MotherLode Gardens 2016

[Shcrews]

Yea the reotemp just tells you soil moisture relative to what you set it at. It won't tell you what the best moisture level is. You want a tensiometer to get actual numbers you can compare with other people. To compare it with N, it's like knowing what a good color green is and noting if it gets to dark or too light versus having an N meter that gives you a number (but I guess N meters aren't all that good anyway).

So I got a gopher yesterday with those Victor black box traps. If you're still dealing with them, find a fresh gopher mound that's not on your mound ( you'll have to dig too much of it). Might be best to find one on the edge of your mound. Wipe away the dirt, and clear out the hole. You should eventually find a fork in the hole. You'll probably have to rip up the ground a little. Follow both trails. You gotta poke around with sticks and your fingers. Sometimes they dead end or lead to another mound but keep following until you find a hole that angles downward into the earth. That should also fork so keep digging if you don't feel the fork. Once you get there, dig out enough dirt to set both traps, each leading out of one of the two holes. I covered the little holes on top of the trap where the spring comes out with dirt and grass and left the back circular hole open so that light can seep in and they'll come to plug it up and well, snap, broken back. Shit I feel bad but I need my roots.

tensiometer huh, ok... i'll look into it.

i'm just going to leave the gophers alone this year. If they eat any plants then i will just accept it. I think we have an understanding. i like animals, i dont want to kill any of them anyway.

those traps that need to be buried wouldnt work anyway, i dont want to go digging in my mounds then i would be as bad as the damn gophers!

 

[Shcrews]

Dream Lotus:

Blueberry Hashplant:

Ancient OG:

 

[Shcrews]

sunset

sunset

it was 106 degrees today in the garden

 

[mufafa]

it was 106 degrees today in the garden

View Image

What a sunset, looks like paradise!

 

[wh1t3w1dow1]

looks good. would you say you are behind compared to other years? if so what do you think are the main reasons, soil issues in the beginning and overwatering?

 

[Shcrews]

looks good. would you say you are behind compared to other years? if so what do you think are the main reasons, soil issues in the beginning and overwatering?

no im definitely ahead this year despite a few setbacks, specifically veg issues with the hoophouse collapsing and starter soil not being perfect

still hoping to harvest more than last year, with fewer plants.

 

[CoastalKind]

Shcrew, Have you figured out the cause of that curly leaf growth on one of your plants? I appear to have the same thing on one of mine. The one I have is a gorilla glue cross. Is the plant you have showing the curly symptoms also a sour strain?

 

[Shcrews]

goddamn heat wave! took some LSD today to cope..

 

[Shcrews]

Shcrew, Have you figured out the cause of that curly leaf growth on one of your plants? I appear to have the same thing on one of mine. The one I have is a gorilla glue cross. Is the plant you have showing the curly symptoms also a sour strain?

most prevalant thing i have heard is a calcium deficiency or i believe as byf said a base cation anion imbalance (still trying to figure that shit out)

russet mites. broad mites

fungus

overwatering

underwatering

nobody knows

 

[Shcrews]

i am very impressed with how the native soil is performing, just as good as the 200gal Foxfarm! i would love to be able to grow in native soil up here. maybe the potential was there the whole time, idk


what is really crazy to me is that i have plants which are the same exact age, same environment, just different starter soil. and one set is literally 4-feet taller after a month in the ground

 

[Noonin NorCal]

i am very impressed with how the native soil is performing, just as good as the 200gal Foxfarm! i would love to be able to grow in native soil up here. maybe the potential was there the whole time, idk


what is really crazy to me is that i have plants which are the same exact age, same environment, just different starter soil. and one set is literally 4-feet taller after a month in the ground

Maybe those had a better set of roots when transplanted into the final home?

 

[DuskrayTroubador]

i am very impressed with how the native soil is performing, just as good as the 200gal Foxfarm! i would love to be able to grow in native soil up here. maybe the potential was there the whole time, idk


what is really crazy to me is that i have plants which are the same exact age, same environment, just different starter soil. and one set is literally 4-feet taller after a month in the ground

The thing everyone forgets about clay soil is how many nutrients are in it if you are able to break it up and unlock the nutes.

...which I'm now learning calcium plays a part in. The more calcium in a soil, the less compact it is. That's why gypsum is good at breaking that shit up.

I've been thinking about making a soil mixed based off coots, but the main difference being native, clay soil instead of peat moss. Retains water better and much more nutrient rich. Also insect frass instead of crustacean meal. Insect frass has chitin that is much more readily available for the plants, as opposed to crustacean meal (apparently).

http://www.onfrass.com/faq.html

"In simple terms, insect chitin is the form used by plants in nature. Crustacean chitin is trapped in the calcified shell. In order to get the chitin from inside the calcified shell, it must be boiled in potassium hydroxide (certainly not organic). On the other hand, the chitin in insect frass is broken down by the plant naturally, by the chitinase enzyme produced by the plants own immune-response-system. That’s organic!"

