On Walden's Outdoor Grow In The PNW '18: A Nonlinear Tale

Howdy Beez. I meant that I prob. won’t grow weed this coming summer. I’ll still be doing tomatoes, peppers, basil, oregano, thyme, peas, kale, strawberries, onions. Will definitely try to find some more Peruvian Yellow peppers—they were fantastic & f&*^ng hot!

I’m a firm believer in rotating crops (I didn’t grow tomatoes or peppers for a coupla years, a few years back) both for pest avoidance & to give the soils a rest. I usually let one of my three small plots go completely fallow for a summer every few years, too.

Everyone I know that has developed mite problems has had them with repeated multi-annual weed grows in the same spot. Avoidance of problems is easier than treatment.

But I’ve also got some Tree of Life (Mendo Purp x Trainwreck) seeds from Cannabeizein, so I may grow a few. Certainly not more than a couple. I love growing, but won’t have any need for more weed for awhile, & I definitely wouldn’t mind a Sept. & Oct. without 100+ hrs of trimming.
 
I really need to rotate my tomato and peppers plots, but I only have one place to grow them and it would kill me to not have fresh tomatoes for a whole year. My dirt needs some serious rejuvenation. Maybe I just plant tomatoes and peppers in geopots like I did for the weed plants. I've been reading up on "cover crops" and "no till soils", I probably need to adopt a new strategy.
 
I’m definitely sold on rotating plants, occasional fallow plots, and no till.

Most of the best gardeners I know do winter cover crops & though I know that I should, too, fall’s just always a really busy time, so it just hasn’t happened.

Instead, I just mulch the heck out of the beds at autumn’s end with raked leaves.

Might give cover crops a try this coming fall, though. It’s time.
 
Here’s a summary of some grow data for the phenos & strains grown from seed. Importantly, all involve relatively small samples & several phenos were from the same strain. All finished in 9 weeks or under after the start of flower.
I'm usually fairly skeptical about seed suppliers' descriptions of flowering times, for good reasons, but they were pretty accurate for these 4 strains. Might be because they are local to where I grow.
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Late Sept & Oct were fairly wet (dew or rain) during flowering for the Goats, Chuys, and the Amnesia Hashplant. All were fairly resistant to PM & rot under these conditions. Dunno ‘bout the LepNeps resistance to mold, because they were done before it got wet & cool.
 
I’ve sampled all 6 phenos after an 8 week cure. Here’s a brief summary of the results, together with some of the phenos’ grow characteristics (big hat tip to @BeezLuiz for the organizational inspiration):
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walden's grow summary table
* Vendor states that some phenos can have relatively high CBD:THC ratio. The body “buzz” certainly feels quite similar to many balanced CBD:THC strains I’ve smoked.

The THC’s a guess—I didn’t get any of it tested. But it’s a reasonable guess based on considerable experience.

I’m quite pleased with the variety. Great flavors. Most have a stone that’s right up my alley. I prefer an uplifting buzz during the day & a more relaxing stone at the end of the evening.

Gonna take some time to work through the AmHash & El Chuy. The former serves up a high that lasts 3+ hours. El Chuy’s a mind-melter, which is great for some occasions. Though, those occasions are fairly infrequent for me.
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These cheap local mongrel strains greatly exceeded my expectations. Can’t ask for more.
 
Your Amnesia Hashplant sounds a lot like my Sour Diesel -- pretty strong, but energetic and focused high. A great idea for hiking. :rollit:

Congratulations on a super successful season! :thumb:
 
Thanks, Beez. The AmHash is definitely akin to the Sour D that I've smoked. The diesel strains, including Sour D, are definitely some of my fave strains--I've liked every diesel strain I've ever sampled.

Grow on!
 
Hope all is well in your world.

Thanks for sharing this grow with us.

Please head over to the 420 Strain Reviews forum and post your smoke report there too.

I’m moving this to Completed Journals now.

Have you started a new grow you would like to share with us?

If so, please feel free to start a new journal here: Journals in Progress

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.

