Amy Gardner Of Eden: Perpetually Organic

[Amy Gardner]

Harvest report - Sour Bubba
​

Stable at 62% finally. Early tokes have been enjoyable; cerebral, good focus and promising pain relieving effects, all suggesting it will be a good daytime dosing oil candidate. At this stage I wouldn’t say supremely potent, but I know that can change w the cure so I’ll reserve judgement on that for a minute. I’ve held out a little nug from the jarred stuff to toke on over this week and I have a very tiny piece of hash to try, in a minute actually - just charging the VB11!

9 weeks in veg, 10 weeks in flower, 7gal of soil.

SourBubba.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• Sep 21, 2020

Sour Bubba.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• Sep 21, 2020
• 1

Sour Bubba.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• Sep 21, 2020

Sour Bubba.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• Sep 21, 2020

Sour Bubba.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• Sep 21, 2020

The blackness gives the buds a lovely silver appearance - which the photos don’t really do justice too.

A little over 5 1/2 oz I’m very happy with that

Lovely day to all ...

 

[InTheShed]

Those buds look 18% grey silver! Nice haul, and I'm looking forward to hearing how the cure changes the effects.

when plants ‘pray’ hard to the light it‘s actually a ‘mechanism’ for reducing light intensity - it reduces the surface area

Well there is another canna-myth that needs busting! for setting the record straight.

I spent many a happy hour with a 303machine

I'm only familiar with an 808.

This clears the perched water table.

So nice of @syenite to enlighten me on that topic just a couple of weeks ago! I always knew tipping the pot would drain more water but I never knew why.

30watt veg space. New growth looking great to me

no photo but it really did happen - I dropped a Nepal Jam x Kali China seed in water last night

Didn't happen...

blah blah blah...

I had no trouble staying awake and I am not hitting the Carnival!

it totally made me sing that song and make the face DLR makes it that video

LOL!

just pure, unadulterated joy!

smoked the stem bracts

Of course you did. I now save them all but I toss them in the jar with the rest of the buds.

 

[Amy Gardner]

only familiar with an 808.

Yes - that too! TB-303 was the bass machine but was used as a general synth as well. Probably the most influential machine in techno music i think and responsible for the ‘acid’ sounds.
This is a decent write up about it...

History Of The TB-303: Roland’s Accidental Legend

How did the TB-303 bass synthesizer become such a well-known and highly regarded sound in dance music? Today guest contributor

djtechtools.com

One of my faves that features it really well - a remix by one of the original crews that pinoeered it in the late 80s early 90s - is this one from the mid 90s. The 303 is making the bass but also the feature synth, which part comes in just after 2mins and morphs and develops through the rest of the track - it’s absolutely the star of the breakdown, where I’m pretty sure there are 2 of them rocking. Little Amy nostalgia For y’all (to really get it - you need to be high and put on a pair of headphones and imaginatively place yourself in a huge warehouse party with lots of happy people!)

no trouble staying awake and I am not hitting the Carnival!

Didn't happen...

LOL! Time will tell

another canna-myth that needs busting! for setting the record straight.

I dont know where to provide a source or reference for that tho. And clearly some amount of ‘praying’ is absolutely desirable - but if they are almost closing, it can be a signal to drop the light intensity just a bit. I’ve seen my outdoor ones do it on super sunny days (except Candida of course, which just shut those leaves down when the sun was beating). I’ll dig around to see if i can find where I’ve picked that tidbit up from...

 

[kelticBlue]

I'm only familiar with an 808.

I was thinking that, like a roland tr-808. I was just talking about the other day.
I was saying my first thought when I see "808" isnt the roland but the Ibanez ts-808...Which is a completely different beast. I had the wrong end of the stick and not for the first time, I was so confused again.

 

[HashGirl]

Harvest report - Sour Bubba
​

Stable at 62% finally. Early tokes have been enjoyable; cerebral, good focus and promising pain relieving effects, all suggesting it will be a good daytime dosing oil candidate. At this stage I wouldn’t say supremely potent, but I know that can change w the cure so I’ll reserve judgement on that for a minute. I’ve held out a little nug from the jarred stuff to toke on over this week and I have a very tiny piece of hash to try, in a minute actually - just charging the VB11!

