The Perpetual Healing Garden - SweetSue's Joyful Return

[SweetSue]

I stop training when I run out of container space to tie them down to. That seems to work out pretty well and calms down their need to stretch quite a bit. I think that because the roots dont expand out any further than the container, if you shape the upper plant to that shape too, everything balances, top and bottom and the plant is happy... no undue stretching.

I note the magick that just happened with your new brownies too... in documenting the process to share your recipe with the rest of us, your love bounced back 3x into your mixing bowl. The law of karmic return is an amazing tool in the kit of the knowledgeable when wielded correctly... imagine the healing power packed into those brownies, just from our good thoughts bouncing back at you along with the karmic return from you sharing it with us, compounded by the love you put into doing that for us. The Beatles said it best.

You really are hitting the notes perfectly tonight Emmie.

If you look at Light Addict's PotM entry, it's still tied down. You change the methods as she grows out, but to get a level canopy you keep manipulating well into flowering.

I tend to let mine go for the last week or two, just to be a kind to the elderly I guess.

How magnanimous of you arteekay.

Thank you both for the input. I feel confident here. If I watch and listen to the plant we'll be fine.

 

[sweethook]

wow your realy doing a great job with your plants i like it ... and thanks for all the great pics

 

[SweetSue]

wow your realy doing a great job with your plants i like it ... and thanks for all the great pics

Why thank you sweethook. Welcome to my journal and to the community at large. Finding everything you need? I've been here a year and a half now and still haven't found everything there is to do and see and be a part of around here. Careful, we're addictive.

If there's ever anything I can do to help you out, you know where to find me. Growing? Thinking of journaling? There's no better way to accelerate the learning curve than running a journal.

Make yourself at home. I have a small post to get up here. Be right back.

 

[SweetSue]

Am I paying attention?

Sounds like such a silly question doesn't it? I'm honest with myself, I'm pretty lazy and sometimes that means I don't pay attention as much as I should. I'm growing in two different soil mixes. The LOS no-tills are almost akin to raising pets. LOL! You hear it expressed like that sometimes, and I can identify with that. I dropped community starters of earthworms into my own pots this week. As communities they don't dry out. Ever. You strive for an even distribution of moisture. It's impossible to determine if you've really achieved this state without digging into the pot, so I rely on the health of my plants.

I'm not concerned about my no-till pots.

I'm not concerned about my HB kit pots either. Part of their management is getting the proper timing on the wet/dry cycle. This was a challenge for me, but I think I've learned from the generous sharing of your expertise. So let's test me.

To my eye, the Critical Mass (on the left) still has a couple days to go before her next drench. Probably three to four days. The CBD Critical Cure's almost there, but would benefit from pushing it one more day. It sits steps from where I work so it's no problem to check in on her throughout the day and watch for any rapid fading. Like I don't already do this anyway.

Whadda ya think?

I'll be holding my breath here now. Really I'll be fixing breakfast, finally, but you get my meaning.

 

[ShiggityFlip]

I like to physically put my hand beneath the pots and feel the fabric on the bottom. The fabric gives me a really good feel for the dampness of the soil inside. I know the feeling for veg (bone dry) and for flower(tiny touch of dampness). It's like patting my plants on the butt and telling them good job! My girls this time are surprising even me with how happy they are.

 

[STIHL LOGGER]

Good morning Sue! Your garden is just wonderful. Poppin in here always seems to level me. Such a great place to be. With all of these top notch gardeners. Truely an honor to be amongst all of you. Hope all is sunny and spring like for you Sue. Its beautiful up here in "orange Nation" today. The newly dropped auto seeds all cracked open about an hour ago and they just went into paper towels. Hopefully they will go into their solo cup dirt sauna tmw. Have a great one today Susan and everybody else too!

 

[SweetSue]

I like to physically put my hand beneath the pots and feel the fabric on the bottom. The fabric gives me a really good feel for the dampness of the soil inside. I know the feeling for veg (bone dry) and for flower(tiny touch of dampness). It's like patting my plants on the butt and telling them good job! My girls this time are surprising even me with how happy they are.

I feel the same way. The energy level, or something. They're always healthy-looking, but sometimes they just "feel" happier to me. I know how silly that sounds. LOL! My pots are in those crates, something I didn't take into consideration - although they are significantly easier to lug around. I'll check them. Thanks.

 

[SweetSue]

Good morning Sue! Your garden is just wonderful. Poppin in here always seems to level me. Such a great place to be. With all of these top notch gardeners. Truely an honor to be amongst all of you. Hope all is sunny and spring like for you Sue. Its beautiful up here in "orange Nation" today. The newly dropped auto seeds all cracked open about an hour ago and they just went into paper towels. Hopefully they will go into their solo cup dirt sauna tmw. Have a great one today Susan and everybody else too!

