Amy Gardner's First Journal - Outdoor - Critical Cure & Chaos In The Forest

[Amy Gardner]

Re: Amy Gardner's First Journal - Outdoor - Critical Cure & Chaos In The Forest

I've been living with extreme chronic pains since 2007. The first years I had a lot of hope of getting well again. Then I lost all hope. If I can get a few minutes with less pain now and then I really appreciate it - so my expectations have gone from getting better to this.... Accepting that you have to live with this for the rest of your life - that is the hardest part. After that things get better - believe it or not. Of course my condition can't be compared with your. I am sorry for your suffering dear Amy

Thanks man! It really helps when you know someone who understands from that perspective. Acceptance is the hardest! Especially to balance it with believing in the pathway of improvement - an odd balance to find... a form of acceptance that doesn't equate to giving up.
I hope your Lyme recovery is going ok - there's a lot of similarities with what we're both navigating. Solidarity brother!!

 

[Amy Gardner]

Sadly my insect identification books only cover western Canada lol. I do know that it probably doesnt taste good, being brightly coloured, and is not a predator based on the eye location/position. Pretty neat looking though.

It is neat looking hey!? It's literally about 4mm long only. So very cute. Thanks for dropping by...

Your outdoor grow brings back happy memories from years past. I love growing outdoors despite all the little set backs Mother Nature throws at us.

Happy to inspire good memories PW. It's kind of relaxing and stressful isn't it? Like I can't change the height of the sun, or seal them off from all insects etc so no need to stress too much. Sometimes (recently) when it won't stop raining I get a bit antsy tho!!

I'm going to update on the enclosure garden today sometime. It's more relaxing for the Gardner than the bushpods, much easier to get in to and easy access to the plants. They've really come along since their last update...

 

[Pennywise]

I grew outdoors from 1977 to 2004, just gotta take the good with the bad. I really did love the outdoor grows.

 

[Skullman420]

dream about growing outdoors. Perhaps some day a strain will come that can handle this cold. Until then we continue to be the electric comany's best friend

 

[Pennywise]

Much safer indoors

 

[Amy Gardner]

Much safer indoors

Hehe, no killer ants!!

 

[Pennywise]

I snakes either lol

 

[Amy Gardner]

Amy Gardner's First Journal - Outdoor - Critical Cure & Chaos In The Forest

Salutations,

I am humbly inviting you to participate in an advanced cannabis photographers thread. I would like you to be a contributor and supporter of this thread if it interests you. All it requires is to submit a brief bio, quoting the second post, and helping out when you can or sharing information from time to time.

Cheers

The 420 Fotographer Collective

I'm so chuffed you like my pics. And I've been having a great time over in that virtual lab. Anyone interested in photography, I recommend subbing up to that thread - heaps of great experience, knowledge and photography tips and tricks being exchanged. Not to mention awesome photography, both canna and non-canna. It's got me experimenting a lot. Reps to Urban for the initiative. I've learnt heaps there already and my new monopod arrived yesterday so I'm hoping to get out to the garden with camera today!

 

[AKgramma]

Nice update Amy, glad you are feeling a bit better, everything is looking good. Getting out into the sun and the garden never did anyone harm. Besides a sun burn. Or ant bites followed by allergic reactions. Well ok it hurts sometimes lol

Sadly my insect identification books only cover western Canada lol. I do know that it probably doesnt taste good, being brightly coloured, and is not a predator based on the eye location/position. Pretty neat looking though.

The only ants with wings are males during mating season. And ants don't directly harm plants.

HOWEVER...... Some ants keep aphid farms, and harvest their nectar by stroking the aphids. I have seen whole bushes with a solid coating of aphids on willow bushes, and the ants crawling around on them, harvesting nectar. Although willows, which grow into trees, will regrow missing leaves, cannabis does not have time to recover from an aphid infestation.

 

[Amy Gardner]

Amy Gardner's First Journal - Outdoor - Critical Cure & Chaos In The Forest

The only ants with wings are males during mating season. And ants don't directly harm plants.

