This week we broke the record for rain in August, and it's only the 23rd. We received 19" of rain this week cumulatively, adding to an already soggy month. This causes a raft of issues:
* humidity obviously attracts bud rot, powdery mildew, and other nasty funguseseses.
* My clay soil already holds a lot of water and doesn't drain well, meaning roots are soggier than they like even in the best of times.
* The compost I scratched in a few weeks ago to address a N and/or P deficiency has been washed away.
Three of my girls are kind of struggling at the moment - Ironically, all three quadrifolds. Runt The Uncut and the traditional manifold seem to be doing fine. I think the traditional manifold is doing well because she's planted amongst stinging nettle and red clover, which kind of naturally keeps the soil in a good NPK ratio. I can't explain Runt The Uncut, but she is the most amazing plant I have ever grow. Her trichs are like 95% clear right now, so still a long way to go, but her buds are thick, dense, sticky, stinky, and frosty, and there's a LOT of them. Her main cola is **huge**, both in length and girth (ladies...) and she is 6' 8" tall at the moment and ~4.5 feet in diameter. There's nothing particularly different about her soil relative to the quadrifolds...she just refuses to allow anything to stop her from Becoming. She is Runt The Uncut, Runt The Unbowed, and she will not be stopped.
So, with all the rain, this morning I just bowed and used some Tiger Bloom mixed in with the Spinosad and molasses. It's not growing naturally the way I would have preferred, but sometimes you just have to play the cards your dealt. Today is Aug 23rd, and my wife (who is a Certified Master Gardener in our state and knows these things) says that since our first frost is estimated to be between Oct 27 - Nov 3rd, she expects harvest to be right in there, a few days after the first frost. Then again, she only grows vegetables. But if the harvest is that first week in November, we have TEN more weeks to go. There's no way Runt's branches can stand up to 10 more weeks of bud development. I may need to begin thinking of how to suspend those branches, outdoors, in an inconspicuous fashion. 16 weeks of flower is...that's insane.
Clean, Soggy, Mind-blowing Country Living.
@Thatsmyfirsttime, thanks! We try to grow as much of our stuff as possible and be self-sufficient. I try organic stuff out here and there (my autoflowers I used a living soil ammendment), but for the most part I think ferts are a scam. Coffee grounds, ground egg shells, earthworm castings, and left over fruit and veggie scraps. That's all I think you need to grow big, beautiful organic plants.
Runt's dry weight: 151g. It's curing now in a couple of paper grocery bags. I also harvested the traditional manifold, like the next day after Runt, so she's trimmed and dried as well: 137g; she's also in a couple of grocery bags.