Outdoors in SE Virginia

I like the trichs 80/20 cloudy/amber. I’ll go a bit higher on amber if the plant is still growing well...but TBH I’d be hard pressed to tell between different percentages of cloudy/amber.

the Blue Mystic in a crate in a tub is just going nuts. All the lower growth is looking ready for harvest, but the ends of all the lanky stalks are throwing brilliant white pistils and developing chunky flower sites. The lower parts of the plant have a ton of really dark leaves that don’t look distressed at all, they are just getting dark. It’s hard to tell under the lights, but when I had it out yesterday you could see blue in there.

I improvised some CO2 augmentation - drill a bunch of holes in the top of milk cartons, mix 2 cups of sugar and one pack of yeast and let it rip. I’ve read this lasts a week or so, so I’ll replenish them once more before the chop. I’m gonna get some dry ice and put it in a bucket of warm water and put that under the fan next week too...a CO2 bath while the lights are on. Photos to follow...

hope,you are getting the awesome weather I am down here...not a cloud in the sky and just breaking 80. Nights are cool though so the outdoor plants will be overnighting inside...gotta keep ‘em dry...

It's possible the tops are throwing foxtails in response to the new light spectrum and the fact the light is so close now. I'm guessing that's what's happening if the lowers are looking ready. You're triggering new growth on the top of the cola, check the trichs and I bet you have a bunch of clear as glass trichomes on the top of the cola but an inch down it's mature. It will probably throw foxtails for a while but I would harvest the mature buds so they don't go over ripe and you can end up with a whole lot of CBN that's going to be great sleep meds but down on THC.
Is your tub sealed for the CO2 so it's not just blowing by the girls? Boosting the CO2 to a measurable level in an open tent or room would be pretty hard I'd think. The guy that showed me how to grow used to have a sealed grow room with CO2 supplementation and it cut a week or two off his grow schedule. They grew big as hell super fast but the equipment was finicky. It was just too much for me. I tried it in my tent with CO2 bags from the hydro store but saw no noticeable results. He said I had to seal the room and measure the levels for it to be of any use and have the light levels to justify it. One of the points of CO2 is letting you push your plants ability to tolerate high levels of light so you can push higher ppfd in flower. I'm just telling you about how it went for me. Might save you some time and expense but your experience might be different, who knows.

The tub is not sealed, so the CO2 contact time is probably negligible, but it’ll be pumping out CO2 for a week, and all they cost me were a bag of sugar, some yeast and a little time...I used the exhale bags for a while, but they got really pricey when demand went up, and I decided to,stick with my home made solution.

I agree on the foxtailing, but the ends of the stalks are developing into tight little colas - sorry for the lousy pic but I’m done moving the plant in and out of the tub—just getting to lanky and I don’t wanna break anything. I’ll let it ride for a while and nip off a lower bud to check the tricromes in the AM tomorrow. I don’t have a microscope but my Nikon 105mm macro will make do in a pinch...I can scope ‘em out pretty well with a jewelers loupe too...

These two are either Jack Herer or Glue Gelato, I forgot to keep track. Sacrilege I know, but makes a nice mix. they are at the GF house and started live up against a 6 foot fence so development is mostly on one side of the plants. After we got them in a better position they filled in as best they could. They are moving to my house tomorrow where I’ll lug them around for the next few days to get as much sun as possible.