Great news STIHL! New seeds! Oops, I was going to do that this week. Hmmmm......two more months to go, that would be another harvest within the following month - yeah. Time to look at the seed bank.

Good luck with you latest start. It's nice to know I project a calming force.

 

[SweetSue]

Daily Update: Day 29 & 31

The only maintenance necessary was to continue stretching the limbs of the restrained autos.

Fantasmo Express, just after adjustments were made.

Just now, about five hours later.

Auto Jack Herer, just after play time.

Just a couple minutes ago. I hear this one loud and clear and she's shouting "Get out of my way and let me get going already!" That main top near yanks the pin out of the ground, she's so anxious to start going up again. Thick, powerful stalk.

The quiet Med GOM 1.0.

In the photo tent, CBD Critical Cure is still holding.

The Critical Mass is stunning! These CBD Crew seeds are some of the strongest plants I've grown. They've been noticeably superior from the first leaves. Let's hope the flowers are worth getting excited about. The idea is oil.

Tucked away in the tiny closet, the Dark Devil Auto (Day 29) is breathtaking. This one's going to be bigger than I'm expecting, I think, so I better come up with a plan to get that light higher. She's already at 13" and her fans keep getting bigger and bigger. In the meantime I should give some serious consideration to bending her over, but look at that growth!

Maybe just get some CFLs underneath. I can do that.

She's definitely my favorite. I know you're not supposed to pick favorites but....... LOL!

Alright joyful ones. Time for me to force that Callanetics session I've been avoiding for hours. Psychology.... what a trip. You all have a wonderful continuation to this glorious weekend. Spread that joy. I'll catch up to you later.

 

[SweetSue]

I have finally regained the ability to reply to post on the iPad without having to go to the advanced page. O Happy Day!

It's the little things people. Now, if I can get back the ability to give reps from the iPad again, that would be so nice.


Edit: Rep function restored.


My deepest appreciation for the crew behind the scenes working all this out.

 

[arteekay]

She's definitely my favorite. I know you're not supposed to pick favorites but....... LOL!

She is stunning, no question. She's my favorite as well, in yours and mine.

I cut mine tonight, with a new one three or four days from sprout. I imagine I will have a SweetSeeds girl in my tent most of the time, and for that I can thank only you.

Hope you're having a great weekend.

 

[SweetSue]

At 4:30 PM I started working towards a Callanetics session I'm starting now, at 12:42 AM. Sometimes I wonder about myself. Rough day. What matters is I'm getting them in right now. I am determined.

 

[SweetSue]

At 4:30 PM I started working towards a Callanetics session I'm starting now, at 12:42 AM. Sometimes I wonder about myself. Rough day. What matters is I'm getting them in right now. I am determined.

3:25 AM. DONE dammit!!!

 

[MagicJim]

3:25 AM. DONE dammit!!!

Great job!

I have to force myself to wash dishes at times and that's exactly the way I feel when I'm done. Dammit now!

Have a great day short haired girl.

 

[SweetSue]

Thank you Jim. The best part is how wonderful the body feels the next day. That extra 15 pounds I put on over the holidays is just about under control now and I can feel the abs working away with every move. YES! Back where I need to be.

It's so nice not to have to tie my hair up anymore. I look flirty with this cut. LOL!

It's the last day for my brownies. *sigh*

When I opened the freezer I found this.

This is sugar leaves from everything I grew last year that I didn't smoke. I think it's time to crank up my Magic Butter Machine.

Isn't life grand?

 

[Pigeons420]

Thanks Pigeons. That means a lot coming from you. This is my first go round with training, so I'm trying to approach it with an open mind and pay attention to the plants. May I ask, how much of this do you do? I guess the better question is when do you know it's time to quit manipulating and let them grow out?

I missed this, but you've already gotten some wonderful answers.

Em is right though, you can train them till the cows come home if you've got a space to contain it all. I've had some massive plants (some prettier than others) but I found that if I didn't plan ahead well enough, I really limited space for future plants. Which was then a bit discouraging and I lost focus on the big picture and things would go down hill... My how we learn so much?.. So, planning is always important. Which is something you're quite good at. No problem there.
But another important thing I've learned is nodes nodes nodes. I've trained some big girls but then flipped them so early that the buds were so small and under developed. So I've learned that you want as many nodes (going up) as possible before the flip. Does that make sense? It seems like common sense but there's a kind of excitement/panic that hits when she starts to get big that "I NOW have to flip the lights" but it should have been something I thought out a little more....Oh and also, I like to know what kind of training I'm doing before I do it...Sometimes I have an urge to top here and top there but that seldom happens anymore because you never really know how she's going to react and form afterwards. So, I like to know what I'm doing before I do it. For example, if it's a flux-like training I'll plant the seed in the middle of a pot, but if I'm going to do some bending and forming around a pot, I like to plant the seed off to one particular side of the pot to give me more room in the pot to tie down to or it allows me to have room in the soil to water when she gets bigger...haha now if I didn't make sense before I'm sure I didn't articulate that nearly as well as it sounded in my head.

