BJ's 38 degree NorCal backyard grow-The trials and tribulations of a moron

OK, bought beer just because it's supposed to work and there's no poison in it. We don't drink so I had to decided if there was a brand that slugs and snails preferred. Decisions, decisions!! Seems Keystone works fine. I've had two slugs and a snail in the pie pans of beer I nestled amongst the Smurfs. Ugh!

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I looked at Neem oil but I don't know anything about it, really. Thanks for the info; I think I might try it later in the summer when the bugs get REALLY bad.....................................

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Get it if you can find it asap. It’s a preventative and you’ll want a few doses sprayed on your girls before they start flowering. When the leaves absorb the neem oil, the plants store the oil which works like a hormone that bugs excrete. At least that’s how I understand it. I’ll have to get some beer for snails. They’re eating up collard greens!

Also, I have my "laboratory" partially set up and the potted Blue City Diesel moved in. It's not really right, yet, but it'll do while I gather up things to make it more efficient. I'll get some pics posted eventually. I'm running my lab experiment under 24 hours lights right now to see how she veg's for me while I hunt down the tools and supplies I'll need to properly experiment with my subject. I believe I'll name her Igorette. Maybe Igora? Igorina? Any suggestions on what to do to her first? Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

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I dunno! J What’s your overall grow? Complete indoor grow? Putting it back out?

BigJon, did you find out what was making your leaves curl? They looked like they weren't flattening out all they way when they opened, didn't they?

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Yeah that’s what it looks like but everything still seems pretty healthy. I have a couple fan leaves fading. I’m trying to refrain from nutes so Im brewing a compost tea for her. I might use nutes on her. Still deciding. That plant is the one that I put in my garden soil peat/manure/perlite mix to see how good I can grow without using the expensive soils that I have been.

The yellowing problem I'm having with the BCD's seems to come and go. I'm pretty sure it's nutrients; the yellow seems to fade after I feed. So, off to a decent garden store next time I get some money and see what they have for me. Obviously, what I used last year isn't making the BCD's happy even though everyone else seems to be doing very well with it.

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I hope you get that dialed in. That yellow was looking funky in a cool/interesting kind of way! I have never seen a plant do that.

I haven't seen any of those Harlequin bugs. Are they as small as they look? Kinda like fancy-dress Ladybugs, eh?

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Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th!!

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They’re bigger and more oblong than the lady bugs. I haven’t seen them since I sprayed! Hopefully the neem made them forget toe at and are just layng there dead.

Originally Posted by MellowFarmer said:

It is always wise to stay low key but damn it is hard! Yeah, my county voted a 2 pt plan in Jan that 1. Immediately capped dispensaries to an obscene amount and 2 start implementing this summer some sort of garden crack down that will create enough revenue (or much more than that) to cover the crack down estimated start cost 1/4 of a million. They're all dirty crooks!

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It’s a damn shame! I’ve had a cop tell me to “keep it burning” when he saw me hittin’ a blunt from the passenger side of a friend’s car so I’m willing to bet that, at least in my area, the cops actually WANT to just leave us alone so they can give out pussy ass tickets and catch the occasional thug.

I wanted to ask if you realized that CA struck down plant limitations to what is necessary for the patient? Before that yes, in the BS counties it was the SB420 limit of 6 but now it is up to your lawyer and medical witnesses

Seriously though, you are fine! Looking good!

I didn't realize CA was still so topsy-turvy about growing your own. Like OR, they've been doing it for so long! So, lemme get this straight: if you have to fight a charge of manufacture/distribution/possession over the limit because of the number of plants you have, you need to have witnesses/medical testimony that can attest you need that number to treat your qualifying condition? Wow. There's your free-for-all, BigJon. You just have to convince the court that you are one sick puppy

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I’m going to bring in multiple medical forms next time I see my prop 215 patient because although I have my rec for gout, I use it for a number of things including but not limited to keeping me in the state of mind to not go punching everybody I decide is a douchebag. =D

For comparison, each patient in OR can have up to 6 mature plants and 18 "seedlings" at the same time. My partner and I could have 12 mature and 36 seedlings all going at one time if I had the room to stagger them. Wouldn't that be great? With a decent indoor set-up, you could grow year round!! The fly in the ointment is what OR considers "mature": a plant at least 12" tall and/or 12" around. Or is it 12" diameter? I forget. Either way, a plant that size growing outside is still a baby, in my book. I don't think any plant is mature until it can reproduce, right? That means flowering, doesn't it?

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That seems about right to me. No life form is mature until it can reproduce!

