Perdicting the Sun's Path

Butte said:

How about a couple more big ‘uns to get us rolling again?

12+ lb Blue Dream (clone)
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Highland Mexican x Blueberry (seed)
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Sage Monkey from this year (clone)
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Factors for growing monsters, imho, are in order of importance: sun, soil, water, and genetics. If one factor limits, then the rest won't even matter.

Let's start with sun. This last season I purchased a tool for analyzing the sun different gardens were receiving. It's called the SunEye and is really an amazing tool.

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Here's the fisheye shot it took of my garden:

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Then, within seconds, it generates this view:

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With a touch of a button, it throws out this graph:

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…and, for contrast, here’s a buddy’s place:

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Right now we’re benchmarking with this tool, but I’ve been telling people that if their sun is 50% or more then it should be good. This information can also be read as to when you need to harvest by. We had a large plant not do too well (still 6.75 lbs) because the light dropped off in late October / early November when it needed it to finish properly. I’ve also shot gardens with big plants that, apparently, didn’t get too much sun, but the SunEye told a different story and explained how this novice grower could be doing so well. You can also remove obstructions (like trees) and find out exactly how much sun you'll gain before ever taking one out. I've saved many a tree by showing the gardener how little sun it would gain...also dropped a couple!

Factor two is soil. Without sufficient food, you’ll not be getting the most out of your genetics. I should mention at this point that all of the plants I’ve posted are grown 100% organically. Most are clones, but some are seed plants as well. I had a friend pull over 12 lbs off a cut of the Blue Dream – a sativa leaning strain that is purported to be Blueberry x Santa Cruz Haze. I run a hybrid system of raised containers on beds. The reason here are multi-fold. First off, I hate to bend over to manage my plants. Second, I can push more water through the containers and get greater nutrient cycling. Third, I ensure the plants get a great start before reaching the beds.

I’ll include here the addition of compost tea. Good biology is critical to success in large plant growing. Sure, you could get a monster in a one shot deal with chems, but your yield will go down every year until it’s just a shadow of the first year. Providing the mechanism to release all that food you loaded into the soil is critical.

Water. Good quality and lots of it.

Genetics. Ahh, the holy grail. It seems that sativa dominant, but early finishing strains are almost a prerequisite to true monsters. I’ve been able to pull 6+ off an Alien Kush, so it is possible to get large plants with indicas, just not monster plants. I’m going to leave this part a bit short as Tom has a much better ability to explain genetics than I!

OK, off to cook up a bit of salmon for dinner...

- Butte

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