BJ's 38 degree NorCal backyard grow-The trials and tribulations of a moron

BigJon

Well-Known Member
right on Jon.....I see you got yo bitches staked up as well now.....Have you ever used norwegian seaweed extract before?? I am right now.....I just started. I just want to know how beneficial it is.
Man, that shit sounds expensive so I haven't fucked with it lol

All seaweed/kelp products are good and necessary. They're all about 0-0-1 and a good source of slow release nitrogen and trace elements and minerals. I use seaweed sushi wrap (nori) extracted into water and they all like it so far. :weed:
 

FresnoFarmer

Well-Known Member
Man, that shit sounds expensive so I haven't fucked with it lol

All seaweed/kelp products are good and necessary. They're all about 0-0-1 and a good source of slow release nitrogen and trace elements and minerals. I use seaweed sushi wrap (nori) extracted into water and they all like it so far. :weed:
Lol it is only like 6.50 for a pint at my local nursery. I use it for the trace nutrients......I here it gives frostier buds.....but who knows I guess I will find out for myself lol....Yeah mine is like .10-.10-1.5......
 
Wow! I've missed a lot here :) Been busy; it's summer, after all ;-D We played a couple of gigs last weekend for the Blackberry Festival and then yesterday we decided to drive up to Coos Bay for lunch. Nice little day-tripper excursion................

The Smurfs are beautiful and don't seem to have missed me very much. From what I've read, they're apparently getting ready to bud. BigJon described it as the 'cone shape' at the ends and that's what the Smurfs look like :-D They're just so huge and bushy that I'm wondering if I've delayed their budding by letting them get so big? I don't know how to prune them right, I guess. I've never tried to control the size of any plant, houseplant or garden plant, by pruning; I've always just let them run amok and get as big as they like. BigJon's look so much more trimmed and neat and easy to get to.

I'm a little disappointed in my Green Crack. It's supposed to be an early finisher in this area but she doesn't seem to be any more advanced than the blue strains. Oh well, something to make note of for next year. No pics for the last couple of weeks except for the clones--been too busy--but I have a garden of 6-footers that have gotten so bushy I'm having trouble reaching everyone. I keep wondering about your tie-down method, BigJon. I asked you about it early on when you were posting pics but didn't try it myself this time. I like the way your plants look so I've made a note of it in my journal and I will try it next year. My sativas have really stretched their last two or three sections between leaf joints and will be a bear to support when they get heavy.

And, BigJon, I have quite a few leaves yellowing and dropping from under the canopy now, too. Seems like there's an awful lot--more than the one or two a day that was normal earlier in the summer. They're all huge fan leaves, though, and all are still from deep under the canopy and from low on the plants. I have to dig around underneath them to pull them off. Maybe I should just get under there and take all the big leaves off instead of waiting for them to yellow? The Smurfs appear healthy and happy so I'm going to continue watching closely but I don't think the plants are in any distress. Quite the opposite, in fact. Maybe it's just another indication that they're switching over to bud production?

Someone explain the fertilizer numbers to me. Not the N-P-K itself--I know the order and what the ratios mean--but the levels. Some of you are listing numbers that are less than whole numbers, like FresnoFarmer above. Am I using fertilizers with numbers that are too high? My FoxFarm Grow Big is like 6-4-4 and the Smurfs seem to like it. I need to switch to a bloom food next time I feed but the FoxFarm is tiny numbers, about .01-.03-.07, so I'm going to look around some more. They're not due to be fed again until Sunday.

I've decided to start a compost heap for next year and have cleaned a spot where I've started collecting materials for it. Igorina was chopped up and added to it. I'd really like to get something good going with it so I don't have to fuss quite so much over fertilizer next year. I've done the same as BigJon and given a couple of bumps already with Miracle Grow but their N-P-K numbers are so high compared to what I've read on these threads that it makes me nervous. I felt like I had to do something, though, when the Blue City Diesels were turning yellow every other time I looked at them. They've been good for a month or more now and haven't had Miracle Gro since July 12, which is another indicator, to me, that they're switching over to bud production. Some suggestions on fertilizer for bud production would be most welcome! :)

And although I've read that it's getting really late, I cut some more clones just to see if I could repeat my first success. I took the cuttings from under the canopy--from stems I probably should have pruned back anyway since they're way in the shade--and got one of each again. They don't seem as robust as the first ones I cut on July 16 but I think they're going to take. I got one of each strain again and, a week out, they're all hanging in there. The first 8 have been re-potted from their Solo cups to pots. I guess they'll be my first all-indoor crop. Anyone have any suggestions on who has the best indoor-growing thread to follow? I already followed SouthSacBoy's suggestion on the flat-white paint :) This is great fun!!

