Guerilla Grow 2023

D1. Boom! We have germination after only 48 hours with the Banana Kush Cake girl. The cheese lady is still a bit shy, but it's still early. However, It is worth noting that two seeds from this pack failed to germinate last year so let's hope that this third time is the charm. 🤞 I did the first trip to my growing spot, bringing out the first pot with soil. I'm biking with a small backpack so it will require a few trips to bring out the pots, 60 liters of soil, and a bit of mulch. Each round trip is around 20K so I certainly will get some exercise setting everything up. I'll be growing in two 30 liter fabric pots that I'm burying halfway in the forest soil. I'm hoping that will help the girls in getting water, but I'm just guessing here. We'll see what happens. ------------------------------ D2. The BCA appeared today. Barely, but she is there. That's two out of two: 100% germination. I transplanted the peat plugs into three-liter pots of soil, adding myco to the hole and plug prior to transplanting. I decided to install a Blumat Classic watering system since I will go out of town in a couple of weeks, and I'm not sure if the plants will be ready to put into their final pots by then. Using three Blumat carrots per pot ensures 150-450ml of water per 24 hours, depending on the height of the water reservoir. That should be enough for the girls during these first weeks of veg. Finally, I added a mulch layer of volcanic rock/pumice. Normally, I use straw but since these girls are moving outdoors I'll be using rock/pumice instead. DLI set to 17, which is a bit high considering it's only the first week, but I'm planning on pushing these girls hard. ------------------------------ D3. The Cheese girl has emerged from her hiding. I put humidity domes over the seedlings since the tent's humidity is currently in the 30s (!), and both my humidifiers are already in use elsewhere. I took a second trip to the planting spot to bring out more soil and mulch. I decided to move the pots some 20 meters to another site, where they will get more direct sun. Sure, the plants will be more visible, but I'm not too worried about discovery, considering how remote the location is. ------------------------------ D5. There is little to report as the girls are simply doing their thing without needing any of my help. I remembered I had a small humidifier my girlfriend bought many years ago tucked away in a storage box. The humidifier is tiny and isn't made for continuous use, so it requires a couple of refills per day, but in my small tent, it bumped the RH from the low 40s to the low-mid 60s. Enough for me to remove the humidity domes. As they say: If something is stupid, but works, then it isn't stupid. ------------------------------ D7. The first week is at its end and all is well with the girls in the tent. I made another trip out to the spot, bringing out the last soil and mulch. The only thing missing now is some chicken wire fencing and stakes, which I will bring out in a couple of days. ------------------------------

D8. We're starting the second week of veg. I increased the DLI to 22, which is higher than what I usually run at this stage, but I want to really push the girls before they go outside. ------------------------------ D11. The girls are quietly doing their thing without any help from me. The Banana girl is 7 cm tall and 13 cm across, while the Cheese lady is short and stout, 4 cm tall and 7 cm across. ------------------------------ D14. I completely forgot to take any pics before lights out. Oh well, new week tomorrow with new pics :) ------------------------------

