Bored At Home: First grow ever (outdoors, bag seed, attempting organic/living soil)

_mahavishnu

Well-Known Member
Not much to report, cutting is slightly rooted and under a light to force flower now. Sun shines, plant grows, I watch. The two top shoots got fimmed and I’ve trained the branches below that down also, giving me around 6 even tops so far since the plant is still recovering from the FIM.
CC5D46DB-8BD3-48F8-85E7-7D66FA74584A.jpeg
9036C6F2-8D70-4136-96E5-5F42D373001F.jpeg
CEAC03EE-E5BF-4CB1-8D0C-320736C1208B.jpeg
 

_mahavishnu

Well-Known Member
I didn’t end up needing to flower that cutting after all. Came back from a trip out of town for a few days and she’s flowering!
A917FFA1-5D4B-4628-988E-DDDD5AC079C6.jpeg
D3772996-F3F8-4368-B6A7-E77D47D4AE5B.jpeg
FC6857E5-46D1-42F3-A191-C7C47BBBC68D.jpeg

I can’t help but wonder how big she’d be right now if I’d planted in March instead of late May! I’ll surely find out next year. Now that we’re working with confirmed females, the clone is under a 315 cmh in 7gal of a mix of leftover soil, lawn dirt, and compost amended with kelp, alfalfa and barley. I have some seeds on the way from Dinafem and Bodhi. Can’t wait for my fall operation to shape up.
 

JoeBlow5823

Well-Known Member
I didn’t end up needing to flower that cutting after all. Came back from a trip out of town for a few days and she’s flowering!
View attachment 4648052
View attachment 4648053
View attachment 4648054

I can’t help but wonder how big she’d be right now if I’d planted in March instead of late May! I’ll surely find out next year. Now that we’re working with confirmed females, the clone is under a 315 cmh in 7gal of a mix of leftover soil, lawn dirt, and compost amended with kelp, alfalfa and barley. I have some seeds on the way from Dinafem and Bodhi. Can’t wait for my fall operation to shape up.
Fair warning, starting that early you will have some 15' tall trees and you will need much, much larger pots (50-100 gallon). They need lots of trellis and shit to hold them up when you go that big. Judging by the wagon it looks like you want to keep your girl relatively mobile.... The one you have is still going to get about double the size it is now and it will likely need some support too.
 

JoeBlow5823

Well-Known Member
I love my 315. I paid top dollar for a new vertical unit but I dont regret it, never had good luck with any used equipment that plugs in. Used hoods and stuff like that where literally nothing can go wrong with it is fine, but anything else I just bust open the wallet.
I officially regret it. Amazon is slinging them for 195$ now. You cant even get a fucking horizontal vivosun fixture and philips bulb that cheap let alone the vertical SunSystem with built in Philips ballast and Philips bulb.
 

_mahavishnu

Well-Known Member
Fair warning, starting that early you will have some 15' tall trees and you will need much, much larger pots (50-100 gallon). They need lots of trellis and shit to hold them up when you go that big. Judging by the wagon it looks like you want to keep your girl relatively mobile.... The one you have is still going to get about double the size it is now and it will likely need some support too.
Yeah I would definitely be giving up on mobility if I went that route! I originally was using the wagon to keep her in sun on days I was home to keep track, but now that she’s switched to flowering I’m not moving her anymore, don’t wanna be too inconsistent with the sunlight and potentially cause a reveg. It’s also been an insanely hot, humid summer so far, rain every day for a week+ at a time, and that has me worried about getting her thru harvest disease-free. Definitely makes me think twice about putting a lot of time and money into larger outdoor grows moving forward. I’m actually considering sacrificing the clone and moving the mom into the shed where the environment is nice and controlled, because the last week has been 70+% RH nonstop and it freaks me out now that she’s got buds on her. I have seeds on the way now and clearing out space under the light for the known-good genetics wouldn’t hurt anyways.

I officially regret it. Amazon is slinging them for 195$ now. You cant even get a fucking horizontal vivosun fixture and philips bulb that cheap let alone the vertical SunSystem with built in Philips ballast and Philips bulb.
I went used like I originally said and ended up with one of the Sun System remote vertical reflectors and ballasts, plus two junky viparspectra 300s, for $200 overall. I’ll probably end up grabbing another 315 at some point so I can cover some more area, but I’ll probably use what I’ve got for maybe 4 plants for the first run and see how it goes. Thanks for bringing the amazon deal to my attention haha!
 

