2020 New England Outdoor Organic Grow

[mattypacks]

Little bit late to the party but I figured it would be cool to start a grow journal for my second outdoor organic season with the hopes of spreading any knowledge I can, and being able to learn a thing or two from you guys myself. I wanted to do a youtube series and document the grow but I fell behind and just couldn't commit the time for this. Ill cover up to the current date with what I have. Comments, questions, concerns, advice, they are all welcome!

Lighting - Sungrown baby (600w MH for veg tent)

Medium - Modified Subcool Super Soil Mix at the rate of:
- 2 bags Roots organic original soil
-100g Kelp Meal
-50g Alfalfa Meal
-80g Langbeinite
-420g Fish Bone Meal
-420g Blood Meal
-420g Seabird Guano
-140g Greensand
(all down to earth brand ^)
-1.25lbs Rice Hulls
-200g Azomite
-185g Xtreme Gardening Mykos
-10lbs Worm Castings

Mixed everything together on a tarp, put the mix into some containers, added water and let cook for approx. 30 days.

Genetics - 12 plants, 11 strains
- Dutch Passion White Widow
-2x Dutch Passion Critical Orange Punch
-Dutch Passion Strawberry Cough
-Delicious Seeds Critical Super Silver Haze
-Reserva Privada OG Kush #18
-Barneys Farm Pineapple Haze
-DNA 24k Gold
-Barneys Farm Red Diesel
-Expert Seeds Cali Orange
-Unknown Bagseed (calling it matty og for now)
-G13 Labs Strawberry Eclair

Both the Cali Orange and Red Diesel I grew last year, and each plant produced 2-3 seeds.
These wouldn't be my first choice in genetics but were purchased back in 2018 when I first got into growing. These are what I had left, and didn't want them to go to waste.

April 19th, 2020

Seeds planted in coco, took about 7-10 days for everything to pop (the ones that did pop)

May 11th, 2020 - First Transplant

Transplanted from solo cups into 2gal pots - a mix of roots organic and straight coco

May 18th - 1 week after 1st transplant

Not many updates during this time. Fed nothing but tap water up to this point. Yes I know my tent is jimmy rigged as hell, but only gets this much use one month out of the year. The trays you see are for marigolds, wanted to experiment with companion planting for pest deterrence. Note: the two solo cups that have growth replaced two of the currently growing plants - peach puree CBD which turned out to be an autoflower, and Yumbolt that I concluded was not going to be a good candidate to grow outdoors up here.

May 24th - Outdoor Transplant Day

As you can see in the front row, the peach puree cbd has some flowering action going on, but no worries. This was taken right before the final transplant to the great outdoors. After transplant, they were given earthworm tea. Ill be going over how I brew and what recipe I use in a later post.
White Widow, Strawberry Cough, OG#18, and "matty og" were transplanted into 30 gallon pots
The two Critical Orange Punches, and Critical Super Silver Haze into 25 gallon pots
Pineapple Haze into a 15 gallon pot
Red Diesel, Cali Orange, Strawberry Eclair, and 24k gold into 7 gallon pots
An addition layer of 1-2 inches of pure coco was added, and all the pots mulched with pine fines.

The reason for the size discrepancy is due to wanting more variety, but still being at a manageable level for me, and the fact that all I have for a grow space is a little hill lol. Last season (my first outdoor grow) I had 6 plants in 30 gallon pots and to be honest it was a struggle to keep up with. Like many, I had the pleasure of dealing with budworms, powdery mildew, bud rot, spider mites, a theif, and the list goes on - but I guess that just comes with the magic of growing. Although a bumpy ride it was generally successful, and the amount of knowledge I gained is priceless to me.
Early August 2019:

 

[mattypacks]

May 28th - Various photos
These are screenshots from a video I took so bear with me.

Strawberry Cough


OG#18


Matty OG


Critical Super Silver Haze


Pineapple Haze


2x Critical Orange Punch



White Widow


And thats really all I have up to this point for now. Plants got topped 6/1, and the next few weeks ( up to 6/18 )was general stuff like opening up the plant and tying branches down, etc.

 

[BOSTONSATIVA]

So you do not start your training out of the gate? and last year did you top your plants?

