99.9% sunshine and outdoors.

Happy April 9th GD! Cheers to the outdoor season for some, and the lovely indoor for others. The Shaman from Dutch Passion was a strain i was immediately in love with. She had all the right characteristics smoke wise, and she was labeled as good outdoor strain, and hey she's supposedly purple! Im going to try giving this plant 100% true sunshine and outdoor elements, because I'm just curious how she will do and the difference from starting indoors first. Day 1: April, 9 germination, soaked seed for 12 hours and then paper towel method until popped. Day 4: Taproot popped and placed in a 20 ounce cup with FoxFarm ocean soil. *she's only getting light from the window and the deck right now. Day 7: seedling pops up. .25 inches. Temperatures are ok for daytime about 60 degrees F. But relatively low for comfort at night about 45-50 degrees F. Good luck lady Shaman Happy Healthy growing everyone.

So for the first few weeks of this plant there aren't as many photos as I'd have liked. However I got the essentials. This 2nd week she was dealing with very harsh weather and if she wasnt meant to be an outdoors plant, I'm not sure she'd have survived. She wasn't receiving as much direct sunlight hours and naturally began to stretch a bit. None the less she still managed to break soil and grow given the colder weather and sunlight she received from being moved all over each day to follow the sunshine as there is only 12 hours of it available each day. I've realized that even on an overcast day the sun will grow a plant. Happy Healthy growing everyone. 💚

She's been getting more sunshine than the previous weeks and has started growing better stronger leaves. I had her spend one day inside under a CFL bulb when i left town and it burnt her leaf tips just a tiny bit, so back outside she went. Although her roots haven't began to fill this cup I think a good transplant is necessary and will help her flourish. Somehow she got a strange yellow color happening for a couple days....I'm not sure why, possibly in response to the light burn, or something soil/ water related; must transplant soon.

Week 4: This week she got a transplant into newer bigger pot. Since her roots hadn't fully expanded in the plastic cup I figured she's still needing some time in a medium pot before going into her finally spot. The light burn is still visible on the leaves, and probably won't go away, but the yellowing has passed and all new growth appears healthy. She's responding good to the new container and the sunshine. The weather has still been pretty cold, but she's handling it like a champ! The shaman is definitely proving to be one incredibly strong and resilient outdoor strain. Happy growing everyone!

Ive began giving her nutrients at a low dose and i haven't seen anything bad come of it yet. I'll slowly begin increasing as time passes, but am currently feed only half strength once a week. I'm very happy with the Foxfarm trio as of now. Despite the still drastic temperatures and rainy weather the shaman seems healthy and growing strong. She has several larger 5 fingered leaves which is a great sign that things are going good. Temperatures between 40's and low 60's, and she still grew a couple inches. Happy growing everyone.

Week 6: i think things are going well, unfortunately no one has completed a shaman diary yet so i can't make comparisons. This was partly why i chose this strain, but it's still a bit frustrating. She is growing strong, she seems to handle cold well if not anything else. Her size is increasing both vertically and branching outwards, i just have to be mindful of how much direct sunlight and not to let her stretch too much. She has a slight curve to her stem, but i think its both reaching for sun and from wind whipping her around. Cheers to hoping she turns out purple!

The Shaman has responded well to being outdoors. Her stretching has slowed some, but she still has to bear the cold weather. Being pretty firm in the 60s and the 50s this is pretty strong of her to handle it so well. Not to mention the recent rains we've been having. Her description said she was bread for outdoors and could handle mildew, and temperature changes, so she's definitely living up to the breeders description. If i can keep her relatively comfortable and somewhat out of the rain, i don't see why she shouldn't be able to pull through these harsher than normal conditions. Her feeding schedule has stayed the same and she doesn't seem to be needing more than the two nutrients she's being given. Happy Healthy growing everyone. ✌️

Week 8: So where i live it is typically so dry its insane! We rarely get above 7-15% and that's a good day. However we've had the strong rain storms happening and that's raised our humidity temporarily. However she seemed to have gotten battered more by the wind whipping her around than any rain. I gave her first "top" this week and it went good, no unusually bad side effects that i can see. She is also curving to reach the light, but i will just attempt to keep training her to keep that to a minimal and try upping her direct light hours. I also propped her back straight with the help of a few rocks in her pot. Hopefully this can help keep her more straight or at least get battered less in the future for now. All in all she seems to be doing well, healthy, strong and resilient. Happy Growing Everyone. ✌️

