My Organic 2015 Medical Garden

[The_Beez_Neez]

Hi there! First of all, it's been a long time away but it feels good to be back and posting. For a very long time I have gone by the name 'Babombeez' in the online marijuana community, so some of you may remember me. But for some reason I could not log into my old account after a very long hiatus from this place.

Anyways, I am doing a relatively small outdoor medical grow this summer. I'm located in the southern part of California and all of the plants were started from seed and put outside in containers mid-late April. Since then, the plants have all been transplanted into native soil and they're loving the ground. Some went into the ground several weeks later than the others. Most of the plants were caged with 48" tall coated green wire fencing and secured with metal fence posts to support the heavy yields I'm expecting :yay:

Strains currently in the ground:

All of these were from seed--

- White Fire OG Kush (OG Raskal) - 2 different phenos
- Critical SensiStar
- Pineapple Kush
- LA Affie
- Strawberry Cough
- Dr. Grinspoon (100 day heirloom Hawaiian sativa!) - 2 different phonos

Several more varieties (Tahoe OG, Lake County purple, Spacebomb, Chernobyl, and Lambs Bread) are currently pre-vegging indoors under a 600 watt MH and will be put outside when I am pleased with their size. They will go into flower shortly after being placed outside.

The plants in the ground are getting larger by the day and I've noticed some stretch (since they are about to go into flower). The White Fire OG is ahead of all the others and she looks to be about 1.5 weeks into flower. Buds are forming up nicely so far, and I'll be sharing pics every so often.

Moreover, the plants have been fed with organic nutrients. My main staple is Insect Frass (2-2-2, also acts as an excellent innoculant and source of chitosan) supplemented with Gypsum and Dolomite lime to keep the pH balanced. I've topped dressed with coffee grounds every 2 weeks, and have also been implementing Maxicrop and Azomite for trace minerals and a potassium boost, as well as Azos and Mykos for root growth and overall plant health. Organic high P sea bird guano is being used for a P boost into and throughout flower. Foliar every 3 days with CalCarb, Insect Frass, kelp, and General Organics squid emulsion.

Pest control with organic neem oil and spinosad/BT. Sprayed every 3 days.

Cheers!
~beez

 

[The_Beez_Neez]

A shot of (almost) the entire garden. One of the biggest plants is out of view in this one.:tip hat:

~beez

 

[The_Beez_Neez]

Here are a few pics:

Pineapple Kush (left) & White Fire OG #2 (right)


Strawberry Cough


~beez

 

[EastBayGrower]

wow you have like the exact same grow as me, norcal medical backyard, i got 12 plants in 50 gal smartpots, with multiple cages for support, im growing some of the same strains too, we use the damn same amendments and have the same pest control process (spinosad and neem every 3 days)... weird.... i like what im seeing here, good luck on harvesting brosef...

edit: you are in norcal right? and how the hell is everybody have flowering plants already.... im still expecting another couple weeks of veg... right?

 

[The_Beez_Neez]

Thanks for coming by, EastBayGrower. I'm actually located in southern California, but it's nice to share similar growing techniques with someone from NorCal. I used to live up in Sonoma County (Santa Rosa) years ago. Miss it a lot. Will actually be making my way up to Oregon come November. Any who, my White Fire OG is the only plant in full flower, the rest are pre flowering pretty hard. Everything else is still chugging along and getting bigger and taller by the day.

Yesterday I hit the girls with a nice tea containing Maxi Crop, squid emulsion (from General Organics), Azos, and organic un-sulfured molasses. I let the tea brew for 48 hours. The plants have already responded well to their feeding. Their next watering they will receive a tea brewed with phosphorus rich Sea Bird guano. Time to hit them hard.

Today I installed some hoops for shade cloth (in case of really intense southern California sun) and greenhouse plastic for a protective hoop-house in case it rains, especially with a probable El Niño picking up near harvest time in the Fall. Don't want my huge buds to get rained on!!! The material will be bunched up near the top and tied up, that way it will be quick and easy to cover the plants up if we do get some nasty weather. The construction of the hoops was easy. I installed 6' tall redwood 2x4s along the wall and secured them into the brick wall with expanding masonry bolts. I cored a hole near the top of the posts for the female PVC fitting and then used Locktite all purpose epoxy putty to seal the fittings into the port. After the putty had cured, I inserted my PVC hoops into the newly installed 'ports' at the top of the 2x4s. In order to secure my PVC hoops into the ground and to give them structural support, I pounded 3/8" diameter (& 2' long) rebar into the ground with about 6" still exposed above ground and placed the PVC over the rebar stake. The hoops are extremely solid and I'll be installing the preventative cover materials tomorrow.