9 weeks in veg, 10 weeks in flower, 7gal of soil.

SourBubba.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• Sep 21, 2020

Sour Bubba.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• Sep 21, 2020
• 1

Sour Bubba.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• Sep 21, 2020

Sour Bubba.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• Sep 21, 2020

Sour Bubba.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• Sep 21, 2020

The blackness gives the buds a lovely silver appearance - which the photos don’t really do justice too.

A little over 5 1/2 oz I’m very happy with that

Lovely day to all ...

Congrats on another successful harvest!

 

[Amy Gardner]

canna-myth

dont know where to provide a source or reference for that tho.

Turns out Nebula Haze writes about it - it doesn ring a bell as maybe where I read about it tho, but she covers it in both these links

link 1

link 2

And clearly some amount of ‘praying’ is absolutely desirable - but if they are almost closing, it can be a signal to drop the light intensity just a bit.

She kind of says that, pretty much

 

[InTheShed]

She doesn't show that in her pictures, and seems to just say that if they're praying and yellowing then that's a problem. Of course, yellowing would be a problem no matter what position they're in.

It's always seemed strain-dependent to me, but that's just my personal experience growing in the sun.

 

[Amy Gardner]

strain-dependent to me,

It definitely is that too! the droopy Candida afterall... It’s just a sign they’re ‘managing it’ so can be an early sign of intensity, something to watch. That’s mostly what I mean.

 

[Amy Gardner]

She does write:

Sometimes the first sign a plant is getting too much light is all the leaves start pointing up or “praying”, like this (though sometimes you don’t see any symptoms until the yellowing starts)

 

[InTheShed]

So she can't make up her mind?

 

[JimJonesJr]

It’s time

Welcome to my first perpetual journal and my first perpetual grow. “First perpetual” sounds odd to me but when you’re just starting out, what else can you say I wonder!

This first foray into a perpetual grow is an experiment with timing as I don’t have 2 seperate grow spaces yet. I’ll get back to the plan for that in a minute, but for starters;

Why do I grow:
I’ve been a friend and lover of cannabis since my very early years.

A few years ago the progression of a genetic condition I hadn’t known that I had, precipitated a fairly severe physical disability. During a dark moment somewhere in the first 6 to 8 months I decided to smoke a joint and found, to the surprise of nobody here I’m sure, that not only did my mood improve instantly but many of the physical symptoms did so a well. And so it began.

I grow to manage this condition (which includes chronic and acute pain, severe fatigue, BP regulation problems, emotional regulation problems, musculoskeletal problems, Gastro problems, neurological problems and other etceteras.) and things are well managed now, with cannabis and diet for the most part (and a few vitamins, mineral and mitochondrial supplementation the mix too.)

Growing is absolutely an equally important part of the therapeutic aspects of cannabis whether you grow purely recreationally or also for specific medicinal needs like I do. I know that nearly every grower here would absolutely agree with me about that and many medical cannabis doctors do so as well. Dr Dustin Sulak recommends it. Before I became ill, I always used to joke that my alter ego would live in the bush and grow pot until I was an old woman, so here she is! And while I never envisaged the physical restrictions I have now, I couldn’t be happier about this aspect of my life. Growing and using cannabis to manage my health situation has been life changing physically and life–saving on the psycho-emotional level. The community of growers, friends, mentors and meanderers here has had an absolutely fundamental role in all of that.

Since being here on 420Mag I have learnt to make all the medicinal oils I can possibly need. I grow both CBD and THC dominant varieties and I make custom blends for my particular needs and the needs of my partner, who uses CBD to manage anxiety and depression and tiny amounts of THC alongside it at times. So this journal will include oil making and edible making at times alongside the growing.

I get lots of support to grow, physically from friends and helpers and emotionally from my partner who is not a recreational user of cannabis but has never had a problem with my use of it. I am very blessed and very grateful

On with the practicalities!

