Blackberry Moonrocks Auto

It took almost a full week for this lady to shed her shell so she looks a bit wonky - but strong and nicely green. I'm keeping her indoors in the tent for now since the weather is NOT condusive to babies outside but hopefully within the next week, I'll move her out to the sunshine. Excited to see where she goes from here! A few days brings such enormous changes at this stage!

Aiiiii... this business of growing outside in the pot on my deck is a bit strange... It's SO different from an indoor tent!! The biggest difference is how often I need to water/feed... I truly have no idea of how much I'm giving her in 24 hours but I made my best guess - I'm just watering around her and making sure she gets enough to run out the bottom... and she's pretty dry every single day. What is going to be REALLY interesting is how she will respond to getting more nutes than I would give in a tent setting... in a tent, I'd be watering/feeding MAYBE twice a week - and since I alternate water and feed, she really IS going to be getting more nutes than I would give in a tent, if you follow.... I'm going to have to monitor her really closely to make sure I'm not creating a toxic environment for her... But she's growing fast! My only concern right now is that her stem seems a bit spindly... had a bit of wind the other day and she needed to be staked a little bit. Not too worried about it (wind WILL help strengthen the stem) but again, it's something I need to really be on top of....

Never having done an outdoor grow before, I'm a little bit concerned this grow is S L O W ... Perhaps it's the colder temps outside (Maine isn't really warming up all that much yet!), perhaps it's the reduced number of hours of light... I don't know. It's all a grand experiment and I love learning! If I had nothing else to compare it to, I'd be very pleased so far - but...

What a difference a week makes! Best thing I've done for her is to bring her inside to the tent for the night ... the cooler temps at night were definitely stunting her growth and she's exploded this week! She's going to be a very strong lady and I'm excited! I think I'm going to start some LST this week and there's nothing about her that says she'll react poorly. It's also getting time to start looking for signs of pre-flower! I'm very impressed with this strain.

This lady (and ALL of them) continues incredible growth - 7" in a week... damn! She is also continuing to spend days outside in the sun and nights in the tent under lights ... in fact, she's been in the tent now for a couple of days as the temps outside have fallen to the low 50s during the day and low 40s at night... So I try to keep her in "perfect" conditions and she likes it. She's also in pre-flower so I'm excited to see the flowers start this week. A few burnt tips told me I was giving her too much nitrogen so I cut back on Grow Big last week and cut it out altogether from here on out... Tiger Bloom has enough nitrogen in it to keep it going and she doesn't need any more than that. Now I have to do more LST, especially since she's spending more time in the tent - if she was outside, the sunlight can penetrate into the lower bud sites in a way the artificial lights can't.... I'm really LIKING this hybrid indoor/outdoor grow! No bug problems so far but I've ordered some insect netting and am getting ready to protect the flowers from anything that wants to munch on them.

Great growth again this week... I'll soon be letting her stay out at night as she's getting a bit too big for the tent!

I have combined all my Blackberry Moonrocks diaries into this one... they're all in pretty much the exact same state - one of them (#3) is about an inch shorter but that's neither here nor there. I thought I would see greater differences - particularly with #2 which is in a 5 gallon as opposed to a 3 gallon - but nothing has made any difference to this magnificent strain. Had some catepillars decide to snack on one plant one day this week and so applied some BT spray to all the plants... no further damage to that one plant and no damage at all to the others. I will spray them once a week to keep those critters from enjoying MY harvest! LOL! The buds are stacking up nicely and I can tell this is going to be a fairly monstrous crop (at least for me) and QUITE excited!!

So what's weird about this grow is that the YOUNGEST plants (#s 3 & 4) are the ones that are getting frosty... #s 1 & 2 are lagging behind in that regard but they ARE starting to produce trichomes. I'm really REALLY happy the nights are proving to be the temps they are (lower 50s) as I think that will produce some really nice colors... a long way to go for that, though... They're all stacking up nicely and I think I'll get some nice fat buds!

The buds are starting to really stack and bulk up - this is going to be an enormous harvest (at least for me!) as I estimate I have another 4 weeks at least before they're ready to harvest... I am DEFINITELY going to be growing this again! I MAY try to grow it in a tent this winter and hope that the artificial light will keep it shorter as these would be blowing the tent roof off. Have absolutely NO need to do any defoliation as it's not a terribly bushy strain... I've been trimming off yellowing/dying leaves at the bottom but that's it. Added in some ReCharge as I want to give them everything I possibly can to help and I'm pretty certain the pots are nothing more than a big root mass... Wish I could have gotten better pictures of these ladies... but I was trying to get the WHOLE plant in the picture and they're SO TALL ... the detail is lacking since I had to back way off them to get a photo of the whole plant...

