Smach's 2024 Virginia outdoor grow
- Thread starter smaccio
- Start date
It all starts with one seed. Best of luck on your outdoor ventures.
Good luck. I'm going to the grow today. Aa
I'm branching out this year. I bought three each of Critical Jack, Gary Payton, and Girl Scout Cookie from Weedseedexpress. So far I'm not impressed with the germination rate. I only want one of each plant, but I always enjoy giving away extra seedlings. Two Gary Paytons popped and are leggy as hell, all three GSC are good, and the Critical Jack ain't hitting on much. One's up. Started soaking on 4/30, put 'em on a plate with a wet paper towel covered with saran wrap, on top of the water heater, and in a day or two tap roots started to show. So into (labeled on the side) Solo cups filled with Ocean Forest, keep 'em watered and in a plastic tub for ease of transport, with plexiglas on top for a little protection. Chop sticks make good stakes.
Three weeks in. All the GSC are looking great. Two Gary Paytons are spindly but probably OK. None of the Critical Jack were good. One GSC and one Gary in the big pots are my keepers, and the others go to friends and family. Spread the wealth / spread the odds of success!
Day 35
Coming right along. I love the sunny, bug-free, low humidity, non-powdery white mildew days of Spring. Thinking compact plants might be an advantage come Aug-October when I'm battling storms and humidity, I decided to top a couple of times this year. Otherwise, come September when I'm moving them in and out of weather protection (ie 10 x 10 popup tent), they'd be too tall for the tent. Cut them above the sixth node today, and will probably do at least one more in a few weeks.
I can probably take the cages away at this point, but there's no hurry.
Coming right along. I love the sunny, bug-free, low humidity, non-powdery white mildew days of Spring. Thinking compact plants might be an advantage come Aug-October when I'm battling storms and humidity, I decided to top a couple of times this year. Otherwise, come September when I'm moving them in and out of weather protection (ie 10 x 10 popup tent), they'd be too tall for the tent. Cut them above the sixth node today, and will probably do at least one more in a few weeks.
I can probably take the cages away at this point, but there's no hurry.
Nice cages
The keep the deer and bunnies of the seedlings, and a piece of plexiglas laid over the top helps protect from Spring storms beating the poor things up.
I would leave the cages personally.
I plan to use the same style cage to train my outdoor photo plant and make the plant more rigid once it's grown into the cage. I live on the edge of a major power line that runs all the way up to Canada, so it gets real windy here.
I had to buy this and make my cages.
Got ya a nice standing scrog there.
archtype111
Well-Known Member
How will you be able to get in to trim anything? That is the main issue that I see with the cage. I tried this and had to remove it. I use scaffolding with the deer fence set horizontally at two heights. It has work great. No broken bracnhes.
I haven't even taken 1 leaf off an outdoor plant yet this year.
The cage is to keep it all open and not have to trim.
Day 45
I found a baby caterpillar and some little caterpillar poop balls (I guess that's what they are ), so started weekly spinosad and bT spray (mixed in a single sprayer) as of June 17. Plant color is good, thick stems...they seem healthy. I'll probably start gentle feeding and cal-mag this weekend. There's one or two nodes above the topping site, and I guess I'll let that grow out and trim again.
I'm also considering trimming off several layers of lower branches. They truly don't ever turn into anything worthwhile, and maybe the energy is better used on nice terminal flowers later this summer.
All three plants look pretty much the same, between 25 and 30 " tall. Here's one:
Bad weather and white powdery mildew are bound to come, but so far so good!
I found a baby caterpillar and some little caterpillar poop balls (I guess that's what they are ), so started weekly spinosad and bT spray (mixed in a single sprayer) as of June 17. Plant color is good, thick stems...they seem healthy. I'll probably start gentle feeding and cal-mag this weekend. There's one or two nodes above the topping site, and I guess I'll let that grow out and trim again.
I'm also considering trimming off several layers of lower branches. They truly don't ever turn into anything worthwhile, and maybe the energy is better used on nice terminal flowers later this summer.
All three plants look pretty much the same, between 25 and 30 " tall. Here's one:
Bad weather and white powdery mildew are bound to come, but so far so good!
I just doused mine with DE today. Them aphids were eating me alive.
The dew is so heavy and the temp swings are sooooooo large here that 2 of 3 Sweet Devil from Greenpoint Seeds had WPM already. They got decapitated this morning.
WPM is some hateful stuff. I've used Agrowlyte and something else...the stuff you get at brewing shops...Potassium Chloride or something...with decent results, but it's a constant battle. Since I'm a three-plant backyard grower I can pamper my garden and I blow a $25 fan from Amazon on them 24/7 starting soon through harvest. Can you believe it? I guess it helps.
Aphids always make me think of this old drawing from the New Yorker magazine. George Booth was great.
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