D15. The start of the third week of veg. Not much to report as the girls are doing their thing, and with the blumat system, I haven't even needed to worry about watering. The banana girl is still bigger (9 cm tall, 25 cm across), but the Cheese lady has picked up speed and is getting bigger as well (7 cm tall, 18 cm across). They grew quite a bit in the last week :) At the end of this week, I'm going away on vacation, so the plants will then move out into the forest. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to harden them off properly before they move outside permanently, so I do what I can in the tent to strengthen them: UV, increased DLI to 30 and turned on a second fan to really beat them around in the tent. That's all I can do to strengthen them before they go outside. ------------------------------ D18. I'm pushing the plants much harder with light than I usually do at this age, but the girls are absolutely loving it. Their leaves pray until light out, soaking up every photon they can get. It's making me reconsider how much light I give my seedlings, and it will require more tests in future grows—I increased the DLI to 40 to push them even harder in these last few days in the tent. It's been the easiest grow ever so far. The Blumat system has done its job perfectly, and I haven't hand watered a single time. It's all been running on auto. Again, something to consider for future grows. I'm a lazy bugger, so if I can get great results with little/no work, then I'm all for it! ;D I biked out to the growing spot with the last pieces of equipment: wire fencing and water for transplanting. Now everything is set for the girls. ------------------------------ D21. The end of the third week of flower, but also the end of growing in the tent. The girls have grown a lot in this last week. The banana girl doubled her size and the cheese lady even more as she was a bit smaller at the start of the week but now is the same size. They both look awesome: healthy, vibrant, and larger than my plants normally are at this age. With these results, I will definitely experiment more with high DLI during the seedlings/early veg phase. I think the banana girl is about to start to flower. The tent has had a faint smell these last couple of days, and it looks like she is heading into flower. I would have liked to veg them a week longer before moving them out in the forest, but I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow morning, so they got evicted early. I packed the girls into my backpack and biked out to their new home. In the end, I decided to plant them in the ground instead of in fabric pots. I added mycorrhiza as usual during the transplant, covered the soil with a thick layer of lava rock mulch, and built a fence around each plant to deter wandering deer. I had luck with the weather as it is overcast today, more gentle on the girls to ease them into the great outdoors than if we had blue sky and full-on sun. Now the girls are on their own, although I'll probably check in on them every few weeks, just because I'm too curious to leave them fully alone, and I will need to update the diary from time to time ;) ------------------------------

D36. I came home from my vacation yesterday and started to brew a compost tea with worm castings, rock dust, kelp powder, humic acid, fulvic acid, molasses, and water. Today, prepared some sprouted seed tea by blitzing malted barley with water. I mixed both teas into two 5-liter jugs and biked out with them to the growing spot. I was curious how the girls were doing after being outside for two hot weeks. My fears were unfounded as the girls were doing great. The banana girl is looking fantastic. She has stretched over 50 cm in these two weeks, and the internodal distance is huge. She is now clearly in flower, with hedgehogs forming everywhere. The cheese lady has stretched about the same amount and also has huge internodal distances. However, she isn't looking at good as the banana girl. She isn't as far into flower, hasn't bushed out as much, and there are signs of nutrient issues on a few leaves. I also found some bug damage on a couple of leaves, but I couldn't see any on the banana girl. I'll see how it has progressed when I visit next time. ------------------------------

D45. No plant photos, as I'm not visiting them this week. However, I plan on checking on them next week, so I started preparing a Sprouted Seed Tea (SST) that I will bring with me when I check on the girls. I mixed 14 grams of Barley, 14 grams of Corn, and 7 grams of Alfalfa seeds and then soaked them for 2x8 hours in water mixed with kelp powder. (The seeds had an 8 hour rest period between the soakings.) I placed the seeds on a moist cotton cloth on a plate, folded it up, and now we wait. ------------------------------

D50. It's been two weeks since my last visit so it was time for another bike ride. Just like last time I prepared some goodies to bring with me. I was recently given a compost tea sample pack from Lurpe. The mix contains Alfalfa, Nettle, Kelp, Horsetail, Azomite®️, Diatomaceous Earth, Humic and Fulvic Acids, Sugar, Epsom Salt, Yeast, Rhizobacteria, Mycorrhizal Fungus and Trichoderma spp. This particular mix is meant for veg but I thought I'd use it now in flower anyway. I brewed the tea mix overnight in water together with worm castings and molasses. I also blitzed up the sprouted seeds I had started last week. They had sprouted a bit too well so next time I need to time it better, but the sprouts should still have enough growth hormones and enzymes to do their job Finally, I added some kelp powder, apple FFJ that I made last year, and Bokashi Juice straight from the bucket. Coming out to the spot, there was good news and bad news. The good news is that the banana girl looks great. Praying toward the sun and she looks healthy and vibrant. There are white sploshes on a few leaves but upon inspection it looks like dried compost tea from last time. The bad news is that the cheese girl has died. No idea why, although she didn't look great last time I saw her. There were two other seeds from this pack that failed last year so maybe this pack is cursed? I have two more BCA seeds in that pack so I'll have another go sometime in the future. In any case, onward and upwards. I'll now continue this diary as a single-strain diary. ------------------------------