Grow space:
Currently a 3x3 Gorilla Tent
Over the next 6-12months, I expect to build 2 seperate indoor spaces for veg and flower.
From about December onwards the grow will move outside until Late March 2021.

Meanwhile, the tent was completely emptied last week and thoroughly cleaned with combinations of vinegar and bi-carb and then sprayed with a clove concoction. It’s beautifully clean and ready to go.

Environment:
The tent lives in the room where I spend most of my time, including to sleep, so it is easy to climate control manually, for the most part. It’s been OK in past grows but not exactly plain sailing in terms of not needing to tweak it so I’m trying some new adaptations again this time and we shall see.

This is my 3rd run inside.

My main challenge in the past has been keeping things warm enough during early veg and at night and last year I tried venting out the bottom, to draw warmer air in from up high and to also let the heat from the light help warm the space. That was kind of successful, but of course I had to change it once things were in late veg and into flower because lights get hotter, plants get bigger and things get warmer!

This year I have the Cloudline T4 on top of the tent again and will install a carbon filter above the light down the track - so that part is pretty standard.

For the intake, I have ductIng run from up high to behind the circulation fan in an attempt to get the warmest air in the room into the tent, while still venting out the top of the tent, like so;

Airflow experiments.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• Apr 28, 2020

Airflow experiment.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• Apr 28, 2020

I know its a number of degrees warmer up where the intake is and so far this seems to be working well, espcially for helping keep a bit warmer during lights off . Once things heat up, if needed i can easily close off the to vent and open a bottom one.

Every longtime successful indoor grower says it, often many times over: environment is the silver bullet when growing inside (outside too to an extent but we can’t control that!). Many improvements I’ve seen in my indoor work have been because of improvement in the environment, including keeping it fairly stable. Slowly but surely I’m getting there. Lights-on is currently 77º-79ºF and 65%. Overnight it stayed nice and warm at 70º with humidity a bit highter than ideal in the 70% zone - I’m working on that . The trick is to keeping it stable.

Medium and plant food:
Organic soil, usually some kind of ‘living soil’. Currently and to start-off this grow I am using the undeniably superb High Brix kit developed by Doc Bud, which I absolutely adore and using it has enhanced my knowledge of living soils immeasurably and introduced me so some of the most stellar folks I know around here to whom I now feel quite bonded. These plants will be in second run kit soil. I am almost out if Tea, but Doc has given me a few helpful suggestions for substitution so I expect things will go just fine (I’ll cover that when the time comes that I need it).

For a myriad of practical reasons, including the fact that shipping grow stuff like that across the globe now seems just a bit silly to me as well as unsustainable and totally in tension w my commitment to local food and produce security etc. I decided this back in January, during the apocalypse here. It just isn’t really a practical or responsible thing for me to do. To that end, I had planned to go back to mixing my own soil mixes seeing as I have access to more physical help now. Then there was a global shutdown and doing that kind of stuff as a group project also became impractical.

Thankfully, I then discovered a soil builder here who is based fairly close to me and makes water-only mixes ready to go . He also has heaps of other great living-soil products and teas and some drenches for later runs in the soil. This will be what I transition into for now and then slowly add in own-made home-made things over time, as life allows.

I am also incredibly blessed to have rain water, which is only fitting for a garden of Eden. It’s our only water source here.

Okay!

The Lineup!

TheStartingLineup.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• Apr 28, 2020

Early Miss (Crop KIng, prize from 3 years ago) - auto. This one is because I want some more variety as soon as possible and it’s the fastest one I have - which could turn out to be not tru of course (I remember Dutchman’s first Early Miss Auto turned out to be a photoperiod!). I grew it once before outside, at kind of the wrong part of the season and it succumbed to rot during a very wet and humid early summer. Before it did it had the most wonderful terpene profile that included kiwi fruit and papaya so I’m keen to see what happens with it. CK list it as a cross of White Widow and Big Bud (and ruderalis for the AF traits). They say it is indica-dominant at 60% indica, 30% sativa, and 10% ruderalis and should be done in 7weeks. If that turns out true, it should be some quick fun.