BigJon said:

Get it if you can find it asap. It’s a preventative and you’ll want a few doses sprayed on your girls before they start flowering. When the leaves absorb the neem oil, the plants store the oil which works like a hormone that bugs excrete. At least that’s how I understand it. I’ll have to get some beer for snails. They’re eating up collard greens!

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I looked up Neem oil and it seems like a good thing to use on the Smurfs. I particularly like the fact that it completely interrupts a bug's life-cycle BUT only if it's a bug that eats your plants (apparently Aphids don't dig in deep enough to be affected). Which means that the bugs you want to keep, like Ladybugs and Mantises, aren't affected. And the bugs they eat don't have enough Neem in their systems to affect the predators. Apparently it can affect Honeybees but only if you use massive amounts. Stick with the directions and you can say "Good-bye grasshoppers and caterpillars!" while admiring the bees and butterflies (and Dragonflys, BigJon?) And no more slugs or snails found in my beer after the first couple of nights but I haven't seen any further signs of any, either. I was always told beer was good pesticide for slugs but this is the first time I've actually used it myself. I'm quite impressed with it right now.

BigJon said:

I dunno! J What’s your overall grow? Complete indoor grow? Putting it back out?

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Right now, I'm just trying to make sure she doesn't flower, hence the 24 hour lights. I'm not sure yet what my overal goal is but I think I'd like to see if I can clone her (not that I like this particular strain, I don't know anything about it. It's just the one I have available to play with). I think my first goal is to see if I can get a couple of clones and a late (December? January?) harvest with Igorina. If that works, I'll probably eventually have split grows: mostly outside in the summer but a plant or two year round for targeted harvests. It'd be cool to have a harvest in April when most (outdoor) people are just getting around to preparing clones. Maybe experiment with exotic strains via seed? I don't want and don't have room for a full-tilt-boogie indoor grow but a couple of plants coming along at various stages year-round? You bet!! This indoor thing with Igorina is just a lark, an experiment. If it works, cool. If it doesn't, oh well. I just like growing things, you know?

BigJon said:

I have a couple fan leaves fading. I’m trying to refrain from nutes so Im brewing a compost tea for her. I might use nutes on her. Still deciding. That plant is the one that I put in my garden soil peat/manure/perlite mix to see how good I can grow without using the expensive soils that I have been.

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See? It's just fun! I have fan leaves fading and dying, also. Same as last year. I ignore them except to pick them off as long as they are UNDER the canopy (usually at the very bottom) and it's just a leaf here and there. That's a pretty normal thing for all plants to do. Even my houseplants will shed old leaves when the new ones come in. My cherry tomato and eggplant are doing it, too: just a leaf here and there on the bottom but they're fading and dropping off.

BigJon said:

That yellow was looking funky in a cool/interesting kind of way! I have never seen a plant do that.

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Me, either. She doesn't look much better right now. The new growth is normal and green, thank goodness!! But the old yellow stuff you saw in the picture is not fading like it did on the BCD's in the garden. The affected leaves are crisping and dying on the tips and edges. I haven't done anything with her besides feed and water since I moved her into the garden shed. I still need to finish closing it off--the lights are pretty damned bright at night leaking through the boards and knot holes and ventilation screens. It's a good thing I don't have any neighbors but it's right outside my bedroom window and looks like Steven Spielberg is filming in my back yard!

The Smurfs have had 11 straight days of full sun and hot weather, now. If you're really quiet, you can hear them growing!! If you check back once an hour, you'll see that they've grown another inch!! And, man, they are really perfuming the air!! Well, maybe some of that is an exaggeration, but only a little

how are your girls looking after the 10 days sense last update? im keepin watch on this

Thanks for the encouragement KIC! Coincidentally, I took some shots this morning.

Jack Herer's lookin' awesome!

By biggs34 at 2012-07-11

Bubba Lavender's got a bunch of lower branches that need pruning and cloning this week.



When it comes to the Alaskan Ice's outdoors, I think I'm going to prefer the FIM (Ice#2) more than the bending (Ice#1). We'll see what kind of tying I have to do when the heavy flowers really come in.
Alaskan Ice #1


Alaskan Ice #2


Everybody! Make sure you visit your Grandmothers more! They love you and are always planting shit, leaving you with these free huge pots! Purple Urkel in a 15 gallon.

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Harvesting my breakfast!



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Nice update. I would love to grow out the berries in my yard but I loathe those fucking plants! They ruled my grow area for 10 years prior to me living there!

angryblackman said:

Nice update. I would love to grow out the berries in my yard but I loathe those fucking plants! They ruled my grow area for 10 years prior to me living there!

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They're fucking crazy and super intelligent. When you look at the pics, you can see the shooters heading straight for my holes. Even when I chop em, new shooters come straight for the holes. Really really amazing.

