# Slartibartfast's No Rocket Science Yard Weed-2008



## Slartibartfast (Jun 5, 2008)

I didn't catch on soon enough and start a journal last year, so I'll begin this year's journal with pictures of the September, '07 AK-48 harvest: http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showpost.php?p=165052&postcount=1
Much to my surprise, I still have a month or two's worth of it left, even smoking it every day.  I mourn the death of my friend's AK-48 mother plant.

I planted my new cuttings on May 25 this year, so here begins my journal.

My plan is the same as last year.  I mixed a bag of the same potting soil I use for tomatoes and flowering plants, no special brand, with a generous heap of peat moss and another heap of mushroom compost(not Black Cow, it sucks).  All of that goes into a 14" wide pot with generous holes in the bottom edge.  Then I work about a teaspoon of the store brand version of Osmocote slow release into the soil, not too deep.  Be careful with that stuff, it's easy to use too much.  None would probably be okay too.

I buy everything at Lowes. I don't feel the need for premium stuff, we're just growing weeds anyway.  I plant a rooted cutting pretty deep, enough to bury the lower leaves, and wet it thoroughly.  I like to toss in a hand full of earthworms for good luck too.

After it gets nearly full sized (not too early, or it might grow a little leggy), I mix a weak dose of plant food, like generic Miracle Grow, with a half gallon of water and pour that on them every two or three weeks. I quit that a couple of weeks before harvest.

I hope this doesn't disappoint everyone who strives to use all kinds of fancy stuff, but it works for me.

Here are the first pictures.  The small ones are Willie Nelson, which are sativas, and the larger one is Citralah, an indica:





I will upload a new picture soon of the Citralah because it showed the first sign of its sex today, and it's gotten a lot bushier and a few inches taller.
I put those oyster shells in the pot just to stop squirrels from digging in it.  Plus the temp is over 100 this week, so they help keep it cooler and slow the evaporation.
The Willies will ready for the big pots when their roots get a bit bigger.


----------



## KGB30 (Jun 5, 2008)

Oyster shells work to keep Squirrels from digging?

Thanks


----------



## Slartibartfast (Jun 5, 2008)

Yeah, they had dug it up three days in a row. No problem since I put the shells on it.  Those little pellet looking things sprinkled around the dirt are slug bait.


----------



## MeNtAlPaTiEnT (Jun 5, 2008)

Those pesky squirrels! They must think they're going to find something special in there or something. Your plants look nice, I'm sure they'll turn into nice beautiful monsters, .


----------



## KGB30 (Jun 5, 2008)

Any brand for slug bait you remmend?

Lowes or home Dep has oyster shells?


----------



## Slartibartfast (Jun 6, 2008)

KGB30 said:
			
		

> Any brand for slug bait you remmend?
> 
> Lowes or home Dep has oyster shells?


I use Ortho Bug-Getta for slug bait, but any kind should work.  Apply it every 2 or 3 weeks if you need it.  Those slugs are nasty nasty.

If you want oyster shells, I recommend you have an oyster roast.  That's where mine come from, but the sun has dried all the stinky off of them.  We spread them in one corner of the yard where we want the ground covered. The dog loves them while they still have oyster on them.  I've never heard of anybody buying opened dried oyster shells.
They're really supposed to be returned to the oyster banks when possible, to give seed oysters a place to attach.

Use rocks or something.


----------



## Slartibartfast (Jun 26, 2008)

June 26 and the Citralah is 32" tall and looks like it might be getting ready to flower.  Little Willy Nelson is 14" tall (I gave away the other Willie).  I expect Willie to really shoot up soon.  It got off to a slow start, probably going to be a late September harvest for it.  I hope the Citralah is sooner because I'm getting low on last year's AK48.  Man, that was some premium smoke.

I found tiny grasshoppers on Citralah today, so I covered them with Ortho vegetable garden powder, that ought to choke them.  I'd noticed a few leaves had been partially eaten.  Now I know the culprit.  I hope those little critters don't get any hungrier.  Can't poison them after flowers form.