 

[mattypacks]

So you do not start your training out of the gate? and last year did you top your plants?

No training was done until they got topped on the first. I dont have any specific reasoning why I waited that long to top, I actually wish I had topped them on the day of transplant or even before. They exploded in height and grew less uniform than id like, the strawberry cough had extremely uneven node growth after topping. I guess im just trying to find what works best since this is my second outdoor grow and very different from last year where I put the girls outside on 6/17 vs this year vegging them for a month indoor prior to outdoor transplant.

This is from 7/8/2019 right after their first and only topping. Would have been more manageable if I topped at this height this time around but ill be tying branches down and supercropping where needed so no worries!

*I also made a mistake in the first post on the time stamp from last years photo. It was taken in early September, not August

 

[mattypacks]

June 22
Updated photos of the girls.

Strawberry Cough - secondary caging put in (and uneven top growth)


OG Kush #18 - a pain to get her to branch out.


Matty OG mystery bagseed - dont have any idea what this girl is, but I love the way shes growing


White Widow - one of the tops actually snapped clean off, not entirely sure how that happened but another is quickly taking its place


Critical Orange Punch#1 + #2


Cali Orange

 

[mattypacks]

Red Diesel


Pineapple Haze


24K Gold - moved to a shady area, was high 80's to 90's for almost a week and she was not happy about it


Strawberry Eclair - sticking to LST only for this one


Nothing crazy happening in the garden, just tie downs and seed sprout teas. Will be supercropping the uneven tops either today or tomorrow on the White Widow and Strawberry Cough, and anywhere else that needs it. More tie downs to be done, definitely overdue.

 

[BOSTONSATIVA]

No training was done until they got topped on the first. I dont have any specific reasoning why I waited that long to top, I actually wish I had topped them on the day of transplant or even before. They exploded in height and grew less uniform than id like, the strawberry cough had extremely uneven node growth after topping. I guess im just trying to find what works best since this is my second outdoor grow and very different from last year where I put the girls outside on 6/17 vs this year vegging them for a month indoor prior to outdoor transplant.

This is from 7/8/2019 right after their first and only topping. Would have been more manageable if I topped at this height this time around but ill be tying branches down and supercropping where needed so no worries!
View attachment 4602861
*I also made a mistake in the first post on the time stamp from last years photo. It was taken in early September, not August

This is also my second outdoor ever! I didn’t too one this year just to see what it would do, it’s now over my fence at 6 feet. The remainder I topped prior to getting tossed into the 45 gallon smart pots. I’m going bigger than last year, let’s see if I can finish before the freeze. I germinated mine March 4th . I grabbed 3 clones for the run out it. I though about running more clones but it’s just too much work.

Red Diesel
View attachment 4602880

Pineapple Haze
View attachment 4602881

24K Gold - moved to a shady area, was high 80's to 90's for almost a week and she was not happy about it
View attachment 4602882

Strawberry Eclair - sticking to LST only for this one
View attachment 4602884

Nothing crazy happening in the garden, just tie downs and seed sprout teas. Will be supercropping the uneven tops either today or tomorrow on the White Widow and Strawberry Cough, and anywhere else that needs it. More tie downs to be done, definitely overdue.

They all look happy! Good job

 

[BOSTONSATIVA]

This is a clone I started LST out of the gate , I topped it 3 weeks ago, should be a good plant come October (it’s train wreck)

 

[BOSTONSATIVA]

No training was done until they got topped on the first. I dont have any specific reasoning why I waited that long to top, I actually wish I had topped them on the day of transplant or even before. They exploded in height and grew less uniform than id like, the strawberry cough had extremely uneven node growth after topping. I guess im just trying to find what works best since this is my second outdoor grow and very different from last year where I put the girls outside on 6/17 vs this year vegging them for a month indoor prior to outdoor transplant.

This is from 7/8/2019 right after their first and only topping. Would have been more manageable if I topped at this height this time around but ill be tying branches down and supercropping where needed so no worries!
View attachment 4602861
*I also made a mistake in the first post on the time stamp from last years photo. It was taken in early September, not August

Do you wanna talk about a mistake, I made the mistake of having all of my plants indoors vegging 24 hours, until it occurred to me that’s not a natural light cycle. So I had to introduce 15 minutes of darkness to the plants every day until I hit 6 hours , I will never make that mistake again, I avoided forcing flowering by introducing darkness at 15 min intervals.
live and learn, much learning still to do.

