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OUTDOOR GROWS 2023 -ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE-

revegeta666

Not ICMag Donor
Pollinator houses are filling up nicely which hopefully will take care of most of my IPM this summer!
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40degsouth

Well-known member
I’ve been picking out about five or so flowers a day with botrytis. On closer inspection I’ve been able to find caterpillar damage in most cases, despite my best efforts spraying bt and with the sacrificial plants in the garden. It seems to be a particularly bad year for them.
I’ve got a theory that these tiny cats float in on their silks, from the surrounding trees, in the same way spiders do.
I was describing, a few posts back, how “walk ins” are detrimental to your flowers and here’s a photo of what I’ve been banging on about. The tiny cats dead on the top bud, in the second photo but the bottom bud had botrytis in it; assuming it’s the same perpetrator, that is.
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It’s not all that bad, I’ve hardly lost anything really and acceptable losses are so close to zero it’s not really worth mentioning.
I took all the terminal buds off a Blackdog x AOG f5 today. She probably needed another week to hit my %10 amber but we’ve got some pretty bad weather on the way.
It’s a resistant plant to the leaf spot and a beautiful blend and example of the two parents. The resin development is off the charts and it’s earlier by about a week than the Blackdog mother. I did chop a bit of her down before I thought of getting a photo for everyone so, sorry about that 🤦‍♂️
Zoom in and check out the resin and how small the caterpillar is that ruined my beautiful bud.
Cheers,
40.
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revegeta666

Not ICMag Donor
I’ve got a theory that these tiny cats float in on their silks, from the surrounding trees, in the same way spiders do.

I can confirm this as I have seen many of them hanging like that from olive trees. When it's very hot they will also use their silk to rappel down from the cannabis plants, and burrow themselves into the soil to hide during the hottest hours of the day. Then in the evening they climb back up to resume their destruction.
 

St. Phatty

Active member
not many people go thru the ice but I am sure it does happen.
Early season is generally when accidents happen with people a little too eager to take snowmobiles or atvs on the ice. It might be a foot thick where you are but somewhere on the lake it's not. Snow accumulation can also create thin ice conditions in the early season. Lots of people wear ice fishing gear that has a certain level of floatation and hypothermia protection and many of us keep safety tools like ice grips which are plastic handle that fits in your hand and has a small spike sticking out so if you do fall thru you use them to crawl out of the hole. Without those, you won't be getting out of the hole. Late season when the shorelines start to go first, I will wear my mustang inflating vest just in case LOL
Right now you could still cross the lake in a truck but most people don't drive on the lake except for atv's and snowmobiles.

I fell through the ice once when I was about 10.

That's what I get for being the neighborhood kid who was always out catching and watching animals in the swamps.

It was close to shore and the situation responded well to basic human reactions like PANIC.
 

pipeline

Cannabotanist
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Cute little indica seedlings with the fat first sets of leaves. I love seeing them expand when they catch the wave and get a good start, sometimes they get stunted a little with cool conditions. Not much yet, but they're going to be getting some momentum. It was nice to day and it will be in the 70's the next couple days.

Forecast to stay above average temperature next week so looks like they will be able to stay outside! Average last frost here is April 22. :smoke:
 

revegeta666

Not ICMag Donor
Wow, can we get some more info on these?
Of course! The little houses are just a piece of wood where you drill some holes for the solitary bees, solitary wasps, hoverflies, etc. There are hundreds of species of these solitary insects.

Solitary bees and wasps are different species from regular bees and wasps. They don't live in a community, and because they don't have a hive or queen to protect, they don't sting and are not aggressive at all. In fact they are quite chill and polite and respect your personal space.

They only feed on pollen and nectar and they are not carnivorous. Their larvae are carnivorous and voratious though, this is why these insects spend their whole cycle, looking for caterpillars and bugs, which they kill and bring to their hole. When the hole is full of caterpillars, aphids, etc, they lay their eggs inside and close the hole with some mud. When the larvae pop out of the eggs they feed on the caterpillars and start their own cycle.