I'll take some pics this weekend.


----------



## CasualGrower (Jun 27, 2008)

I bet it is squirrels that dug up a bunch of my girls in the woods.....   I just basically dug the hole and filled it with compost and mixed in a bit of top soil.... I got out a few days later and several were dug up by what looked like tree rat claws heh.


Heh, squirrel season opens aug 1 I think here.... Gonna slay some tree rats.


----------



## Slartibartfast (Jul 24, 2008)

July 24th.
I just spent 15 minutes posting a detailed update and a question.  When I clicked "Go Advanced," *THE ******* SERVER WAS BUSY* and I lost it all.

They're still alive.
Bye.


----------



## KGB30 (Jul 25, 2008)

Thank you for the advice...


----------



## IRISH (Jul 25, 2008)

hey Slart, when that happens, (server busy), i just hit the go back button, and nothings lost, then hit reply again. sometimes when that happens, you'll have to try several times, and eventually it will post...


----------



## Slartibartfast (Aug 21, 2008)

Here are Willie in the foreground and Citralah behind it.  Willie is 5' 5" tall.  Looks like I'll be cutting the Citralah in a few weeks.  It's only 36" tall.  I tried some the other day and it gives a really nice high already.

I don't know why there's no thumbnail but here is a link to the pic.
View attachment 74811


----------



## Slartibartfast (Aug 29, 2008)

Here is my last journal entry while growing the Citralah, she gets the axe tomorrow.  I'll document the drying, curing, and smoking though.:bong1:

Pics taken 8/29/2008

 Looks like October for Willie Nelson.


----------



## BuddyLuv (Aug 29, 2008)

Change the size.


----------



## Slartibartfast (Oct 15, 2008)

*October 14th 2008*

My Willie Nelson Sativa is doing great in the pot now.  It took me a while to realize this was a much more needy plant than the Indicas I've grown the past two summers.  I fertilize it every week and if it doesn't get water every day it will wilt and look absolutely pathetic.  I've never had a plant that was so damn dramatic.

The main stalk is tied over so much that I tried to take a string and trace it from top to bottom and measure it.  I think it's pretty close to 8'.  I was told it would be a 5 footer, but they were wrong about that.  I was also told about 45 days of flowering. That might be close, around October 24th.  That's a Friday, so my impatient *** probably won't wait any longer to cut it.

I've been sampling buds from a lower limb and they give a great high.  All clear trichomes, of course.

Meanwhile the Citralah that I cut in September, an Indica, is smoking just fine.  I'm looking forward to having two types to choose from when I want to take a hit.  I posted a pic of some of that bud somewhere around here.  I'll add a link when I find it.  When I'm not so stoned.


----------



## Killertea08 (Oct 15, 2008)

Nice tree ya got there brother.  I like your fertilizer methods dude.  But just to throw this out there try your had at some bat poo and some molasses.  You can get some superthrive too at lowes that stuff is awesome.  Happy growing bro!


----------



## Slartibartfast (Oct 16, 2008)

I think my dog would dig it up.  She loves sweet dirt.  And dirt that tastes like s#it for that matter.  But you're right, I really ought to try something special for the flowers.  Maybe I'll break down and use a little rocket science after all... but I'm not changing the title of my thread.


----------



## Slartibartfast (Oct 19, 2008)

October 19th
Up in post #15 I said Oct. 24 might be about right, but it ain't going to happen.  It's the 19th now and hardly any pistils are brown. so I'm thinking November now.  The very top flowers still look very immature.  But if I did cut it today, I would still get a load of good smoke.  I've cut off a couple of lower branches and dried them behind my computer fan (works great in about 24 hours).  They give a powerful buzz that lasts for hours, all clear trichomes though.