She looks beautiful, I love the blue colors coming through. I use a jewelry loupe for just about everything but I also cut some sugar leaves off and use this tiny magnifyer/microscope thing that stands up by itself and let's me see them more stable when I'm getting close to harvest. My hands shake too bad to see really clearly zoomed in at high magnification. Jewelers loupe at 20x is fine but the higher power I'm all over the place. It's really easy to just snip a leaf and throw it on a plate to use the stand thing to really get a good idea before I chop.
The CO2 makes sense then. Since it's heavier than air if you put some plastic wrap across the front of the tub maybe you could trap some of it in the tub. Kind of how dry ice fills up a tub. Cut the airflow for a bit and put the jugs in the tub with her. Or just above the tub maybe? If you could rig it. I've gone from waste of time to invested now. It's the obsessive compulsive in me. It's why I have to try and keep my grow simple. I just can't stop thinking about ways to try and tweak things I should probably just leave the hell alone.I could never get away with sugar water because we have so many damn gnats outside that get in when we go in and out. I use sugar water and vinegar with a couple drops of soap as a trap for them. They love the smell of the sugar and apple cider vinegar and the soap does something to the surface tension of the water that makes them sink when they try to drink or land on it unlike normal water. Redneck engineering at it's finest.
Got some closeup bud shots that show the girls getting sticky finally. Just not getting enough direct sunlight to get as dense as they should be. I'm really going to have to cut down some serious trees this winter. I need a logger that likes weed and can be trusted lol.

The first one is the smaller cola of blue dream the second is a bud of Bag of Oranges. I haven't had to use anything on them since the three in one stuff for the spider mites awhile back, not even BT. I'm super paranoid I'm missing caterpillar poop or bugs but so far I can't find it. Maybe the old school bug zapper is getting it done. I've been running it 24/7 rain or shine and having to manually tap on it every couple days to get the dead moths free from the cage because so many build up it clogs. I've had the best weather since early this summer over the past three days. Gets cool at night for sure but they seem to be taking it okay. Only chance of rain this week is Tuesday with a 50% chance of a storm in the afternoon. Rest of the week looks clear which is just what I'm hoping for. Blue dream is going to hit week 9 this week and the other strain is going to be hitting week 8 so I really could use dry and sunny for two or three weeks. Three weeks of dry weather is asking a bit much but I sure as hell won't turn it down.

I love the other two. Man the density looks really nice. I just finished rolling a fat Jack Herer joint to help with some bad back pain I'm dealing with from watering all three girls today. Got some kief I just finished drying from some dry sifting I did that I mixed in with it. Any further posts that ramble off topic are not my responsibility.

Awesome! I love keif - I made dry ice hash with a bubble bag over a glass top table and will do that again soon. I know some people like to press it into pIckes but I prefer to keep as a powder to top off bowls or slip into joints...easier to handle and lots more volume wise...I’ve also sprinkled a bit on top of bubble hash while it is still moist to soak up some moisture too.

I could hang a shower curtain over the front of the tub to partially seal off the grow space, and then douse it with CO2. I dunno, might help, might not, but can’t hurt and not a huge investment of time or money. Some people use vinegar and baking soda to avoid using sugar too.

you’ve got this growing thing down pretty well, outdoors and indoors. I’m always thinking in the back of my mind how to improve my approach and the frequency of brilliant ideas is slowing down...you buds are frosty AF, I’m sure you have a bountiful harvest soon.

I cleared out around 1.4z of shake from the two harvests I’ve had so far, and that’s in the freezer with a bunch of trim awaiting the washing machine, due in tomorrow. I’ll cull some fresh LARF stuff off the outdoor plants to sweeten the pot (pun intended) too...

this is a picture of a bud from a blue mystic plant I set up for a Buddy’s grow space. Germinated same time as the one I have and spent it’s early life outdoors then moved inside. Much more developed than anything I have so I’m thinking/hoping mine is catching up and not just going off on some weird genetic detour...

The kief is a product of the Trim Bin. It's a double stacked trimming station that has a kief screen on the top and a Rubbermaid tub in the bottom. I wet and dry trim in it and lightly shake my dry trim before putting it in the freezer for bubble hash extraction.


