Weasel Forges Ahead

[Weaselcracker]

Thanks friends.

Got the flowering chamber of the life support pod fed up and under control.

Everything seems to be more or less properly humming and good for another week by itself. It took a long time. To be fair, several localized vapour clouds were encountered, vision was obscured and the road to progress was a crooked one.
Eleven strains in there at the moment and all sorts of different ages to mix different concoctions for. Plus the res and juggling the rainwater cisterns, pissing around with the hexapus lines and the manifold, which clogs sometimes, and all sorts of other demanding little jobs. Fun though. I'm always happy doing that sort of work. But there's quite a lot of it sometimes.

If, as I was blathering recently, my grow is like a sort of patched together but functional spaceship and self contained cannabis life support pod, existing surrounded by the hostile and treacherous vacuum of prohibition, the occasional enforcement drone, and the occasional pirate, then I think that most of us on 420 are like that. Captains of our own little ships, communicating to each other via the net through a vacuum, forming a giant life support system enthralled and enslaved in a symbiotic relationship with our beautiful female masters/slaves. All working to improve and accelerate the evolution of one plant species. It's a good story and an interesting time to be around here. Maybe we will miss these times when it's all safe and legal, who knows. I give myself a pat on the back to have slithered my way intact through a lot of stressful paranoia-inducing growing conditions, but I'm having more fun now, cause the legal chains are a bit looser and I'm not so paranoid.

 

[Tead]

Yeah it's embarrassing. Fascinating though cause it makes us look at 'us' as a species. Then when we don't like what we see in the magic Trump mirror on the wall we decide to call us 'them'.

Ya know... I was bothered by my own reaction to the situation. I couldn't actually put my finger on what was the core of my concern.
These words solved that issue for me. Thanks.... it's been bothering me hard.

 

[Tead]

Might have killed off all the mites.

Ummmm.... if one were to place one's bets based on historical data.....
Wanna bet?

 

[Tead]

I decided to take another approach to them- hacked the tops off and stuck them in the cloner.

Ya know.... there's a problem with that approach... tho I'd use it if I were in your garden too.
You're kind of multiplying your future problems. When you slide them into bloom, they're gonna be bigger girls.... thus driving your future problems.
Then again, like everyone, space is always a challenge we're all constantly fighting.

 

[SweetSue]

Ummmm.... if one were to place one's bets based on historical data.....
Wanna bet?

Yeah....... I heard the wide-eyed innocence and naïveté when I posted it. You'd think I'd learn from past experience, wouldn't you? If memory serves, I paused at that point and considered the wisdom of brazenly thumbing my nose at the universe. This experience with the mites has forced me to think about how we fight against things, trying to wrestle them to the ground and kill them so we can be happier.

They appear to have been contained inside that tent. The plants are being processed into oil within thirty hours of harvest, an alcohol shower and bud washing. If any eggs survived that onslaught the oil production will reduce them to nutrient additives. I harvested sans clothing and scrubbed myself with hot water when I finished harvesting and cleaning everything but the tent itself, which was treated to an rubbing alcohol shower. Today I'll scrub the tent out a couple times. I surrounded every other plant in the apartment with cosmic protection.

Every precaution has been taken, but one always finds that niggling thought rattling around in the dark recesses

"They don't call them 'The Borg' for nothing."

They're a chilling family to find in the garden. For years I avoided them. There must be a way to return to those innocent times.

 

[Kriaze]

All those beautiful plants Weasel and you know what all I can think about is? You added another plant to your centre aisle It's going, going, gone lol

 

[Weaselcracker]

Tead, re the cloning- I might well end up throwing away the original plants, unless I unexpectedly have more space than I think I do- which is highly unlikely. As you know- clones tend to be a lot easier to control than the ones from seed. I'm guessing if I flower those Honduras plants as they are I'm going to be facing some sort of magic beanstalk scenario. Also- if the cuttings root I can toss one of each into flowering and sex them. Then if they're male I can flower them out very small like that and still get more pollen than I need.
I'll definitely... well- nothing's definite around here- so...probably will be trying to simplify things a little for the next round. I might skip the hexapus run next time as well. It would be nice though just be growing a half dozen trusted strains and try one or two new ones at a time instead of being all over the map like this.
But having said that- I'm having fun. It hasn't been all that difficult managing this menagerie. But I'm bringing out the machete a little more often than I'd like to be, and obviously overextended my plant capacity, since I keep having to hack them down.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Kriaze there's a little shelf there that's meant to hold a fan (it broke- as usual). I've got a couple teeny P Chunk clones there. They were meant to be a breeding program but the one that I sprayed with colloidal silver never ended up producing any pollen as far as I can see. I didn't see any seeds forming so I took it back out of isolation. Those two little things are just extra.
I looked hard at that aisle last night, and it seems too dimly lit. Unless I got a small light for the centre, I don't think I can put anything much there. I'm using about as much wattage as I feel comfortable using. Although my new fan is lower wattage than the old one...So if I had a decent little led or something...

The biggest step forward I could make would be to get a good separate cubbyhole going where I can keep pollinaters, so I can start getting seeds of all the strains. So far I haven't had time, and can't really find a good spot.
I hate the idea of using a spot that's less than stealthy, and then have someone stumble on it. That would seem stupid- causing myself paranoia over some 6" clone, or male.

