Pictures from the Garden

Wow! Looks like it could be an underwater creature. Do you have any pictures through a microscope?

Looks real fresh & healthy.

Thanks for sharing, Lava.

Visited an old friend the other day, he's been having some fun

Three Critical Kush, and one each of Cotton Candy Cane, Cheese and Blueberry Gum.

Critical Kush a CBD strain?

High THC, medium CBD Indica. OG Kush / Critical Mass hybrid I believe

Nice. Went through just Tahoe Cookies last year.

Pretty picture.

I’ll play - Blueberry 

A camouflaged Roadkill Skunk. Even at this stage you can smell it from 10’ away.

Rain rain go away...  don’t come back.  Not a great summer in my neck of the woods. 

Updates: Roadkill Skunk

Blueberry

...

Boone. Those make it without being stolen?

Nobody would steal anything from this place. I got fellow growers on either side of me and none of us have ever had an issue. ( knock on wood )

We didn't grow too many this year, and some of then didn't do so well due to a vole attack on their roots. We had a couple of Crater Lakes that we grew last year and weren't that impressed with, but we made clones anyway in case someone else wanted them. Nobody did, so we threw them on the compost heap. Somehow they took root so we threw a little soil on their roots, started watering and fertilizing them, and they became our biggest, nicest-looking plants. We'll see how they turn out.

I love the pictures. Thanks, all.

day 28 :)...with cooler, drier fall air

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Phytoseiulus persimillis .....these are the workhorses of a pesticide-free weed garden.....predatory mites that go after the damaging mites, they'll eat until there's nothing left in sight

Incredible images,for sure.

weed :-)

more weed :-)

Flowers from the lawn

it's our first year up here, and we got a late start, but, the blue dream shot right up...

3 others, i forget what they are

these bud pix prove we are all fractals

also, Judit, has your grow space ever been restored??

Hi Jill, nope. Haven't done it again, that was painful. I'm lucky to have friends who share.

that is much less work and way more fun (;

Our back yard. LSD merging with TW.

Scooby Snacks, 3 weeks until harvest (as long as it doesn’t torn cold and rainy):

Sour Bubble, 2 weeks until harvest. It’s hard to get a great pic because of the fan leaves, but a few kolas are the size of Nerf footballs!

The Hangin' Judge was hangin'.

nice outdoor pics all. Sun grown is hard to beat, terps out the wahzoo

^^^^LSD merging with TW. 

I wish that was the kind of 9/11 we could all get behind :-)

This GSC just finished early Nov.

Fuuug.

lemon haze x ghost og..... il homegrow.... ecto myco, horse shit, used cofffee grounds, kelp powder.....Thanks, JP :)  puts a great big fuckin smile on yer face...

 Looks great.....hope you are seriously flushing that.

I used to live there too (born & raised @ Chicagoland) and cannot really imagine legal weed. Free It!! Sucks that only MED patients are 'allowed' to grow but the penaties are so week that I would not even blink. Cheerz!

Thanks, strawbud. Yep, 10 day flush always.

Been growing legal for 3 mo., the 29 years prior to that.....not so much. Once you smoke good bud and realize how easy and cheap it is to do so, it's hard to turn back.  And yes, penalties previous to med. resulted in confiscation of all you owned, bank accounts frozen, job loss, etc. ....basically fucked royally for a plant. Never thought il would allow homegrow. 

Cool. I agree on all of that. Glad I live in a legal state too and am self-reliant in that regard as well. More states and Feds need to drop that senseless ban.

