2025 Outdoor Grow Season
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It's the first day of spring, which for me means getting some seeds started indoors today. This year I'm just doing four plants: Blueberry Kush, Chemdawg #4, Skywalker OG, and Tahoe Kush.
Let the growing begin.
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Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
I've got a bunch of seeds
I've got a bunch of seeds given to me but they are not feminized. I am going to plant in trays ina couple days. Not sure how to proceed as far as sexing them and what not. Any way to sex them before budding season? I don't have room etc for 20 plants hoping half a dozen will be female.
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Mark, there's a way to force
Mark, there's a way to force flowering early by only giving the plants 12 hours of light a day. If you're working indoors under lights, that's fairly easy to do, but if the plants are outdoors, that means you have to cover them (and uncover them) every day with something that won't let light penetrate for 12 hours, but lets air circulate. For me, that sounds like extra work, added expense, and the likelihood the plants will go back into their vegetative stage after the manipulation and then start flowering again later in the season, which doesn't always produce the best quality bud.
I think it'd be easier to start 10-12 seeds with an eye towards harvesting 6, and let nature do the work. There's a chance all of them will be females, but more likely only about half of them will be.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
Thanks Mike.
Thanks Mike.
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You might want to think about
You might want to think about using feminized seeds next year, Mark. They're not cheap, and usually cost around $10-15 per seed. But if you can get one seed (plus the cost of nutes) to produce 10-12 ounces of finished bud (a reasonable estimate for growing in 10-gallon pots) on total expenses of maybe $40, the cost of the seeds starts to look pretty darn good, and especially when you factor in not needing to invest time, effort, and money on plants that come up male.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
Again, thanks Mike. Turns
Again, thanks Mike. Turns out I found a three variety pack of feminized seeds that I was given a couple months ago. So I am planting tonight, 4 varieties total. 2 days in the fridge and an hour soak in black tea. We'll see how the seeds do and go from there.
watermelon/ milk shake femmed
Foxy cereal milk / jungle juice femmed
frosted flakes BX frosted flakes / cereal milk femmed
Melted Rainbow and Starburst 36 not femmed.
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Nice. That's going to make
Nice. That's going to make things much easier for you.
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It's day five and two of my
It's day five and two of my beans have emerged. Should see the other two in the next 24 hours.
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Third seed emerged late
Third seed emerged late yesterday, and the fourth came up overnight. Here we go.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: dimethyllovebeam
For anyone who wants to
For anyone who wants to eventually grow non-fem seeds, thereby allowing you to avoid someone else's pick of the phenotype ( if they even take the time to pheno hunt ) you receive from fem seeds. Sexing is very easy in the veg stage, allowing the grower to not lose precious time placing young veg plants into the flowering cycle and then reverting back to veg.
I used this method on over 14,000 regular seeds I was responsible for starting within the first year of my employment in a huge IL grow. I had an almost 100% success rate with this method, only missing three times, but catching the males very early in the flower cycle. This method also allows you to separate and pick males for eventual pollen capture for breeding and collecting your own seeds, if you're so inclined. Saves a lot of money on buying seeds, as one pollinated female can produce hundreds of plump, healthy seeds.
Males can be accurately sexed in the veg cycle within 3 to 4 weeks, and females within 4 to 6 weeks in the veg cycle, both timelines starting from the germination stage.
Link to a good article with accurate pics.
https://www.growweedeasy.com/preflowers
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
Thanks Joe!
Thanks Joe!
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: dimethyllovebeam
You're welcome, Mark. I hope
You're welcome, Mark. I hope the info helps. Thanks for your tips as well, and for being so benevolent with your skills and time for those in need. I'm glad we got to talk a while back. Cannabis is most certainly genuine healing medicine. :)
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> avoid someone else's pick
> avoid someone else's pick of the phenotype
You've mentioned this before, Joe, but there still seems to be some variation with fem seeds. I've had plants from the same seed stock that were much taller than their sisters, and had others with very different leaf size and shape too, just to name a few of the differences I've observed. It seems like fem seeds might be limited in some ways by the parent's genetics, but they're not identical.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: dimethyllovebeam
Hey Mike, they won't be
Hey Mike, yes, fem seeds will show genetic variations within the same strain, just like regular seeds, but the grower who fenmed those seeds may or may not have taken the time to fem a specific pheno that exhibited higher, desired qualities of that specific strain, ie., total cannabinoid / terpene content. The more expensive seeds most likely came from a grower who put in the work. For the more expensive seeds, a buyer should be able to see test results of the mature female.