Just some teaser pics...

White Fire OG (pheno #1):

Dr. Grinspoon (pheno #1)

White Fire OG (pheno #2):

Cheers!
~beez

 

[pipeline]

Hey beez! Good to see ya back again! Garden is looking very happy, bushy too. Should get good airflow pruning the bottom like that. Hoop houses are very clean looking. I may have to borrow that some day. Very nice selection. Should produce a good variety of medicine. Excellent work!

 

[The_Beez_Neez]

A little update

A little update

Thanks Pipeline, I'm definitely a fan of a lot of airflow! Thanks for the kind words!

Here is a little update:

The babes have responded very well so far to their initial 'bloom' feeding. I had top dressed with some coffee grounds and had given them some Azos to help with some Nitrogen fixation through the early stages of flower, but I will be be focusing more on micronutrients, compost teas, and bloom enhancers from this point forward. The frass contains some nitrogen (2-2-2) but it isn't readily available and is very slow release. Anywho, today I fed with the P rich seabird guano (0-10-0) from Roots Organic and Bio Bud from General Organics. The White Fire OG and the LA Affie are the furthest along so far, and everything else seems to be vegging very hard but a ton of pre flowers. I honestly hope they start blooming soon, they're getting big! Hopefully no more stretching...

Thanks for stopping by!

~beez

 

[EastBayGrower]

damn dude i sware me and you are in lockstep together, im doing my first bloom top dress tomorrow, a mix of 0-10-0 and 5-3-2 guano and fish bone meal, all scratched into the soil and watered in with AACT...

I stole your idea of putting up yellow sticky traps on my cages outdoor, had some for my indoor

about the frass question, i use all of the above..
foliar = mix my foliar spray and 1 tbsp to 1 gal of frass, let it steep 2 hours then strain
top dress = occasionally mix it in with my neem as an IPM top dress
soil mix = i put a 1/2 cup or so to cu ft of soil

to be honest i havent found a HUGE, noticeable benefit, but since this is my first true organic TLO grow, its all new to me and working great!

Looking great bro, im glad i can watch your grow and see the progress in relation to mine, good reference point (even if you do run some more sativas)

EDIT: So do you feel like the stretch has started yet on some strains? I see an explosion of growth on a couple plants, looks like there starting to flower/stretch

 

[gorilla ganja]

Absolutely great looking garden. Everything looks to be nice and healthy. You said some plants went into the ground several weeks later than others. Where they the same age as others? And what is the difference in size from ones that went into ground earlier?
Keep on doing what your doing, and may all your buds be huge.
Peace GG

 

[pipeline]

magic border! You can mow right up to the garden. Clean looking garden man!

 

[slender]

lookin good!!!

 

[The_Beez_Neez]

EastBayGrower –- It does seem like we are doing very similar things at the same time The yellow sticky traps work really well for identifying pests in your garden. I find them to be the most effective for the Leafhopper (Homalodisca vitripennis, the Glassy Winged Sharpshooter). They are little bastards and can also transmit diseases to your garden. They're definitely a problem down here in the LA area. How are they up in your neck of the woods? As for the frass, you will really notice its effects in the bloom stages and it will cut off some type in flower (maybe by a week, or two!). I've had this experience before. It also helps your plants build stronger defenses against root and sap sucking insects. The frass is also an excellent soil inoculant! I definitely feel that the stretch has started, but I've been bending, training, and super cropping which has helped keep them lower.

gorilla ganja, thanks for stopping in. I was honestly afraid of putting the Dr Grinspoons in the ground because they are 100 day sativas. The potential height of them made me nervous and the yield on them is supposed to be small anyways so I didn't want them to have the extra three weeks in the ground like most of the other stuff. The LA Affie (which I'll show a pic of next update) was put in the ground at the same time as the White Fire OG #2 and the Critical SensiStar and it is 1/4 of the size. She is a very slow verger, much like the pre-98 Bubba or a true Afghanica. The White Fire OG #2 is an insanely fast grower and she is almost as big as the Pineapple Kush which went in the ground several weeks earlier. Thanks for the kind words!

Pipeline-- THANKS! Appreciate it! I may let the garden die since we're in a drought. Watering my special grass instead

~beez

 

[The_Beez_Neez]

I meant let the grass die, oops!

 

[The_Beez_Neez]

A quick update ...

A quick update ...