This week has gone fairly well. We've seemed to have pulled out of the early sping cold weather and gotten at least to a relatively comfortable zone. I am still amazed at her ability to handle the cold and the rain storms so well. She growing every week at a decent rate. Ive kept her nutrient schedule relatively low and feed her approximately once, maybe twice per week. Otherwise its just plain water from the hose. I try letting the water sit for 24 hours on the hope that the sun will evaporate out some of the negative elements in the water, excess chlorine etc. She responded well to the pinching of her top, although it should have been done sooner, but the site appears healed and healthy. I may plan to top her a few more times over the coming weeks. I found my first obvious sign of bug activity, in the spider web on her top most leaves, im hopeful its a predatory spider and not mites. Seeing that webs seem to get me in the face when i pass her I'm betting on a regular spider. Happy growing and harvesting to everyone, thank you for all the support.

Week 10 : more signs of bug activity, must look into various remedies or locate the source of the webs. I heard that mites webs are more concentrated like these in the photos, so it may be that there are both large normal spiders and a smaller less visible pest. Making plans for future transplant, probably will stick to the 15 gallon smart pots.

Bad week. This week was a bit rough. The Shaman had already been topped, but in the late hours of last night or this morning, someone or something unknown managed to snap/fold the plant basically in half. Unfortunately the damage was too bad to repair with tape or any other means, so she recieved a new "accidental topping" location. I also topped her side branches that did survive. Other than being bent in half, she appears strong and I'm sure will bounce back from this trauma. Currently she is still in the small pot and I'm planning to transfer her into a 15 gallon smart pot in the next week. Cheer to Happy Accidents everyone. Happy growing. ✌️

Better week. After the very harsh damage to the plant and cutting away the bent piece and topping the remaining side branches she's doing very well. In spite of her damage she's growing very tall quickly. Its time for a transplant. I've got a 15 gallon smart pot, and 2 bags of fox farm ocean forest soil. The day/night temperature have both gotten into a warm and comfortable zone. The days are getting longer and longer thank goodness because she needs all the direct hours i can give her.

Some signs of possible problems this week. A few leaves with spotting and a few leaves yellowing and dying off. I think i will up the Grow Big nutrient another teaspoon per gallon and see if this helps. She's growing upwards very quickly and catching up to the other plants in the garden faster than I expected. I pinched off the majority of her upper branches and hopefully she will respond well to this.

Week 14: Things are going along great. She's responded well to the increase in nutrients and the toppings. She's basically leveling up to the other plants in the garden height wise, which is amazing to me given the damage she's already experienced. The temperatures are getting well into the 90s and are going to keep climbing. Its incredible how well plants can do in such a high heat and low humidity environment.

This was an amazing week, she's growing so fast and is nearly at equal height to the other plants in the garden. I noticed some days with a bit of droopy leaves and i think the combo of wanting her morning water and the afternoon heat are to blame. We're set to be going steady into the 100s of and on and i think she's more than able to handle it with proper watering. This has already been a fascinating plant in seeing the differences between a mostly sun grown outdoor plant vs. A plant started indoors and then transferred. I'm extremely excited to see what she's capable of over the next weeks. Happy growing to everyone. ✌️

A wonderful and very amazing week! Week 1 of flowering has begun! Not only is she just growing like a weed, but I've spotted some small wispy hairs! Yeehaw! Is that what marks the official start of flowering? The first pistils to show? It's a bit earlier than I'd expected, since my others aren't really showing signs, but so pleased. I think she must have her own individuality, and possibly be an early flowering strain. The days are still quite long, and hot she's getting some days in the low 100s and then little breaks down to the 90s, but handling the heat amazingly. Our humidity is typically on the low side, with the mornings and evenings being around 20-30% and then the daytime going down to the 7-15% range. Most relative humidity charts place me in the red zone, of being both too hot and too dry for anything to grow, but that's clearly nonsense as long as you can keep the plants watered. I'm very excited for the next many weeks! Cheers to flowering time!