Northern Lights (@SeedsMan, recent prize) - auto. I‘ve had some NL plants that didnt make it and have just been wanting to sample it as it’s such an infamous variety. I’ve of course smoked stuff here that was sold as NL and maybe it was, maybe it wasnt. In any case, this auto version from Seedsman gets a pretty good rap from all folks who grow it so I’m keen to give it a run. Seedsman list it as mostly indica with up to 23% THC and finishing in 55-60 days from seed.

Dark Devil (Sweet Seeds, also recent prize from Seedsman) - auto. This one almost needs no introduction around here these days but everyone is new at sometime so it’s always worth it . DDA is a fairly balanced (40%-55%-5% Indica-sativa-ruderalis) auto-flowerIng hybrid that can run anywhere from 60 to 100 days seed to harvest. This is my last original Sweet Seeds seed for now, I had 3, gifted one and lost the other as a vegling to the smoke in mid summer. Fingers crossed for this one! (I have many seeds left from a friends breeding project though, so never fear!). I’ve been toking on DDA all the while building this introduction, so, it’s chatty!

Sour Bubba (@katsubluebird, purchased from Neptune seedbank) - photoperiod. The star forward! I have been chomping at the bit for this one since I bought it late last year. SB is a cross of katsu’s Pre ‘98 cut of Bubba Kush and an equally refined cut of East Coast Sour Diesel. Katsu says that unlike his other Bubba crosses where the Bubba usually dominates, this one nearly always comes out slightly ECSD leaning. I have never knowingly had a Diesel and certainly never grown one and this one sounded like an exceptional cross to me and Katsu’s photos of it spoke to me loudly. I am fully stoked to have it heading up the pack. A few other members have them going now too and everyone’s have looked wonderful.

All seeds are feminised. They were soaked for about 12-15 hours before being planted into peat pucks and placed straight into their pots. They were all happily sinking in the water before planting and Sour Bubba had already cracked a bit.

On the bench:
This run, I will also try to fit in along the way a Panama (Ace Seeds, prize choice from 2 years ago, I been waiting for this one!!) and a CBD variety, which will be either MMG’s Candida, which I’m already a big fan of, or Ace’s CBD#1 which i am yet to try - it’s new. More on those when it happens in a few months. Depending on what happens, there is also a Nepal Jam x Kali China (Ace) in the wings for much later, but it very much depends.

The plan:
Graytail is already familiar with my liking for having scale drawings with to-scale movable pieces from when he first helped me with my light design. I like having physical pieces that represent something clearly to me, to move around and help visualise things. I always keep old cardboard lids or large pieces etc. for these purposes and I built myself this ‘grow planner’. It’s really rough, I have a physical disability so be kind! I cutout coloured strips representing the different plants I want to grow and roughly what their timelines might look like - which I know can vary but I will learn a lot about that over time - and then played around with how it might work, based on what I learned last year about fitting things in.

Week 1-4 I will run lights at 16/8 (they’re already running in fact).
At week 4-5 I will switch to 11/13 lights for the duration.

The planner gives about 1cm to each month, it’s very loose and I have estimated time windows on the coloured cards for veg and flower. Autos and maybes below the line, photos above.

The sketch.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• Apr 28, 2020
• 1

A flexible plan...

The Sour Bubba will have a small pot to start and go into a 7gal when ready. The CBD plant will start and finish in a 6gal. Panama will be my attempt to keep a small one. I’ll start it in a tiny pot and slowly up can as far as 3gal - that will be the first one in the new soil and I plan to dilute that soil a bit for it because it‘s a pure sativa and likely doesn’t need much at all. That will be a learning curve in more than one department.
All plans subject to change! That’s why we have ‘em right?

