ANYTHING OUTDOOR 2022 EVERYWHERE

[Great outdoors]

Bringing it back to the anything outdoor subject, although it's a little embarrassing to post my little plants next to all these beautiful trees haha but the predator part might be interesting for some.

My maple leaf mom is on her 15th day of forced flower.
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The crazy western wind that comes from the Sahara desert (we call it poniente) made the RH fall to 20% and brought with it a bump in spidermite population, so I ordered a persimilis+californicus combo, and some pollen to try and develop a californicus population in the near plants.
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This is the first time this year I saw an actual infestation begin. The insect hotels I installed last year in my olive trees are full and there's a lot of activity surrounding the plants, which I assume has helped prevent an infestation so far. I am yet to spray anything this year.
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The little sativas are finally in their final pots. The older ones just started their forced flower. The smaller ones will go into flower in a week or so. Hoping for as little stretch as possible for stealh purposes.
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Wasps and bees are always in their vecinity because there's always some water for them.

Learning a lot about my garden's ecosystem this year. I am going all in with the predator shit hahaha

Pretty sure the wasps would be predatory on the spider mites. I know they sure love aphids.

 

[revegeta666]

Pretty sure the wasps would be predatory on the spider mites. I know they sure love aphids.

Thank you, I would think they would be because I see them surrounding the big plant so much. Still, I decided to order the predatory mites anyway because of how the spidermites got on the plant.

Usually you would see a couple infested leaves on the bottom of the plant, and they would make their way up the plant which is easier to intercept or control I think. In this case, I found a few spidermites on leaves all over the plant, probably brought by the wind. Spidermites multiply so quickly I don't want to leave it to chance.

I was hoping the wasps and other similar insects would also hunt the butterfly worms that love destroying buds so much. Do you think this is the case? This is my first year trying a zero pesticide approach.

 

[chilliwilli]

Aluminium also gets carried out of the soil after it binds to calcium.

Hey Chilliwilli,
I’m not sure if you remember over at Tang’s “cob” thread last year l asked for requests as to how to deal with some dry sift. Your suggestion was to put it in the freezer for years.....well here it is after a year and a half....not much change yet..
As requested,
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Nice man thx for the effort. Very cool that u tried it and share the info
How did the high develope more pronounced like with a good cure? Did the smell/taste got significant less?

 

[Great outdoors]

Thank you, I would think they would be because I see them surrounding the big plant so much. Still, I decided to order the predatory mites anyway because of how the spidermites got on the plant.

Usually you would see a couple infested leaves on the bottom of the plant, and they would make their way up the plant which is easier to intercept or control I think. In this case, I found a few spidermites on leaves all over the plant, probably brought by the wind. Spidermites multiply so quickly I don't want to leave it to chance.

I was hoping the wasps and other similar insects would also hunt the butterfly worms that love destroying buds so much. Do you think this is the case? This is my first year trying a zero pesticide approach.

I assume you mean caterpillars by butterfly worms?
I know birds eat them but not so sure on the wasps. But if wasps are swarming your plants they are at work eating something.
I have used no pest controls ( other than netting for birds digging) outdoors for over 30yrs. It all comes down to plant health/ brix levels. Insects are not interested in plants with high brix / sugar levels.
Early season when first planted I will always see some insect damage, but once the plants get some deep roots going and settle into their ecosystem the bugs are uninterested. I am quite unorthodox in my approach though as I do not weed as well. Rather than attracting pests I see weeds as giving the insects something else to eat. If the entire area is barren except your plants, where else are they going to go? Typical example the weeds all around my plants will be covered in aphids, but you can't find one on my plants.
IMO we often try to intervene too much and just don't let nature run it's course.

 

[revegeta666]

I assume you mean caterpillars by butterfly worms?
I know birds eat them but not so sure on the wasps. But if wasps are swarming your plants they are at work eating something.
I have used no pest controls ( other than netting for birds digging) outdoors for over 30yrs. It all comes down to plant health/ brix levels. Insects are not interested in plants with high brix / sugar levels.
Early season when first planted I will always see some insect damage, but once the plants get some deep roots going and settle into their ecosystem the bugs are uninterested. I am quite unorthodox in my approach though as I do not weed as well. Rather than attracting pests I see weeds as giving the insects something else to eat. If the entire area is barren except your plants, where else are they going to go? Typical example the weeds all around my plants will be covered in aphids, but you can't find one on my plants.
IMO we often try to intervene too much and just don't let nature run it's course.

