I dug too deep I think

[neongreen]

Wow neongreen...they are looking great!!!

I wish I was as good at keeping bugs away as you are...whats the secret??? Is it the sand you are using at the base, does that keep most bugs away?? Or are bugs just not a huge problem where you are in general??

Btw, thanks so much for the kind words in my thread!

Do you find yourself re-applying the sand after it rains??? Do you just put it on the ground there surrounding the plot, nowhere else???

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just wondering what the secret is to keeping off bugs like you do!!! Seems like I've had tons of bug problems this season.

Thanks bong,

More than happy to answer questions, so fire away all you like

I think the "secret" is not any one thing, but I would say that having healthy and fast growing plants is a big factor. The odd bug does get through the defenses, but as long as the plants is growing vigorously, the impact is not great.

Obviously there are many things that affect how vigorous growth is, like hours of direct sunlight, availability of nutrients and so forth, but, (and this is just an observation since I'm new to organics and this is only my first "real" outdoor grow) the various microbes organic growers try to promote around their plants and soil also appear to increase overall health and ward off pests.

I don't think bugs are much less of a problem here than where you are, perhaps a little. I think what made a difference, was the amended soil and because they were already fairly well developed when I planted them out, so they took off. Part of that may also be down to them being able to lay down multiple sets of roots over a comparatively wide area, and deep.

Knowing what to look for/inspecting your plants also plays a big part. I'm still learning what's what when it comes to growing outdoors here, and the Trainwreck in trench 1 is suffering and stunted because of that (damn flea beetles!), but I have been lucky that none of the other plants were badly affected.

Also I think it helps that there are lots of other green and juicy plants around that pests can munch on, and there are a few companion plants around the edges of the trenches like lemon balm and another that I'm not sure of the name. At the same time I also try to keep places where slugs can hide close to the plants free of cover.

The sharp sand (horticultural grade) is only really effective against slugs and snails since they hate to crawl over it. It needs to be re-applied after heavy rain, but it's cheap. I only use it close to the plants where you can see it (or could earlier on in the grow)

I also use organic slug pellets, and go out after dark (when they are most active) and hunt them down. Oh, and lately I've been spraying with neem and FPEs of course!

So you can see, there are lots of things you can do that will help, but IMO your main priority has to be to archive a healthy soil. The rest will follow as long as you have a good spot...

I'm not sure that all the things I mentioned above would suit your own situation... but there are lots of other things you can try if you dig around these forums, until you find things that work well for you in your environment. Everyone develops their own style of growing eventually, based on what works for them.

bring em home neongreen

Thanks shroomy. I'll do my best

neongreen. holy shit on a shingle thay look killer.

Thanks for the kind words cheesebuds.

I think the BF and Task are going to hit the 6' mark before they're done

Looking great, wishing a happy harvest to you!

Thank you bkind!

The garden looks so healthy and happy, would like to be chilling there with your babies and a joint, I bet it's a relaxing place to be!

They're all putting on some size now, the Blowfish in particular Loving the fans on that Task too, the size, shape, the overall structure of the plant too.

Keep it up bro, I hear the next few days are gonna be a bit more settled weather wise, fingers crossed.

Cheers man. I don't seem to get much time to sit there among the girls, but I do love working on the garden and being around them :wink:

Yeah, the BF is really putting on a good show. I can imagine it yielding a few pounds in the right situation

Here it's only getting sun from around 11 am to 3 pm right now, but if it gets a bit taller it'll be getting sun right the way through the day and into the late afternoon... the tops anyway. Likewise with the Task!

I'm thinking that it might be a good idea to stake the branches on the Task (and others), so they spread out and catch a wider footprint of light.

Also hoping the forecast is on the money this time :wink:

 

[High Lowlander]

:jawdrop:
HolyBejeeebus neon!
Nice update (and that's an understatement!)
Good to see everything growin into monsters, if you'd let them ofcourse..
OUch on TW#1 though..damn bugs!
Be back laterz,
Low
EDIT: Forgot to say massive for teachin me/us here @ICMag different ways of growin our favorite plant!

 

[neongreen]

Appreciate the kind words Low. Only too happy to share.

