Nurse Ratched

It's been a good week, all seeds germinated, are upright and at attention!🙌 They went into the soil on the 4/22, under the humidity dome and on the heat mat at 78F. They started pushing up on 4/24 and then got their legs on 4/25. It was nice and sunny on the morning of 4/27 so I took them off of the heat mat and put them in front of a south facing window for the morning. I then rigged up 3 Litever 24V grow light strips, and took away the humidity dome because the seedlings were right up against it. In the afternoon they went under the grow lights and stayed there the next day as well. 4/28 was another beautiful day, 60F and sunny so I put them out in the South flower bed in front of my house and they enjoyed most of the day out there. While they were out enjoying the sun, I was out weeding the sorrel bed in the garden. I had a nice tub of invasive grasses, burdock, thistle and dandelion, so I made Weed tea. The weeds I pull out of the soil are chock full of nutrients, especially in the plump roots of burdock and dandelion. I also had a couple heads of clover that had Nitrogen nodules on them they sequestered. Dandelions are rich in Calcium, Iron and Magnesium, while thistle is rich in Phosphorus and trace elements, so it gives a nice balance to have several different weed species in your tea. I took the weeds and placed them in a mesh bag that previously held 10#'s of local mussels, but any good size porous bag will do. I'm hoping that when corn is ready this summer I can get one of the huge mesh bags those come in from my local store and brew a really big batch in one of my 50 gallon bait barrels. But for now the weed bag went into a 5 gallon bucket that I filled to the brim and put lid on because you want to make sure the bag is submerged. Ideally the container should be 2/3-3/4 full, with the bag weighed down with a brick or rock, but I can't sacrifice my larger muck buckets, and the lid on the 5 Gallon bucket has a spout on it for pouring out the contents so I'm leaving that open and I'll stir it at least once a week to aerate it. Then over the next 2-4 weeks the weeds will ferment and release those precious nutrients into the tea that I can then water my plants with. Glorious! They didn't really need any nutes this week but they'll get some Fish fertilizer soon. See you all next week👋 and happy growing😉

Another week, another leaf set coming in😀 Currently at 14 hours and 28 minutes of daylight. This Night Nurse CBD 1:1 is being very easy going so far, much like the Blueberry. While they haven't had much sun due to the weather being windy and rainy, they did get out for most of the day on 5/2 to drink up the sun. It's been warming up a little more, but mostly these ladies have been on the heat mat under the grow lights. They did get their first feeding this week of the Alaska Fish Fertilizer. It's 5-1-1 so it's great for vegetative growth. You can tell the difference in their color from 5/2 to 5/5. I also gave the weed tea a stir to aerate it. Plenty of little bubbles came up to tell me that's she's started fermenting which is great. The nutrients from the weeds will leach out and the beneficial microbes will continue to ferment away.

Not much to report as these girls are happy and healthy. Weather is still a little up and down. We had a couple cold, drizzly days where they stayed inside under the lights on the heat mat set at 70F. Days when it was bright but still a little cool and windy they sat on a south facing windowsill. This morning is nice so they're actually out in the flower bed. They got a feeding at the correct dilution ratio this week and I re-potted them the next day in Coast of Maine Bar Harbor blend soil. I color coordinated the pots by strain so Night Nurse is Black. Gave the Weed Tea a stir today. Shes' getting stinky💩

Definite improvement this week as I was able to move the seedlings out to the hoop house thanks to nice weather. I hardened them off for a couple days in the south flowerbed before I moved them. I mean look at the change in color😍 Those grow lights just weren't enough. I'm excited to see how much they improve next week. I'm probably going to have to transplant them again, I should have done larger pots last week, oh well. That's hindsight for you. We're at 14hrs 59mins of daylight, and if the weather keeps up like it has been, seedlings will be going into the ground soon. I am a bit concerned with how dry it's been. We had a moderate drought last summer and if the past few weeks are any indication, it's going to be worse this year. I'm definitely going to be mulching, and I was thinking of doing a raised bed, fencing it off and prepping for a fall tomato roof like I did a couple years ago. But I feel like if we're going to have a really dry summer then it's probably best to get these girls fully in the ground. The best place would be in the oldest part of the garden where there's the most topsoil that I've built up over the years. It'll retain the most water and be more biologically active. I just have to decide which one, and be careful again about who I let in to my Garden.