JoeBlow5823

Well-Known Member
Yeah I would definitely be giving up on mobility if I went that route! I originally was using the wagon to keep her in sun on days I was home to keep track, but now that she’s switched to flowering I’m not moving her anymore, don’t wanna be too inconsistent with the sunlight and potentially cause a reveg. It’s also been an insanely hot, humid summer so far, rain every day for a week+ at a time, and that has me worried about getting her thru harvest disease-free. Definitely makes me think twice about putting a lot of time and money into larger outdoor grows moving forward. I’m actually considering sacrificing the clone and moving the mom into the shed where the environment is nice and controlled, because the last week has been 70+% RH nonstop and it freaks me out now that she’s got buds on her. I have seeds on the way now and clearing out space under the light for the known-good genetics wouldn’t hurt anyways.



I went used like I originally said and ended up with one of the Sun System remote vertical reflectors and ballasts, plus two junky viparspectra 300s, for $200 overall. I’ll probably end up grabbing another 315 at some point so I can cover some more area, but I’ll probably use what I’ve got for maybe 4 plants for the first run and see how it goes. Thanks for bringing the amazon deal to my attention haha!
Yeah thats the situation I am in as well. No reason dropping thousands on a privacy fence, setting up all sorts of trellis, bringing in a truckload of potting soil, and putting in allll the effort when most years it rains every day starting mid september and were getting snow here and by the end of october.... Kids typically trick or treat in winter coats here. Odds of a good harvest year are incredibly low. The only real option for me would be a setup like a lot of people in oregon are starting to do- cover your plants every night for 12 hours starting in mid July. My god the hassle that would be. And yeah that sunsystem light is a STEAL. I bought a second one. It costs 115$ to buy a shit vivosun 315 fixture and another 80 for the philips bulb so its the exact same price in the end and your getting a sunsystem with philips ballast instead. Who knows what ill do with it. Some day I might keep a tent of mothers even though i would literally only be taking a couple clones per year off each of them. Having those FIRE phenos around would be nice and theres no way im taking clones from anyone else. I dont want nuthin to do with those corona mites or hops latent viroid.
 

_mahavishnu

Well-Known Member
Been a while since last update. Big mama is deep into flower now, stretch seems to be over. Realizing that lack of direct sun as the angle of the sun’s arc across the sky changes is going to limit my harvest to some extent. On the plus side, the mystery buds smell amazing at this point. Very sharply sweet and kinda fruity, reminds me of a mango kush or similar but also slightly diesel-ish.
A33E4F01-2D6A-4B08-9022-A052DB6A9C73.jpeg
C0864E9A-695F-4458-82E5-4C396983C724.jpeg
57115DB8-7A88-42B8-9C34-392C0A546FA1.jpeg
8407D0C5-B87D-4559-A52D-897975862AF8.jpeg

I’ve been fighting a number of battles for this plant’s life. It’s been raining at least every other day for over a month now and I’m catching PM just about daily on this plant. I wake up or get home from work, find 5 leaves with new spots starting, and wipe them off with a paper towel. I’m not gonna spray anything but silica and BT on the plant at this stage, which reminds me that I discovered a baby caterpillar eating a sugar leaf last week, only one I’ve seen so far but it freaked me the hell out and got me to order the BT. So my PM inspections are now moth-egg inspections too, but none found since the first and no signs of droppings etc. I’ve also been fighting fungus gnats in the soil using thyme and neem oil, and have neem meal on the way which should clear that activity up. Lastly, I noticed the other day that the plant had pulled one of my training stakes out of the soil. When I just barely pulled on it, the main, lowest branch of the plant, with the most developed cola, snapped off at the knuckle. I went into panic mode and managed to get about 3ft of training wire wrapped around the break & the main stem in less than a minute, put some masking tape around the split, and tied the upper growth of the branch to the opposite branch to provide support with more leverage. So far it seems like she’s unphased as ever and the cola is still developing, but god that was a horrible moment in my life.

The rain has prevented me from feeding the plant like I had been during the dry season since it’s almost always saturated, otherwise I’m sure silica uptake from the roots would eliminate most of my PM issues. I’m hoping that top dressing with kelp and neem meal will sustain the plant through harvest at this point. Once this grow is over, I’ll amend the soil and let it cook until next spring probably, or use some of it for indoor grows over winter. I have four seedlings under the 315 now: super silver haze OG, white widow, Dinafem critical plus, and a cream and cheese 1:1 CBD plant. Already starting to focus my energy on those as I grow more resigned to the hurdles this outdoor grow is gonna continue throwing.
 

