LilDads LilGrow ~ 2023

[user 60570]

Update!

For the big ones, we are starting flowering! The skunk is blowing up and looking fantastic! It’s responded incredibly well to LST and the feedings have obviously been just right. There’s about six healthy looking bud sites, so they’ve been trained to keep as much of an even canopy as possible. It’s not as big as my skunk plant last year, but it’s much healthier as evidenced by its deep green coloring.

The Presidential OG is looking smaller, but still healthy. The plant looks like it’s favoring it’s main cola with only a few other bud site present, so I may take down the LST for the cola when buds start rolling in to give it better space to breathe. The close up of the cola is attached and trichomes are developing!

For these two, I’ll be switching feeding to CalMag, BigBloom, and TigerBloom tomorrow.

The smaller ones are ready for their first feeding! They’ll get GrowBig, BigBloom, and CalMag tomorrow. One is definitely Afghan, and the other looks to be Presidential OG. I think the Presidential OG isn’t as suited for VA, so next year I don’t think I’ll use that one in the rotation unless I REALLY like the bud.

dam , i think you said cal mag three times!

let the good times roll!

 

[LilDad]

dam , i think you said cal mag three times!

let the good times roll!

It’s been a gem! In general, I think this years grow is benefiting a great deal from proper utility of nutes.

 

[LilDad]

Quick question for y’all:

Does this look like main cola structure? I think this one (Presidential OG) is all the way flowering (I think the pre-flower push may be ending). If this part of the plant is going to be a big fatty cola, I don’t think I’ll break that up with any LST. Thoughts?

 

[user 60570]

Quick question for y’all:

Does this look like main cola structure? I think this one (Presidential OG) is all the way flowering (I think the pre-flower push may be ending). If this part of the plant is going to be a big fatty cola, I don’t think I’ll break that up with any LST. Thoughts?

yep , let that main stem grow

 

[SubmarineGirl]

Yeah. That looks like it’s gonna stack up nice

 

[LilDad]

The other two plants are humming along nicely! The one with training is the Afghan, and the smaller one is (I think) another Presidential OG. They’re about a month in, so there’s definitely some stunting, but yields aren’t really that big a deal to me as I only use about 21 g a year for myself. Instead, I’m focused on “happy and healthy” plants.

They had their first feeding last week (1/4 tsp of CalMag, GrowBig, and BigBloom). This week (Friday) I’ll jump up the CalMag to 1/2 tsp for the Presidential since the stem is still kinda puny, then I’ll jump up the BigBloom to 1/2 tsp for the Afghan since it should be focused on leafy growth right now.

Side note: made gummies with the remaining Skunk from last year (8.96 grams + keif in a cup of canna oil then used 1/3 a cup of oil in this batch of gummies) and they are FIRE!!! Had 1.5 gummies last night and I think I’ll scale these bad boys back to 1 gummy per serving.

 

[LilDad]

Oh man. Big week for the ladies!

Left town for Memorial Day and came back to everyone seeming to have a really nice time! We had a bit of a rain stint, and since the Presidential OG and Skunk are flowering in earnest, I popped it inside with a fan and dehumidifier on. I figure at this juncture they’d do better to have bud rot preventative measure taken instead of overcast skies.

Weather has sorted now though!

Pests are coming out to play now. I’ve found a few leaf hoppers and earwigs scuttling about when I’ve put them out in the mornings. They get a Dr. Jacks spray tomorrow so that should at least tamp them down.

For Friday, the littles will get a CalMag, GrowBig, and BigBloom feeding and the bugs will get a CalMag, BugBloom, and TigerBloom feeding. Since the Presidetial OG is budding hard, I’ll use a more liberal application of TigerBloom.

Everyone looks great! I am noticing some pretty serious “purpling” of the stems on the Presidential OG, but since everything else seems fine I’m not worried about it. This could likely be because it’s definitely seen some stunting since the early April cool weather it endured. @bigsur51 @SubmarineGirl In general, when do y’all worry, if ever, about purpling stems? It can be genetics, but I don’t think that’s it with this plant.

 

[user 60570]

purple stems from cold weather happen all the time in my garden

 

[LilDad]

Buds are getting chawnky on the Presidential OG! Super great earthy and spicy aroma. I’m very excited to smoke this one, but I’m thinking we’d need about three more weeks before flushing. The trichomes are clear/cloudy on the main cola, so I’ll keep up the feedings for a few more weeks then flush when the trichomes are almost exclusively cloudy (trichome pictures included). I feel like that should send them to amber and we’d be done!

