An American Dream - White Picket Fences and Marijuana in the So Cal Sun

As this Journal is a continuation of a thread I started back in February if anybody feels lost I'll leave a link for further amusing reading..
http://forum.grasscity.com/micro-grows/1175723-70-watt-mh-hid-starter-box.html/page-14
 
The 7 under current consideration are 6 clones from a reputable supplier in the So Cal basin and a bag seed child left on my door step aptly named the Red Headed Step Child.. The 6 and RHSC can also be seen on the Hundred-day-hillbilly-hempfest..
http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-medical-marijuana-growing/1212027-hundred-day-hillbilly-hempfest.html/page-13
 
Northern Lights x2
Super Silver Haze x2
Purple Haze
Train Wreck
RHSC
 
The known clone strains have all been run before in the yard and I half way know what to expect of the strains as all did well on the last run with nice yields and good quality high and deserved a second run..
 
Included are some shots of the current soil revitalization efforts
 
14 cubic feet of once run FFOF
 
Amendment mix was as follows per cubic foot hole for a total of 14 currently fallow holes as it was easy to just work in the holes as I don't have 14 buckets on hand..
 
2 pounds dry measure of Earth Worth Castings
1/2 pound seabird guano
1/2 pound perlite
1/2 solo cup of alfalfa meal
1/2 cup of kelp meal
1/2 cup of crab meal
1/2 cup neem seed meal
1/4 cup bone meal
1/4 cup blood meal
1/8 cup sul po mag
 
Mixed dry with drill then bagged and layered back at 4 parts FFOF to 1 of amendments
 
Still haven't run down any stone dust but the local hydro guy says he'll have some brought over from his other store.. And if nothing else I'll use some of the fine silt yard dirt I have a small mountain of..
 
Was already heating in the 5 fountain sites so the whole pile should be warming up nicely by morning with adding water today and covering to hold water.. With our high temps and low humidity I'm thinking some coverage is almost a must..
I'd still like to add some real compost to the mix.. HD only had kelloggs and that is just ground trees.. done a bale of that in other flower beds and was less then impressed..
Now if it's just even part way ready in time for when the 7 new kids out grow the veg boxes..
 
So I see Richard has already liked the thread but is no doubt thinking to himself.." needs bigger holes " and with fewer plants this run I may indeed fill a few less productive holes and enlarge some sites this run.. my back hates that part.. hard rock mining to get a hole dug here and I'm old and feeble but I'll go with fewer and larger plants having selected a few strains that did well despite my gross mishandling.. and rejected a few as unsuitable either from my lack of ability yet or less then compatible with my micro climate and to say the least odd grow style..

 

Doormouse posted this on my old thread..
""There's always just something about seeing weed growing next to a little white picket fence...It yells "american dream" at me...(if that's not a strain name yet it needs to be)""
 
 
 
Lets get this show up to speed with some current pictures
 
The pair of starter/veg boxes.. 18x18x36 200watts 6500k CFLs @8-26s  110 CFM axial fan
 
7 kids in the box
 
Full garden shot
 
Standing at the gate.. starting lower left.. the remaining 1/3 of Train Wreck who swelled up like a good little girl, G13 Diesel #1, Sour Diesel #1, GDP, Train Wreck #2,
The 6 on the right side of the path are.. Bubba Kush, Master Kush, Tahoe OG Kush, Purple Kush, OG Kush, Afghani, and next to the shed is G13 Diesel #2..
 
Herijuana, BC Big Bud in the Transite ring, and White Widow #1 next to the fence
 
2 Blue Dreams with Sour Diesel #2 behind the left dream inside the garden.. and the stump of Headband putting out a 2rd round of buds on the right..
 
Stump of Purple Haze #2 putting out a 2nd round of buds
 
Blue Berry #2
 
Black Berry Kush, Bull Dozer #1
 
Kryptonite, and full circle back to Herijuana
 
Bull Dozer #2 and #3
 
As part of the ongoing improvements I've stepped up the game by enlarging the next 7 holes to 16x16x16 inches.. did I say how much I HATE chipping away at stone hard clay/silt ?
 
Mr. J intends on bringing his copy of the Black Berry Kush we got on may 15th for harvest, trim, dry and cure at my place.. So that should happen tomorrow and I'll have to have a closer look at several of my own plants that could be near term.. Once you have a fair supply of product on hand that pressure to harvest fades and you tend to let them go a while longer.. a few days.. then a week .. and a week more.. and 2 more days and...

 

Off to an early start this morning and picked up 4 lbs of dry ice 
 
3 @30 day cured 1/2 gallon jars of mixed goodies
 
160 micron screen and bucket loaded
 
Tools
 
2nd round shake out with nylon hose
 
Recovering the larger chunks of dry ice.. at this point I usually just fling the remains onto the lawn as it's useless to me..
 
5 rounds total
 
1 jar of 160 mesh kief and near 2 jars of 2nd grade..

 

So after I did my Dry Ice processing Mr. J showed up with his copy of the Black Berry clones and with the help of Mr. S they trimmed her and then the 3 of us worked on my Blue Berry #2 and the lower 1/3 of Train Wreck #1 that's been fattening her remaining buds..
 
Mr. J and Mr. S hard at work on the Blue Berry of mine
 
Her 2nd rank cola
 
Main cola
 
One of Train Wrecks post harvest lower buds that was left to fatten up..
 
