Back to the Swamp 2014

[RosettaStoned]

I'm using a combination of neem, hot pepper (cayenne), and garlic for my pest control spray. I still have some insect damage, but it's better than in previous years. I'm running low on neem, so it's not as effective as it could be, but it still seems to help.

 

[Guyute54]

Thanks. Neem and sm-90 is what I'm using it's helping but I need to spray them more often once a week isn't cutting it. But I try and stay away from my gardens as much as possible. I will give the pepper and garlic a shot and see if it helps any.

 

[RosettaStoned]

Well I'm having some problems with an insect I've dealt with every year. They are white and dark brown/black, and they leave these white fluffy nests on stems and occasionally on the leaves. It's not webbing like with spider mites. I'm pretty sure once things started to flower in past seasons they went away. It doesn't seem like they eat the plant, as they are on all the plants, but there's been very little bug damage at all this season. They could even be beneficial in someway, but until I'm sure I've been spraying/destroying the nests to be safe. I always try to leave spiders and more predatory insects that protect the plants. There would probably be less of them if I hadn't run out of neem.

I checked on them the other day. One of the lower limbs of the big Jack Herer had snapped and bent over, but I propped it back up and it seems fine. May have been an animal, I thought I saw a top that had been munched, but whatever it was changed it's mind pretty quick and left. It wasn't a terrible crease in the stem, it may just super crop that branch. Hopefully this doesn't delay flowering at all, I think we have some time yet, though.

I checked the soil and the big plants have already grown roots through all of the previous top feedings I didn't realize they would do it so quickly. They didn't even flinch at the fresh chicken shit! Luckily I brought some soil and top fed all 5 of the girls. I also began to clean out some of the lower tops that wouldn't yield anything on the bigger plants and mulched them. The small bagseed is finally responding to her LST and is putting out side shoots after all.

The big plants have started to drop some of the bigger fan leaves, I think this is partly due to one hot day before it rained when they were thirsty. However, there doesn't seem to be any yellowing or signs of stress on them. I'm going to try and top feed or water in some tea every time I visit for awhile to try and keep these beasts fully fed.

Inside things are going way better than expected. After 10 days of 12/12 the male has already developed a mature pollen sack, but I'm going to let a few more pop before I pluck him. Fantastic how quick he popped, I'm hoping this trait carries over to the offspring I gave the other two big pots and a lot more soil. They are starting to take off, today it looked like maybe another male and a female, but I'm waiting until more obvious preflowers show. I LST'd them, maybe I can get a few tops instead of just a bud on a stick if there is indeed a female. If I do I'm probably going to try and push it with compost teas and see how big I can get them lol Since they don't even have real preflowers yet, I don't see them getting seeded in the next few days before I cut the male, so it should be some decent smoke.

Here they are before I LST'd the little ones

A close-up of the stud (a little thirsty). It's interesting to me seeing as how I've never had an opportunity to grow a male out fully.

 

[RosettaStoned]

The male has been chopped and I harvested a nice bit of pollen from him. It's drying and I'll store it soon, although it won't be long before I need it. Both the other plants turned out to be female and are growing quickly I'm confident in the genes of the male, he went from 3-5 tops to 16 tops in less than 2 weeks, doubled in height, and dropped pollen. I don't know if this is normal, but I think this will make for some good offspring.

The outdoor plants are doing pretty well, we've been having plenty of rain. Some of the older fan leaves are yellowing off on the big plants, mostly on the big Jack Herer. I think they are beginning to stretch. The big bagseed looks like it might be budding soon, putting off lots of pistils and it stretching out like crazy. There's still has a nice red-purple on some of the stems, it seems healthy and growth is good so it may be genetics. I hope it shows in the buds
The Brainstorm always seems to be the happiest, she's very green and continues to chug along.

 

[RosettaStoned]

Hey everyone. I've been busy and haven't had much time to visit the plants recently. I should be able to get some new pictures within a week or so.

In the meantime, here's how the girls are doing inside. They are both just beginning to bud. I've got them trained around the light vertically for better light usage (only 44w).