The Skunk is flowering like a champ, but still hasn’t shown trichomes of substance. This plant apparently flowers quickly (45 days of flowering time), so we’ll see how it moves along! I saw some signs of PWM yesterday, so I wiped down the powdery leaves and did some defoliating today. If it looks to be a problem tomorrow, I’ll do a 1:3 milk/water mixture and spray the plant down after wiping the mildew off with a damp paper towel. Oddly enough, that trickery worked on the Skunk last summer when PWM started showing up.

The other Presidential and Afghan are humming right along in veg. I think they’ll be doing their push pretty soon, if they haven’t started it yet.

Pests are coming out to play. I’ll spray them again with Dr. Jacks tomorrow morning. It’s looking like aphids, but they aren’t doing much to the older plants so no big deal just yet!

 

[user 60570]

use some Monterey Bt with Spinosad for those aphids

and if that don’t work , Pyganic for the win

 

[LilDad]

use some Monterey Bt with Spinosad for those aphids

and if that don’t work , Pyganic for the win

What are your thoughts on Neem oil?

 

[user 60570]

What are your thoughts on Neem oil?

never had the results I wanted using neem so it is not in our arsenal

Monterey Bt Spinosad , Pyganic , Azamax , diatomaceous earth , ladybugs , and Safer Soap gets the job done around here

we are 100% outdoors and rely heavily on the chickens too

 

[Carty]

Good luck man... buds are coming along

 

[LilDad]

never had the results I wanted using neem so it is not in our arsenal

Monterey Bt Spinosad , Pyganic , Azamax , diatomaceous earth , ladybugs , and Safer Soap gets the job done around here

we are 100% outdoors and rely heavily on the chickens too

My chickens would wreck these plants.

 

[LilDad]

The (big) Presidential OG is at 66 days old and looking fantastic!

The trichomes are at a place where I start to think of it as “extra credit:” the weed is good to smoke, but it gets better each day it’s still in the pot. What are y’all’s thoughts?

Do you guys think that the two week flush is good to start now?

 

[user 60570]

2 moar weeks

 

[user 60570]

My chickens would wreck these plants.

No problems here , once the plants are big enough the chickens use them for shade trees

oh wait , wrong critter

 

[LilDad]

2 moar weeks

Classic.

So start flushing now?

 

[LilDad]

No problems here , once the plants are big enough the chickens use them for shade trees


View attachment 330893


oh wait , wrong critter



View attachment 330892

My chickens would roll through my plants like four moronic Godzillas.

 

[LilDad]

In order of appearance:

Afghan is budding up! The smells are awesome and I think that the late April planting has served it well! Gave it some BigBloom, CalMag, and TigerBloom this morning. A few pests seemed to have found some top leaves, but I sprayed yesterday with Dr. Jacks, and it’s been tamped down.

The (other) Presidential OG is now flowering in earnest. I’ve got a side by side picture of those two plants, the more mature of which was germed early April. Since the more mature plant is noticeably smaller, I know that May is a better planting time for this strain if I choose to do it again next summer. I fed it this morning with the same feeding as the Afghan. I am a bit worried about this one for rot. If it buds up as fat as my other Presidential OG, I can see that bud rot is a real threat in the humid VA July/August. I’ll be bringing it in at night when it buds up and keeping a fan on it so it’ll dry back out every night.

The skunk is budding up nice and fat! Trichomes are starting to veer towards cloudy, but I’ve got around 13 bud sites from her, so I would be surprised if there wasn’t at least 1 oz of harvest. I imagine it’ll be two more weeks (@bigsur51 ) before I start flushing.

The more mature Presidential OG is in flush phase. For a two week flush, she should be harvested next Friday. There isn’t much amber to the trichomes yet, but I think that after a week she should be good to go! She seems perfectly happy and healthy so she could stay in the pot a little longer if the need be. Her trichomes are pictured. I’ve been “flushing” by watering with two gallons instead of her normal half a gallon.

This summer grow is looking great thus far! The plants seems way happier and I think I’ve really dialed in on nutes and pest management as compared to last summer. I’m also noticing that I’m feeling more patient and more confident with these plants.

Next summer I will definitely scale back the number of plants because I’m still trying to offload about 25% of my grow from last summer (60g total), which I feel like is going to get dwarfed by this summers grow.