For bigger grows, even in a dedicated basement, regular seeds allow the grower a wider number of phenos to pick from, test and run.
Not necessarily that cheaper seeds mean that the grower didn't go the extra mile, but the extra mile is more plants grown to pick from, more time, more labor and more testing costs.
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Thanks, Joe. I get the basic
Thanks, Joe. I get the basic concept of pheno hunting, but I think most hobby growers, which is what I consider myself, are looking for consistency more than variety, and don't have the resources to start a bunch of plants (many of which will come up male) and raise them to the point where things like total cannabinoid/terpene content can be judged. Doesn't that pretty much require an entire grow season?
I have a couple of seed banks I've been buying fem seeds from the last few years, and I've been happy with the results I've been getting; stony smoke that tastes great and produces good yields. I've had 100% germination with these seeds, no males to deal with, and the business end of things works for me too. Both seed banks are in the US, which means no goofy payment methods like money orders, international bank transfers, or bitcoin, and the seeds typically hit my mailbox about a week after I place an order. So for me, fem seeds just make sense, but I'm glad there are folks out there who haven't given up the hunt because it's folks like you who make sure I can easily and consistently purchase a quality product.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: dimethyllovebeam
If it wasn't for the hobby
If it wasn't for hobby growers, the seed banks would be going out of business. Weed growing should, above all else, be an enjoyable learning experience with sticky, stinky rewards for the efforts, care and Love infused by the grower. I hope this grow season is another good one for you.
But if you ever decide to try regular seeds, you also have the info to determine gender in veg plants if you choose to.
>>>Doesn't that pretty much require an entire grow season?
Yes, but 100 days indoors is very much worth finding a premium pheno.
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I'm curious. How do you
I'm curious. How do you propagate that primo pheno once you've found it? Clone it until you find a primo male as well?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: dimethyllovebeam
I'll find a male I like (
I'll find a male I like ( structure, vigor, disease resistance ) and capture the pollen. Once the selected females are flowered ( not before cloning them right before flowering) and tested for total cannabinoid content and terpene profile, then I'll select one female and clone her, guaranteeing an exact genetic copy, round after round.
Cannabinoid and terp testing here isn't expensive, but for a full panel of testing for every 15lbs of cured flower product, it also includes heavy metals, pesticides, bacterial and fungal species, that's a different matter. We need full panel testing in order to sell to dispos. One failure on any of those panels and that 15lb batch cant be sold. Those test results also are acquired by the dispo owners and are always available for the patient to see
The reason for genetic stability in a medical market is simply because if a patient likes the effects of the selected strain and its chemical profiles, that's what they want. Variability is too risky. I love hearing from patients who love our strains. Lots of veterans, back pain, depression, stomach problems and those who just like to get stoned. 36 yrs of indoor growing, and I still love it.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: dimethyllovebeam
i recently popped some seeds
i recently popped some seeds we had from a strain we grow ( Wedding Cake x Ghost Train Haze) just to get a specific male for pollen. Once i collected that pollen, i hand pollinated a female of our other strain ( Lime Skunk x Ghost OG *Kush ) and got a couple hundred fat, healthy seeds from that cross. Excited to see how those females will produce.
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Thanks, Joe. Like i said
Thanks, Joe. Like i said above, I get the basic concept of pheno hunting, but it's the propagation end of the process that's always baffled me, and that's the part that makes me think casual growers like me should just leave the hunt to the experts. Even if I were to start a bunch of plants and find a primo specimen, I don't have a way to keep a mother.
