Hello to all GC members Welcome to my BPGG 09 Journal. Fire up a big fatty with me and lets talk growin! I'm documenting my grow this year for a couple reasons. First, hopefully it will force me to keep better records for future use. Secondly, hopefully it will help a fellow grower from making the same mistakes I made or maybe see something that can be applied to his/her own situation. Here is a partial list of the strains I will be growing this year, Blue Widow, Big Bud, White Rhino, Purple Power, Pure Gold, Easy Sativa, Power Skunk, Skunk/Haze and MTF. I know it is a wide range of plants but the idea is to end up with a nice selection of bud to last me for the next year. Ok, so there is a little more to it than that, but that will probably unfold as we go along. It is now May 10th and I have been working on this grow since Nov. 08, yes thats right, as soon as I got last years harvest in. It started with scouting for sites and researching which strains I wanted to buy and which ones I would use that are available to me through friends. I'd like to take a moment to thank my friends who have helped w/ this project and past projects. It wouldn't be possible without your cooperation and friendship. I've yet to see anyone have a continuous garden for 20 years..... but 5 guys collectively can. Back to the beginning. So I started growing out seeds in Nov and Dec. Sexed them,pollinated some, collected and froze pollen for future use. I took clones from all the females from each different strain except for a Power Skunk that hasn't showed but I think is male. Its going into an experimental grow that I have doubts about. A few of the strains are clones that I got from friends while I used my space for other things and a few are feminized. The first pic is a shot of the ingredients to my soil mix, the black bag is an example of how I package the soil to backpack it to my sites. The mix contains peat moss, compost, perlite and vermiculite. This is what I consider my base mix, I use it indoor and outdoor. From that base I can decide what I think needs added to fit the situation. In this case I decided to add blood meal, bone meal, iron, magnesium, lime, milorganite, coffee grounds and eggshells. 2nd pic a tray of seedlings 2 weeks old and some at 6 weeks.
SOunds like a soild plan...Love the fact that you have been planning since November always a sign of an amazing grower! So with that said you must have some monsters ready to go outdoors no?
Well I don't know about monsters... but I'd say a pretty nice start.I'll get pics up soon , seem to be having problems because one of my posts isn't showing up. I'll get you caught up to date soon. I don't think mine are quite as big as yours, you be the judge.
1st pic is of a hole dug in March 2nd pic is after I filled it with soil. then let it rest for awhile. It gets rained on and the animals like to dig in it, they get bored of it after awhile. Also I like to let the empty hole set open for a week to let it warm up. Weird theory I know. 3rd pic is of my backpacking system to carry my girls to the site without injury. Same pack without the cardboard to carry soil. A couple girls sitting there ready to go to their new home.
1st pic is showing the fencing I use. Its plastic but seems to work most of the time. If they want in bad enough they can tear that wire fencing out too. I'm also using coyote urine and chlorine tablets right now. Later I'll add some hot pepper spray to the arsenal. 2nd pic is looking in the entrance to a briar patch site. 3rd pic is the log I walk on to get to that entrance. 4th pic is of the logs I use to get off the human path and on to some deer trails without me leaving a trail.
1st pic is White Rhino 2nd pic is Skunk/Haze Both in the briar patch, with about 35 gallons of dirt apiece and mother nature.
These are pics of my swamp grow experiment. They have been out for 2 weeks now and seem to be doing ok even though it has been cool and raining most of the time. I have some concerns on this grow but it is virtually impossible for someone to find these if it works.
Nice oberservation, no its not for stealth. The reason is to catch water runoff. I use the leftover dirt to divert water into the hole. These holes are on the side of a hill so I just make a long hump(2ft) of dirt going up and outward away from the hole. I don't worry about drowning the plants though because I know on this hill with this type of soil water won't pool for very long. We have a sandy clay under the topsoil here that drains fairly quick. Just about everything I do is geared toward not having to water the plants. Because of having a job that takes me out of town for weeks at a time and the plants being so remote.
Thanks man. Thanks. It is satisfying work though. I know the pics aren't that good but the ones in the swamp are in containers sitting on top of the mud.They aren't really sitting in water like you might imagine a swamp to be. This has sod covering the mud and even though you can't see water the mud stays moist all year. So the idea is to wick that moisture up into the container without drowning the plant.This site is at the edge of a swamp just where the ground starts to slope up and only a severe flood would raise the water to the plants level. Thanks. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one. I can't wait to see how big the mosquitos get in August when I go to check on those swamp plants.
Thanks guys. I'm working out of town right now, but when I get back I'll take more pics to update the journal . I'm watching your threads also. Here's to us all having a good year.
Ok time for an update. I checked the briar patch sites today. Overall everything is looking good. The Skunk / Haze plant is getting attacked by some kind of bug, none to be found though. Note, of all the different varieties I have, this plant is the only one bothered by this type of insect at this time. Need to dust it next time out. The Easy and MTF clones seem to be slower starting than the rest. The Purple Power is starting to bud after just about 3 weeks outside. It was indoor under 20 hrs of light until it was planted outside. 1. Big Bud doing as expected. 2. Blue Widow doing as expected also. 3. Easy clone looking a little weak. 4. MTF clone looking weak also. 5. Kind of an overview of this site in an old roadbed.
Trying again. These pics were taken 5-16, have been inground about 2 to 3 weeks depending on hole, have not been watered or fertilized yet. 1. Purple Power 2. PP starting to bud 3 PP tied down 4. SH bug damage 5. White Rhino 6. WR tied down 7. Auto AK47's. 12 days old. Everything was identical except one was under 40 W daylight flouro and the other under 42 W sft white CFL. The bigger ones were under the flouro.
OK I went out to check on the swamp plants today. Overall they are doing just fine. The insects are starting to be a problem already so I had to dust them. One of the bags got ripped up and the White Rhino clone in it got tossed out on the ground by a coon. She was still alive so I replanted it. Not looking good but she should survive I think. The Power Skunk, Big Bud and MTF seem to be thriving this environment more than the others. The soil in the containers seems to be consistently moist after 3 weeks. So I know for sure the wicking action is working and able to keep up. I set 4 more swamp grow bags today and will let them sit for awhile until they are planted. I took some pics of how I'm doing this. Each bag is placed next to a sapling that I will use to support the plant as it grows. I trimmed all the lower branches off these saplings so that only the very top of it has any leaves. So from the air , hopefully it should look like my plant is the leaves and branches of that tree. Nice thought but I doubt they will be looking in a swamp anyhow. But just in case.... I had 2 other plants dug up by coon in a location I'm not showing in this journal. Surprisingly they were both still alive also, so they are replanted. 1. Showing how I set these in the swamp. Note the hole is about 3 inches deep that seeps water. Lime is addes then bag placed on hole. Then I use mud to pack around the bag for stability and to insulate. 2. Shows bag in hole with partial mud pack. 3. White Rhino ravaged by coon. 4. Purple Power clone 5. Easy Sativa clone 6. Power Skunk 2 7. Big Bud
A couple more things on this swamp grow are that the the Big Bud , MTF and Blue Widow are in 18 gal containers and the rest are in 5 gal grow bags. And the MTF. Big Bud and Power Skunk 1 were planted one week before the others. 1. MTF 2. Blue Widow, she seemed to struggle at first but is really looking up now. 3. Power Skunk 1 , she seems to really like the swamp.