D65. After a couple of weeks, it was time for another visit. We have had SO MUCH rain lately that I didn't bring any compost/sprouted seed tea with me. The last thing she needs right now is more water! In fact, I'm a bit concerned about mold as they have predicted rain for the next ten days or so :/ We are now in week ten, and most other diaries with the same cultivar harvest at week 11, so we should be on the home stretch. It would be disappointing to lose her due to the weather. I managed to fuck up my bike chain on the way out, so it was a bit of a challenge to get there, but I managed, although I now need to replace the chain before the next run. Ugh! Anyway, she looked great when I got there. She has bulked up since last time, and I can now smell her from afar. She has no defined terp profile at this point. No lemon, no banana, no gas, etc. She just smells like weed, if you know what I mean. However, she had a clear pine smell after touching her buds and then smelling the rosin on my fingers. Suitable since her next-door neighbors are a few pine trees :) Just by looking at her, it doesn't seem like she will finish soon. She looks green and healthy, although it looks like the fade has started on a couple of leaves. I brought my loupe to have a closer look at her trichomes, and they were all solid cloudy. I couldn't find any clear, but also no amber. So it's obvious that she isn't finished, but it's also clear that it isn't long to go. I'm now a bit torn about whether to harvest her early to avoid mold or to risk it and give her a while longer to finish. Normally, I would let her stay, but now I'm unsure, considering the weather forecast. I also have a trip coming up in a few weeks and need to have her dried and jarred before I leave. Hmmmmmmm... ------------------------------

D71. Today, we finally had a break in the rain, so I decided to go and chop the banana girl. I guess I fit the stereotype of a lazy stoner, as I never got around to changing my bike chain that got bent out of shape last week. So I grabbed a couple of pliers and wrestled the chain into shape. Sort of. Considering how wet/humid it has been, I was concerned about mold. My concerns were well founded as I could immediately see mold when I got out into the forest. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't all that bad. Only a few buds were affected. Phew! Looking at her trichomes, it was still a bit early to chop, but I rather chop early than lose even more to mold. I chopped off branch by branch, did a quick and dirty wet trim to reduce their size, and put the branches in airtight containers. I live right above a café and literally have to walk through it to get to my apartment, so it wouldn't be a great idea to have a backpack stinking of a freshly harvested plant. Hence the airtight containers. Normally, I never wet trim, and I mostly hang my plants whole to dry for +14 days at 60% RH. However, I'm a bit pressed for time and must have her dry and jarred in 10-11 days. Smaller branches with a rough wet trim should speed up the process. I have also set the RH to 57%. I realize that terps will take a hit but there's nothing to do about that. Now we wait. ------------------------------

This was a fun little project over the summer. This grow was almost entirely hands-off as the plant was out in the forest, doing its thing, without much intervention. I'm sure quality and yield suffered due to the lack of care, but I'm fine with it. Normally, I don't grow over the summer and this guerilla grow was able to scratch the cultivation itch that I normally experience when I'm not growing. Now the fall season is almost here, and I've already started to prepare for it. Yay! I left the buds drying for 10 days before I trimmed and jarred them. I was going to leave on vacation the next day so I put them in two jars with plenty of space, and a few boveda packs to help prevent additional budrot since I couldn't burp the jars. Now, I'm back and it looks like I was able to avoid mold. The buds smell like over-ripe fruit but I haven't been able to smoke them yet as I tested postive for Covid on my way back from vacation.