Blue Berry
 
Mr. J's Black Berry
 
Train Wreck
 
Grabbed 2 more bags of EWC and added them to the already cooking mass of soil.. and I still don't have any rock dust..

 

In my ongoing efforts to find the holy grail of cure.. I've pulled the line hung product in favor of a more controlled dry after just 24 hours on the line with the afternoon humidity dropping to the high 30s
 
Some lathing wire with the paper removed
Enlarged squares for colas
Colas hung
2nd can
Running 62% after an hour with the lid on from an ambient of 39%
Excess wire trimmed and fans in place
Shots around the garden

 

Bubba Kush came down today as did OG Kush and Master Kush all tiny plants none over 3 ft tall but being under the tree and the June herbicide disaster has left their mark.. it's a wonder they produced at all but it'll be enough for a test sample of the strain and that's what most of this years run was all about..
 
In the end I was able to run all but one of the strains offered by my clone supplier as well as a few gathered from dispensaries locally before most of them shut down..
 
The 7 newest kids spending most of the day in the sun now and nights under CFLs on 24-0 lighting..
 
Hot glued up another fan and stand for a third can for the latest round of harvested girls.. I get to use up the under powered fans I kept replacing when I first built the veg boxes
 
Third can loading up
 
All the amendments currently cooking in 14 cubic feet of FFOF that's been run once.. The amendments spent the first week in 7 cubic feet and the pile got quite warm the first few days at that point I added in the other 7 feet of FFOF and remixed and re-watered and it's cooking this next week in ground..
 
OG Kush loading
 
Master Kush pre harvest.. the 3 plants filled this last can to capacity..
 
Jet Blue... Wheels down.. Flaps down.. You can almost count the rivets.. If you look close you can see my grow.. Welcome to California..
I usually can't cue up my phone fast enough to catch them.. But this time I was taking pictures anyhow..

 

Being away from the grow even for a day or 2 deprives me of my incessant need to post blurry out of focus pictures of my sad little plants.. So here goes a grand tour for not just myself but all my loyal fans..
 
Purple Haze.. Harvested and pushing out a fair 2nd round of buds
Black Berry
Bull Dozer #1
Bull Dozer #2 in SIP
Bull Dozer #3 in SIP
Kryptonite
Herijuana
B.C. Big Bud
White Widow #1
G13 Diesel #1
Sour Diesel #1
Granddaddypurp
Train Wreck
O.G. Kush
Tahoe O.G. Kush
Afghani
G13 Diesel #2 
Sour Diesel #2
Blue Dream #1
Blue Dream #2
White Widow #2
7 latest kids.. Northern Lightsx2, Super Silver Hazex2, Purple Haze, Train Wreck, RedHeadedStepChild
Veg boxes 1-2
Dry can #1 with Black Berry, Train Wreck
Dry can #2 with Blue Berry
Dry Can #3 with Master Kush, Bubba Kush, Purple Kush
American Dream Video-- A Walk around the garden

 

On a dark desert highway,
Cool wind in my hair,
Warm smell of "colitas"
Rising up through the air,
 
Yes the yard smells wonderful.. It's all to tempting to walk in the garden just trailing your hands over the plants taking in all the different scents..

 

Diminutive feminine plural of the Spanish cola, tail. Little tail. But we always assumed he meant it as a drug reference in typical stoner fashion.. And so it will remain in my mind for ever more..
 
With nothing to really do today I got on the road at the crack of dawn and drove the 40 miles back to the grow and met up with Mr. S for a morning of harvesting..
 
Reaching that firm to the slight compression test I've come to use in testing Bud for the stages of dry I decanted Mr. J's Black Berry and my Train Wreck from hanging in the cans and clipped all the bud from the stems for low bag cross stacking in a can for the next phase dry that drops from the high 70s to mid 60s humidity.. About 10 days if I time things right..
 
Black Berry
Train Wreck
Charlotte
and again 
Granddaddypurp
Afghani
Bull Dozer #1
GDP
Our 7 latest plants NLx2, SSHx2, TW, PH, RHSC
2x Blue Berry, 2x Train Wreck and Mr. J's Black Berry
Afghani
B.C. Big Bud
Kryptonite
BC BB
Krypto
 
With this round of harvesting the yard is looking empty.. But actually puts me below the numbers of plants for people actually addressed as living at the house.. Not that I have to comply with that regulation but it never hurts to cover your ass when ever possible.. I did get slightly carried away sampling the entire range of strains from my clone source but did manage to stay compliant although it meant shutting down any further cloning efforts till my numbers drop further..
 
Julie-Beth I'm ever so flattered and will do my best not to fall off of the overly high pedestal you've got me teetering on..
 
http://forum.grasscity.com/micro-grows/1175723-70-watt-mh-hid-starter-box.html/page-10 scroll down to post 198 and have a look at the pictures of the herbicide residue sprayer disaster .. Not one of my best moments.. ouch.. If not for that I might have had a truly impressive grow.. But we do learn.. Fooking school of hard knocks is a brutal teacher.. But lessons learned this way are NEVER forgotten..
 
Stay tuned as I have taken the shrimp plants for the most part now and still have a respectable number of plants to harvest, dry and cure as well as the ongoing cycle of tossing 24-0 vegged plants outside to flower in our warm So Cal winters..
 
And my exploration of Organic Super Soil.. AKA set it and forget it.. water only.. am I rambling again ??

 

As Mr. S unloaded the kids from the glow box this morning he sent me a picture of charlottes latest web..
She's a busy girl