These insects are extremely hard working and last summer there were between 5-10 of them at all times surrounding my cannabis plants. You are supposed to provide them with some aromatic plants like lavender, rosemary and stuff like that, so they can feed themselves and keep working. I also gave them water and in the hot hours or the day they took a bath before going back to cleaning the plants.
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Last summer I didn't spray any kind of pesticides, even neem, nothing, and the plants were 99% clean for the whole summer. The only thing they don't clean is spidermites, for those I used Californicus predatory mites.

When the temperature dropped in mid october, all of them disappeared (I assume they ended their cycle) and in 4-5 days I started seeing caterpillars and had to spray bacillus thuringiensis twice to get rid of them. This confirmed how much of a difference these pollinators made and I doubled down providing them with some more houses for them to use.

Because I was curious of what they actually do, I found this spanish article where they explain all this. They also had installed an insect house with transparent tubes so they could see what was happening inside. It is quite shocking how much work a single of these insects can do during their cycle.

THese pictures are from the article:
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Pretty kick ass I think. A little disgusting as well :ROFLMAO:
Sorry for the long post but I thought this could be interesting for some.
 

pipeline

Cannabotanist
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Looks good BrassNwood, pretty harvest colors! What strains/cultivars did you grow this winter?

I have a bee hive going near the garden, I should make some of these solitary predator homes. Looks like it works well!

Habitat is important in preserving the diversity of the species in the area. How would you feel if someone came and destroyed your house? If you are doing any kind of building development in this county, they have a rule that you have to plant trees to compensate. Keeps us landscapers busy! There's a lot going on out there you don't even think about. :smoke:

Seemed like the seedling germination for the garden was well timed this year, will swing back into the lower 80's later next week!

Getting some rain today, letting the plants get a taste of the good stuff. Rainwater evidently is energized at the molecular level and has superior qualities according to some science. Should get the seedlings to wake up. They're starting to grow!
 

40degsouth

Well-known member
🐝 🐝🐝🐝
Nine out of ten insects say, “never trust anything that’s only got two eyes; especially when they’re that far apart”
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A little bit of beautiful, sandy resin on the very lowest branch of this Blackdog. Tucked away under all the biggest heads away from the light and harsh winds.
You could drive nails in with the terminal buds if you loose your hammer; these things are table thumpers.
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40.
 

40degsouth

Well-known member
Hey Pipeline,
naaaa, it was originally distributed through HSO and is the work of Jessie Dodd, AKA, Biovortex. It was a 2012 selection of a cross between Emerald Headband (l think) and Blackberry. I chose this one as a keeper because it was the most resistant against the leaf spot but truely, every plant I’ve seen out of the population was a winner. There’s even one in there that eats the cold up like it’s summer; one of the biggest plants I’ve ever grown.
Excellent medicine.
 

pipeline

Cannabotanist
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Hybrid vigor, looks like a tropper! Powerhouse was like that Cinderella 99 x Deep chunk. Was a a special light and powerful smoke and the plants were healthy an robust.

Looking forward to seeing some different genetics this year. Been running the Sativa Candy Chunk alone for 12 years!
 

BrassNwood

Well-known member
Veteran
Looks good BrassNwood, pretty harvest colors! What strains/cultivars did you grow this winter?

I have a bee hive going near the garden, I should make some of these solitary predator homes. Looks like it works well!

Habitat is important in preserving the diversity of the species in the area. How would you feel if someone came and destroyed your house? If you are doing any kind of building development in this county, they have a rule that you have to plant trees to compensate. Keeps us landscapers busy! There's a lot going on out there you don't even think about. :smoke:

Seemed like the seedling germination for the garden was well timed this year, will swing back into the lower 80's later next week!

Getting some rain today, letting the plants get a taste of the good stuff. Rainwater evidently is energized at the molecular level and has superior qualities according to some science. Should get the seedlings to wake up. They're starting to grow!
Sloth Loves Chunk was the clones that went so purple. Koda was one of the greens and a Jack variant was the other purple. I've got that harvest all stripped from the branches late today and tomorrow I'll start cloning the current veg plants as I get them in the ground. I'm a bit late on getting my Spring set in the ground and these will have to run into early June to finish.
 
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