The Mountain: Grow Support From The Over 50 Club

uptheholler2 said:
Hey SAFO1!iI'm certain others up here will have different ideas but it looks to me like you have a couple of things going on. First and foremost you are way over doing the fertilizers. That downward leaf curl is a sure sign of too much lovin'. What have your temps during the day and night been. That twisting leaf curl on the taller plant on the left front can be caused by a couple of things which are possible in an over feed situation. That is over feeding with higher than needed temps/ humidity. You may have some root burn on that one. This is all assuming that you have checked for under the leaf sucking insects attached to the leaves these in heavy concentrations can also cause leaf curl but I don't think so in this case.

So Holler, what in the heck do I do now, Mister Smartee Pants? Well first give them all a good flush. Pour at least 2 gallons through the pots.
Then I would let them get fairly dry and then water with club soda. What? Club soda like what some people who buy cheap scotch use? Yep. It's CO2 and water it will help oxygenate the roots. Watch your day time temps. The back 2 plants are not critical the front one is approaching a real problem period. Let's take another look at them after this in a week or so

Lastly you obviously did really well during the first part of the grow. But remember plants as well as people go through stages. The feeding schedule that you would use in the early growth period is different than in mid veg. And then it changes again during pre -flower all the way through senescence. It's not all your fault so don't blame yourself these folks that sell fertilizers and supplements are not only good sales people. They also know that the more you use of their product the more you will need to buy. Go back and read my mining the miners post a couple of pages ago.

Now on the upside I believe that they will pull through. I need to rewrite my plant stages post. It will give you a number of visual clues as to what stage your plant is in during it's growth.
Best of luck! I'm certain that another old grower will come through with some more insight. Take all of the info you can get.
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You're the 'Weed Whisperer':high-five:
 
uptheholler2 said:
Bapple you crack me up!
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I have to give proper respect where it's deserved. I have been non 420 gardening for a very long time and only 420 gardening since last Spring. You know what you're talking about and you share generously; there's a lot of hot air on online forums.........:oops:

I'm just saying you're a real find :green_heart:
 
Wow Bapple! I'm really feeling the love this morning! I just came in from checking my crops. Sweet corn is up! I love the look of corn rows when they bust up through the soil. Full of promise and isn't that what spring's all about?
Gonna go out mushroom hunting one more time.

One thing I have to stress about my advice. (And I will continue to do this repetitively) "Every person naturally thinks that their way of doing things is the best." I have learned that from literally sitting at hundreds of kitchen tables in a hundred farm houses over the years listening to countless debates ( some real arguments) over how to do this or that with your plants.

It's sooo vitally important to encourage all input and ideas in an effort to become better at growing anything. From Apples to zucchini!
I just do my best to explain what works for me and I do this always with a watchful eye to return on investment.

Thank you again so much for your kind words.
 
uptheholler2 said:
I think that a lot of old folks are having trouble finding the over 50 club. but of course we can't find our own cars in the Walmart parking lot either!
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Ha, I put a tracker on mine, it also helps when my 17 year old borrows the truck.:smokin:
 
on another note I asked this question late last night to you Holler in another of your threads, coying & paste here. Hope you guys and gals will help an old guy out on this thread as well as the youngins :confused:

I really find your way of training in the vines, running so close to the ground as to resemble the vines and was hoping you could give me some details on the process. I have topped my plants at about 4 weeks they are now 8 weeks and I kinda had the thought to let each of the main branches that resulted from the topping to try an run a foot or two off the ground via LST. I have 5 female Blue Dream and 5 female Pineapple Chunk and have no fear of anyone going into the area, my concern is from above. We don't get a lot of air traffic (mostly recreational). I've taken a chance to get some full sun (getting 9-10 hrs right now) and see what I could pull, but find myself getting a little nervous nellie about it all of a sudden. Maybe just prudence. Anyway, if you would be so kind to take a moment and check the last page of my journal you can see good pictures and description of the area and hopefully will throw me some knowledge on how you do this vine runner technique as I shall call it? How would you say yields would compare as to a straight up 10-12 foot plant? Thanks for your time and any help/advice you may offer.
 
Hey Captain B! Been busy today at the farm so it's taken me a while to get a chance to sit down and let you know a couple of methods that I use to train and camouflage plants in brambles and other vines like in our neck of the woods honeysuckle. First a few inexpensive things that you will need.

-a good pair of clippers
-Some new or used bailing twine ( Don't you just love projects that include bailing twine?) I use the biodegradable
- Some old fencing or other very stiff wire ( I use pieces of spring steel cut to various lengths)
- A shovel and any soil amendments that you use in your area.

