OlderStoner - Indoor/Outdoor Grow

OK...phase 1 of the counter attack on the spider mites began today. A box of ladybugs arrived. I ordered these from one of the big box stores. Shipping was quick, only 2 days. In fact when I was notified they had arrived I rushed to my house to get them out of the hot sun. I was surprised at the quantity of them. There were two mesh bags inside of the box. I only opened one of them and there had to be at least a couple of hundred in it. The other bag looks like it has even more of them but I placed that bag back in the box and then the box went into the refrigerator until I get home. I gotta tell you this is kind of neat. I know they are just bugs but I also know they are living, breathing beings. I place a flat plastic plate on the floor and put fresh spring water into it. And then I poured some honey out onto an area of the tarp. Some of them discovered the water, some discovered the honey. But most of all, some of them discovered those damn spider mites on the plants. I noticed a few of them digging deep into the buds of the Cotton Candy plant and the other White Widow plants. I can only assume they were going in there for the spider mites and their eggs. All of the flowering buds got some attention from the newly arrived friends of mine. Soon they were flying around the room and exploring the other plants.

I know that with the number of spider mites in the room right now, they will probably eat all of them in just a couple of hours, or for sure by tomorrow morning, all the spider mites will be gone. That's my thinking anyway. I will let the lady bugs stay as long as they want, unless they start eating the plants. Tonight I'm going to build a small terrarium with some branches and leaves and then put plenty of sugar water, honey and whatever else I can research that they like to eat. If they hang around long enough the eat all the spider mites and their eggs, they've been well worth the cost, which was only about $20 including shipping. When the time comes I will release all of them into the outdoors. I read an article yesterday that the local government officials released over 6,000 lady bugs in an area to eradicate whiteflies. So releasing them into the wild is something that's already been done down here before.

Hope this works because I like the idea of using natural predators instead of chemicals, organic or not.
 
Nice, I'm glad you chose this route Older. As for the amount of time to eradicate, I have heard anywhere between a couple of days to a week depending on the severity. I would wait until tomorrow, and then a few more days and check if the mite numbers have gone down. They are known to reproduce faster than predators can consume them, so in this case I would release the rest of them.

Oh and don't worry about them eating your plants, they completely ignore the buds and leaves when all prey has been eradicated. They eventually burn themselves on your HID if you leave them in there long enough.
 
Many thanks AG.

I would gestimate that there were around 100-200 of them released into this room. Some of them flew away, some of them have expired, but lots of them are still in there. I keep water and honey around in flat plates to get them whatever food they need. Some of them are on the plants, some are on the floor, some made their way into the clone dome, which is empty right now.

When I inspected the buds on the plants they looked totally devoid of spider mites. There was one bud on one plant that I'm reasonably sure I saw at least one mite. I didn't concern myself over it because there were a couple of ladybugs right in the area and I'm sure they will find it shortly. But outside of that it looks like this heard of ladybugs ate everything in site.

One of the links I found searching on them said you can keep them in their shipping package for up to 2-3 months in a refrigerator. The other package is in my fridge now, I plan on checking it tomorrow morning. That's kind of unbelievable, 2-3 months. I think I will release them into the room early next week to insure they mites are really all gone. Then I'll open the room and let all the survivors go.

The two organic insecticides that KJC recommended arrived today as well. I will wait until after all the ladybugs are gone before trying these out. Right now it looks like it's under control. (Famous last words)

Thanks again everyone for the great advice.

BTW - The Cotton Candy plant is about 2-3 weeks out. It's looking good with the buds fattening up well. Trichomes all over the place but no amber colored ones yet. The white pistils only have a few brown ones mixed in and there are some light pinkish ones in there. It's showing that it's getting ready but if I didn't get these spider mites under control it too would have been a waste.
 
DAY 108:

The Cotton Candy plant is showing signs of being ready soon. The pistils are turning pink, red and brown. There is an abundance of trichomes but I don't see any amber colored ones yet. The plant is loosing most of it's leaves and many of the ones left are yellow.

The white widow plants (all four of them) are getting close too. But I didn't do much to increase yield on these other than top them when they were young. These plants are only about 24" tall and they too are loosing their leaves and have yellow ones. The buds are looking nice, although they are small. I was far too concerned with putting loads of nutes in these. They too had the bad soil mix that I had used with the big White Widow X plant.

I sampled some of the buds from the big X1 plant and it's not bad...not that good, but not bad. The trouble is that I threw most of the 3 oz. from this plant into the compost bin due to spider mite infestation.

