19 A Strange Year for SoCal outdoor, Truncated but Potent

Marked by bad seeds and a long cold gray spring, 19 portended to be a bad year. Only 1 of 10 leftover white widow seeds sprouted, so buying some more seeds lead to two batches of those coming late, and then they would sprout but then either die off a 2" stub or produce truncated 18" "bonsai" bushes (the Gorilla Bomb) with a minuscule yet potent result. Pictorially, 2226 shows how small the White Widow (spouted 3-21) is in the background as well as the 5 Gorilla Bombs (sprouted 4-21). Then 2252 shows them on 7-19 flowering up, 2350 the Widow on 6-29. 2332 shows Pietro my praying mantis keeping the cabbage loopers at bay an example of my new all natural "feed the soil" rhizome nurturing using only brewed teas as fertilizer. This was the big thing I learned from this vintage. I suggest everyone read up on it and try feeding the soil instead of the plant. By this time I had to harvest the truncated Gorilla Bomb. 2363 shows how most replacement "Auto" seeds ended up. Stalled sprouts just got this far, stalled out and died. Love to know how. 2398 shows the White Widow B4 her 1st of 5 harvests. I harvest in batches as trichomes turn. I go for 40% amber. 2411 on 10-12 shows how I hang after washing till dry enough to move into my wine locker for drying and curing at 64'F and 62%RH. 2415 boxed ready to go inside. 2420 shows then hung to cure in my wine locker (surrounded by previous harvests in jars) temp and humidity controlled they hang here for an average of five days before bottling then racked twice daily till finish curing. 2410 is the WW after several harvests already. Well now I know I have a 10 pic limit... well in prologue, 2019 produced a small crop due to seed troubles that was much improved due to the Feed The Soil technique. I'll report back on the post cure results when done.

A lot of growers had problems during the first part of the season this year. "Strange" is a bit of an understatement imo.
This was certainly the weirdest growing season I can remember since I started growing anything outdoors. I was really hoping for a growing season like last year, started early ended late, at least around here.
I'll be interested to hear how your crop turns out after cure.
Good luck

Grow season for everything, even corn, was the worst that I can remember in 20 years. Spring was the main reason. It was cold, rainy and kept early peak spring sun in check, which is critical for outdoor success from planting seeds for any crop.