Organic LST Outdoor Grow

[GreenLove]

I figured I would document a LST outdoor grow.

Planted from seed in last week of February. Bag seed from winter harvest. Mostly LST, lots of topping and pruning in general. Nutes used are all organic as well as organic pesticides.

Mexican bat guano. Fox Farms Peace-of-Mind lawn formula (8-2-6) Blood meal, bone meal, worm castings, gypsum (to loosen clay soil), garden sulphur (to lower Ph of soil we are in the desert!), Organocide for aphids (come in spring only, turns out it is easier to wash them off daily with hose), dipel dust for the worms and caterpillars that are around now, diatamaceous earth for other guys. The dirt is local (as in the ground we live on) amended soil mixed with homemade compost.

Here are the pics. She measures around 5' x 3'

Sorry for the cell phone photos . The wife is out of town with the good cam so this is all I can get unless I go in person.

The shade structure was made last weekend. It is 50% shade cloth on a redwood frame that was hastily constructed. The sudden onset of 110+ weather caught up with the plant and it needed some cover. If anyone notices yellowing in the front section of the plant, that branch was topped and trained to grow apart. It split at the topping site and healed. But continued pruning seemed to open the wound more or perhaps it was the first of the 100* heat and the plant could not support the new growth. It needed to be topped ,about six inches off all growing tips of the branch that was split and it recovered.

Enjoy and I will try to get some better pics but it may be a week or so. All comments welcome. All comments or questions welcome.

 

[norcal-med]

looks great man. Cant wait to see it progress.

 

[2dialed]

very nice..... 6 or 7 mo old plant outdoors in the ground will be a nice haul

 

[GreenLove]

I too am interested in the final outcome.

I suggest using organics in such a wide variety of apps that I dont know if one is better than the other. Plus outdoors...so many things can happen and its hard to plan for damages. I always keep in mind that with using organics there might be a percentage loss due to bugs and such since harsh insecticides cant be used. I really try my hardest to stick with OMRI listed products. Though it is not always possible.

 

[Odin]

I too am interested in the final outcome.

I suggest using organics in such a wide variety of apps that I dont know if one is better than the other. Plus outdoors...so many things can happen and its hard to plan for damages. I always keep in mind that with using organics there might be a percentage loss due to bugs and such since harsh insecticides cant be used. I really try my hardest to stick with OMRI listed products. Though it is not always possible.

Hey man.

Great choice in organics to use for your grow. Used most of the same stuff in my last two personal grows and for the last decade in commercial MMJ grows I worked on in California. I am all for 100% organic, and the old saying KISS (keep it simple stupid). I am also a big fan of pure fish emulsion. I can get it bulk fresh from the Bay so I don't know what the availability is out your way. Definitely try it out though, ganja plants love bat shit and liquid fish, thats for sure.

We have been able to narrow down our pest control regiment pretty well over the years, and still have yet to give into anything other than organic pest control. The biggest problem out here in CA in recent years is some kind of beetle larvae (or perhaps moth, but I am leaning towards beetle) that bores into the buds, where their feces rot the bud from the inside out. So far, the only method of control is hand sorting/picking through each stalk and cola, and removing rotted colas.

Anyway obviously the organics has been paying off for you. Looks like that plant will be a great yielder. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

 

[GreenLove]

^^thanks^^

Just took some fresh pics with the better camera.

 

[santacruzbluz]

I am also a big fan of pure fish emulsion. I can get it bulk fresh from the Bay so I don't know what the availability is out your way. Definitely try it out though, ganja plants love bat shit and liquid fish, thats for sure.

I bought some Alaskan fish emulsion today to for my outdoor grow. How much should I use, and how often? My plants have been in the ground since mid-May, and are doing well. I have one Northern Lights X Snow Cap that is about 9 feet tall. I tried to dig holes 3' X 3' X3', but most are just a little smaller. I water every 4 days or so, and give each plant roughly 2 1/2 gallons of water. I fill up a five gallon bucket and give each plant half a bucket. I have two fifteen gallon pots I keep water in. I fill them with tap water when I water and let them sit the 3 or 4 days til I water again. The plants have never wilted on that schedule, and it doesn't appear I'm over watering. I've been adding either Big Bloom or Grow Big every other watering. I wonder if I should give them fertilizer every time I water. I also just started foliar feeding this week. Any ideas on how often I should do that? I know these are a lot of questions, and you don't have to answer them all. they are for the community as well. I was looking for something about fish emulsion, and found your comment. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[santacruzbluz]

Oh, and that's a beautiful plant. Unbelievably big.