I get a ton of kief just from doing my final trim before jarring up the buds. I like to dry it out really well to avoid mold during storage then keep it like powder too for sprinkling on everything just to kick things up a notch. The flavor is terrific when smoked plain in a clean glass piece.
I get lucky a lot with my plants and have a lot of time to spend with them. I also spend way too much time researching genetics and breeders and try to pick really frosty strains. That other blue mystic looks really dense and tasty. I might have to check that strain out for an auto to run indoors. I like the shower curtain idea. I was going to suggest hitting up a Walmart for pallet wrap scraps since they're usually willing to let you have some if they're not busy and you ask them right. My wife works night shift there so it's free giant Saran wrap you just have to clean up. The icing buckets from the bakery are great pots too if you can get them. They're just about 3 gallons and rectangular. I grew in nothing but icing buckets for years until I started to use the fabric pots. I still run them frequently since I have a ton of them left.

The Blue Mystic is getting marvelously mysterious...the ends of the stalks are reflowering heavily. first shot is no flash, second is with. Both are taken with the two 2 foot T5 fixtures adding in to the light, both with a 3500k and a 10000k bulb. It is like the face of the sun in there...

It's definitely a stress reaction, I'm guessing (rough guess at best) it's just light stress but damn I've never seen it so severe where new budlets are growing out of the end like that. Tons of new white pistils and foxtails everywhere sure but this is a lot of new growth. I'd be worrying I'm taking away from the mature plant but if you want the new growth let it ride. I'm very interested in seeing what develops as it goes along. I really like being able to share all this info, it's like doing multiple grows as far as the learning curve for me. I also don't feed my plants heavy this late in flower so maybe that had something to do with it. Now that it's at your place your probably feeding it much more heavy I'm guessing. My girls just get plain water so they are using up nutrients and dropping leaves by this point as autos.

I will let ‘er rip for a while longer, and I’ll muscle it outta the tub in the AM for some defoliation. Lights just went out, here are better shots of the end of a branch, with a new bud let’s growing.

And, here are the two I brought down from the GF‘s house. I spent the day cleaning them of damaged leaves, and arranging the branches for max sun exposure. Another 4 days of full sun and moderate temps so plan is to chop on Sunday. Trichs are 90% cloudy, 10% amber so a few more days of sun will be okay. If it looks like the Blue Mystic is ready I might chop it too to have everything on the same timeline...I really wanted to wait until my drying cabinet gets here, but the plants are gonna dictate the timeline.

Post 292 reminds me of Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree , it just looks so cool to me since I am used to indica and indica hybrids. It's like a big bud on a stick. I'm loving the color on the indoor girl so much. I love weird phenotypes or color expressions that are unusual like pinks, black, blue, purple is an all time favorite. This Blue Dream is the most sativa leaning strain I've ever grown and it's just too tall. I'm 6'3 and I don't need to be reaching above my damn head at this age with my back and rotator cuff. I can focus on growing four bushier plants three to four feet high next year and with better light across the deck I'm pretty sure it will be much easier to do.
I got hit today with a touch of PM in my Bag of Oranges plant, the bushy one. Found it on the lowest branch that juts out the furthest from the plant and I think when I had that big storm the other day that branch was either out in the rain or was rubbing up against the tarp which is more likely. I found more PM in the weeds down below the deck where I used to have a garden when I was walking the dog checking security cameras so I am going to nuke that whole area tomorrow with some PM treatment just to kill as many spores close to me as possible. I culled the little branch as it was on a couple popcorn bud's leaves and I didn't want to risk it spreading. I hosed the shit out of it with diluted peroxide once I trimmed all the leaves off I could see spores on as well as the fan leaves and blasted it with the sinks hose sprayer followed by a cool water bucket rinse but haven't decided if I am going to do anything with it or not. I need to do some reading to find out if it's an issue after the peroxide and rinse or not. I should have done the baking soda rinse I do for the bud wash deal but it was just one little branch and I wasn't setting up 3 buckets with lemon juice and baking soda and all that crap. It's just too expensive to do for a little branch. I had been pretty lucky considering how leafy I had let that plant stay. I used to defoliate really hard at week 1 and 3 and then strip the big guard leaves out that were blocking bud sites. I would thin my plants pretty aggressively, but I am trying to be better about leaving more on the plant. Seeing those little white spots had me regretting that decision pretty quickly but that's on me not catching that the branch was on the tarp and to be honest I should have either tied it up or chopped it weeks ago. It just stuck out too far too low.