----------



## DomsChron (Oct 23, 2008)

*Can't wait! Once there done, should provide a wonderful buzz!*


----------



## Slartibartfast (Oct 31, 2008)

These pictures were taken on October 28th, 54 days into flowering.  I had some wrong information in my above posts about flowering time.  The friend who gave me the clones says the seed package said Willie Nelson flowers from 77 - 91 days.  That puts it between November 20th and December 4th, so we have a few weeks to go if I don't get tired of dragging her in at night.  Next week is forecast to be above freezing at night, so we might get close.  A limb that broke off in a storm two weeks ago gives a really good, long lasting head, so I think this is going to be some great weed.

Hopefully the insurance guy that came to measure my house yesterday missed it.  I wrote about that in the Outdoor Growing section.

So, without further babbling... here they are:


...


If you look closely, you can see the strings going upward to the right, keeping the stalk doubled over.  It's about 6 feet vertical from the top of the soil.  I have no idea what kind of dried and cured weight she will yield.


----------



## HippyInEngland (Oct 31, 2008)

She is absolutely beautiful, I love her shape


----------



## Wiseguy_Chef (Oct 31, 2008)

looks great bro, yea them sativas are a hand full, took my ssh plants a good week to come out the ground after planting an, an i water them both eveyday, as there soil seams to just dry up quicker than the rest of my garden. they are getting feed mirical grow at 1/4 stranth an are loveing it. updates come on monday. but any how, great looking grow, going to get some good chronic of them plants, an i love SATIVAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## Slartibartfast (Oct 31, 2008)

HippyInEngland said:
			
		

> ...I love her shape


Yeah me too.  She used to have two of those lower weeping willow limbs, but the little stump on the other side is the one that broke,  but much to my smoking enjoyment.


----------



## Slartibartfast (Nov 15, 2008)

Time to take some new pics, she has really fattened up.  A heavy rain storm hammered the upper parts of the plant and it looks like a lot of the trichomes are gone.  Most of the lower limbs are still frosty though.  I hope some trichs grow back.  Is that possible?

That happened to my indica right at harvest time, back in September and now it's weak smoke.


----------



## Slartibartfast (Nov 16, 2008)

November 16th

Here are some new pictures of ol' Willie.
The seed package(recently got the info from it) says the harvest window should open between November 20th, this Thursday, and December 4th.  It doesn't look like it'll be ready by this weekend though.  A couple more weeks.  I'm going to have to haul her in out of the cold at night pretty often now... a worthwhile pain in the ***.










Ain't she luscious!  I've been sampling her for about a month now, and it really gives a good long buzz.


----------



## godspeedsuckah (Nov 18, 2008)

She is beautiful; great use of the wagon too!!


----------



## Slartibartfast (Nov 20, 2008)

I got tired of smoking that wimpy Citralah, so I went out and cut a mini cola.  I walked around and around it before I could force myself to cut it.  But there are so many, you can't tell it's gone. It's hanging to dry behind my computer now.




Still immature, but smokes nicely. Those clear trichs really gives me a boost.  Great for getting some mindless chores done.  Just so long as nobody sees me giggling out of context. 

The weather is in the 50's during the day, and she goes inside out of the freezing at night.  Do y'all think it's going to keep maturing in this cold weather?  Most of the pistils are still white.  She's been flowering for about 77 days.


----------



## THCPezDispenser (Nov 20, 2008)

I've been meaning to say this for a while, I love the title of this thread, LOL.  Your plant looks great man.


----------



## Wiseguy_Chef (Nov 20, 2008)

that thing is a beast bro, well if them tricks still are clear, an its still looking as green an awsome as it looks right now i keeper growing. wate for that 70% amber, an get some good couch lock chronic, jmo thow. looks great, bet the chronic is better. makes me wanna grow me a super haze outdoors..........