:Namaste:
 
Hi Andi, thanks for the fantastic journal. I like your outdoor ideas and and am thinking of the spring/summer. Still only a veggie garden this year?
 
stoneotter said:
Hi Andi, thanks for the fantastic journal. I like your outdoor ideas and and am thinking of the spring/summer. Still only a veggie garden this year?
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Thanks, compadre. Hope there was something useful.

I decided to go ahead & grow some cannabis again this year, as part of the group tribute grow to Bonsai The Great Outdoor Group Grow: Beastly Buds To Honor Bonsai I'll be posting there occasionally.

But, as I recall, you're participating in that group journal...

Thanks for stopping by & I hope you have a great summer outdoor season!
 
andIhalped said:
Thanks, compadre. Hope there was something useful.

I decided to go ahead & grow some cannabis again this year, as part of the group tribute grow to Bonsai The Great Outdoor Group Grow: Beastly Buds To Honor Bonsai I'll be posting there occasionally.

But, as I recall, you're participating in that group journal...

Thanks for stopping by & I hope you have a great summer outdoor season!
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I was but decided not to grow outdoors this year. Enjoy
 
Thanks, Dynamo! Glad you stumbled on to it.

The grow was a lot of work, but well worth it. I'm not sure how long it'll take me to get through the results...still got about 10oz, despite smoking a bunch & giving a lot away.

Not a bad problem to have, though.

Thanks again & grow on!
 
Postscript: I’ve been toasting quite a bit of high CBD Lebanese x Nepalese x Grape Ape pheno mixed with my homegrown Lemon Meringue: Outdoor Grow & Smoke Report.

The blend is one of my favorites that I’ve ever had over the course of more than 40 yrs of burning the bush.

To be sure, not the strongest, trippiest, etc., but a near perfect bullseye daytime buzz for me: upper, feel good, yet with a high degree of mental clarity & a bit of relief for minor aches. It’s been great for hiking, yardwork, gardening, biking, hanging out.

A friend, who’s a long-time toker, too, said of it: “It’s great ‘anytime’ smoke, & by that I mean it’s a great all-the-time smoke.”

Next yr I’m growing more & hoping for a similar pheno. (& it’s cool if I don’t get one, because the other pheno was swell, too!)

Upward & onward. Smoke ‘em, if you got ‘em!
 
I’ve never grown anything in containers, so I can’t offer much on the comparative benefits, ‘cept that containers are mobile, so can be shuttled indoors to force flowering and/or avoid bud rot weather during bloom. I think @BeezLuiz has done both, so he might offer up his take from experience.

But, you’d probably get more & varied input if you started a thread on the topic.

I grow in the ground for simple, related reasons that aren't particularly related to cannabis cultivation. 1) I don’t want more stuff. 2) I’m cheap. 3) With possessions comes some degree of property management. Never had much interest in it & whatever I did have is waning rapidly.

Seems quite fitting to close with Thoreau (quoted from memory): We never own our possessions as much as they come to own us.

Grow on!
 
732002 said:
I noticed you grow directly in ground vs fabric pots set on ground.
Your thoughts please
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andIhalped said:
I think @BeezLuiz has done both, so he might offer up his take from experience.
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While I've always grown my veggies directly in the ground, I've always used pots for my cannabis. I use pots for 3 main reasons:
1) I don't have any space left in my yard to put them in the ground.
2) I occasionally need to move the plants to a more secure location due to contractors, service people, etc.
3) It's easier to use fresh and higher quality soil than what is currently in my vegetable plot. Actually, I'm growing my tomatoes and peppers in pots this year to give the veggie soil a year to recover.
:Namaste:
 
BeezLuis: Thanks I have been following your outdoor journal also.

What do you do with the potting soil over winter? I don't like the idea of recycling
into garden soil because I'm not a fan of having perlite everywhere. Rice hulls might
be a more natural perlite alternative.

Hope i'm not taking this too off topic, thanks
 
Actually, I do recycle it into areas of the front or back yard that may need a little more soil. My natural soil here is mostly clay, so the little bits of perlite are a good thing for my yard.
 
Love this journal!!! Your environmentally friendly approach to gardening is fantastic, and the buds look amazing! I will definitely be following your future endeavors to learn more about outdoor growing in the PNW :love::love::love:
 
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