HOWEVER...... Some ants keep aphid farms, and harvest their nectar by stroking the aphids. I have seen whole bushes with a solid coating of aphids on willow bushes, and the ants crawling around on them, harvesting nectar. Although willows, which grow into trees, will regrow missing leaves, cannabis does not have time to recover from an aphid infestation.

Yeah - I watched ants farming aphids on a plant I grew a few years ago, it was pretty wild and kind of disgusting to witness!

I'm noticing some ants on my babies in the enclosure garden but no evidence of aphids at this stage - I have hover flies too and they help keep aphids down. I flick the ants off sometimes but I'm a bit nervous doing that now as that was literally the last thing I had done before the ant bite that sent me to hospital in NYE. It was a different ant tho, but still... I'm wary now!

That little fly I'm trying to identify, I'm fairly sure it's just a fly of some kind, not a flying ant. We have a wetlands close by and the range of insects here is phenomenal!

I have neem cake in my soil and some insect frass too, both of which are meant to make plants less palatable to pesties.

A question tho, for anyone who actually knows, at what stage should I stop foliar spraying. The enclosure babies are in the flower stretch now, is it ok to continue foliar spraying into flower?

Apart from foliar feeding, I was thinking about a series of gentle neem tea foliars to reduce activity and potential incomings. There are a few bits of eaten leaves here n there, some minor leaf miner activity and occasionally I disturb what seem like little white flies. Nothing major, and it's outside so there's going to be stuff. Was just thinking the neem tea sprays might help push them back a bit - but not sure about foliar now they're in early flower...


.

 

[AKgramma]

I would stop spraying for mites and bugs a couple weeks before harvest, because that stuff is bitter. I understand that Neem is a systemic miticide and is absorbed by the plant.

There are posts pro and con about stopping nutes a week or two before harvest and feeding only water to flush out bitter chemicals from the soil and dilute what the plant takes in during that time.

 

[KingJoe83]

Sorry Amy

 

[SweetSue]

An organic soil has no harsh chemicals to flush out. Am I wrong in believeing this is organic soil Amy?

I never considered stopping berm foliarsba couple days out AKgramma, but you make a good point. I'd just always assumed it'd be ok to use right up to harvest. I wash at harvest so it never concerned me.

Ants are the ultimate cultivators. They're the reason our plants grow so well outdoors. Well... then and the myco. Fungi rule the world.

Just passing through as I ride the bus home from our matinee of Wicked. Oh Amy... such delight! The details were enthralling. Almost to my stop now. Catch you later.

 

[Amy Gardner]

Update: The enclosure episode 1 - Professor Chaos

Well first, just let me share this... first pic is the enclosure 10 days ago... second pic is today!

This update focuses on the remaining Professor Chaos who, by the way, I'm extremely happy with. She probably suffered the most early on when delays in other areas meant seedlings stayed in small pots way too long. Hers was the smallest and at one point i wasn't sure she was going to be ok - well she's thankfully rendered my doubts moot! I'll give a bit of a timeline in photos since its been so long since i posted.

starting on Jan 12, just after i'd bent the stem over backwards...

Then I actually tied the stem down, I'd been thinking about it, and King suggested it and that was enough to prompt the action (you can just see the tent peg & pantyhose i used to tie down if you look hard! Jan 16...

Fast forward 10 days to today. It's fantastic how much happens in 10 days at this stage... from the front

And from the top...

She's got pistils popping out all over the place... but they're hard to capture in photo for some reason. Photographing my plants is a developing skill - and one I'm having a lot of joy with I can tell you. I'm using a tripod now and I think i'm getting better shots...

So that's the Professor for this week - i'll leave you with this one of her from 2 days ago, in the morning light...

Such a happy looking plant don't you agree?

As i mentioned already, living near a wetlands (ok it's a swamp - but it's a beautiful swamp!), means millions of different kinds of insects and that's partly why the critter quotion has been a lot of insects lately. That, and the season I think. One of the ones we have in great numbers is dragonflies, and I love them. I've never seen 2 alike, and during warm periods in spring there are days where the air is practically thick with them. At the moment there's probably 50+ at any given time zooming about the house and garden. They're wicked fast and super hard to catch wth a camera (like the Snitch) - but sometimes, if you talk to them 'real nice'... they'll hang still for a minute. This one posed beautifully for me - even lifting and landing a few times to give me some different angels LOL... then it held this pose for long enough to get one in focus!