As for making seeds, it seems like there's a lot of uncertainty in that process. I'm pretty much at the edge of my knowledge at this point, so forgive me if I get this wrong, but I believe you won't know how that new cross turns out until you grow it out, and even then, you won't know if it's a stable cross until you've produced a number of generations. And it's all this uncertainty that once again drives home for me the idea that pheno hunting is not really a practical pursuit for casual growers like myself.
So I'm wondering what you might call that new cross you mentioned in your last post. Since both parents have some Ghost in them, it seems like that should be in the name. Maybe something like Okie Ghost Funk, or OG Funk for short?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: dimethyllovebeam
>>>you won't know if it's a
>>>you won't know if it's a stable cross until you've produced a number of generations.
All it needs to not do is hermie in the indoor environment that is provided. Once I know that, then it's clone time, and that guarantees an exact genetic copy every time of that specific pheno picked from growth qualities and test results.
As far as a name goes, that usually comes to me on its own.
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My girls are three weeks post
My girls are three weeks post-emergence, and looking good. Fourth set of palmate leaves are just showing, so I'll probably do my first topping in a week or so.
How're things looking for you, Mark?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
Total disaster. Half a dozen
Total disaster. Half a dozen shot up 3 inches and fell over. Died with no leaves. No others even emerged. I treated them like peppers and tomatoes. In a tray with a cover. Tough yr. Only about half my peppers emerged and doing well. No tomatoes or Tomatillos. Replanted veggies last night but no more seeds for weed. Pretty bummed but I will get another 2 or 3 plants from my indoor buddy and try and do better with them this yr.
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Well that sucks. If you want
Well that sucks. If you want to try again, shoot me an email with your mailing address and I'll send you some fem seeds. My email's in my profile.
I start mine a half-inch deep in 1 gallon pots with soil that's been thoroughly watered and drained. That way I only have one transplant into the containers they'll finish in. I don't need to water for the first 2-3 weeks, and then when I do, I use a turkey baster and only water around the rim of the pot to encourage root growth.
I keep them in a closet where the temp is 65-70° and the humidity's is 60-65%. I have a T5 florescent fixture (four 2-foot tubes) and keep the light about 15" from the top of the plants for the first week or so, and then drop it to a foot once they have their first set of palmate leaves. They're on a 14 hour light cycle because that's what they'll be getting when I move them outdoors in mid-May.
If yours shot up to 3 inches and then fell over it sounds like they might not have had sufficient light (stretch), and maybe too much water/moisture (stem failure).
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Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
Too much moisture sounds
Too much moisture sounds about right. I have a really good LED Growlight fixture on 18 hrs per day, so I don't think it was lack of light. I will forego the seed tray in the future and just plant in 1 gal pots next time. Thanks for your help.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
What do you use for potting
What do you use for potting soil?
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Fox Farm Ocean Forest
Fox Farm Ocean Forest
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
Thanks
Thanks
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Did my first topping
Did my first topping yesterday.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
Got thanks.
Got thanks.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
Mike, do you do anything to
Mike, do you do anything to scarify your seeds before planting? Any other tricks? Or do you just put them in soil and let them go?
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No tricks for me. Just give
No tricks for me. I just give them the right conditions and they know what to do.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
3 of 4 have popped up. When
3 of 4 have popped up. When do you put them outside?
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I'll ease them into the
I'll ease them into the outdoors next week with a few hours outside a day to harden them off to full sun, and then transplant them into 10 gallon fabric pots next weekend. I'll start giving them nutes about a week after the transplant.
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We've had another cold snap
We've had another cold snap come through, so my girls are still indoors. I topped three of them for the third time this morning, which means they'll have eight main branches. If the weather cooperates, I'll start hardening them this week with an eye towards transplanting them and getting them situated in the yard next weekend.
The fourth one, my Blueberry Kush, started flowering at about four weeks. I've grown these seeds before, and they've been getting fourteen hours of light, so all I can figure is I got an autoflower seed somehow, but even then, starting to flower at four weeks is really early. She was topped twice, so I'm hoping for four bonsai-style mini-colas at least, but we'll see how it goes. Maybe once she's moved outdoors, she'll decide to reveg and grow out.
How are things looking for you, Mark?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
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Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
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Seedlings are looking good.
