2011

[kiefcake]

:) Here are the ladies beginning of July

[old school]

Looking good kief ! Garden looks a little different than last year ?

[kiefcake]

You mean way more awesome or what?

[old school]

You seem to be further ahead than this time last year.What are the strains we are looking at here? Did you not like the sprayers you were using last year? It looks like you now have a complete circle dripline ? So last year with all the new straw and garden it looked different BUT this year it is WAY more awesome bro ! Keep the pics comming, I love to see them. Peace ,..........OLDSCHOOL

[kiefcake]

Yes bro I am much further along this year than last. ..Last year I came out of 3 and 5 gallon smart pots on June 1 this year I planted on may 9 out of 10 gallon grow bags and covered over with 6 mil visqueen to protect from frost and have had lights on 24/0...the sprayers I felt like they gave me some stem rot and also weren't too accurate. lots of overspray..now i'm using 1/2" inline drip emitter tube 1 ft spacing 1 gph x 30 ft per bed...it's much better. The first plant is called Betsy and the second one is Afwreck x Reef's Cherry Thai ....I do need to put all new straw down now that I am on drippers. I hand watered with a hose and wand from may to june although in may i only watered them twice.

[old school]

Hey Kief ! Hope all is well in Ganja land.Courious about your water usage this time of year. How often and for how long does your system come on ? How much water do you feel a plant your size,or larger, needs ? The set-up you have is the EXACT one I ran last year . I had real good luck with it . That emiter hose is bad ass ,I use it on all my veggi's also.Do you have a fertalizer injecter or something like that ? What nutes do you run in the water ? How often ? Do you ph the tank water or is it ok as is ?
How was you average after last season ? Did you lose any complete plants to root rot last year ? Thanks again Kief !!!!! Peace Oldschool

[kiefcake]

I control the system on and off , I hit them with different amounts depending on the weather and how much i've recently watered them and all that...on a heavy day I'm giving them about 35 gallons on a lighter day like 15? The emitter hose IS bad ass.. I do not have an injector on this garden. I haven't used anything but water but am about to hit them 1 time with 6 gallons of Age Old Grow in 2000 gallons of water. My water pH is good. The average last year got fucked up because I had 16 plants that essentially were failures last year. Never plant mother plants! I lost 1 individual last year.

[old school]

I control the system on and off , I hit them with different amounts depending on the weather and how much i've recently watered them and all that...on a heavy day I'm giving them about 35 gallons on a lighter day like 15? The emitter hose IS bad ass.. I do not have an injector on this garden. I haven't used anything but water but am about to hit them 1 time with 6 gallons of Age Old Grow in 2000 gallons of water. My water pH is good. The average last year got fucked up because I had 16 plants that essentially were failures last year. Never plant mother plants! I lost 1 individual last year.


Whats your take on why not ? Do you feel a clone is more robust and branchy and will yield more ? I plant all from seed no clones. I am willing to give it a try next year though. Whats the largest yield from one plant. What was the breed ? Do you have any in pre-flower yet ?What do you do different to the ladies to prepare for flower mode. Nutes and such for flowering.
I really like sharing ideas with one another. Its easy to ask ole kief what works for him,. 300 gallon smartpots,clones:D Peace OLDSCHOOL

[kiefcake]

I did not do anything from seed this year simply because I did not get them started in time. I also don't know how I feel about having an undetermined finished product out there sitting in such a large investment (300 gallons of Pro Mix HP, #4 grade perlite, amendments, water system) I like the uniformity of clones. I am going to do a big seed run this winter and find plants I think might do well out door based on various indoor trials in multiple grow rooms this winter and do those plus the Old Betsy, Afwreck / Reefs Cherry Thai , and D.O.G..I also am sure clones grow more vigorously than a mother plant put outside would do. The younger the plant the more aggressive it is growing, as they get older they have had more opportunities for disease, pest, becoming root bound etc., all of which can be recovered from but it is never the same. Out door even if you have supplemental lights like in my garden you only have so much Spring and Summer time to veg...You can not just over veg like indoor to cure any problem and just bud when you want...August rolls around and it's time to bud..Period..So if you spent most the summer recovering then going in to the fall you won't have as much biomass going in to bud as you might if you just had them tear from the beginning. My biggest lesson growing out doors is to have the right timing..if you do not have the right timing for your grow you will not maximize potential of your space...

[old school]

I also am sure clones grow more vigorously than a mother plant put outside would do. The younger the plant the more aggressive it is growing, as they get older they have had more opportunities for disease, pest, becoming root bound etc., all of which can be recovered from but it is never the same. Out door even if you have supplemental lights like in my garden you only have so much Spring and Summer time to veg...You can not just over veg like indoor to cure any problem and just bud when you want...August rolls around and it's time to bud..Period..So if you spent most the summer recovering then going in to the fall you won't have as much biomass going in to bud as you might if you just had them tear from the beginning. My biggest lesson growing out doors is to have the right timing..if you do not have the right timing for your grow you will not maximize potential of your space...



