And now... Third outdoor grow early start:

[stsin]

Wow, you really are in/near the gouge! That's a beautiful area, color me jealous. Here we get those sort of gusts at times (usually spring,) but generally sustained isn't over 20MPH. I'm curious how the 13' hoop house with half a cover is going to do. It's blocked by a house on one side (and bolted to said house with 2x4s in an L shape) then the other side is attached to a fence the same way which in turn is cemented into the ground (at the fence posts). WIth a full cover and ~10' of height I had one plant blow over (it didn't die and eventually it gave me a whopping 3 ounces ) the cover though never budged in two years until I cut it down, I'm somewhat concerned about the partial cover, but this time I'm going to weave the sheeting between the pvc ribs to help make it more resistant to wind, but really you don't know until it happens... I'll support the hell out of the plants just in case as well though most of my thoughts are to keep rippers from the plants this time. Thankfully considering my location I'll still just have to keep my eyes out for aphids/ spider mites and the like. BUT the wasp nest directly over the garden that appeared last year coincided with a massive drop in pests, so aside from maintance spraying of neem, I don't have to consider pesticides and the like (and the wasps don't seem to mind me. I have a great photo of a jellow jacket in one of the plants somewhere...) Man, you're a better man than I, if I had that sort of PM I'd be inclined to just iso the whole crop, just... ugh. that had to suck.

I think if I were somewhere THAT windy and wanted to grow outdoor (because, free light!) water table allowing I'd go the bearcat digger route and cover that with a short hoop. But that would require a fairly low water table and a callous disregard to one's back yard. (but man, the bonus points for stealth after the whole digging thing, if not up to that kentucky bunker grow house )

Let me know how you feel the hps compares to your LEDs (though it's far from a fair comparison since it's really HPS + sun) I quite like hps, but the need to exhaust heat makes it hard to go truly stealth, though my little ikea closet survived 2 or 3 landlord inspections WHILE lights were on back in england... The fear of a foreign prison adds a dash of spice to one's life

 

[stsin]

Think it's time to update. Here are a couple close ups on my deputy girl (Bruce banner #3 cross.) Trying to decide if I want to cut now or wait until the weekend for more of the pistils to darken. The glands are pretty uniformly milky so I'm leaning towards sooner rather than later to keep the high towards the head... Ponders ponders.

 

[Humanrob]

Nice looking buds! If the weather where you are is staying dry... I'd let her go a little longer. I know what you mean about not going too long, but there's too soon too! You can always do a two-stage harvest, some now some later.

 

[stsin]

Thanks! I really do like those shots I'm now waiting until at least late saturday as it drizzled today and will again tomorrow morning (west of the cascades it wouldn't even register as rain, the sprinklers are even still set to go off tonight ), by then it's going to be back to mid 70s and sunny with low humidity. We'll see if I can push later than that, but I wouldn't hold my breath as I'm much more inclined to harvest early as opposed to late... But I've got three plants that are roughly the same point (all bruce banners of one sort or another.) So, I think what I'll end up doing is harvest the big buds/tops of at least one of the banners saturday night (the pictured one), and then make it to the tops/big buds of the others by tuesday or wednesday depending on how much I end up with from the first one. I'll then give the bottoms and popcorn buds as much time as I can to finish as I'm not in a rush to finish. Of the 9 I ended up with this time around, 3 (BB) are ready-ish now, 4 (jackberry x2, mad kush, and crim+) are maybe 2-3 weeks further away, and 2 true sativas (sannies jack, and chocolate rain) are possibly going to be done around election day (+/- a week.) depending on when we get a proper freeze this year (we don't by and large ever get enough rain to make things problematic for more than a couple days.) The "problem" is I can't check the middle plants without going up to the second story window and leaning out with a loupe / zoom lens so I'm guessing a bit.... talk about first world problems! I definitely need to expand my grow area if I'm going to do 10 again next year...

 

[DG1959]

I am in western Oregon also. yours are ahead of mine.. mine look to be about 3 weeks till harvest.... 1 is ice breaker, another is honeysuckle and 2 are Mojave OG kush.

 

[Humanrob]

I'm also 2-3 weeks behind you. I have a Bruce Banner #3 that I experimentally put in a SIP outside, but one too small, not enough soil. Now I'm struggling to get enough nutes to it. She's tall an lanky and drops many leaves daily. I brought her and one other (a JillyBean) into the garage to finish... another experiment. She's definitely got 3 weeks to go. At least.

