Hasbro's Desert/Outdoor/Mandala/ Fox Farm/Organic/ Grow Thread

[Hasbroh]

Day 181, 9/29

Mid 80s yesterday, I think, no water, 16 gallons day before. Low 90s today, 16 gallons early afternoon, 8 tonight. < Will try to skip watering tomorrow and hope it doesn't hit high 90s. Mid to high 90s rest of week. You can tell from my less than stellar notes recently that I'm really burned out from the relentless heat. Sometimes I really hate it here. High 60s during the evenings, though, so there's a silver lining. But as soon as I win that 100 million dollar lottery I'm outa here.

Had a call to remove a Diamondback yesterday. She was terribly snagged in that plastic screen crap used for keeping birds from the fruit on trees. I'm estimating she was there for a good two or three weeks and the screen had cut into her, it had actually started healing inside the wounds. Took about a half an hour to cut the stuff off of her. I'm holding her head (something I never do any more) while cutting and she's actually getting milked (venom) due to her mouth getting caught in the mesh and the damn venom is dripping down my fingers. Pretty creepy, huh? But it's something I can tell my grandkids or friends at the shelter - whichever comes first. I have her in my garage in a container with some water with the hope that she will stabilize and I can release her tomorrow. I realize she's a dangerous animal but I just can't stand to see anything suffer. Really got to me. So, please, people, don't use that mesh crap with the small openings. It kills all kinds of animals. And keep your cats inside, they decimate the bird population. Above all, clip and clean your damn toenails when wearing sandals, it's just disgusting otherwise.

Pics O' the Day for your veiwing pleasure:

Gila Monster

Day 180, 9/30

95, clear, no water.


Day 181, 10/1
93 at noon so 97-100 for today. Supposed to cool to low 90s by the weekend. Sounding like a broken record. 14 gallons.

Lately, if I can, I'll set my buckets of water out at night and water the next day. The water is very warm here due to the sun warmed soil so watering at night just adds heat to the soil. With the cooler nights, by the next day the buckets of water are much cooler and thus cools the soil a bit.

Pic 'O the Day;

I believe this a young mature female, maybe 20-25 lbs. The males can weigh 10 or 15 lbs more. They live within the development where they live a comparably easy life due to the large wabbit population. They keep their distance from people but are usually pretty close by. One of the many reasons there aren't many outdoor domestic cats around here but there are some and they are very tough.

Day 182, 10/2, daylight 12:37

Should tie the record of 101 today, 12 gallons. Gave the Krystalica a couple capfuls each of Big Bloom and Grow in 3 gallons. Still clear trichomes on all, sigh. How long can these things keep going! Why won't they change color?!Krystalica is looking gooooood! Big 'ol tops.

Tried some RK2 fresh last night. Very nice, uplifting, stayed up till 3:00 am uh, contemplating my car's suspension modifications and weight displacement, lol. Bit of overkill in that department but had fun.

 

[Hasbroh]

Day 184, 10/4

Upper 90s yesterday, no water. 95 today, 12 gallons tonight. Ok, I swear it's cooling down a little. 94 tomorrow to mid 80s in a week.

Day 185, 10/5

93,no water. 95 yesterday, 12 gallons.

 

[SNTSX]

Great pics, and your plants are looking great too. I like that pic of the gila monster. haha cooling down some! at least no more 100 degree weather.

 

[Hasbroh]

Great pics, and your plants are looking great too. I like that pic of the gila monster. haha cooling down some! at least no more 100 degree weather.

Thank you. The Krystalica is has some really nice super sticky tops. That Gila was sunning itself in a rare spot of grass. Didn't evem move while we hung around. I felt so privilaged to be in it's midst.

Day 186, 10/6

88, Yay!, sunny/hazy, humidity in the 10s during the day, 30s evening, which is average. 16 gallons this morning, haven't added ferts in a while. Will hit Krystallica with some Big Bloom next time. 88, YAY!!!!!

Any feedback as to how the cooler weather will affect growth? Will I see a response?

Harvested about 8 or 10 grams from each Rishi Kush and have been sampling each and taking notes. As I have only tried each one once there isn't enough, uh, data back yet to make any statements re. their differences.

Day 188 (6 months & 1 week), 10/8

No water yesterday, 88, hazy. 91 today, sunny, 16 gallons. 12 hours and 25 minutes of daylight.

* Something I haven't spoken about much is the trichome development. I told myself many times to just go with the flow and not worry about production too much. Of course, deep down, I wanted a ton of awesome product! The most confusing part for me was the super long flowering time due to weather etc. I have magnifiers, one that goes up to 100x so I could clearly see if they were getting cloudy. Which some would, of course, but there was always more newer growth that was clear. They have been flowering for 3 or 4 months... So, I guess I'll go back to an earlier thought of harvesting partial areas and hopefully get it over with in the next ? weeks. This is in regard to the Rishi Kush.