I'm pretty sure if I'd got them out a couple of weeks earlier, they'd be twice as big... but that would be a touch too big for my peace of mind I think. So it's worked out pretty well so far in a round about way. The Task/Blowfish are both about 4.5-5 feet as it is right now.

Blowfish stem base

I'd like to try it with a bit more space and a few more hours of direct sunlight one day though, if I can find somewhere better to grow

 

[3rd I]

neongreen...gettin' thick......soon they'll be getting nice and juicy

 

[neongreen]

Yep, not long to go now 3rd I. Should see the first signs of flowering in the next week or two.


Here are some pics I got the day before yesterday, but did not get a chance to post yet!

Trench 1

Blowfish

Trainwreck #1

Trench 2

Trainwreck #2

Taskenti

I've been trying to spread the branches out more so that the "inside" of the plant gets more light with mixed success. I should really have done this much earlier I think for best results.

I used canes driven 3 feet or so into the ground, but the Task just bent them over and went back to the way it was

I had to resort to plan B... I grabbed a bamboo cane and cut off a 3 foot length which I drove into the surrounding (more compacted and harder) ground at an angle until there were only 5 or 6 inches above the ground.

I then got some garden string, and used that to tie the stem to the cane. While I was pulling the plant down, I heard something snap under the soil

It must have been a root (thankfully) and two days later the plant/stem seems fine with no outward signs of anything being amiss, which is a good thing as that was by far the biggest stem on the Task...

Will try and get some new pics in the next few days and post them up on the other thread

 

[bubble_bobble]

At what latitude are you located? I'm at 42-43 and plants have been flowering here for about a week.

 

[PazVerdeRadical]

kick ass job neongreen! k+!

one question: when you layered your babies, did you happen to use a potato peeler to peel away the stems out of which you wanted new roots? if you did, great, if not, you should next time, and add a little rooting powder or gel to the peeled under-side of the stems to the layered. this helps the root shoot out faster. same when one is burying the plant deeper than its cotyledons.

much peace and keep up the excellent work!

 

[Bedlamite]

A variation on layering is to bend the branch down across a pot of soil so that the new plant will root into the pot. You have to hold it down with wire or rock or something.
I didn't know this would work with cannabis. I've done it with lots of different plants.
thanks, I learned something today.

 

[neongreen]

At what latitude are you located? I'm at 42-43 and plants have been flowering here for about a week.

Hey bubble. I'm at around 50-51. Just starting to see the first signs of flower in the last day or two!

kick ass job neongreen! k+!

one question: when you layered your babies, did you happen to use a potato peeler to peel away the stems out of which you wanted new roots? if you did, great, if not, you should next time, and add a little rooting powder or gel to the peeled under-side of the stems to the layered. this helps the root shoot out faster. same when one is burying the plant deeper than its cotyledons.

much peace and keep up the excellent work!

Thank you for the kind words Paz.

I didn't scrape the stems this time, but next time I will definitely do that.

There was another trick which I just remembered that I will also try, which is to wrap some foil around the portion of stem which you want to produce roots, and that cuts the light, which prompts the plant into removing the photosynthetic pigments and storing carbohydrates in the stem tissues. Stems treated like this are supposed to initiate roots much quicker when they are cloned/layered.

A variation on layering is to bend the branch down across a pot of soil so that the new plant will root into the pot. You have to hold it down with wire or rock or something.
I didn't know this would work with cannabis. I've done it with lots of different plants.
thanks, I learned something today.

My pleasure Bedlamite.

Yeah, that should work pretty well with cannabis too. I'm regretting not having done that this time round. I used air-layers, and wrapped some foil around the stems, with a handful of soil and twigs to keep the stem close to the bottom of the foil, with mixed results. Out of five, only two rooted after a little over 2 weeks. Layering directly into pots would have worked much better I think, since my air-layering technique still needs to be honed.

Like anything though, once you have a method down...

There was someone else also doing good work, with a combo of air-layering and pot-layering here on ICMAG. I'll have to try and find the thread...


Full update over in my other thread going up shortly, but here's a teaser taken from it

 

[bongcritter]

Gettin big neongreen!!!! Hope you have somewhere to put all that bud come harvest time...