So if you take clones are they not the same "age " as the mother ? Maybe the growing tips would be different. I really like talking with you kief I think one always has to tune and adjust his technique as need be.I have great success with large "seed based " plants but I can never seem to achieve my goals . My plants get huge but 5-6 pounds average is out of reach it seems.I have noticed that I have some plants that go in late and are a younger plant seem to outgrow the large "pot based " plants.Do you top or anything like that ? The timing comment was right on ! well put.You have hit the nail on the head my friend ! I will post some pics up so you can see my gig again. Oldschool

[YukonBikerGuy]

Nope, clones taken from the growing tips of old mother plants act pretty much the same as clones from a younger mother plant. They pause upon cutting, then concentrate on making roots for a few days, then take off with the vigorous growth of a new plant.

Forming the roots of a plant (any plant really) 'in time with the season' from a fresh cutting/clone, planted into the spot it will be harvested from will always perform better than a knarly old momma will just plunked into the same place. Moms can be 'prepped' in ways that can make them be more productive when you want to flower them, but generally I find it is more time consuming and labor intensive for not always a huge gain in yield.

You fellahs have nice gardens as always.

Just my 2 cents....

YBG

[kiefcake]

So if you take clones are they not the same "age " as the mother ? Maybe the growing tips would be different. I really like talking with you kief I think one always has to tune and adjust his technique as need be.I have great success with large "seed based " plants but I can never seem to achieve my goals . My plants get huge but 5-6 pounds average is out of reach it seems.I have noticed that I have some plants that go in late and are a younger plant seem to outgrow the large "pot based " plants.Do you top or anything like that ? The timing comment was right on ! well put.You have hit the nail on the head my friend ! I will post some pics up so you can see my gig again. Oldschool

Hey bro I believe when you take clones off of a healthy mother you are establishing a new plant with a new biological clock that has not had all the things that happened to its mother happen to it. A fresh start. I know for a fact that a fresh clone put in to a green house then taken out door with the right timing will be bigger than any mother plant put out side ever could be. The key to the large 5+ plants is the size of the container, keeping them disease free, getting at least 8 hours of direct sun in the fall, 10-12 is better. and the genetics. A thin leaf growth pattern with broad leaf branching and a mix between the density of the two yields the largest plants. The 300 gallon containers I'm using now are much too small to support a plant the size I am going to end up with. I am now beginning to lay down biologicals that will help to keep my root system healthy because I am slowly but surely running out of soil. Next year I will have 750 gallon containers and the same genetics with a little better time table and infrastructure for my climate No I don't top but I do pull them out sideways through hortonova trellis net to increase the # of cola sites and open up the inside of the plant to developing

[kiefcake]

Going in to the big stretch

[old school]

Going in to the big stretch





I am a little ahead of you kief as far as stretch goes. Really surprised at how fast some of them are starting to go into flower. your ladies look very nice indeed ! I dig the look of the clones .
Are you having any root problems at all ? I am putting down some Mycostop just to be sure.:)

How many layers of trellis do you put up? I just stretched out 325 foot tonight . What a pain the stuff is to mess with . I like how some of the dudes attatch the trellis to a pvc structure with the plants in rows ....it seems like it would simplify the process a little.

i am courious how much top dressing do you apply ?

Did you add anything for calcium to your bulk mix ?


:smoke1::smoke1::smoke1:

[kiefcake]

No problems really, the preventative applications of Companion and MycoStop really took hold before what was starting could cause harm. I have 1 layer on and am adding another by sinking rebar in to the ground around the pots, zip tying 8' bamboo to the rebar and putting another layer of hortonova on. If I need one more after that i will just drape it on. Easiest way I found to use the hortonova is just lay it on the ground and roll out how much you need then cut and roll back the other way for the next piece. I didn't do any top dressing this year and don't regret it either... I did 1 application of Age Old Grow 12-6-6 at about 3/4 strength right at the end of july to kick their stretch off hard. In the beds this year for calcium I put gypsum(10#), oyster shell(10#), and bone meal(25#)...

[kiefcake]

Can't wait to move to 750 gal of soil!

[kiefcake]

:bongin: Coming in to the final stretch

[YukonBikerGuy]

Nice damn bushes. :)

[Snap]

^^ Yep, what he said!

Looking good kc..

[old school]

Looking awesome kief ! as usual....

[kiefcake]

Wheeeeeeeeeee here's the garden a couple weeks before chop. Everything is down now and I had my best year ever.

[old school]

Wow ,Holly crap !! Very well done kief ! I am more than impressed .....

[kiefcake]

Thank you this year was the best year I have completed to date. My highest average was 7.25 lb my biggest plant was 8lb ...The largest lessons I took away this year are :

- the age of the plant matters 100%

- the bigger and wider the mound you can build for them the larger they will get.

- cutting native soil in rules

- don't be scared to hit them hard with fertilizer on top of loading the soil full. they will use it.

- don't grow so much of 1 thing..you have to chop it all at the same time.

[Daveytree]

awesome garden!