Mount Zion 2016

[MountZionCollec]

After changing my plans at least a dozen times I am finally settled on the 2016 plans.

We are a 100% legal farm. We're signed up with the BOE, we have our Cali central Valley waterboard permit, we take our product to a regulated dispensary, and our county has set there staff to having a legal framework for farmers by April.

We're allowed 10K square feet by the waterboard. 2000 sqr' towards a hoophouse and 6500 outdoor, all in the ground.

We sent our soil tests to M Astera of soilmineralsDOTCOM analyze and recommend organic dry amendments to add to bring our native soil into balance.

We will germinate the outdoor crop in early May in 3.5" deep/wide pots, transplant in ground end of May, beginning of June. The hoophouse crop will use the same pots, so they'll be germinated in early June after transplant. They will be transplanted into the hoophouse early July.

The hoophouse strategy:



The Hoophouse will be built in 1-2 weeks. 96' long, 20' wide. I will have 6 rows of 2' wide, walkways of 1', and I'll leave 2' free on each end. I will plant a regular seed every 1.5'. That's 60 plants per row and 360 plants planted in the hoophouse. At least half will go from being males, I will also remove any for any weakness (pest, disease, nutrient imbalances). In the end if I had 180 females they would be spaced at 3' in 2' wide rows.

Strains: 600 skunkman Thai*Haze*skunk, 600 Original Haze*skunk #1, 200 mixed seeds*originalhazeskunk#1, 20 Punto Rosa. The first two are old, I'd be happy if 1/6 grew into healthy plants. The mixed seeds are only a few years old so most of them should be good.

Outdoor garden 6500 square feet in shape of triangle. I am laying rocks and wood to prevent erosion and allows me to add more soil. The rows will be 3' wide, with walkways or 2.5'. I will plant roughly every 1.5'-2', allowing me to plant 600-700 plants. Some are and some have a higher ratios of females so less then half will be males allowing me plenty of losers to kill to end up with about 300-350 females space at ~3' in 3' rows.



Strains: chimera schnazzleberry #2 (100), Chimera BC OG*jack (100), cannabiogen Hash fruit (100), cannabiogen Panama DC fem (70), CBG Panama DC regular (140), chimera bubba kush*jack (70), chimera pine skunk*jack (160), chimera sweet Skunk *jack (160), Ace Panama fem (50), cannabiogen destroyer (60). In total ~1000 seeds so I would be choosing the 70% healthiest to transplant.

At the end of the year I will get ~300 full cannabinoid, terpinoid, mold/pesticide testing to choosing the best females to run as cuttings in 2017. Steep hill charges like $35 a test beyond 100 tests.

 

[Calidude]

Will definitely be following you. Hope the best and great season!

 

[Kalbhairav]

Looking forward to this. Best of luck with everything

 

[Ollie]

Your gonna find some amazing individuals, "elite clone fabric" ehe ..

Looking much forward to follow You and the plants progress.

Big up

 

[Lochinvar]

lookin good man. i got a view of the same mountain

 

[Koondense]

Subbed!

What a nice place for ganja

 

[_tessarecting]

Nice to see someone moving forward with legal framework, I plan on doing the same asap, will be following thanks for sharing

 

[kin_dawg]

Your plot looks lush. I was not aware there was still that much skunkman gear available!?
Have you done anything before on this magnitude?
Good luck with everything!!

 

[gorilla ganja]

Looking forward to watching you again this year.
Best of luck and may all your Buds be Huge.

Peace GG

 

[TriSierra]

Looks like you've got quite the property and project.

If you're at 4000+ ft elevation I'd be damn sure everything will finish up no later than third week of October - clones would be the easiest way to ensure it. That many seeds and strains introduces too many genetic variables.

 

[MountZionCollec]

lookin good man. i got a view of the same mountain

....have u joined up with CCA? The more members we got the stronger we are and the safer we are!

 

[Lochinvar]

you know it, buddy!

 

[MountZionCollec]

Your plot looks lush. I was not aware there was still that much skunkman gear available!?
Have you done anything before on this magnitude?
Good luck with everything!!

It sounds like both seedboutique and the Skunkman himself are still swimming in SKM seeds. These are pure gold, I was shocked when I found out.

Nope nothing on this magnitude as this year. In the past we were limited to plant numbers, now we're only limited by square footage. The dispensary we provide for is big, lots of patients so even if someone wanted to push the old rules I can provide the Recs.

We're homesteading this year so going big magnitude in the normal garden as well. We will be growing 200-300 different varieties of edible plants/fruits next year looking for the absolute best quality to start a normal farm to sell through a local farmers market.