I have an appointment with The Greenery in Ashland, the patient resource center I patronize, to talk to them about donating clones and finished medicine to their compassion program--they give plants, medicine and supplies to low-income patients who otherwise might not have the resources to obtain their medicine. It's a pretty good program and they tell me that a couple of last year's low-incomers are now self-supporting enough that they also donate to the compassion program. I don't want to take on any patients as a grower. I don't have that much room and I don't want to be tied down to another person waiting on my crop but to donate plants and medicine? You bet!! Seems like a wonderful resource for everyone, to me :)

Well, before it gets hot I plan on spending some quality time with the Smurfs and their daughters today. It's also way past time to take pics of the Smurfs to compare to the last pics.

Happy growing, all
 

BigJon

Well-Known Member
Wow! I've missed a lot here
Been busy; it's summer, after all ;-D We played a couple of gigs last weekend for the Blackberry Festival and then yesterday we decided to drive up to Coos Bay for lunch. Nice little day-tripper excursion................
That’s awesome. Do you have anything recorded? I’d love to hear you guys’ band.


The Smurfs are beautiful and don't seem to have missed me very much. From what I've read, they're apparently getting ready to bud. BigJon described it as the 'cone shape' at the ends and that's what the Smurfs look like
They're just so huge and bushy that I'm wondering if I've delayed their budding by letting them get so big? I don't know how to prune them right, I guess. I've never tried to control the size of any plant, houseplant or garden plant, by pruning; I've always just let them run amok and get as big as they like. BigJon's look so much more trimmed and neat and easy to get to.
Its definitely the bending. In my past grows I let them run amok but I think as I went, I started internalizing the growing pattern data in my brain. This is my first year bending back and I really like the results.

I'm a little disappointed in my Green Crack. It's supposed to be an early finisher in this area but she doesn't seem to be any more advanced than the blue strains. Oh well, something to make note of for next year. No pics for the last couple of weeks except for the clones--been too busy--but I have a garden of 6-footers that have gotten so bushy I'm having trouble reaching everyone. I keep wondering about your tie-down method, BigJon. I asked you about it early on when you were posting pics but didn't try it myself this time. I like the way your plants look so I've made a note of it in my journal and I will try it next year. My sativas have really stretched their last two or three sections between leaf joints and will be a bear to support when they get heavy.
Patience patient. You’re going to have a bountiful harvest regardless. If you want some early finishers, I suggest replicating the experiment, I did with Alaskan#1 a few pages back. I put some bone meal in the bottom of her pot and let her get rootbound. Being rootbound and having extra phosphorous caused it to flower. A couple weeks before Summer Solstice, I put her in fresh soil. During those couple weeks it started revegging and getting some nice growth. Then a couple weeks after Solstice it started flowering much earlier than everyone else. I predict Alaskan Ice#1 will finish 3 to 4 weeks sooner. Next year, I will probably do it to 3 or 4 of my plants. There’s definitely a sacrifice in yield but tit for tat.

And, BigJon, I have quite a few leaves yellowing and dropping from under the canopy now, too. Seems like there's an awful lot--more than the one or two a day that was normal earlier in the summer. They're all huge fan leaves, though, and all are still from deep under the canopy and from low on the plants. I have to dig around underneath them to pull them off. Maybe I should just get under there and take all the big leaves off instead of waiting for them to yellow? The Smurfs appear healthy and happy so I'm going to continue watching closely but I don't think the plants are in any distress. Quite the opposite, in fact. Maybe it's just another indication that they're switching over to bud production?
I think all your assumptions are correct. It depends on you though, do you like having all those extra pop corn buds at the end of harvest. Supposedly pruning your extra stuff underneath will help put more energy into the parts that are left. Im not sure how much cleaning the lowers affects yield, but what I do know is I hate trimming pop corn bud.

