets.

1. 1. Fill a bucket with clean water
2. 2. Add a roughly tablespoon dose of Roots Wise Microbe Complete
3. 3. Add a few drops of Therm X70 (saponin wetting agent)
4. 4. Stir until saponin foams on top
5. 5. Pour into the Chapin sprayer
6. 6. Pre-moisten the crusty soil surface evenly

14:58 — 22:42

Sowing lettuce and carrots

Jeremy sows the Five Star Greenhouse lettuce mix densely in the front half of the bed so it can be chopped as mixed greens rather than full heads. He then sows two carrot varieties — Sunburst-colour Rogue Sing Violet and Milan Nantes — in rough rows at the back where he won't need to touch them for ~72 days, pointing out that seeds go only as deep as the seed is wide. He lightly hand-rakes them into contact with the soil, tamps with his hand (a home-scale stand-in for the farm's weighted roller), and waters in with a wand. He then plans to cover with a light mulch — worm castings, compost or bark all work so long as light is blocked.

1. 1. Open the Five Star Greenhouse lettuce mix bag
2. 2. Sow dense handfuls into the front half of the bed
3. 3. Open the Rogue Sing Violet and Milan Nantes carrot packets
4. 4. Sow carrots in rows, alternating colours, in the back strip
5. 5. Hand-rake seeds into light soil contact — depth equal to seed size, under 1/4 inch
6. 6. Tamp the whole area flat by hand
7. 7. Irrigate gently with a wand to glue seeds to the soil
8. 8. Loosely cover with mulch to block light for better germination
9. 9. Add plant tags and stick labels at the row ends

22:42 — 24:45

Kale bed clean-up and radish sowing

Jeremy cleans out the cover crop from the kale bed, cuts some kale back (leaving the central plant to regrow), and plants Johnny's Easter Egg II radishes. He walks viewers through the companion-planting logic — radishes mature in ~30 days so they can go in alongside a cannabis veg cycle and be pulled before flip. He sprinkles seed, tamps it by hand, then irrigates in with the wand.

1. 1. Cut back the kale leaving the central nodule to regrow
2. 2. Chop and drop the clover cover crop underneath
3. 3. Expose the feeder roots and moisten the bed
4. 4. Sprinkle Easter Egg II radish seed evenly across the bed
5. 5. Tamp by hand to press seeds into contact
6. 6. Irrigate in with the wand to glue the seeds

24:45 — 29:21

Starting holy basil, cherry tomatoes and reapers in cups

Jeremy starts seeds in cups on the rack. Two cups of Tulsi holy basil, one of Sakura red cherry tomato and one of Carolina Reaper red pepper. He fills each cup with BuildASoil Light (peat moss, fine worm castings, pumice and rice hulls — the compost fraction is all worm castings), labels with plant sticks, adds a few seeds per cup, tamps the tomato and pepper cups slightly deeper since bigger seeds need to go slightly further down, and waters in with the Roots Wise / Therm X70 spray. He will thin to the most vigorous seedling per cup.

1. 1. Label plant stake tags with Tulsi, cherry tomato and Carolina Reaper
2. 2. Fill each cup with BuildASoil Light
3. 3. Moisten the surface with the Chapin Roots Wise / Therm X70 spray
4. 4. Sprinkle a few Tulsi basil seeds in each of two cups — do not tamp
5. 5. Pick the roundest (3D-shaped) tomato seeds and place 2–3 per cup
6. 6. Place two Carolina Reaper seeds per pepper cup, pressed slightly deeper
7. 7. Tamp the tomato and pepper cups flat
8. 8. Water with a fine spray and set on the rack over a drain bucket
9. 9. Thin to one vigorous seedling once germinated

29:21 — 30:55

Sweet pepper harvest and sign-off

Jeremy harvests two green sweet peppers from the earlier kale-bed pepper plant and confirms they're the sweet variety he thought they were. He teases next episode — easy sprout alfalfa and corn sprouts, sprouted seed tea walkthrough, the Apogee vs Pulse Pro par comparison — and reminds viewers he will lightly mulch today's seeded areas before closing.