 

[MountZionCollec]

Looks like you've got quite the property and project.

If you're at 4000+ ft elevation I'd be damn sure everything will finish up no later than third week of October - clones would be the easiest way to ensure it. That many seeds and strains introduces too many genetic variables.

If I was limited by numbers I would agree. Sure I may lose some, maybe much this year but it will benefit Me greatly in the long term by finding the perfect cuttings: high resin, high THC, high terpinoids that increase potency, pest/disease resistant, acceptable yield, loves the soil and up takes nutrients well, stands up strong requiring no additional support at flowering. i will earn enough $$ to keep the collective going even if there was an early freak storm and I lost 75% of my crop.

About 70% of outdoor harvest will finish by the 3rd week of October. I'm located in the southern sierras which are warmer then similar altitude just 2 hours north. Also I live in the transition between the 3000' altitude weather and the 5000' altitude. if I drive up the road a few miles I even start seeing different types of trees not at my elevation. Spring is quite unpredictable at my location until June, which is why a late start benefits me greatly, but the fall is quite predictable. If it's a bad year I'll see snow the first week of November, last year was the first bad year in like 5 years. I may see rain in October, but so will people at 2000' altitude, just depends on the year.

The only strains that I'll potentially lose some are destroyer, Panama, and later phenos of sweet skunk*jack. The skunkmans stuff will be doing just fine in the hoophouse.

Running other people's cuttings that require pesticides and an obscene amount of nutrients to make it through flowering spark zero desire in me. That is not a long term strategy, though probably the smartest choice thinking 1-2 years out. Im finding the cuts that beat the lab tests without pesticides and fungicides and that are perfect in every other criteria. Only way to do that is popping a bunch of seeds and growing them exactly how they will be grown in the field.

 

[heady blunts]

 

[BAKED_BEANZ]

looks like winner coming here

 

[theJointedOne]

how can you assume your plant spacing numbers when your going to plant before sexing? (maybe your not, but thats how I read your post)

have you grown full term full sun at this elevation before? My years of experience growing above 4k ft taught me that the hardest hurdle any plant had to climb was overcoming the stress and full on 'growth slowed like molasses' effect that was brought on by the huge flux in daily high/low temp fluxes.

 

[MountZionCollec]

how can you assume your plant spacing numbers when your going to plant before sexing? (maybe your not, but thats how I read your post)

have you grown full term full sun at this elevation before? My years of experience growing above 4k ft taught me that the hardest hurdle any plant had to climb was overcoming the stress and full on 'growth slowed like molasses' effect that was brought on by the huge flux in daily high/low temp fluxes.

I did the math for spacing based on fitting the most amount of plants into the space (getting the most out of the seeds I already planned/budgeted to germinate) where ideally I would remove 50%-60% of the plants and they would still be packed in without large empty spaces in the rows. I want the most amount of plants to select mothers from so I can remove ANY plant that shows a weakness and still have plenty of plants in the rows, the only way to provide myself with this selection is to plant many seed grown plants very close. There will be plenty of times when there's maybe 2 females next two each other and then two empty spaces on the outside of them. While this is not "ideal", it is acceptable to me. Pruning, topping, bending plants over if need be. My costs are SOOO cheap growing in this style that imperfections this first year won't cause any "real" problem, just small headaches.

I've grown full term large harvests for a couple of seasons at this location. I honestly have not had much problems with the elevation. Though I have adapted. There is certainly a bigger night temp change, and it's always a little cooler in general, but hasn't cause much problem. I agree some cuttings wouldn't particularly like it, but that is just another reason to cram the plants in so I can remove the losers from my eyesight. I need numbers.

 

[BAKED_BEANZ]

how can you assume your plant spacing numbers when your going to plant before sexing? (maybe your not, but thats how I read your post)

have you grown full term full sun at this elevation before? My years of experience growing above 4k ft taught me that the hardest hurdle any plant had to climb was overcoming the stress and full on 'growth slowed like molasses' effect that was brought on by the huge flux in daily high/low temp fluxes.

he,s going old school man , lol thats how its always been done here . overload the shit out of them , just pull everything thats not cherry .

he,s planting enough to make whatever spacing he wants .

 

[theJointedOne]

Im familiar with this style, a few of my neighbors actually have entire fields already halfway through flower, it looks like a few thousand, maybe ten if I'm really off.

Not trying to harsh the vibe, was just curious how/why you are choosing to do selecting post planting.

Good luck on your season. Cheers