Thanks for sharing in my garden... I'll be back later with update on the CBD CC and the solstice babies. Time to rest now.

 

[Amy Gardner]

Even though we are not free, in our minds we can be

I like this - I go surfing in my mind a lot (I was/am into all kinds, bodysurfing, bodyboarding, kneeling, standing up). It's kind of the closest thing to flying I think. And I love birds too. So I love this pic ... and I really like the moodiness you've brought out in it (referencing your post about post production on it over in the fotographers room) .

Thanks DeVille

 

[Tony Urban]

Beautiful shot Amy. I have spent some time taking photos in swamps and hunting pretty things to take pictures of. I have a shot of a very similar insect. It turned out to be a damselfly, which is just a smaller/narrow dragonfly. They are fascinating to watch and getting a good photo of one is a bit of a challenge. Well done

 

[Amy Gardner]

Update: The Enclosure episode 2 - CBD Critical Cure


Full flowering stretch is upon her!

I'll give a photographic timeline again to show the growth and movement over the last few weeks. I'm not leaf tucking much any more, but I've left her slightly leant back - the sun is a little north of overhead so it seems to work, and she seems to like it. I didn't mention in the previous episode that int he last month som teas have been given (either seaweed or worm wee and a couple of times I added some ground malted barley for enzymes), a couple of foliar sprays (always seaweed), and some garden lime at some point (when I realised while reading that my calcium ratios are probable a bit off, but really I've no test info and no idea what was already present in the soil and clay that's already here so I'm flying fairly blind )

OK - so this was NYE remember? she's the one on the right

And on Jan 12 things were accelerating...

only 4 days later... Jan 16

and today ...

Again, she is pushing out pistils everywhere now but its hard to capture outdoors, dunno why. I'm sure it will get easier as they multiply

here's a couple of angles of her (although it's hard to be anywhere but in 'front' 'cause of the structure of my garden)

yesterday evening with flash...

yesterday morning in the sunlight...

today a little closer in...

And this, I took this pic a week ago and needless to say that whatever this is, it is not there anymore. I removed it straight after taking the photo. Is is some kind of spider making a cocoon? I'm not seeing evidence of any major pesty problems so i'm not particularly worried about it, just curious what it is...

I'm very happy with this CBDCC, it's going to make lovely oil to help my ECS facilitate balance in my systems (and those of others too) and I'm stoked with how healthy she is looking. Many of the newer leaves are 7 bladed, which while partially genetics, I've also read it can indicate health and vigour. There were 7 blades on many of the early leaves, then more 5 bladed, and now lots of 7 bladed again.

I feel like I've been holding out on you all with the fluffy cuddly critters - although, while many of our marsupials look cute & cuddly, they're actually pretty fierce! We have a mob of kangas that hang out in various numbers here. Usually the females and young ones. I've been lucky enough to see many joeys fresh out of the pouch trying their very powerful legs for the first time - which is highlarious and delightful I have to say. Anyway, mostly they eat the grass or sleep - or eat the grass while lying down, I kid you not! We have been here 5 years and have only had to mow the lawn about 3-4 times... very cheap gardeners... (the pic is not great quality, is from an old phone)

That concludes episode 2 of the enclosure - thanks for watching. Episode 3 is in production - the solstice girls - release later...

 

[Pennywise]

Girls are looking super happy! Here we use goats for cheap lawn care lol

 

[bignstrange]

Big n strong! Looking great Amy! :3 . .

 

[Amy Gardner]

Girls are looking super happy! Here we use goats for cheap lawn care lol

Yep! And I'm pretty happy too.
Goats - they're a menace on this continent. They eat more than the grass don't they?

Big n strong! Looking great Amy! :3 . .

Thanks Big - I'm fairly proud of them so far!

It's early Sunday morning here and recently I've tempered my use of the vape and am only "wake n baking" occasionally (instead of every other day, or everyday) - today is a day for that!! Ahh a lovely slow morning gazing at my garden . I'm also needing to give some tea to the girls, better not get too high to manage that...

Hope y'all are having a super weekend