The lady bugs are still in the grow room. They seem to like it in there. I have seen only one or two of the spider mites in the last few days. And I'm counting on the ladybugs to get rid of every last one of these pests. I took the other package which was in the refrigerator for four days and sure enough when I placed it out on the kitchen counter, they all started scurrying around. I let another 50 or so loose in the grow room and then took the rest of them, more than 200 I would estimate and released them into my backyard. Some of them are still out there but most took flight. The other thing I noticed is that some of them are living on the plants and stay there even though I left one of the plants outside over the last few nights. The seem to like it because there's nothing keeping them there except their will not to take flight.

I see some of them copulating so young are expected. This morning I saw this black looking thing with a tail like an alligator. They tell me this is what the ladybug larvae look like (alligators) so perhaps the next generation is started. I like having them in there. All in all, the ladybugs did the job. That grow room has few if any spider mites left in it. I will be more cautious of this next time and now that I know where to order and get ladybugs, that will be the fix from now on.

I have some clones from most of the plants, especially the Cotton Candy. I just hope this smoke turns out high quality. Because this is the one plant I've got the most hope for. The buds have that frosty look to them but I won't know for at least another 2-3 weeks if not longer.
 
I read all the posts on this thread and it has been very helpfull.You haven't posted a picture in a while and i would love to see what the plants look like.I now there has been problems,but i would still like to see what they look like at this time.
 
cronsrus said:
I read all the posts on this thread and it has been very helpfull.You haven't posted a picture in a while and i would love to see what the plants look like.I now there has been problems,but i would still like to see what they look like at this time.
Click to expand...

Good luck with your grow. I'll try and post some photos later. Had trouble with my camera again. Glad you like the journal. There are some good ones on this site and one can learn a lot from them.
 
The question of when to harvest is always a problem. The buds on the white widow and the cotton candy plant are nice looking and there are definitely lots of red pistils in them. The trichomes are what I'm trying to go by. The cotton candy is covered in them and there are plenty on the other white widow plants. But I just don't see any amber colored ones in there. The HPS light plays tricks on the eyes at this stage but when it all comes into focus using a 30x lens I can see clear and milky white ones only. I wonder if I should just take the buds now.

The spider mites are under control but I see a few here and there. The ladybugs are still on the job too but I'd hate to wait to long and the mites get a hold of that room again. I'm going to finish out these plants and then totally revamp that room for better results on the next grow.
 
DAY 120:

The buds are swelled and have loads of red and brown pistils. But I still don't see a single amber colored trichomes. The spider mites are under control but I still see some of them in there. The lady bugs are still around too, though most of them expired or flew away by now. I would estimate there are still around 20-30 of them in there eating stuff. I'm going to give the Cotton Candy plant four more days, that will be a solid 8 weeks it has been under 12/12. The white widow plants (all four of them) are yielding only a small amount but some of their clones will make for good harvest. They too are busting at the seams but I don't see a single amber trichome anywhere on them either.

One of the clones I took was apparently from the X2 male plant. It's in the backyard with the other X1 clone and I even took a branch off the male and went and shook it all over the female. This should produce some good seed stock...or not. So how long after fertilization will it take for the seeds to mature?
 
DAY 125:

Took the big Cotton Candy and all four of the original white widow plants out of the grow room and placed them into total darkness two nights ago. Will harvest tomorrow so should have some kind of quality to report in 2 weeks or less.

Something else...the original White Widow X female that got the spider mites and wrecked most of the buds...I was trying out some of it tonight and there was a seed in the bud. I looked at it closely with my mag lens and it's definitely a seed. So far have not found any others...not yet anyway. There was a male in the area for a while but not inside the grow room. So is this seed the result of hermie genes or could the bud have been so little pollinated that only one seed was produced? I'm keeping the seed to see what it will produce. At the very least I'm reasonably sure that this seed is a cross between the two White Widow X plants because there was one male and one female. Those plants are long gone except for another clone from the male which is outside and showing it's maleness to the world. I'm learning all I can about these so I guess I should learn how to make hash or at least in someway use this male plant.
 
DAY 131:

The branches dried hanging upside down in a dark closet for only 5 days. The buds feel completely dry but still have a little fluff to them. One thing is for certain. If you touch one of them you will need soap or other surfactant to wash off the sticky stuff. And the smell...as Lynard Skynard sang..."Ooooh that smell." I wrapped one up and took it to a friend to return an earlier favor from him. It was wrapped up tight in foil and as I gave it to him I said you may want to take this out to your car because of the scent. At that exact moment he and I were both overwhelmed with the aroma of the freshest buds around. It's not got a skunk smell, although that's in there. No there is something else about these ... the deep smell of hemp (rope) and a very fresh kind of minty smell. But for me at least, it doesn't smell or taste anything like Cotton Candy.

