I tried this journal thing once before but it didn't work out. I had stupidly allowed myself to run out of seeds and bought some seeds on line. They flowered under lights, half of them reveg'd, and grew all twisty and screwy and I ended up harvesting a bunch of funky ass popcorn. It all got cooked down and made into a topical, so I guess it wasn't a total waste - even as disappointing as it was. I did end up with 1 male and 1 female from the sativa dominant strain that I've been growing for a few years. The female had suffered freezing overnight temps during 2 separate cold spells. About 3 months old and less than a foot tall, I tried to save it. I wasn't concerned with the quality so much, I just wanted to make seeds and save my favorite strain. I eventually put it in the ground where it grew to be 6 or 7 feet tall and gave me like a bizillion seeds. So this year I'm off and running. Feels good to be back in the saddle again! And just to answer the question ahead of time, I don't know the strain. When I first decided to grow I was asking around for seeds and this homeless chick gave me a handful of seeds and said she don't remember where she got them, how old they were, or what kind. She found them while going through some of her stuff. From all the weed I've smoked, this turns out to be the best for me. How lucky is that? Been a couple seasons now and a lot has happened in between. But I'll spare you all because this is already too long.
This is what I started with. We got a 10'x20' costco tent canopy for motorcycle parking. The Chinese made material rots in the sun pretty easily, then we get 40-60mph winds coming in off the bay and it just shreds the material. We get a new one every 2 years and just put the material on the existing frame. The frame is well worth the money when compared to what else is out there, but the polly material is shit. It's made to put up and take down for events. Not meant for permanent construction. So I used 1 section, which provides a 10'x7' foot print. It took a 50' roll of 6mil plastic to cover the top and 2 sides. Since growing is such fun, I decided to add on another section, doubling the foot print to 10'x14'. Not satisfied enough, I figured what the hell. But the yard is not big enough for another section without moving the house. So I had to get creative and pull out the hillbilly blueprints. This increased the foot print to 14'x18'. BTW, the frame sides are 6' tall and the ridge at the top is 9' tall. Had to get a couple extra rolls of 6mil this year. I buried wire fence around the perimeter because my son brought home a very bad, bad dog. Also put wire on the top to support the much flatter roof in the rain. This is what supplement light looks like on the timer @4am.
This is what I use. 4x Kellogg Patio Plus $5.99 1x Chicken Manure $3 1x Earthworm Castings $10 1x Bat Guano $15 30-50%x Perlite (large bag) $16 The next items are optional, but boy what a noticeable difference they make in the end. But a late start due to so much rain, this year I'm not prepared with these extras. Kitchen compost- I have a pile in the back yard where I scrape off kitchen scraps. Old fruit & veggies, used coffee grounds, egg shells, grass clippings and wilted flowers, etc. Keep adding to it and turn over with a rake once a week. Come spring time, just add into soil mix. Kelp- I live near the beach, so I collect some kelp that washes up on the beach. This gets added to the compost pile. If not available this way, kelp meal can be found online. Charcoal- Burnt wood left from a campfire. Or burn some tree limbs in the BBQ and add them to the soil mix. The Patio Plus has a lot of really good ingredients listed on the package, but In my personal experience there's just not enough of it. That's the reason for adding all the other stuff to it. I mix my soil in a 30 gallon trash can. I find it easier to mix only half at a time. An easier, faster, more thorough way to mix. Place cross bars in the container before adding soil ingredients. (sticks, pipes, whatever will fit) Add ingredients - remembering to add perlite between layers. A strip of duct tape at opposite sides to help retain the lid to the container. Gently lay the container on it's side and roll across the patio. Carefully flip end over end, and roll back across the patio. Once works well, but twice is only better. Stand the container up, remove the lid and check for consistency through the mix.
5-8-19 got 2 in the ground. 5-10-19 Got another one in the ground after it cooled off a bit. A day to recover, then cut the top and the bottom shoots.
5-14-19 Got another one in the ground. Oops! Went a little deep with this one. Oh well, maybe I'll top dress latter? This will complete my plan of having 4 plants in the ground. I have 12 7gallon buckets to grow the rest of my keepers. All the plants in the ground had their tops cut.
5-26-19 These are the 8 I have in buckets. All measuring 2' to 3' tall, above the buckets. Some had the tops cut and some don't. These 4 are my sons first growing experience. Northern Lights x Sugar Haze. His boss gave him 10 seeds. He germinated 5 seeds and got 4 females. So I donated 4 of my buckets to his cause.
So I have 4 in the ground, 8 in buckets, and the 4 (Northern Lights x Sugar Haze) in buckets. I kept 8 of the females, fed a couple to the rabbit and gave away 9 plants to a good home and hope my little buckets come back. I'll probably do weekly updates.
The routine: BT Spinosad I mix the BT and Spinosad together in the 1 gallon sprayer. 3x's the amount recommended on the instructions brings the results I'm looking for. These are bacterium that break down in sunlight, so needs to be reapplied. During heavy infestations I will spray 3 days in a row to eradicate. Then once or twice a week as needed. Right now once a week seems to be sufficient. Currently, half a gallon in the sprayer drenches the entire grow pretty good. Naturally it will take more as the plants increase in size. I spray at sunset while there's still good light to see. I will continue spraying until 1-2 weeks before harvest, depending on the need. We have pincher bugs (earwigs) up the ass. I cut the bottom off soda cans and place them near the plants and fill them with beer. Once a week I empty the bugs and refill with beer. Not every plant gets a can of beer. One placed near 3-4 plants and they seem to find it. I'm already seeing fewer every morning. A 12 oz bottle of beer will last the season for the little bit that I grow.
Normally I just add water and that's it. But this year I didn't have any kitchen compost to add into the mix and I'm already seeing the difference. I still expect things to turn out well, I'm just say'n I can see a difference in the plants themselves without the compost. So I've been throwing a trawl full of fish bone meal to the ones in the ground, and about a quarter of a trawl to the buckets. Once a week just to add a little 'sump'n-sump'n' to the soil. I don't know if it's helping anything. I still feel guilty about not having any kitchen compost. I've also been adding a table spoon of epsom salt to my sprayer with the insecticide.