10 day flush is too much.  Flushing really isn't necessary unless your using nutrients with lots of salts.  The nutrients your using shouldn't require flushing for 10 days.  I won't be flushing mine more than a couple days if at all.  I use organic nutrients that utilizes anaerobic bacteria with soil that is alive.  I also wash my bud after cutting it down.  Removes any dust, bugs and kills any possible mildew or mold plus it brings out the terpenes more .

https://www.docbudsbrix.com/

Banana glue (banana og × gorilla glue #4) @51 days

Dosido (gsc × faceoff og) @51 days

>10 day flush is too much

with the way i like to grow, organic w/ minimal synthetic,  i''ve tried no flush, 5 day, and finally settled on a 10 day flush years ago.  I like the clean burn and flavor and friends and family seem to enjoy. 

http://www.aapfco.org/metals.html

^third party metal testing of fertilizers sold in the US for food/consumable production - organic and synthetic.  Only four states are posting,  but test results for many fert manufacturers are listed. Heavy metal content is the most important. Nice pics and thanks for the link. 

island sweet skunk   day 52

biojesus  day 52

Hey Now, Joe! Looking Good! Please keep us posted on that Island Sweet Skunk in particular - I have some beans of that strain that I look forward to popping one of these days but have never seen/tried the finished product. Thanks!

Thanks for the kind words, StrawBud.

ISS (grapefruit x big skunk #1)is a daily favorite; about 80% sativa, regularly clocks in around high teens/ low 20s for total cannabinoids, so not a record-setter, but w/ lots of terps, mainly terpinolene, caryophyllene, myrcene,  humulene and pinene. Like the name says, it smells pleasantly skunky and sweet (floral/citrusy); olive oil capsules are excellent too. Only one thing, since it is so sativa dominant, I top three times and trellis for height control. I'll get a few more pics next week at harvest. Pop those seeds, this strain is beloved by many, including myself, for its uplifting, happy and functional high.

That's awesome - Thanks! I love that sorta grass and a similar strain (Hawaiin cross with Northern Lights and some Mexi and/or Jamaican landraces based on the breeder/traveler buddies whom devised it is prob about accurate) has been my go-to for a long while now but has also ran its course over a good number of batches/harvests. I would typically get a small handful of surprise seeds each harvest that wonderfully all popped and would all amazingly be females (self-feminized?) too but, obviously, there were some pollen sacks hidden in there somewhere and over time they went full-on hermi and it's likely done, hence my gravitation towards ISS beans. I dont particularly like clones/cloning and have generally started from seeds so that'll be my next round, whenever that comes to be. I only grow for myself and close friends so a good round of 4-6 nice and healthy  plants keeps me well-supplied for 3 yrs or so. I am not a heavy smoker but sure do value and appreciate a few hits of something I am very proud of and can attest to its quality and origins around dinner time, etc. Anyway, carry on thanks for the ongoing updates! Keep On Growin'!!

>>> I am not a heavy smoker but sure do value and appreciate a few hits of something I am very proud of and can attest to its quality and origins around dinner time, etc.

>>I only grow for myself and close friends...

Nice! :-)   it's simply about the quality of this amazing healing plant, not quantity. I like that 4 - 6 plants lasts you that long and that you take pride in doing it yourself!  I grow from clone mostly; pop seeds to find the most desirable pheno and then clone on. Growing from seed is all about new strain possibilities and it's always exciting! Cloning brings certainty via genetic consistency, but the problem with cloning is that you can't shut it down; you always have to grow. A long enough vacation requires a friend who you can trust with your plants and your freedom. 

One of the grows i saw that I liked the most was a guy who would assemble a 4' x 4'  plywood box painted flat white inside, hang a 600w vertical hps and exhaust fan, place 16 - 5 gal buckets with peat/perlite/castings and plant 6 seeds in each bucket. He almost always ended up with 3 females in each bucket. He kept and flowered one male to pollinate a female in a smaller separate tent for next year's seeds. He would do all of this only one time/year, shut it down, disassemble and store equipment until next year. Start to finish was around 90 days w/ a boatload of free seeds for next year's grow. All the original seeds were a Dutch mix and he ends up with around 2 lbs at harvest of mixed strain sensi dutch weed. More than enough for smoking, edibles and sharing and the quality has always been amazingly good.  Lots of great ways to grow and that's a big part of the fun. Good luck and enjoy those ISS girls!

.

