Blazing Oaks 2016

[papapayne]

Busy is always good. Great things come to those willing to put in the work! Hats off to ya, and can't wait to see the upcoming stuff! I scored myself max patient scripts this season as well, gonna be building a second greenhouse myself, may we have strong backs, and great wezther.

Stay free stay high

 

[Blaze]

Things are about to get more busy this week for sure:

Light dep is getting flipped tomorrow. A few plants like the Sour Diesel x Urkle and Super Silver Haze are still a little smaller than I would like to see, but most of the other plants are getting too big. If I don't flip them soon the greenhouse will get too crowded.

Full season clones are looking good and will have their supplementary light cut in two days. So long as our weather looks decent they will get moved out to the outdoor garden to harden off for a few days before getting planted in the ground.

All the soil prep was wrapped up a few days ago. My cover crop didn't break down all the way so I did end up doing a quick till to chop it up and get it dispersed through the soil more evenly. Second time I've had to get out the roto tiller in 6 years. I guess next year I need to chop the cover crop down earlier. Still trying to work out the exact timing and details for our no till system, but I think I am pretty close to getting it to the point where we only have to till or otherwise disturb the soil every 3-5 years or more.

All of the compost and additional dry amendments were spread out evenly and then scratched in with a rake. After that, the beds get heavily watered a few times to get everything cooking and then sit for a week or more before we plant. As soon as the plants go in, some 'transplant mix' and mulch will be layered on top to get them off to a fast start.

Seedlings are starting to show sex and actually seemed to enjoy the thunderstorms and rain we got over the weekend. They've been less pampered this year and are definitely stockier and stronger as a result, though not quite as large. I think once they go into the ground they will explode.

Geese are getting big and I took them out onto the pond today for the first time. So far I had just been letting them splash around in a kiddie pool. They followed me all around in the row boat, it was pretty cool to watch them dive and swim and have fun. They are proving to be excellent weeders too even at this early age.

Wouldn't be a good update if I didn't post some food pictures too! I usually try to do a nice Sunday dinner for the family, this time it was a rotisserie chicken slathered in my 'Persain" dry rub (salt, tumeric, dried mint, paprika, white peppers, cumin, and cinnamon), grilled red potatoes and a salad. As the chicken roasts, the drippings season the potatoes (Yes I love my chicken fat, don't judge me :p )

 

[papapayne]

Love every post man...so much knowledge tucked in here! I had geese, for the sole purpose of alarms. They were great, but every few weeks one would drop dead no obvious reason. Was so strange to, they would be healthy happy one day, and dead in the am when we woke up. No blood etc. When we Lost my favorite one to a rough 6 year old that lived on the property while her family was homeless, I had enough ended up rehoming the last 2. got tired of burying them.

Now we just have chickens, goats, rabbits, rabbits, ducks, and turkeys. Still plenty to keep me busy!

 

[papapayne]

The plants in pic 1 the light deps in cages. I have a few ? if you dont mind!

What size pots are those in? seeds or clones? and how long they been vegging outdoors? They are roughly the size I want my second crop in the smaller greenhouse to be come august. and been trying to debate if I / when I need to plan to start more. Also, one last ?, hopefully its not a page back and I look like a tard, will have to go look to ensure lol. But anyway, what size is your light dep greenhouse? / how many plants in there? Sorry for all the questions, hope it wasn't to many, just looks like what I am shooting for, so hey, no need to reinvent the wheel right!

As you might have guess, I am pretty stoned right now, so I hope that all made sense. Anyway, Hats off my friend, doing big things and it is a privilege to have you share it!

Stay free, stay high

papa

 

[SpiderK]

those pans under chicken holding potatoes also make some great asparagus on the grill, lil' oil w/ sea salt ...... but that damn chicken looks mouth watering. :D

 

[MendoGiantZ]

Chicken looks good. :)

 

[Blaze]

They were great, but every few weeks one would drop dead no obvious reason. Was so strange to, they would be healthy happy one day, and dead in the am when we woke up. No blood etc. When we Lost my favorite one to a rough 6 year old that lived on the property while her family was homeless, I had enough ended up rehoming the last 2. got tired of burying them.