I'm starting to see some pistils turning orange/brown... and the nights are getting down to the temps (low 60s) that will help this strain "purple-up". I'm thinking I probably have another 4 weeks to go and BOY are those buds going to be big! They're ALREADY big!! I'd like to grow this strain indoors in a tent to see the difference - but I think I'd be pretty disappointed after this experience... Who knows, winter's coming... I just might do it.

Oh these buds are getting massive... I'm DEFINITELY going to need some support I think as only #3 is showing any signs of going into their final phase... it's the only one whose pistils are starting to turn brown... and still there is no color to the plant itself which WILL happen - so I've got a long time left. These genetics are just incredible! I will DEFINITELY be growing these again! 7/30 - There was a REASON #3 was turning her pistils brown when none of the others were.. I discovered BUD ROT in her main cola! I've dug out as much of it as possible, sprayed the whole plant (especially the gaping wound) with Dr. Zymes and banished the plant 50' away behind a shed hoping not to infect the other plants. I also discovered what I thought was residue from the BT spray I was using as a catepillar/chewing insect prevention was actually signs of thrip activity. Needless to say MY ENTIRE GROW - 4 Blackberry Moonrocks, 3 Yuhbary, 2 BruceLemonDiesel and 3 Wedding Cheesecake - has been drenched in Dr. Zymes and will be again today and tomorrow. Moral of the story: don't just look at one side of a plant (that's how I missed the signs of bud rot) and use the zoom on your camera to inspect ANY discoloration to make sure what you're seeing isn't something else entirely... 7/31 - Sadly, I've discovered one more plant with the same infection - bud rot or botrytis... after a lot of discussion with grower friends and a lot of research, I made the decision to bag and tag both ladies... it's just too dangerous to screw around with... there are SOME articles that say you can just remove the affected bud... there are others that say smoking a joint with bud rot in it can cause death... I'd rather be safe than sorry... and I don't regret my decision AT ALL. The other two ladies LOOK fine so far - but all of my plants are going to be closely inspected every single day and at the FIRST sign of bud rot, they'll be pitched as well.

This is getting really very sad for me... Just incredible potential and yet the outdoor conditions are conspiring against me. Humidity levels have been almost off the charts and as a result... bud rot. I've set up two large fans on my deck that are now going 24/7 in an attempt to keep the remaining plants from developing bud rot but it really is a highly infectious fungus so I don't know what chance I've got. I decided, rather than bagging and tagging this one, to cut the rotted bud off and pitch it and harvest the rest of the plant. The trichs were all milky so I'm not harvesting TOO early - I think she probably had another week or two to go but I didn't want to lose any more of her to chance. Just really REALLY sad at this... So far, I've only got one plant now still growing - my anticipated 1lb harvest is now down to maybe 5 or 6, 7 oz? We'll see... This is my first and last outdoor grow.... from now on, I'm taking the summers off and will NOT be growing at all! I hope the rest of the grow - my Yuhbary, my BruceLemonDiesel that are still outside and too tall to bring into a tent - will survive. BruceLemonDiesel is a sativa so she stands the best chance... the Yuhbary is supposed to be even larger and more dense than this grow so I'm really worried... But what can you really do when temps are over 100-degrees and humidity is constantly up in the 70-80% range?! Not a lot... but I WILL try some serious defoliation this week ... AND keep the fans going... 08/07 - At 5:30AM this morning... 74 degrees and 89% humidity.. OUTDOOR GROWS SUCK AND I WILL NEVER DO ANOTHER ONE!

Sadly, I've made the decision to chop the last remaining plant of this grow. I came to that decision today when I inspected it and found bud rot starting on this one, too. This is just a TERRIBLY dense strain and it simply couldn't survive the outdoor humidity that we've been subjected to even here in New England. I've already harvested one plant and had to pitch two plants... so I'll be back in a week or so with the final tallies... Her trichs are all milky so she should STILL be a good smoke... And I WILL grow this one again - but next time in a tent where conditions can be managed a little better than trusting Mother Nature...

This particular strain, in my opinion, is best grown indoors where heat and humidity can be controlled. The buds are so incredibly dense, the problems of bud rot are very hard to avoid in an outdoor grow. I will DEFINITELY grow this one again ... but INSIDE, in a TENT!!