Outdoor The 55th North Parellel

[knocker powell]

Thanks for the well wishes et al, I got a bit of an infection so had to spend another day in hospital (wire brush n Detol job but done very hi-tech) - hey ho that's life.

@pathway Yer the compost works out pretty well in those bins, but it took me a while to work out how to get them working properly (it's almost an anaerobic process), so composting in them isn't as easy as it is in the larger open bins we use at the allotment. There you can really get a decent temperature going to kill off the weeds. With these I still feel like I'm not killing enough so using it like a top dressing/mulch is like sowing weeds (sounds good but turns out a pain when everything germinates). Hence I cook em in a black bin for a further year.

@knocker powell Good to see you back doing another outdoors, the TDs and that BS both look quite dense buds - will be interesting to see how they cope with the dreaded rot. I'm planning on adopting a not so organic approach this year and will be spraying the outdoor girls for rot as they get into bud formation (I haven't decided exactly what with yet but it won't be too toxic for sure - but at the same time it won't be a namby pamby concoction. And the trick with Mrs Spliff.... shhhh don't tell her... she went to visit relatives for a week and came back to a fully running cabinet (cough).... only mild disagreement ensued and the least I talk about it the better. Getting a good filter in is a definite if you want to do a full indoor tho, as soon as mine hit preflower it was already getting a bit whiffy round the house. If it was just to be run as a starter cabinet it wouldn't need the filter and I reckon you could run it for 4 weeks without too much smell. I leave a stock of Gin on hand for her (I don't drink alcohol anymore) just to placate her for when full flowering starts and opening the cabinet makes the house smell a bit too dank.

Is the cabinet worth it? - hell yes see the results for yourselves. I tried this as an experiment to justify (to myself) the expense of putting it all together - but I didn't advertise it as part of this grow just in case the results didn't stack up. Two Dark Devils germed at the same time one under CFLs and then the LEDs, the other on the south facing windowsill only.

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cheers man! yes, good be back in the game. albeit on a tiny scale! Hats off to you, re mrs spliffscot. great work, sir. the gin is a masterstroke. do let us know what potion you concoct to combat the the dreaded bud rot - i didnt realise about the density of TD and ABS buds. thanks for the tip off. and am v. envious of your magic cabinet. i reckon that's going to provide you with hours of fun.

mate, those dark devils look superb. can't wait to get my hands on some leds.

have a good eve mate. anon. KP.

 

[KapScot]

Going Outside....

Middle of May and over a weeks worth of sunshine in the forecast... too good to be true. They had to go out sometime so last weekend they went out to the coldframe. They loved it and seemed to put on an extra spurt of growth, and were certainly lapping up daily a watering in the full sun as well as a good feeding with Hesi Bloom Complex << a freebie with my soil and at 3:3:4 not what I would call a 'bloom complex' << don't get me started on the rip-off market in nutes for growing cannabis.

I'm going to harmonise the start dates of these even tho some were a few days apart, they are similar sizes and it saves frying my brain trying to work em all out. Some have had the start of some LST training while still in the pot in case you think they look a bit weird.



Yer the 2nd last pic there was needing a drink


A quick inspection this weekend showed the first sign that the roots were getting constrained by the pot size (next year I think I'll start in larger pots to give them a bit longer indoors - but I was being over eager to start my first indoor grow when I should have given the outdoors crew the whole cabinet to play in first), so they had to get transplanted one way or another. Hopefully we won't see any really low temps now, and the last week put a lot of heat into the soil so unless we get some sustained low temps I'm pretty sure they will be hardy enough for a quick cold snap (crosses fingers). This also lets me start training these a bit better than was possible in a small pot - will be interesting to see how this works out.




No point being overly organic IMO - so a liberal sprinkling of slugbait (friendly to other other wildlife btw) goes down to create a 'kill zone' around the plants - in a couple of weeks they should be big enough to either survive a mild munching or get copper wraps on the stems to help keep the molluscs off. Apparently it's going to be a bad year for slugs n' snails and we're already seeing seedling casualties at the allotment - so be prepared folks - two mild winters and the critters are breeding fast.

So that leaves two other plants to go outdoors.

The Duurty Magic, a Dragon Meds cross, and in a late addition (I blame @pathway for putting Mephisto's on his menu), I planted up one of their freebie F1 Hybrids, a Skylar White (Skywalker x Walter White). I could keep going but I reckon that's pretty much the max number of plants I can get away with on this site (it's strange the number keeps increasing every year hmmm...). I'm still hoping that I'm fit enough to prep one of my guerilla sites for a flush of Ryder crosses but will just see how things go over the next week or so before cracking any beans and committing myself.