These ladies got a transplant this week with some more Coast of Maine Bar Harbor blend potting soil. The second plant doesn't look nearly as nice as the first one does, so I'm going to keep an eye on her and see if her color improves with the extra room and soil. If that doesn't happen in the next couple days I'll probably give her a little lime to see if that helps her take up more nutes, since everyone is basically getting the same amount of water and food. I had more pictures for this week that I took on 5/23, but for some reason they're missing from my phone. Not a surprise, as I either mistakenly deleted them or my phone did, which it sometimes likes to just "clean house" on it's own. I really don't like my phone. But other than the color issue with the second plant things are progressing along nicely.

15hrs 21min daylight as of 6/3 Night Nurse girls got a topping this week. They look like they need a feeding as of this morning so I'm going to go out and do that after I finish updating here. From the way she's been growing I think I need to up her feed compared to the Blueberry. She's just not putting out as much growth as I would like and what growth that is coming in is too yellow. Weather forecast is looking pretty consistent and I may even be able to plant the photoperiods in the ground next week. We'll see if I can make a decision on which bed I'm putting them in😅

Night Nurse is still being a bit finicky. I think she got a little stressed during the heat wave this past week. The other, bigger plants handled it fine but I did notice these girls had a little leaf curling going on. Hell, I had some leaf curling of my own going on😅 I mean we went from upper 60's F to low 90's in like 1 day, and it was like that for basically the whole week. Over 100F in the sun and the hoop house. The heat finally broke yesterday and now we're back down to around 50F overnight and 60F today with a cold breeze and overcast. Overnight low around 45F. These girls are definitely behind and I think I need to up their food even more. But honestly, I know once they're in the ground they'll catch up. It's the same story every year. I'm not the best at tending seedlings, but I am good at building soil💪

I'm so glad that we had a more seasonable week as far as temperatures, and I think the plants are happier too. The color on these girls I feel improved from last week and I think it will continue since I was finally able to get them in the ground! I selected the perfect bed for them in the garden. Well, maybe not perfect, since it isn't in the oldest part of the garden so it doesn't have the most topsoil, but that's ok because I dragged 3 wheelbarrow loads of compost out back. Last month I added a unit of Pfeiffer biodynamic Compost Starter to it and have been aerating it with the pallet forks on the tractor which is a lot less time and work then trying to completely turn it with the bucket, given the limited amount of space. After I put down the compost I broadforked the bed and then grabbed a wheelbarrow load of bark mulch and added 3 quarts of dolomite lime for a Cal-Mag boost and also to buffer the PH. Once that was spread over the top I dug my planting holes and popped the plants in, adding around 2 quarts of the Coast of Maine Bar Harbor blend soil that they've been growing up in so it's an easier transition as they spread out their roots. After I tucked them in I added a layer of local Lucerne Farms Ground Cover mulch to aid in moisture retention as much as possible this year since last summer was so dry. One of the reasons I chose this particular bed is because it's close to the gate so that's less distance to cover when lugging water up from the stream. It also has some welcome companions already growing in it like clover for nitrogen, chamomile for attracting beneficial insects as well as supplying calcium and magnesium, garlic for deterring harmful pests and motherwort because I love motherwort. Then I put up support hoops, hung a couple yellow sticky traps for any early diners, and covered them with an Agribon Ag-15 row cover. I used the same thing 2 years ago and I think it really helped lower the stress level for the transplants by keeping them a couple degrees warmer at night and lowering the amount of direct sun during the day.

