2 Girls & 1 Kit: Major PITA Takes High Brix Outdoors, Summer 2015

[Major PITA]

Thanks BAR. It seems to be working. Not nearly as bad so far.

 

[B A R]

 

[BrixKlinger]

Good luck, I'm sure they'll weather it. Dem sum tough sum bitches. But, we had rough weather the past two nights and unlike last year without, I slept much better with my greenhouse. Biggest issue I have is RH inside there,, no hail though.....

Is outside air RH too high as well? What about putting a high output fan to pump fresh air in/out when RH spikes?

 

[Governmentchz]

That shit made me laugh out loud.

 

[MassMedMan]

Is outside air RH too high as well? What about putting a high output fan to pump fresh air in/out when RH spikes?

Yes, the outside air is humid. I tried fans, exhausts, all that and I can't keep it under control and I'm not going to spend time or money,, any more, to deal with it. The greenhouse or hoop house I have is mainly for veg so I don't mind..And come September through whenever I'll be loving that space again.... Right now I just deal with it,,, we got heavy rain last night. My girls stayed dry... I'm happy with that.

Thank you for your suggestion!!

 

[Major PITA]

That shit made me laugh out loud.

Me 2.
The funny part is, it worked!

 

[Major PITA]

The Weakly (Week #13 / Day #88)​

For those of you who have been following along, you know this past week threw a few wrinkles in my grow. We went from day temp's approaching 110 and staying above 100 for nearly two weeks, to one day of lightning, high winds, hail, and torrential rain. This was followed by cool, damp weather the rest of the week. All of the above was immediately following my pruning of lower branches and internal leaves. Needless to say, the girls are a little dazed and confused (like me). All things considered, they handled the whole thing quite well. The hail and wind took out a few leaves, but the trim job I gave them probably helped since they had a lot less surface area to catch the wind, rain and hail.

Other than adding a little more height, all are looking the same. I can't say I see additional pre-flowers or other evidence they are going into full bloom mode. It's still early. Growth for most of them seems to have slowed. Only the Ace of Spades kept growing full tilt, adding a good 7" last week. It is approaching 6' tall (67"). By next week, The FSM willing, it will be taller than me. The others added 3" to 5".

Because the soil is so wet from the rain, feeding the HB soil is a bit of a challenge. I'm still using 150% of the kit instructions on the drenches, but only adding a couple gallons of water. Still, the plants have lost a little of their luster and are not as dark green as they were.

There are some small patches on some leaves which I think is from the various bugs in the garden. None of them are serious and the plants look very healthy overall. This is probably to be expected in an outdoor grow. Like Doc said, "technically they are not HB plants" since the roots have grown through the pots and into the surrounding soil. This could also explain why the plants NOT in HB soil are coming on strong and are now the second and third largest plants (DBHBB plants are now #1 and #4).

Even w/o the kit soil as their only growing medium all plants are now over 13.5 brix read from shade leaves. Taking a brix measurement is now a snap, but I still suck at getting a decent picture of the readings. I finally came up with a method that works, but it is a PITA. I forgot to turn off the flash which does nothing but add glare to the picture. I did manage to take a pic' of one reading this morning. In the future, w/o the flash, I think I can get better results.

Calibration

Fuzzy picture, but in person it is still a pretty solid 15

I'm happy with the results all things considered: no recent foliars (too wet), using only lower internal shade leaves, plants nearly beat to the ground a few days ago, and not able to give them their drenches the way I'd like.

Here are a few pictures from today showing they survived if nothing else. If you know what the yellow spots are, please speak up. They should be able to get their brix tomorrow, but our current weather is supposed to last through the weekend. By Tuesday I hope to be rocking and rolling again!

The rogue's gallery

Happy and healthy other than a few torn leaves from the hail and wind

Can you name those yellow spots!?!

for following, my friends

 

[scrubby]

Could be anything but its probably nothing bro! And having strong brix numbers, I wouldnt worry about shiat!! Lol. You'll be rewarded with a shit ton of bomb ass smoke...lucky bastid lol

 

[Major PITA]

Thanks scrubby!

 

[Major PITA]

We are getting a break in the weather. Finally very nice outside, at least for the time being.

This is a better pic of the random yellow spots I see. Only on a few leaves. Hopefully it doesn't spread.

Have a great weekend gang!

 

[Graytail]

That's a Brix burn. At least, that's what a Brix burn looks like.

On mine it shows like a spattering of rust in high contrast to the healthy green in the rest of the leaf. It's no big deal and is hard to prevent. It's where the spray stayed a very long time on the leaf without evaporating or being absorbed. The foliars are quite acidic in order to pass through the tissues easily.

If you spray soon after sunrise you run the least risk. I typically do mine in mid-afternoon when the stoma are mostly closed and it's nice and hot. Not the best time. But it still seems to work jus' fine.

Your girls are gorgeous!