 

[BOSTONSATIVA]

This is a clone I started LST out of the gate , I topped it 3 weeks ago, should be a good plant come October (it’s train wreck)

 

[mattypacks]

Do you wanna talk about a mistake, I made the mistake of having all of my plants indoors vegging 24 hours, until it occurred to me that’s not a natural light cycle. So I had to introduce 15 minutes of darkness to the plants every day until I hit 6 hours , I will never make that mistake again, I avoided forcing flowering by introducing darkness at 15 min intervals.
live and learn, much learning still to do.

Garden looking good!! You'll have some monsters in those 45gals by the fall. Hopefully the freeze holds off, had a massive Lemon OG kush plant that I ended up throwing out because of rot she was definitely 1+lbs and going to finish in mid November, which im sure you know doesnt work out so well up here lol. I also had some concerns when I put my girls out there since my lights were on from 10:30am to 4:30am in the veg tent. Been seeing a lot of people dealing with preflower issues this year and thankfully didnt become one of them. Learning from our mistakes is all just part of the process and makes us all better in the end. Keep crushing it dude!

 

[BOSTONSATIVA]

Garden looking good!! You'll have some monsters in those 45gals by the fall. Hopefully the freeze holds off, had a massive Lemon OG kush plant that I ended up throwing out because of rot she was definitely 1+lbs and going to finish in mid November, which im sure you know doesnt work out so well up here lol. I also had some concerns when I put my girls out there since my lights were on from 10:30am to 4:30am in the veg tent. Been seeing a lot of people dealing with preflower issues this year and thankfully didnt become one of them. Learning from our mistakes is all just part of the process and makes us all better in the end. Keep crushing it dude!

That’s the nightmare scenario ! Tossing a whole plant would freak me out, I know it comes with the territory but I am emotionally invested in these ladies, my wife doesn’t understand. Would plastic have helped you last year? Or was it just moisture trapped in the bud? That’s horrible man. I’m thinking ahead already , plastic fans etc. whatever I can do, I didn’t exactly pick the best strains to finish early train wreck and jack herer. Did you pick your strains because they finish early or did you just plant what you wanted?

 

[mattypacks]

That’s the nightmare scenario ! Tossing a whole plant would freak me out, I know it comes with the territory but I am emotionally invested in these ladies, my wife doesn’t understand. Would plastic have helped you last year? Or was it just moisture trapped in the bud? That’s horrible man. I’m thinking ahead already , plastic fans etc. whatever I can do, I didn’t exactly pick the best strains to finish early train wreck and jack herer. Did you pick your strains because they finish early or did you just plant what you wanted?

It was tough to do, but reality is reality at the end of the day. I was struggling in the battle against budworms, rot, and PM (in most of the garden) and trying to be on top of that plant just to salvage a small percentage just didnt make sense. Genetics 100% have the most impact in my experience, so picking the earlier finishing strains would have negated a lot of what I was dealing with, but easier said than done to a new grower learning as he goes! Once again this year, as I was using old seeds I didnt want to waste I just did a bunch of research and picked out the ones that seem to have the better end of resistances/flowering times. Last year to deal with the rain I set up a structure made of bamboo/garden stakes and wrapped over and around the plant with painters plastic for the storms. Took forever and sucked to do when it rained frequently. This year im implementing a plan to cover each plant with a tarp, using the tier 2 cages as structural integrity - down the line when I actually get this set up ill do a post about it, how much it cost me, and ease of access.

For budworms Ill be spraying BT (safer brand caterpillar killer) from 2 weeks before the first flowering plant until necessary. Thinking about putting a bug zapper out there to redirect the moths away from the garden. For the PM I will be doing the same thing with greencure and compost teas.
For moisture induced budrot (budworm rot is almost impossible to prevent), any part of the plant that wouldnt be covered by the tarp idea and gets rained on ill be hitting with a leaf blower until dry.

If you can figure out a way to keep even parts of your late flowering plants dry during the rain you will be reducing the chance of running into issues. This is why I need a greenhouse!