It was a good week for Night Nurse👍 Now that they're in the ground they're doing much better and putting out more growth. The one on the end could have better color, since her new growth is a bit yellow. I gave her an extra feeding last night after I transplanted some Calendula into the bed since it's a good pest repelling companion. We're getting some much needed rain today🙏 Otherwise there's not much else to report! Update 6/26- I totally forgot to add that on Monday the garden got a spraying of horn manure. Horn manure is a biodynamic preparation of cow manure that's been fermented in a buried horn. This results in a material that's teeming with beneficial flora and fauna for the soil. Ideally it would be sprayed prior to planting in the spring as it encourages healthy root growth. I purchased the pre-potenized so that I only had to spend 20 mins stirring rather than an entire hour. That would have been brutal😵 I sprayed it at night when the earth is breathing in and used a spruce bough to sprinkle it over the plants in the garden. The extra icing on the cake was that there was a rain the day before, and another the day after I sprayed so it was well watered in.

So apparently when I was updating 2 weeks ago, Euphoria and Night Nurse got switched when they saved. It may have been me, but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with all the technical issues here on GD. I didn't update my photoperiods last week because my time was spent re-doing my Auto diaires that went missing during the technical meltdown. But we're here this week, things seem to be saving alright, I noticed the out of place updates and they have been switched, so hopefully all of that is behind us! Moving on! Night Nurse has been doing fine, tho she does have a bit of catching up to do in the size department. She had a bit of an issue with some of her leaf tips, which looked like a Sulfur or Zinc deficiency to me. No one else is showing deficiencies from what I can see. So I gave these two a couple extra feedings, and I think I'm going to have to continue that throughout the season because it seems like these girls are VERY hungry. Otherwise I don't think it's going to be a real issue, they're working thru it and I think it had to do with them settling in post-transplant and me not realizing just how needy these two are!😸

These girls are doing much better from last week👍 A couple extra feeding is just what they needed. Their color is better, especially on the new growth, so from now on they're just going to need more than the other girls. Also, I think in the next couple weeks I'm going to switch them to a 3-2-2 fertilizer. But other than that there's not much to report. I mean, I'm just going to be feeding and biding my time for the next couple weeks until everyone goes into flower. These days of late veg are, for lack of a better word, a bit boring compared with when they're seedlings and you can see clear growth from week to week or when they go into flower and you can track bud development. It is what it is!✋

Good week for these girls👍 The problem child on the end seems to be working through her issues so that's a relief, though she did have some damaged fan leaves that I trimmed. Both plants got a mild defoliation and some LST with 3' bamboo stakes and soft plant ties. I did 4 stakes around the outside of each, and tied the largest branches in order to allow a bit more light on the interior and space the branches out more. I also added an equal amount of the Neptunes Harvest Fish fertilizer 2-4-1 in anticipation of flowering in the next few weeks with the Alaska 5-1-1, so it's more of a 3.5-2.5-1 mixture now.

These girls are just chugging along, putting out vegetative growth, building up to flowering. As of today it's 14 hrs and 55 mins of daylight. The Problem Child is still working thru the last of her issues, boy is she hungry! But she's going to be fine. Just some residual Chlorosis, but her color looks better every week. I added a little pulverized lime to their breakfast this morning.

Another Veg week down and heading into flowering... 'Good Girl' is looking great. She has good color and pre-flower development so I'm really happy with where she's at since she's basically on par with the Euphoria as far as size and shape. 'Problem Child' however is... Well you guessed it, having problems😜 I made a short video this week to show you what's going on. If anyone has any recommendations that would be appreciated, otherwise I'll give her more dolomite lime and some trace minerals to see what that does, since she seemed to respond well to the Lime before. I would just like to get her sorted since this is a crucial time. It's very frustrating since both of these plants are the same strain raised in the same soil given the same nutrients and the same environmental conditions and the difference between them😩 I think more than one factor may be causing the problem. She did get a little heat stressed early on just like Euphoria, but unlike Euphoria she never quite fully recovered from it. Some might argue that it's nute burn but I don't think so given her chlorosis. I think it's likely a nute ratio that's off, and after doing a little research it may very well be a Potassium Deficiency. Therefore adding kelp meal would be a good bet and I was already planning on starting to add in molasses now that we're switching over to flower. I just hope I can get her figured out and into a decent groove so that she'll produce some nice flowers🙏