 

[Major PITA]

Thanks Gray! I do spray first thing in the morning, but I may be going a little heavy on them. Those 100+ degree temp's probably didn't help any, either.
Excellent info for all kit users - especially if they are outdoors.

 

[Major PITA]

The Weakly (Week #14 / Day #95)​

I'll make this quick. Nothing new to show/tell. All plants are doing just fine. The weather is cooperating nicely - not too hot / not too cool / not too wet!

Growth continues to slow. I thought I might see some evidence of a stretch with the days getting shorter. Probably too soon. No new pre-flowering or other transition to blooming. All but one plant added 4" this week. They now range from 5' to 6'. This week they got 4 gal. water w/ 1/4 Trans. They got another 4 gal. with Transplant feeding at 150% = 22ml each. Brix tomorrow.

I grabbed a couple of leaves when I was with them this morning. The brix reading is a little more difficult to read since it is a gradient. My guess is 13-ish. That's down a little, but these leaves were old and near the bottom. I'll try to pull a some more in a couple days, after the brix spray tomorrow.

Leaves for measurement

Brix calibration and reading

From left to right: Pitbull, Ace of Spades, repeat (The HB AoS is becoming a beast)

Time to get your veggies

Life is getting in the way of my forum time. I'll try to keep this journal updated weekly. I can't wait until I see some buds on these gals. Thanks for following!

-EDIT-
I forgot to mention I top-dressed the two plants on the right. They are the ones in my organic soil mix. I gave them each a little EWC (each maybe 1-1/2 lbs.) scratched into the top of their soil and then added about 1 gal. of compost over that. This is the first addition of any kind for them. Until now, they've gotten only water from our garden hose.

 

[B A R]

Thanxx for following!? More like thank you for giving us the opportunity to witness this lovely grow.

 

[Major PITA]

Thanxx for following!? More like thank you for giving us the opportunity to witness this lovely grow.

Thanks, Reg!!

 

[xtrchessreal]

I think you have Thrips, its hard to be sure with a pic but those yellow spots you asked about look more like scratches on the leaf in the pic. I had Thrips before...inside. They like Corn a lot too. Use a magnifier and see if there are any tiny black spots around those scratched areas. If so the black spots are the Thrips poop and the scratches are the sap they are eating. I hope I'm wrong.

On a bright note you have some awesome plants dude. Sorry I've missed a lot. I had a lot things going on, computer linux os install, basement cleaning - speaking of which I brought some old stereo gear to the ARC, a very large receiver with a huge transformer in it, two Accoustic research speakers, and two Ultralinear speakers, phono player, marantz cassette player...I was sad to do it but needed room.

I have built a few tube amps for my guitar gear, and know HID lighting magnetics are more efficient even with the heat and the noise than digital/solid state ballasts but the wavelengths of the new power LEDs provide better needs to the plant they just don't have the history yet to make everyone switch over...

I'm stopping here, its late, I'm rambling... Those plants really make me wish I had your garden.

 

[Duggan]

Mornin Major....wow pal, they're getting that "big outside " look to em eh! Excellent my brotha....your gonna need lots of those big honkin jars i just picked up...those 1/2 gal. mason jars...
Anyhow ,looks like they have survived the weather and have gotten nice and strong,adapting very well to your weather extremes this summer.You've done a great job with them. So good to see Major. Have an awesome day !

 

[Major PITA]

Thanks xtrchessreal! I'll check and see if if I find thrip poop. None visible by eye, but I'll get out the magnifier. Sometimes I think I see a pest but it turns out to be corn pollen. Still, I know there are some bugs 'cuz I find an occasional chewed leaf. So far it isn't enough to cause any real damage.

 

[Major PITA]

Mornin Major....wow pal, they're getting that "big outside " look to em eh! Excellent my brotha....your gonna need lots of those big honkin jars i just picked up...those 1/2 gal. mason jars...
Anyhow ,looks like they have survived the weather and have gotten nice and strong,adapting very well to your weather extremes this summer.You've done a great job with them. So good to see Major. Have an awesome day !

Mornin' duggan!
Sorry I missed your last post. It must have hit while I was typing my previous reply.
They are all doing well, for sure. Thanks so much for all your support.
They got their 1/4 Trans water this morning. I'm adding a little Tea now to this. I'm also giving them 2 gal. water only, then going back with another 2 gal. that has the Trans and Tea added. That way the soil is fully moist before the drench hits it. Thanks to B A R for that tip!!

No thrips poop (or thrips) that I can find. Every once in a while I think maybe a dark spot is poop, but if so, there is so little of it, it is no big deal. I've never found a single thrips even after looking over many leaves with magnification. The worst of the leaves I find are older, lower leaves. That makes me think they are not getting burned by the sun, but maybe the foliars alone collecting on them is enough to cause it over time. Regardless of the cause, it is very minor. If this is as bad as it gets, I'll gladly ride it out.

In person, this looks like a solid 15 brix from the AoS today.

 

[xtrchessreal]

Good to know, they are so awesome.