My plant seems to be flowering at the same rate as yours...when do you plan on harvesting? When's the first frost in your area?

Keep it comin buddy...love it!!!

 

[neongreen]

Pretty sure I can find somewhere to dry it bong

Think I might need to get one or two more mason jars though!

The TW should be done after 45 days of flower, which gives an estimated harvest date of 25th Sept if you assume that it takes 2 weeks from the flowering is triggered for the plant to show first signs of flower. Hopefully the others will show soon too.

I don't think I'll have to worry about frost here, but it can get quite wet towards the end of September/start of October, which could be a big problem, especially with the Task which will need at least till the 10th of October by the looks of her.

I'll have to watch her close, and hope it stays dry. The others should all be in well before then, as they are ~44 day strains, but I'll still be keeping a close eye on them for rot...

Allot depends on your strain, and how dense the buds are. The more dense they are the more prone to mold they will be. In early flower most strains have fluffy buds, but later on, the more indica genes there are, the denser the buds will tend to get. So it's good to grow sativa leaving strains with slightly fluffier buds when you grow somewhere that is wet. Some strains have better mold resistance than others too.

Last time I grew out the BF here it was a wet summer... at least at the end, it rained at 41 days flower, and remained wet after that, but I was able to harvest half at 45 days and the other half at 49 days, with hardly any buds lost to mold. I preferred the smoke from the 45 day harvest too!

 

[Bedlamite]

I've been air layering an apple tree this year. I started in the Spring by scratching the bark where I wanted the roots to form, just a little with my thumbnail, but without removing the damaged bark. Be sure to get all the way through the bark. Then I waited for over a month. The bark scratches healed. This is good, because just like in your own body, hormones and nutrients are rushed to the site to heal the wound. In plants the same hormones and stuff which heals is the same as the hormones and stuff needed to root.

The next step is to put something around the branch that will retain moisture. I used spaghnum moss; a generous handful or two. I held the wad of moss to the branch with plastic stretch wrap, leaving an open place at the top to add water. It must stay moist in order to work.

It has to be dark, also, so I covered the plastic over the moss with tin foil to keep out the light.
Then every once in a while I open the top, add water, and close it back up.
I checked it yesterday. It's working. I've got roots. I added more moss, because it would fit. I dunno, maybe it shrank or decomposed or something; anyway there was room for more. I just replaced the tin foil, too. It had several small holes in it. How they got there I don't know. I had put another layer of the stretch wrap over the tin foil to hold it in place. Anyway, no matter how you do it, to air layer it must be moist and dark.

 

[neongreen]

Some good ideas there Bedlamite, thanks!

I'll definitely give it a go using sphagnum moss next time.



Not much new to report here today, apart from the weather has been pretty shit over the last couple of days, but otherwise not too bad, oh and one of the other plants has also been showing signs of bud for the last day or two

I grabbed a few pics earlier...

Trench 1 / Blowfish (in the back) and Trainwreck #1 at the bottom of the pic

Trainwreck #1

Trench 2

Trench 2 from behind with Trainwreck #2 in the foreground

Trainwreck #2

Taskenti

I was hoping she would be next, and I think that looks like the start of a bud to me

 

[Bubba Zanetti]

so your going to bend the plant over after 5 feet and jam the top of it into the other 3.5 foot hole to grow roots??

what have you been smoking?

when i seen the topsy turvy i was like nooo way


when i read this, i was like this guy is a idiot

Whos the idiot now those plants look dope...

Big yeilds using that technique fow shaw...

Whats the grey border potash? Thats keeping the slugs away, doesnt it wash away in the rain?

Also where you at/Lat?

Looking gr8t mate...

 

[neongreen]

Whats the grey border potash? Thats keeping the slugs away, doesnt it wash away in the rain?

Also where you at/Lat?

Looking gr8t mate...

Thanks Bubba.

Latitude is around 50-51 N.

If you mean the stuff that's scattered around in the planting out pics, that's Rootgrow (mycorrhizal fungi that work together with plants). I didn't realize at the time, but that brand does not have the correct species of mikes that will form a symbiotic relationship with cannabis. Glomus mosseae is what you need.

