Grandpa's growin' again

WGG, good to see you again. I thought I was going to Idaho for a rafting vacation, but cancelled due to rain, snow and extreme high water. Not too much to report at this time, just watering and waiting, mostly. We had an outbreak of mites on the SAGE plant, but not the other varieties. It has been treated with spinosad and we will top dress this week with more Neem seed cake for prevention.

In a couple of days I will have more current pictures. Most of the foot we cut off two weeks ago has already grown back and the plants are slowly sizing up in veg. The BSHW X BB seedling is showing a lot of hybrid vigor and won't surprise me if it doesn't catch up with the cloned plants when transplanted into the larger smart pot.

PW

 

Wharf, not a problem about the cancelled trip. I am still going to go to the Oregon coast for a visit in a few days, so I will still get a vacation. Not sure about the "tower", the first third and fifth plant in the back row are Viet Nam Black X Thai. These are the tallest plants in the room. In the middle row there is a columnar Big Band and an Alaskan Ice.

Bubbles420, I wouldn't even try to guess about the harvest. The earliest plants have 3 months to go and some of the sativa will not finish for another five months, if we can keep them from freezing in the fall. The hot weather has arrived early for us and we are already seeing daily highs of 105F, so anything can happen before harvest time. Never count your buds before they are cured.

We would hope to get 8 zips/plt, and anything over that will be just gravy. We are not a perpetual grow here and put all our eggs in one basket, all or nothing for us. Our philosophy is one grow, one year's harvest. This is our main goal, only time will tell.

PW



P38, It looks like you are making yourself at home in the north woods. You have done a nice job on topping and training for maximum use of your production space. Those are some real delicious looking cotton candy treats.

Our second try at organic growing seems to be going smoother at this time, we are hoping for the best. Trying to stay one step ahead of the game for now. This pictures this week are not much different from last week. The foot of growth topped two weeks ago has already grown back. Soon we will try some lateral training to try and keep the taller plants in check.

Two of the BSHW X BB seedlings were moved from their 5 gal pots to the smart pots, one 20 and one 25 gal transplant. We still don't know the sex of this variety, but we wanted to get the larger plants into the final pots so they are rooted well when starting flowering.


PW

 

Bubbles, thanks for the rep, we will try to make this an interesting and informative grow.

WGG, I have just returned from my vacation to the Emerald Triangle and N. CA and Oregon coast. Last night I typed a long update and uploaded pics and hit the wrong button and lost my post. Today I will be updating with new pics after finishing a few household chores. Yesterday we had a work day to tighten up the grow room and things are looking good. I will post later today when time allows.

PW

 

Thanks to everyone while waiting for the next update. Vacation is over and time to go to work again. This trip to the greenhouse was eagerly awaited since I have not seen the plants for more than three weeks. I was pleasantly greeted by a room full of plants, most of which were over six feet.

The Viet Nam Black X Thai plants have all grown to over 8 ft along with two of the Columbian Gold plants. The Alaska Ice and the Big Band are both up to 7 ft now and the seedling, Big Sur Holy Weed X Blueberry, has now caught up with the rest of the plants and is ready to start through the screen at 7ft soon.

Five of the plants that bloomed early and reversed are now starting to bloom again and the rest of the varieties are showing pre-flowers this week. I am glad the sativa plants are starting now, I think some will have to flower more than 14 weeks. Last year one of our unknown sativa's bloomed for 17 weeks until it finally finished. I hope we can pull off this grow that is so heavily weighted with pure sativa plants before the temperatures get too cold to grow.

Yesterday we topped the taller plants back to 7-8 ft to try to keep them from getting too large for the greenhouse, this is the third time we have cut a foot off of the taller plants. The VN Black and the BSHW and the Columbian Gold are also showing preflowers so the growth may be slowing now that flowering has started.

Best of growing to everyone

PW

 

Another set of pics for the last update.

This week we used a diluted EWC= 1/2 c / compost= 1/2 c/ 2tbsp molasses/ 2tbsp kelp meal / tea to water the plants. The tea was bubbled for 36 hrs then applied.

The only additives we have used so far are, molasses and pro tec silicon with each watering, one watering with Neptunes Harvest fish hydrolysate, and today's tea, all other watering has been water only.

The outbreak of mites on the SAGE plant has been controlled with the spinosad and lavender sprays used on 5 day rotation for 3 sprays. We will top dress the susceptible plants with neem cake meal for prevention of a recurrence of the mites. The other plants seem to be more resistant and have not shown any mite damage yet.

I guess since the mushrooms like the soil mix we have hit a good combination with our media.


PW

 

After two more weeks of growth we are having a hard time moving around in the greenhouse. The taller plants are growing at a rate of 4-5"/week. We have cut a total of 3' off the sativa plants and will probably have to cut another foot soon to keep the plants from outgrowing the height, even with some training.

I was reading about fruit and berry growers using sul po mag to increase hardiness in the freezing weather. We added a tsp of this to each pot in hopes it will help in the colder weather for our long blooming varieties.

All of the plants have now been sexed. All cuttings were female and the four BSHW X BB seedlings produced 3 female and one male. We are keeping the male for breeding and back-crossing with this crop. I would like to breed the Blueberry out of this cross.

Three to four of the early flowering plants are still struggling to reverse and may not make very good buds, but will provide a lot of material for kief and hash production, or a lot of really resinous tops for rolling.

It will be interesting to see the stretch during the flower period. I hope it will slow down soon. With all of the plants showing pre-flowers or starting to bud it is hard to imagine some of the plants will still be flowering into November if we can keep them warm enough. It looks like most will not start to finish until October at the earliest.

We have been experiencing weather above 100-105F consistently since early June. The addition of the swamp cooler has made a remarkable difference in the plant growth. The room is now between 50 and 65% humidity when it is running and the inside temps are kept below 95F with this unit.

Last year's crop has been enough for a year's meds without using the dispensaries. This year's crop is already larger than last year and some plants have 12- 14 weeks to go. Our hopes are running high, but anything can still happen before harvest. We are learning much as we grow with the organic amendments and teas and feel the plants are growing well at this time and we have solved some of the probelms encountered with the first organic grow. We have now sourced a good selection of meals and amendments locally and can purchase most in 50# bags. After the initial investment we will have enough to fertilize and make soil media for several years.

Peace

PW

 

More pics from the same work day.

This week the plants were given a comfrey tea with the watering. We used one oz of comfrey syrup to a gallon of water, each plant about 1/2 g of the mix. This may be too weak, but I want to learn gradually how much is enough. I am unfamiliar with these teas and want to be sure not to cause any harm at this late stage. I am still a noob learner when it comes to organic growing, so until I can understand this whole aspect of growing, less is better for now.

WR74, wtf, I enjoyed visiting in your neighborhood this month. I was treated to a tour of a farm of a local grower, quite impressive, 12K inside and 24, Tom Hill style plants, outside on the hill in 200's. It was nice to see one of the grows that don't get published on the net that only a lucky few see. You Oregon blades have it together. Had lunch at the Norwegian fish place in Port O, great place. PM me on eye see sometime and let me know how it's going.

I was a little worried at first that our transplants were too skinny to fill out well, but as they continue to grow it looks like they will use all of the available space, regardless of the size of the plants. Anxiously awaiting fall now.

PW