Someone explain the fertilizer numbers to me. Not the N-P-K itself--I know the order and what the ratios mean--but the levels. Some of you are listing numbers that are less than whole numbers, like FresnoFarmer above. Am I using fertilizers with numbers that are too high? My FoxFarm Grow Big is like 6-4-4 and the Smurfs seem to like it. I need to switch to a bloom food next time I feed but the FoxFarm is tiny numbers, about .01-.03-.07, so I'm going to look around some more. They're not due to be fed again until Sunday.
Experienced fertilizer growers, please jump in here!

I've decided to start a compost heap for next year and have cleaned a spot where I've started collecting materials for it. Igorina was chopped up and added to it. I'd really like to get something good going with it so I don't have to fuss quite so much over fertilizer next year. I've done the same as BigJon and given a couple of bumps already with Miracle Grow but their N-P-K numbers are so high compared to what I've read on these threads that it makes me nervous. I felt like I had to do something, though, when the Blue City Diesels were turning yellow every other time I looked at them. They've been good for a month or more now and haven't had Miracle Gro since July 12, which is another indicator, to me, that they're switching over to bud production. Some suggestions on fertilizer for bud production would be most welcome!


And although I've read that it's getting really late, I cut some more clones just to see if I could repeat my first success. I took the cuttings from under the canopy--from stems I probably should have pruned back anyway since they're way in the shade--and got one of each again. They don't seem as robust as the first ones I cut on July 16 but I think they're going to take. I got one of each strain again and, a week out, they're all hanging in there. The first 8 have been re-potted from their Solo cups to pots. I guess they'll be my first all-indoor crop. Anyone have any suggestions on who has the best indoor-growing thread to follow? I already followed SouthSacBoy's suggestion on the flat-white paint
This is great fun!!
Forget “late in the season!” I took some clones in late July. Here’s a cut of Jack I took before the root pruning. Who says its hard to clone in early flower? Jack might be the easiest clone I ever took. The other ones are way behind it.

For the record, and for other people on a budget, my new cloning technique is as follows: 1)Cut clone 2)Sit in sushi wrap water.
3) Dip in rooting hormone powder from Walmart! 4) Dip in honey, careful not to disrupt powder from stem wound 5) Water with sushi wrap water.



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I have an appointment with The Greenery in Ashland, the patient resource center I patronize, to talk to them about donating clones and finished medicine to their compassion program--they give plants, medicine and supplies to low-income patients who otherwise might not have the resources to obtain their medicine. It's a pretty good program and they tell me that a couple of last year's low-incomers are now self-supporting enough that they also donate to the compassion program. I don't want to take on any patients as a grower. I don't have that much room and I don't want to be tied down to another person waiting on my crop but to donate plants and medicine? You bet!! Seems like a wonderful resource for everyone, to me
You’re an inspiration and a saint. When my harvests get large and my skills progress, hopefully I can do something like that some day.

Well, before it gets hot I plan on spending some quality time with the Smurfs and their daughters today. It's also way past time to take pics of the Smurfs to compare to the last pics.

Happy growing, all
Thanks for stopping in!
 

BigJon

Well-Known Member
Update time! 08/13/2012

Green Crack (or blue dream or Dream Crack) clones from an old lady’s garden. August heat caused the sunburn even though I had it under the blackberry bush for a week! On the left we have garden dirt, coffee grinds, and coco coir on top. On the right we have Happy Frog. Just trying to bust some myths that my friends perpetuate.


By biggs34 at 2012-08-11

Purple Urkel



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Sour Diesel.



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Alaskan Ice#1. Subject of my nute tricking early flowering method that I’ve been posting about here.


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Same plant. Just opening her up a bit.

By biggs34 at 2012-08-13

Alaskan Ice#2 is much more lush in comparison to the #1 because I burned the #1 with nitrogen trying to even out some of the yellowing that comes with the trick. Should have just repotted faster. This one has a lot uglier of a growing structure because it was fim’d. Do not fim sativas unless you’re going to do a lot more bending than I did here.