I'm done experimenting and have experienced many situations that I wouldn't have dealt with had I not intentionally pushed some to the limit. A few; mold in the desert!, sucking insects, caterpillars, fert experiments. A couple of weeks ago I observed aphids and didn't remove them - they disapeared in a few days! Etc., etc. All invaluable experiences.

However, the Krystalica, although it did flower a little bit for almost as long, is growing like a normal plant and has a much more consistant development. It is just gorgeous, just loaded with sticky buds and they are clear for now. This plant is my serious plant and I don't want to fool around with it or experiment etc. I will painstakenly harvest whatever branches are mostly unclear but not browning.

After playing with containers they seem the way to go for now for drying. It's just so dry here that without building a large area for drying, it just wouldn't work out. Containers will require more observation than a larger area, though. I was thinking of some rather flat 31 quart ones that I could make two levels with. They are on sale for $8 each.

All feedback is welcome.

Day 189, 10/9

90, sunny, still too damn hot! Evenings around 60, though. No water today.

 

[Hasbroh]

Day 190, 10/10

89, sunny. 2nd day of no water. Love it.

Day 191, 10/11

Night before forecast; 86, winds, humidity, cool front coming in, chance of showers. 16 gallons in the morning. Several very attractive ladies will follow me around all day with wanton intentions towards my body. They don't want me for my brain.

Update; I was wrong. It was more like 15 gallons.

Nice cool evenings. Today I could smell the plants from a little further away in the back yard. Tonight, I could smell it as soon as I came out of the garage. Is the cool weather triggering this?

Day 192, 10/12

75!!! It's freezing!!! Some clouds and breezy. This is how it's supposed to be. Think I'm in the wrong place. Supposed to be around the low 50s tonight. As Jason Bourne would think, "Insanity!"

Think I'll not water today, will check tonight with moisture meter. When I'm not sure, the meter is great for deciding. I have so many different mixes of soils in the yard that it can be difficult determining moisture levels.

Almost completely positive, at least 30% sure, that I'll just pull everything out of my closet, tack some plastic sheeting on the walls, get a little itty bitty fan for circulation and try to fit the harvest in there. I did buy some 3 31qt. containers but I'm too worried about fungus/mold with the low circulation. They will, however, be good for curing, I think. Will play with this on Sunday.

 

[Hasbroh]

Day 194, 10/14

77 yesterday, 14 gallons. 89, sunny, no water today.

Went to WallyWorld today and picked up a little 6" fan, and another hygrometer/thermometer for about $9.00 each. for the closet. I'm kidding myself if I think I can fit four plants in a 2x8 closet.

Day 195, 10/15

90 today, 6 gallons, only where meter leaned towards dry.

Spent a bunch of time getting closet ready past two days. The was a
ton of stuff in there and had to find temporary lodging for all of it. Have two temp/humidity gauges and a little fan for some circulation. Need to put plastic sheeting on carpet and want put trays of water in there to get humidity in there to slow the drying process down. So, another day or two.

Shade house smells really good so maybe it is the weather. I really don't deserve the buds on the Krystalica. So beautiful and aromatic.

Dried (edit; a little of, not all!) all four Rishi Kushes and shared some with a friend. Results; all four are much stronger than the old RK1 batch, nice taste, and very smooth. Very happy. Also tried a small green bud from Krystalica. Oh boy, that's some serious stuff!

Day 196, 10/16

87, partly cloudy. Haven't watered yet, still showing about medium.

Closet is almost ready. Have the plastic sheeting in, a container of water, and the hygrometer. I want to get the humidity up with the water to a decent level. The walls are painted with a gloss paint so that will help.

Day 197, 10/17

90, sunny, no water yet but might do later tonight.

Will dry something tonight, not sure yet what it will be. My room humidity is about 25% and the drying room is 35%+, temps are down to about 80. Should be able to keep closet around 78-80, which is way better than a week ot two ago ago when it was 85-87. Added another plastic container of water so have two now plus a little sprinkling on the plastic sheets on the floor. That should get it up into the 40s, maybe 50s percentile. I would like to dry for 7-10 days but that may be difficult.

 

[Hasbroh]

Continued; all, repeat, all, 5 plants are ready! The Rishi Kushes, due to flowering for an eternity, have all three stages but more solidly in the opaque stage. The Krystalica is primarilly in the opaque. Translucent, whatever it's called. I don't think it could be any more ideal, although it did come on fast and caught me by surprise.

So, I cut all four RKs at the base and hung them in the closet. The closet is full. I will cut the Krystalica tomorrow and put it..... somewhere. Need to run down to the hyrdo store, maybe Lowe's, and build a small filter set up. It stinks! Duhh.

