Highs of 70s forecast for Friday and Saturday. Snowflakes falling this morning.
Ya watching the snow spit now.@Doug58 I am in your hood and have never grown outdoors here. I am thinking that the right autoflower might be the ticket but would love to know a good method for this area. We maybe watching a great method by Growtogrow for this area
It's going to be cold all day here the high is only going to be 44°f but to feel like 33°f cuz there's going to be a breezes. It's37°f now at 10:15a.m.
I'm going to run the heat until the tanks run out or until 7p.m. when I'll have 1 hour left to fill them.
So in Michigan to grow outside we're supposed to have a grow cage. The cage is to be secure and able to lock.The cannabis cannot be seen from the road.
I had to put up a privacy fence. I've had my license sense 2014 and have been growing outside since 2015 Legally. So the whole idea of being able to cover my cage just came naturally because I feared Frost and then towards the end of harvest I wanted to make sure that the crop didn't get any moisture from rain or heavy dew. So to help prevent Bud rot and powdery mildew. I learned along the way how to use the hydrogen peroxide to keep my plants clean of them 2 nemesis. A couple seasons ago I discovered Green cure. I was watching some other farmers and they suggested using Green cure and I started using Green cure and that stuff is really great for keeping the powdery mildew at bay. Its is sodium bicarbonate and the stuff is just great to keep it back and is all natural it doesn't leave any flavor for bad taste on the product. I use a hydrogen peroxide as a Bud wash to wash my all of my Harvest with at Harvest Time.
Bud rot to help slow it down Bud rot comes from bug poop and moisture that creates a phenomenon known as green heat inside the bud. Or as Farmers would call it spontaneous hay combustion like when you pack too many green hay bales together and they catch fire. The same thing is going on in a tightly packed bud growing on your plant. The moisture gets trapped the Heat and chemical reaction inside the green plant and the perfect conditions for the bud rot to start. It won't burn but it'll start the process and then there's the black mold Bud rot.
So I've come to find out that when the buds start getting big (many people don't believe this technique yet)...but I do...
So when you can separate the Bud from the stalk a little bit by using a plastic wedge (plastic don't hold moisture) just wedge it out a little bit away from the stalk this allows air flow in between the stalk and the bud this helps slow all the powdery mildew and Bud rot down. It's tedious believe you me... I've done it...but it works.. and is relatively easy to do with a small crop of two or three plants and it's not that hard to do really with more plants it just takes more time. And can be done while you're trimming and manipulating.
So with these techniques and covering your crop. (it could be a single cage for each plant or for the plant that doesn't do well in the cold or a long flowering sativa) with a inexpensive clear tarp you can get on Amazon they're not very expensive for 8 by 8 is about $40. There's 10 x 15 there's all kinds of sizes. my clear tarp 20 by 16 and thick. It was only like 60 bucks. it's reinforced with a 3/8 by 3/8 little cords inside it. it's UV resistant but yet allows all the UV to go through it to get to the plant. which was really important to me cuz UV helps prevent powdery mildew it also promotes photosynthesis.
So would this covering your crop technique will extend you're growing time on both ends early and at the harvest.
Also if you don't mind being married to your crop for a little while you can start early flowering by doing light deprivation a couple of weeks before the sun light starts to change them naturally in your region. Which would give you a two-week jump-start on everybody else naturally in your same area and you can stop tarping as soon as ketchup to the daylight time.. And that's kind of why I did it to start with it. Was just to be ahead of all the the other growers and the Rippers too
they're out there believe you me.. there out there. But by being a couple two or three weeks ahead of everybody else in my Harvest I was able to have quality product when people were just getting ready to think about harvesting.
Not only that but the more intense sunlight during the flower period Produces a bigger and better Bud that is denser and thicker. Talk about dank I can bounce some of these buds off the table like playing quarter bounce.
Just food for thought guys