Transplanted from solo cups to outdoor 30 gallon pots. They were in the solo cups for about 4 weeks, and my window was only giving them about 1-2 hrs of direct sun a day, so they should be a lot happy in the new spot. Direct sun pretty much all day. Mixed in 10lbs of Basalt right before putting the soil in the 30 gallons pots, came in right the same day, as I didn't have enough in the soil per Coot's mix. Is it OK if they're sitting on cement like that? Just want to make sure they'll get proper drainage. Added the bamboo fence for some privacy, and also to give them some shade at first to acclimatize them to the sun. Also planted a bunch of alfalfa and hairy vetch, along with other companion plants, in the 30 gallon pots. Have about 7 x 3 and 5 gallon pots I also planted companion plants in, that I'll place around them. (Nastrurtiums and Pelargoniums included per Poi's suggestions, also Wild Petunias I saw someone mention being good for southern california). Other companion plants included California Buckwheat, Red Gem Marigold, Caraway, Dill, Lemon Balm, Parkers Gold Yarrow, Golden Marguerite, ... probably missing a couple more. Was explaining the strains to my friend that's helping me grow. He already knows his favorite... Putanggg
Plants coming along... cover crop is sprouting. Just had a few questions if any of the seasoned growers want to give any feedback: 1. When should I start spraying? Should I just spray BT weekly? Or also essential oils/garlic sometime during the week? 2. Anyone know what the stains on the plant are (first few pics). Looks like something is munching on them already 3. Any Blumat advice? Was thinking of installing them... seems like it makes life a lot easier. Not sure what type of system I’d need for 3 x 30 gallon pots + 7 x 2 gallon companion plant pots Pics:
Some updates from the past few weeks: Plants have been doing pretty well, had some pests attack, and per the recommendations of people on here bought me some spinosad and BT. Today sprayed with spinosad, also dropped about 10 worms per container to get the worm population going (red wigglers + a few super european reds). So far looking good (I think)! FiveStar is still kinda droopy... I know she likes it even more dry... Still figuring out the blumat system, ordered some parts already, so next week hopefully can get that dialed in. Also the leaves on the Bintang Mas are taco-ing pretty bad... @PoiBoy79 , do you know what that could be from? The PuTang is doing some tacoing as well (pics below). Also, should I start trimming down the cover crops? Wondering if I should just let it be, or if the worms will be ok without the cover crop as food for the time being, or how that part works. Bintang Mas: Putang: FiveStar: Pics of the bugs the yellow fly traps caught. Grindz brah!
Also wanted to mention, if anyone's down in San Diego I found a really good dispensary that sells by the gram, the stuff is better than med men and those too, and cheaper, no tax! My new favorite place, since I only need like $10 to try a new strain, and not drop $50 on an eight... tried "heal me now" from flow kana a few weeks ago, didn't really like it, now I got heap bud, but my friends birthday coming up and he like it, so he be getting good present soon enough Some of the strains I tried the past few weeks from there: Aztec Gold from snowhigh seeds (acapulco gold x colombian gold x C99)... I finally know what old school buzz feel like! Really positive effect... love this stuff... really want to grow landraces soon Super Silver Haze (really good) Ghost Tangie (another amazing one. Really fun at first, energetic, yet no jitters or anything bad at all... gives you munchies like crazy, and after an hour or two makes you really sleepy... it's like a sativa at first, then indica after a few hours). Pacific Purp (nice head high, fun) Mendo Kush (found another favorite... I smoked this after trying some Aztec Gold and Pacific Purp, felt like a kid again... everything positive and fun. If I breed strains in the future, I'm going to try to cross Acapulco Gold with Bubba Kush or Pre-98... maybe I can recreate the same effect) I even went back the next day to buy some (since I tried my friends) but they were sold out! Everyone at the dispensary was saying it was one of their favorites as well. Super Sour Diesel This one is pretty interesting... makes you really insightful and compassionate. I called about my credit card and had a philosophical conversation with the amex operator lady on the other end for like 15 min. Candy Jack (skunk #1 x jack herer) I think this is my favorite daytime smoking strain... like to smoke and still be funcional and productive... it's uplifting yet doesn't make you feel out of it at all, or act dumb... just makes everything better and fun during the day. Best funcional yet really fun high I've had so far. Jack Widow (jack herer x white widow) - yet to try Galactic Jack - yet to try Tahoe Kush - yet to try
"Also the leaves on the Bintang Mas are taco-ing pretty bad... @PoiBoy79 , do you know what that could be from? The PuTang is doing some tacoing as well (pics below)." Hey Brah, that is common and nothing to worry about. Usually it is a sign of heat stress or wind stress. BTW, that taco'ing isn't that bad, issue will probably iron itself out.
Thanks Poi, appreciate your help. One thing I was wondering about 2 things, I wanted to ask: 1. About the cover crop - should I trim it, to make food for the worms I put in a few days ago? Or just let it do it's thing? 2. Should I start training the plants? I was thinking of doing LST, and just bending them over, tying them down to the pot edge... and make them go in a circle as they grow. Hope all is well with your grow man, many thanks again for your help.