Ha! Great stuff. I completely get why people clone and/or use clones for the genetics, stability, and repeatability while also understanding the value of seeds for the new surprises and for stronger, more self-reliant and disease/bug resistent plants. I have had good success with cloning but it extends my "season" by too much for my tastes and becomes too much work, although I have had several GREAT plants that probably should have become "moms". I do not at all want to be a full time grower and can do a solid round with great results in 3-5 months, seed to harvest, depending upon how many plants and how big I want/need them to be. I use a similar 4'x4' or so "pop-up grow room" as you described with white-painted folded cardboard walls under an old-school 430W ballast system, using a washing machine leak pan as the ground level. There is plenty of fresh air circulation alongside a large charcoal can attached to a high CFM blower motor for odor control and very clean air. I actually recirculate that clean air into the room and have a smaller exhaust fan to keep it all moving through nicely. All of that takes up only part of a locked 10'x8' utility room/workshop off of a garage that is super stealthy and good for temp & humidity control too. It is all relatively easy on electicity and hardly ever stinks (but that grapefruity skunk still shines through!), even inside the room and visitors have zero clue to whattup....and it all packs down into a large plastic tote box until next time. I keep good written notes and like paying attention along the way for nice tips from other growers too. It's very cool that seemingly every grower out there has their own methods and system that works for them and what/how they do it. Yes, what an amazing plant indeed! I always try to focus on quality with decent yields. The Sativa-dominant strain I have been playing with for a while has a longer flowering time so I cut the veg after 2-3 weeks, repeatedly top them, and still get very full 4' plants with multiple full branches each. On top of all that, it is really a crazy inexpensive and fun way to get top quality weed ;)

By the way Rob/Matanaska, you mentioned that you rinse off your bud after cutting it down - I am curious if you use any particular type of water or some mixture of peroxide with distilled water? I have been increasingly hearing about people using methods along that line which seems to be a good practice as well.

Also, while it may not be ideal when compared to nearly whole stalk drying and trimming later on after it dries some, I typically relatively closely trim 12" or so stalks at a time before hanging to dry and then mildly clean it up later on before cutting the buds away for curing. My thinking has been to shed the extra leaf so when it inwardly shrinks while drying there is only bud left and a few smaller leaves left to protect the frost, etc. I might want to try the latter method out next time as many/most? people seem to swear by it for increased terpene profiles and flavor - but it sure can look a bit ratty anyway.

here's ISS ( with a little bit of pm ) at day 56, taken this sunny morning, and a table of it below.. Skunk strains don't disappoint.

Where's the scratch n sniff App ? 

a friend's indoor mom room a couple of nights ago, a 1k hps bulb degraded, shattered and set the plastic rolling table top below it on fire (actually smoldered all night until consumed). Boss got tired of getting Senso unit alarms so he set the parameters super low and high and didn't get an alarm. Pics are table directly below the bulb that took a shit and the table next to it. Clones from these moms were taken just a couple of days before so not  too bad of a loss.  The less desirable version of "wake and bake"...

double bubble

Wow.

Holy Shit - that looks like a nightmare! 

>>It is highly unlikely for a fully-albino cannabis plant to reach maturity for obvious reasons. However, partial albino plants, known as variegated plants, feature only slight albinism. These only have specific patches of white leaves and buds that are void of the green pigment. The rest of the plant is indeed green, loaded with chlorophyll, and able to photosynthesis.  -Royal Queen Seeds.

ran across these the ther day...

Yuck. lol

My Grapefruit Haze is just starting to flower.

Aiko-Iko, Joe! Might you happen to have any pics of Island Sweet Skunk finished/buds?

This is about the end of my last 2-plant harvest, circa Jan/Feb 2018, and it still looks, tastes, and smokes like freshies too. 

*Correction*

In this round, I preferred the results of one plant over the other and this the end of the "better" one. Still have about a half ounce of the 2nd one which went a little longer, had a significantly higher yield, and is still good too.