As for the slugs, just horticultural grade sharp sand (replaced when needed, after rain etc) around the plants, and some organic slug pellets scattered close by did the trick. It probably helped that I went out after dark with my trusty LED head light torch.

Actually these might be very useful for a gorilla grower now that I think about it, since it leaves your hands free to do other stuff, and there is also a red LED setting that preserves your night vision, and is much more discrete than the much brighter dual white LED setting.

I actually bought about 4 of them altogether since I found good deals here and there, and I find them useful in all kinds of situations. That was last year though. Not sure if that particular one is still in production, but they are worth buying if you can find them for about 1/3 less than there are there at the moment.

Anyway, sorry for the tangent, as I was saying before, I also went out after dark to hunt them down perhaps once a week or so, especially after the rain when they emerge from their hiding places in force. It probably isn't really necessary to do though if you take other precautions. Copper rings/tape around the stem (make sure it's loose so as not to restrict growth) will also work in place of sand IME, but it would have been impossible to use copper in this grow, where as sand is cheap.

For the last 3 or 4 weeks the slugs have not been a threat so I haven't bothered with any more measures to prevent them. The odd nibble here n there can't really hurt them now

I do however go out of the way to kill every slug that I see, since each one can lay up to 35,000 eggs (or something like that) in it's life time!

 

[neongreen]

Trainwreck macros

Trainwreck macros

I managed to get a few pics of Trainwreck #2's buds in between gusts of wind earlier on, but my plan to get some bud shots of the Task were thwarted when the wind picked up!

 

[neongreen]

A few days till harvest!

A few days till harvest!

The whether has been exceptionally good for this time of the year so far, but things are about to change, and I may regret not going for proven early strains...

It's going to be touch and go whether we get a soaking here or not in the next few days, and there already spots of PM appearing here and there on the most advanced plant in terms of flowering (Trainwreck #2), which I have been mostly cutting off, although I did harvest a couple of branches that had small spots on virtually all the buds.

Amazingly all the others seem un-affected so far!

Here's the Blowfish @ an estimated 42 days of flower. Should be ready by 45 although more might be better. One of her branches has decided to yellow early, which may be down to her being partially blown over a couple of weeks back, since it's the biggest and lowest branch, right at the base of the plant, which probably had it's own root system.

Trainwreck #1 which is also @ an estimated 42 days of flower. I think the location of the trench may have played a part in this. Both the Blowfish and Trainwreck #1 are in the same
trench, which gets a bit less sun overall, and later on in the day than the other trench, and the plants in each trench showed first signs of flowering at more or less the same time.

Anyway, it looks likes it could use another 2 weeks or so to reach it's full potential, but I'll be lucky if the weekend passes with only a few drops of rain, so it may have to come down early

Trainwreck #2 @ an estimated 51 days of flower. The buds are starting to fatten up a bit now, but I'll probably have to harvest her in the next few days, unless the forecast improves

 

[neongreen]

Continued...

Continued...

Taskenti @ an estimated 49 days of flower. She really needs at least another week I think, if not closer to two!

Anyone care to lend their thoughts on what I should do...

Option 1
Leave them all and pray. It's only one day that rain is forecast, and after that looks like it will be clear for at least another day or two.

Option 2
Take Trainwreck #2 at 53 days (Jojo said 56 is "plenty" I found out after checking my records... perhaps my initial estimate of 45 days was wishful thinking!), and hope most of the rain misses us, or if some does fall, that I don't see any problems with the other girls.

Option 3
Stand by with clippers on hand, and if it starts to rain harvest some or all.

???

 

[icmag.is.#1]

option #4??? Drive a stake between your plants(stake should be higher than your tallest plant) and toss a tarp or anything large enough to cover your plants untill the heavy rain passes? You shouldnt let a little rain keep you from letting your plants finish to your standards

 

[neongreen]

I was thinking about doing that, but it's going to stick out like a sore thumb if I do that, so I'm a bit hesitant. I think I can cobble something together with the materials I have at hand, so I'll give it a bit more thought. Thanks for the idea.