To finish the intro, I’ll also say that I am, loosely speaking, a moon gardener - and a moon Gardner too . I aim to plant during the new moon, ideally when the moon is in a fertile sign. Here is an excerpt from my moon gardening wall-chart, covering the 1st and 2nd qtr moon phases

Moon planting.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• Apr 28, 2020

...for leafy greens, fruiting and flowering annuals etc.

We discussed this in the DDA thread recently and Cannabis could fall into either category, being a flowering annual, an oil seed producing plant and also an herb and a leafy green (to some extent). So planting later and closer towards the full moon might be just as good - according to the lore. But for me, I like the rhythm of planting sometime in the first week of the new moon, then hopefully within 10 days you have a little seedling, which then has some cosmic support from the waning moon for 2 weeks to get some roots going, and so the cycle between root growth and foliage growth begins. I always doubly mark out the moon planting wall calendar to make the best canna planting windows most obvious, so I can see at a glance if one is approaching.

Planting times.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• Apr 28, 2020

*southern hemisphere and AEST

Planting times.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• Apr 28, 2020

*southern hemisphere and AEST

Working with moon cycles isn’t limited to planting either. If I want new growth, I prune during the new moon.

If we are pruning in the garden here to reduce something or keep it small, we do it on the waning moon and weeding the garden or removing plants is best done in last few days leading up to the dark moon.

I’m not a zealot about it by any stretch, but I do believe it makes a difference (and ther is some modern science to support some of it). At the very least I like working to that rhythm and that’s what counts the most. Happy Gardner, happy plants.

Last but not at all least, Light!
It‘s the sun when outdoors obviously, but indoors I have my DIY samsung LED build. Its 5 x QBs (128 diodes each) at 3500k and 6 x LED strips (72 diodes each) at 3000K, each powered by a seperate driver. I run just the QBs for veg and then add the strips once needed. Here it is below, above the newly planted seeds, waiting for them to show.

A blank canvas.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• Apr 28, 2020

A clean slate, a fresh start and lots of potential!

I have decided that as the critters of the forest here are like my socially-distanced pets, lol!, I will import the ‘critter of the week’ tradition from my outdoor grows to the perpetual. The tent is 4 steps away from the door to outside where the forest is twenty steps away - I’m always outside.

During the winter months it might not be quite weekly, depending on critter activity (including this critter!) but, this week as we get started, the ones who have been making themselves seen and heard are these They are absolutely tiny! And don’t seem to mind at all when I lie down next to them in the grass and put my camera all up in their face - I swear one even jumped up to me the other day!

View media item 1768905
It literally measures about 1/2 an inch, that’s the knuckle of a shoot from some grass just above its head and some out-of-focus chicken-wire fencing in the background.

Well, that’s about the start of things !

Thanks for joining and for any amount of that introduction you read or didn’t read. However you come, I will be honoured to have you here and ask only that we act within the scope of the community guidelines and treat each other and the forum that houses us with love and respect regardless of any differences we may have or discover.

We are all friends of cannabis. Welcome to my virtual garden

I really enjoyed this intro. I look forward to reading through your journal.

 

[Amy Gardner]

So she can't make up her mind?

she’s saying that it isn’t necessarily a problem but it can be an early sign... Oof! Sorry I linked to it!

 

[Amy Gardner]

I really enjoyed this intro. I look forward to reading through your journal.

and triple J! make yourself comfy and enjoy

 

[JimJonesJr]

funnily enough it is just daffodil season here and the bulbs are all up and som of them are giving flowers already - I love autumn flowers.

I’m dropping in today to share my newest ‘accessible’ innovation to the grow tent. I’ve had this simple structure sketched out in my mind for about 2 years and finally had the combination of time and help, and need.

Meet the tent saddle!

I used some fascia timber that got pulled off the house during rennos and won’t be needed anymore. It had a bit of ‘cupping’ which makes the joins not as flat as desirable but it works.

It got cut and sanded into 7 pieces as per my cut list

I was going to glue and screw it but the cupping would’ve made the glueup a bit of a nightmare so we just screwed it.

It was impossible to photograph the whole thing so you can use your imagination a bit...