Trainings fun. It shouldn't be stressful. I know you're going to make the most of it and have a blast at the same time.

MUAH

 

[SweetSue]

Daily Update: Day 30 & 32

Thanks for that wonderful burst of insight Pigeons. Ah.... The glories of community gardening, eh? That made perfect sense to me. It has become a fun thing to do every morning. I started the day by fashioning a couple more wire pics to restrain a couple more limbs that are now long enough. That Auto Jack Herer is a beast! This is actually going much better than I'd planned.

I'm always amazed at how you guys think I know what I'm doing. LOL! Alright, I'll concede. I have some serious instincts that these plants bring out too, so maybe you're all right. I'm still catching on to the planning part, although I seem to project this attitude of being prepared. Hmmm.... Maybe I need to rethink my self image.

So let's take that stroll through the spaces, shall we? We're into week 6 now, can you believe it? They aren't babies anymore.

The auto tent. I stretched them out and restrained them a bit more after taking this shot. In a few hours I'll post their rebound shot. That just really tickles me to see how quickly they recover. It's like we're playing this little game. Hahaha! Anybody remember how much fun Carnival was to train? Some days I swear I could hear her giggle when I approached. LOL!

Fantasmo Express, after the additional playtime.

Auto Jack Herer, newly restrained. I can't keep the main top down anymore. Seriously, it won't bend anymore, so I guess I need to let her go from here on and focus on getting the canopy level. I love that challenge, don't you?

My quiet one, the Med GOM 1.0. I certainly hope she has some surprise burst of growth that she's holding onto for that big dramatic moment. I'll have to keep in mind that it's quality we're going for. That's only true to a certain extent though. Given the scarcity of space in these tents you better produce a gold standard product if you're going to be stingy in yield. She still has at least two months to redeem herself.

The photo tent. Look at the size of them! They're a month old now, sitting in a 7 and a 10 gallon. Apparently they like the root space.

CBD Critical Cure

Critical Mass

My closeted beauty, the Dark Devil Auto (Day 30). She's almost 14.5" now and no signs of slowing down. I'll be working on a plan to get the light higher.

In the meantime, I've been meaning to do this. It's a start. Another 112 watts to light up the skirt.

I'll make further adjustments to those CFLs as I go on. I'll probably replace the strips with a few hanging cords. That can be easier to get right into the plant. It felt good to get the CFLs out. LOL! What a gardening nerd.

I'm studying oil threads today. There's so much information in there it's taking me forever to make any progress. My brain insists I actually understand it so I'm off again on another search for clarification and perspective. I have to find a better way to access that valuable resource. You see how obsessed I get? You have no idea. My brain insists I do a huge knowledge dump, let it stew as I stir it around for a few days to weeks and then, when it's ready, - not when I'm ready, mind you, that would be too easy - everything falls into place like a magical jigsaw puzzle. I often wonder how other people process information that's this far out of their comfort zone. As in any study, the deeper I get the more I understand the first time through.

Isn't the human brain a thing of wonder?

At some point a brisk walk to the grocery is called for, preferably after it stops raining, and we may be past that now. Oh yeah! It's Sunday. I should treat myself to breakfast along the river and then hit the grocery. That's a better plan. Then I can run by the labyrinth as well. There we go short-haired girl. A workable plan.

Have a wonderful day everyone. I'll be seeing you around the yards when I can catch a break. Lots to learn and it always feels like too little time. Get out there with me and spread that joy. I try to create an aura of joy when I'm out. Anyone else do that? I'm just curious. Surely I'm not the only one who knows how to do that.

Enough rambling. I'd keep you here all day. My newly-Callanetics strong muscles are calling for a workout, so I'm out the door to brunch.

 

[SweetSue]

Did you know?

A 20 second hug releases the bonding hormone and neurotransmitter oxytocin, which is a natural antidepressant.

Hugs are a healing force all their own.

 

[SweetSue]

Fully recovered and looking eager as can be.

Auto Jack Herer

Fantasmo Express

 

[SweetSue]

Anyone have any experience with making butter with frozen shake? I'm pretty certain I can't use the Magic Butter Machine because it won't get hit enough to decarb. What I'm wondering is if it's possible to dry out the frozen sugar leaves and then decarb? I could slow dry them in the oven before decarbing if I bust them up onto a tray.