 

[stsin]

Forgot to include non close up shots, so here are some from this drizzly cool day including the view from the second story window and the view from the 6ft gate.... I seriously don't know how these plants got so bloody big considering I started them later this year... (Note: the bud pics I posted were off the Bruce next to the gate, it's safe to say my back yard has a rather substantial smell at the moment, there have not been hordes of villagers with torches and pitchforks so I suppose it's not *too* bad as of yet .)

DG: definitely report back on the icebreaker as I've heard good things about her!

HR: ugh that utterly sucks, hopefully you have a clone of Bruce for next time too? I have to say I REALLY love the smell of her (especially her crossed with stardawg). We'll see how she smokes for me around the 2nd week of October (if I can wait to taste until mid cure.)

 

[DG1959]

Only problem LOL I have with icebreaker is it is gigantic! I am growing in a greenhouse that is 12' tall by 10' wide and she is all most touching the top and the sides. I super crop all summer and back build my flowers at least twice. Also have Honeysuckle and Mojave OG.
No pictures until the minute I chop.... hope I am far enough out of town so not to raise rippers attention. I have it locked , security alarm dogs and a 12 gauge loaded.

 

[stsin]

Hehehe, think with an alarm and a dog you're pretty safe. It's just silly as hell that rippers still exist. Fucking plant a few beans and leave us the hell alone. Yeah these plants grow like nobody's business. I much prefer not having an upward limit, but west of the Cascades that's really not doable unless you're growing auto flowers or the like... Careful with the shotgun, there's an argument being made that we're not allowed guns (Oregon says we're allowed concealed permits, so you're pretty safe to own if not purchase...) I had ripper issues last year and went a little nuts security wise, I've not had a repeat visit yet.

Icebreaker (if memory serves) has chem in it (or what became chem) and will fill nearly any space you put it in while producing flowers that will make you happy as hell. You'll have to let us know your thoughts on her and the sisters (I've got no experience with the other two girls, and only passing experience with IB..)

 

[DG1959]

Yup, can not buy a gun if you answer the question on the form about marijuana honestly.... owned my guns for many many years.
Good thing i had cover for these girls, got a fair amount of Oregon liquid sunshine here.
Ice breaker has good strong limbs and looks to be a pretty good yield. The two Mojave OG kush have more sativa so they might have to go a while longer than the others. Honeysuckle.... won't grow it outdoor again unless I really support it from the get go. Honeysuckle grew very fast but the limbs were so weak there were some that broke. I think honeysuckle would be wonderful indoors since you could control the growth better.
Best of luck guys !!!!

 

[stsin]

What's one of the most beautiful sights in the world? The first trimming round of the year drying peacefully in the tent. Hope the rest of you will see your version of this sight in the not distant future!

 

[stsin]

So, first 5 plants are now done and dusted (aside from some popcorn I left to finish) total haul dried and cured of 4 plants was 2.5Lbs, not remotely good, but as it was arguably free and the space is so limited (what, 60 square feet?) I'm happy. The 5th plant (mad kush) is finishing up her drying time and moving into jars tonight. The next 4 plants are being flushed extra long (and the leaves are flipping yellow as hell to show it which I'm not a fan of, but it's traditional I suppose..) Next year I'm definitely spacing more, and perhaps moving one or two into the back yard proper.

So far, the only plant I don't like (too much of an downer for me, true indica.) was Criminal+. She yielded a bit more than everyone else (14 ounces) and smells terrific, but her stone is not for me. The bruce banner seeds that I had all sorts of questions about turned out to be the early all stars with an excellent smell and high, apparently 1000seeds isn't a rip-off. I'll be growing the clone of her I took again next year....

Once again fellow oregon people, if you're medical (or recreational) and own your house, put your girls INTO the ground. You'll be happy as hell.

 

[Humanrob]

So, first 5 plants are now done and dusted (aside from some popcorn I left to finish) total haul dried and cured of 4 plants was 2.5Lbs, not remotely good, but as it was arguably free and the space is so limited (what, 60 square feet?) I'm happy. The 5th plant (mad kush) is finishing up her drying time and moving into jars tonight. The next 4 plants are being flushed extra long (and the leaves are flipping yellow as hell to show it which I'm not a fan of, but it's traditional I suppose..) Next year I'm definitely spacing more, and perhaps moving one or two into the back yard proper.

So far, the only plant I don't like (too much of an downer for me, true indica.) was Criminal+. She yielded a bit more than everyone else (14 ounces) and smells terrific, but her stone is not for me. The bruce banner seeds that I had all sorts of questions about turned out to be the early all stars with an excellent smell and high, apparently 1000seeds isn't a rip-off. I'll be growing the clone of her I took again next year....

