Blazing Oaks 2016

[baba G]

I grew up going to the usal feed with my parents and all of there friends from Laytonville. The enchanted forest is insane. My parents old hippie crew was pretty awesome. There was an annual naked chair dance around the fire if that gives you an idea :). The big city of Westport is my home town!!

Love usal beach and westport is a nice spot! Been a min since ive been.on branscomb road...
Lets see how far you guys go back, remember the hippies going to "the hole in the wall" in leggett area...

 

[Blaze]

Thanks for the kind words sox, and glad you dropped by baba G. Hope everyone had a good 4-20 today. I guess I'm getting old and lame now, I spent most of it working and then had dinner with my Grandma and some other family, haha. The season is progressing smoothly so far, and the outdoor clones should be ready to transplant into the transition greenhouse within a few days. I am going to try air-pots this year instead of smart pots or standard nursery pots. Both the smart pots and the nursery pots have, in my opinion, some serious disadvantages, so I am curious to see how the air pots stack up.

Everything in the mother room got sprayed with seaweed and Stylet oil today as a general purpose preventative for bugs and fungus. Everything got a soil drench of Gnatrol and Regalia over the last few days too. I spent some of the morning dusting the light dep greenhouse and the whole area around it with diatomaceous earth, as well as the area around my mother room, plus around all of my fruit trees and perennial herbs. It was cold, clam, and overcast, and I wasn't seeing any bees or butterflies so I figured it was a good time to apply it.

Anyway, I'm beat, time for some bong hits of OG and a glass of scotch.

 

[baba G]

I didnt go to any 420 fest for first yr...was working from sunup to sundown and asleep by 10pm...lol

Have a great day blaze, gotta enjoy the great outdoors before its 100 degrees out there!

 

[maya42]

I didn't do anything either other than smoke a fatty. Just mixed a 600 gallon pot and a couple 200s. Work work work is the farmers way

 

[Seamaiden]

Good work, @Blaze !!

 

[Little Hill]

Lookin' good.

- your friend in trinity

 

[cemchris]

Amazing pictures as always in here everybody!

 

[Blaze]

Lookin' good.

- your friend in trinity

Good to see you on the forums again :)

Looking forward to that SFV back-cross, it was one of the most potent strains I've tested to far.

 

[Blaze]

All the clones for our outdoor got transplanted up into 5 gallon air pots yesterday and was moved into the little polycarbonate transition greenhouse. So far I am liking the air pots, they are very sturdy, but they did take quite a while to put together. Shipping issues with Hydro Planet delayed us by about 6 days though, I am never ordering from them again. Their customer service is awful and their shipping department is beyond incompetent. I had to call them 4 times before our order actually made it on the FedEx truck and was sent out, and arrived almost a week late as a result. Even after all that they still sent me the wrong amount of pots, and charged me the wrong amount.

The light dep greenhouse is finally starting to take off and veg nicely, all this cold weather the last two weeks has made progress slow. It is supposed to warm up here starting this weekend so that should help. It is planted mostly with Archive OG, OG Twist, Super Silver Haze, and Urkle Wreck. I am also trying out a few testers of Watermelon Rancher, plus some select cuts of Wifi-43, 3-Queens, and Sour Diesel x Urkle from CSI: Humboldt.

I even had time to plant a few of my herb beds with new starts, and set up a new 4x8 raised bed planted with Lovage, English Lavender, and Lemon Verbena. I've got over 20 perennial herbs growing now. About the only spices and seasonings I ever buy now are the exotic ones that can't grow here, like cinnamon and nutmeg. I love to cook so having the huge selection of fresh herbs right outside my kitchen door has been awesome. Though the weeds have been insane this year, you can't even tell everything got mowed and weed wacked less than two weeks ago.

The newest addition to the ranch arrived earlier in the week: five Pilgrim Geese! They are an American Heritage breed that has become critically endangered. They are supposed to one of the more calm and friendly breeds of geese, as well as excellent foragers and parents, with excellent flavored meat. I am hoping we good a good breeding pair or trio so I can start producing our own roasting geese every spring.