It sits over the outside of the tent, like a saddle bag, and has a power board on each side at about waist height and the controller/environmental monitoring attached on one side for super easy access and viewing.
.
No more bending down mucking around with power! Plus - no mass of power stuff on the floor and that always makes me happier.

I might hang something decorative on the long exposed wooden piece, I do like the timber though. I do have a cannabis-leaf ornament that would seem an appropriate addition

This small innovation has helped reduce the impact load on my body during setup etc. and will do so every time I need to adjust the light or check power-related things.



Happy Sunday morning from the future folks -

Nice fix. Always better when you find a way to cut wear n tear on your body.

 

[JimJonesJr]

Happy Saturday morning folks

I am realising this morning that I’m really craving some Sativa - I don’t have anything that is more ‘high‘ than stoned right now and I’m starting to notice, LOL!

It’s going to be a while too, I’ll drop my Panama in a month (woohoo!) and that will take a long slow time to finish - maybe the whole grow.

Meanwhile the DDA is surely a wonderful hybrid and I have most definitely been enjoying it this morning

The fact that I can have the DDA alone is a sign that the baseline anxiety has dropped quite a bit since the summer-from-hell levels, when I became unable to toke anything remotely sativa without... well, it just wasn’t right.

I may try to seek-out some Sativa to barter for in the community here. It’s a long shot in this indica-favouring scene - but around new year there were claims of something called ‘Killer’ grown locally, and recently the good quality GDP (indica) came my way, so someone round here is growing some good things Wish me luck!

Coffee and DDA is a great Saturday morning starter to be sure! Wishing every one a great day and weekend

I tend to stay away from the heavy sativa's. They bring on anxiety at horrible levels. It's like a overwhelming barrage of fear and shit running through the mind at 200mph and you can't stop it..lol Not enjoyable..lol.

 

[dynamo1]

 

[DonkeyDick]

I think it qualifies as quite a stupendous @DonkeyDick if ever there was one - whadd’ya say Donk? Do I make the cut?

Circum... spect I know, but

Actual wellness is a very fluctuating thing for me these days but I maintain a sense of well-being as much as I can

I ♡ your attitude. The struggle is real.

303machine

Roland FTW!

Bit annoyed actually. Now I have to try Panama.

 

[Amy Gardner]

Bit annoyed actually. Now I have to try Panama.

Deal with it! You‘ll be happy you did. I wish I’d got more than one seed of it!

 

[BooWho2]

Hi Amy! Your saddle invention is great! I hate having cords and power strips, etc. laying or even dangling everywhere. This is one of the good things about the new cabinet is that it is wood so I’ve put Velcro strips on it and the powers strips, etc. So I can position everything up and out of the way. I wonder if a “saddle” made of canvas draped over the tent would work the same way, using Velcro....hmmm.

 

[Amy Gardner]

Your saddle invention is great!

Hi Boo! Thanks It’s a lifesaver in many ways. I have one of the light drivers attached to it and it means I can read the wattage while adjusting it super easily!

I’m not sure canvas would give you the required resistance - the weight of the powerboards and plugs is pretty significant. PLus I like the solidness for ‘purchase’ when plugging and unplugging.

tend to stay away from the heavy sativa's. They bring on anxiety at horrible levels. It's like a overwhelming barrage of fear and shit running through the mind at 200mph and you can't stop it..lol Not enjoyable..lol.

Not al all. Interestingly it is likely a microdose of the same strain could actually ease anxiety for you, when/if you have it. I am experimenting with that ATM with some success. EG a tiny, tiny hit of panama this morning and I am happy as a lamb

The reason I say a super tiny amount might suit you is becasue cannabis has been shown to be “biphasic” which means a higher dose may give an opposite effect to a low dose. So more does not necessarily give of the same effect.

On that note, I am actually setting up today to make some batches of dosing oil with Sour Bubba and Panama, followed by a big batch of CBD oil with some Candida CD-1. We are nearly out of CBD oil!

I finally got the pics from the

Rootopsy!

sorted out, culled and edited so... that’s next!