Hey everyone, im new to the site but this is my second grow. I did my homework before i gave it a try last year and had some amazing success but i have a couple questions still.

First a little background. I live in the midwest and started a couple outside in 2 gal pots in late june lastyear. I ended up with two 7ft + christmas trees that got me over 8oz a piece. I didnt expect them to get over 4ft so i was super stoked when they were towering over my head. first grow too. they just got direct sunlight all day and I started slow with the ferts and steadily increased them to a rediculous amount but marijuana can take a lot of nutes if you slowly get it used to it. I never had any signs of burning or anything they just grew like crazy. This year i burried 35 gallon doubled up trashbags filled with super rich homemade soil and organic potting mix. they've been outside since may 5th and there already 6 feet and were topped 3 weeks in.

My question is one of my topped plants, actually my largest, is doing something weird. It was topped once so it has two main stems, about 3 nodes up on the left main stem (6 nodes high total, i topped it after the 3rd) it started shooting out 3 fan leaves per node rather than just two. now its still putting out 3 fan leaves but its staggering them sometimes. The other main branch is still perfectly symmetrical. Is this normal? I have some other plants that i started later and just topped a couple weeks ago and so far they seem to be symmetrical and only have 2 fan leaves per node. I hope this wouldnt be a sign of a hermie or somethin. I really hope everything goes good with this plant, its growing a few inches a day still and the stalk at the base is getting nice and fat. im above average hight and its now eye level.

Also, anyone have a solution for a pesky racoon other than buying a trap, my plants blend in well and i dont want a trap drawing attention. ive put up chicken wire but it didnt help. Ive tried a couple homemade repellant solutions with no help either. After the 2 i lost lastnight, this guys destroyed half my garden. It just completely empties the holes of all their soil, plant included. I guess it smells something good in my compost/soil mix. I have an outdoor cat and its eating all his food and was on my patio when i went out for a late night smoke last week. scared the shit out of me. and he's huge, looks like a freakin dog.

any help would be greatly appreciated. especially with the racoon. he dug around the base of my biggest one lastnight. if he fucks it up i swear to god im camping by my plants with a gun till he dies. i dont care how much attention that draws as long as that fucker cant dig anymore.

One more question, like a noob I tried foliar feeding a couple of my babies when they were young and ended up leaving a lot of burnt spots and caused lots of yellowing on the lower leaves that have i had to trim off now that theyre getting big. Anyone know if this will effect the quality of my bud in the end? It didnt seem to really hinder the plants growth at all and it was pretty early on, right after they were topped. you cant even tell it ever happened now but its still making me wonder if it stressed them too much.

I don't know what's the deal with having three leaves, but the nodes not being 'symmetrical' means your plant has started alternating nodes, which is a sign of sexual maturity. You should see preflowers around this time too, I've noticed. Having three leaves I can't see as anything but a good thing; more energy for the buds.

Try dog hair around your plants to scare the coon, may have to replace it every so often but I've heard it works well.

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You're working hard to put food on your family.

Ill give it a try but my dogs usually out there with me everyday so im sure his smells all over the place. he's a long haired dog that almost leaves a trail of fur he sheds so bad during the summer. I like to have my morning smoke in the garden after i water/tend the plants so we spend a lot of time there usually. Im thinking i may have to try some old boy scout techniques and use some 30lb test fishing line and make some snares. I can see the path the racoon takes into the garden so im gonna try putting a fishing line nuse in the path and see if i get anything. Do you need a license to fish for racoons?

Anyone got any ideas on the possible foliar feeding damage? Ill try to get some picts of it tomorrow if i get a chance after work, woo hoo its holiday pay!

7ft monster and 8oz yeild in 2gal buket id like 2 c that

ROLF. That was funny.

Anyway, raccoons dig for earthworms, grubs and other insects.

There's really no way to get rid of these things in your yard (and you wouldn't want to anyway, especially the earthworms. they're your friends )

You could, however, cover the ground around your plants either with a landscaping fabric or, if the raccoon manages to dig through that, some chicken wire. lay the fabric or wire down on the ground around your plants and secure it with landscaping staples. You'll want it as close to the main stalk of the plant as possible without actually touching it, making it impossible for the raccoon to damage the roots of your plant with his digging.

If you want, you can cover the landscaping fabric or chicken wire with mulch so it doesn't look so ugly. The mulch will help the ground retain some moisture, too.

Uhm its possible with a TON of drainage (drilled lots of holes into the bottom of the pot), amazing soil and the right nutes. This is the only pict I have of it at harvest time, it already had everything cut off of it except the top at this point but you can see how big it was. look at some of the picts on my profile. There's picts of the yield from my smaller plant too, it was closer to 6 ft. Between both my plants i came out with right at 15oz and this one produced a lot more than the indica i had so it had to be atleast 8oz.

here's the pict, tried to put it in the last reply but fucked it up somehow. hope it works this time.

Damn dude.

"You got served."

Sorry man.

Beautiful plant bro. Best of luck this year.

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You're working hard to put food on your family.