Duurty Magic (Little Puff) and a rather naked looking Skylar White

 

[pathway]

Nice work, they all look tip top and in the dirt already Happy days! Also happy to take the blame for the Mephisto addition lol, I hope it does well for you. I'll be watching with interest as I have some of those Skylars too

 

[KapScot]

Yer the Mephisto freebies are bordering on embarrassingly generous (not that I'm complaining). I went for the May 4th promo and got several Skylar Whites and some Sky Stompers which I hope will have picked up the Stomper's small size for an indoor grow - tho as F1's anything can happen it should be pheno-soup. I think I'm going to give the other Skylar Whites to someone who can give them a good outdoor grow in Spain, as I now have other freebies as well that are too tasty not to try...

We should all pool resources and buy a field and several poly tunnels somewhere in Kent ha ha.

 

[budelee]

Hey @SpliffScot ,glad to see you are growing the Duurties,they are an awesome quick finishing strain 65 days is breeders time,I took mine to 75 days.it gives a couch lock stone,mind if I jump on board ??

 

[pathway]

Ha, yeah that would be cool, apart from the fact that I'm skint lol. Plus I think all the smart money is heading for Spain these days, or the States.
Agreed on Mephisto's generosity, I think I paid for 6 seeds and received 15 in total, and after a mix up with the order (which was my fault), Mitch threw in a free T shirt as well! I've been following their story for a while now, and while their gear is a little bit of an unknown outdoors in the uk, I'm happy to give some of their strains a go to support them and their ethos.

 

[KapScot]

@budelee Hop aboard and prey for fine summer sun I got the three of the Duurty Magic girls as part of the AFN 'Pumpkin' competition. They were all very small beans and the first failed, I'm saving the last one for an indoor grow just to compare the results (was hoping to keep this one indoors but I'd already committed my limited space to a couple of Mephisto's).

 

[KapScot]

That's awesome man. I cant wait to see how it goes. I also have been working on making my seeds acclimate to growing in my yard. I have been planting seeds 3 weeks before the plant date. This year I want to 4 weeks before and see if they are happier. Although last year they did grow great. The last two generations seem to be real close, I am yet to grow out side for smoke just seeds so far.... I want to grow some just for smoke this year and try it. I'm testing some just for smoke in a tub of soil inside, so we will see.... Have you been seeding yours outside also?

Sorry I missed your question in that post. I had regulars the first year outdoors and had isolated the boys to a separate site for pollen collection but for some reason was more interested in the smoke than on seeds and didn't get around to collecting pollen before someone discovered them and ripped them out. To be honest with prices for smokeables here high and no distinction in law between the boys and the girls I haven't considered acclimatising a particular strain. I also think that the Auto's are such a dynamic moving feast of goodness with lots of very competent breeders that my own efforts at crossing and back crossing for stabelisation would be somewhat futile. However given a change in legislation and a couple of greenhouses

 

[KapScot]

I think I've got a bonsai Dragon

At day 20 she's so small I'm beginning to think I've got a bonsai pheno or it's just being plain lazy, she's barely above the rim of the 6" starter pot.



I know that that from reading here that the Dragons aren't a particularly large strain but I get the feeling that this one is a gonna be a dwarf.

I'm not going to give up on her tho, some of my best smokes have come from strange pheno's or mutants, so I potted her up into a 1Gal (imperial) tall but thin pot so that she won't get drowned out or shaded in the grow cabinet, she can venture outside if she feels brave later in the season. Interestingly there's a very healthy and vigorous root system going on (probably more veg down below than up above - so she may take off yet).

The Skylar White broke surface yesterday and is looking good.



... and... well if the Dragon's gonna be a midget.... might as well throw an old favourite into the mix and start soaking a Northern Automatic... And who said having too many seeds in storage caused problems...

 

[KapScot]

Weekly Update

it's been sunny (woooohooo) but with that came some damn cold nights with air temps around 10C and a low of 7C one night (ouch) - then came the rain between blasts of sunshine and a really heavy hailstorm with 5mm frozen peas giving the girls a battering. But all-in-all they took it in their stride and have survived though I did note a slow down in growth as they were transplanted, they should be putting down fresh roots and digging in for the summer. Forecast is wet during the week with a sunny weekend to come. One can but make daily sacrifices of slimy snails and slugs to appease the sun god All of them have had some sort of LST - just bending them right over to give two or three dominant stems - this seems to work better on some strains than others but I guess we'll just have to wait and see how they develop. All are now on the early stages of flowering, and most importantly nobody has complained/or noticed them. If it does turn out nice this weekend they'll get a feed with a liquid tomato feed 4:4:8 + seaweed extracts with some added SeaCal, but that of course all depends on how much rain we get hahahaha.



In the cabinet the Skylar White and Northern Lights are doing well.... as for the Duurty Magic - well she's definitely gonna be a dwarf at finish. Stretching and flowering but still no bigger than a fistful of dense leaves (everything you'd expect but in miniature). I'd be almost scared to put her outside in case she only yielded a few grams. So for now anyway she can stay in the cabinet in her 1 gallon pot. Even the cat thinks she's cute.