I screwed up guys. First of all, I'm very late updating and have a couple weeks to catch up on. Second, my cheap LG phone was screwing up last week so I did some maintenance clean up on it and totally forgot to make sure I'd uploaded photos to my drive first. I'd uploaded the pictures of the Autos because I updated those diaries, but I didn't upload the pictures of the photoperiods before I deleted a bunch of photos to make more room so those are gone. I could have kicked myself, gahhhh! Thankfully I at least have a video to share with you. On 8/1 I got some spent hardwood substrate blocks from a local mushroom farmer just a couple miles down the road. The blocks are still full of live mycelium that create a symbiotic relationship with the cannabis plant by creating a network in the plants root system where it trades nutrients it takes up from the soil for the sugars it needs. The main reason I got them was for "Problem Child" to see if the mycelium can sort out her nutrient issues and get her in a good groove for flowering, but all the plants should benefit from it. I'll have more for next week!

I actually have photos for you to look at this week!😅 Things are going well for the most part. While I still haven't gotten much time in the garden, these kids are mostly taking care of themselves. As far as "Problem Child" is concerned, her prognosis looks good. She still has some previous leaf damage but is growing out of it. The new growth coming in looks a lot healthier than it did before. But now the Japanese Beetles have shown up😖 While I was taking these pictures, literally all I could hear was the buzzing of the bees in the big catnip plant I have in the next row😀

14 hrs 3 mins daylight as of today Night Nurse has really improved this week. Good Girl is actually a couple inches taller than Euphoria now and Problem Child has really started stretching. New growth on Problem Child continues to improve as well. I gave them a feeding and watering this morning. We're in the middle of a heat wave where it's over 100F in the sun and the humidity makes it so much worse. Hoping we'll get some thunderstorms this afternoon to cool things off🙏

Very busy week, so ya'll are getting a video where you have to listen to me ramble on😜

13 hours and 33 minutes of daylight when I took these photos and this video on August 27th. I've been slacking this month on uploading, having to play catch-up with this just like everything else in my life. I'm so glad it's going to be September in a couple days. The weather is cooling off thankfully🙏 So, I cover most of the situation in the video, but basically GG (Good Girl) is looking great and her flowers are coming along nicely, whereas PC (Problem Child) is still continuing to be a Problem. Child. First of all, PC is a much heavier feeder than GG. I have to give her almost 2x as much food as I give the other plants for her to have the same color. And since I've been running around all August and haven't had much time to tend to my beauties, I haven't been feeding as much as I could have. The other photoperiods are fine, They're still getting nutes from the soil and hopefully the mycelium from the substrate blocks have moved into the root system and are acting like good roommates and doing their part to support the soil foodweb. But this isn't enough for PC. Her flower development is definitely behind and her color is a brighter green than the other plants. Hopefully I'll have time this month to just put the groceries to her and encourage those flowers to bloom because now I'm worried about the frost that will start coming in early October. Frost and ripe trichomes don't mix very well. My apologies for repeating myself in the video😬

I'm just getting around to uploading for the week of 9/5 Unfortunately I haven't had the time that I hoped I would when I made the video, but I'm glad I made it so I don't have to remember everything😵 Went in and defoliated inner branches Top dressed with Down to Earth Minerals 4-4-4, Good Girl got about a cup (as did all the other photoperiods) but Problem Child got 2 since she's such a heavy feeder. I decided to do a granular because of how much rain we've been getting, I really don't need to water and I didn't want to swamp them. And it also saves time. Problem Child is continuing to improve and Good Girl is flowering like a champ.

Week of 9/12 The plants responded well to the Down to Earth dry nutrients I top dressed with the week before, but I wanted them to get some more sugar so I switched back to my previous nute regimen with molasses. Problem Child is finally getting in the swing of flowering. A lot more pistils making their way out so hopefully this train will keep rolling so we can get her finished before Thanksgiving😅 Good Girl has a very strong Pine scent, so should be good for reducing inflammation, pain relief and relaxation. Otherwise I think everything is covered in the video. Clearly I was not able to update after I took the photos and video, my migraine decided to kick it up a notch with the kaleidoscope aura so I had to go hide in the dark.