Hi y'all,

A quick little update for you. Overall, the garden looks great! But unfortunately we are pretty positive we have broad/russet mites on at least one of the largest plants. The good thing is that it's isolated in the back corner of the yard and we've been spraying her every single night with Azamax. I'm going to be getting some predatory mites to help with the situation as well. To be honest, I haven't used a scope to check to see if there are mites but I've dealt with this pest in the past and I know what to look for... All the signs are there: symptoms include leaf margin cupping, yellowing, and twisted and curled leaf tips. About half the plant looks very healthy and the other half looks sad and infested. I really, really, really hate these little assholes, they're so hard to deal with and they're invisible to the naked eye!!! Almost makes you wish you had spider mites instead. Good thing we don't have those too, phew!!! On a positive note, the plant that is under attack by the mites is not even flowering yet so we have that on our side.

Anyways, enough with the bad news and here are some pics of the rest of the garden that looks quite wonderful actually. Everything except the Dr. Grinspoons (and the Strawberry Cough) are now in full flower. I believe it is because of their strong sativa heritage. As expected, the Grinspoons are showing distinct characteristics. Both get the same amount of water, light, and nutrients, but one pheno contains noticeably less chlorophyl and probably has more accessory pigments like a true landrace sativa. The Grinspoon is a beautiful plant with thin knife leaves and a fair amount of natural purpling on the petioles and stems.

The Pineapple Kush is one of my favorite plants to grow by far. She is very stinky and robust. She gets these huge, beefy branches that are capable of supporting very large buds. This strain responds extremely well to super-cropping and caging. She is almost 7' tall as of today!

I didn't take any pictures of the White Fire OG #1, but she is in full flower now and the trichs are coming in and she's chunking up pretty good. I'll have to post pics soon.

Anyways, that's all for now...

~beez

 

[EastBayGrower]

hows the smell come October? neighbors complain?

 

[Bradley_Danks]

The street lights don't cause any problems with flowering?

 

[The_Beez_Neez]

hows the smell come October? neighbors complain?

Smell depends on the strains grown, obviously. These are all new strains I'm doing this year, so I've yet to find out. I'm guessing it's going to reek like roadkill skunk. My neighbors are pretty cool about it, they know I've grown in the past and my neighbor gets up on his RV and we chat once in a while. The neighbors two houses down also grow, so I'm never worried, especially since my partner and I have our medical cards and we are only growing 12 plants (the legal plant count is 6 mature per cardholder).

The street lights don't cause any problems with flowering?

The street lights are pretty far away and they don't seem to bother anything. Never had any issues with hermies or anything like that. The plants flower fine. The sativas are just slower to go into flower.

Thanks for stopping in guys.

I did a big root drench today with uncoated Aspirin (one 325 mg pill / gallon) to give the babies a much needed health boost. I don't want those broad mites to ruin my life. Speaking of those terrible assholes, I ordered a bunch of swirskii predatory mite satchels so those should help with the issue.

I also ordered Jaz 'Plant Strengthener' today, but had to ship to my dad's place in Nevada because of some legality issue with shipping to California. Probably something to do with labeling and product registration(?). The stuff is supposed to be awesome. It contains Methyl dihydrojasmonate, which is naturally found in plants. It is supposed to do the following:

"Use JAZ™ Plant-Strengthener on all types of plants to boost resin production, reduce leaf yellowing and increase stress tolerance. JAZ products contain methyl dihydrojasmonate (MDHJ), a unique member of the jasmonate family of molecules that are naturally found in plants.

MDHJ has superior commercial properties. The use of MDHJ results in greater overall plant health with increased tolerance to stressors including heat, disease, salt, and too much or too little water. When treated with MDHJ, plants increase production of trichomes, antioxidants, proteins, phenolics, vitamins and other defenses that protect against stress and reduce yellowing.

- Promotes vigorous plants
- Promotes resin production
- Reduces leaf senescence (yellowing)
- Increases stress tolerance

**^^all according to their website**

I should have the stuff by late next week. So I'll keep you guys posted and hopefully the aspirin drench will help out immediately.

PS-- the buds on the White Fire are already chunking out and frosting up pretty good. Very fragrant already, too!

Cheers,
Beez

 

[The_Beez_Neez]

White Fire OG

White Fire OG

 

[The_Beez_Neez]

Some night time shots...

Some night time shots...

White Fire OG (#1) -- The White pheno?

White Fire OG (#2) -- the OG pheno?

Critical SensiStar

Pineapple Kush

https://www.icmag.com/ic/attachment.php?
attachmentid=328382

More pics to come... If you stop by feel free to say hello!

Happy growing,

~beez

 

[The_Beez_Neez]

Dr. Grinspoon (#1)

White Fire OG (#2)

Happy growing,

~beez