_mahavishnu

Well-Known Member
Yeah thats the situation I am in as well. No reason dropping thousands on a privacy fence, setting up all sorts of trellis, bringing in a truckload of potting soil, and putting in allll the effort when most years it rains every day starting mid september and were getting snow here and by the end of october.... Kids typically trick or treat in winter coats here. Odds of a good harvest year are incredibly low. The only real option for me would be a setup like a lot of people in oregon are starting to do- cover your plants every night for 12 hours starting in mid July. My god the hassle that would be. And yeah that sunsystem light is a STEAL. I bought a second one. It costs 115$ to buy a shit vivosun 315 fixture and another 80 for the philips bulb so its the exact same price in the end and your getting a sunsystem with philips ballast instead. Who knows what ill do with it. Some day I might keep a tent of mothers even though i would literally only be taking a couple clones per year off each of them. Having those FIRE phenos around would be nice and theres no way im taking clones from anyone else. I dont want nuthin to do with those corona mites or hops latent viroid.
I like your style Joe, definitely similar to the approach I’ve been deciding on in my head. I can’t wait to do a larger indoor op and do a pheno hunt with the Bodhi seeds I got, then keep the chosen plants around in some form forever. I’m gonna keep a mother from the bag seed plant just because I’m so proud of her resilience, and maybe one day I can gift clones to friends. Please keep me up to date with your results/learnings using the 315s! I’m thinking I’ll definitely want to get another one before the 4 plants I’m starting now get big enough to flip. I’m also conflicted on whether or not to get a tent, I’m sure the reflective material helps with light saturation.
 

JoeBlow5823

Well-Known Member
I like your style Joe, definitely similar to the approach I’ve been deciding on in my head. I can’t wait to do a larger indoor op and do a pheno hunt with the Bodhi seeds I got, then keep the chosen plants around in some form forever. I’m gonna keep a mother from the bag seed plant just because I’m so proud of her resilience, and maybe one day I can gift clones to friends. Please keep me up to date with your results/learnings using the 315s! I’m thinking I’ll definitely want to get another one before the 4 plants I’m starting now get big enough to flip. I’m also conflicted on whether or not to get a tent, I’m sure the reflective material helps with light saturation.
315's are strictly for veg for me. Worked great on the first plants i did. I really like tents. Keeps everything well isolated from the house. I can filter the air going in as well as out. Any water spills or whatever are caught by the tent. Much harder for bugs to get in/out.
 

_mahavishnu

Well-Known Member
315's are strictly for veg for me. Worked great on the first plants i did. I really like tents. Keeps everything well isolated from the house. I can filter the air going in as well as out. Any water spills or whatever are caught by the tent. Much harder for bugs to get in/out.
Have you used the 315s during flower and found them unsatisfactory? I’ve read they’re superior to hps for quality of the bud but not necessarily gpw. My indoor setup is a backyard shed, so there’s no concern over smell, but I have to walk through the yard to get there so isolating the plants from pests does sound like a good idea.
 

JoeBlow5823

Well-Known Member
Have you used the 315s during flower and found them unsatisfactory? I’ve read they’re superior to hps for quality of the bud but not necessarily gpw. My indoor setup is a backyard shed, so there’s no concern over smell, but I have to walk through the yard to get there so isolating the plants from pests does sound like a good idea.
I haven't used 315's for flower. Ive heard the quality can be a little better but not much and yield/density suffers a lot. But thats just what i hear.
 

_mahavishnu

Well-Known Member
I haven't used 315's for flower. Ive heard the quality can be a little better but not much and yield/density suffers a lot. But thats just what i hear.
Guess I’ll find out in a few months! I definitely might augment the 315 with some LED around the perimeter where the coverage falls off.
 

_mahavishnu

Well-Known Member
Since it was August 4 that I noticed the small flowers on the plant, I’m gonna call Aug 1 the first day of flower. That puts the plant at day 38 of flower now, hopefully halfway. Two of the main branches have relatively thick colas, maybe approaching a Red Bull can in thickness, and the other two branches have a much more open structure to the buds right now. I’ve been trying to randomize what side of the plant gets light each day since it gets moved around every now and then, but it’s possible that the two thicker colas are ending up southward more often than the others.

Denser cola:
EC35193D-85AF-4DCD-91A8-9AE05DEEC9AA.jpeg

Loose cola:
DD1226D8-5CD7-4A23-8982-6F3D92926C11.jpeg

My area still stays over 70% humidity basically permanently, so I’m really not letting my hopes get too high. I feel like I could wake up and find bud rot on her any day, more likely as she continues to pack on weight, and I’ve got a few rainy days in a row coming up right now. What can I do though, I’m at the mercy of the universe and the weather now.

The buds are at least looking not horrible! Not insane, but if they do finish out I’ll gladly smoke on it while I’m growing better stuff indoors.
BBE02B74-9557-41E8-B607-86ABF0FA6749.jpeg
11EDB6C5-763B-47AC-9BCD-E2793DC6FCBE.jpeg

Are the shriveled brown hairs just from rain/wind/heat damage? I’ve noticed lots of them doing that and new hairs are constantly growing at the tops.