Can't/won't have anything in my soil mix that critters will smell and wanna dig up. No blood/bone/fish.

 

[Bradley_Danks]

i am very impressed with how the native soil is performing, just as good as the 200gal Foxfarm! i would love to be able to grow in native soil up here. maybe the potential was there the whole time, idk

Somebody say native soil.... What native soil grow are you referring too?

Here are my native soil mounders a few days ago:

 

[CoastalKind]

most prevalant thing i have heard is a calcium deficiency or i believe as byf said a base cation anion imbalance (still trying to figure that shit out)

russet mites. broad mites

fungus

overwatering

underwatering

nobody knows

I was thinking about the contradicting statements people have been giving as the problem. (too little calcium, or too much calcium causing nutrient lock.) I figure if I spray the plants foliarly with micro nutes and add calcium to the soil I will cover both bases. Honestly I don't think I have too much calcium either so I am not afraid to add more. I did this today, I will let you know what kind of results I get. I just hope it isn't a virus. It is very strange because only one of my plants is showing symptoms and only on one branch but everything on that on branch only looks weak and curly. I looked at the stem too and it looks fine and healthy. I cant figure out why it would do this.

 

[redlaser]

I was thinking about the contradicting statements people have been giving as the problem. (too little calcium, or too much calcium causing nutrient lock.) I figure if I spray the plants foliarly with micro nutes and add calcium to the soil I will cover both bases. Honestly I don't think I have too much calcium either so I am not afraid to add more. I did this today, I will let you know what kind of results I get. I just hope it isn't a virus. It is very strange because only one of my plants is showing symptoms and only on one branch but everything on that on branch only looks weak and curly. I looked at the stem too and it looks fine and healthy. I cant figure out why it would do this.

With the problem only showing on one branch it could be something happened to the branch itself, or a corresponding/supporting section of the root system is affected by something. Chemical, fungal, mechanical, water, pest damage of some form perhaps. Sometimes it could show in the stem as being discolored or restricted somehow. If it's root related, the damaged root will generally be on the same side as the affected branch.

 

[Shcrews]

coastalKind post a picture if you can. ive seen it happen on small side branches on an otherwise healthy plant, and ive seen it totally stunt the main top of a plant, as you can see in the last pic

these are pics from last yr:

 

[Shcrews]

Maybe those had a better set of roots when transplanted into the final home?

the seeds were planted in 5gal pots, the ones which went into my new mix grew much faster than the ones in my 2015 soil and had to be transplanted into the ground much sooner. the difference was obvious from the beginning.

in this picture from a couple days ago you can see a huge difference at this point... a seed that was started in balanced soil on the left, and to its right there is a smaller one which was started at the same time in different soil. both the same age, both went straight into the ground/native soil from the 5gal pots. the smaller plants in the 100gal pots are also seeds that were started in the unbalanced soil, as you can see they are only about 2 feet tall while the one on the left is almost 6 ft now.

its just astonishing to see what fully balanced soil is capable of, and also how crucial it is for a plant to be started in balanced soil! i think a big reason for any issues i had in the spring (and possibly now!) was because the plants were growing in unbalanced soil.

considering some of those plants are now almost 10 feet tall, i cant imagine what they would look like now if they had been started properly in balanced soil. i guess the vigor of the genetics allowed them to thrive regardless.

 

[Shcrews]

Ancient OG (bodhi seeds)

Ancient OG (bodhi seeds)

it's too early to declare an MVP for this season, BUT... this one is the biggest plant i have ever grown! cant wait to see how she finishes. vigor is crazy, every day theres several inches of dense growth on all sides. its a nice egg shape 8x8 footer now.

 

[Shcrews]

Ancient OG (bodhi seeds)

Ancient OG (bodhi seeds)

this plant is not as big as some of the other Ancients, but nonetheless quite vigorous and her structure is unique. When she was young she had one lateral branch that grew very large and almost turned into a plant of its own. Now the plant is bigger and has filled out and taken on a strange lumpy shape. she's about 6ft x 6ft now, and i expect to get quite a bit bigger before harvest

 

[Shcrews]

Tiger Mountain (bodhi seeds)

Tiger Mountain (bodhi seeds)

This is the roundest plant i have ever grown. i left her untopped but she must have at least 20 heads, none of them dominant. it's lateral growth is equal to vertical growth which makes it a totally round sphere. very dense too, and a beautiful light shade of green. about 6ft x 6ft

I really can't wait to see how this one finishes. Last year I grew her sister, the Snow Leopard and it was so unique! frosty melon-scented spears shooting out everywhere. real dense growth that took up whatever space was available and filled it with ganja.