Outdoors in SE Virginia

Luckily the little ones fit under the old school lean too, water catchment combo. I scored a nice deal on some more motion sensor units for dirt cheap which is nice. More for bears than anything else. I already had a couple but the bears like to use the same two or three trails and it would be cool to be able to spot them more. Guardline is the company and so far out of all these units I've used over the years these guys seem the best built.

The Blue Mystic got a final application of Monterey BT for caterpillars and worms. Not too difficult to manage it outta the tub thanks to the milk crate. I have around 10 of them on my patio.

the stalks are all very tall and spindly, so the diet from here on will be heavy on phosphorous and Terpinator. I just got some GH Ripen for the sprint to the finish too. I never leave the local hydro shop empty handed.

Looking good for the run to the finish. Hope she fattens up nice for you. I would love to be able to move mine around like that with the rain we have coming in tomorrow night. It is what it is. All fans on deck!! I had a hummingbird puzzled as hell yesterday trying to figure out what the brightly colored pipe cleaners were that I use to tie the plant up. He was flying from tie to tie inspecting each one like he just wasn't sure what to think, it was pretty cool. I was waiting for him to sample a bud.

You gotta be crafty to fool a hummingbird! I want one of the contraptions in the link below.

The 2 plants left at the GF house are gonna be pretty decent, even though they are kinds leggy, the buds are developing and hanging branches down from their own weight. Tricromes are 75% cloudy, 20% clear and 5% amber so another couple weeks. I hope to have my drying cabinet by then, if not I’ll go the traditional route, or push them a bit longer. Saw evidence of some powdery mildew so gotta address that later today.

the two that moved from her house to mine are goners - so much so I don’t even wanna take a picture of them. One has a bad case of bud rot, or just got scorched in the sun, and the other one is a spindly stalk with 5 bud sites. What ever I get from them will go in the freezer bag.

do you put your trim in a bag and then into the washing machine, or do ya just dump it in there? I’m close to pulling the trigger in a washer, lots of options on Amazon, so will have it in a couple days after I decide which one to order.

Need ur advice too - the Blue Mystic is developing some leaf discoloration near the top of the stalks-right now it is a really deep blue, that is getting darker. Consulting the handy dandy chart I have it might be a phosphorous deficiency, or it really might be the plant living up to its name of Blue Mystic. I checked some grow journals for this species, and there are some instances of the foliage around the tops of colas going deep blue to almost black. No further signs of caterpillars so I dodged that bullet...

I gave it FF week 10 this morning, with an added shot of GH Ripen for some more phosphorous. I have a couple other high phosphorous supplements I’ll give it over the next few days too.

I never used to pay attention to ph, but I’m a convert now...I adjust whatever I feed them into the 6.0 - 6.3 range and they seem to like that. I feel like a mad scientist mixing up the daily concoction in the bathroom...

I like to shoot my PH up into the higher ranges when I get later into flower as P is taken up in the higher ranges of PH and can get lockd out at low PH. I try to vary my water PH from 6.2-6.8 and start to stay up in the 6.5 to 6.8 range mostly at the week 4 of flower time. I wish I could more accurately ph my soil other than checking the runoff of the water but since I started doing this I have been getting much fatter buds and better bud swelling at the end of flower. The blue looks more like a genetic trait than a deficiency to me as the plant looks really healthy and a P deficiency that far along to discolor leaves would usually be showing some other pretty severe stunting signs as well like really poor growth and the leaves start to get all twisty. Also since P is a mobile nute it would be showing signs on the bottom of the plant the worse because that's where it would have started so look there. If it's not worse there then I would say pretty sure it's genetics.
I don't feed plants once I get with the last two weeks. I sometimes use a flushing agent like flawless finish from advanced but not always, sometimes I just stop feeding about 10-14 days out from harvest depending on how heavy it was fed. The plant should have plenty of stored energy at that point to finish the grow and letting it use that up gets all the built up salt and chemical taste out of the bud. I know some people say they can't taste it but if you try it with one of your plants and really let it "yellow" heavy you will be really happy at the taste difference and smoothness of the smoke. I used to feed up to the last week by schedule trying to get as much fattening of the buds as possible but that is occurring anyway I realized. That train left the station in week 5 or 6 no point adding food in week 7 or 8 its done in my opinion it's just piling up salts that won't be processed in time. Getting that flower boost right in week 6 and the right balance of P in mid flower is crucial as is having the right beneficials and a food source for them. The rare times I have managed to do that have been epic. I always seem to screw up one of them.
Sorry for the long post, I finally got a good night sleep which for a chronic insomniac can be very over stimulating. Oh, I used a 220 micron 5 gallon bag in the washing machine and would run it twice at least depending on the yield of the second run. Here's a decent link to where I learned how to do it. How to Make Fantastic Bubble Hash with Buds or Trim | Grow Weed Easy