 

[GrowingGreen]

All the clones for our outdoor got transplanted up into 5 gallon air pots yesterday and was moved into the little polycarbonate transition greenhouse. So far I am liking the air pots, they are very sturdy, but they did take quite a while to put together. Shipping issues with Hydro Planet delayed us by about 6 days though, I am never ordering from them again. Their customer service is awful and their shipping department is beyond incompetent. I had to call them 4 times before our order actually made it on the FedEx truck and was sent out, and arrived almost a week late as a result. Even after all that they still sent me the wrong amount of pots, and charged me the wrong amount.

The light dep greenhouse is finally starting to take off and veg nicely, all this cold weather the last two weeks has made progress slow. It is supposed to warm up here starting this weekend so that should help. It is planted mostly with Archive OG, OG Twist, Super Silver Haze, and Urkle Wreck. I am also trying out a few testers of Watermelon Rancher, plus some select cuts of Wifi-43, 3-Queens, and Sour Diesel x Urkle from CSI: Humboldt.

I even had time to plant a few of my herb beds with new starts, and set up a new 4x8 raised bed planted with Lovage, English Lavender, and Lemon Verbena. I've got over 20 perennial herbs growing now. About the only spices and seasonings I ever buy now are the exotic ones that can't grow here, like cinnamon and nutmeg. I love to cook so having the huge selection of fresh herbs right outside my kitchen door has been awesome. Though the weeds have been insane this year, you can't even tell everything got mowed and weed wacked less than two weeks ago.

The newest addition to the ranch arrived earlier in the week: five Pilgrim Geese! They are an American Heritage breed that has become critically endangered. They are supposed to one of the more calm and friendly breeds of geese, as well as excellent foragers and parents, with excellent flavored meat. I am hoping we good a good breeding pair or trio so I can start producing our own roasting geese every spring.

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Very nice i love it got your hands full w them ducklings

 

[Blaze]

Spent Saturday out at the 20th Annual Legendary Boonville Beer Festival with a bunch of friends. Over 70 breweries were there this year, with 300-400 different beers on tap to try. It has become one of the more popular beef festivals on the West coast now, people come from all over the country for it. There was even a brewery from Iceland this year. We had a blast!

 

[baba G]

Spent Saturday out at the 20th Annual Legendary Boonville Beer Festival with a bunch of friends. Over 70 breweries were there this year, with 300-400 different beers on tap to try. It has become one of the more popular beef festivals on the West coast now, people come from all over the country for it. There was even a brewery from Iceland this year. We had a blast!

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Sounds like it has grown a lot and become a destination!
All this mendo nostalgia has me remebering the keggers at Montgomery woods!!

 

[Blaze]

Since I started going when I first turned 21 it has at least doubled in size. Montgomery is a beautiful spot - they usually have a shuttle from the beer festival to the campground now so people don't have to drive back drunk.

 

[Underthesun]

This all looks great, pulling up a chair!

 

[Blaze]

Thanks!

Some more updates to Mendocino's local ordinance (or lack thereof):

http://www.willitsnews.com/general-news/20160420/delays-in-cannabis-cultivation-permit-program

So originally the Board of Stupidvisors said they would have a revised medical program in place my March. Then they said by June. Now they are saying by October, and that is if it is fast tracked and there are no delays. So it is HIGHLY unlikely the October deadline will be met. They have had 11 months to work on this and have done literally nothing. The MRSA act the state passed already spelled out most of the guidelines and several other counties have already implemented their local ordinances so it is not like they have to re-invent the wheel for this.