Once again fellow oregon people, if you're medical (or recreational) and own your house, put your girls INTO the ground. You'll be happy as hell.

Sounds like a successful year. That should hold you for a while.

I definitely agree about putting them in the ground. I did a bunch of experiments this year with various pots and some in the ground, and the ones that went straight into the ground were the happiest.

I only have a small amount of final trimming left, maybe a few more hours. I'm a slow trimmer and this year I was hit with some issues, so its a long process to check all the buds for worms and rot, it requires breaking down all the colas into their individual buds and inspecting them. Luckily I'm not selling it - just the one patient - so "bag appeal" is not an issue.

So far from 5 plants I have jarred or bagged almost 2 lbs of dried bud, I probably have another 6oz +/- hanging. I put about 5 lb. of wet bud in the freezer (for hash), which is roughly equivalent to 1.25 lb. dry. I have one relatively small plant left outside that will come down in a few days, but I'm done drying for the year, that last one will go straight into the freezer.

We'll wait a couple of weeks before trying anything, a month if I can hold them off. The buds are dried but not cured. Overall there was a lot of learning this year, a lot of processing (I ended out washing about 80% of my crop) -- but we finished with a decent harvest.

Edit: the biggest bummer of the season was having to take down plants early because of issues. Next year there will be a greenhouse. No doubt.

 

[DG1959]

Had to chop my 4 down yesterday. Found a small amount of rot but wasn't too bad, decided better not take a chance. These girls were ready, heavy!
I won't even guess right now what the finishing weight will be but looks good....
stsin is correct... if you live where you can by all means plant in the soil. My plants were so big that I was using an 8 foot ladder to work on them.

 

[stsin]

First cut complete, total cured and dried properly was 6.1lbs from 8 plants. There's another ~ 1/3 or < left for before the next big freeze of all of the plants (except deputy) to test bud rot / how much rain they can handle (or so I thought, very little actual rain....)

Notes on variety:
I *LOVE* the taste and effects of bruce banner, but for me, her yield was utterly crap. (15 ounces from 2 plants with just a little left on the trees.) Mind you, again, what was yielded was fire...

The Deputy did better, lacked the sweet smell of BB, but the one plant gave 12 ounces (not great, but considering how little BB gives, stardawg was a nice addition) Still considering her.

Mad (scientist) kush was an amazing producer. Annoyingly she put up a dash of seeds (about 1 seed per 2 buds) but my god, she will knock you out, during light testing I almost passed out. As an added bonus, *NO* depression effect (which I tend to get from strong indicas) she's a before bed smoke, or maybe a LIGHT toke with activity/caffine. Yield of 21O from the one plant.

Sannie's Jack: She remains my favorite. 22.61O so far, with several big bits left. She'll remain an anual for me

Criminal+: This is my favorite smelling plant, but it massively triggers depression in me, I won't grow it again unless limits are removed and I want a room odorizer. 14O from the one plant.

Jackberry: pleasant smoke, not a huge yielder, 2 plants crammed in yielded about 10O per so far... I have clones, not sure I'll plant them again though.

Chocolate rain smells quite nice, but just yielded popcorn, it's currently drying. I *MIGHT* plant it again if I can give it much more room, Sannie's jack crowded it out.

As an added note, no jackers have visited me yet this year

 

[stsin]

Decided the remaining jack had enough time so Tuesday night I watered with heavy molasses and plain water them cut down 99% of the remaining plants (left a few stragglers to see how the extra time effects them.) The one night of~freezing temps were really good for Jack's color imho. Attached are two photos of two of the (oh so many) colas cut down around 3am last night. Might be my favorite pics of the crop.

 

[Humanrob]

I'm glad that your early harvest came in clean, I certainly could be wrong but from the pics it looks like you've got the usual suspects -- some PM and some bud rot. I hope I'm wrong, but when I look at them in 'actual size', that's sure what it looks like to me. You can probably trim around it, worst case scenario make a lot of budder!

 

[stsin]

I think what you are seeing is a combination of dirt from dropping these things on the ground and the cell phone camera on full flash with yellowish light that is quite as they say dim. But I'm color vision deficient... Here's a close up inside with light against a white background post machine trim of the largest nugs. (Next post)

 

[stsin]

Hmmmn now you have me wondering.... Here are some shots while I hunt down a black light

 

[stsin]

Okay the black light idea not quite so helpful as the leaves that I was encouraging to yellow by not feeding her nutes for a very long time (just before first cutting) and whatnot glow fluorescently just like pm would. However glowing PM would rub off on fingers right? (This doesn't from rough handling our even scraping it with a fingernail.)