Weird! So far I've just lost one, but it was a similar situation. She seemed fine, we went out to ear dinner in town, came back 2 hours later, and she was dead in the corner of their doghouse. No blood,no sign of trauma, nothing.

The plants in pic 1 the light deps in cages. I have a few ? if you dont mind!

What size pots are those in? seeds or clones? and how long they been vegging outdoors? They are roughly the size I want my second crop in the smaller greenhouse to be come august. and been trying to debate if I / when I need to plan to start more. Also, one last ?, hopefully its not a page back and I look like a tard, will have to go look to ensure lol. But anyway, what size is your light dep greenhouse? / how many plants in there? Sorry for all the questions, hope it wasn't to many, just looks like what I am shooting for, so hey, no need to reinvent the wheel right!

As you might have guess, I am pretty stoned right now, so I hope that all made sense. Anyway, Hats off my friend, doing big things and it is a privilege to have you share it!

Stay free, stay high

papa

The light dep is in 25 gallon pots. I figured that is about as small as I can go for a living soil / no till approach. They have been vegging outside in those pots for about 3 weeks (according to my notes they were planted April 29 so that was 24 days ago). Veg time in unheated cold frames like these varies a lot with the weather. I have had it be as short as 2 weeks in hot years and as long as 5 weeks on cold years. Usually the clones are in 1 gal pot and about 12" tall when they get planted. Everything in there is from clone, I never run seeds in my light dep, they are too unpredictable. I might do my replant with seeds though to test out some new varieties.

The size of the greenhouse is 12' x 40' x 8' high and has 25 total plants in it. Right now we are allowed 25 or 2500 square feet of canopy of flowering plants per parcel without a permit exemption and without having to sign up with the sheriffs department. I don't think we will be expanding this year after seeing the requirements for the new program, right now I will end up with 25 mature flowering plants / 25000 square feet of canopy per parcel (the outdoor garden is a different parcel) so I should be all good with the size of my current grows.

I am very hesitant to sign up on a program with law enforcement, I do not trust them one bit. There was a really big red flag in the new regulations as well - if you want to get the permit to grow 26-99 plants, they ask you for proof of commercial cultivation at your grow prior to Jan 1, 2016. However commercial cultivation was, and still is illegal, and will be until 2018. Tom Allman (Mendocino's Sheriff) has made it very clear that they will continue to arrest and bust illegal commercial grows. So they are asking you to provide evidence of illegal activity to them, and self incriminate, in order to get the permit to do a larger grow - very sketchy. Supposedly by next year the sheriff department won't be involved, and cannabis will all be regulated by the county Agriculture department. I would feel a lot more comfortable signing up for a program with the ag department, they've been very chill and helpful when I have dealt with them in the past, and they can't arrest me if they find a violation of the regulations!

 

[cemchris]

Yum!

 

[geologic]

I am very hesitant to sign up on a program with law enforcement, I do not trust them one bit. There was a really big red flag in the new regulations as well - if you want to get the permit to grow 26-99 plants, they ask you for proof of commercial cultivation at your grow prior to Jan 1, 2016. However commercial cultivation was, and still is illegal, and will be until 2018. Tom Allman (Mendocino's Sheriff) has made it very clear that they will continue to arrest and bust illegal commercial grows. So they are asking you to provide evidence of illegal activity to them, and self incriminate, in order to get the permit to do a larger grow - very sketchy. Supposedly by next year the sheriff department won't be involved, and cannabis will all be regulated by the county Agriculture department. I would feel a lot more comfortable signing up for a program with the ag department, they've been very chill and helpful when I have dealt with them in the past, and they can't arrest me if they find a violation of the regulations!

Very wise to be wary of that crowd--
they're big on schemes and scams...