Thanks for the advice, I’ll get the ph up over the next couple days.

full of questions tonight - do you go straight from plant to the bubble machine, freeze the trim first, or do a standard dry/cure cycle?

Freeze the fresh trim, then I used the 220 bag that came with the machine. I figured it kept the drain tube from getting clogged and just kept everything cleaner in general. I also ran dry trim separately that I had frozen just to keep fresh. I always froze stuff because I never seemed to have enough qualify material from one harvest back when it was working. My wife just green lit me buying a new machine so I'm hunting for something myself now too. I think she just wants her freezer back lol.

Thanks for the tips, the two plants I have that started at the GF house that are outdoors at my house are prolly going straight in the trim bag this week...I’ll get the buds (what few there are) down to nugget size first. Researching bubblehash washing machines today, did you consider just getting a commercial small washer designed for campers and motor homes? They look to be the same thing...just branded differently, and priced accordingly.

I found the attached info on the Blue Mystic auto I’m growing indoors - the picture matches the colors showing up on my plant, should be some pretty cool bud shots when it’s done.

Retired engineer said:

You gotta be crafty to fool a hummingbird! I want one of the contraptions in the link below.

The 2 plants left at the GF house are gonna be pretty decent, even though they are kinds leggy, the buds are developing and hanging branches down from their own weight. Tricromes are 75% cloudy, 20% clear and 5% amber so another couple weeks. I hope to have my drying cabinet by then, if not I’ll go the traditional route, or push them a bit longer. Saw evidence of some powdery mildew so gotta address that later today.

the two View attachment 4992828View attachment 4992829View attachment 4992830that moved from her house to mine are goners - so much so I don’t even wanna take a picture of them. One has a bad case of bud rot, or just got scorched in the sun, and the other one is a spindly stalk with 5 bud sites. What ever I get from them will go in the freezer bag.

do you put your trim in a bag and then into the washing machine, or do ya just dump it in there? I’m close to pulling the trigger in a washer, lots of options on Amazon, so will have it in a couple days after I decide which one to order.

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Look up frenchy cannoli's earlier vids on youtube, or bubbleman's. I like to use the blue tabletop wash, seems like it works best for smaller amounts of trim or bud. I'll trim it and throw the trim in the freezer and then fill bottom with ice, then herb, then more ice, then rest water. I've noticed using bags in the machine tends to bind up and you're left with more issues to deal with than is worth it. shaved ice works best. Then buy you some 5g buckets and cut out the bottoms and line the buckets w your bags. Quick wash, like one rotation first run then drain. 5-10 runs off the same material and you should get some fire hash. Some people use all the bags, but some of the best hash I ever smoked came from the 160-45 direct, obviously will get different heads in each size bag but the 160 seems to catch the last of the trash I don't wanna be smoking. 2up2down! Cheers!

Dawgfunk said:

Look up frenchy cannoli's earlier vids on youtube, or bubbleman's. I like to use the blue tabletop wash, seems like it works best for smaller amounts of trim or bud. I'll trim it and throw the trim in the freezer and then fill bottom with ice, then herb, then more ice, then rest water. I've noticed using bags in the machine tends to bind up and you're left with more issues to deal with than is worth it. shaved ice works best. Then buy you some 5g buckets and cut out the bottoms and line the buckets w your bags. Quick wash, like one rotation first run then drain. 5-10 runs off the same material and you should get some fire hash. Some people use all the bags, but some of the best hash I ever smoked came from the 160-45 direct, obviously will get different heads in each size bag but the 160 seems to catch the last of the trash I don't wanna be smoking. 2up2down! Cheers!