Week 2 flowering: Shaman is still having a good boost of growth since her flowering came on, although she is still slightly smaller than the others i think she's turned out a perfect height. I've noticed she needs a cage around her to help keep her branches supported, so i just went to the garden center and picked up some tomato stakes and cross beams. It seems to be working well for now. Her pistils are developing well and quickly all over her bud sites, which has been the most exciting thing to see. She seems significantly different each morning. Lastly, I decided to lower her grow nutrients by 1 tsp/gallon and add in 2 tsp/gallon of the fox farm Tiger Bloom.

Week 3 flowering: this is fun watching more and more pistils show up. Her growth progress is beginning to slow down and her flowers developing beautifully. I'm still a bit surprised at how fast/early she started to flower. Ive kept her nutrients relatively the same with the exception of switching her micro nutrient to Remo Micro. I'm going to watch her closely for any unusual changes. Happy growing everyone.

4th week of flowering down and I think it's going fairly well. We've had some intense heat this week, about 95-102 but she still is handling it good, i found a bug while scouting and am still not positive what it was. Lastly, I was looking through all the the photos and have a notice that even in my earliest bud formation photos my pistils appear to have some discoloration on their tips and slowly its gotten worse...i know eventually they'll darken and curl in but this seems to be a bit early. I checked the @dutchpassion description and it shows that the Shaman strain flowers in about 7-8 weeks indoors and then once the cooler temps come for your various hemispheres, such as "late September or early October " they mention. Any thoughts on potential deficiencies or toxicities, I know i heard it mentioned in the podcast i like, i just can't recall what it is. Happy growing everyone.

5th week of flowering: A good week over all. Vertical growth seems to have stopped and energy is focused on the buds. That still puts her taller than me and i need a ladder to see the top of the plant. Her nutrients were changed slightly. I changed her grow nutrient to the Remo and lowered the dose, soon it will be eliminated all together. She still has the somewhat discolored pistils and they almost have a dry look to them. I don't think the effected pistils will recover but just the rest will hopefully change slowly too. For the most part the buds seem healthy and strong. Seeing the pistils look fairly swollen this week was a very nice thing to get on camera

Week 6 of flowering: Hey everyone Its been an exciting few weeks of flowering with the Shaman. Her blooms are developing nicely and she seems to be managing the warm weather and low humidity better than any plant. I understand why she was listed as an outdoor strain. Her smell is still just mild which is actually a good thing, whether that will change over the next few weeks we'll see. She has the tomato cage for support and that seems to be sufficient for now, perhaps with the buds growing bigger and her height staying the same she will need some more support down the line. *Clones taken from previous toppings are doing well, they just need some extra special TLC and time but roots are developing and leaves aren't dying. These are really just for practice purposes to try getting better at the process, but maybe they'll find a happy home. Thank you all for the advice with her pistil discoloration, i think it won't recover but hopefully not get worse. Happy growing to everyone.

Week 7 of flowering: it's been good but stressful at the same time.😊 The temperatures have dropped a bit which is great, I imagine the plants don't love super high temps...no more than I do. Humidity has been a constant frustration and concern for me even though it doesn't seem to be killing the plant. However, being that we're in the desert the humidity rarely goes above 35%. I've noticed when i check my humidity in the morning it's around 20%-35% and then into the afternoon it immediately drops down in the 7%-15% range. The only time this is ever different is when it is or has rained, then maybe I'll get lucky with like 70%, but that's very rare. I actually took a step back and tried to look at the whole plant this week rather than just my eye level and below. It's looking like there's some solid colas happening up top and I'm thinking some bamboo stakes in our near future. Happy New Year everyone! It's been an incredible year here, I've had so much fun learning and growing with you all.✌️