 

[BOSTONSATIVA]

It was tough to do, but reality is reality at the end of the day. I was struggling in the battle against budworms, rot, and PM (in most of the garden) and trying to be on top of that plant just to salvage a small percentage just didnt make sense. Genetics 100% have the most impact in my experience, so picking the earlier finishing strains would have negated a lot of what I was dealing with, but easier said than done to a new grower learning as he goes! Once again this year, as I was using old seeds I didnt want to waste I just did a bunch of research and picked out the ones that seem to have the better end of resistances/flowering times. Last year to deal with the rain I set up a structure made of bamboo/garden stakes and wrapped over and around the plant with painters plastic for the storms. Took forever and sucked to do when it rained frequently. This year im implementing a plan to cover each plant with a tarp, using the tier 2 cages as structural integrity - down the line when I actually get this set up ill do a post about it, how much it cost me, and ease of access.

For budworms Ill be spraying BT (safer brand caterpillar killer) from 2 weeks before the first flowering plant until necessary. Thinking about putting a bug zapper out there to redirect the moths away from the garden. For the PM I will be doing the same thing with greencure and compost teas.
For moisture induced budrot (budworm rot is almost impossible to prevent), any part of the plant that wouldnt be covered by the tarp idea and gets rained on ill be hitting with a leaf blower until dry.

If you can figure out a way to keep even parts of your late flowering plants dry during the rain you will be reducing the chance of running into issues. This is why I need a greenhouse!

I’m liking the green house idea, I’m now thinking I made the right decision in not taking more clones 11 plants is enough to stress about. Did you ever play with idea of forcing a flower a few weeks earlier as well? My concern would be hermis , but it would shorten the kill chain so to speak. Did you ever see the ad in Craig’s list for a guy selling clones? I have the add someplace with prices , the guy is around Somerville.

 

[mattypacks]

I’m liking the green house idea, I’m now thinking I made the right decision in not taking more clones 11 plants is enough to stress about. Did you ever play with idea of forcing a flower a few weeks earlier as well? My concern would be hermis , but it would shorten the kill chain so to speak. Did you ever see the ad in Craig’s list for a guy selling clones? I have the add someplace with prices , the guy is around Somerville.

Hasnt really crossed my mind other than dreaming about that greenhouse using light dep. I might give it a try with the 24k gold since its a late October strain and easily movable in the 7gal pot, I guess I could just throw it in the shed on 12/12 cycle. This season ill be taking very few clones for some mother plants, but personally I dont outsource clones. First grow I got a few clones for indoor from someone I knew and all it brought me was spider mites and headaches.

 

[mattypacks]

Watering/Feeding in the Garden (for veg)

Seed Sprout Teas - Weekly, switching between corn and barley at the rate of 1 cup seed/10 gallons of water. A half cup of alfalfa is added with the corn once a month
Compost Teas - Monthly, switching between balanced and fungal dominated teas
Plain Water - when needed between these cycles
Besides compost tea, silica is added to every watering.

The Process
Using a brewer (design from Oregon State University), filled with 25-30gal tap water


Adding ascorbic acid to dechlorinate the water (1000mg for 30-50gal of water)


Let aerate for 10-15 minutes


Blended up seed sprouts added to mesh bag


Aerated another 10-20 minutes


Added silica (1tsp/gal) now its good to go!


And thats it! Keeping it simple, keeping it organic. Here is a great article explaining all about seed sprout teas https://www.alchimiaweb.com .

 

[BOSTONSATIVA]

I’m impressed man, you have it down! This stuff is addicting, I’m thinking about rain barrels next year as well! Cray cray!! Great stuff man thank you.

 

[BOSTONSATIVA]

Check that out , some creature wants to test my resolve and eat my shit - any idea what is making those holes?

 

[mattypacks]

Check that out , some creature wants to test my resolve and eat my shit - any idea what is making those holes?

Probably leaf hoppers give them a search up, I have leaves on every plant here and there with some sort of leaf hopper damage but they usually chew and screw. Not terribly destructive but definitely a nuisance.

 

[BOSTONSATIVA]

Thank you ! I was googling pictures all night worried. Stupid bugs!