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Thanks for the tips, my washer will be here next week so I’ll give it a run right away with a whole bunch of trim from the freezer. I have some spindly plants that will go straight into the mix as well. in the meantime, here is the Dirty Dozen. First layer is Girl Scout Cookies (store bought), then a layer of Gelato (home grown) the middle, then a layer of Jack Herer and Glue Gelato (both home grown) at the end. I save the roaches and recycle them into the next batch...

one of these will last me all day - one or two hits, snuff it out and get busy/creative/inspired/motivated/perceptive/intuitive/wise/dashingly handsome//stoned AF...

idle hands...

The best part about growing my own is more opportunity to make oil and butter. I always hated, in a way, burning a bunch of cash to make this stuff. Now, not so much...

Which washer did you end up getting? I've been crazy busy trying to dry out the girls still from the drenching we got the other night. Over 2 and a half an inches in a day sucked. I'm ready to pull the trigger on one right now too and get to running my trim. I had heard one of the blue tabletop washers was good but could leak at the top seam which was an easy fix with a preventative bead of silicone. Other than that I heard they were great.
I hope to get some nice orange zest smelling trim from the two Bag of Oranges plants. Blue Dream is really smelling nice too, like chocolate and a little hashy sweet smell under it. The seed is like 4 years old, wish I had more of them. I think I saw the strain online the other night but I need to double check. Almost 8 feet and it went outside the 16th of July with hardly any veg time. Given a proper length grow and pot size with 6-8 hours of direct sun this thing would have been a monster. Hopefully it can make it another couple weeks until harvest while avoiding budrot and PM.

Retired engineer said:

The best part about growing my own is more opportunity to make oil and butter. I always hated, in a way, burning a bunch of cash to make this stuff. Now, not so much...View attachment 4994630

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Damn bud, that looks like a store bought butter stick. I usually make coconut oil and it ends up in Tupperware but that looks really cool. Dammit, now I'm going to be decarbing and breaking out the MBII to make oil for the wife to make goodies this weekend. I've been trying to wait for the I'm p damn ABC to get my grain alcohol permit so I can do tincture instead because I'm on a diet but maybe I'll find something healthy... yeah right. Duncan Hines caramel brownies it is.

I got the Bubblebagdude washer, and delivery is projected for Tuesday...it will be hard to hold off using it for just a bit as I collect up trim/LARF from some plants that are close to harvest but not quite there yet. I used to use a paint paddle mixer on a drill for the agitation, but 20 minutes of standing there with it was boring (I have a short attention sp - look a squirrel!) and tended to mash up the leaf matter which wound up in the bags...this will be better.

I used regular butter in a silicon mold for the sticks in the picture - got it in the molds while it was still warm and then straight into the fridge. They hardened up in a couple hours. The mold even has tablespoon markers on the bottom of the cavity, which show up on the top of the stick of butter. Some toast to start the day I believe...

your plants look excellent and well cared for. Gotta put in some extra effort and caution this time of year for sure. I am still trying to figure out how to squeeze 2 grows into next year’s outdoor season, and I’m pegging 15 Sep as the chop date for the second harvest. I’m going to start another plant indoors in the tub in Jan after visiting family for the holidays, and it will probably be a Skywalker I got from DC Seed Exchange - thanks for the advice on them, doubt I’ll ever get seeds elsewhere.

if I can finish that off in 90 days, that’ll clear the indoor grow area in early Apr so I can start 4 outdoor plants and give them a month to root/develop before going outdoors with a target date of late Apr. it will be a race to finish those off, and then get another outdoor crop going for harvest in mid Sep, but I’ll give it a try...

my Blue Mystic just started showing some pure white pistils at the tops of the colas which is weird. This plant started in soil on 17 Jul, and is in its 8th week of flower. Based on what I can find from looking at other grow journals, it should be well past that point at this stage - it is behaving like it is in early flowering. it was starting to show some hermie traits (single leaves from the tops of colas, spindly colas) when I brought it inside; I might have caught it in reveg mode, and pushed it back into early flower with multi-directional lighting on an 18/6 schedule. It will be interesting to see where it goes from here. My drying cabinet won’t be here until mid-Oct so it has another 3 weeks to go.

the oil I made yesterday looks potent just based on color. The machine came with two mesh bags and silicone oven gloves to squeeze out the last bit of goodness, but I use a tea strainer for that. Pour everything thru it (gets slow at the end when the plant matter gets in there), and strain/push the last bit of oil out with a spoon. I prolly push it too far and start getting plant matter in the oil, but the brownie mix I use is overpoweringly sweet with the caramel so, ya can’t taste it...waste not want not.

have a great day, and congrats on a wicked freakin’ awesome growing season!