[2 plants, seed to harvest in 4 months under 430w HPS the whole time (no MH bulb) yielding over 5 Z's]

Howdy Strawbud, this is some finished ISS buds. roughly hand trimmed; about 80% sativa so a bit larfy. The top right bud was a foxtail. Very typical of ISS.

Thanks Joe! Looking good there and I really appreciate it. That'll be my next run.

London poundcake cut @ 65days

Oh Matanaska!

In the past, I never really cared for the month of August, but that all changed when I started growing.

Matanaska, when ya coming to fish again?

beautiful, Rob and Mike!

Marijuana may not be addictive, but growing it is.

- Ed Rosenthal

One of my 2 Scooby Snacks. She's almost 7' tall and 4.5' diameter.

And an LSD, much shorter, but flowering early and hard.

Looking good, BK.

First signs of frost here.

new rooms slowly getting there... 

Nice looking space, Joe. What are the blocks for? Supports for the tables?

>>>Supports for the tables?

yep, no wood in the rooms. The phone camera doesn't do any justice for the brightness in the rooms.

Day 2 out of a stressful veg and into flower.  Room still needs christmas lights and trellis 

Stressful veg? How so, Joe?

New rooms take a bit of time to dial in the environment. We were having too wide of temperature and humidity swings. Nothing too crazy, but we realized we needed the hvac blower speed lowered and once that happened, that pretty much solved those issues. But it took about 3 of the 4 veg weeks to get that accomplished.

day 32, Durban stacking, 32 days to go.  

What a difference a month makes. Beautiful colas, Joe.

Thanks, mike. The fine tuning is done and it's paying off. I'll have the Christmas lights up this week and that should really make them pop..lol

That is the second flower room above. The first room's plants have been chopped and hung to dry.  Rooms are harvested, cleaned, sanitized with a Zerotol soln' and reloaded in 2 days. 

Day 1, we chop the plants, record the wet weight for each plant, and hang to dry at 65F and 60% humidity. Cleaning is also started on day 1. Day 2,  we finish cleaning / sanitizing the room and then we move the freshly up potted plants  - 1 gal veg is up potted to 3 gal fabric around 10 days before moving into flower -  into place and put 3 drippers in each bag.  With a 64  day flower cycle, the 2 flower rooms are planted approx. 32 days apart so that we have a full room of harvest every 32 days or so.  We also chose to use hps in veg. instead of CMH or MH. The plants experience almost no shock or stunt when we they are vegged under the same light spectrum as they are flowered in, so that is one more stressor that is eliminated. We calculated the light level needed for a strong plant, but were still concerned with excessive stretch in veg,  Fortunately, that has worked out very well. Very happy with that decision. 

Day 2 of flower after cleaning and reloading 2 days prior..

When starting a grow, the saying goes, the first is the worst - harvest wise - due to the plants getting their development slowed as the environmentals get dialed in and the mechanical bugs get eliminated. Also, we were really busy daily finishing the second flower room and the dry room and did not devote the time needed for plant skirting.  Still, for the most part, the buds developed decently and they were pretty dense with very little squeeze to them.

Lime Skunk

lime skunk x ghost og

I'm loving the documentary approach, Joe, and think I understood most of it except for "plant skirting". What's that? Defoliating?

Thanks, mike. Skirting is removing the smaller, lower branches to let the upper, larger branches develop larger buds. The lowers tend to produce popcorn bud or larfy bud.

Gotcha. I've always heard of that referred to as lollipopping.

day 17 of drying...

wedding cake  x  durban 

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Looking crystalicious, joe.

Looking great! I am a big fan of the "less is more" skirting/lollipopping methods. Those big, juicy buds help tell that story and there is very little hassle and work over smallish, under-developed buds. I have also had significantly increased yields/quality bud with staggered harvests, basically taking the plant down in thirds over a couple week's time to get those under-brush buds to full maturity.

Thanks, mike and Strawbud.  Not too bad for not having the room dialed in for the first month. Slowly getting there.  I Love this plant!!! Good medicine!!! 