Grow is coming along, been driving to my friends house once a week to check up on them. Hauling the water is becoming the biggest pain in the ass, but besides that, so far so good. The only thing I'm worried about is the yellowing of the leaves, and also whether the net I've set up will keep out the bugs (if there are some very small gaps at the bottom). @PoiBoy79 in your experience, you think the netting is OK, sealing it with the bricks at the bottom? I saw on your journal Poi you said yours are flowering, one of mine started to flower as well (PuTang). Hoping the netting will suffice as IPM, was hoping to avoid spraying anything in flower. Here are pictures of the 3 ladies: FiveStar FiveStar looking a bit sad, but this strain is difficult to grow, the breeder has told me. Temperamental - supposedly I have to really let the soil dry out, though I'm afraid that would kill the living soil, so I haven't tried it yet. PuTang Seems to be coming along well. Had a yellowing leaf or two at the bottom as well, I cut them off already though. Bintang Mas Also seems to be coming along OK. Hoping I didn't mess up the LST, seems to really be growing off to the side of the pot. Hoping that won't affect anything too much in the future.
Howzit brah The netting looks , should work. Keep an eye out for eggs. Sometimes those moths can sneak around and find a way in. The yellowing is pretty classic nitrogen deficiency , starting from the bottom creeping upwards and from the center to the outside. I like using fish hydrolysate this time of year as the are stretching and transitioning to flower, and it works fast to correct problems. If you don't feed them, they will lose a lot of leaves pretty quickly. I foliar it and mix it with their water.
Thanks Poi, any good fish hydrolysate products you'd recommend? (Think it'd be OK if I ordered some online today, and would water it in the plants next Monday?) Also, how much do you add into your water when you water it? Appreciate your help my friend
Howzit brah! I've been using this product for about 3 years. Neptune's Harvest is great, but I think this product is just as good at a cheaper price. The dilution rate for watering (root drench) is 2-4 ounces per gallon of water. One Tablespoon = 1 oz. The way I add it to water is I pour the fish into the watering can, and fill it with the hose and pour. Foliar spray early morning or early evening. Order it now and use it asap brah Irie vibes friend
Just saw this, my notifications are whacko. IME the cover crop dies back slightly as the plant gets bigger and shades it. I always chop it down around transition to flower. I stopped using my living mulch this grow because it was forming a very dense mat that was bugging me. A out LST, I see you bent yours over, that's good. As it grows away from the pot. You'll need to support it with stakes or something. For me, topping once or twice in veg then simply pulling the plant open in flower is a mild form of LST I can do all the way through flower.
Thanks @PoiBoy79 ! How come the dense mat was bothering you? Just taking up space and not dead yet, so the worms couldn't eat it? Good looking out on the fish hydrolysate - going to pick some up and water it in next Monday. Do you water it in once a week, or how often? Also, I haven't done any top dressing or anything, just 2 "avocado bombs" per plant, so the worms can get some food. Should I be top dressing or anything? Thanks again brah!
Plants are coming along, having trouble with pests though. Seems the aphids and thrips just keep coming back time after time. Spent like $100 at arbico already, their green lacewings seem to never hatch... saw only 1 of them flying around in there from all the times I put in the eggs. Killed 6 or 7 moths inside the netting, no idea how they were able to get in there... but just ordered trichogramma from arbico to hang up, just in case... we did find 1 caterpillar a few weeks ago on the plant... hoping there won't be too much damage from budworm. Anyways, here are some pics of the plant. Anything I should be doing in particular? Right now I'm just waiting for them to finish, watering about 1-2 gallons a day b/c of the heat. Putang: FiveStar
Looking good RB , just be patient and stay on top of the IPM, as you can see the bugs tend to find a way to the greenery. Any theories regarding how the moths got through your netting?
No idea - I think the only way they could have gotten through is crawling underneath the netting. Unless my friend totally uncovers the netting when he waters the plants (we're growing at his house, I'm helping him do the grow). It would be pretty bad to uncover the netting even for 5 minutes yeah? And yeah, man the IPM is definitely the most challenging part. Buying stuff at arbico is becoming expensive.
Yeah that may be the root cause. Your friend probably is just dropping the net carelessly, as probably most any babysitter would naturally do, while caring over our plants considering they rarely think of the risks. Either way, good job staying on top of it. The caterpillars can munch quite a bit of good buds in no time at all.
Howzit brah! Looking good in here. Sorry to hear about the pests, but they are part of the landscape, and nothing looks bad. The key is keeping your plants healthy, then they pests won't bother the plant much. I would recommend the use of yellow sticky traps, really brings down the overall pest pressure. About the budworms.....maybe your partner got careless with replacing the netting, but as I've mentioned before, it is possible that there were already budworm larvae overwintering in the soil mix or compost when you bought it. I watch moths pop outta my soil in springtime as adults. Even with netting, you may get a few here and there, they are persistent bastards. Next time, you should use BT, it really is insurance against major losses. Buying beneficial insects is expensive as you mentioned, so learn to recognize the beneficial insect eggs on your plants. For example, the green lacewing eggs look like a teardrop on the end of a hair, I feel everybody has them in SoCal. Anyway, I noticed something... This area is rotted, check it quick. My guess is you'll find a budworm in there, dead or alive, maybe spun a cocoon. Just cut out the affected area.
Thanks @PoiBoy79 - oh damn, I thought it was heat stress making it look like that. How can you tell it's rotted? I'll head over there tomorrow or Thursday and maybe cut that part off... damn, that's the biggest bud too... what would happen if I leave it? Are the parts around that part of the bud salveagable?
I can tell its rotted because the leaf has died. Of course this is only my guess, so double check by seeing if you can pull it out easily.. if its rot, the leaf will pull out very easily, and youll see the petiole is rotted. If you leave it, it will spread and cause you to lose more.. Cut out any rot you see, the rest should be ok. At harvest when I hang my branches, I rinse everything with my garden hose on the mister attachment. If there was any mold or bud rot, I add some hydrogen peroxide to my mister and rinse with that. While its still hanging, I bring the fan outside and help everything drip dry faster, before I bring it all to the dry room.