Sorry to hear of the PM, I found a small flower at the bottom of one of the outdoor plants that Was showing g signs of PM so I clipped it and threw it away...was maybe a couple bowl’s worth so was an easy call to make. I put an oscillating fan on them last nite outside for around 2 hrs at the lowest setting; they seemed to have liked that. I might bring them inside tonite for the same; moving them around for the last day has cemented my decision to give next year’s crop at the GF’s house the same horizontal treatment I used this summer at my house. The sequence of events might be the same as this year:

All 8 plants started at same time, and get same LST treatment. The 4 at her house will get 5 or so hrs/day of unfiltered sun, while I can manage 12 hrs/day during late May, all of Jun and early Jul by moving mine around the yard. That will put mine on a more accelerated path to ripeness, and an earlier chop. Then the GF plants move here in Sep to finish off in the sun here. Gotta have a plan...

it was a cool ride down here from the GFs house with them yesterday...my SUV smelled pretty damn good gotta tell ya. And, it was legal to be cruisin’ down the road with them...I’m still amazed VA legalized. They’re now talking about accelerating the retail sales from 2024 to next year. What the state did is give everyone a 2 or 3 year head start on home cultivation. When they get around to legalizing retail sales I don’t think demand is gonna be too high; I know I’ll have no reason for it. Now, if I could make my own Kahlia, Baileys, DiSaronno, and other assorted stuff, that’d be cool too.

the bubble hash washing machine arrives today. I should hold off on breaking it in until I chop/trim the final 4 outdoor plants here. I won’t though. I’d have been a doctor if I had the patients. Coulda been a baker too, but I didn’t have the dough. I got a million of ‘em I tell ya...

have an awesome day my friend - I might go get some dry ice and mess around with that today too.

I'm excited to get a report on the washing machine. I still haven't done anything on that as I have just been too damn busy trying to keep up with the grow and life's been nuts with my sons visit and a bunch of other crap. Now with PM popping up and rain forecast for this afternoon and next week for two days on the long range I figure I am going to be a wee bit busier and I am gonna have to decide on whether to fight the PM or chop her at 8 weeks which would suck as she has weeks to go. I think I'll let the next few days sort of show me how to go and just keep it as far away from the other two as possible. Send me some of that coffee you had this morning you sound fired up and ready to go! I think I'll grab a cup myself. I've been up all night and can't decide whether to try and grab a few hours now or around noon when it's a dead time for the sun as far as having to move the girls. I'm lucky to get 4 hours a day most days but I'll catch up once a week and grab a good 7 or 8 hours. I need to grow a really heavy indica strain, something really sleepy to knock my ass out at night. It would be cool to get together as a group in VA to trade seeds and cuts after harvest like a big Rollitup harvest fest. Maybe VA will have some kind of a decent 420 thing this year but I'm not into crowds with the Covid thing going on so I'd probably pass on a mass celebration. I do the whole hermit up on the mountain thing since Covid and to be honest even before. Now, I just don't have to do my own grocery shopping which is really lazy.
Retail sales for me would be an extreme luxury. Maybe something I would get my wife for a present that I can't grow like THC crystals or concentrates. If they sell clones that are clean then that would be cool as hell but knowing the government I ain't holding my breath. I am amazed we went legal this year and so grateful. After feeling the freedom of doing it in DC and wishing for it here I never thought it would happen. It still feels a little weird to be honest but I am sure it's going to fade as time goes on. I am hoping they improve the law and the language this year to get rid of some of the inconsistencies but as long as we can grow our four legally in peace it's a hell of a start.

