Relaxed's Outdoor Medical Grow - 2015

[Lester Freeman]

I can't wait to try force flowering next summer Lester, your ff plants were amazing last round. you really have everything about your grow dialed in, its always great to see, to think in winter you can grow like this astounds me haha but I've never lived in a place without drastic 'traditional' seasons (orange/red fall, white winter, light green spring, dark green summer - though admittedly seasons have been weird lately as I'm sure you're picking up on in Cali too - all beautiful colors - just not helpful for people that wish they could stay outside growing year around >.<)

hope you got them outside in time for a full natural budding period! But knowing you, I'm sure if you didn't you'll catch and fix that quickly if not. thanks for sharing its always a nice stop in your journals!

Thank you Sister, and you're right! If catch them trying to re vegetate as we approach Spring, then I can just force flower instead. The trick is to make sure they are 420% sexually mature so that once they start synthesizing decent amounts of the protein called "Florigen" they get enough of that built up and sent around to the different tops, they can still fully finish flowering without re vegetating, even when the days are above 12 hours and increasing in daylight. I've seen it happen Oh, and don't let me trick you, force flowering is a lot of work!

lester. what time frame do you use for forcing. I just check sun up time and that's when I put them away. 6am sun up gets put away at 6pm and taken back out after dark. Just wondering how you do it. but that is the easiest way for me. I can't wait for spring time.

My schedule is based off my breakfast and dinner schedule. I take them out of the chamber in the morning at about 9:30 AM, and then I put them back in at about 5:30 PM (give or a take a few mins). With that, they end up with about 8 hours of light, and 16 hours of darkness.

Well I see a couple folks that have nudged me along on my first Hydro grow here. I'm going to put an outdoor crop together in the late spring and want to try all organic raised beds. If you don't mind, I'll just sit in and learn a thing or two.
Thanks for sharing, M8. Grow On!!!
Peace, Andy .

Hi there and welcome aboard!

Sorry I'm late, but subbed up. Cheers!

Aloha AMK, good to have you

 

[Danishoes21]

Im drooling overhere Lester

Beautiful garden doesn't seem winter at all

 

[BeemerBill]

Good morning herb Lester and Happy Skunkday. Hope your day is going like you want it to. Happy Days my friend.

 

[bozzo420]

are mine getting to much light? 12/12 or a little less. Should I shorten time? I had no idea when I started. just figured 12/12 would work. Is there an advantage to going shorter. The first couple of hours in the morning are shaded anyway. you get the 8 brightest hours . I see why you do it. But to much to remember. Some days I will forget 6pm lol I better stick to one time a day to remember.But I could shorten it by putting them away earlier.

 

[Lester Freeman]

Im drooling overhere Lester

Beautiful garden doesn't seem winter at all

Thank you kindly

Good morning herb Lester and Happy Skunkday. Hope your day is going like you want it to. Happy Days my friend.

Good Morning Herb my friend. Been raining (light) for 24 hours, had to stake up/tie up a few buds, but overall the plants seem to be LOVING it. Supposed to rain the rest of the day so just staying nice and toasty. Happy Days Brother.

are mine getting to much light? 12/12 or a little less. Should I shorten time? I had no idea when I started. just figured 12/12 would work. Is there an advantage to going shorter. The first couple of hours in the morning are shaded anyway. you get the 8 brightest hours . I see why you do it. But to much to remember. Some days I will forget 6pm lol I better stick to one time a day to remember.But I could shorten it by putting them away earlier.

Definitely choose a schedule/routine and stick to it. The reason I give my force flowers so much darkness is to off-set any chance of them going back into re vegetation during mid-bloom (due to inherent human inconsistency associated with the technique). So essentially I just "play it safe" in regards to that. And yeah, like you said, they'll get the best/brightest 8 hours of Sunshine so it tends to work out pretty good. The force flowering thing definitely requires a sense of "trial and error" before the individual can get things dialed in so that they know what works for them and their needs (in regards to routine/breakfast/etc.).



And, additionally, since they get that much more darkness the whole flowering period; after I harvest a force flower plant, I can "release it into the wild" where it will be getting many more hours of light than before, and will re vegetate for the winter grow much easier, than say, if you had been giving it 12/12 in the cycle.

 

[Teddy Edwards]

Lester. Sending happy Greek thoughts your way.

You got me thinking in your 2014 journal about summer force-flowering. (You wrote a great post about the need for timing discipline). Now you've got me tempted. I understand exactly what you mean about a routine - it was you mentioning building it around breakfast that struck a chord with me. Mmmmm, breakfast. That's my next meal.

Wishing you a continuing, temperate Californian winter.

 

[SoilGirl]

Awesome share about florigen Lester - and of course I'm sure it can be a PITA to force flower! but hey - I did move all of my outdoor plants around 4 times a day all summer last time! one more move with a cover shouldn't be a big deal - and it keeps me strong lately I've been spending so much time in my grow rooms I'm about to take root and start reaching out toward my lights.... however, for the force flowers I really should invest in smart pots with handles >.< I suspect that could save me some potential heart and back ache.

 

[Lester Freeman]

Lester. Sending happy Greek thoughts your way.

You got me thinking in your 2014 journal about summer force-flowering. (You wrote a great post about the need for timing discipline). Now you've got me tempted. I understand exactly what you mean about a routine - it was you mentioning building it around breakfast that struck a chord with me. Mmmmm, breakfast. That's my next meal.

Wishing you a continuing, temperate Californian winter.