Ok first if your plants are still in pots, water them heavily and then tilt the pots on their sides. Prop the lip of the pot up on a brick or piece of 2x4 on the ground. By tilting them up a little it keeps the plant off of the ground, as well as , keeps most of your potting mix in the pot!
It takes anywhere from 2 to 4 days depending upon the sun intensity and the plant will be bending towards the sky. Now set your pot back up and the plant is now running some what parallel to the ground.

If the plant is already planted in the ground then you can simply use the water and step method. Simply saturate the ground around the base of the plant. Let it sit for a while so the water really soaks in. Then use the toe of your boot to gently but firmly push the main stem of the plant down. As it begins to tilt let up and do it a couple of times more. then move to the next step.

I like to pick patches of brambles with good day long sun exposure. I check for animal trails in and around the patch. I worked on one patch like this before and got my plants in only to find a well hidden groundhog hole on the backside. Once I've picked one I wade or even crawl in and dig my holes and plant my plants.

I begin to pin my plants down using the stiff wire which I bend into a "V" shape. Again as you push the plants down simply pin them down by putting the pins over the stem and push them into the ground. Remember it's a gradual training thing so you can continually ease the plants over by pushing the pins in farther to ease them over . You don't have to get them into their final position all at once.

Ok so once the plants are in and bent down, it's time to draw blood. I crawl in to the patch on my back and trim out shading branches on the vine. I also use small pieces of twine to tie branches of the brambles together or to bend them the way that I want them.

I usually leave some wire and twine in the brush to use as I visit the plants to aid in training them. To answer your question about yield, it's generally quite good. I would say that the main difference is that I don't usually get long colas like on an upright plant. Instead like an LST plant all of the underneath lower buds grow like crazy and fill out. I have had them 8-9 feet long running along the ground. If done properly from above you have a raspberry or blackberry patch with buds sticking up all over the place through the top cover. I have take people right to a patch like this and they don't see the plants when they are standing within feet of them....except for the smell!

I would caution to watch low trained plants like this for critters and insects more often.

To answer your other question about your yellowing on the newly sprouted plants. It usually is caused by the young roots getting into some of the soil mix that is too high in undecomposed organic matter. This can tie up the available Nitrogen in that immediate area. The young roots then grow through and voila the plant greens up. It can also, under cooler conditions be caused by the plant just not gearing up all of it's biological functions quickly enough. Lastly and more rarely you can have a mutant sport that has this characteristic. Some of these never lose this trait.

Again I'm sorry it took me so long to get this to you. If you need anything else or have any questions about training your 50 Shades of Grey plants just let me know!! Best of luck!
 
SAFO1 said:
why are my top leaves looking differn't than the rest? they are single and broader
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Hey another good observation there SAFO1! Basically it's a varietal situation there, as your plants begin the final stages of flowering they begin to commit less and less energy to leaf production. Some varieties shoot out very small 3- leaflet " bud leaves" others, send out larger broader single leaflet leaves, such as you are seeing. My personal opinion is that the purpose of these leaves is two fold. I base this on sitting in the woods and watching pot plants as well as other plants that flower in this manner. I think that the leaves offer attractive landing places for pollenating insects. I also believe that they are natures catcher's mitts for wind blown pollen. I base this on how sticky some of these leaves can get. Mullen is a weed that grows in this area. It used to be used for medicinal teas. It shots a flower spike up that also has these vestigial leaves. They become extremely sticky as they flower. There are several others also that comes to mind.

Best of luck in all you grow. How are the girls looking?
 
Bapple said:
The Weed Whisperer rides again!

The plant tipping tip is genius :high-five: LST for lazy girls like me. I am going to try it with my September to December plant :thumb: totally makes sense.
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Hey Bapple! It doesn't hurt to have a small pack of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels running around the farm with you. They were running around the plants that I had outside hardening off. I didn't notice that one of the little stinkers knocked over a whole row of plants.
I came back after 3 days....voila...... they were ready to weave into my fence rows! Which by the way is another excellent method of plant concealment. The old wire field fences that are found on a lot of farms are perfect for espalier pot plants. Natural trellises!

As always thank you for being so kind. I get the impression that you are a naturally upbeat person. As for me, I always find it much more pleasant to walk on the sunny side of the street!!
 
Subbed. The 'over 50 club' title scared me off for a while, but after doing a little reading here I went out and got some fake ID. Do you accept fake ID here? (Plenty around on this forum)
 
uptheholler2 said:
Hey Captain B! Been busy today at the farm so it's taken me a while to get a chance to sit down and let you know a couple of methods that I use to train and camouflage plants in brambles and other vines like in our neck of the woods honeysuckle. First a few inexpensive things that you will need.

-a good pair of clippers
-Some new or used bailing twine ( Don't you just love projects that include bailing twine?) I use the biodegradable
- Some old fencing or other very stiff wire ( I use pieces of spring steel cut to various lengths)
- A shovel and any soil amendments that you use in your area.