Yes I meant caterpillars sorry I had to look up the word lol.

I made the effort this spring to add a lot of aromatic plants like rosemary, thyme and stuff like that, near the cannabis plants. That and the insect houses has made the place burst with activity (otherwise it's a cemented terrace). It looks like the effort is paying off so next spring I will double down on the companion plants in order to attract as many predators as possible.

 

[Great outdoors]

Yes I meant caterpillars sorry I had to look up the word lol.

I made the effort this spring to add a lot of aromatic plants like rosemary, thyme and stuff like that, near the cannabis plants. That and the insect houses has made the place burst with activity (otherwise it's a cemented terrace). It looks like the effort is paying off so next spring I will double down on the companion plants in order to attract as many predators as possible.

Sounds like a good plan
I have garlic, lavender, thyme, and oregano growing around mine as well as whatever weeds naturally spring up. I will cut weeds back some if they are overgrowing into the plants, but never pull them.

 

[Mitsuharu]

butterfly worms that love destroying buds

You know i like to photograph insects and plants... so if you have a photo i would love to see that! And sorry for your buds, hope the damage is not too much!?

I always thought most insects would avoid the resin.

 

[xet]

UEL Sativa x ( UEL Sativa x Madagascar Landrace)

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Left & Right
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UEL Sativa x Boa Durban & UEL F6

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And my Scrog maybe Little better as Last year. UEL F7 and UEL x Boa Durban
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That is awesome. What is the backstory on the Madagascar? I was always wondering if people ran them, seems like a rare novelty.

 

[revegeta666]

You know i like to photograph insects and plants... so if you have a photo i would love to see that! And sorry for your buds, hope the damage is not too much!?

Sorry I don't have caterpillars at the moment. Where I live the season starts more or less now, and usually gets out of control by september if you don't do anything. 99% of people here use bacillus thuringiensis which is a bacteria that attacks the younger caterpillars. I was just asking because I have them in mind at the moment. Still haven't seen one yet this year thankfully but I don't doubt the time will come.

But if you have never seen these, they do indeed destroy buds from the inside. They eat their way into the bud, make tunnels and shit inside them, and the shit makes the bud rot from the inside (botrytis I guess). When you notice them it's often too late and spanish growers spend most of their time in september opening their buds and hoping there won't be any of these suckers.

I don't have any pics so I looked for some on the internet. I hope you can appreciate the effort because it's traumatizing for me even to look at pictures of them lol

Where's Wormaldo?

 

[Mitsuharu]

That's nice!

 

[revegeta666]

That's nice!

You should see how they squirt green goo when you step on them xD that's even nicer.

 

[Radicle Rye]

AK4WAY({Royal Kush x Truth OG probably} x {Black Afghani x Iraqi Indica} Looking nice and early!

Hawaiian Cat Piss

 

[Montuno]

Meanwhile, in a dilapidated and poor courtyard in the deepest Hispanistan, my friend Capi has once again been hit by, we don't know how, the bushes that the jipis, rastas and legionnaires smoke, among de tomatos plants...
Three big ones, and one small one.
The big ones are already over 3 metres high.
Last year he had one over 5 metres tall: the storks had to be scared away so that they wouldn't nest.

(...)

 

[Montuno]

Meanwhile, in a dilapidated and poor courtyard in the deepest Hispanistan, my friend Capi has once again been hit by, we don't know how, the bushes that the jipis, rastas and legionnaires smoke, among de tomatos plants...
Three big ones, and one small one.
The big ones are already over 3 metres high.
Last year he had one over 5 metres tall: the storks had to be scared away so that they wouldn't nest.

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(...)

Greetings to all from my friend, Capi the Oretan:¡ Hasta la vista, preciosidades !

And a Oretan salute from Montuno, too:

 

[Calle Minogue]

That is awesome. What is the backstory on the Madagascar? I was always wondering if people ran them, seems like a rare novelty.