The RKs were from about 3-4 lbs.(RK3) to 11-12 lbs. for the biggest (RK2). They were very dry when cut and have lost a lot of their leaves over the last month or so. Don't know if that's a good move but the horticulturalist in me made that call. 5' to 7' feet tall. Took about 4 hours to harvest but didn't take off much of the vegetation in order to keep moisture levels higher during the dry. Closet is currently reading 65%, which is a good start. It peaked at 70% about an hour ago. There are enough gaps to facillitate some air exchange and a 6" fan is circulating the closet air.

Any input is appreciated. Remember, the ambiant humidity is about 25- 30%. I test dried a male plant about 4 months ago in a closet here, just let it hang in there, no fan, and it was cracker dry in 3 or 4 days.

Day 198, 10/18

86, mostly sunny. Gave the still planted Krystalica 4 gallons to hold it over until tonight or tomorrow when I pull it.

Went to hydro shop and purchased a 4x12" Phat filter and 4" inline fan. The whole house reeked when I opened the door. An hour later and the fan/filter seems to have really worked, along with running a few bathroom exhaust fans. Will turn of the bathroom fans soon.

Also went to Lowe's and purchased some 3/4" pvc pipe and fittings to make a slightly larger than 4x4x8' frame for a drying closet for the Krystalica. Bought some 4 mil black plastic sheeting to skin the pvc closet. I think I'll run some 4" ducting to and from the closet filter so another fan/filter won't be needed. $250.00 is enough for just drying although the filter and fan will be used this winter for an indoor grow. Should have pvc closet done later today.

Closet was 77 degrees when I arrived home but the new fan may be heating it up as it's now 81. Humidity was 71% this morning but is now at 61%.

I somehow screwed up the Adobe Flash Player and can't download a newer version, sigh. I'm taking pics but won't be able to put them up here for a while.

 

[kamut]

Way to go, man! You're bringing in the sheaves-in difficult conditions.

 

[Hasbroh]

Day 203, 10/23

My computer won't start up probably due to my ministration abilities. I'm at our develpment's club house so transmissions will be limited for a while.


The dry is going great! The weather turned and was able to get temps down from as much as 82-84 degrees down to 75-79 in the closet of the 4 Rishi Kushes. Been about 7 days and it's 45% humidity in there so that's maybe too dry? Time to cure. Any feed back re. curing containers larger and cheaper than Ball jars appreciated.


The Krystalica closet turned out awesome and looks like that black monolith from 2001, A Space Odysey. It's has really been holding the humidity but it's very controllable. Started around 80+% and it would go down as far as needed but climb back for 4 or five days. I have it in the 70s% now so it is a slow dry - hopefully 10 days. Irregardless of my drying credentials I highly recommend an 8' drying room. The plant is in 4 6' pieces and fits the 50"x50"x8' space perfectly. Took a couple of pictures and will post soon. Temps also in the upper 70s.

Both types are really good! Much better than before. Smooth in smoke and high. I'm a two toke guy with these girls.

Take Care All. I really miss not being able to log on all the time.

Day 205, 10/25

The Rishi is closer to 50% humidity but it might be too dry according to a drying thread on here. Although the stems are still semi flexible. Go figure. The stuff is great, keeps getting better, so, even at it's current quality, it's very good. I'll start bagging it tonight in 1 gallon sealable bags.

The Krystalica closet is so much easier to control. It's around 65%+ right now.

None of it seems to creep anymore, comes on much faster, I think.

All is well in desert land.

 

[Hasbroh]

Super busy and my computer is down. Terrific crop, better than expected, will update soon. Really have missed being on here.

 

[Hasbroh]

Quickie:

5.5 lbs.

30 grams (approx) hash

All is excellant!

 

[Hasbroh]

1 1/2 years after harvest;

Hello,

My apologies for growing and running off! I am my brother's full time caregiver and life just got in the way. I enormously enjoyed this grow and the journal was really fun, too.

I have no plans for another outdoor grow due to being in a retirement community - it was just too nerve racking. Indoors, however, will happen again.

I was surprised by the minimal info I was able to acquire for a desert grow but it was a huge success and made me a much better horticulturalist. I hope this grow journal will encourage anyone considering a desert grow.

The tops flowered forever which resulted in a rather airy bud development. The above pics show one gallon freezer bags each containing approx. two ozs.

I still have some left, and, even after 1 1/2+ years, it is still quite potent albeit less potent than when fresh. From time to time it dried out and it has a crumbly fine consistency but this doesn't matter to me. It still smokes smooth with a wonderful aroma and with a vaporizer it smells like perfume.

 

[yesum]

I am growing the Rishi now and wonder which strain you prefer, the Rishi or Krystalica. Am indoors so hope to harvest withing 10 weeks of flower.

Very nice grow thread. 5 pounds of bud would last me the rest of my life, hehe.