----------



## Slartibartfast (Dec 18, 2008)

*December 2, 2008*
Well I finally had to put her down, after only a six month love affair but which seemed much longer.  She rode the green mile in my old Radio Flyer wagon, so heavy with crystalline flowers glistening in the morning sun, her once proud top colas hunched over almost to the breaking point, no longer able to support their considerable weight, but still fighting to soak up those last rays of life quenching her need to produce one last drop of her viscous sweet juice. Her lower limbs drooping like weeping willow, nearly brushing the ground in the insistent breeze of oncoming winter... and came to rest next to my work table freshly covered with newspaper and a nice shiny Ryobi limb saw.  And the rest is history.

The buds are all in brown paper bags now, curing nicely.  It took a few days to do all the manicuring, but it looks like a nice haul.  No bud rot, or bugs, I think I did it right.  The stalk turned out to be exactly 7 feet tall.  It was hard to tell with it tied over, but I was curious.  The seed bag said 5 feet, but I guess that was for indoor growing.

I wish I could have waited another week or so, but the weather was either freezing cold or pounding rain most nights, so I got tired of hauling it in and out.  Besides, I was getting paranoid too, that's always a good reason.

Here are the pics:


----------



## cadlakmike1 (Dec 18, 2008)

Absolutely awesome.


----------



## greenbeans79 (Dec 19, 2008)

Slartibartfast said:
			
		

> I use Ortho Bug-Getta for slug bait, but any kind should work.  Apply it every 2 or 3 weeks if you need it.  Those slugs are nasty nasty.
> 
> If you want oyster shells, I recommend you have an oyster roast.  That's where mine come from, but the sun has dried all the stinky off of them.  We spread them in one corner of the yard where we want the ground covered. The dog loves them while they still have oyster on them.  I've never heard of anybody buying opened dried oyster shells.
> They're really supposed to be returned to the oyster banks when possible, to give seed oysters a place to attach.
> ...


A grower for skunk mag mentioned using crushed oyster shells in organic grows as a bud hardner.


----------



## Slartibartfast (Dec 19, 2008)

greenbeans79 said:
			
		

> A grower for skunk mag mentioned using crushed oyster shells in organic grows as a bud hardner.


Hmmm, must be something in the mineral content.  Maybe next year I'll crush some up and mix it into the soil and grow super rock buds!  I think I should read up on that first.

When I take mine out of the bags and jar them up, I'll post some beautiful bud pictures for my next journal update.


----------



## Slartibartfast (Dec 21, 2008)

*December 21st, 2008*

Jarred it all up today.  It dried in the grocery bags faster than I expected, but at least I got some curing done.  Hopefully next year I'll get that part figured out.  It's pretty crisp, but I bet it will have re-hydrated some when I burp them the first time.

I bought a dozen wide mouth Mason jars.  I filled one of them with the Citralah indica plant I harvested in September.  That was some disappointing weed, not bad, but a little wimpy.

Then I filled eight jars with the largest buds from the Willie Nelson sativa, and topped each one off with a few small buds.  Then I filled one jar with small buds (1"-3" buds), and I filled one more jar with really small buds.  That one will be for giving away and smoking when I'm all out of the premium selects.  So, I have ten jars packed with fresh potent weed.  I think I put more in the jars than is recommended.  They're not crammed in, but the jars are full.  I hope that doesn't cause any problems.

When I manicured it, I got enough leaves and shake to fill a gallon ziploc bag packed tight.  One of these days I'll get around to making some ISO hash with that.  I spiked it pretty good with some trichome rich droppings too.  I'll let you know how that goes.

Here are some pictures of the finally finished product:



Some premium buds.  They were really long, but I cut some of them in half to fit in the jars.



The whole spread.  Nice pile of small buds in that tupperware box.



Here are all the small buds spread out.  I still had some leaves to pull off of these. That was a mistake, next time I'll do that when they are still moist.  It wasn't good to handle them that much when they are completely dry.  The jars full of the large buds are all in the background.

I think I dun good. Hope y'all enjoyed my 2008 backyard grow.


----------



## iiii (Dec 21, 2008)

Slartibartfast said:
			
		

> July 24th.
> I just spent 15 minutes posting a detailed update and a question. When I clicked "Go Advanced," *THE ******* SERVER WAS BUSY* and I lost it all.
> 
> They're still alive.
> Bye.


