australian bastard cannabis v.2.0

@melly, try diatomaceous earth mixed with water and spray onto and under the leaves

@melly, try using predator insects like ladybugs, lacewing and the Mealybug Destroyer (Cryptolaemus montrouzieri) , just buy some and put it on your plant, should control and defeat the mealy bugs

yeah ive had mind in quite an open spot very exposed to wind so the stems are loke wood all the way to the top! they have coped really well with the extream heat and humidity too

@Lindsay420, Not much different in South Africa. After like a month of constant high temps with the occasional random thunderstorm with gale force winds or so, we had almost a week of continuous rain... To be fair, it seems to make for freakishly strong plants. Got some 3m+ monsters (without much space even) that are still in early flowering. It might even be because of all the uranium, because I do have a few mutant plants feeding on the excess nitrogen oxides in the area.

@melly, Yeah, I've made a bunch of mistakes and experienced a lot of different problems throughout this grow and it's been interesting looking at your plants too, since your climate is fairly similar to here, shit, even your plants looked similar to some of mine. So that's a lot of useful/valuable information and experience. Watch out for sudden cold/humidity (especially with low rain/watering, somewhat strangely), mildew loves that, it kinda fucked up my one plant, like if the plants are used to nice heat they can't deal with that. Every time the plants were stressed heavily (too much rain, too little rain, too hot, too cold, etc) they picked up some pests/problems soon after. I would certainly recommend defoliation (and maybe strategic pruning, like you say, topping perhaps) though. Those older/dead leaves, when they're dried and then get wet again just cause trouble. They can hold a lot of moisture in bad spots, perfect for mould/rot crap. LST I would only do if it's actually necessary or would help the plant (say, less bunching or crowding) Mainlining, HST etc I generally would stay far away from due to the already stressful conditions. I've harvested 20/24 plants so far, not completely, since I want them to reveg if possible (some are already revegging, btw) and they're all still going (a few look like they're dying though), but yeah the colours are really strange now. Very colourful, purples mixed with green from new growth, typical gold/orange features, etc.

@melly, Yeah I'm hoping my new batches are sort of like autoflowers (at least just shorter growing period), but they're going to be growing through winter (which I guess, like Aus, is pretty warm still) so I'm not expecting much. Autos are REALLY easy to grow and you generally don't need more than 10-25l pots for them since they just won't grow for long enough to get large enough. My friend has some nice autos, one with incredibly deep pink/red pistils., they're doing great, and he's also a total noob.

@melly, Yeah it is, pests are a bit annoying, weather and stuff too (if you don't have cover, whatever). But I'll take a bit of the bad with the good. Lots of my plants have caterpillar damage for instance, and yeah I do think the pests mess with the growth a bit. But very little damage in terms of percentage and very little I've of the damage parts I've had to discard entirely. I'm not gonna be using industrial pesticides and stuff.

at least i have learnt a valuable lesson for next time ay need to inspect the plants more closely next time!

see my photo i just added fucking scale dude praying to god i got em all took up my whole afternoon really hoping she recovers now she isnt covered in these blood sucking little parasites!!

@melly, Bees, moths, etc and just freaking air causes some pollination at times. A long time ago I had one female plant with no males near her and she got pollinated randomly (god and mary, I guess). If it's not obviously hermi (just check the nodes), a few seeds won't hurt the plant/quality much at all (imo, I've been smoking for decades) and you get free seeds. I wouldn't worry about it, it's likely from your "dad" plant, even. Pests like spider mites and mealy bugs can definitely cause signs of nutrient deficiences though, and you have found some pests, so that would have influenced the plants a bit since it's just another form of stress. Especially because you stressed your plants, then there's the natural stress too from say, the weather. The plants can't deal with all of that so well (unless they're incredibly robust strains). Good call on removing those damaged parts and smoking them. I've found a bunch of caterpillars and damage from them and I mean. I smoked the fuck out of that shit, it was great. I'd basically not even consider it damage, like it cured/dried weed when I needed some, as a bonus. Good luck, as usual. They still look strong and I hope your female there didn't hermi (doubt it).

i found some spider mites been treating woth pyrethum dunno if thats got something to do with it. also looks like the bigger one has started making seeds! no idea when or how she got pollinated, the other one doesnt seem to be effected. there has been a lot of bees around lately but its possible shes hermied late in flower and i just havnt found the pollen sacks

@melly, Maybe try a little bit of pisswater (first choice, since it also has potassium and phosphor and is kinda convenient) or something like kelp, random plant leaf/parts debris teas (green stuff, chlorophyll, proteins) for nitrogen since that kinda looks like the main deficiency there. Your plants are very dense/leafy, so I'm assuming they're using a bit more nutrients than typical, possibly from stress (I generally wouldn't advocate stress, btw).

@melly, From what I've seen, even if it looks like some trichomes are ready and it's just about harvest time (according to some other people), that's only the surface, if it bulks up it produces more new stuff. To me it really seems to depend more on the maturity of the plant, if it's still pumping out pistils it's generally good (only an opinion, but it seemingly holds for all the plants I've got). Even with the continued bulking and long flowering time surface trichomes are still mostly clear or very slightly cloudy. It's a tradeoff though, for a number of reasons, but it seems to have worked for me so far, problem being my plants (not in pots) can't support themselves very well due to the weight. I'm sure you'll have a fairly good idea of when it stops bulking/producing though, best of luck.

yeah i have a proper microscope coming in the mail and ill go by the tricomes. if they aren't ready in 3 weeks then ill just keep going until they are

@beadyeyes, My plants are retarded (similar sativas to mellys, but grown a bit differently in a different area). Most of them are only gonna be ready after 30+ weeks. That's insane considering the conditions they've had, but I don't really have too much indica stuff here. Patience though...GL!

i gave them some molasses today so im excited to see how that turns out