Were at basically the 8th week of flowering now and it feels like its lasting and taking forever! But I'm trying to be patient. If this had been an indoor grow we'd be right around the "estimated flower time" by D.P, however in my case i don't think we're very close yet. I'm still battling with low humidity, and really other than spraying the canopy here and there I'm not sure how else to make her feel like it isn't so dry. Since she can't take in much moisture from the air I bet her roots are working double time. I am at least fairly confident that I probably won't wind up with powdery mildew lol....if I did get it, it would probably suffocate on dry air and die anyway. I noticed she has roots protruding out of the smart pots bottom, and they try to grow into the soil beneath the pot....maybe they're just growing immensely or they're searching for moisture. I've had a fun time watching the trichromes slowly start showing up over the last couple weeks. It's nice to see a little more activity than just swelling pistils. * Oh i switched everything to be just Remo Nutrients, i figure if I'm going to use a setup I better keep it relatively consistent, rather than several different companies. Hopefully I can avoid stacking nutrients this way. *UGH! Do I have to change my name to the damn bug lady! Gah! Any opinions on earwigs and if they're predators or pests? Thanks for all the support from everyone here, every week is exciting, regardless of triumphs or disasters.✌️💚🌱

Week 9 of flowering: She's continuing to put on weight and mass. It's amazing the differences I'm seeing between this plant and the strawberry cough i had also grown outside. This plant is having a very clear cola structure, while she has many small buds also, its very clear where her main buds are and easy to watch them get bigger. I know they're completely different strains but i think the Shaman being in the spot that gets the most sun hours makes a big difference in part. I also thought about the lack of much artificial light during her veg cycle and if being mostly sun grown could have made her adapt better than the others...but I'm just speculating. 😊 I've tried to keep the nutrient levels on this plant relatively low, partly because I didn't want to have to fight a toxicity but also to try finding out what the truly needed amount is and not to just continuously overload the plant. It seems to have worked for the most part, but I do occassionally see leaves i suspect might be down to having too low of nutrients. I think sticking with a single company when doing bottled nutrient lines is important. I don't know if it was the best idea to switch from fox farm to remo part way through...I may have had better results sticking with the one or the other the whole life cycle. Something I'll have to test out and see if there's a difference. The tomato bars are working good, but I'm going to go out and pick up some new bamboo stakes. I was reading about pest management this week and i kept hearing over and over how most bugs are brought in by the people, either on clones or using old equipment...so I think I better be using new pieces whenever its wood, since i cannot fully sterilize it. Happy growing everyone. Thanks for all the advice about humidity and all my various other struggles.✌️

Week 10 of flowering: This has been a nice week, the temperatures have been pleasantly dropping and the plant seems pretty happy and healthy. I had a couple outdoor norms like a bird pooping on a leaf...but i just hosed it down. I'm learning to just roll with the punches outside because everyday there's something new having a go at my yard. I ended up needing to disassemble the tomato cage built around this baby. She's been having some wild branches poking out, so I figured she was due for a remodel. I got her more secured and added some bamboo stakes to a few main colas giving me trouble with trying to fall over. Things should hopefully be more upright and strong now. *once she was all secured to her bamboo and stretched out I did notice i must have been slightly off on her measurements. Because her tallest points reached to 74 inches and she easily needed the larger bamboo stakes. I'll need to go back and edit my measurements. The end definitely feels like its coming, the buds are swelling, trichromes doing their thing, and nice colors are showing up. There is still very minimal smell, But all in all that's not necessarily a bad thing. Hope everyone is doing great with their grows. ✌️

Week 11 of flowering: It's been a great week! The weather's been lovely, the day temperature is dropping but in a comfortable way and the nights are definitely getting much colder. However the plant is growing beautifully, I really can't complain much this week. There were small things like bite marks on a few leaves but over all we've had a happy week. Seeing the bug bites however did make me think of something.... What is the purpose of a trichrome? In nature, it's function, it's reason for being present on a cannabis plant? Other than it being a resin gland and holding resin inside it and it's eventually bulbous top. One thing I am realizing this week is how much I still have to learn about defoliation and it's importance. I know it's not essential but when I see all the small buds at the bottom and in the shaded areas I really wish i would have removed them and redirected all that energy to the bigger buds. Happy growing to everyone, much love.✌️