By biggs34 at 2012-08-13

Bubba Lavender. The one on the right is a clone of the left and she’ll be receiving mango compost for most of its flowering time.


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BigJon

Well-Known Member
Thanks Kush, I know it ain't the prettiest grow and I'm having speed bumps here and there but I guarantee these gonna be some frosty, sweet smelling, thick tasting nugs come november. And I say November because I like a correct cure before my shit's served.
 

Xub420

Active Member
Heck Yeah BigJon! Cant wait to see the fruits! Speed Bumps have been all over my book, then we pick up the pieces and rearrange, and re-apply! HAPPYHARVEST2012
 

BigJon

Well-Known Member
That's what makes us beginners homies...there will be a time where every single plant we grow will go smooth from beginning to end!
 
That’s awesome. Do you have anything recorded? I’d love to hear you guys’ band.
Yeah, we do, actually. We cut a little 5-song demo CD for soliciting gigs and then we played with a couple more songs just for the fun of it. The gig demo is just myself and my partner/boyfriend/lover/best friend--there are just no good words for his role in my life!!--playing as a duo. The other songs we recorded we had much fun playing with: we added bass lines, keyboards, doubled vocals, percussion, etc. It was great fun!! We play everything from Santo and Johnny's "Sleepwalk" to Merle Haggard to Jethro Tull to Grateful Dead to The Amazing Rythmn Aces to the new one by Mishka and Willie, "Homegrown". Don't know how to post any of the tunes here but I'll play around a bit and maybe figure out how to put one up :) We even have a few we rearranged for the fun of it: we do "Bye, Bye Love" as a reggae tune and "Country Roads" as a jazz arrangement :-D

Its definitely the bending. In my past grows I let them run amok but I think as I went, I started internalizing the growing pattern data in my brain. This is my first year bending back and I really like the
results.
I really like the idea behind bending them and it sure looks like you can control the growth habits and growing tips without harming the plant. The idea reminds me of what they do to the trees in fruit orchards to make them yield more. I'm definitely going to do this next year!!

I think all your assumptions are correct. It depends on you though, do you like having all those extra pop corn buds at the end of harvest. Supposedly pruning your extra stuff underneath will help put more energy into the parts that are left. Im not sure how much cleaning the lowers affects yield, but what I do know is I hate trimming pop corn bud.
I've been reading through a couple of other threads on this site that pertain to cleaning up your plants underneath. The consensus seems to be "leave 'em alone". I can't remember who posted what, now, but I remember FresnoFarmer and another member who has a good rep pretty much agreed that the plant knows what it's doing and to let her do her thing. They also seem to think she'll drop the leaves she doesn't need any longer as she goes into bud production. So, yeah, I'll get a lot of popcorn buds but my plants seem happy and healthy. I'm glad I didn't mess with them too much while I'm still in this steep learning curve. I don't mind popcorns :) I don't get too fussy on how clean the buds are for personal use and the little sugar leaves in the buds are also covered with trichomes so I usually just leave them. I helped a friend manicure last fall and there's no way I'm putting that much work into bud I'm using at home. Plus, if the bud is too small to clean up quickly and easily, I just cook with it :-D

Forget “late in the season!” I took some clones in late July. Here’s a cut of Jack I took before the root pruning. Who says its hard to clone in early flower? Jack might be the easiest clone I ever took. The other ones are way behind it.

For the record, and for other people on a budget, my new cloning technique is as follows: 1)Cut clone 2)Sit in sushi wrap water.
3) Dip in rooting hormone powder from Walmart! 4) Dip in honey, careful not to disrupt powder from stem wound 5) Water with sushi wrap water.
Ok, cool!! Yours look very happy!! The ones I took Aug. 3 don't look as good as the first ones I did, or your Jacks. They're limper, saggier? I think maybe part of that is that I wound up with thinner, paler shoots because of how deep under the canopy I went. I was specifically looking for shoots that did not have any flower buds on them yet and the thin stuff is what I wound up with. Since I didn't start with heavier, thicker shoots, I have thinner, paler clones, I think. They're all still hanging in there, though. The first cuttings, from July 16, have been potted and are growing great guns. I've been cruising this site a LOT looking for info on growing indoors and have found some good advice :) I like ABM's thread. I don't use the honey and sushi wrap stuff but I rooted all of my cuttings as simply as you've outlined and it works. I know honey can be an antiseptic and food source and I assume the the sushi water is also food?


