3rd try at this spot

Pictures taken 5/10/20

This is my 3rd grow attempt at this spot. The first attempt was in 2018. I got 5 plants to finish yielding 823 grams. However, last year was a complete fail. I had to go on a trip for 3 weeks and I set the auto watering too high, combined with cloudy horrible days they got over watered in the middle of their bud cycle. When I got back from my trip most of the bud was dead. This year I have 6 plants but one of them is small and doesn't look very promising, however the other 5 seem to be growing well. I will need some luck this year. I will update this thread and let you know what happens. Strains are listed below:

Picture 1,2---> American Pie American Pie Feminised Seeds | Pyramid Seeds | Cannabis Seeds
Picture 3,4---> Haze Berry Haze Berry Feminised Seeds | Royal Queen Seeds | Cannabis Seeds
Picture 5,6---> Sweet Cheese Sweet Cheese Feminised Seeds | Sweet Seeds | Cannabis Seeds
picture 7,8---> Afghan. Skunk Afghan Skunk Feminised Seeds | Expert Seeds | Cannabis Seeds
Picture 9,10--> Peyote Critical Limited Edition---> Peyote Critical Feminised Seeds
Picture 11,12--> Ice Ice Feminised Seeds | Royal Queen Seeds | Cannabis Seeds

 

I've decided to germinate another "Sweet Cheese" seed that I plan to put in the same can as the "Ice" plant that is struggling. Just started germinating it today. It's kinda late but we will see what happens.

 

Germination was successful, nice long root, planted in soil today.

 

22 hours after planting, taken 5/18/20

 

2 weeks of growth since last pics. These were taken 5/24/20
The plants don't get dawn to dusk direct sunlight. A large tree blocks the afternoon light to all but 2 cans for a few hours. The one that was struggling has finally started to grow! I will have to find another pot for the new plant.

 

1 week old

 

It looks like a rodent has found my site, he got past all the nylon net and completely took one of my plants and took a branch off another plant. The Afghan. Skunk plant is now dead, The stalk was eaten completely through at the base with the entire plant hauled away nothing left but a leaf on the ground. The other plant has one branch gone, found what was left of it next to the plant, but the stalk is still okay, no other damage to other plants.

I have placed rat traps at the base of each remaining plant and fixed the net better around each plant to make it more difficult for him to get to them. I have hopes of killing it before it comes back to finish off the rest of the plants. Once they get one, he will come back for all of them. I expect the rest of the plants to be completely gone within a week unless the traps get him. Bummer!!

I will let you know what happens...

 

Yea, I'm pretty disappointed, but that's the way it goes. I put 2 large rat traps in the cans of each remaining plant. I'm surprised it made it through all that netting without getting tangled up in it. Maybe it is a rabbit but I suspect it's a gopher or a rat.

 

Made a special trip to the site to see if the critter came back. No sign it came back yet. Traps still set, net looks unmoved, no damage to plants. Will keep checking as often as possible.

 

Mostly cloudy skies here the next few days. Plants won't grow much in this, less water required.

 

Here are some new pictures taken 6/7/20. I'm kinda disappointed how this is going. Besides the rodent problem, we are just not getting enough sun! Last week was overcast almost everyday and it even rained here a few days ago. Rain in So Cal in June? WTF?? Anyhow, not as much growth as I had hoped at all. One good thing is that struggling plant is growing good now, not tall but branching out. This week should be better, if the rodent don't come back and take them all. So far, no sign of it coming back. The traps are still set, one went off but I think the rain sprung it.

 

Here you can see the missing branch taken by the rodent (plant pics 7,8 above), and my now gone 6th plant (Afg. Skunk), just the stalk left.

 

Here is a pic of the newest plant, it's now 3 weeks old. Still growing in a small pot on my porch. Trying to decide if it would be best to take it to the site and put it in the now empty 20 gallon can where the other plant got eaten, or planting it in a 5 gallon pot and growing it on my porch. The porch will have more direct sunlight and is safe from rodents, the site has a much bigger container to grow in but not as much direct sunlight and risk of getting eaten like that last plant. It's probably ready to be transplanted, I better decide soon. Pics taken 6/7/20

 

The weather report is looking good, yesterday was a beautiful day and the next week will be sunny and hot, not much growth time left, in just a few more weeks they should start to flower, grow babies grow!!

 

No thanks man, I got seeds

 

I have decided to transplant the plant growing on my porch to a slightly larger container. I have decided NOT to plant it at the site in the 20 gallon can. I'm concerned that once the plants start to flower and start to stink that the critter will be back to destroy them all. At least if they all get eaten I will still have one plant to get something to smoke. The plant will get more sun on my porch. Also, I have decided to bring it in at night and put it under light just to get it to grow bigger before it goes into bud. I have 2 very bright halogen flood lights in my garage that I can put on it at night. I know it's not the correct lights to use but it's all I got and it's not so much to make it grow under the lights but just to keep it from going into flower before it gets big enough. We get good sun all through October so I can get more grow time when it's outside. I move it outside every morning and I do give the plant about 2 hours of darkness, although, I'm not sure I should. I don't know much about growing inside in small containers. I guess I need to be more careful about over watering and keeping the Ph of the soil in the correct range when growing in smaller containers. I wonder if this container is even big enough. I guess I will have to wait to find out. I topped the plant and have new branches growing out. It's now 4 weeks old. Pics taken 6/15/20

 

Update, more bad news for this site. Looks like the rodent came back and took a branch off of the ice plant. I just don't know how he could get through all that netting and the traps to get to it. It looks like he took the branch and while he was hauling it away the branch hit the trap and sprung it pinning the branch to the trap. The rodent just left the branch there but didn't take anything else. It's pretty disappointing for sure. I had a little more nylon net left over so I put more net around each truck of all the plants to make it more difficult for him to get in to them in a desperate attempt to save them but I'm quickly losing hope for these plants. When they start to flower and start to smell it will be the real challenge to keep them alive. My only hope is that he gets killed by one of the traps or something, don't know what else I can do. Here are new pictures, the weather has been crap so I didn't get hardly any growth at all in the last 2 weeks. The marine layer has been moving in off the ocean at night and it blocks the sun until it burns off and sometimes it doesn't burn off all day. This has been happening all week. I'm starting to doubt that this site will work out in the future. These pictures were taken 6/21/20

 

Here is a picture of the plant that got eaten. You can see where he ate the branch off the plant (plant picture 9, 10 above). The branch was found in the trap.

 

The plant on my porch is growing pretty fast. I've been keeping it under the flood lights in my garage to keep it growing and moving it outside when the sun comes out. I know this is not a very good indoor set up, these lights are very hot, but it will keep it growing. I also have a small fan blowing on it. Pictures taken 6/21/20