Bos

Summer 2022

Aweh fellow florists,

How's the outdoor season prep coming along?

The growbeds are now more than one year in the making and just getting better. Theres no comparison to the surrounding "soil/sand". Growbeds have a 20-30cm dark humus layer and are much more "active" with all kinds of organisms. #Soilfoodweb

Since the last harvest in june, we've layered more organic material, added bonemeal, rockdust, calcitic lime and multiple doses of AACT to stimulate the organic breakdown activities. The mycelium growing in the mulch layer was a cool find and a good healthy sign IMO.

We've come to enjoy/prefer this organic no-till approach to outdoor cannabis growing. Reduced costs, water consuption, plant stress and IPM issues. Which means less sweat, graft and worry for the grower that must deal with any problems. 

After soaking, beans were planted in 9lt bags for eventual sexing, then they'll be moved to the growbeds.

Cheers.

Seedlings don't need fertigation so early, your amendments in the soil should be sufficient, a compost tea or micro organism innoculant(as mentioned above) will help. But being autos you need to be carefull, the last thing you want to do is stunt the seedlings this early.

On 9/7/2022 at 2:19 PM, SkunkPharm said:

One must remember that most nutrients available to plants come from bacteria and fungi in and no till organic system. Bacteria die and become food for the plants. Plants give sugar in the form of carbohydrates to the micro organisms to grow. That is why it is important to always have living roots in your soil. One does not know what came first micro organisms or plants, but you can definitely see that one cannot live without the other just look at the USA their farmers are suffering and they are forfeiting their farms to banks. Any way one cannot quantify plant available nutrients with a soil test. It is more important to have living soil. The most important indicator of a living soil is the amount of worms in the soil. 

Agreed. IMO in an organic or No-till situation it is more critical to support and conserve the Soil Food Web than just mixing a whole bunch of amendments into the soil without giving thought to HOW it will be made bio-available to the plants.

Congrats on an beautifull result. Keep doing what makes you happy.

In the orchid growing faternity, when growing a single plant in this manner to its max potential, it's called a "Specimen". 

We have lift off after 22 days. Cool winter temps slowing things down a bit. Added a 25w reptile heating pad to even out the day/night fluctuations-from 14-21 to 22-25. Thought cannabis required patience, but these shroompies even more so...

A pretty bud is a pretty bud....aesthetics are important, like on a picture for advertising, but personally...bag appeal doesn't mean much to me if I'm going to be grinding up those "beautifull" buds, because dammnn... I want to smoke those flowers.

Be carefull of cellphone apps measuring par/ ppfd or mmol/sec, they will not be accurate as they were never designed for that....period.

But they might give you a ballpark figure rangewise when compared to natural "sunlight". 

Most of our outdoor averages around 12-16%, but last year we had one Seedsman Lemoncello Haze pheno that kicked butt at 22%.... put me flat on my ass...Genetics play a big role in potetial terpenoid levels, but you as the grower has to "enable" the potential.

20 hours ago, Ill_Evan said:

Company policies are what it is. The tide will change slowly as the older generation starts moving on, or even better this whole work from the office culture goes along with them and the problem sorts itself. Those company policies are probably 20 years old. 

Obviously if you are armed security, operating heavy machinery, or doing a job that clearly doesn't mix with weed, then ja, duh. 

I agree on those points, but if you consume at home you're not "high" the next morning at work, but you'll have thc in your system. In a perfect world testing methodology/tech should be improved to discern between levels such as with alcohol. But I'm not holding my breath....

Ironic how the law regarding cannabis consumption was written in this regard. You are allowed to use it in your private capacity but.... many/most companies have this zero tollerance policy, because cannabis is still regarded as a "physically addictive" and "fabric of society destroying" drug. 

But on the other hand she didn't do herself any favours as the judge stated. She should've approached the situation with more forethought.