This is going to put Mendocino at least 1-2 years behind Humboldt, Trinity, Sonoma and most of the other northern coastal counties for commercial medical production, which is going to have a huge negative economic impact on our area. If I had to put money on it I would bet we won't have any sort of functional program here until after 2018 when the state laws will finally force compliance. Not to mention since there are no guidelines in place at all this year at all, it makes compliance impossible. So looks like it will be business as usual this year - everyone in the county will be growing illegally, there is zero reason or motivation to try to comply with any guidelines or regulations (like the water board), and the Sheriff will continue to bust anyone they want regardless of plant numbers, compliance, etc. The stupidity and laziness of our local government never ceases to amaze me - and yet these morons keep getting re-elected because growers don't vote.

 

[MendoGiantZ]

Does that jar of OG TWIST say 29% percent THC??? I was just reading some articles on the struggles of Mendocino counties laws the other night and I think your right about it not changing anything until they are forced to... The struggle is real with Mendo! I don't know why they aren't more motivated to get some clear laws going.... I guess they are happy with everyone doing 25 and they think that its plenty and any more then that is greedy and they should have the right to come cut them down...

 

[royfree2grow]

Not much left to say... once again, looks like an epic grow! goodluck brother!

 

[Blaze]

Does that jar of OG TWIST say 29% percent THC??? I was just reading some articles on the struggles of Mendocino counties laws the other night and I think your right about it not changing anything until they are forced to... The struggle is real with Mendo! I don't know why they aren't more motivated to get some clear laws going.... I guess they are happy with everyone doing 25 and they think that its plenty and any more then that is greedy and they should have the right to come cut them down...

Yup, 29.87% THC plus 0.08 CBD for a total of 29.96% active cannabinoids. The terpenes came it at a decent 2.4% as well. It's the most potent strain I have in my line up at this point. Second most potent has been the SFV OG Back-cross seeds I got from Little Hill at 27.15%, and the third most potent is a select pheno of my Guava Kush x Heart Attack Kush cross at 26.47%, which also had the highest terpene levels at a whopping 6.1%. Second highest terpenes have been my Watermleon Rancher at 4.2%, and Mendo Pineapple can hit as high as 4% on terpenes.

I do not understand why they are so unmotivated to get some clear guidelines going in this county either. Its a billion dollar industry in Mendocino alone that is totally untapped, and we are one of the most broke counties in the entire state. Most farmers I've talked to would be willing to sign up for a program to comply with regulations and pay taxes, so long as they are reasonable and realistic. There are a lot of people who have lived and grown here for up to 3 generations and would love to see it become a legitimate industry. The county officials seem to be pretty determined this never happens though.

The thing is that even doing 25 plants offers no protection from the sheriff at all - I personally know people that have had 6 plant gardens chopped. So why would anyone sign up for a program that puts your name on a list that the sheriff can see, plus pay fees and taxes to the water board, state, and county, all of which offers zero legal protection, only to risk having your garden chopped by law enforcement? It is downright insane to think anyone would sign up for something like that.

 

[MendoGiantZ]

Yeah its a bummer.. So many of my friends up there would be completely willing to comply with the laws if protection was offered and it was "fair". I just don't get it.. There must be a reason why they don't want things to change.. The amount of money people in the county make is absolutely insane.. Is the county making that same kind of money by busting people and keeping the money.. Or by having people pay them to get out of trouble.. You pay so much per pound and per plant that you get caught with and you can basically buy your way out of trouble.. It seems to me that legalizing it and making the laws more relaxed and collect taxes on it must heavily out weigh the money they seize or any fees that get paid by the people that get in trouble.. @Blaze - What would you make the regulations in Mendo if you had the choice and final decision???? I was thinking of ideas and its pretty hard because of all the different zoning.. Would you just allow it on rural properties.. What about indoor in the city... Or would you allow a certain amount of large farms in each area... It might get crazy with some of these massive ranches.. Someone could grow so much on a 40 acre parcel... My friends in humbolt said they paid a large fee and are allowed to grow about a 1/4 or a 1/2 acre of greenhouses... (can't remember which one) That sounds pretty fair-- maybe for every 20 acres you can do a 1/2 acre of greenhouses or full sun plants.. I don't know- its tricky

 

[Blaze]

