Their good for hunting larger insects, beetles and things of a similar size. Ladybugs are everywhere eating small pests. As long as the spiders and the ladybugs don’t get into it. Lol
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Not everyone is going to get along in nature! As long as everyone is in a united front against aphids, whiteflies, fungus gnats, and spider mites, then we’re all good in the green hood. 
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Of the 3302 plants 2 died, one I broke clean off, one was buried in the canopy of a tray and became too solarized and it burned beyond repairing itself once outdoors. I have another that I split with the tractor, but it has been bound and is still alive. Then there is this one. Not sure why she is so stressed, particularly when 3 feet away her neighbors look great. This is the only plant to have done this. Must be something in the soil, bare patch of nutrients, some sort of pest, a bit of compaction? It is hard to say. Usually all of these would produce a gradient of reduced vigor among several plants, not just a single plant.
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Weekly growth update.
They have really hit their stride, these 80F+ days and 50F+ nights really make a difference.
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Oh yeah, the PNW photographer for Cannabis Business Times was here yesterday. Look for me on the cover July’s issue!
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Weekly Update:
Not much to report yet, I am planning some soil tests and fertigation for July. I am mostly working on other growing projects, food and trees to hold the hills up, previous owners planted a tree that doesn’t like thin soil on hills. I am mostly cleaning up the blueberry patch for sale.
Growth update:
Transplant vegetable garden is kicking some butt, but I razed the direct sow and replanted. Weeds beat me one side and pests on the other. Round 2 just sprouted, still loads of time for most things out there.
My personal plants get a little more assistance early on, but not much more past transplanting.
Past 3 weeks of growth:
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Every time i come back to this thread I’m amazed. I need to learn from you
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Awww, shucks. Thanks! 
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Quit being hard on yourself.
A 10% loss ratio is expected between bugs and mechanical damage. Always plant extra. I am betting that you wanted 3000 plants and actually planted 3302 in order to give yourself that cushion.
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I hope not 300 at about $100-150 each. So far 3 dead, 3 damaged, 2 look to be stressed budding. Still. Best year yet. I only lost about 20 of 2000 the first year. Lost 40% the second year. Losses are just an opportunity to improve.
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I get depressed every time I need to cull males from the grow. They grow faster and often look more vigorous, so I feel like I’m losing the cream of the crop but that’s life.
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Do you reintroduce beneficial bacteria?
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Do use surfactant.
Do you use soak cycles on your irrigation.
The drip pattern on you irrigation looked good.
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I did initially with nearly 600 yards of inoculated compost. Mushrooms blow up all over the place in the cool season. On top of that nothing new is added. I intend to grow a cover crop this year to offset fertilizer and maintain tilth to help feed what is there. If it doesn’t work out, I will buy more compost to maintain tilth, which will reintroduce more microbes.
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I do not. I have considered yucca extract injection, but I don’t see a need for it. My soil seems to be well saturated after dripping.
8" centers on the tape emitting 0.4GPH. I water for 4 hours per week on average. At 400ft per line this is just about 2000 gallons for about 250 plants per watering event. I also pay attention to the weather and soil condition. If we are going to be getting a 90F+ day I get water on them early, off schedule. If the soil seems dry I water sooner, or damp enough, I water later.
It also starts lower than average and gets higher than average through the season. Over all the 40,000sqft of canopy gets around 400,000-500,000 gallons through the entire season. For comparison, corn takes about 600,000 gallons per acre (shallower root systems).
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Today is the day that I will decide if and by how much NPK the field will need for July.
I like to take a sample from among the roots and on the leading edge of the roots. I compare the two with together and with my original notes before planting on starting levels. This will give me an idea of the level of volitilized nitrogen, if lower without plant growth. It will also tell me how much nitrogen the organic matter is hold and supplying, if the levels have not decreased noticeably.
I will update with my decision when it is made.
Scraping the top inch or two away, and following the roots to their leading edge. You can get an idea of how the drip irrigation wets the soil by the darkness. I had planned on watering today, probably just 2 hours to wet the hills, and possible give their first mid-veg dose of nitrogen. The root radius is about 4 feet or so at this point.
Leading edge of roots.
Hill root system center of plant spacing.
Root system near the base of the plant.
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Hill nitrogen vs dead space nitrogen. The hills are virtually depleted of nitrogen, which surprises me. Phosphorus is down by almost 50%. This means these plants have consumed nearly 200# of actual nitrogen since planting. This is already above the lowest estimate for a season that I have researched. The highest estimate was 360# and I believe it, maybe even more!
I am aiming to hit them with 6.25# urea, 0.75# 10-30-20, and 0.45# Sea-90 per row. I will retest in a week.
Nitrogen
Phosphorus
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