Now for the real tests. I stuck a very small bud into a glass pipe and gave it a whirl. I had too many errands to run to get more than just a small sample of it so that was it for the first test. It passed the inspection but I knew there were bigger, more stickier buds on those branches yet to tap into. This afternoon when I got home I twisted a doobie of one of the Cotton Candy buds. The stuff was dry enough to make a really nice joint. And since you're reading an article written by the hippie everyone wanted rolling joints at our parties back in the 70's and 80's I know a nice joint when I see it. It twisted up nice and tight while being plenty smokable with only a small ZigZag 1-1/4 paper. I took the first toke and it's like wow...what a head rush. I was careful not to take into too much. I don't like to get zombied, just buzzed. After a total of three small tokes I put the thing out and it wasn't even 1/2 way burned.

The jury is still out on the white widow plants. I've got 4 of them to try. The buds are dry and all set to go, but alas, business before pleasure and I will be working all weekend. So it's going to be a few more days before I can report on how those turned out. Preliminary tests look kind of good, but I don't think it's going to be like the Cotton Candy plant turned out.

Now speaking of the Cotton Candy plant. One of her clones which I took on 11/02/2013 has been in the soil long enough to start flowering so after two weeks and her buds starting to show well, I took her outside, placed her right underneath the clone from the X2 (the White Widow X male plant discovered and disposed of earlier). This male plant was heavy with it's pollen sacks so much that the top was bent over. So it was easy to place the CC female and her buds right under him. I gave him a good shake and the yellow cloud of pollen totally engulfed the little lady. Gosh, this stuff almost writes itself. I know that the CC plant has great genes. And this male plant hopefully added the right mix to the story. I will leave this pollenated female away from the others now and wait on those seeds which are a mix of Cotton Candy strain and the White Widow X. Those will be for my next grow.

All in all, I'd say from a total of six plants I got just under 1/2 lbs, maybe as little as six oz...I don't have anything accurate around here to measure it. Anyway, I will be enjoying these buds for the next 6-8 months so I could use some advice on how to safely store them.
 
:bravo: OlderStoner, The end of the road is finally here! Well it is ALMOST here.

All of the mentioned samples were tested RIGHT after drying, correct?

I would wait another month of curing before giving it another go. When I say curing, I mean breaking down the chlorophyll and the carbohydrates into something more pleasant to the taste pallet. This is the reason for that hemp-like smell. The smoke also gets smoother and cleaner as you cure for longer periods. Not to mention I have ahd buds really produce some nose-wrenching terpines after curing, but really didn't smell like much when I first chopped it down.

The LAST step of your harvest now is to find appropriate sized glass jars (I use 2oz mason jars) to store your buds in. Any cool, dry place is sufficient to store the jars in. For the first 2 weeks you will need to 'burp' the jar 1-3 times a day to prevent any mold or PM. When I say 'burp' I mean to open the jar and let it air out for a few minutes.

You can achieve the quality you are looking for in a cure withing 2 weeks, but I have cured my nugs for up to 8 months, and I can definitely say the POW factor is there in smell and potency:laughtwo:

HEre is a link to some fundamentals of curing: HOW TO CURE CANNABIS

Last but not least, PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES! Where are the pics man? I also want to bask in the joys of your fresh harvest!
 
wow, what a wild ride you took for that grow older. seems like you hit a number of problems and had excellent advice along the way.
your next grows will be easier.
I have heard of people actually microwaving their soil to kill bugs and eggs. I went hydro with my grow to avoid those buggers.
I forget which post it was, but you mention wanting to go hydro to eliminate lifting. hahaha im hydro using 5 and 3 gallon buckets. I only do it once a week, but those suckers get heavy lugging that water around.
I would really like to see some harvest shots!!

- musshy
 
Yes, I indeed had some tough times with this. The advice I got here was most beneficial. I have the last round of clones growing in the room now. Should be another 4 weeks to get it all into the barn. Sorry too that I haven't been able to post as often. The job is taking lots of time and out of town travel during a grow means having a good friend you can trust....and I really mean trust.

The report for now is that in addition to getting at least 3-4 more oz of good smoke in the humidor, but that I'm really working on getting some seeds from crossing the two white widow X's and one of the Cotton Candy clones with the same white widow X. The small white widow X female which has been growing outside for most of this grow has seeds all over it now. It's also very sticky and it's probably ready for smoking. I want those seeds to be fully ripened so I'm giving it a little more time. I pulled one of the seeds off of it tonight and it looked fully developed. The next female which will have seeds is the Cotton Candy clone that's also now outside. It's not in a fully lit area by the sun...this time of year that spot is lucky to get 4-5 hours per day of direct sunlight, but there is sunlight for 12 hours or more, just not direct for all of those hours. I want to see how the seeds from crossing that White Widow X with the Cotton Candy strain will do. But that's for the next grow.

One last comment on seeds. It looks like I'll get maybe 40-60 seeds out of this grow for my seed bank. I can recall a time when seeds were such a pain in the neck and we used homemade tools like a baking pan and a pack of papers to quickly de-seed a bag. Times certainly have changed.