You’re an inspiration and a saint. When my harvests get large and my skills progress, hopefully I can do something like that some day.
I don't really think so but thanks for the kind words :) I believe that marijuana should not be illegal and that adults should be able to obtain it as easily as going to buy beer. If I have to call it medicine and give it away to make sure anyone who wants or needs it can get it, then that's what I'll do. Although I didn't know about the Greenery last year, we still managed to give away a shitload of pot to anyone who came along. I may be able to reach more people through this resource center so I'm going to give it a try, you know? I'm a retired cop. I belong to LEAP. I've seen both sides of this and I'm also old enough to remember the 60's since I graduated high school in the mid 70's. Listing marijuana as a Schedule I drug is stupid. Preaching to the choir, I know. I'll stop now :-D

That's what makes us beginners homies...there will be a time where every single plant we grow will go smooth from beginning to end!
Jeez!! I hope so!! Or maybe not? I'm really having a blast with my homegrown and learning a LOT on this thread and others. BigJon, I love your Alaskan Ice!! It looks wonderful and the buds are getting so big and fuzzy!! I wonder if I can find some of that for next year? What's fim? Did I miss that somewhere? I really do like the way your plants looks and how you've got them under more control that I have mine. I'm really going to have a mess curing this fall because the plants are so big. We only had 6 plants last year, which didn't get as big as this year's, and I barely had enough room to hang them up :-D We may be living in one big pot plant this year by the time I get everything hung up to dry :-D And I'm like you: I want that stuff CURED and ready to go. None of that wettish, spongy crap in my pipe!

My Smurfs are blooming and I'm spending some of my garden time just sitting on my orange milk crate and looking bemusedly around. I don't have "buds" yet, except on the Blue Kush, mostly just individual flowers blooming where the buds will be but it's started!! Yay!! Ol' Blue Kush is looking pretty frosty, already. Too bad it's not a big plant; it looks like pure Indica from its growth habit and leaves. I think it's going to finish first unless the buds take a long time to ripen. I'll get pics and post them. BK still does't look anywhere near as far along as your Alaskan Ice. I've haven't heard anyone mention the way their girls are perfuming the air. My Smurfs can be smelled from 50' away :-D I can hardly wait for the buds to get big enough to leave that sticky residue on your fingers when you're inspecting the plants :) I had deer come through a couple of nights ago and sample a Blue City Diesel and the White Widow. They didn't do much damage and obviously didn't like the taste of green, growing cannabis :) They haven't been back since. I remember they did it last year, also, around this time. The fawns are almost grown and they deer are "vegging out" and fattening up for winter so they'll eat almost anything that grows. Last year they did the same thing: tasted a sample and decided it wasn't any good. Wonder if I had stoned deer staggering around this morning?

Well, I'm not getting on here very often right now but it seems I write these huge novels when I do--just trying to keep up and learn something every day :) I appreciate the kind words and it helps boost my confidence that I'm going to have a good crop this year. I love the advice I'm getting and I wish I was as brave as BigJon when it comes to experimenting :-D Maybe next year? I'll stick some pics up here soon--maybe I'll have roots showing on my new cuttings! And an update on how the compassion program is going to work.......................

Happy growing, all!!
 

BigJon

Well-Known Member
Lol I gave it to her as a joke and it's a beaut.

xub, I never had any plants live that long. But I'm gonna throw out as many October clones after harvest. Maybe I'll have a chance to hang some lights on em.
 

keepitcoastal

Well-Known Member
Lol I gave it to her as a joke and it's a beaut.

xub, I never had any plants live that long. But I'm gonna throw out as many October clones after harvest. Maybe I'll have a chance to hang some lights on em.
Bro for Christmas I'm gunna use one of my monster girls stem skeletons as my Christmas tree gunna be gangster. Maybe we will have a winter weed christmas light competition
 
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