Probably the last time outta the tub for some light defoliation. looking healthy and the colas are thickening up from the bottom up...

these had a rough start in life at the GF house, so,I brought them down to get as much as possible out of them. They were in the corner of a 6 foot fence and got direct sun for a few hours in the morning then shade after that. we have a better plan for next year.

the smaller one is toast most likely with what I think is bud rot. I’ve been trimming all the dead stuff off, and there is some new growth at the ends but I’m gonna pull the plug on it soon probably. The two that are left at her house are doing much better since we moved them into the sun, and are probably coming down here next week so I can move them around during the day to catch every last ray.

funny thing is they are from the same batch of seeds I used to grow the other horizontal stuff on my patio I harvested nearly a month ago. They went into the soil 9 jun, and are in their 13th week of flowering.

Looking at the calendar you're at something like 108 days ago. I don't know what the breeder called for but I've never taken an auto past about 95 days. Then again mine have been indoors so I know there's some variant involved there. You might want to get in there and look at the trichs. I might just go ahead and harvest it instead of trying to get it to ripen more, especially the smaller one on the right. Depends on how cloudy the trichs were. If they were all cloudy I think I'd chop if it were me. I just don't see that one on the right getting significantly bigger or better and adding more chemicals to it like bloom booster or having to use bug spray on it this late won't change anything I don't think other than the natural flavor of the strain. It's just my .02 cents but my autos are usually done bulking by week 7 or 8 of flower. They will keep ripening and getting frosty/sticky but the weight is done by the last 10-14 days.
Thanks for the tip on the butter mold. It just looks so much more clean and professional. I looked at bubble bag dude machine but it was pretty expensive compared to everyone else. Guessing it was for the quality but I needed to do more research before I spent the extra cash vs the cheapass machine. I'm a broke ass. I get the you get what you pay for idea but his description of the upgrades to his machine he made was too vague for me to tell if it was worth the extra money for me. He just says upgraded components which doesn't help me much. Billet input shaft, forged gears etc.. those are the kind of things that would tell me what I want to know, you're an engineer I don't need to explain it to you I'm sure. After breaking one of these things fairly quickly I just want to make sure the next one lasts a little bit. I'm guessing there's a design weakness in them somewhere and if he fixed it with his upgrades it's worth the higher price for sure. If not then I'll go the cheapest route so if it breaks I can afford to replace it. Sorry for the long post, I blame Jack Herer. I found a hidden stash I had put away and it wrecked my day.

That damn Jack, let’s time get away from ya...

the trichs on the taller plant are 75% cloudy, 25% amber, but at the ends (new growth) are all cloudy, no amber. The smaller one is a 50/50 mix. I’m expecting full sun for the next week so I’ll let them go a bit longer...I need to hit them with some Green Cleaner tonite just to clear out any critters, with a thorough wash down in the morning before sun up. Once I get them cleaned up, they might be spending their nights inside with a fan on them. Or, using a spare pair of LED lights, and another shower/tub enclosure I have they might make the final sprint indoors...

It's just too hard to resist a week of full sun isn't it. How do you like the trichomes before you harvest? What kind of percent of cloudy/amber? I like a more indica effect but I found it was better to go with more indica leaning strains and harvest with the plants all cloudy and maybe 25% amber at most for me. As I understand it the THC is being converted at that stage to CBN so you're losing potency which is what I'm growing for since I deal with really severe chronic pain and after a couple years of growing I stopped going for such a high percentage of amber. I want the pain and sleep aid property's that late harvesting, amber trichomes , high CBN content gives you but I get it from genetics selection now and harvest at what I think is the peak of THC ripeness so the weed is as powerful as it's genetics will allow it to be under my limited skill growing it. Trichome reading and when to harvest is about the hardest and most important, subjective thing in growing. As long as you're getting the results you want that's all that matters in the end. Too late is always better than too early in my book anyway, nothing worse than clear trichome weed...yuck.