 

[Kriaze]

If you arrange shipping I'll arrange the LED's Weasel, I have loads stashed away as a fail safe, but loads too many too.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Really? Wow, thanks for the offer, mate. That's really generous of you. I'll do some head scratching and think about how much wattage I actually have available, and what I might get away with installing. You really want to see that extra space disappear hey?
I'll think on this more Kriaze, and what I might find around here as a little return gift.
Got some more seeds in the mail today- speaking of running out of space. Looks like it will be a while before I get to plant them.

 

[Spitz]

If you arrange shipping I'll arrange the LED's Weasel, I have loads stashed away as a fail safe, but loads too many too.

Thumbs up emoji..

Class act sir

 

[Kriaze]

Damn, no need for reciprocative gifts I don't mind sharing what's not in use .

Besides I can't afford shipping anyway or it would have been a free offer completely lol

 

[Weaselcracker]

I can't afford shipping

lol. If you've been following the oh-so-gripping drama of my current life situation then you already know- I can't either
working on it.

 

[Kriaze]

I have mate and I wish I could help there too. I gave away material ideals a long time ago but now I'm poor I'm seeing why it's attractive to a lot of people as a tool for getting things done. Once I conquer my demons I'll consider using it as a tender again I suppose but for now I'll stick to as free as we can make it lol. Don't leave it too long though I feel like I'm not here long atm, if I do pop off though I'll bequeath them in a will and my wife will send them through here

 

[Kriaze]

That sounds a bit depressive ffs but I can't delete it Weasel, I dislike delete. It wasn't meant that way, maybe I should have put my rofl at the end. Damn weed I'm blaming

 

[Weaselcracker]

Yeah that was a hard one to reply to- other than to say that, obviously, I disagree with the general concept.
What are you smoking anyway? I might know where there are some good sativa seeds.

 

[Kriaze]

Now that's an hard question to answer, I didn't journal it so I forget wtf I grew last lol. It's nice

 

[SweetSue]

Really? Wow, thanks for the offer, mate. That's really generous of you. I'll do some head scratching and think about how much wattage I actually have available, and what I might get away with installing. You really want to see that extra space disappear hey?
I'll think on this more Kriaze, and what I might find around here as a little return gift.
Got some more seeds in the mail today- speaking of running out of space. Looks like it will be a while before I get to plant them.

Don't make it too long. Damn good genetics there.

Now that's an hard question to answer, I didn't journal it so I forget wtf I grew last lol. It's nice

The advantages of growing a limited number of strains. I always know by smell or by sight what I'm smoking. Those dark buds are hard to miss and the Carnival is very distinctive.

 

[Weaselcracker]

I ordered those Carnival seeds around Christmas, the first order never showed up, so Ministry of Cannabis just went ahead and re-sent before I even asked. Which is the sort of seed company I like to deal with. The classy sort.

Sue I think your mites should be solvable. I eliminated mine with Mite-Rid, which is mainly neem I think. It just took a couple applications, and me figuring out that I had to spray the greenhouse plants and the house plants as well as the grow. That was after two years of hell. I haven't seen them in years and I do not miss them one bit.

 

[Weaselcracker]

For once there was hardly anything to do in the grow tonight. Mainly because I did it all yesterday in preparation for taking off again. But plans changed. So I was just pissing around in there mostly, and took a couple more photos.

~ Left side. The DTW plants, Peyote Purple reveg in front right, and Critical Cheese in back. The Cheese, which didn't totally make it in the picture, has been turned into a bud mobile. It has a lot in common with the P Chunk in that it's always flopping and dangling around helplessly like a dead octopus. I have a sort of network of strings above it, stretched out between some hooks in the wall, and I dangled the buds off it with pipe cleaners. This will keep the whole mess up in the light until I harvest and it actually dies (instead of just acting it like it.)

~ The Pineapple Chunk at two weeks flowering. No reason for the photo except I thought I should get one while she still looks good and before she starts acting up and doing her inevitable bad hair day/I hate you freakout routine. Coming soon.

~ Flowering. Down near the floor at the end of the probably doomed free space of the center aisle, is my fresh air intake. I wouldn't normally delve into this grubby corner of my grow here on 420, but in the spirit of Tead's jackleg construction disclosures I thought I'd go down and look around a little...

This is something I threw together extremely early on in the build of this grow. Six (?)/ five (?) years ago. Or something. Lost in the mists of time. Its just an ordinary simple invention that probably everyone else has already invented too, but wtf -I have to give it some praise, because I literally haven't messed with it since I first made it. This contraption has done its job perfectly for years, and I've been free to completely ignore it, which is the sign of a good contraption.

Excuse the grime please.
Six inch adjustable stovepipe elbow. Painted what used to be white outside, black inside. Screen over the intake/outside world end to keep critters out.

Square lid (or is it the cut off bottom? I can't remember) from a 4 gallon square bucket, held on with single hinge. Painted black to help block light.

A scrap of old fleece jacket material glued in the inside to help seal. I adjusted the adjustable elbow to balance it so that the lid closes and seals nicely with gravity, but swings open easily too.

When the vent fan comes on the lid flaps open. Because of the shape of it, the fresh air is directed down low and shoots out sideways across the floor under the plants before rising.

Fan goes off and the lid closes.

Yeah I know, I know....
Hopefully I'll be able to throw on a fresh coat of paint in the summer sometime.