 

[Blaze]

After much headaches, hassles, and delays I got the last permit I needed approved for our permanent light dep greenhouse today! It is fully engineered right down to the bolts and screws and meets all snow, wind, and seismic loads required by California building code. There is no way the county can shut us down or red tag us now, everything is above board for this project. It did take a lot of extra time and money to jump through all the hoops but I think it will be worth it. I didn't want to do what my neighbor down the road did and spend tens of thousands of dollars to build a really nice greenhouse, only to have the county come in the next year and tear the whole thing down because it wasn't permitted and didn't meet the building codes.

 

[Blaze]

Very wise to be wary of that crowd--
they're big on schemes and scams...

They can be worse than the criminals they bust.....

 

[papapayne]

Someday I hope to be on the up and up like that! I'm much more below board still, but at least this year my landlord is OK with it. Hoping to Akers enough to not have a landlord next season

 

[geologic]

They can be worse than the criminals they bust.....

Hey--
I wasn't all that bad Heh...

 

[MendoGiantZ]

Mendo task force didn't like me very much. :). I moved to Sonoma.

 

[Blaze]

Someday I hope to be on the up and up like that! I'm much more below board still, but at least this year my landlord is OK with it. Hoping to Akers enough to not have a landlord next season

Just takes time and work and maybe a little luck. We aren't home free yet, we still have to build the damn thing which will almost certainly have problems, as have all greenhouse builds I've seen so far. From the look of things you are ready to knock it out of the park this year though! Looking forward to seeing the results of your sativa light dep.

 

[papapayne]

Just takes time and work and maybe a little luck. From the look of things you are ready to knock it out of the park this year though.

Yep, thats the plan. personal goal is to hit triple digit #s

 

[papapayne]

just read the edit, Yea, I am to! I am really hoping I time things right to get them flipped the right sized, finished in time, and their replacements outdoors in time to get big enough, but not to big lol. This is definitely alien zone for me, and I havent seen anyone attempting a landrace sativa light dep, so kinda just gonna make it up as my best judgement, and as time / money allows. The nice thing is I think the high heat I think should make them feel right at home. the panama are 9-11 weeks trains, but the malawi has phenos that will go 13. Supposed to be intense ass trippy psychedelic highs, and hey, its something different!

 

[MendoGiantZ]

What's the general consensus with your group of friends @Blaze. I have 3 or 4 friends who are going through with all the paperwork. One or two friends who got spooked out right before they turned in the final paperwork and didn't do it. I would say the majority of people are not doing it and think it's sketchy.

 

[Blaze]

I know quite a few people who are interested. There is going to be a workshop with the under-sheriff Randy Johnson who is in charge of the program next week. I will probably decide if we want to sign up for the 26-99 plant permit program after that. There was one today as well but I could not make it, I was out of town finalizing our greenhouse order with Gro-Tech. I did have one friend who went to it and their impression was very favorable. They do seem to want to make the program as accessible as possible and get as many growers on board as they can. I think Randy is actually very reasonable and pro-cannabis, it is good that he is the one running the program.

At the very least I am going to buy zip ties this year and register with the Ag department. It is going to be a lot more difficult to get in the program in the future, it will be important to show some sort of compliance this year.

 

[royfree2grow]

After much headaches, hassles, and delays I got the last permit I needed approved for our permanent light dep greenhouse today! It is fully engineered right down to the bolts and screws and meets all snow, wind, and seismic loads required by California building code. There is no way the county can shut us down or red tag us now, everything is above board for this project. It did take a lot of extra time and money to jump through all the hoops but I think it will be worth it. I didn't want to do what my neighbor down the road did and spend tens of thousands of dollars to build a really nice greenhouse, only to have the county come in the next year and tear the whole thing down because it wasn't permitted and didn't meet the building codes.

It seems you guys need lots of permits to keep everything legit.. I understand the legal status is sorts of vague right now but can any resident of the county grow up to 25 flowering plans or is it involved with harsh criteria?