Covert Grow Ops/Sidetracked:

I got my first three plants in the ground today, so I figured I should start a thread for the season. I call my strain Sidetracked: because it damn sure makes it hard to get from point A to point B without some side trips on the way. It is a Northern Lights female crossed with an Afghani Skunk male. My BIL made the cross in 1988, long before he met my sister. Last year I got about 20 seeds from him off a plant grown in 1998. {He called the strain Jack Carlos Cross, after two local growers. It was a cross between Jack's Northern Lights and Carlos' Afghani Skunk}

I finished with 12 girls and 3 males. I got seeds off 11 of them. I named the plants after the patches they were in. CP1 was the tallest plant in the CP patch, etc. etc. etc. I used the male GV5 to breed the four plants in the GV patch. Everything else was bred with Slo1.

I have 5 CP1's that are about a week ahead of the Slo2's, but the patch I did today is in a risky spot, and there are a lot more Slo2 seeds than CP1 seeds. So I picked through the 10 Slo2's and got the three best looking ones. I had a half mile hike, so I packed in the three plants and enough soil mix to fill three one gallon pots. I used the empty pot to make a hole in the ground, then transplanted the plant using the packed in soil. If I was doing a reasonable number of plants, I would have put them in a gallon pot for two or three weeks, then transplant into the ground. But I have an unreasonable number of holes dug, so I'm cutting corners, trying to save a step anywhere I can.

I should have looked up what I had used in the holes before I started this, but I will look it up and post it shortly.

I soaked the Slo2 seeds for two days, then put them in soil on 2-26-16. They were about all above ground on 3-4-16. Still looking for my notes on the LL patch.

Alright, I found my notes. I dug the three hole trench on 1-24-16, using 4 cups of 13-13-13, 1 cup of 10-10-10 and 1 cup of 15-9-12 time release plant food per hole. The soil mix I used today was one of my recent mixes with mushroom compost, cow manure compost, peat moss, potting soil, lava rocks, blood meal, bone meal, lime, Epson salts, coffee grounds, 13-13-13, 15-0-15 and 13-7-13 time release plant food.

Larry {the} Gardener said:

Alright, I found my notes. I dug the three hole trench on 1-24-16, using 4 cups of 13-13-13, 1 cup of 10-10-10 and 1 cup of 15-9-12 time release plant food per hole. The soil mix I used today was one of my recent mixes with mushroom compost, cow manure compost, peat moss, potting soil, lava rocks, blood meal, bone meal, lime, Epson salts, coffee grounds, 13-13-13, 15-0-15 and 13-7-13 time release plant food.

Click to expand...

Do you crush the lava rock? Or leave it whole?

CallinCarRamRod said:

Do you crush the lava rock? Or leave it whole?

Click to expand...

I just leave it whole. I've heard of folks crushing it, but not sure how I could do it without a big hammer. The most I put is 5 gallons per 40 gallon batch. But I have used half that much too. When I'm going into really sandy soil, I use more. When planting in better dirt, I use less. And the three patches down in the big woods, WH, PH and WJ will not get any at all. I have to add extra perlite to them.

The amount of soil mix I use is an inverse ratio of how far I have to carry it. There are some patches where I used 15 gallons of soil mix per hole. Other patches, like the LL patch, will have no added soil except what I use to transplant.

Not the best picture, but it shows the spacing of the plants in the trench.



When I dug this trench, the trees overhead were straight up, and tall enough for the sun to get under them. When the fencerow got pushed, the trees were all leaned over. I had to cut out most of this. A job of work for my little folding saw.

I got by my holding grounds yesterday evening. Even after 3 or 4 days of rain everything was in good shape. Except for the deer ate CP1. The pot was pulled out of the ground, but the plant didn't pull out of the pot. So the roots are good anyway.



The other CP1's look like this. I think I have early flower problems. Does topping help, or just slow it down more?



The GV1's and GV2's looked alright. Some bug ate leaves on one plant, but nothing major.



I carried the newest {6} CP1 and {3} BST seedlings to the holding grounds this afternoon. I sank the 6 pack to ground level.

Nothing above ground at the house right now. But I did put 9 BST, 2 GV1 and 1 CPDA in soil last night. Not planned, I just went through my camp stash and planted the seeds I found.

I got a goodly amount done in the woods this week. Tuesday evening I thought I had enough time before dark to plant the BP patch. I packed in 2 CP1's and 1 Slo2, along with enough soil mix for three holes. I went right to the first hole and got the Slo2 transplanted. But I had underestimated the time it would take to get there. Even though the other holes were just 25 yards away, I couldn't find them without a light. And it's too close to civilization to be running around the woods with lights. So I was back in there at daylight and got the 2 CP1's transplanted. I topped them too. The first harvest of the new year. I didn't have my camera with me, but last night I mixed the two dried tops with some of the last of my CP1 bud from last year. It was like a Mother/Daughter ice breaker, except with fire.



T-Pig {total plants in ground} as of Wednesday is 6.

Thursday morning I packed 2 CP1's, 3 Slo2's and a Slo3 along with enough soil mix to fill 6 one gallon pots back to the KP patches. I put the 2 CP1's in the two hole trench and the 3 Slo2's in the other three holes in the KP{east} patch. The Slo3 went in to northern most hole of the KP{west} patch.

