Maine - 2021

lefthandedJ Finally got around to starting the journal. It's a good year for it, looks like. Started all the plants inside, in three rounds, some under lights and others windowsill for comparison. All of them were out 2 months ago, a great warm year so no worries. I used primarily 5 gal grow bags, since I had them already, with one "queen" on her 10 gal throne (the 10 gal my Lamb's Bread) Heights range from about 3 ft to 5 ft right now, in theory another few wks of veg to go. Funny thing is, my ChemDawg appears to be flowering pretty damn good right now. Before you say it, it's not from light cycle issues. It's been outside for a couple months in veg, full daylight. Seems pretty f-d up to me, but what the hell maybe it's gloal warming. Pulled about 5 males early, all female since except for a single male pistil I riped off a couple days ago. This isn't my first grow, but growing outdoors in Maine means you don't get a lot of practice. Previous years have been beautiful plants- in veg- then they fizzled. This year (fingers crossed) I'm aiming for a year's supply of medicine. Legaliztion is awesome, but insurance still doesn't cover the best meds. Using ProMix soil, amended with worm castings. I've been watering with straight well water, occasionally adding a little liquid seaweed. Recently top-dressed the bigguns with bat guano, and started feeding tiger bloom to half of them. The other half doesn't look ready yet, but seeing as how the ChemDawg is in flower now I figured it couldn't hurt the bigger plants.

lefthandedJ SO..........................the girls are doing okay. I can only expect so much, given they're in 5 gals (except for LB), and half of them didn't get a good start. It's a nice experiment, for comparison sake. I don't think there's any bad plants here (of course, I don't think there are any bad plants ANYWHERE, EVER), just some early bloomers and some that still need some time. I've been feeding them with Tiger Bloom and a seaweed/kelp additive, and they've had two doses now of guano for top-dressing. Now I'm running out of room, should've planned better and left more room at the top of the bags. Never again with the 5 gals, they're great for indoor but way too restrictive for outdoor even way up here in Maine. I just finished LST again and they're looking pretty funky, but it's getting the desired result. GLad I kept some of them straight and didn't top, I want to see the difference in the end between nature's architecture and my twisted mess. SO far, so good, but I'm a little worried about the Ph. Again, my solution is good (around 6- 6.3), but my medium still comes in at 7 even. Great buffering shit, but I really need to acidify the soil a bit more. I've got some PhDown, but I'm worried that if I drop the solution too low I'll burn the plants. On the other hand, it doesn't seem to have much of an effect so far at 6.... 7/31 Update: Gave the ladies another round of bat guano, 2 lbs. spread hroughout a dozen plants. Kinda worried that I used too much, but the first applications weren't enough so we'll see. Yesterday gave 'em a feeding of Tiger Bloom, today I watered the guano in with well water that I adjusted (using PhDown) to a reasonable 6.5. A good dry day, bright too, they should soak it up good today!

lefthandedJ Growing along quite well. Next year, bigger bags and better soil mix. Also, a little longer veg inside wouldn't hurt. Got buds starting on the three ATF's, Chemdog, Night Nurse, and one Viper Cookies. Still no signs on the big mother Lamb's Bread, which makes me wonder how big she's gonna get. Finally stopped being lazy and set up some support for them, since my training left them a little wild. Hit them again last night with neem as the little pests are back and munching away. Supposed to stay relatively dry this week, hoping the single application will last for a while. Continuing with TIger Bloom every other feeding, alternating with straight water ph around 6.

lefthandedJ Flowering looks awesome on the ChemDog! Lots of bud sites and they're growing at a respectable rate. ATF's are running 3 plants in 3 diff stages- one's a couple weeks into flower, one's just starting,and one's still the holdout. Meanwhile, I've got flowering on the Night Nurse and one of the Viper Cookies. The rest are close but I can't say for sure they've transitioned. Weather's getting into a hot and humid phase, gotta watch that ChemDog. Think it's got a decent structure for ventilation but I've read horror stories on how the Dog loves mold. Further training of the branches has been fruitful, I'm seeing a lot more topside bud sites than usual. I'm working on irrigation-- I set up a 30 gal container and it works for drip, but without a pipe system it's still one at a time, although I have to admit it's worth it to save my back. Plus, I have to have a supply ready for use in case my buddy needs to fill in for me and water the ladies. Been checking the cameras regularly ( I have them all throughout the property, game cameras with IR flash), and to date haven't seen anything that would constitute a threat. Just some curious raccoons and one really ugly opossum. Even the skunks don't bother them this year, which is nice but a little strange considering they dig in them every year. It's really just the animals I'm watching for, people aren't as much of a concern. Mostly because I don't know any. Aside from that, I sleep with my head feet away from my babies, so somebody would have to have big brass ones to even try. Yes, I know, a little overprotective. Fingers crossed it'll be one hell of a harvest (by my standards). 8/11 Update: Been lucky still with the weather, but it's turning really humid. Fed the girls this morning, a mix of 1C molasses and 1/2C epsom salt in 20 gallons. Just a little supplement to the tiger bloom they've been feasting on. Speaking of the Tiger Bloom, I can't help but think I'd do just as well mixing my own nutrient solution, since the cost really adds up quick. For his year, however, it'll be fine. My watering gizmo is working well, just leaks a tiny bit and that's fine for the remainder of the year. Now that I have an idea of what works for me I can spend the off-season setting up something right. Had to thin out the Lamb's a bit, it wasn't getting anywhere near enough air flow. Also took a few on the ChemDog as I'm expecting mold/rot conditions for a while and she's prone. Shouldn't have much problem, wind blows almost constantly here, but you can never be too careful. Training is taking well, overall they look pretty good. Next year-- bigger grow bags, better soil, and much pickier seed choices. I think I may even abandon the idea of topping them in the future-- it just slows them down and you can get the same end results with training. Granted, my ladies are kinda sparse and ugly, but that's the learning curve. Next time around I think I have a pretty good idea of what to do and when to do it, based on what worked and didn't work this year. Another big thing is nutrient timing-- I def jumped the gun on flower power for a few of them and it just stunted them wicked-- shoulda continued veg food a couple weeks into flower even for the early bloomer, she'd be a monster.