Yeah its a bummer.. So many of my friends up there would be completely willing to comply with the laws if protection was offered and it was "fair". I just don't get it.. There must be a reason why they don't want things to change.. The amount of money people in the county make is absolutely insane.. Is the county making that same kind of money by busting people and keeping the money.. Or by having people pay them to get out of trouble.. You pay so much per pound and per plant that you get caught with and you can basically buy your way out of trouble.. It seems to me that legalizing it and making the laws more relaxed and collect taxes on it must heavily out weigh the money they seize or any fees that get paid by the people that get in trouble.. @Blaze - What would you make the regulations in Mendo if you had the choice and final decision???? I was thinking of ideas and its pretty hard because of all the different zoning.. Would you just allow it on rural properties.. What about indoor in the city... Or would you allow a certain amount of large farms in each area... It might get crazy with some of these massive ranches.. Someone could grow so much on a 40 acre parcel... My friends in humbolt said they paid a large fee and are allowed to grow about a 1/4 or a 1/2 acre of greenhouses... (can't remember which one) That sounds pretty fair-- maybe for every 20 acres you can do a 1/2 acre of greenhouses or full sun plants.. I don't know- its tricky

I think something like what Humboldt passed would be reasonable. Their guidelines are for the most part in line with what the state passed too, which makes things simpler. There are different licenses for different types of cultivations (indoor, outdoor, greenhouse) and different tiers for how large the garden is. The larger the grow, the higher the tier, the more restrictions and fees you have to deal with. There are limits on how many permits can be held by each individual and on each property to prevent a couple of large operations from planting like 20 acres and putting all their neighbors out of business. The tier 2 cultivation for outdoor and greenhouse is 10,000 square feet, or about a quarter acre, which I think is reasonable. I believe Humboldt will be allowing larger tier 3 grows of up to a few acres but they are much more heavily regulated so I don't think we will be seeing too many of them.

The MRRSA act already outlined all this stuff very clearly, that is why it is so frustrating to see our local officials fumbling everything so badly - the heavy lifting has already been done for them. Other than the issue of personal cultivation and concerns over restrictions on distributors I think that MRRSA was actually a well thought act for the most part.

It should be regulated and overseen by the Agriculture department, just like any other crop, NOT the Sheriff department. Mendocino really needs to get away from this whole plant count nonsense too, and go with square footage. The MMRSA act regulates everything by square footage, as does the water board. Plant counts are a totally nonsensical and idiotic way to regulate production - a single plant can produce anywhere from 1 oz to 15 lbs. Canopy space instead of plant counts also makes enforcement and regulation far more simple and easy - so long as you are within your canopy area, numbers don't matter. Not to mention plant counts push people to have to grow smaller numbers of larger plants, which is very inefficient. Bigger plants require more labor, more water, more fertilizer and soil, and usually of lower quality, all of which put the farmer at a competitive disadvantage.

Zoning is another big concern, depending on how they implement that it could screw over a lot of people. I agree that commercial production should not be in residential neighborhoods (I can't run cattle in town for example), but allowing the smaller tiers of cultivation for Rural Residential and smaller parcels, with the larger tiers on larger properties with Timer Production, Agriculture, Rangeland, and Commercial zoning is reasonable. If they end up restricting it to just the type 1A ag zoning like they did in Lake County, 99% of the growers in this county will be locked out right off the bat since the only areas that have that are the vineyards down on the valley floors.

They really need to address the aspect of nursery production too. That was one of the other really stupid reason to have a plant count - it makes compliance almost impossible because you ALWAYS need to start more seeds and clones to account for males, duds, and casualties to pests. Would you ever see a tomato farmer germinate *exactly* how many seeds they would need to plant their acreage? Of course not - they would go out of business because they wouldn't have enough plants. Also how is a nursery supposed to stay in business if they can only propagate 25 plants (which is how it is right now)? Poorly thought our restrictions like that just force people to cheat or to just ignore the guidelines out right, which has the exact opposite effect of what regulations and guidelines are supposed to achieve in the first place.