Garden Update - who's left?!
I've realised while writing that this has become the
“pests and problems outdoor grows can have” update. lol! After a couple of beautiful harvests we might as well inject a little reality balance, eh?
None of these little issues I’m showcasing here are disastrous by
any means. They’re all things that can happen to any grow so rather than grumble a bit about them and keep them a bit quiet, I thought I’d feature the progression of a couple of things.
There's been quite the transition with the harvest of the 2 bigger plants (how great were my harvests!
CBDCC harvest &
Professor Chaos harvest) in the raised bed. The little solstice babies I was training along the ground became little bonsai type things and are building some nice looking miniature colas. The Ice (Female Seeds) is particularly small but I think the light was the least in that spot and, well, I stressed them early plus they had a shortened veg time - so a few factors working against them there. The Money Bush (Afghan x Skunk #1) out in the Bush Pod must be close to harvest. I haven’t been out to check it in about a week. 10 days ago it had some botrytis removed - last time I checked, the rest looked ok
. More on that on and the solstice babies later. I want to start with the one I want some input on (well I’m happy for input whenever, on
any of them of course - but this one has me concerned)
Golden Tiger x Northern Lights #2 (40 days in flower)
This is the solstice baby (dropped seed at summer solstice) who ended up in the big pot and was looking soooo good a few weeks ago. She is now in a little bit of struggle. In the last few weeks, some yellowing of lower fan leaves started to happen. No biggie, I thought, and at first it was only a few leaves and only here & there (all lower, all a little bit in the shade etc.) but it’s escalated the last week or so to a level I don’t think is ok. It’s only about halfway through flower so it’s too early for this many fans to be yellowing to drop off. And, the fade is traveling up the plant. I’ve managed a bit of adjustment that should help (i hope!) and that has included some (a pinch of) epsoms. Some photos of the fade are below. First though, let me show you her new home, because yesterday she got ‘moved’ to the raised bed where the 2 now harvested have been growing (kind of between them).
The bottom of the pot got removed (thanks Shed!)...
I sprinkled some Mycos in there on the soil... forgot to photograph that (but at least I didn’t forget to
do it!)
And it’s now all tucked in ...
Fade wise, a month ago when just entering flower she was looking almost brixy!
But then here she is 10days ago (on the left) already clearly losing a bit of vigour, and on the right a week later (last friday)
We’ve had super amounts of rain so there’s definitely been the potential for some depletion in a pot. I supplemented afterwards with an organic, made for weed, seaweed based fertiliser (OGS). And it’s been topdressed in that time with worm compost and freshly ground malted barley and a pinch of epsoms (because the fade was starting already then and it looked like low magnesium fade). But it’s been 2+ weeks since the topdress as I haven’t been able to collect the compost/castings.
On Thursday my garden helper was here and he convinced me to check the Ph of the soil in the pot. So I did. It was low - like 6.
Resisting his desire for me to use dolomite, I sprinkled some hardwood ash on the surface. Don’t ask me why I didn’t get him to dig out some compost/castings for me - it was a big day, he had a lot to do and, well, it just didn’t happen. Ph wise, the soil in the raised garden bed, that the cutoff pot is now sitting on, is good, at 6.5, so I’m hoping that things are going to work themselves out quickly enough to to recover and finish off ok (with a topdress as soon as humanly possible). I’m a little bit bummed that my soil didn’t make it through the whole grow in the pot because I was thinking it was good and planning to do something similar for my indoor run in a couple of months - but I suppose the rains washing it through won’t happen indoors, and maybe that did more to deplete it than I’d think. Plus, I had
no such trouble with the raised bed soil - it’s been fabbo! So I expect something similar indoors without the rain depletion, plus ensuring my stinging nettle tea can last the whole grow, will see me right. But I’m getting ahead of myself there.
For the purposes of diagnosis and in case it helps others, here’s an image showing the progression of the fade on leaves. This is 4 seperate leaves at different stages. I’m fairly sure this is low magnesium, followed by low calcium too considering the brown spots that only appear right towards the end of the fade. There was plenty calcium in the mix and she grew strong bones so I’m thinking its either washout from the rain, or lockout because of Ph - or a little of each
My own diagnosis is Ca and Mg being washed out of the pot by the heavy rains which has led to the depletion as well as the ph drop - which exacerbates the deficiency (because of some lockout perhaps).
Elsewhere she is still looking ok but nowhere near the vigour of a few weeks ago. Here’s hoping she bounces back! Also that she gets enough sun to finish. That’s the purpose of running her like this actually. To see how long the spot retains good sun so I can pick future chemovars that will finish well in the timeframe of the lowering sun. But I've become attached - she gave me my first 9 bladed leaves and she's been so beautiful till now! She's almost 6weeks into flower and I've no idea what her finish time is. The GT is long flowerer and the NL is short. She looks Sativa dominant to me so I'm guessing a long flower... hope I can get her through!
I leave you with some pics of her better parts (the tops are holding their colour so far - but you can see the yellow sneaking in to some of these pics)
The other solstice babies
Her ‘little sisters’ are chugging along ok in their tiny-ness, so cute. They took a lot of punishment! It was a fun experiment but I’d do things differently in the future. The
GT x NL #1 has succumbed recently to the white fly population by the looks of her leaves...
However, she looks pretty good regardless and is coming along towards harvest...
Ice (Female seeds) is positively tiny. Damn sticky though! I trimmed them all up the other day and got so sticky just pulling off some of her minuscule larfy buds from the lower stems. She's very cute...