Your Greek thoughts were graciously accepted and perfect! Thanks for the kind words, brother Teddy

Breakfast of the champions

Awesome share about florigen Lester - and of course I'm sure it can be a PITA to force flower! but hey - I did move all of my outdoor plants around 4 times a day all summer last time! one more move with a cover shouldn't be a big deal - and it keeps me strong lately I've been spending so much time in my grow rooms I'm about to take root and start reaching out toward my lights.... however, for the force flowers I really should invest in smart pots with handles >.< I suspect that could save me some potential heart and back ache.

That's the spirit!

It's definitely worth toying around with. There's nothing like being able to harvest flowers all season long, instead of just waiting patiently for 1 harvest per year

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Update

Group shots - Naturally Flowering plants

Critical flower

KC-45 Original Zilla clone Flower, completely different than I'm used to, the terpenes have been altered by the cold temperatures to produce almost an entirely new phenotype.

 

[B A R]

I'm seeing more & more how different conditions effect our plants Lest. A lot of members have been saying how some clones have totally different characteristics than their mother plants.

 

[Dennise]

I grew out a mother for a friend and he just brought me back a clone today and it doesn't look anything like the mother I sent out of here.... I'm pretty sure he didn't get anything like this around here and he says it's her so I'm sure it is but it sure don't look like her... Things looks beautiful as always around here....

 

[Conradino23]

I think you go out before anybody else does, Lester I sure hope that this season will bless you with some more excellent bud, especially with these new beans in the pocket. I'll have to wait a little bit more before soaking them, but I'm gonna start sooner than last year probably.

Looks fantastic anyway. Keep it up

 

[Lester Freeman]

I'm seeing more & more how different conditions effect our plants Lest. A lot of members have been saying how some clones have totally different characteristics than their mother plants.

A unique environment can really shape and sculpt a phenotype into something much different than the original specimen

I grew out a mother for a friend and he just brought me back a clone today and it doesn't look anything like the mother I sent out of here.... I'm pretty sure he didn't get anything like this around here and he says it's her so I'm sure it is but it sure don't look like her... Things looks beautiful as always around here....

That does make sense! Thank you Dennise, glad to hear it

I think you go out before anybody else does, Lester I sure hope that this season will bless you with some more excellent bud, especially with these new beans in the pocket. I'll have to wait a little bit more before soaking them, but I'm gonna start sooner than last year probably.

Looks fantastic anyway. Keep it up

Aloha Conrad! Great to have you pop by and thank you for the blessings.

May this year be bountiful and prosperous for us all

 

[Lester Freeman]

Swiss Cheese in front, Blueberry in the back

The other Blueberry pheno

Critical (Afghani x Skunk), this plant is getting ready to be harvested at about ~45 day in the flowering cycle. Her buds are not gonna get much bigger, but wow does it smell incredible

KC-45

Blueberry

 

[CareStaker]

They look delicious ... love the shape of those Blues, and I am wishing to catch just a scent of that Critical. Are there a different set of smells, associated with growing in the winter?

 

[Lester Freeman]

They look delicious ... love the shape of those Blues, and I am wishing to catch just a scent of that Critical. Are there a different set of smells, associated with growing in the winter?

I have definitely noticed a different set of smells associated with the winter grow. I'm surprised how similar the KC-45 smells to the Critical, it must be the cold temperatures which brought out a common terpene in them both, but that Critical sure does smell good. Going to be a nice treat

 

[BeemerBill]

Good Day weed Lester. Those buds are looking so delicious!!! Nice to see the winter grow doing so well. Happy Day buddy

 

[JadeLotus]

Critical is beautiful! So Frosty!

 

[Lester Freeman]

Good Day weed Lester. Those buds are looking so delicious!!! Nice to see the winter grow doing so well. Happy Day buddy

Good Day's Herb Bee! Just finished making a batch of oil I'm pleased with winter results Have a great day brother

Critical is beautiful! So Frosty!

Mahalo, I agree! The flowers smell as good as they look, and vice versa She's just about ready to get harvested as well, albeit small buds, I'm real excited to puff it. That KC-45 clone is not far behind as well, will probably have both of those plants harvested by the end of this week (a little early probably because the storms that they lived through). And then after that, I'll re-arrange things in the planter bed, do a little more LST and foliar spraying and just hope they take to some nice flowers before things really want to start vegetating

 

[bozzo420]

lester ,have you ever tried to get your outdoor girls to start flowering early by forcing them for a week or so? And then letting them go as normal the rest of the way. I wonder if they revert to veg, or keep flowering. I might try one this year just to see what happens. Just wondering if you have ever tried this.

 

[Lester Freeman]

lester ,have you ever tried to get your outdoor girls to start flowering early by forcing them for a week or so? And then letting them go as normal the rest of the way. I wonder if they revert to veg, or keep flowering. I might try one this year just to see what happens. Just wondering if you have ever tried this.

I have never tried it, but my hypothesis would be that it would start to reveg. or not flower at all, especially considering my force flower routine allows them only 7 hours of light, if I "release them into the wild", the actual plan is to have them reveg properly, so it's just not something I toy around with, but I have heard of other people asking that same question. I think it would take far more time than just "a week or so".

The question of whether or not that works or not, is based off the # hours of darkness, and the quantity of florigen that is built up and synthesized.

Based off my 7-8 hour day-light for my force flowers, I'm 95%+ sure that my plants would go into reveg, mid bloom if I did what you're wondering. I think it's a much different scenario if they are going through it naturally, as opposed to forced. It would definitely be one of those trial and error things

Just my two cents brotha Boz