lefthandedJ Now we're growin'! Buds popping out everywhere, only two Viper Cookies still apparently in veg. The Lamb's in the 10 gal is really spreading her wings, I've had to adjust the pots a little to compensate for the overcrowding (a problem which I am happy to have). Chemdog is really budding strong, I like what I'm seeing but I hope they plump up. The smaller plants are making up for their size with an abundance of pretty little future nugs. Even the two Lemon OG's (not listed here, ran outta room for strains) are looking good and they were kinda a last minute addition. Had some bug issues--just minor though. Worse damage than that was done by me and my slightly over-zealous LST. The foliage is lookin good, rich and green. I've had to pull a good deal of yellow leaves lately, but I'm pretty sure they've just been used up and aged out. Lots of humid weather now, of course. No problems yet, though. As a preventative measure I've defoliated a little heavier than before, making sure every part of the plant can breathe. I use the morning dew as a guide-- with my location the wind almost always blows and by about 8 am I can see any patches of growth that might be too thick because they still have a lot of dew. So far this method has worked, and I don't see any major slow downs in growth from the haircuts. Been watching a lot of DGC and thinking Recharge might be useful, but I'm pretty stuck with what I got this year (too damn rooted to do much with the soil any more). Awesome place for info though-- the more I learn the more I want to learn. 8/22 -- Bud worms. Bastards. Heavy neem spraying will hopefully bring it under control. Been watching these girls constantly (lot of time on my hands at the right time of year), and the buggers sure made headway fast. Been finding a few, like one or two, each day. Today I checked and found over a dozen on one plant. I neemed the bulk of the plants, leaving two of the smaller ones un-sprayed. I couldn't spray the very tops of the bigger plants very well because they're topping 7 - 8 feet and too close together to fit the ladder (planning-- live and learn). I moved the smaller unsprayed plants to the side of the garden and I'm hoping that if they're really hell bent on infesting something they'll take the bait and at least leave the bigger girls alone. Meanwhile, remnants of the hurricane are headed this way keeping shit really really moist all around. So far so good for bud rot still, but it's prime time. 8/23-- Hmmm. What could tip a 5 gal bag, saturated, supported with lines, with a 7 1/2 ft flowering female in it, without breaking or even bending the plant? I want to believe it's not a human pest......but thinking my pest tried to grab her and couldn't get it past the lines. I'm all ears if anyone has other ideas (wind- no. deer- no.) So assuming I have an asshole in the neighborhood, it's back to old school. I really liked the idea of not worrying about them so much, I thought poeple might be better these days, but I guess not. Time for stakeouts and hidden cams. 8/25-- Had to spray BT for the damn caterpillars. Not a lot of damage so far, but keeping an eye on it. Fortunately the buds are still tiny so easy to spot damage. I'm really pleased with the number of bud sites in general, especially on the Lamb's Bread. I'll have to climb the ladder and see if I can get some good photos next week. No sign of my human infestation. Been watching close and checking cams and nothing. The flash went off a few times, but I was out in less than a minute and saw nothing, and nothing in the photos it took either. Ganja ghosts???

lefthandedJ Buds are growing, trichomes ae starting to show up like mad on a few of the indica dominant strains. Think I beat the caterpillar problem- for now- but I ran into another problem. Not unexpected-- bud rot. Caught it early, just one bud showed any signs. Other than that it's going surprisingly well, considering the weather lately. Should be out of the hot muggy stuff for a while (I hope for the season) after today. Thinking just a few weeks to go a couple of them, but we'll see. I have a little hummingbird friend who has taken to joining me in the garden. It's cool to see him just sitting on the strings instead of hovering, and I think the girls enjoy his company. A little Grateful Dead, a little hummingbird therapy, and they're rockin'!

lefthandedJ What a week. Had a couple wind storms sweep through, one entirely unexpected. The first snapped the top of the Chemdog, about a foot and a half. I caught it quick and splinted it up good, and it seems to have survived, but damn it sure slowed the growth on the top. The second came yesterday out of the blue. There were thunderstorms around, but nothing too severe, then all of a sudden this wind hit for like 10 minutes like I've never seen. Everything went flying-- everything. I watched 14 pots (bags) tip simultaneously and take down half the trellis lines with them. Got them back up quickly, shook the extra water off, and the sun came right out after. Think they survived that one too, although I've had to remove some leaves on the sides that hit the ground (pm) and I lost a couple of smaller branches. The ladies are looking awesome. Still not sure what to expect from the sativas, this might be the first year any of them get all the way on my outdoor so it's pretty interesting to watch. The diff between an indica leaner budding and a sativa leaner is like night and day. Even the two late bloomers finally bloomed. I'm not expecting anything from the two Viper Cookies, they just started this week and that's way late for Maine outdoor. Even still, I gotta let 'em run just to see. You never know-- with the weather these days I'll be growing outside in December before long!!