On the beam again ...

My partner, best friend and trusted confident since our union in 1983 continually comes up with some amazing ideas.

Last night Mrs. Starecase and I were chatting about the details of the upcoming April trip. After the logistics were hashed out, we started binging a few episodes of Rise Of Empires: Ottoman on Netflix. A few minutes after the first Ottoman and Wallachian soldiers got it, the program pauses and this sweet voice asked

"You know how to grow your plants outside ... right?"

Since the plants that are now in VEG won't live to see the flower tent, Mrs. S. suggested I do an outdoor crop this summer, as well as keeping the status quo in the tent, to make up for the shortfall this trip will cause. Since then, I have been picturing what I could grow in those 18" square buckets with some metal binder clips and some of those green plastic coated ties - under nature's ultimate grow light.

Yes, Mrs. Starecase had an amazing sleep last night ...

Whole thread was a treat. Thanks for sharing I will copycat some of your techniques.

Bear with me if it's already in here somewhere but what's your light for flowering?

I found it

worming said:

... Bear with me if it's already in here somewhere but what's your light for flowering? ...

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Sure ... no worries - I like bears. I have two (2) of the Timber 2VL's in the 2 x 4.



Each one of those VL's has two of the Bridgelux Vero29 Gen 7 COB's with 3000K colour temps.

They are turned down to the lowest wattage in this picture and I still blinded myself looking at the lights. ( Like everyone else when they receive new rigs - I didn't heed that "Grower beware" warning!! )

Sadly though, Timber Grow Lights out of San Diego, CA no longer exists and Highgrove Lighting, who bought Timber, is only listing the Magnolia's on their website. Hmmm ...

You can check out that Magnolia as I am sure some folks here on RIU have one hanging above their canopy. Or you could look at DIY'ing a similar Vero COB rig.

The ladies are close to chop. One last overview:




Cheese:





Her second wave of pistils have gone kinky and are a much darker brown. Expecting a Thursday or Friday afternoon chop.

And of course, as she nears the end of her life, that is when I found a better place for good side view snaps. One picture to show you that from that angle she doesn't look as messy and she looks to be equipped with some nice big tops.


Diesel:





There are still a few more off-white hair on her than are on her sister so I am thinking early next week for this girl to come down.

I will pluck one or two of the really yellowed and shriveled fan leaves and will occasionally gently bump into one of the tops with the back of the hand. I wish we could take a picture of a smell!

Mrs. Starecase has become pretty good at detecting the stronger "they are really close" scent over these past few years. She detected that scent yesterday afternoon. She not only encourages me to grow - but occasionally provides very useful input.

Congratulations
This was a terrific grow !

Fantastic job start to finish. Looking for tid bits here and there it was like a top shelf tutorial for me.

The ladies have lived a good life but their time has come to an end. The Blue Cheese was harvested Friday Feb 17th - 81 days in 12/12:





It's not often I see this type of fall colours in mid February in Southern Ontario. But after 81 days in 12/12, this past Friday morning she really put out some yellow with a little brownish purple in the leaves. When this cultivar is done the plant fills with more yellow leaves than does her sister.

The majority of the hair have gone dark brown and have kinked into the bud. So she will just hang around like below for 10 days and will be manicured and jarred Feb 27th.





Red Diesel harvested Tuesday Feb 21 - 85 days in 12/12





After 85 days in 12/12, this morning she really had trouble holding up the tops - even with the aid of the trellis. That is one of the ways that I can tell when this cultivar is done. She doesn't get as many yellow leaves as the Cheese. Like her sister, the vast majority of the bud have lots of orange hairs and they have been swallowed up.

She will just hang around for 10 days and will be manicured and jarred Mar 1st.





I didn't take an underneath picture of this plant cause a few days ago I put 6 bags of water softener salt below her and I was not very motivated to move them again.

And as with all other previous crops, some of the lower down LARF is taken right off the plant and put right into the pipe to test their effects. It takes about 10 hits with a lighter before the stuff can burn and the bowl is done, and while it's not the tastiest practice to say the least, it does give me the sense of their effect. I get to see if they need more time or they are good.

Happy to report that both ladies passed the test so they are good. Now I can't wait for the bud to dry and cure so I can have a full joint.

Those clones have rooted and my two "chosen ones" have been transplanted.

This past Sunday, both of those hanging ladies were manicured and put into the 2L Mason jars.




