Blaze's 2012 Adventure

[Tankgrl]

I hope i get to try your Guava again this year as well as th mendo pineapple is great! Alsoi want to try that blueberry pie!

 

[Blaze]

The BBP came out the best yet this year, found a REALLY nice pheno of it that I cloned for next season. The Guava came out pretty good as well but I didn't find the pheno I was looking for, the one from last season that smelled like guava and butterscotch candy. Guess I'll have to look for it in the F2 seeds, these were the last of the originals this year. Last of the original Moonlight seeds too, but I got clones and F2's of them as well.

 

[707seedbank]

Great show Blaze!! What did you think about the kush cleaner?

 

[Blaze]

The Kush Cleaner was awesome, it will definitely be making an appearance again next year. It had a very intense lemon/pine smell on most of the pheno's and was just dripping with resin. It was also by far the most vigorous, hearty, and highest yielding OG type plant I have grown. I like the smoke more than most OG's too - at this point I prefer it to the SFV, Tahoe, and True OG cuts I've done.

 

[Blaze]

Haven't been on here much lately, been too busy with work and other responsibilities but I thought I'd post a few last pics to wrap the thread up for the year.

First shot is of what we got off the largest yielding bed this year, the Lemon Jack. At this point the buds were all dried and the big stem and water leaf removed and were ready to be sealed up for storage until I could get to trimming it all. This bed had one each of the number 3 pheno and the number 5 pheno planted right next to each other. The number 3 pheno hit 6 plus #'s and the number 5 pheno hit 9#s for a total of over 15 #s off a single 6 x 6 bed. The smallest bed was the Purple Zebra at 6 #'s.

Second shot if of all the mom's I cloned off during the summer which are vegging nicely now. Got cuts of the best phenos of the Guava Kush, Blueberry Pie, and Moonlight for next year. Being able to preserve all the best cuts from season to season is getting more and more important IMO, too many good genetics get lost form people hoarding or being lazy with them. Didn't do any seeds this year for the first time in many years but I still have several F2's to test out next season of the above three strains which I did not have space to run this year, so that should keep be busy for a while.

Next two shots are of some of the storm damaged we suffered during the last few weeks. A 30' tall oak tree came down and took out the back end of the trailer we have at our garden. It totally destroyed the bedroom, knocked the whole thing of it's pilings and spun it around about 15', as well as took out one of the large 6"x6" posts we use for our tarping system to cover the plants during fall rains. Luckily no one was staying in it at that time (tree landed right on the bed, smashing it into the wall) since we were done with harvest, but it sure is going to be one hell of a mess to clean up in the spring. Amazingly the fence was barely damaged.

Last three are of some of the finished buds from my personal stash of favorites. First one is Purple Zebra, second is Blueberry x Northern Lights, and the last one is Mendo Pineapple. They were three of the best strains this year in terms of flavor, smell, and potency as well as a good representation of Afghani (PZ), Indica (BBNL), and Sativa (MPA) type plants.

 

[Blaze]

Now that winter is here I finally have abit of time to kick back relax and pursue my other big passion in life - food! I love cooking, growing, finding, and catching whatever ingredients I can, time provided of course. First shot is of one of the true delicacies of the Mendocino and Humbolst coasts - fresh, wild abalone, cut into nice big steaks and fried up in panko with Picatta sauce. By buddy was nice enough to give me one as I was a bit preoccupied with harvest lately to go out and dive myself.

Second shot is of a spinach and smoked duck breast salad with duck chcharones, homegrown pomegranate and persimmons, thyme potato crisps, and a chocolate pomegranate duck dressing.

Third shot is of what should be about a year supply of wild bay leaf. Wild bay grows all over the creeks and rivers here in abundance. It is a different species than the bay leaf you usually see in stores, but the oil it produces is exactly the same. The only big difference is the wild bay is about twice as potent as store bought so less is usually needed in most dishes.

Next shot is of the last of the peppers I got before the frosts killed them all a few weeks ago. Got a good haul of jalapeno, pasilla negra, acho, anehiem, and a few last fatalis to dry for winter and spring use.

Finally a pic of a new recipe I learned recently - a fried lotus chip topped with a slice of seared ahi and an avocado lime salsa, and a shot of some smoked pulled pork I made for an End of the World Potluck last week. Made it two ways - one with a traditional North Carolina sauce and one with a super spicy Chipotle BBQ sauce. Good stuff!

Hope everyone else had a good year, and a happy holidays. 2012 was a whirlwind year for us, here is too a good season in 2013! Now to go drink coffee, eat holiday leftovers, and catch up some some video games hehe...

 

[Mogrow]

nice #'s out of the beds Blazer. great to hear you pulled off a good harvest, been watching some documentaries on cali. growers and so many are getting ripped, including our own Seamaiden.
scored some more of those mendo mango seeds, looking forward to running them.
Glad you got things in fore the big ol oak tree fell down and went boooooooom.
u got a shot of the 6 x 6 bed ???
peace mogrow

 

[Seamaiden]

Good to read, but I can't look at the pix because there's stuff that I ran this year that was stolen and it makes me so sad to look at it. Of course you know what some of the genetics I was running were.

I'm so glad that tree fell on the trailer and not the house, too! Especially now.

Thanks for taking some time to come back and update! We miss you all out there and have missed being able to visit.

 

[Blaze]

Mo - the big Lemon Jack bed was the same one I've taken pics of all season for the thread. The last pic before harvest was post #173, 8th picture. Interestingly enough it was not the largest plant physically, there were several that were taller like the Pineapple and the Guava Kush.