 

[Odin]

I bought some Alaskan fish emulsion today to for my outdoor grow. How much should I use, and how often? My plants have been in the ground since mid-May, and are doing well. I have one Northern Lights X Snow Cap that is about 9 feet tall. I tried to dig holes 3' X 3' X3', but most are just a little smaller. I water every 4 days or so, and give each plant roughly 2 1/2 gallons of water. I fill up a five gallon bucket and give each plant half a bucket. I have two fifteen gallon pots I keep water in. I fill them with tap water when I water and let them sit the 3 or 4 days til I water again. The plants have never wilted on that schedule, and it doesn't appear I'm over watering. I've been adding either Big Bloom or Grow Big every other watering. I wonder if I should give them fertilizer every time I water. I also just started foliar feeding this week. Any ideas on how often I should do that? I know these are a lot of questions, and you don't have to answer them all. they are for the community as well. I was looking for something about fish emulsion, and found your comment. Thanks in advance for any help.

It sounds like you are doing the right thing man. Only thing I will say is do not feed them every time you water. Let them absorb and drain. Don't go overboard on nutrients. I foliar fed a lot (diluted fish emulsion, once a week) until my plants budded. Then I only did it two or three more times max while they were budding.

I can't get specific because I don't know what you are working with. Its hard to OD on fish emulsion though because if you get it pure, its all natural, and pot plants love it. Get it and experiment. You won't be dissapointed, thats for sure.

 

[santacruzbluz]

It sounds like you are doing the right thing man. Only thing I will say is do not feed them every time you water. Let them absorb and drain. Don't go overboard on nutrients. I foliar fed a lot (diluted fish emulsion, once a week) until my plants budded. Then I only did it two or three more times max while they were budding.

I can't get specific because I don't know what you are working with. Its hard to OD on fish emulsion though because if you get it pure, its all natural, and pot plants love it. Get it and experiment. You won't be dissapointed, thats for sure.

Thanks for the reply. I watered my plants today, and went ahead and added the fish emulsion. I mixed it according to the directions, 3 tablespoons for each gallon of water. So that was 15 tablespoons per 5 gallon bucket of water. Each plant got half of that, my usual watering schedule. We'll see how it likes that. The directions on the bottle say use it every 3 weeks. Do you think I should wait that long to do it again?

I think I'll follow your advice and just fertilize every other watering, like I've been doing. I'm just starting to foliar feed, Grow Big and Big Bloom. Not at the same time, but on different days. I've only done it once for each. I could do the fish emulsion, too. I won't do any of that after it starts to flower.

I should mention I'm using Ocean Forest as a grow medium, roughly 4 bags for each hole. I have 3 Northern Lights X Snow Cap grown from seed. I randomly picked them from about 100 babies on a table, and from what I can see looking through my 30X jewelers loop, they are all three girls. No white antennae, but what is there looks much more female, and not at all male.

I have 4 of a Blueberry Cross called Blue Willie Dog. They are female plants, from cuttings off a mother plant. (I hate to call them clones, because that is not what they are.) Anyway, they are all showing their panties big time. I also have 1 OG Kush, also a female cutting. I have 1 Endless Sky. don't know anything about it, but it is also a female cutting. Finally, I have 2 L. A. Woman, female cutting. All the cuttings are showing little white antennae, none of the seeds are. That's understandable to me. I still think all three of the seed plants are girls. If they are...one of them is already 9 1/2 feet tall (I measured today), and one other is 7 feet tall. The tallest one has never been topped, so while it has a lot of branches, it only has one main trunk. The 7 footer has about five branches coming straight up to about the same height. I pinched it once. The third one is about 5 feet tall, and very wide and bushy. the first two are just tall and lanky, but the leaves are much more indica looking than sativa. iI'll have to do some research and see what Northern Lights and Snow Cap actually consists of.

Sorry for the long-winded post, and thanks again for the reply.