I have to keep an eye on them. One mixed in with my Green Crack last season and made for a nice roadway for ants. Fuckers....

Thanks for the heads up on that!

looking good!! i love blackberries and my grow area was also over taken with them but now theres just afew around and you just reminded me to go check those guys for berries!! iv got black berrys and grapes growing on the wall along my grow and every few days i find a vine wraping around a branch on my plants

Being out in the garden tonight looking at these berry shooters (sounds like a drink your lady would order..or a momo) and its making me think of the thread earlier in the season where everybody was getting on dude for having his hole so close to the grass. When I first dug them I saw the roots I knew were from the bush but didn't think much of it. The bush litterally senses the richer soil and targets it.

Still...the plants are growing and blackberries grow like these in a lot of empty lots in this city. That's clay and concrete type mediums. The energy sapping will be minima and I still expect juicy potent nugs. Good soil. Adequate water. Good genetics. Patient curing. That is all this plant needs to thrive.

/lavenderfueledrambling

Breakfast! Compost tea made of compost, castings, epsom salt, and composted chicken guano. 24 hours brewed and smelled like lipton!



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Sometimes after you bend a bitch back, she's so thick you still gotta spread her open.


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I know an old lady who grows between her corn. She doesn't know it but she has a true living organic soil. She rotates crops every year, year round, growing mustard greens, eggplant, corn, and everything. Her corn looks like she'll be getting almost a dozen a plant and she has one that's almost 7 feet tall already!

She gave me a pair of scissors and had some peat pellets and told me to go get some cuttings. It was about 10pm last night. She prepped some peat pellets for me and hooked it up! I reset one in coco coir and one in coco/perlite. She forgot what was what but said its either green crack or blue dream. Since she said they're from seed maybe both? Or maybe just gc with bd being clone only?



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You've got too many good ideas here, BigJon. I'll check in and see some new, esoteric method you're using to boost your garden and I want to run out and try it on mine. Stop it!! Busy, busy, busy. Igorina seems to like the rough set up I have her in; she's already moved up and is almost touching the light. Have to re-arrange a little. Tomorrow, I get brave and see if I can start some clones Igorina seems to have become the preferred home for several little moths and their predators. All kinds of bugs flying about my head when I go to see her. She doesn't seem to have attracted plant-chomping bugs but those moths are probably trying to lay eggs on her. One of the dangers of having your "indoor" grow outdoors, I guess Which means I've still got light leaks somewhere and the moths think Igorina is Party Central. I'll be out there tonight after dark with the duct tape looking for leaks in my tarp-lined garden-shed-cum-grow-room Come on, Neem: do your stuff................Ta-ta!!

drdavegreenthumb said:

wait... my county was a 6 limit... now i can grow as many plants i want per year to cover my allowed amt. of dry weight per year? is that right BJ?

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do u thnk u cood answer this 4 me bro? was i understanding wut u sed correctly? and ur plants look amazing dude. i wish my grow was half wut u got goin. u shood check mine out i jus updated my thread w. pics.

drdavegreenthumb said:

do u thnk u cood answer this 4 me bro? was i understanding wut u sed correctly? and ur plants look amazing dude. i wish my grow was half wut u got goin. u shood check mine out i jus updated my thread w. pics.

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Aww man thanks a lot bro. That's cool of you to say. My bad too much kush floating around the scene made me space on the reply.

Thats about right BUT there's no telling how much each will harvest so I say grow to your hearts content and if they have any questions just say (but don't lie) that you know other serious patients you plan on donating the surplus to.

I always grew over my limit in the past but just by a few. This year I'm growing less than I did my first year. This is the first season under these post sb420 limit suggestions as well as the first season under our new city ordinance regarding prop 215. So I'd rather play it safe. Maybe next year I'll have my main crop and about a dozen August clones in 2 gallons!

I gotta have my options! Gout- Urkel and Grandaddy, overall clarity in the head -Jack Herrer, Grandaddy, Urkle. Sex enhancement-Alaskan Ice, Weed to smoke because I have nothing else to do for the day-Bubba Lavender

Plant limits are bullshit though. I don't drink so more options would be nice, ya know.

Jazzman's Gal said:

You've got too many good ideas here, BigJon. I'll check in and see some new, esoteric method you're using to boost your garden and I want to run out and try it on mine. Stop it!! Busy, busy, busy. Igorina seems to like the rough set up I have her in; she's already moved up and is almost touching the light. Have to re-arrange a little. Tomorrow, I get brave and see if I can start some clones Igorina seems to have become the preferred home for several little moths and their predators. All kinds of bugs flying about my head when I go to see her. She doesn't seem to have attracted plant-chomping bugs but those moths are probably trying to lay eggs on her. One of the dangers of having your "indoor" grow outdoors, I guess Which means I've still got light leaks somewhere and the moths think Igorina is Party Central. I'll be out there tonight after dark with the duct tape looking for leaks in my tarp-lined garden-shed-cum-grow-room Come on, Neem: do your stuff................Ta-ta!!