Harvest update - the dry and cure
Well, drying and curing cannabis when you’re ambient humidity ranges from 70-85% is a challenge! It’s taken a long time for the CBD CC to get to the point where I can maybe put the bovedas in the jar. I’ve had a tough time getting the humidity on my room down so every time I burped the jar, the RH inside the jars went up! I jarred the CC and it was between 60-65 and then over the next week it ending up at 70+ and would rise wth each burp. The Professor Chaos had been hanging 6days by Friday and I wanted to get it into jars too so I’ve ended up bringing the dehumidifier from the bathroom into my room. That's worked well the last 2 days - once I get the RH below 65% I open all the jars for a good number of hours until the meters read 62% or under and then seal them all up again. This morning the RH in the jars is reading about 66% for the CBDCC and 70% for the Professor. The ambient RH in my room was 72-73% again so I’ve been running the dehumidifier for about 40 mins now and its down to 68%. Once it gets below 65% I’ll open them all up a for again for a while. The CBD CC will probably get the Bovedas then. I’m not sure If I’m meant to keep burping them daily once the Bovedas go in - or if I should wait before adding them. Don't want to wear out the Bovedas by opening the jars into 75% RH. Anyway - the dehumidifier seems to be doing the trick!
I love this way of lining up the jars I have worked out - check it! The jars lay nicely on the lids and sit up at a slight angle. It makes it easy to see and easy to gently turn the jars for airflow occasionally - plus, I think they look pretty funky all lined up like that - this was the Professor Chaos' first visit into the jars!
It’s quite a process developing ones curing ‘Kung-fu’! I hope I’m doing it right! This first stage is certainly happening very slowly! Just a bit nervous about mould - it is very humid here.
So speaking of mould - the pod update includes a bit of a budrot lesson...
The POD! (Money Bush by Heavyweight)
According to my garden helper, many folks in the area have lost their bush plants this season to mould and rot. This makes me very happy that I’ve managed to harvest well. It also makes me think I’d better get out there and see how close the Money Bush is to harvest (aiming to try that today). I’ve already had to cut off a cola top due to botrytis. I saw that some botrytis was possibly coming and couldn’t do a thing about it so thought I might as well turn it into a little pictorial on what it looks like when its developing.
The first thing I noticed was weeks ago in a photo, on March 16... see the necrotic leaf...?
So I reached through the net (it's flexible) and pulled that leaf off. It came very easily of course and I knew then the rot was on! Couldn't get in to fix it up so ... a week later this... you can see on that back cola some discolouring...
Another week on and heaps of rain and I was finally able to dedicate my activity allocation to that project - between harvests!
First pic is whole plant and you can see the botrytis clearly on the top right cola - even in the bad light!
So I got in took some closeups of it to give you all a really good look!
I snipped of at the stem a bit below where the rot was... but on inspection there was a suspicious something left behind...
I chopped the main stem below this bud too and ended up with this in the hand...
I gave the rest of her a cleanup and a really good inspection and couldn't detect any more rot. Here's some of her sugar...
And the trimmed cola...
And finally all closed up again - one exhausted Gardner!
The budrot has gone into the freezer for future paincream oil infusion as per Shed's guide (linked a few pages back).
When I replaced one of the big rocks that secure the net at the entrance, I was very startled by about 20 ants - they weren't huge (about 1/2 an inch) but they scattered quickly and they were jumping. I recognised their features and behaviour instantly as
Jack Jumper Ants - yes, for those of you who remember, the species of ant that put me in hospital with anaphylaxis on NYE!
I only managed to get a pic of one with my phone, the others had scattered so fast - and I was keeping a distance...
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Treacherous here ain't it! I'd literally just been crawling all over the ground in there. It's not the bite - they have a sting at the back end, a bit like a scorpion!
We only usually see them alone so to see so many together like that makes me pretty sure they have a nest right at the entrance to the pod
. They make nests hidden under leaves and mulch so I'm fairly certain. I haven't been back out there since - and I'll be getting help with the harvest so will be being extra careful. I may even just delegate the whole thing... I certainly shouldn't be there when the net gets removed! Hoping to harvest that one this weekend. NO idea where it's up to now - will check it today or tomorrow.
I can't make the jack jumper ant the critter of the week - even if it is life threatening to me.
More appropriately, I'll focus on the birds I've been talking about. They're very busy about the garden at the moment, in & out of the enclosure and always all around up while we harvest. I'm developing my skills with my new camera - this week has been manual focus practice and with little birds, this is super challenging and you have to be quick. This one came out pretty well. It's possible you could read this as a pic of a trapped or caged bird, but consider: is it trying to get out, or in?
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I try to say it all in less words, I really do!
Thanks for hanging with me (if you did) and for enjoying another Gardner's update. Love to all who visit here and happy gardens too...
. The pain can travel away from the shingles site along the nerve path too. Shingles is actually a viral infection of the nerves themselves. The virus goes dormant after chicken pox and will resurface opportunistically in a compromised immune system. It’s not much fun feeling even sicker and in more pain than usual that’s for sure. Cannabis is thankfully a mood saver as well! So after I make my oils today I’ll have topical for pain (and lovely skin 
- took a little extra there when my eyes are bigger than my lungs.
) it grinds the bud in the oil so you can probably get away with not having all the oil covered when you start.
. I will be back to eyeball it when i'm not completely high hahaha.