Ok first if your plants are still in pots, water them heavily and then tilt the pots on their sides. Prop the lip of the pot up on a brick or piece of 2x4 on the ground. By tilting them up a little it keeps the plant off of the ground, as well as , keeps most of your potting mix in the pot!
It takes anywhere from 2 to 4 days depending upon the sun intensity and the plant will be bending towards the sky. Now set your pot back up and the plant is now running some what parallel to the ground.

If the plant is already planted in the ground then you can simply use the water and step method. Simply saturate the ground around the base of the plant. Let it sit for a while so the water really soaks in. Then use the toe of your boot to gently but firmly push the main stem of the plant down. As it begins to tilt let up and do it a couple of times more. then move to the next step.

I like to pick patches of brambles with good day long sun exposure. I check for animal trails in and around the patch. I worked on one patch like this before and got my plants in only to find a well hidden groundhog hole on the backside. Once I've picked one I wade or even crawl in and dig my holes and plant my plants.

I begin to pin my plants down using the stiff wire which I bend into a "V" shape. Again as you push the plants down simply pin them down by putting the pins over the stem and push them into the ground. Remember it's a gradual training thing so you can continually ease the plants over by pushing the pins in farther to ease them over . You don't have to get them into their final position all at once.

Ok so once the plants are in and bent down, it's time to draw blood. I crawl in to the patch on my back and trim out shading branches on the vine. I also use small pieces of twine to tie branches of the brambles together or to bend them the way that I want them.

I usually leave some wire and twine in the brush to use as I visit the plants to aid in training them. To answer your question about yield, it's generally quite good. I would say that the main difference is that I don't usually get long colas like on an upright plant. Instead like an LST plant all of the underneath lower buds grow like crazy and fill out. I have had them 8-9 feet long running along the ground. If done properly from above you have a raspberry or blackberry patch with buds sticking up all over the place through the top cover. I have take people right to a patch like this and they don't see the plants when they are standing within feet of them....except for the smell!

I would caution to watch low trained plants like this for critters and insects more often.

To answer your other question about your yellowing on the newly sprouted plants. It usually is caused by the young roots getting into some of the soil mix that is too high in undecomposed organic matter. This can tie up the available Nitrogen in that immediate area. The young roots then grow through and voila the plant greens up. It can also, under cooler conditions be caused by the plant just not gearing up all of it's biological functions quickly enough. Lastly and more rarely you can have a mutant sport that has this characteristic. Some of these never lose this trait.

Again I'm sorry it took me so long to get this to you. If you need anything else or have any questions about training your 50 Shades of Grey plants just let me know!! Best of luck!
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Good stuff and great explanation, :thankyou: uptheholler for taking the time for this. I've been going round and round on how to best keep these out of site from above. I don't have strong enough vines or anything for that matter to hold them down, and all my hem hawing may have me with too late a start on my lst'ing. I use the cyclone fence ties before and think I'm going to try either your step on it method and then training for parallel to the ground growth. I would imagine I will need support from underneath vs top later on so will prep for this also.

These vines I have in this area, I've not really seen here, more of a ground cover flimsy vine, they are growing in CRP areas that used to be crop land. They are very yellow this time of year but turn a good green late in the year and show green green on google earth, so along with keeping the plants low, I think the best thing may be that you don't have big colas that stick out late in the year up high.

Here's a shot of the type area and vines I speak of. I topped these plants young so thinking to try and train both main branches gradually.

IMG_20150521_181252363.jpg
IMG_20150521_181504432.jpg
IMG_20150521_181231350.jpg


Again thanks for your time, I'm sure yawl are quite busy up on the farm @ this time.
 
uptheholler2 said:
As always thank you for being so kind. I get the impression that you are a naturally upbeat person. As for me, I always find it much more pleasant to walk on the sunny side of the street!!
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Guilty as charged Holler :) adversity is an inevitable part of life, but misery is always a choice - so I'll take upbeat any day!

Hope all is well with you. :thumb:
 
Ok, I think this is the right place to ask. Did anyone ever grow a Mexican sativa? :cheesygrinsmiley:
I bought sth that should look like that. It seems a delicate plant in my climate so far so I'm asking.

img_product_61.jpg
 
conradino23 said:
Ok, I think this is the right place to ask. Did anyone ever grow a Mexican sativa? :cheesygrinsmiley:
I bought sth that should look like that. It seems a delicate plant in my climate so far so I'm asking.

img_product_61.jpg
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I've grown hundreds of them. Back in the day Mexican and Columbian bag seed was about all we had to plant. Depending on the variety of Mexican sativas they were about the only ones that we could get decent buds on before frost shut you down for the year.
 
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