The Cheese gave me 4.9 oz. and the Diesel gave me 6.4 oz. Add 'em up and I get 11.3 oz.

You can see in some earlier VEG pictures that this particular lateral spread was not my greatest effort. There was still close to 25% of the screen that was not filled with a spread branch. I will refer to the earlier MEMO TO ME - over and over again! So if the nets were totally filled, I could have yielded closer to 14.5 oz.

But I think I can live with this meager 11.3 oz. until I get back on the beam and get the next crop going in late April.

StareCase said:

We have returned from a very enjoyable Atlantic Province vacation and it feels great to be back on this beam again. The lateral spreading has begun and the nets should be in place in ~2 weeks.

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The Jim Beam? Go easy on that stuff

raggyb said:

... The Jim Beam? Go easy on that stuff ...

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One finds that out the hard way. Jim Beam ... Bulleit ... any bourbon in general.

Baby Kush (do do do do do ... )



I love the look as the weed plant sprouts. I really love the fact that it sprouted. Just been cloning so it's been a while since I popped a bean. I hope it opens up normally and starts throwing out leaves like the weed it is.

And I hope it's a female. I did grow one from a 5 pack three years ago and that was a female. So I am hoping that the whole 5 pack were feminized beans. Cause I remember her flower being pretty effective.

I'll find out the sex in a few weeks.

We have returned from a very enjoyable - albeit rather exhausting - Disney & Gulf coast beach vacation mit der grandkinder. Anyone who has taken a 7+ year old through the Disney parks or made sand castles with them on the beach would know of which I speak.

But without any long vacations planned for the foreseeable future, it's time get back to perpetual grows. We're on the beam again - The Sequel.

So let's go through the checklist. Messy basement, 5 gallon buckets and substrate - check!




Something to put into that substrate - check:



The dome vents were opened 1/2 way yesterday afternoon and the little ladies are not showing any signs of wilting nearly 24 hours later. The 2nd 23W Cool White has been added about 5 hours ago and they look to be reaching for that light.

These are both good signs for the young ones.

NGAF ... copy that. I won't provide any updates in this thread.

StareCase said:

I didn't take an underneath picture of this plant cause a few days ago I put 6 bags of water softener salt below her and I was not very motivated to move them again.

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Why put salt below her? Below her where, on floor, or where? Is this some kind of dry/cure process?

doughper said:

... Why put salt below her? Below her where, on floor, or where? Is this some kind of dry/cure process? ...

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It's not part of the dry process.

There were 20KG bags of salt pellets for the water softener and the pellet container is just to the left. For proximity to the container, I keep the spare bags on the floor underneath where the plants hang to dry. And since the bags are heavy, I didn't want to bother moving them just to take an underneath pic only to move them back again.

My top watched grow. Definitely all in. Hope you continue.
Cheers,
Chris

beebud said:

... My top watched grow ...

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Oh - I wasn't aware of that @beebud. My apologies.

beebud said:

... Hope you continue ...

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I will continue to grow - just wasn't sure if what I posted was being seen.

And I hope we can curtail these 12+ day vacations cause that completely messes up the rotation. Two of those vacations since last September have cost me about 1.5 lbs. in flower that I never got to harvest. Just before we leave for our holiday, I take cuts and let them root undisturbed. Then I reboot the grow when we get back.

This summer, I am going to put a couple of ladies outdoors to make up for those vacation shortfalls.

StareCase said:

I will continue to grow - just wasn't sure if what I posted was being seen.

This summer, I am going to put a couple of ladies outdoors to make up for those vacation shortfalls.

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Definitely seen. There are lots of things to glean from doing things properly, which you do.
Yea there are so many journals firing up about now I imagine it's overload for some to know where to follow along.
Good planning on the clones.
About finished with an indoor that I only took cuttings of the best "looking" out of four. Unfortunately a "larf test" revealed there is some fire in the pile of larf I grouped from the other three... Lesson learned.
Looking forward to the outdoor as well.

beebud said:

... Good planning on the clones ...

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Being on vacay when they are rooting is great because I can't be tempted to tinker with them.

beebud said:

... About finished with an indoor that I only took cuttings of the best "looking" out of four. Unfortunately a "larf test" revealed there is some fire in the pile of larf I grouped from the other three... Lesson learned ...

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That bites ... but does the strain that you did clone rock your world?