Konk's 1st Grow: ON Canada

[Konks Dirt Empire]

So back building makes the bud prettier? Personally I don't care about how it looks as long as it good. Looking good to me.

Maybe, but I think it is fuller AND prettier. Anything that improves yield or encouages fuller development is worth the read to me. Mr. Empire has told me to leave them alone and shook his head at me for the fimming, topping, lst and really got the eyes rolling when I supercropped a few. I don't want to watch 5 Christmas trees when I can try something that works for others and see what happens...Like the cob link you posted, kinda worth trying if you have 5 plants worth to cure.

Ultimately, I just want decent smokable weed. Trying to make the journey one where I don't look back at all I could have tried and didn't.

 

[HutchBenedict]

Beautiful plants! You're doing a fantastic job! I do worry about those plants being out at night as we approach colder weather. It looks like you have 4 weeks or so left before they're finished. Do you plan to take them indoors at night?

 

[Konks Dirt Empire]

Beautiful plants! You're doing a fantastic job! I do worry about those plants being out at night as we approach colder weather. It looks like you have 4 weeks or so left before they're finished. Do you plan to take them indoors at night?

Thank you, Hutch, it's fun to see your monsters grown against the timeline these have had. They are truly twice the size!

We have sun now for the first time in 4 or 5 days, but also have our first frost warning tonight. I could open the tarp overnight, bring them into a screened room or into the garage. I think the garage is easiest. Temps are forcasted to climb for the next week and overnight temps are at least double digits. I hope to leave them out unless frost risk, but am definitely checking the weather a couple times a day. The sunshine today sure makes that 4 weeks left to grow seem possible for the first time in days!

 

[Konks Dirt Empire]

We loaded up the wagon and moved the crop inside the garage for the night to avoid any potential overnight frost.

This visitor hung around for a day and a half. It could be anywhere now, took forever to find him in my direct line of sight

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• Konks Dirt Empire
• Sep 11, 2020
• 14 weeks ontario outdoor

#4, visitor found a new spot

Plant #2, Julie-N 21 days since pistils showed

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• Konks Dirt Empire
• Sep 11, 2020
• 14 weeks ontario outdoor

Plant #2
21 days since pistils

This is plant #5, Random, patriotically showing off her shape.

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• Konks Dirt Empire
• Sep 11, 2020
• 14 weeks ontario outdoor

#5, bagseed patriotic canopy

Plant #5.5, Baby Rand, is a salvaged piece from plant# 5 a clone, I guess. I am going to try backbuilding this one. I think she looks like a strong spare.

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• Konks Dirt Empire
• Sep 11, 2020

#5.5 Baby Rand

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• Konks Dirt Empire
• Sep 11, 2020

#5.5 Baby Rand 27 days of pistils

Safe weekend!

 

[JimJonesJr]

I notice that green beetle is still on that same leaf this morning.

We have a frost warning for tonight. I have a wagon, screened in room, a garage and a tarp overhead in my arsenal to begin googling how I'll deal with this the best I can. On an uplifting note it is brightening up today.

Backbuilding ~ anyone try this? I am not sure where we will go weather wise just yet but am hopefully soon approaching that 5 week mark!

I am also wondering if I maybe drove a spike into one....

Frost warning....damn, that'll keep ya busy. A spike... I'd never encourage folks to do it but if you do I wouldn't use anything larger than a pencil.
I'd never heard of the back building method. Thanks for the info.

 

[Konks Dirt Empire]

Frost warning....damn, that'll keep ya busy. A spike... I'd never encourage folks to do it but if you do I wouldn't use anything larger than a pencil.
I'd never heard of the back building method. Thanks for the info.

Right, I believe it was specifically, a number 2 pencil

 

[Enr0n]

I don't know if it makes a difference but the original #2 was made of wood. I have seen them made of some other substance lately.

 

[Konks Dirt Empire]

I don't know if it makes a difference but the original #2 was made of wood. I have seen them made of some other substance lately.

Point taken, Enr0n lol I think I could run a drill bit through...
It is interesting how days of overcast weather change my level of experimental interest. Little sunshine and it feels like there just may be time left to try a bit more.

 

[StRoostifer]

Right, I believe it was specifically, a number 2 pencil

Yes, #2 is what koolaide man recommended because I didn’t think the softer led pencils would be strong enough for penetration.