 

[GreenLove]

I just mixed a little guano tea yesterday. It was a pretty diverse mix. I used the Jamaican guano, Mexican guano, a little peace of mind yard formula, some bone meal, epsom salt, and molasses. It was so hot outside (temp) that I only brewed it for a few hours. I made around 3-4 gallons and just threw a large fish tank pump in there and one air stone. Then I poured it all under that wonderful canopy.

Those guano teas turn dark as earth and dissolve so easily. It is by far my favored method. I think though I would like to get some fish emulsion for foliar feeding. I actually like the botanicare line of soil organic nutes for foliar feeding as well.

 

[GreenLove]

When it was only 3-4 weeks old back in March

Back to the recent..

Under the canopy...you can see the branches in the foreground that are trained to grow to the sides and there is a split where the two nodes seperated

 

[santacruzbluz]

Hard to believe that's all one plant. I may try that with one next year. Thanks for the great shots!

I've just started doing foliar feeding, using Grow Big and Big Bloom. I may do one with fish emulsion myself. The directions on the bottle of Alaskan fish emulsion say use it every 3 weeks. I wonder if it will hurt to do some foliar feeding with it if I wait a week or so after putting it in the soil.

 

[GreenLove]

Hard to believe that's all one plant. I may try that with one next year. Thanks for the great shots!

I've just started doing foliar feeding, using Grow Big and Big Bloom. I may do one with fish emulsion myself. The directions on the bottle of Alaskan fish emulsion say use it every 3 weeks. I wonder if it will hurt to do some foliar feeding with it if I wait a week or so after putting it in the soil.

The guano says the same...every 3-4 weeks. I do it once a week. I have yet to burn a single plant with organics and I do use quite a bit. Most of my teas look like muddy water. Of course at this point that plant is quite large and can take it. That split in the one branch is troublesome though. the leaves on the left side are always a bit behind the rest of the plant. Unfortunately that one branch accounts for 1/3 of the total plant! I would hate to lose it.

This is my first outdoor grow as well. I am pretty pleased with the results so far. I hope I can maintain it for the next few months to harvest. The summer desert heat is tough to fight.

 

[santacruzbluz]

I wonder if you could use some twine to support those branches from above so they don't keep pressure on the split. That would be tough to have that branch break free.

 

[GreenLove]

Thats a good idea. Didnt occur to me to support from above. Luckily I have a ball of hemp twine....fitting huh?

The split hasnt really opened up much more over the last month. I had ants going in and ouy of it the other day though. I hit the area hard with diatomaceous earth and it stopped them for the meantime. I think the mollasses attracts them. What they feed off of the plant though I have no clue.

 

[santacruzbluz]

Hope it helps. Thanks for the 420 points, although I don't really know what they are for or what to do with them.

 

[GreenLove]

The points are just a way of showing participation on the forums. Not good for anything other than showing time spent on the forum...I think there is a thread bout them in one of the "how to use this website" section towards the bottom of the forum home page.

 

[GreenLove]

update....we had some harsh weather come through town last week. The plant suffered some damage due to water weight and wind. The branch with the split peeled back from the main stem/stalk. I landed on the ground which was only a 6-10" fall. Luckily I was able to tie the branches up to the support structure for the shade cloth (thanks for the idea santacruz)

The next day I bought some pruning seal, cloth tree wrap and cellulose tape. I tied the branches around the splits with the breathable cloth. Applied prune seal to all open areas. Since then (pretty much around the time of my last post..lets say 5-6 days) I have been foliar feeding the damaged branch. I made a super tea mix and applied two gallons of that to the ground. I loosened up the soil and applied a 1/2"- 1" layer of worm castings around the root zone, maybe 1.5 sqft area? Then I applied compost on top of that. Lastly I rearranged my shade cloth and temporarily added more to block low morning sun from hitting the damaged plant.

I must say that I figured that branch a total loss. Leaves were yellowing from the newest growth, tips going yellow while the veins remained green. I figured mg/cal def which is why I opted to use the botanicare mix and added the worm castings to help break down the fresh organics. After a week, the leaves are slowly returning to the green side, the older growth is flush with nitrogen and I can see it getting darker and the health returning.

Pics need to be downloaded, then uploaded, then posted. I will try to get them up asap.

 

[GreenLove]

cat chillin in the shade...

split from main stalk...

brewing tea....

a few days after damage....note the yellow section...

recent...

extended shade cloth...

A few more shots in my gallery. I will try to upload some more later.