 

My biggest complaint thus far about MP.C..... Can this be fixed? MODS???


----------



## iiii (Dec 21, 2008)

WOW. Beautiful plants. Helluva harvest. Congratulations, Brother. Any changes or repercussions since the insurance guy came around?


----------



## iiii (Dec 21, 2008)

And, finfished weight from the Sativa Willie, if you don't mind???


----------



## Slartibartfast (Dec 21, 2008)

iiii said:
			
		

> My biggest complaint thus far about MP.C..... Can this be fixed? MODS???


 I suspect MP is using as much server resources as they can afford.  They don't ask us for donations, but if they did, I would send them a few bucks.



			
				iiii said:
			
		

> WOW. Beautiful plants. Helluva harvest. Congratulations, Brother. Any changes or repercussions since the insurance guy came around?


 No problems.  I got my 2009 policy in the mail last week, so no sweat.  I will remember to be ready for them next year though.



			
				iiii said:
			
		

> And, finfished weight from the Sativa Willie, if you don't mind???


 I have no way to weigh it.  I'd like to know too, just out of curiosity.  I'm sure it's not very heavy without seeds.  Maybe a quarter or a half pound... no clue.  How much do you think it looks like?

*PS  Please try not to triple post in my journal.  Just use the edit button to add to your first post.  Thanks.*


----------



## IRISH (Dec 21, 2008)

very nice grow Slartibartfast.. how's she smoke? wow, 6 months huh? thats one long grow. i'm lucky to get 5 months of grow weather where i'm at , outside. that last pic of the willie, looked like a pic of a horse , with reins.
ride on willie...bb...


----------



## Slartibartfast (Dec 21, 2008)

banjobuzz said:
			
		

> very nice grow Slartibartfast.. how's she smoke? wow, 6 months huh? thats one long grow. i'm lucky to get 5 months of grow weather where i'm at , outside. that last pic of the willie, looked like a pic of a horse , with reins.
> ride on willie...bb...


The smoke is potent.  A great party high and one big lungfull keeps me stoned for a couple of hours.  Now, about that horse thing... I'm still trying to see that, maybe I should smoke some of your dope.  Tell me which end is the head and the butt, so I can try to visualize this.  Maybe I'll see the Marlboro man.  Or maybe I'll meet Mescalito!


----------



## IRISH (Dec 22, 2008)

pic in post #30. top pic. just b4 chop. see it now? wow , maybe it's rudolph the green nosed reindeer...bb...


----------



## cadlakmike1 (Dec 22, 2008)

I still love seeing the radio flyer being put to good use!


----------



## BuddyLuv (Dec 22, 2008)

Slartibartfast said:
			
		

> I suspect MP is using as much server resources as they can afford. They don't ask us for donations, but if they did, I would send them a few bucks.
> 
> No problems. I got my 2009 policy in the mail last week, so no sweat. I will remember to be ready for them next year though.
> 
> ...


 
looks like...enough to get you through winter!


----------



## Slartibartfast (Dec 25, 2008)

Yeah, next winter!


----------



## That crazy vancouver guy (Dec 27, 2008)

awsome plant you grew, man :aok:


----------



## GeoffTheMess (Jan 18, 2009)

that plant is huge jeez and i thought my little girl was big....how much are you expecting dry?


----------



## Slartibartfast (Jan 24, 2009)

I don't have any scales so I have no idea what the dried weight is.  But I filled 11 wide-mouth quart mason jars.  8 jars are full of long buds (had to cut them to length to fit) and 3 jars brimming full of small buds.  And a gallon ziplock bag of rich shake to make ISO hash with; probably someday when I'm down to a couple of jars left.  I only smoke a couple of bowls a day, so this may last more than 2 years.  I hope it will stay fresh that long in the jars.

Yes... this was a very successful grow.  I could not have done it without the help of my fellow MP members.  Thanks everyone!


----------