Seedlings are looking good. What's up with the other ones?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
Thought I posted about them
Thought I posted about them the other day. Post disappeared.
Yeah I got those from my buddy's indoor grow. He ran out of room. Took a bunch of clones and turned them over to me to torture. I hardened them (I thought) for a couple weeks. But damage was done even then. I have since taken most all the sunburned leaves and there is abundant new growth. Some more than others. But it was too windy today to get a current pic.
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Sounds like you're on the
Sounds like you're on the right track with the ones your buddy gave you. Focus on the new growth. They might not be picture perfect, but there's some good development there. As you might be able to see in my latest pic, this plant can handle a lot of pruning and manipulation.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
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Looking good. I'm thinking
Looking good, Mark. I'm thinking they'll bounce back pretty quickly now.
And while I'm here, I'll wonder out loud if Brian K. is lurking, and if so, what he's got going this season.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Briank
>>I'll wonder out loud if
>>I'll wonder out loud if Brian K. is lurking, and if so, what he's got going this season.
Serendipity, Mike. I just lurked for the first time in a while. I'm considered taking the year off altogether. For less than I'll spend in supplies, soil, and and nutes I can drive to Maine and get what I need for the year. This will be my first time in 35 years with no veggie garden, so maybe it's in the cards altogether to spend more time on the water and on my motorcycle. It would be strange.
If I do grow I'm not sure what I have this year. I gave a bulk of my seeds to a buddy to start and I can grab 4 of the choice starts some time next week. Other than Purple Punch, it's a crapshoot. I may swing by the dispensary and pick up a clone of something too. The Double Bubba I scored last year was excellent.
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> Serendipity
> Serendipity
No doubt, BK. Good to see you around these parts.
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Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
They are doing really well in
They are doing really well in the tent. I am thinking of leaving them in there to completion. What do y'all think about that? Just today, the lower leaves on 2 of them are turning yellow. Do they need nutes already? Or did I wait too long between waterings?
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Looking good, Mark, although
Looking good, Mark, although the ones on the right look like they're more developed than the other two. Is the light hitting them all equally?
You're about a month in, so it might be about time to do a light feeding. I wouldn't say you waited too long to water though. In fact, the ones on the right look like they might be a bit over-watered.
As far as finishing them in the tent, I can't really say because I don't know how big the tent is. Each plant will need at least 4 square feet, and really 9 square feet per plant would be better. Finishing in the tent will also mean paying the electric company to run your light, and you'll probably need to do something about cooling (AC) too.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
Upper left was last one up.
Upper left popped way later than the other three. It is just behind. Not sure what is wrong with lower left. The light is flat but I will rotate them.
I have AC in my house and PG&E pays me(solar panels). So not worried about the electricity to run LED grow light. Not worried too much about room either. When they get too big, I'll just turn em. I will have to build a lower stand though.
I've got some 5-1-1 fish fertilizer. OK?
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> 5-1-1 fish fertilizer
> 5-1-1 fish fertilizer
Should be fine, although I would say to start with a light feeding.
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Hey, Mark, something else
Hey, Mark, something else occurred to me. You mentioned you have an LED light, but didn't say how big it is. Is it sufficient to provide coverage for four full grown plants?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
VIPARSPECTRA P2000 LED Grow
VIPARSPECTRA P2000 LED Grow Lights, 250 Watt Dimmable Plant Light
Hope so. Like I said I might turn them early, when they are smaller. I've got the 5 outdoor doing well. Think I'll try indoor.
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250 watts is probably
250 watts is probably sufficient for two plants, but four would be a stretch unless you get them to flower early before they get too big.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Briank
My first 2 are outside in
My first 2 are outside in their pots. I bought them both at the dispensary. The clone was $30 and the feminized seed start was $20.
- lemon kush x double OG chem (seed)
- Black forest something or another
Later this week I'll plant a grandaddy purps and and LA kush x wedding cake
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I had a feeling you'd decide
I had a feeling you'd decide to get something going, BK. It's takes some work, but I really love the process and the payoff. I can't imagine a summer without a grow anymore.