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Thank you homie girl!Good luck with your clones. Speaking of good ideas, I ran across an article in the organic section that said, because of related plant terpenes, the use of mango in your compost will enhance the floral scent of lavender smelling weed. I'm thinking starting early August, I'll blend up mango skins and add to the compost tea. Maybe replace the molasses with mango nectar. And use it on just my bubba lavender clone, leaving the other as a control.

BigJon said:

Thank you homie girl!Good luck with your clones. Speaking of good ideas, I ran across an article in the organic section that said, because of related plant terpenes, the use of mango in your compost will enhance the floral scent of lavender smelling weed. I'm thinking starting early August, I'll blend up mango skins and add to the compost tea. Maybe replace the molasses with mango nectar. And use it on just my bubba lavender clone, leaving the other as a control.

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Stop it, I'm telling you!! Mango-scented weed??? Ooooooh, mango-flavored!!! Too wonderful!! Now I'm going to have to make a run to the grocery store in an effort to keep up!!Going to pull on the surgical gloves and clone today for the first time ever. Should have 9, at the minimum, when I finish; gonna take at least one off every plant and I have multiples of some strains. Gotta run down to my fave grow store and pick up some B1 I forgot the other day--supposed to be great for root growth once the cuttings have taken hold. I'll take pics of the results and show you what I did.Odds and ends: You have a plant that's putting out 4-finger leaves? I have a plant, the Blue Kush, that's putting out the ocassional 1-finger leaf--is it flipping me off??? The Blue Widow is insisting on putting out 3-finger leaves at the top mixed in with 5-finger leaves. The BCD is putting out 7-finger leaves. What's up with the leaf variations? Igorina is busy dropping off all of the old, yellowed, dying leaves that I posted pics of. She's looking a little scruffy since the variagated-looking stuff in the pics are all at about the same level on the plant. She's looking bare and naked in the middle but leafy and green below and above. Maybe she's wearing a bikini? I'll take her off the 24/7 lights when I get the clones stuck in their Solo cups I finally found my timer and will put everyone on a 20-Light/4-Dark cycle. Then I'm probably going to do some serious pruning and shaping on her. Lots of dead and dying moths around her this morning. My "1st half", the ones planted in April, are pushing 5' tall and have what looks like millions of growing tips on each plant. The Caterpillar Crew are pushing 4' and similarily bushy. I finally got the hot, sunny days I was waiting for but now I'm finding I have to water the Smurfs about every other day or they start to wilt. They must be sucking up huge amounts of water!! OK, off to play with the Smurfs. Happy growing!!

Hooray!! All of the cuttings I took yesterday are still standing up and looking perky this morning!!! Guess that means I did something right Forgot about some sort of humidity dome, though. I rigged up a crazy-looking dome with wire clothes hangers, Saran wrap and duct tape--it works Now I'm off to make a more permanent one for this delicate phase..........................

Jazzman's Gal said:

Hooray!! All of the cuttings I took yesterday are still standing up and looking perky this morning!!! Guess that means I did something right Forgot about some sort of humidity dome, though. I rigged up a crazy-looking dome with wire clothes hangers, Saran wrap and duct tape--it works Now I'm off to make a more permanent one for this delicate phase..........................

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Rock on! Can we get pics of your ghetto rigged dome? What kind of medium did you put your cuttings in? I dont worry much about humidity with coco, I just sprits every other day.

Jazzman's gal,

Just to clarify, mango compost wont actually make the plant smell like mango.

http://bigbudsmag.com/grow/how/article/what-gives-marijuana-its-various-flavors-why-terpenoids-course-july-2012

Many of these terpenoids are almost identical in their chemical structure but smell very different. For instance, Myrcene, found in mango, pineapple and most cannabis, is chemically similar to Myrcenol, which is found in lavender. Mango obviously has a different smell than lavender. If a particular strain of cannabis makes a lot of lavender smells naturally, feeding compost made from mangoes would likely increase that plant's lavender smell.

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BigJon said:

Jazzman's gal,

Just to clarify, mango compost wont actually make the plant smell like mango.

http://bigbudsmag.com/grow/how/article/what-gives-marijuana-its-various-flavors-why-terpenoids-course-july-2012

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Oh, damn!! Just kidding, BigJon. I was just being silly about the mango flavor...........................