Grampas growing his hybrid F1s

The plants outside in smaller pots are now starting to flower well, and lots of small flowers are starting to fill out, and some are fist sized at this time.  The night temperatures here are starting to get down to the low 50's and the natural senescence is starting with the older fan leaves.  The cooler temps are starting to bring out some color in the flower leaflets also.  We will wait three or four more weeks, then begin to harvest the early flowering varieties we have outside.
 
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Best of harvests to all
 
PW
 
 

 

SB, thanks for stopping in.  We spray weekly with a rotation of lavender tea, spinosad, neem oil, and rosemary  oil tea.  We harvest the lavender flowers from perennial plants in the yard then make a tea with the flowers.  spinosad and neem oil sprays are used as directed on the labels and we use the rosemary oils from the health food shop and use it in a tea.  These sprays are for preventative and control measures to keep mite outbreaks to a minimum.  In the flowering stages we only use spinosad and the lavender rotation, if needed, once the flowers start to size up.
 
PW

 

When trying to source this plant, look for Lavendula latifolia, common name is spike lavender or Portuguese lavender.  Another perennial variety is Lavendula angustifolia.  An easy perennial variety from seed is Lavendula angustifolia "Munstead".   You would be better off buying a 3-4" or gallon, one year old plant than starting from seed for quicker results.
 
Here is a link to steamed oils:  http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/learn/eo/spikelavender.php
 
Many times you can find the oils in health food stores.
 
PW

 

 
Many perennial seeds will benefit from 42 or more days of cold stratification before sowing, to improve germination.
 
 
PW

 

We will give the largest colas about one more week, then start taking the solid colas off first, then let the lower buds grow larger before complete harvest.  We cut a small bud from the largest plant for testing soon.  Everything looks promising, can't wait to start trimming, one of the best parties of the year..
 


 
The greenhouse is starting to flower well, but is behind some of the outdoor plants because there is a large number of sativa varieties in there.  The Jack Herer continues to be the monster plant with an incredible number of branches, looking forward to seeing these ripen, they should finish with our mid flowering plants.   The Vietnam x Thai are also going to finish sooner this year and are producing hundreds of colas from the massive branching.  The Alaskan Ice and Columbian are huge plants, but are just starting to flower, so we keep our fingers crossed.  The Tora Bora x BSHW and the BSHW backcross are going to be ready to cut in a couple of weeks.  Our breeding for F2's is successful as you can see the sepals spreading and showing the newly formed seeds in the sixth photo frame.
 
 
 
Another plot of late planted testers are starting to finish up also.  These plants are grown at 6000' and are starting to color up from the cold nights, with temperature dropping to 37F already.
 


 
Best of harvest to all
 
PW

 

The test bud was cut from the large outdoor plant in the ground.  Since that picture, it has dropped below freezing here and we have started to remove the rest of the colas from this plant and have harvested the plants in the 7-10 gal pots growing outside.   There were four main colas like the one pictured and many secondary colas.  These plants I will call "Devils Thumb".  I did not remove the leaves from my plants, so I apologize for the small buds produced, without defoliation, I could only get them to twice the size of a 2 ltr bottle lol.     
 
 
PW

 

 
 
I like to post a large cola to prove you don't need to tear leaves off your plants to achieve good results.  Out of curiosity I weighed the buds cut from the main stem of this cola after a week of hang drying and a two week cure, the cola yielded 65 grams three weeks after dry and cure.  The total weight from the four largest colas on this plant after curring was 267 grams.  These plants were grown with only two manure teas and two handfuls of fertilizer meal mix for the entire grow.
 
PW

 

We have had to start harvesting the outdoor plants. Two days ago I woke up to 10 " of new snow on the deck outside. The greenhouse plants are still growing in the cold nights. We have added an electric heater to the GH to keep the sativa plants growing. The pure sativa's have been blooming for 8 weeks now and we expect them to finish in 4-6 more weeks. So far the greenhouse has provided enough protection to keep from freezing inside.



Yesterday we cut a few colas that were growing into the aisles to get a sampler of the finished product. The vapors while trimming from the Strawberry Haze X Tora Bora F1 was so intense it made your eyes water and the fruity smell was a real treat.




At this time we hope to grow into the end of Nov to finish the sativa plants, mother nature has the outcome in her hands, we hope for the best.


Bountiful harvests to all

PW

 

Harvest time is quickly approaching here. The outside temperatures are getting cold enough that we will have to cut the remaining outdoor plants this week. the colas on the Vietnam hybrid have grown to about two feet long on the branch tips, it will make a very good harvest for a late planted July crop.




Three indoor GH plants were ready to start cutting and we took about half of the ripe colas yesterday. The Vietnam X Thai in the greenhouse continues to branch out and has hundreds of tip colas forming, they should be multiple #'s each when finished.



The later season sativa; Alaskan Ice, Colombian Gold and the Jack Herrer, have been blooming for about 10 weeks now, I think we will be able to keep the greenhouse plants from freezing and should be able to get another 3-5 weeks flowering to finish this year. Starting the long flowering sativa's later in the spring kept the plants from early flowering and reversals and should be able to finish properly this year if we don't get frozen out before finish.




Bountiful harvests to all

PW