I'll probably continue to document this grow in my thread in the micro forum here

Hopefully I'll see some buds beginning to form when I go out to check the outdoor plot. I'm going to be pollinating a few preflowers extremely carefully while I'm out there. I figure it's better to do it early, when there are less calyxes, just in case there is a mistake and too much pollen gets spread.

 

[RosettaStoned]

Update time
I was able to visit the plot this morning so I got some pictures for you guys. I pollinated a bud site on each of the girls carefully with a paintbrush. It wasn't windy, so hopefully I didn't just seed my whole crop lol I might go with a lot of dry sift if that happened. Most of the girls are doing pretty well. Still a lot of fluffy nests from this one type of insect I'm having issues with, thinking it's some kind of leaf hopper or something. They don't appear to be doing that much damage to the plants as far as I can tell. I'm pretty sure they steer clear of buds once they really start to form. Seems like were definitely into the stretch now.

This is the small bagseed. Starting to branch out a little, finally. Won't yield much, but the genetics seem solid at this point, she definitely has a nice smell.

Here is the bigger bagseed. She's beginning to bud already, I'm extremely pleased with this, as this is quite early for my area. Hard to tell from the pic, but she still has some deep purple in her stems. Hopefully she turns all the way, I'd love some color in the garden this year.

Here is the more indica Jack Herer. She's not doing as well as the others, losing a lot of fan leaves. There is a little curling downward on some of the leaves. Her growth definitely slowed compared to the others, but the tops are green and healthy. I'm going to wait on top feeding her anymore, in case she decided she didn't like the chicken manure. I'll try some compost tea when I can, hopefully it can even things out for her a bit. She also probably didn't appreciate me pulling some her small tops and then whatever snapped one of her lower branches. The branch seems to have healed though.

The other Jack Herer. Doing better than her sister. I'm happy with how this one looks now, I may let her just stretch without anymore training.

Here is the Brainstorm. Still quite happy. Again I need to do a good bit of training next time, possibly the last before full flower begins. It's going to be tricky just bringing in all these tops at the end of the season for trimming, there's just so many.

I also worked on securing the area a little more, blocking things off, arranging thorns.

I'm really just ecstatic about how this year is going. If I manage to harvest all of these girls, I'm not going to have to worry about getting quality meds for long time. It helps me deal with depression, anxiety, appetite/stomach problems, sleep issues, back pain, all without giving me any unpleasant side-effects. It's really a wonderful thing, hopefully soon the rest of the world will begin to see it for what it really is.

 

[calientecarlos]

Shijeah bud!! Nice work! Healthy n happy!!

 

[RosettaStoned]

Hey guys just wanted to do a quick little update.

I top-fed in preparation for flowers. I added a little potash and lime this time, no chicken manure though, just more dirt/compost. It seems like more of the girls are beginning to bud. The one indica Jack Herer seems like it may have been delayed a bit, and it seems her lankier sister is going to bud first.

I snapped a few pics with a 5 gallon bucket to try and show you guys the size of these things.

Sativa leaning Jack Herer, looking like she'll bud soon

Bigger bagseed girl, budding

And the mighty Brainstorm, I managed to get a little more training done on her. Her branches have so many side tops they looks like individual plants lol

Looks like I may finally get to try some tea on these girls in the coming weeks, but we'll see how things pan out.

 

[Guyute54]

Looking good man. You use sticks the same as I do to hold up branches. Be careful making seeds it gets very addicting.

 

[calientecarlos]

Nice frig work!! Lookin happy n healthy!!!

I agree the custom stick trellising is sweet!!!!!

 

[RosettaStoned]

Early August update
Things are going well in the swamp now. It's been raining like mad, but it's been great for the girls. I've been unable to feed them compost teas yet again, but I'm top-feeding like mad now. The girls are responding well to it, and they always seem to grow roots into whatever I put out there by the time I visit them again. All of the girls are starting to form buds now, the stretch is going to be over soon. It's definitely an early year, seems like some of you guys may be experiencing this as well.

Here's the small bagseed, although her beginning was rough, she's very healthy now. Nice dense, green growth. Looks like she might be the last to enter full flower due to her size, but she's putting off some pink in her pistils, so maybe she'll be something special.

Here's the sativa Jack Herer, she's a little further along than the other JH and the Brainstorm.