I've told this story a time or two, but I'll tell it again. This strain, Sidetracked:, is known for going long stretches between males. Last year seeds were the main point of my grow, so when all my plants were in bloom without any showing male, I decided to see if I could flip some of them to male by extreme stress. I topped the hell out of them, and got three of them to go male. All that was happy and good, and I used Slo1 and GV5 for breeding the seeds I have now. The bad part of it was that Slo3 changed her name to Herman. A week or so after I had dusted her with Slo1 pollen she grew a pair of balls. I pinched them off before they opened, so the seeds she made are Slo3 X Slo1, but just the fact that she Hermied under stress is giant red flag. That said, I'm going to try to grow a couple of them out to see what happens. Most plants won't see the kind of stress I put those through last year. And I have a lot of the seed.

Six plants in cups is about all I can handle at one time in the pack. With 2 five gallon buckets you can up that number by 10 or 12 though. I'm going to see how the six pack things work transplanting right into the ground. That will save lots of space if it will work.



These plants were smaller than the last ones I put out. If I didn't have so many holes to fill, and more sprouts demanding space in the holding ground I would have waited another week. {some of the ones left will be culls unless they take off in the next week or so. But the sun hasn't shined here more than an hour or two the last couple of weeks. I'll try to wait for some sunshine before I do too much culling. {not a cull by me, but had a GV1 and a BST cash}



T-Pig is 12.

I topped 4 of the 6 plants in the KP patches.

8 of the 9 BST's were up this morning. 1 of 2 GV1's and 0 of 1 CPDA. These are the spur of the moment plantings from camping Sunday night. There may be more up by now.

Here are the numbers for the most recent patches.

The 3 BP holes were dug on 1-11-16 using a five gallon bucket of the "I'm too damn old for this shit" soil mix between them, with 2 cups of 13-13-13 added per hole.

I dug the first four KP{east} holes on 1-21-16, using half a 5 gallon bucket of ITDOFTS soil mix plus 2 cups of 13-13-13 per hole. The 2 KP{middle} holes were dug on 1-25-16 with the same amounts as above. On 2-8-16 I dug 4 holes in the KP{west} patch. Three of which was the same as the others. The fourth being 3 cups of 13-13-13 and a notation to add time release plant food when I take the plants in. {note to self: read grow notes before you transplant next time} Also added one 13-13-13 only hole to each of the other patches.

Here is my "I'm too damn old for this shit" soil mix: Like the old fashioned hair gel, a little dab will do ya.

10 g mushroom compost
10 g cow manure compost
5 g lava rock
5 g Black Magic {cheap potting soil}
1 c Epsom salts
2 c bone meal
4 c lime
20 c coffee grounds
7 c 9-6-12 time release plant food
14 c 15-9-12 trpf
21 c 13-13-13

There is going to be lots of folks around the farm this week, so I moved the sprouts to the holding ground a little earlier than normal. I had 8 of 9 in the BST, 2 of 2 on the GV1 and 1 of 1 on the CPDA. This is the first DA seed I've popped. Other than the BP, which was small {and produced 3 seeds}, Deer Ate was my best smoking plant. I hope to get several more going in the weeks to come.

There are two less of the BST. One cashed and I culled the other one while I was dropping off the sprouts. We had 3.75 inches of rain over the weekend. It did a little bit of my job for me, separating the wheat from the chaff.

Tuesday morning I packed the 5 best looking BST1's and the Slo3 that the deer topped to the GN patch, along with six gallons of soil mix. Dropped my pack off beside the road, then parked the truck and hiked in. Everything went smooth. Picked up a shopping bag of trash walking back down the road to my truck.

The numbers on the GN patch: Six holes dug on or about 3-5-16, using 1 cup 13-13-13, 1 cup 15-0-15 and 2 cups 13-7-13 time release plant food. Except the last hole, which had 2 cups each of 13-13-13 and 15-0-15 because I ran out of the time release.

T-Pig {as of lunch on Tuesday} is 18.

Tuesday after lunch I dropped off my pack with 6 GV1's and 6 gallons of soil mix in the edge of the HR woods. I got the first three plants transplanted with no problem, but when I moved on to the 2nd three holes, I could only find two of them. I spent a half hour looking, {with no luck} then dug another hole for the 6th GV1.

1st three holes of the HR patch was dug on 1-23-16 with 4 cups 13-13-13, 1 cup 10-10-10, 1 cup 9-6-12 time release and 1 1/2 cups of 15-9-15 time release. 2nd three holes were dug on 3-12-16 using 1 cup 13-13-13, 1 cup 15-0-15 and 1 cup 13-7-13 time release. {one of which I can't find and haven't used}

T-Pig as of Tuesday night is 24.

Thursday morning I checked on what's left in the holding ground. I culled 2 BST1's. Also planted the deer topped CP1 nearby. It looks like it's going to live, so I wanted it close so I could tend to it. I'll cut some clones from it when it recovers enough.

Later Thursday morning I packed in another GV1 to go in the hole I couldn't find. Also enough 13-13-13, 15-0-15 and 14-14-14 time release to add to the hole I dug on Tuesday. I still couldn't find the lost hole, so I dug another one in a likely location, just splitting the plant food between the two holes.

T-Pig is 26.

Speaking of time release, we have been having a high water event the last few days. My three patches in the big woods {WH, WJ and PH were all near or in the flooding. So my time release plant food just released. Glad I didn't have any plants in down there, but they will be going in as soon as it's dry enough.