Outdoor The 55th North Parellel

[pathway]

All looking good mate and nicely camouflaged in the border

 

[knocker powell]

mate, they look wicked! would love to grow some in the ground in my back garden but sadly the kids would kick fuck out of them with the ball!

 

[KapScot]

Strange you say that - I've had one casualty every year so far - it's either an over enthusiastic goal scoring attempt leading to a swift decapitation - or a damn kid trampling one of them while retrieving the ball ha ha. But you can't blame them - or let on it's a 'special plant' - so you just have to weep quietly lol

 

[knocker powell]

Strange you say that - I've had one casualty every year so far - it's either an over enthusiastic goal scoring attempt leading to a swift decapitation - or a damn kid trampling one of them while retrieving the ball ha ha. But you can't blame them - or let on it's a 'special plant' - so you just have to weep quietly lol

i think it would be perfectly reasonable (if not a little illegal) to install a small machine gun nest in your garden to combat such unsolicited intrusions. 'dinnae fuck wi ma plants son' - i'm trying that in my best Limmy accent!

 

[KapScot]

Beginning of June - 'must be summer suuurely' << added in Sean Connory accent.

Well the cabinet is FULL, the Mephisto's have taken over. So everything that wasn't nailed down had to go out into the wild. With the weather looking overcast n warmer nights I took the opportunity to shift the Skylar and Northern L. out into the coldframe. The Duurty Magic got a bit of LST in the cabinet before joining the others outdoors (so small so cute lol). Given she's had 1/2 her life under LEDs I didn't expect her to respond very well to a blast of sunshine but she seemed to lap it up and the side shoots have taken on new growth as the LST kicks in - but she's ended up having a double transplant although I hope she won't mind (she wasn't root bound in any way by the 1Gal pot and there were only a few roots had reached the base so hopefully a gentle transplant).



And already in the ground...



These all got a good feed today - should be dry tomorrow but then rain forecast. I put the detail shot of the Dark Devil in there - (it's not too easy to see) but compared to the others early buds it's definitely a lot darker - so hopefully some purple bud coming there.

Some strains didn't like the LST much inc the Dark Devil - so while some clearly show multiple bud sites developing others just seemed to bolt (stretch) with the main shoot remaining completely dominant. I just decided to let these revert and released them from bondage as all I seemed to be creating was an elongated stem along the ground with very little side branch development.

So that's where we're at.. I would say most of these are looking good despite the early start some shock night chills, and that the cabinet has played it's roll well - definitely gonna time things better next year and put in I think 8 having pulled them on a little longer in 1Gal pots.

While night temps are low at 9C here at the moment it's been so sunny there's a bucket of heat in that soil now so I transplanted the others out today.



So that's em all folks, nurtured in the growbox, fledged in the coldframe and off into the 'Land of Snails' - my kill zone has been performing well with about 30 casualties so far excluding slugs (which exhibit a vampire style death shrivelling in the sun until only a trail remains). There are some marks on leaves (blotches) from other insects tho I haven't worked out what they are yet - some sap sucking insect spawn vampire slug revenge I suspect! I've definitely abandoned my other guirilla sites for this year - I'm knackered enough after gardening and doing some DIY here.

My brains been ticking away tho.... now since the cabinet start worked so well... and that the Mephistos should be harvested before I go on holiday... and some of the outdoor girls too (preys for sun). Hmmm a second crop of some Pakistan Ryders tempting fate for Autumn gales and snap frosts in September perhaps... but it doe's make you wonder if it's even possible this far north.

 

[KapScot]

DOH... must have been that last spliff - all those day 36 images should be day 39. CBA redoing them all.

 

[knocker powell]

you have a bountiful harvest awaiting you, sir.

 

[trailanimal]

Forgot to post these :

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healthy youngsters

 

[trailanimal]

The Garden Grow Site

Because the weather was dry last weekend I decided to get cracking with some hole digging and site prep. There was also the fact that I had an operation scheduled this week and since this involved zipping open my abdomen I'm not supposed to do anything like digging for the next 6 weeks. This alas means I've had to abandon my 2 guerilla grow sites as I'm not going to be fit enuff to prepare them in time – well we'll see how it goes over the next few weeks anyway.

In the Garden Grow the less attention I have to give the plants the less suspicion I draw to them. They are after all going into what is technically a communal shared space, but I am the only gardener and everyone else who uses the space for hanging up washing etc knows what I do – but this isn't a place for the faint hearted if you are inclined to paranoia or the fear of getting busted. Since I grow largely for my own medicinal use to supplement my prescribed opiates I honestly don't give a toss and will gladly argue my case (and loose) in court if caught.

Even within our garden conditions range from a woodland area where soil is slow draining and quite acidic to flowerbeds where the soil is free draining and quite suitable for growing Mediterranean plants (without of course the glorious sunshine that comes with such a climate).

My Outdoor Soil Mix :



1/4 Soil from the garden - taken from some of the holes where the plants will go.
1/4 Enriched Compost - I'm using a compost designed for growing tomatoes which require a lot of nutrients but any good quality compost would do the job. I'm just ripping open a tomato grow bag for convenience.
1/2 Well rotted Garden Compost

If you have a garden you should be creating your own compost anyway – it's much cheaper than having to buy soil improver’s and conditioners and is a good way of recycling organic food waste as well – hell I paid for those potato peelings and coffee grinds so why bin them when I can compost them and get some benefit in the future. Made from a mixture of source materials: garden weeds, autumn leaves, shrub and bush trimmings, and ash from any charcoal BBQs or bonfires. From the house gets added: fruit and vegetable peelings/waste and crushed eggshells. This is all layered and rotted down over the summer before being turned over into a second bin to finish composting. This mix is then stored in a large black bin for a further year before being used (this extra year helps eliminate any annual weed seeds that may have survived composting but if you don't have lots of weeds to start with you could eliminate this stage. So generally the compost takes two years to make but once you start it's a continuous cycle that can provide quality compost for all your needs.

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I also add into each hole :

Sharp Horticultural Sand – a couple of handfuls (just to help drainage).
Lime – a handful (my compost mix is a little acidic so a handful of this helps balance things)
Bonemeal – a handful (high in phosphorus this helps promote rooting)
Sulphate of Potash – a handful (high in potassium this helps promote flowering)
Volcanic Rockdust – a handful (good for a host of micro-nutrients or so say the marketing team).

You will notice that for additional drainage I'm only adding some sharp sand and not Perlite, quite simply I don't think its required on this site and if it were any more free draining I'd have to water frequently if it didn't rain every few days (an unlikely event but one that requires me to give the plants more attention than I'd really like – or rope in my daughter when I bugger of to Spain for several weeks in July).

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The bits of netting are just to stop the cats from thinking I've created several places for them to crap and the stakes remind me where I've dug the compost mix in. So that's it – all prepared and ready to go. All we need now is a good summer….

compost, yes!!!!!

 

[trailanimal]

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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Since with auto's the veg period is so short I reckon that to get the best possible chance of something cropable in this climate the first few weeks are going to be crucial.

those beauties are emanating greatness already