The more indica JH girl, no longer seems to be stressed, now starting to bud a little. She may have just been a little hungry. It's become increasingly difficult to get a good picture of her due to her placement next to a fallen tree and the huge Brainstorm. This was the best I could do, the pictures I've been taking don't really show her length very well, this is a little better.

 

[RosettaStoned]

The Brainstorm, still getting bigger, looks like the stretch will slow soon. It's probably going to take me at least a week to trim her buds, just looking at it now

The big bagseed plant. Fully budding, should be the first to finish by a few weeks at least. The dark red-purple color on the stems has only gotten stronger, although she seems quite healthy and I've been feeding her. Looking more like it's genetic now.

A shot of one of her buds.

That's it for now. My little indoors plants are doing well, budding up nicely now.

 

[locoezon]

Hello Rosetta brotha!
Your plants are fucking changed everytime i see your pictures,even if they are not longer take from last time...

About early budding,one of my plant have been set it up faster than others and the others 3 just slowly stretch...

Before 3 years i get some Indian genetics seeds(as hes told me)from a unknown grandfather from my place and breed/sex them with my Fruit Spirits.
I still growing the same seeds (but from fresh plants)and every year i get a plant with dark red-purple color on the stems.

The final yield was not very promised,but the quality it's fucking HIGH!

 

[RosettaStoned]

That big bagseed girl smells like a cheese plant I had in one of my earlier outdoor grows. Sort of a sweet cream cheese smell. The smoke from that plant was some of my favorite to date, so I'm hoping for some of the same magic on this girl. Every fan leaf stem is still purple, but she's the greenest plant in the garden lol. I did see a bunch of ants on her, I removed as much as I could, hopefully they don't cause too much trouble. I'm guessing she'll be ready maybe early September. Everything else should be in full bloom soon enough.

 

[JointOperation]

watch out during flowering.. using sticks the way u are.. my first outdoor spot 2 years ago that I lost.. was because of this..

sticks ended up staying wet.. causing the branches the sticks held up.. rotted.. and then rotted the entire plants out.. I lost like 90% of the harvest due to mold / bud rot.. because of the water that was getting stuck because the branches.. just a heads up.. it does happen.. so be CAREFUL using sticks to hold up your branches..

 

[Swamp Thang]

watch out during flowering.. using sticks the way u are.. my first outdoor spot 2 years ago that I lost.. was because of this..

sticks ended up staying wet.. causing the branches the sticks held up.. rotted.. and then rotted the entire plants out.. I lost like 90% of the harvest due to mold / bud rot.. because of the water that was getting stuck because the branches.. just a heads up.. it does happen.. so be CAREFUL using sticks to hold up your branches..

Wow, now this is a very useful tip, JointOperation. I would never have guessed that sticks used to prop plants up could actually trigger bud rot. I'll be sure and avoid using sticks especially in wet weather when mold is more likely,

Looking good Rosetta Stoned. The plants look healthy and should yield some righteous buddage come harvest time.

 

[RosettaStoned]

Thanks guys. That is a good tip, Joint, I'll make sure to keep a close eye on where the sticks meet the branches and how much moisture the wood is holding.

 

[calientecarlos]

Lemon juice r somethin acidic should kill n prevent mold on sticks. I've used it for PM before.

 

[#1cheesebuds]

very nice garden u have her.

 

[RosettaStoned]

We had a strong storm a couple days ago. The swamp got like 7-8 inches of rain, quite flooded now. I got soaked going to the spot, but it's still summer so I didn't really mind. I've never seen this area this flooded other than in winter, but it only reached the bottoms of the mounds. The soil on top was moist, but not soaked. Luckily the weather is going to be warm and dry for almost a week, so the swamp should dry up. Hopefully the girls won't stress much. They looked fine when I checked them, only one branch on the Brainstorm was hanging low, probably from the wind, but it wasn't broken as far as I could see.

It seems like the stretch is over or at least slowing down now for all the girls. Other than the big bagseed plant, they are all pretty close in bud development. This rain prevented me from using compost tea again I'll be happy if I can get at least a couple teas in by harvest time, while I have these big plants I might as well try to push them a bit.

I'll get some pics soon, probably when I make another top-feeding trip.

Edit: Also I hit 500 posts