The guy who made this cross is Arnold and he has brought the seeds from his trip, a village you can reach only by Food named Ampokafo. Much apreciate this guy. Outdoorkingseeds.com

 

[therevverend]

I think aluminum sulfate (?) also boosts a blue hue when applied to acidify flower beds.

What's their aluminum content in their soils?

(*Side-note: I believe it was h.h. who informed me and others in a conversation with slownickel a couple years back that perlite has a fairly stout aluminum punch in it, something like 11% to 14% if I recall correctly).

Didn't reply right away because I wanted to find pictures of bluing plants and the conversations I'd had about it. Aluminum is one of the most common ingredients in fireworks because of the brilliant blue color it adds. Someone needs to volunteer to sacrifice a plant and maybe their own braincells, (aluminium causes Alzheimer's) and add some aluminum to their bloom mix. Might become something popular at all the Rec shops, Deep Blue Blueberry. Surprised the guy that poured cola on his buds didn't figure it out.

Now that I've thought it over and looked at some pictures I'm fairly certain it was a Kashmiri plant that had blue leaves, not Himalayan. The conversation came up because we were discussing a couple of my plants that were suffering from phosphate deficiency. When the phosphate's locked out plants will show blue instead of green. Here's a picture of a Kali Ram hashplant suffering from the lockout, along with a healthy green one. They're terrible pics, I wish I'd found the ones I took in June where it's much more obvious, but they'll have to do for now.

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A lot of people, including myself, are fooled into thinking the plant is naturally that color. The plant isn't stricken or obviously sick, it grows fine, but when you unlock the phosphate it takes off. Cal or Mag deficiency will show something similar because it locks up the phosphate as well. Sometimes it shows as more of a seaweed greenish-blue.

Potassium deficiency or lockup will cause a blue tint to the plants. Many years ago I was touring my friend's garden in Mendocino. The plants had a blue aura, literally emanating blue light. It was super trippy. 'Wow man your plants are glowing blue! Maybe they're enlightened....' A couple weeks later he looked it up and figured out it was potassium deficiency. Fertilized them and the change was immediate. A few hours later they turned vibrant green and started growing like crazy.

The problem with a lot of the charts and pictures online or in books is that they show plants that are hopelessly ill. By the time a plant looks like that might as well yank it. Most of us are better growers then that, it's the mild deficiencies that cause the problem. Back in the day without knowledge you could use the same mix for years not realizing you had a deficiency. Anyway, I think it's the Kashmiri soil that was the phosphate deficiency, not Himalayan.

I need to ask those guys about mineral content, very curious about it. I notice an Indian seed collector I know from Instagram, calls himself 'Landrace Warden' was peddling something called 'Shilajit'. Holy shit Moose, you need to check that shit out if you haven't heard of it. It's the humic acid that's squeezed under obscene pressure out of the heart of the Himalayas, Karakorum, Andes, and Saiyan Mountains. The lifejuice of the mountain itself. It's been used in eastern medicine, Ayurvedic and Taoist, for thousands of years. Shilajit in Sanskrit means (among other things) conqueror of the mountains, or destroyer of weakness.

I was surprised to find it's not snake oil, it's actually been proven to work by modern science. Raises testosterone levels, destroys Alzheimer's, makes you more alert and energetic. Back to the point, it can also contain heavy metals. If you buy some you want to get it from a dealer that lab tests it so you aren't getting 'memory eraser' or whatever.

I was hoping the wasps and other similar insects would also hunt the butterfly worms that love destroying buds so much. Do you think this is the case? This is my first year trying a zero pesticide approach.

Wasps are one of the main predators of caterpillars. Along with birds and spiders. I'm glad you're quitting the pesticides, usually they're a waste of money and do more harm then good. The caveat is that sometimes there's a massive infestation that requires heavy weaponry, only there's so many new methods there's no reason to have to resort to hit and miss old school type stuff. For instance the predatory mites. It might take you a couple of years to learn what predators attack what pests at what times, you need to spend lots of time observing the small stuff. I've never used insecticides outdoors in all the years I've been growing. Indoors is different...