In the sun at 0730...I’ll get my workout lugging them around but should manage full sun up until around 1800. not too bad for the day after my location hits 12/12. I have to deal with a few trees in the morning, but by around 1000 they get into position for the balance of the day. Some shifting around in the evening, then we do it all over again tomorrow. I‘m fixated on bud rot, mod and PM now, I bought some silica that can be used as a foliar application to toughen up the cell walls and stems I might try tonite...just a light misting.

the last shot are some buds I clipped from a plant that was just stuck in second gear. They are kinda crispy, I don’t think it is bud rot since they are still rock hard and the brown stuff flakes off after it dries. I’m not sure what I’ll do with this stuff, but I left the plant in place after the trim with a single bud at the top, just cuz I can...

I’ve tried the concentrates, but TBH I prefer a joint, bowl, bong, or brownies. I bought the special concentrates screen for my Volcano vaporizer, but they still make everything a gooey mess, and even if resting on a layer of weed, they plug up my bong screen first time. I bought an attachment for my bong, and that works a bit better, but leaves a sticky tar at the bottom of the bowl. Call me old school...

I’ll post photos of the washing machine today - like Christmas at my house today!

We were supposed to get a big storm this morning but missed it by about 20 miles or so. It did get me motivated to completely clear off the deck of some extra furniture that's been in my way and sweep up really well which I've been needing to do. The plants are so sticky everything that can blow around sticks to them so I try to keep the dust and debris down since it gets so windy up here sometimes. I thought we were out of the woods with rain and I got caught by a storm that came over the mountain. I got the tarp up and the two smaller ones under it before they were soaked but once again Blue Dream took a hit because of the size. Luckily it was early and passed quickly so I could put out the fan brigade and even go one further with an electric leaf blower. I got that idea on the Maine growers thread.
I'm with you on the concentrate for the most part but I do like the intense terpenes you can get with live resin. Since it's harvested from fresh whole plants you get a lot of medical value as well. I don't have any of the smoking gear for it,as far as a dab rig it's a treat we do visiting family up in DC. I gave up on my Volcano a couple years back because it seemed to be wasting a lot of flower but I did like the flavor it gave you. I'm pretty sure it was user error and I just needed to get somebody that had some tips and tricks to dial it in. I still have it and now I am growing here at home maybe I'll break it back out and have you give me some pointers.It looks like a bunch more days of sun and cool weather so maybe I'll be able to get these things dried back out and get closer to finishing them after all.

I don’t use my Volcano as much as I should, I’ve had good results with it. I start with about a teaspoon of ground flower, run It at 275 degrees, then again at 280 and 285. The third bag at 285 is kinda scratchy on the throat, but waste not want not. I save the spent flower and throw it in With the next batch of oil - I saw a study that there remains THC etc even another 3 runs, so what the heck...

the washing machine is awesome. I’ve made 3 runs thru it with about 1.5 oz of trim and some shake I had, and I got a pretty decent yield. The 25 micron bag is still draining in a bucket with no bottom, suspended above the bottom of a slop sink. Since it’s gonna take a day or so to drain, I set it up all by it’s lonesome, and process the the other bags 3 times, and pour what drains out of the 73 micron bag in it. I used to keep the bags all nestled together to drain, but that took days and days...

I skipped the 220 micron bag since the machine came with a zippered one for inside the machine. I can see some plant material in the 160 micron bag yield, so I’ll probably run the next batch with all 4 bubble bags I have.

So, now what do I do with this? It is pretty dry now, and i sampled some of the middle grade, and has a good taste and burns okay if ya really lay the flame to it. It all needs to dry even more, do you have a process/secret for that?

Need more coffee, up since 0300 working the crops. Glad I don’t have cows to milk...

here is the Blue Mystic, mysteriously growing brand new flowers at the ends of the stalks in it’s 9th week of flowering. The pistils are numerous, fat and brilliant white, like you’d see at the beginning of flowering. I can see the calyxes getting dark down further the stalks, but there are new flower sites popping out down there too. It will be interesting to see where this winds up...

And, here are the three I brought down from the GFs house...sunny up until Sunday here, and rain on Monday. I’ll chop Monday morning before the rain; I’m gonna let the Blue Mystic run a bit more. The buds are kinda airy at the new growth, but I don’t mind that...