Unfortunately rip offs have become far more common in the last few years, they are the single biggest threat to a garden in our area, far more so than law enforcement. We have somebody stay at the garden 24/7 from a month before harvest, until the last plant comes in to keep an eye on things. I think it also helps the garden is a mile from the nearest public road and out of view from the neighbors, and you have to go through three locked gates to get there. Post harvest rip offs, like what happened to Sea also seem to be on the rise. I think rippers have figured out it's a lot easier to make off with more of the crop if they wait until it's all harvested and dry and in one spot. We use a MURS radio security system in our drying shed to help keep an eye on things (we also have one we've deployed in the garden from time to time) and again, there is someone at the drying shed 24/7 until the harvest is dried and ready to store. It does get very monotonous not getting to leave the hill for more than a few hours at a time for almost two months straight but at this point it has become a necessity.

Sea - we missed you guys at the last harvest party. Lot of new faces this year, was missing some of the old regulars like you and D. Though I didn't get much of a chance to hang out, I was too busy preparing the food this year. Overall the guests seemed happy with all the food despite having some issues with a certain someone who got hired on to manage the event and then proved to be totally incompetent at following recipes or managing the kitchen staff.

 

[Brain]

Epic thread.

 

[Blaze]

Thx - about time to start a new one I guess, started taking clones this week...

 

[Seamaiden]

And I am making ready to pop beans. Got a mom of Purple Cheddar from one of the patient members yesterday, and I've had a chance to smoke some of it so I'm excited about that. You can really taste the Grape Krush/Concord grape type of flavor in it.

 

[midwestdensies]

I should have commented long ago but I dig what your style man super informative and inspiring.
MW

 

[Burning Bush]

yeah,great thread!

 

[caregiverken]

Blaze was sooo cool to me when I was new and first came to the farm!:)
I have always been encouraged, inspired and educated by Blaze and his posts! :happy:
I hope you are going to have time for a 2013 thread Blaze!:woot:
Are you Lite depping again this year?
Thanks for Being here for us! :)

 

[royfree2grow]

Blaze was sooo cool to me when I was new and first came to the farm!:)
I have always been encouraged, inspired and educated by Blaze and his posts! :happy:
I hope you are going to have time for a 2013 thread Blaze!:woot:
Are you Lite depping again this year?
Thanks for Being here for us! :)

2nd that! i'm pre-sub'd to Blaze's 2013 Adventure.

 

[Blaze]

Thanks Ken and Rory that means a lot. I keep meaning to start a thread but I've been so damn busy I keep forgeting to take pictures. Heck maybe I'll go take some now, I'm all done with work for the day....

 

[midwestdensies]

Love to see whats going on and your approach on things. Be well.

 

[ballbeanking]

Hey Sea, if they haven't cracked after that much time they probably won't. I hate those peat pucks, waste of money in my opinion, as are most seed starting plugs. Good mellow soil works the best, you don't need anything fancy. Try the method I outlined earlier next season, I promise you'll have 'em up and cracking in less than a week.

Got all my pots finished today and filled them up with soil as well as transplanted all the ladies. This should be an interesting experiment - I know plants grow a good amount of roots during flowering, but how much has been a subject of much debate. I am very curious to see how big a root ball I end up with after transplanting from a 5 gallon to a 30 gallon pot right at the beginning of flower. I'm pretty confident they will fill out the space but I've been wrong before.

Attached are some pics of the home made 'smart pots.' They are built out of 3' tall 4" x 2" econo-fencing, goper wire, bailing wire, and landscaping fabric. To make the pots, we cut the econo-fencing to the desired length (in this case we cut in 78" sections to give us a 30 gallon pot), then folded it in half. The two ends are wired together which gives us a cylinder that is about 2' in diameter and 18" tall. Folding the 3' fence in half creates some 'tabs' of wire along one edge, which will be our bottom. The gopher wire is then threaded over the 'tab's, folded around the cylinder, and then attached in 8 places with a piece of bailing wire. The tabs are bend inward to form a little lip along the inside of the bottom. This gives us our frame. Next a 7' section of landscape fabric is cut out and draped over the edge of the pot to give us our wall. More bailing wire is used to secure it in place. A 3' x 3' square of landscape fabric is placed in the bottom of the pot to give it a bottom (this can be omitted if you don't plant on ever moving the pot). When the pot is filled the soil presses the fabric against the wire frame holding it in place. Total cost for a 30 gallon was $7 each. They do take a good amount of time to assemble however. They aren't pretty but they are about half the cost of a store bought pot and the wire frame will last for years.

The pots were filled with our soil mix which consisted of the base soil and compost I purchased earlier in the year, Mykos, Bokashi, Azomite, Calphos, Bone meal, and seaweed powder. I was hoping to save the smart pots, but the roots had started to grow thru the bottom so I had to cut them out. Never, ever plant smart pots directly in the ground - the claim from the companies that you can do so is total BS. Always remove the smart pot before transplanting. Roots will grow through them eventually when you plant like this, but they will SEVERELY retard the roots from spreading out into the surrounding soil. The same goes with those crappy manure pots - anything strong enough to work as a pot will create a barrier for the roots and slow their growth. If you want a container that can be planted directly into the ground Google 'soil blocking.'

Final shot is of the transplanted ladies. Looking much more happy now that they are in f resh new soil and have more space to grow. A triangular spacing method was used to maximize our canopy space. This is one of the many helpful bio-intensive techniques I learned from Jonh Jeavons books. If you are into organic and growing more than just cannabis I highly recommend his books.

Nice blaze! ! I'm new and was going to post and see if anyone had done this...

 

[Blaze]

It's amazing how many roots plants will continue to put out during flower. You can definitely transplant and then flip them to 12/12 immediately if you need to.