Yes, skirting helps get rid of larf and popcorn sized buds. Makes it much easier to remove and hand trim.

lime skunk (m) x ghost og(f) at day 56 of the second upcoming harvest.....just got our test results for this strain harvested 26 days ago from the room that had enviro problems for the first month....

31.8% total thc, 3.73% terps, 1% cbd.   ((((((((((weed love)))))))))))

Day 32  (same pic from above) - Durban

same branch of Durban 31 days later.......day 63

finally, the green queens get 2 - 12 hr sessions of christmas lights to finish in before chop...

I am new to the Christmas lights scheme - is that a dim-down to calm the chicas before harvest or something along that line?

I've run christmas lights in my closets, tents and rooms for always, Strawbud.  They're on each day too.

It just makes me feel better to give back some color to the plants that give me some color.  

I think they appreciate it. Just a good vibe thing. No science to it,

Looks like you're killing it Joe.   Run lux lights LED, the spectrum is there and if you know the know(which obviously you do) you'll save $$ with same product. 

Nice touch - I like it!

Thanks for the kind words, Jonas, and the led tip. I have used the Bridgelux Vero 29 cobs for the last 6 years in a tent and really like the results. We needed to start with hps due to initial budget.

Thanks, Strawbud

It's a leap of faith.  I can vouch that it works.  Looks like you're on the money with your current setup. 

Test it in that same room:  Throw up those 600w lux leds, keep up the HPS and see what happens.  Every room is dfferent.  

My experience: Temp down and gram per sqft is on the money.  

the above very fragrant Durban tested out at 27.7 % total thc and  4.58 % terps 

Incredible!!!

Thanks, jaz..  4.5  terps is just stupid and I'm happy as hell about it.   Great genetics . Can't turn ditchweed into gold with ferts or environment alone.

I think I helped get the monarchs survive 

This is interesting, Joe. Is this the same genetics of the original Durbin Poison from back in the 60s and 70s?

It was mentioned in the Humble Pie song, Thirty Days in the Hole. A pure sativa I read somewhere.  A legendary powerhouse. 

jaz, yes this cut is from a grower who obtained the seeds in '09.  Short in stature and  shorter than normal maturation time for a sativa. Super focused, happy, daytime high. 

> 4.5  terps is just stupid

This cracked me up. Way to go, Joe.

I hung with Joe at his lake/place for a day . I am in awe. Most incredible.  We had a blast riding around with my mutt in his golf cart.  Such a beautiful place. Truly a pleasure and he does have the x-mas lights. 

Looking, forward. 

Thanks for the kind words, jaz. It was my pleasure to have you and Charlie around and you're welcome back anytime. I'm glad i got to meet you and very glad you left some hang time in your vacation schedule for this.  ((((Jazfish, Super nice zoner))))

See you soon!

I'm jealous, but I don't know if it's for jazfish getting to meet Joe, or Joe getting to meet jazfish. Either way, you're both zoners who I'd like to hang with in the 3D world someday.

Thanks, mike, and i hope to meet you someday as well.

winter garden ....... pineapple express - day 41....a bit more than 3 weeks to finish

I could diggit, Mike. One of these days.

Looking good ,Joe.

Double post

Nice work as usual, joe. I'm almost getting a whiff of some fruity dank all the way over here.

thanks, Mike 

9lb Hammer boys. Germed 6 seeds from Jinx Proof Genetics....got 4 males and two fems.  Fems will be flowered and tested  with the bonus of fresh pollen collected.. :-)

Hey Joe... got any of that Durbin left?   17%  THCV?  Would very much like to try some of that. Looks like you know what you are doing.

Hi Mark, yes, there's plenty,  mikee has my email.  

Emotw, Mark.

thanks you guys.

Mark, I can personaly attest to Joe's talents.

Top notch for sure.  Sup, Joe.

Durban!!!

thanks for the kind words, jaz. I'm glad i got to meet you. I hope you, the Mrs. and Mr. Charlie are doing well :-)

Wholeheartedly agree Jaz.