Update: the one with Amy’s bit on the side 
Ooof! Are we tired yet?
Back from the
5th evacuation (4 from home, 1 from the safe house in town the day that got hit) and very,
very happy to be home again
So, to the garden!
Back on December 27 I dropped a seed for
THC Bomb Auto in one of our raised wicki-beds that we use for veggie growing (documented
here and
here).
That’s Doc Bud ‘Roots!’ powder, mycorrhizae, you can see sprinkled around the hole (it’s meant to just go
in it, but I’m pretty generous with it
(i.e., I slipped, lol!)
It’s a freebie from when Bomb Seeds were a sponsor and they say it is “one of the most powerful and high yielding autoflowering strains available“. This is the usual hype you’d expect from a breeder, I know, but the photo version THC Bomb
is a high producing strain and I wanted an auto that might be able do
something outdoors and Bomb Seeds say it goes ok indoors and out, so it seemed a good candidate.
After evacuation number 1, which was 2 weeks long, I was really amazed to see that it had popped up and was actually growing quite well. Quite incredible considering that any sun that
was out back then was shrouded in heavy smoke for weeks, not to mention that a wildfire - an
actual firestorm, not just a regular bushfire - came within 300m of it so temps would have been extremely high on that day. Plus, hot days, cold nights and many cold smokey days after the firestorm.
I didn’t pay it much attention once we got back as I was concentrating on getting the photo-kids into the raised bed and I was not functioning very well! Oh yeah - plus, there was another evacuation and another fire that came even closer (within 20m of house and garden).
Last Wednesday I realised that it still hadn’t started to flower and was about 7” or so tall with quite a few little side shoots. This is pretty good for
any auto, so outside and under these conditions, it’s pretty impressive. We were about to evac. again that night and I decided to be fully positive about being back home after the weekends severe weather, so I laid it flat...
THC BOMB AUTO 29 Jan 2020
I don’t think I’ve ever had an auto grow that big without any signs of flower so that’s a good sign right there and I’m happy to have a few seeds left of this one.
So, off we went for a few days to our little hotel by the sea, abandoning the house and garden to their fate - which turned out to be good
Yesterday, a week later, that little auto looked like this:
LIttle flower buds coming in on all the tops and some pretty healthy looking potential. For an auto that gets about 6hrs direct sun a day, hasn’t really been ‘fed’ yet and has lived through 2 firestorms, I’m damn impressed.
You may also have noticed a little something behind the THC Bomb. Remember
Lillymut? The original Lilly seed that didn’t grow for ages with a weird triploid mutation thing going on? Well, I couldn’t kill it and it just sat in a tiny little pot, smaller than a solo cup, for ages until I noticed that it was still alive and that it had grown out of it’s funkiness a little bit. I transplanted it next to the THC Bomb and laid it over a bit as well. It gets even less sun at the moment, but once the beans finish that will change and it may even produce a little bud or 2 - that’d be fun
It’s a little hard to see because The THC Bomb stem is right there in the background. Base of Lilly stem is on the left, tip is on the right. And from above...
Not a lot, but not nothing!
The kids in the raised bed are doing ok. Still not a lot of vigour but flowering seems to be getting started in earnest. We’ve had a big increase in whitefly population since the last heatwave and that’s a bit overwhelming out there - usual natural balances are not really happening and we haven’t been here to maintain it.
In the last 2 weeks they’ve had a hearty Growth Ionic drench, a LeafWash, some rain (about 6mm, not much) and then a Trans/water a couple of days ago. No Brix spray for ages - if at all actually. Not much point when they’re struggling I don’t think - and the Leaf Wash has had to take precedence in any case. They did get Destress aplenty, early on.
Late in the day photo - they get full sun for 5-7 hours and dappled sun through the late afternoon. Clockwise from front left: PCK, PS, Lilly, SP x WX.
Purple Satellite is only going to have about 3 colas i think, but i expect them to be beautiful! Lilly has a veritable
mass of side branching, but is a bit pale and a bit droopy a lit of the time. This has improved a little and will hopefully improve again after the next drench, which will be a full Transplant drench. I may make it a very strong one to give the whole bed a big boost. Both the indicas at the front are looking more vigorous. PCK has lots of good looking side branching and the SP x WX has lots of shoots too, but they’re still very short.
The ones I topped I topped too late, so growth forms are all a bit out of whack. But I’ll do what i can to maximise their access to sunlight and feel very stoked that I still have some plants, and that they’re starting to flower.
I’ll get some better shots of them in sun and stuff soon i promise!
We have some serious rain predicted for later this week
. Finally, some decent tropical activity in the northwest is generating some water for us down in the southeast - the way is usually does... we’re right on the edge of the forecast zone so fingers crossed that we get a decent amount of it!
Critter of the week this week has to go to this cheeky fantail who asked me if i would please send this one on the Prime Minister for him!
Now
that’s flipping the bird!
Happy wake-n-bakes, morning canna-coffees, mid-morning tokes, lunchtime Medibles, joint fuelled walks in the forest, afternoon can tea followed by naps followed by more wake-n-bake delights, evening tokes over dinner and telly and bedtime hash treats to all!
That sounds pretty good actually - I think that’s my day
And are not really ideal for our little Eden up the hill. No news is good news tho - our neighbour said she’s keep us posted if anything comes to pass there. Some intense activity going on not very far south and west of here, where inland winds and ocean winds meet.
.
and welcome to my Garden of Eden on the edge of Apocalyptica! 
Amazing how fresh and peaceful things look! 