My company has the same zero tolerance policy. Played my cards right with the safety officer, get a heads-up 2-6weeks b4 any testing...mandatory tolerance break. Workaround sorted. 

On 6/26/2022 at 9:23 PM, Vivid Dreamer said:

Thanks for sharing. Im still trying to up my composting game. Im fairly new into it. I made my own from some repurposed plastuc boxes. One fitting into the other with drainage holes. When i started, i had no idea how much space i would need. So before the season starts, im planning to have a compost pile set up in my garden. Currently just prepping the space. My plants and veggies love the worm juice. 

Lekker man. Struggled to find decent ewc for my soil mix and AACT. Decided to sort the problem, plus I do enjoy a bit of guerilla diy engineering, you just make it work with what you have lying around. 4 old totes, some plastic fittings and silicon pipe...

My worm farms operate on the same principle as yours I think. Original technique uses 3 stacked totes, but I found that 2 works just as well. Totes are placed at a slight angle (promotes tea drainage) using bricks, also elevates them away from the ants-pita.(they can kill a worm farm)

Fill up the bottom tote with bits of cardboard, old soil, kitchen scraps and other compostable material. I give the worms about a month to do their thing, then place the 2nd tote inside the 1st tote(10mm holes drilled in bottom) The worms migrate up through the holes into the top tote chasing the new fresh food. Screwed in 2x small "garden sprinkler" fittings into the bottom tote with silicone pipe to collect tea. 

Works like a charm.

My soil has compost, bonemeal, rockdust and ewc added. The plants respond well to bio ocean kelp pellets during veg (micro) for the potted plants, got our own wormfarms so always do castings for top dress and regular wormtea as well. Apply a sprinkling of woodash during flower and comfrey or banana FPJ's. Keep the bottles for defs.

44 minutes ago, Weskush said:

Lekker man! Such a fascinating specimen hey.

I also looked at spore prints and spore swabs to agar then bulk substrate for the next try. Either mono tub or dub tub tek. Lekker times!

Yeah, monos and dubtubs seem the way to go eventually yieldwise, but they have their risks too. 

Fungii are awesome, but growing them has a lekker steep learning curve....

Cheers

Happy to find this thread.

Eishh, so I'm not the only one with "dialing in" struggles haha.... (I still have a ways to go.)

@Weskush congrats on that cake, hope you get some lekker fruits.

Going to do 2nd round pf-tek with brf today, have a few LC syringes(Pesa and wavycap from sporeemporium) with some leftovers from the 1st round(10days no visible myc) suspect enviromental conditions were fluctuating too much as I tried to dial it in. At least no visible contam so believe my sterile technique is good. 

Now managing stable temps 20-22 and 95%rh as I'm using the garage, not sure if airflow FAE will be adaquate but can adjust if neccesary. Still reading a lot regarding this new endeavour, would like to get some sporeprints, then go mono tub route. Found lots of updated info on 'shroomery' wrt pf tek, agar, monos, substrates etc. 

Set the bar high it seems....Want to eventually be able to grow the cubensis and woodloving shrooms indoors.

Aweh growmies, hope all are doing well.

Pushed the season and the plants to their limits well into our 'winter' on the north coast. Kinda like winter for stress testing new crosses outdoors btw.

(Sunset baby) Seedsman Purple Bud x Swazi Gold cross is bringing some lekker stuff. Dank, pungent and skunky despite the season and the shite weather, she earned a spot for the summer line-up...

(Sweet & Frosty)An impromto White Widow x Mango Kush cross impressed with her skunky, sweet and frosty flowers, I'll definitely run her again this coming summer.

Latest outdoor batch, flowers becoming fit for consumption.

Trying our hand at i door mothers and clones for testing and feminization etc.

Thanks @highchome once again for the CA's, still running clones...

Enjoying this hobbby to the max....

Cheers.

That plant seems to be trying to finish fading naturally,

But also keep in mind that if you're giving a potted plant a N dominant feed during flower you would promote leafy growth. Have seen flowering plants with more leaves than bud due to this.