Week 12 of flowering. This is my first plant to really produce nice looking buds so far and that really is exciting and fun....it's incredible how much she changes every day let alone every week. I've started seeing some nice colors on her also, especially on a lot of the smaller buds tucked slightly below in the shadows. This Shaman strain is supposed to put out roughly 50/50 chances of a nice purple plant and I'm seeing some purple tones in certain places but I'm also seeing some very beautiful reds in places. Typically by the end of this month and into next we're pretty firmly into very chilly nights. Possibly this recent shift into colder nights is bringing on all the recent colors I've been seeing, and hopefully they'll keep it up, it would be so fun to get one of the truly purple varieties. The trichromes are basically all having swollen tops and they've started changing colors in places. Personally I prefer them to be in the more milky/amber range so we should be right on schedule here anytime soon. Until next week, happy growing to everyone. 💚🌱

Wow 13 weeks of flowering! And 28 weeks of growing! That's just crazy to me. Oh Hell's Bell's! This week has gotten cold! Mama Mia bring on harvest time! This has been a great week for taking photos, I understand why the late flowering time is so desirable now, awesome photos! Well and hopefully decent cannabis.😊 The days are still comfortable but wow the nights have taken a dark turn into needing warm clothes and hats. If this plant hadn't gone through 20+ weeks of intense weather adjustments already I'd be afraid she'd freeze to death. Being that harvest is undoubtedly very close I halved the nutrients down and started adding in a tablespoon of molasses. Also I only added the half dose nutrients to the first 3 days of the week, the last 4 have been just water and molasses. There's been so many changes this week and fast that it became obvious some mild flushing was time to be done. Harvesting and planning for harvest is still very new to me. However, going off how much the pistils have changed colors and started curling inwards and the trichromes have gotten very dense and pretty much all have a slight color change from just clear, I think harvesting within the next day or so should be perfect. * So throughout this grow I've been waiting and stressing over the "smell", but I've noticed being towards the end...she has an unbelievable lack of overwhelming odor. I'm not sure if that's common for outdoor growing or if this is just a clever trait from Dutch Passion in making such a killer outdoor strain. I know good smell is wonderful, but not having it has almost been nice. I haven't had to stress about people passing by or worrying about garden bandits, so..good job D.P you guys killed it with this one. So if you're looking for a low odor, part shade (mostly shade), decent sized plant with nice color and good cola structure, definitely try this one out. This has been by far my most exciting plant and given all the mistakes I've made and how little I know about growing I'm absolutely shocked it managed to come out this far so well. Through the whole grow I was convinced I was doing so much damage that it was gonna keel over and die on me any second. Lol but here we are at the end... thanks so much for all the support and knowledge over the last 7 months it's been amazing! I hope this next summers outdoor season will go even better now I have a bit of experience under my belt.✌️🌱💚

The Shaman has been excellent! Anyone who wants to do an outdoor grow and get great results from below perfect environmental conditions this is the perfect strain. She did amazing handling the severe temperature changes which varied from the 40s to the 100s, she also managed to cope with extremely low humidity which rarely ever got above 35%. I think the choice to have this plant be 99.9% sun grown was a good thing to happen, I feel like her changing slowly with the sun and environment made her even stronger and more resilient. I know plenty of plants do great starting under other lights but this one didn't enjoy the very minimal hours of CFL light she received. Even though she's tough as hell we still had our struggles through the grow like a mild cal-mag attack, the constant pressure of bugs, birds and other living things and of course the ever present abuse from her caretaker. The couple things i would do differently is to lollipop the plant much earlier in flowering to try getting rid of some of the popcorn buds and not waste energy, and to stick with one brand of nutrients or rely on dry nutrients, I feel like i can't fully review either products completely and would like to see the results from a consistent plant. I would also try to reduce the nutrients sooner and give more "flush" days. I noticed the plant has a slightly odd twang to it and that could possibly be either buildup of nutrients or the way i dried the plant. Next time I'll adjust a few things and watch for any changes. The overall yields from this plant ended up being about 12 oz of jar buds and then an additional 2 gallon sized bags full of small popcorn and trim. Not at all a bad harvest for how long the grow took. Thanks so much for all the community here who gave me all of my much needed help and guidance. Any of my grows that get done here always have credit due to the community, it's been an amazing learning experience growing this plant. *made a great batch of Shaman coconut oil using 84 grams of popcorn buds and 3 cups of coconut oil on a double boiler. It turned out great.😊