Howdy Pat and welcome to Ky brother!
Glad to see more Kentucky growers coming around on the board, although I rarely come here anymore after switching to a different forum a year or so ago, i'm glad that I stopped by this morning.
Here in Kentucky (now this is coming from my last 10 plus years of guerilla experience) what you have to worry with the most is Bud Rot (botrytis is heavy here due to the high temps and high humidity) and the helicopters. Helicopters being the worse in my location. I will see at least 4 different helicopters per day starting mid June and July, going in circles and up and down over the tree lines around my house.
The key is spreading them out doing them in singles if you can help it. Don't get me wrong, nothing at all wrong with numbers, personally I have 84 plants out as we speak and 125 left that still hasn't landed on there OD location yet. But none of those are too close to each other. I plant mountains, valleys, thickets, back yards, roadsides, towns, etc etc...
My problem this and the last couple years was and has been getting a later start than usual. I usually have my plants out by late march and early April, they usually start to flower in April and then revert which always causes monster explosive growth for me. But honestly now mid may plus is my target planting date. Lost too many plants to choppers and sudden surrounding growth blocking out the sunlight if planted to early unless however you are very familiar with the plot pre hand.
In my neck of the woods, thieves are pretty bad but never worry me. No thief will go where I plant nor will they think the way I think when scattering my girls. Never had that problem yet. Most crops that get stolen around here are due to loose lips and back yard show and tell plants. And large patches.
Another thing, please don't ever assume its too late to grow around here. Last year for an experiment I done a few beds prepped in August. Started bag seed plants literally germinated August 1st and each of those plants after culling the males produced anywhere from half ounce to an ounce each. That's not much but considering if time was an issue and you start multiplying numbers here you are looking at some heavy weight if your into the commercial aspect of the game any at all. I cant help it, I love smoking it but I also love the way that it has rewarded me with everything I currently have in life right now. This is my job, 24 hours per day 7 days a week. Has been for 3 years now.
Of course I do a little side work here and there on the farms and odd and ins but are those jobs necessary for me? Absolutely not.
Just stay quiet, keep to yourself, get to know the lands around you the same as an animal would. Watch for signs and observe. Practice your night vision skills and really really get the feel of your environment. You will become one with your surroundings and will over grow the world my friend! Good luck!
Also glad to see those autos are performing well. I have been wanting to try them but have not yet afraid of them not performing well in our area. Too many people with horror stories and autos around here but your pics seem to prove much different!
