Outdoor 2020 in review

Tracker

Well-Known Member
Hello RIU community,

It's been a while since I've been here....well, since I posted anything anyway.

I got a lot of useful info from this friendly community when I made my first baby grow steps back 11 years ago. Now that medical recs are in effect here, I helped my parents get a little personal medical garden going for the '20 season. It's a shame that I can't sample it because of work (It's been years since I toked), but I figured I'd throw up some pics and give a little strain review. Maybe it can be useful for someone.

I popped the seeds for this garden late, in the beginning of July. I started by planting a bunch of different varieties I got from Sannie, Seedsman, and AMS. My intention was to find the most attractive females to fill the space I had to work with, and give the rest away. I also kept the two best males of my liking through the first week of flower to make a few beans. Of all the males, I kept one Triple Pakistan Kush from Sannie and One Afghan from Seedsman.

I ended up finishing out one White Widow, two Motherlode Kush, two Widow Bomb, and four Sour Kush. To start, I amended the garden soil using Jobe's Organics fertilizer, compost from yard/kitchen scraps, and McEnroe organic soil. I supplemented nutrients as needed with Dyna-Gro, seaweed extract, humic/fulvic, and Super Thrive. For pest control, I used BT, Spinosad, Azamax, and/or Neem Oil as needed.

Not having gardened for a few years, these came out much better than expected, yielding more than I thought they would. After my first grow of a few different strains in '09, I got a cutting from a friend's Bubba Kush mother and spent the next five years doing only Bubba Kush grows in many different sizes and only indoor settings, descended from that same clone. The Bubba was awesome! How I miss the earthy, spicy scent. I have never found exactly the same since I left Cali for territory less hospitable to cannabis gardening. These were all new strains for me, so it was a surprise seeing all the different variations. Everything I grew before was indoor. Although I had seen plenty of outdoor grows before, I never tended them myself, so this was my first time battling the elements and pests that come along with outdoor. I probably won't grow the same way in this location again. It's right in the middle of town, and I'm sure the neighbors thought a family of skunks was living in the backyard for the last half of flower. I'll be taking it back indoor next, and any more outdoor will be in a rural area.

Where I am, there is lot of wind, dust, and bugs flying around. I decided that the buds would need a wash after harvest. I had never done that before with any of my indoor, and I was very skeptical at first. After some reassurance from a trusted friend, I decided I would do it...also I didn't want dirty buds. I used the method of three containers #1 with H2O/H2O2 mix, #2 Lemon Juice/Baking Soda, #3 clean H2O, and then a final rinse off with the hose. Then, sling them around for 20 to 30 seconds to fling off the excess water, or use a salad spinner for loose buds not on a strong enough stem. I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome of this process.

The biggest lesson I learned to go with growing outside is that the plants that were planted in a raised bed got much larger, since their roots had plenty of room to spread and feed. The others were in 5 gallon fabric pots. I didn't expect them to get as large as they did, and I had to heavily water/feed the potted ones every day until the last two weeks of flower when their feeding slowed down. I think the potted plants would have done much better in 10gal pots. If I do potted plants outside again, I will use even larger containers.

Of the three seed vendors, Sannie was delivered the fastest and all planted seeds germinated. Seedsman was second to deliver and about 75% germination rate. AMS was longest to deliver and less than 50% germination rate. All seeds were germinated by popping in moist paper towel in bag and then transferring to solo cups with the McEnroe Lite mix soil.

Strain review:
(Pics are from the last week of flowering after they had not been fed any supplemental nutrients for over one to two weeks)

Widow Bomb: Just to get it out of the way up front, this was my favorite. I got this from Seedsman The genetics seemed stable. The males all grew similarly short with tight internodal spacing. Contrary to my expectations, the females were larger with longer spacing and thicker stems. During veg stage the leaves were smaller than I expected. Internodal spacing was approx 3" on both keeper females. The buds were super dense, like rocks. My heaviest single plant yield was one of these with 10oz (remember, I popped seeds late on these, in July). I topped it at the fourth node, and a week or two later it started stretching and showing pistils at about 20" tall. It stretched a lot, finishing at about 60" tall 9.5 weeks after showing first signs of flower.

It had a very strong scent which it retained after washing, drying and curing, similar to White Widow smell, but even stronger...like a caustic chemical that makes your eyes water. When you touch the buds and rub fingers together, it would feel wet and slippery for a second or two before sticking like glue. I couldn't sample it, but those who have said it was very good. I'd def recommend to check this one out if you're looking to try something new. I kept a cutting from the best one to keep as a mom.