Everything is looking great Konk and smart move bringing your ladies in out of the elements.

 

[Konks Dirt Empire]

Wrestled the girls back outside after a night in the garage to protect them from frost. It happened, not a warning, frost September 11th.

Decided that if I was a deer I wouldn't walk past plant 5.5 another week and took a run at backbuilding the bushier right side leaving the two on the left (left of the orange strings) untouched. I am ahead of the week 5 suggestion, so there is that, but I couldn't wait! I was inspired by the sunshine. It seems like maybe there is time left now that it's warm again.

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• Konks Dirt Empire
• Sep 12, 2020

Plant #5.5

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• Konks Dirt Empire
• Sep 12, 2020

Plant #5.5, backbuilding attempt

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• Konks Dirt Empire
• Sep 12, 2020

Backbuilding "deer bits"

Then I checked out plant #5 and eventually came across these creepy little bastards

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• Konks Dirt Empire
• Sep 12, 2020

Plant #5, eggs and moving creepy bugs?

And these

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• Konks Dirt Empire
• Sep 12, 2020
• 1

Plant #5, bugs on stem close up

And these

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• Konks Dirt Empire
• Sep 12, 2020

Plant #5, leaves I removed with eggs or bugs

@BeanTownFan420 said aphids on my gallery pic, thank you!
I can't get neem oil or at least I've looked for it and can't find a .ca version. I don't want to say that I got them all or it's even under contol, but I will definitely see in the morning if I was even near the popular part of the plant.

Things took a nice turn in the evening when this mobile weed wagon got MacGyverized. I can run the whole crop into the garage and lift nothing! Reminds me that I had all the plants crowded together next to the aphid host...

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• Konks Dirt Empire
• Sep 12, 2020

Hill~Hippie Weed Wagon

 

[Konks Dirt Empire]

oh yeah, I also trimmed (backbuilt ? ) the the foldy brown limb on plant #1 in the screen.
Will the foldy limb try harder to make the damaged bud fuller or is it too much on a damaged piece to begin with? ... It looks to have kept up pre-trim, we will see.

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• Konks Dirt Empire
• Sep 12, 2020

Plant #2, brown stem bud

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• Konks Dirt Empire
• Sep 12, 2020

Plant #1 foldy limb bud

 

[Konks Dirt Empire]

Found the info below in Pest section.

IDENTIFICATION AND TREATMENT
No matter the preventative measures you engage in, a pest population will infiltrate your crop eventually. For you growers with larger gardens, keep your eyes on weak plants! Pests infect one plant first, build up numbers and launch an offensive on every nearby edible object. I once was visiting a compatriot's grow underneath a 4 season porch with 24 plants. The plants on the left were doing very well, but the farther to the right the garden went, the more destroyed his crop had become. Some species of boring worm had successfully attacked a sick plant in a corner. When he discovered the infiltration point, the plant was essentially dead where it stood, worms crawling through almost the entirety of its stalks. From that plant, the worms spread quickly enough to destroy 15 of his 24 plants. Most insects lay thousands of eggs during their lifespan of weeks. If ten pests lay 100 eggs and their offspring each lay 100 eggs, your pest population has jumped from 10 to 100,000. This can occur in DAYS. Pay special attention to sickly plants, the evolutionary process dictates vulnerability to preying organisms. Men greater and wiser than I have adamantly stated that using chemicals on plants destined to be inhaled should ALWAYS be used as a last resort. Commercial and chemical pesticide have the creatures they eradicate listed on the label. Remember if you do choose to use chemicals that you will be lighting this stuff on fire and inhaling the smoke. If you have to use a nuke, allow enough time for the radiation to die down capeesh? Use these long before harvest. This article will focus on organic and non-toxic pest control.

There are four methods you can employ to combat pests.