Oh yes, let me also ask this simpleton question I've had for awhile. I have heard of the different highs that people go for in their grows. The buds from the White Widow X vary in intensity but the high you get is smooth and it comes on after you've smoked...I find that there is a quick buzz but the real stone comes about 10-15 minutes down the line. And my thinking remains clear with it. The buds from the Cotton Candy on the other hand hit you as soon as you smoke it. And it's an intense buzz that I at least have to take care with it. It's not the slightest bit harsh so it's easy to take in a large toke. A friend who tried it went to thick and ended up coughing but he too claimed the buzz was intense and instantaneous. I've noticed that my concentration and focus will go south on me with it. And time passage get's very distorted. What seems like 15 minutes turns out to be only 4 or 5. And finding or even remembering what you're looking for....well they don't call it being stoned for nothing.

Okay, so with those two different highs described what could a true researcher infer about these strains and more the quality of the offspring from crossing those strains?
 
Okay, since this is the day after I harvested the last of the plants then I think we can officially close this grow journal after this entry. All in all, this was the most successful grow I ever had. Thanks to everyone who offered advice and encouragement. This grow had it's share of problems. But in the end I figure I ended up with about 10-12 oz of good smoke and about 2-3 oz of top shelf smoke.

After drying and curing the buds are now all stored in Mason jars in the back of the fridge. I shared a couple of oz with a few friends, made a batch of canabutter and used it to make some rather mild brownies. But I did get a nice experience with the consumption of cannibus as well as a good buzz without smoking. And that's got to be a good thing.

In general I will say that growing is a mixed bag of things. It's fun, interesting, challenging and a pain in the neck at times, but overall a worthwhile hobby. Still there is this very big fact which I want to make a point on. The news these days is filled with legalization articles and finally the acceptance of cannibus is turning the tide. But for the moment and probably for the next year, possibly more, in this area at least, it's still very illegal to have anything to do with it. For the last 6 months my home changed completely. There were guests who I could not allow over, visits from repairmen and such which had to be be carefully planned and timed. I had to go out of town on an extended leave and was very lucky to have a friend who was cool and he made sure all was well while I was away. Not too many people around you can trust like that these days. And luckily, nothing beyond my control like something happening in the neighborhood which brought unwanted attention from LE. Even though I took careful steps to hide things, I have no doubt that at sometime, someone saw something. You can't do much in these zero lot neighborhoods without someone seeing what you're up to. Nonetheless, I got through it and my reward is enough smoke to last me more than a year. Or about the same time that it will take for the elections in November to pass and hopefully, the folks in this state will finally kick down the door of this war on drugs we've all suffered from for far too long. I do not plan on starting another grow until it's legal to do so. In the end, even a year's worth of smoke was not worth the stealth, hiding and staying away from the public eye as much as I had to during this grow.

In addition to the smoke, I did have two females I pollinated with the White Widow X male clone. I was careful to keep this male away from the room full of females, and I must have done something right because not a single one of the isolated females got pollinated. I was lucky I know to have had a male that close to as many as 4-5 females in flowering just a few feet away in the grow room. I ended up with about 30 seeds of White Widow X + White Widow seeds and it now looks like I'll get more than 100 seeds off the real prize of this grow, which was the Cotton Candy Female pollinated by the same White Widow X male.

The buds from the Cotton Candy plant are very aromatic and have a strong smell which I found out I had to be careful with. Just touching one of these buds makes you smell like pot (to the trained nose at least) for the next hour. And the smoke is smooth, but most of all, it's a very intense, instantaneous high. Whereas the White Widow plants all turned out to be what I used to call "creeping" pot. In that you smoke it and over the next 10-15 minutes the buzz creeps up on you. This is why I think the cross between the White Widow X male and the Cotton Candy female is going to turn out well. Will have to keep my fingers crossed.

Now, here is some advice I can pass on based on this grow:

  1. Start off by reading as much as you can from this forum or any other forum out there you find people who sincerely try to help new growers. I highly recommend this forum for having good people interested in helping those who ask for assistance.
  2. Make sure you get the right soil mix. There's an entire science to this so study, study, study and then study some more on this topic.
  3. The plants will require lots of attention so be prepared to give up a lot of your time for a grow. And whatever it says on the fertilizer manufacturer's instructions, use only 1/4 of that for the first few weeks and then never use more than 1/2 of these levels, unless you're plants start showing signs of stress. And remember that if your plant is showing a deficiency of something, it may not be due to a deficiency. It may be from too much nutes or bad ph level of the grow medium. This is one of the biggest problems I had.
  4. Be patient. My grow took over six months. Longer than most, but still shorter than others. But you're going to be in this for 90-120 days at least.

I will continue to read and contribute to this forum as well as others. But most important I will be casting my vote for legalization, even if it's only medicinal to start for this state, come this November.
 
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