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White Widow: I kept one White Widow to the end. This was a freebie that came with my Seedsman order. The growth on this was medium-tight internodal spacing. It started off as a little runt...the only WW that sprouted from five freebie WW seeds I planted. I was determined to finish it out from the beginning, for the love of a classic name. It stayed tiny for the first few weeks, and after the other plants started flowering, I brought this one in at night and kept it under lights to stay in veg, topping it at the fourth node. I gave it two more weeks of veg this way before letting it stay outside. It finished around 36" high. yielded about 4oz. The nugs were super dense and frosty. Not a super strong chemical/pine smell. It is pretty potent.

Since this is my only time trying to grow WW, I don't have other experience to compare, but based on this experience I wouldn't recommend the WW from Seedsman.

I didn't include a pic. It never impressed me enough to even take one

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Motherlode Kush: This came from Sannie. I kept two of these females and gave away a few. The growth pattern was typical of what I expected of a mostly indica hybrid. Internodal spacing about 3". Already bushing before topped back to fourth node. The two I kept had nearly identical growth structure, but they had distinctly different scents. One had an earthy sandalwood scent, and the other had a smell like Froot Loops cereal. The froot loops got purple stems.

The buds were medium-dense...not rocks, but they weren't fluffy either. They were frosty and sticky. The potency is pretty good, but not as much as the WW or WB. They made about 6.5oz per plant.

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Sour Kush: I got these seeds from Sannie. I kept four females. This one had tons a variation in phenos - from 7.5' tall with loose, airy, purple, medium potency, fruity scented buds, to 50" tall with tight, dense, very potent, diesel scented buds. I kept a cutting to mom out from the shortest, densest, diesel buds.

I didn't top these, and one got too high above the fence, so I had to bend it over. It had the biggest yield of the Sour Kushes at about 9oz.

All I can say about this is if you're looking for consistency, don't get this. If you like surprises or want a lot of variations in a pool of genes to select from, then this can be a good option for you. I'm not so much into the tall, airy, sativa structure, but I did find a short, tight keeper to make into a mom.


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Well....if you made it this far, thanks for taking a look. Any comments, suggestions, tips, or tricks will be appreciated.

Peace!
 

mogie

Well-Known Member
Very nice looking girls there. I also found that even huge planters can't equal planting straight in the ground. Just like you said when the roots can stretch out the end result is a bigger plant. And in most cases the bigger the plant the better the yield.
Hubby used to have to pass because even though it is legal to in Oregon his job drug tested. Well he retired so now he just puffs away all day.
You grew some beautiful plants good job!
 

Tracker

Well-Known Member
Very nice looking girls there. I also found that even huge planters can't equal planting straight in the ground. Just like you said when the roots can stretch out the end result is a bigger plant. And in most cases the bigger the plant the better the yield.
Hubby used to have to pass because even though it is legal to in Oregon his job drug tested. Well he retired so now he just puffs away all day.
You grew some beautiful plants good job!
Hey thanks for the kind words. I used to blaze way back in the day. I was on bake mode for all of my late teens and twenties. now that it's legal in the state where I am, I can't consume it because of work rules. Maybe one day I'll toke again, but I seriously burned enough for like 10 lifetimes when I was a youngin. I really just like growing the plants though. And my veggie garden is all the better for it too.:weed:

Peace!
 

ikushy420

Well-Known Member
O.O those plants looks so nice i just can imagine the nice smell and its outdoor which i prefer over anyday . Great job wished i could grow outdoor without looking over my back all the time or get them chopped down by some fucktards
 

Tracker

Well-Known Member
O.O those plants looks so nice i just can imagine the nice smell and its outdoor which i prefer over anyday . Great job wished i could grow outdoor without looking over my back all the time or get them chopped down by some fucktards
Yeah...for me they smelled nice, but I'm sure the neighbors were wondering about a family of skunks being in the neighborhood. When the wind was blowing right, you could smell it a block away. This was the first time I grew like that outdoor. I had previously done one or two hidden in with the flower garden, but I never let them get big before.

Around here, it gets windy and kicks up a lot of dust, and there are storms with hail. Outdoor gardening is a challenge with temp swings, and bugs, and stuff. When I used to live in SoCal, the weather was so nice, just plant it and give enough water, and everything would grow awesome. Over here, it's totally different.

With indoor, when you have the environment dialed in just right the quality can be so much cleaner and better, at least when you're in a place with so many challenges. When I was in Cali I did see some amazing looking huge trees outdoors with gigantic kolas on them though.

Peace!
 
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