As we get closer to the winter solstice you're going to start seeing funny things as they technically shouldn't be growing/flowering naturally now-limits being pushed and all that.

Some of our outdoor girls also showing a bit of foxtailing, later on the plants will want to start revegging, so you'll have to decide how far you want to push them. Some plants might finish flowering, others will want to start revegging, it will be up to you as the grower to recognize the signs and decide if you want to harvest or let the plant reveg.

Aweh @Darclinc

Neem is effective, many growers on this forum use it with success, although it can't be used during flower. 

We've been growing outdoors for a while and I'd suggest not relying on only one. Insecticides organic or not, are more effective on certain bugs than others.  Aphids and whitefly are probably the most common, but there are some next level buggers like spidermite and broad/russetmite that require stronger kung-fu. Be aware that repeated (3× apps as per interwebs) use of the same insecticide on the same pest may breed resistance and could create an even bigger problem. Mites are notorious for being tough and building resistantance.

My list for example.

1.Insecticides sprays

Neudosan

Diy Soap/Oil emulsion (with citronella) 

Diy Habanero/onion/garlic

Diy Tomato leaf alkaloid spray

2.Worm sprays

Margaret Roberts

3. Fungicide sprays

Biogrow coppersoap

Potassium Bicarbonate

50/50 milk/water

You'll have to adapt your approach depending on your area and weather conditions.

Have heard a few stories of impossibly large cannabis plants and have personally seen a number of large cannabis "Trees" (3-4m tall and wide/25cm dia main stem) that seem to defy their standard cannabis genetics.

Its difficult to think that they grew that large in 1x season, possibly the plant revegged naturally from the previous year?

Looking awesome.

1.Next batch of clones busy rooting-(Bluecheese and Purplebud x Swazi)Will be selecting the strongest pair of each strain attempting to create some feminized seeds using STS.

2-3. Normally veg clones for 4-6weeks depending on how they respond. Few of the clones don't like the soilmix, got some clawing (suspect N tox) seems its too strong for some of the girls. Will add 50% coco to the mix and see how the fare. 

Also fighting some thrips and whitefly...pita.

4. Our diy drying racks working like a charm. 

Evening greenfingers,

Hope the hands and fingers are holding up, trimjail is not funny and good trimming scissors are worth their weight in gold or bud, whichever you prefer...

Still have a few big sativa ladies still going, uuhhmm....what is left of them after the lekker k@k weather. Wasnt as bad as DBN and southcoast but still wasnt funny. Enough broken, snapped and twisted branches, even with our diy "storm netting" in place. Just mend and save what you can and cut off what you can't. 

1-2. 3x Swazi bagseeds with good vigour, had a time controlling their stretch.

3-4. Lemon Fire looking a little worse for wear but her buds look good.

5-6. Blueberry clone showing some an excellent bud to leaf ratio. All droopy after the weather but soldiering on.

7. Start of the winter batch, all clones. Fruitpunch f2 and f5, Golden Malawi, WWxMango. They'll be small, but winter terps are something else. Growers' reserve.

Hectic manipulation there. Nice canopy forming.

Look at them go.... nice.

1 hour ago, Totemic said:

Looking lekker man. Also good to hear Cannabist is still operating. Went dark on me with any comms for  months up to now.... glad he is fine though... 

 

Placed an order with them in Jan2022, delivered mid Feb-2weeks. Took a bit longer than some of the other guys but still came through.

My experience with BnB has been good, ordered clones and one just slowly started dying. Sent them a pic and they were gracious enough to replace it. Which was real solid from them. Will do business with them again.

@Righteoussower

Do yourself a favour and do a weekly taste test. Then you can experience how the bud cures, how the harseness disappears and the flavours become more prominent and smooth.

Some strains are fine with a 30day cure while others need at least 90days.