On another note, the indoor plants are awesome. Dinafem critical plus 2.0 and three seedsman ones: cream and cheese 1:1 CBD, freebie white widow, and freebie super silver haze OG. Does anyone know if seedsman brand gear is decent? They get ok reviews but I can’t really find any grows or bud pics.

Anyways they all got fucked up bad by the happy frog I germed them in, the cream and cheese so badly that at day 15 or so it still barely had first leaves on it because the cotyledons were fried, and the new leaves were dying too. It had to go, the solo cup of happy frog got flushed, and a new one went in.

The new one is on day 3 and more developed than the previous was when we yanked it. The SSH has lots of mutant growth, the widow has necrotic spots on the leaves up to the second newest node, and the critical’s first leaves had some spots too. All three have healthy new growth and are vegging fast and hard now, drinking near 500ml a day.
0FCB1173-A9A7-4ADF-AEE7-B83551F822A2.jpeg
 

_mahavishnu

Well-Known Member
We are now somewhere in week 8 of flower. Lots of purple showing up on the plant. The stringy colas are staying that way. I’ve tried my best to flush the plant out when it dries, hoping to remove some N, but cold temperatures have really reduced the plant’s water intake now.

5BF10414-6E19-46A9-BE18-7CA85889690E.jpeg
A1B13892-679E-419A-A0B8-73FDE4667638.jpeg
EFA343E5-F72F-4AA3-A96C-3CD25677205A.jpeg

I think I’m done feeding it probably, aside from some unsulphured molasses in these last few weeks. Just checking trichomes and checking for rot daily. Right now it seems like trichs are still mostly clear, which figures since this plant looks pretty very sativa to me. Still throwing fresh pistils too as you can see above. Temps are dropping rapidly so I’m really hoping she even has 2-4 weeks left before frost to finish up. I want the shitty larfy buds to get a chance at fattening up if the plant finishes running through the leftover N in the soil, but if not then they’ll just be used for hash or edibles, depending on how much work I want to do. Definitely way too stemmy and loose for anyone to want to smoke on em. Hoping for maybe 1-2oz smokeable bud in the end.

4EAA828A-0B1E-4FCB-BC3C-F433D0B8728A.jpeg
CEF76788-224D-4320-A945-227C1B44367C.jpeg
 

Northwood

Well-Known Member
We are now somewhere in week 8 of flower. Lots of purple showing up on the plant. The stringy colas are staying that way. I’ve tried my best to flush the plant out when it dries, hoping to remove some N, but cold temperatures have really reduced the plant’s water intake now.
I'm jealous that your plants are so far along. Is that an auto or did you do light deprivation or just pick a quick flowering strain? My outdoor plants are just 3 or 4 weeks into flower, and here in Eastern Ontario a good hard frost would be expected early October. I'm going to cry! Lol
 

_mahavishnu

Well-Known Member
I'm jealous that your plants are so far along. Is that an auto or did you do light deprivation or just pick a quick flowering strain? My outdoor plants are just 3 or 4 weeks into flower, and here in Eastern Ontario a good hard frost would be expected early October. I'm going to cry! Lol
I have no idea what this plant is, it just came from some random pretty-dank weed I had at one point. I think she started flower early because I’m mostly in the woods, so she’s only ever gotten a few hours of direct sun per day. My backyard looks like nighttime at times where there’s still plenty of daylight if you get out of the trees. I was super surprised when she started budding, but it makes sense in hindsight.
 

_mahavishnu

Well-Known Member
Ended up chopping old girl on Friday, after I found another spot of bud rot on a lower and the forecast had two days of constant drizzle coming up. I’m gonna guess I’m only looking at 1-2oz smokeable bud, maybe just as much of the looser N-burnt buds to use for hash/edibles though. Did a baking soda/peroxide wash since I had thrips/PM/ot all together by the end. Lots of spiders came off but this guy apparently didn’t give up and he now guards the buds as they hang in a box
AE465A52-6E90-4DA9-84B4-44ED4CF3E9F9.jpeg

I’m using my own living space to dry it and I’m not willing to live at 60f for two weeks for a cool slow dry, so instead I have a humidifier keeping things between 60-70 RH inside the box. Hoping a longer drying period will help the plant eat through all that N and minimize grass/hay smell. It’s not super smelly when I stick my head in, mostly smells of cardboard right now, but rubbing a sugar leaf reveals a nasty gassy, sharp fruity kinda smell. Praying I can bring that out in the finished bud
 
Top