-Repression: If the means to exterminate your particular bug isn't immediately available, there are usually countermeasures you can take to slow infestations or decrease numbers of current pests. Taking these countermeasures during treatment further increases the effectiveness of the method you choose to utilize.
-Predators: The internet has opened up the world to the grower for specific predatory insects that will dine or destroy others voraciously. Most predators identified in this article are so specialized the specific pest is completely defenseless.
-Manual removal: Exactly what it sounds like. Picking the things off, crushing eggs, removing branches that have colonies in place. If caught early enough, manual removal can control pests sufficiently they will not fully infest your plants.
-Spray: When applying pesticide in a spray, ensure you use a spreader sticker. This is any type emulsifier that aids the pesticide in sticking to the leaves and commercial products are readily available for purchase. When your plant is budding this is especially necessary because the leaves of your plants are developing coatings of resin that will shed what you are spraying. If not purchasing a product, a teaspoon of dish soap per gallon of water will work fine. Jorge Cervantes tells us that any type of spray applied to plants will slow its growth temporarily as it will clog the stomata on the underside of leaves. Spraying water 1-2 days after application of a spray can help to clear stomata and aid the plant in resuming vigorous growth.

Lets get to the beasts shall we? The prevention sections will be all but useless to the outdoor gardener, however the treatments will be equally effective. Pests are listed alphabetically and predators are identified by exact species to avoid any confusion.

Aphids

Prevent: Aphids are most present indoors when lots are present outdoors. The aphid CAN fly when looking for a new home. Sticky traps placed on the floor near plants and hanging near the top will help discourage their forays indoors.
Identify: Aphids are usually grey but can range to any color. Regardless of their color, aphids will feast on any part of your plant by biting into leaf, stem, and bud alike while sucking the life out of the plant. Once attached, the aphid becomes stationary and fairly easy to spot. A 10x magnifier will be sufficient for positive identification. Female aphids do not require mating to reproduce and will excrete a live female offspring between 3 and 100 times every day. These offspring are hungry! Ants parading around the base of your plant can also be a sign of aphid infestations. Ants naturally farm aphids to feed off their excretions. Aphids suck sap from reaching your plant's tissues causing leaves to wilt and turn yellow. After infestation has progressed you may notice buildup of aphid excretion called honeydew. APHIDS WILL TARGET WEAK PLANTS LIKE NO OTHER PARASITE!

 

[Enr0n]

Caterpillars are what I look for a lot. Had a nice bud near the top of a cola get wiped out had to cut the whole section. Looking good and the back building looks interesting.

 

[Konks Dirt Empire]

Caterpillars are what I look for a lot. Had a nice bud near the top of a cola get wiped out had to cut the whole section. Looking good and the back building looks interesting.

There have been some creepy crawlies around but not enough to fret about and not catrpillars. I had not really gone over them for about 5 days, this seems to be just the one plant...so far. Although, I did find some suspicious crap on plant #3 just not as blatant as plant #5. I intend to obsess even more lol

I couldn't resist taking a run at that #5.5 plant, I thought the backbuilding looked interesting too. We'll see.

 

[Konks Dirt Empire]

I have a little covered spot where I can take another look at the aphids on plant #5...

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• Konks Dirt Empire
• Sep 13, 2020

Tarped the weed wagon

 

[Enr0n]

Here is the bud section clearly missing from my plant. And then the sunny side. Not what you have but o well at least it's something. Bag seed and was badly newbie abused by me of course.

 

[HutchBenedict]

I'm curious to see how that back building experiment works out. I've seen Emilya do it but with more developed buds. Can't wait to see!

 

[Konks Dirt Empire]

I'm curious to see how that back building experiment works out. I've seen Emilya do it but with more developed buds. Can't wait to see!

Hmm, they really are much more developed in the backbuilding link in my signature. You know, had I noticed I may not have even tried. I do not see mine getting near that size in a week. I have nothing to compare the growth to but it seems too optimistic. If these were closer to the bush something would probably nibble them. I went with the impulse, in the sunshine, that they would have time to recover if I just went for it.
Some lesson should come from this.

 

[Konks Dirt Empire]

Here is the bud section clearly missing from my plant. And then the sunny side. Not what you have but o well at least it's something. Bag seed and was badly newbie abused by me of course.

Looks like you cleaned that up perfectly. Likely, painfully geez!
No, not the same but something to tuck away for when things get wetter this Fall.

 

[Konks Dirt Empire]

So, after picking aphids off of the stems and trimming leaves right up tight high on the flowers I went with the almanac recipe. Used the alcohol version with soap and cut the recipe into thirds... went at plants #5 & #3 with about 3 cups of the solution. I may regret that, but those little buggers are quick and it was overcast and misty. Time will tell.

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• Konks Dirt Empire
• Sep 13, 2020
• 5

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