One of the biggest problems with insecticides is they're indiscriminate. More effective on the friendlies then the foes. Yesterday morning I saw an old buddy of mine, a soldier beetle. They're common all over the world but look a little bit different depending on the location. He was chowing on something, what it was, too small to tell. I think either mite or thrip eggs. Check him out.


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Many people when they see a bug on their plants they want to squish it. They think it's harming it in some way. Better to identify it or leave it be most times. Soldier beetles prefer pollen, they always flock to my fennel plant when they arrive in mid July. When it finishes flowering or they want some meat they switch to aphids, mites, thrips, and other pests. They also provide a food supply themselves to the spiders and wasps attracting them to your garden. In my area it becomes very hot and dry in mid to late August. There's not anything flowering right now. In July my yard is buzzing with insects, now it's almost empty except for predators.

This sucks because many pollen eaters like soldier beetles also eat pests. I'm doing some research, next year I'm going to plant some late summer flowering plants. Butterfly bush is a good one, it'll attract hummingbirds along with every pollinator imaginable. The ones that don't eat aphids will feed your spiders, wasps, and birds attracting them to your yard. I always allow my garden to go to seed, go to weed because it creates habitat for the little beasts.

This got very long somehow. Here's a look at my 3rd earliest plants to flower. And might be my best. (grape ape x bubblegum) X apricot helix. A few years ago a friend went to a dispensary and asked for their terpiest stuff. The guy sold him an 1/8 of apricot helix and he found a few seeds. It was a lucky find and it really is full of terpenes. My friend smoked me out with it last week, it's got a wonderful high. Aphrodisiac. It makes your body feel good and tingly all over. Everything feels good. Love that sort of effect.

I gave an excellent select grape ape x bubblegum to a friend who also received some apricot helix pollen from another friend. I ended up with some seeds and I'm glad he planted them out. Two females, one is over 10 feet tall and the other almost 9 feet. Beautiful bushy open structure. The branches are coated in fragrant resin, the most resinated pre-flowering plant I've seen. It's already forming tufts of pistils. Here's a look.

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One picture of the tall upright 10 footer, 2 of the nearly 9 footer. Or more, they're still stretching. My buddy also crossed his super fine Soulmate with helix pollen, next year I'm growing those seeds....

 

[Chunkypigs]

..... Aluminum is one of the most common ingredients in fireworks because of the brilliant blue color it adds. Someone needs to volunteer to sacrifice a plant and maybe their own braincells, (aluminium causes Alzheimer's) and add some aluminum to their bloom mix. Might become something popular at all the Rec shops, Deep Blue Blueberry. ....

my native soil is very high in Aluminum, 1200+ ppms in my biggest bed and the plants are not blue.

 

[therevverend]

my native soil is very high in Aluminum, 1200+ ppms in my biggest bed and the plants are not blue.

From what I've been reading you need a ph below 5.5 to increase the aluminum uptake. The aluminum itself also lowers ph rapidly and they use other amendments to keep it low. The information I'm finding is very specific to certain types of flowers. Hydgrangeas for instance. It doesn't say the entire plant is turning blue, just the flowers.

Garden's looking great chunky!

 

[Hashislife]

I have two with the pink blush I' just fear for one very yellow, 3weeks puting 12ml bio grow but don't recover

I've been talking with North Indians a bit about their soil and the testing that's been done on some of these Himalayan plants. I've noticed some of them have very blue leaves. Their soil is naturally low in phosphate and magnesium if I remember correctly. I've noticed when I gave these two nutrients to my plants they really took off. Doesn't have to be a huge amount. We were also talking about carotenoid production. They were saying all the plants in the Malana Valley from Nirang to Waichin show this. They get a pink blush at the tips of the leaves, the petioles, and the stalk. It's not a deficiency, it's an adaptation to the high altitude, the varieties from lower valleys don't show this.



Wow Mr Rye, she's the spitting image of my one purple Hindu Kush x M10 that takes after the purple Hindu Kush. Same tall upright bushy structure, medium size leaves, and blush on the petioles. If yours smells half as good as mine, or vice versa, it must smell amazing. Mine is sweet and the branches and stalk shimmer with crystalized resin. Check out mine.

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[cfl...KING]