Calling all experts!

[HeadGrow]

I love the Gorge. It is such an amazing concert venue. To be on that hill when the sun sets and a great band is rocking out is just something out of this world. I'm jealous you got to see Cage the Elephant. I love those guys.

Yeah canopy management is going to be a key component on a large crop. You don't want to have to deal with 50 lbs of stupid little bottom buds. Think of it like the plant has a limited amount of energy, based on it's roots size. Taking smaller lower buds that would be under the ideal penetration distance of the canopy (about 18" max if under 1000's IMO, also depends on leaf structure and how much light can get past the top of the plant) and removing them will take the energy that would've been used to grow those buds and put it into the top buds. Therefore making the top buds larger but not loosing overall yield of the plant. I've done so many tests on what the right amount is to take off and it differs based on strain and stretch. I normally like to do my lollypopping around week 2 or 3, depending on how much they stretch. That is where it becomes important to understand the strain/pheno's growth cycle. And of course with new strains it's always a guess. Some plants will triple their height in the first three weeks of flower, some will only maybe stretch half the size of the plant after put into 12/12.

I'm sure you'll read all about it other places and you'll notice it comes down to an art. Everyone gets their own touch after a few years of successes and "man i wish i would've done that different".

What week are those plants that you just posted, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[inthegorge]

Yes...being with a gorge virgin when they top that hill is pretty sweet to share in that first awe inspiring view:-)

Those photos were at day 15 I believe.

 

[HeadGrow]

I know it. It still blows me away walking over that hill and i've been there 20 something times. There is nothing like that first experience of seeing the Gorge open up over that hill.

Hopefully I get to make it to at least one show this year. I hear Tom Petty is coming back. I might have to go see him for the 5th time.

You are at the perfect time to start thinning the lower bud sites off. They look good for 15 days. Keep it up! Also what is going to be your method of holding the plants up? I'm a stake guy but i know a lot of people are into nets. I like being able to move my plants at anytime during the flowering though, so nets don't work for me.

 

[inthegorge]

We have been staking but we have nets and that was our original plan. Just haven't gotten them up and I know we probably already should have already.

 

[HeadGrow]

Yeah, you might be stuck with staking at this point. The plants are probably reaching the end of their stretch period and you don't want to try and force the net over the buds. I think normally with the net approach you want the net to be the bottom of the canopy and then you trim off most stuff under the net. Idk for real though, i've never used nets. I'm sure how much lower get's removed still has to do with how much you pack the canopy.
So many choices and decisions :) Happy Growing to you

 

[Capulator]

Thank you so much burn4me:) I have read some of your posts and friendly words from you seem to be honestly given! Thank you Seamaiden...I will place the order tomorrow! You are of course absolutely right about both my partners and I would not want to have flaky "quit your job on the spot" sort of partners. The one that is my youngest daughters boyfriend talked with his boss yesterday and like everyone else we have relationships with, he was very supportive and excited about the possibilities of a "legal" business in this field but asked him to give him at least a month to fill his position. He might move to the weekend shift though and only work 3 days a week there so he could be at W.O.W. Weed 4 days a week which would help quite a bit. My other daughters boyfriend gave his notice on Thursday and he is working for 2 weeks and then will be full time with us. That will help immensely. I was not asking either of them to quit without notice, I would never do that, but it would be nice to have more resources for help. Very soon that won't be a problem though so I will just have to be patient:) I am taking off Friday and going just for the day to Sasquatch Music Festival at the Gorge Amphitheater and that will be wonderful!

I still forgot to upload some new photos but I will try to remember tomorrow. We are taking a few shots every couple of days of a few different strains in flower mode to see how they morph into their final lovely selves. Cool to see their progression! Things are coming along good.....temps are staying at reasonable levels......no bugs that we can't manage.....plants look healthy and are growing crazy fast.....so far so good! I have plants outside on table in a more protected area in the front of our building, still inside our fencing including the 400 clones I am selling to another grower and it is so great to have them outside looking like a nursery that I think I will have around 1000 out there all hardened up for growers that need clones to put right outside.

I do get to take Friday off and go to Sasquatch music fest for just the day. I have had this idea to hand out pinner joints to people over 21 with W.O.W. Weed printed on the crutch and I give them a free doobie if they like our facebook page or follow us on instagram or something like that.....? There are over 30,000 music loving, mostly Washingtonians there, and it is not illegal to posses the weed or to give it away as long as we do not have more than an oz on our person. Just try to get our name out there and have people looking for it when the retail shops open. Give out a sticker with each doobie maybe....? My youngest daughter who does modeling and her movie star looking boyfriend could be the ones giving them out. The only catch is that we cannot in anyway use our own weed to give away....rules of the LCB .....so I am not sure how good of an advertisement it would be but if I got some really good weed no one would care if it was actual W.O.W. Weed or not I guess, especially since it is so forbidden with the state. Anyway....just an idea and that would be a darned lot of doobie rolling between now and Friday! Might have to try to do it anyway though:)

How the hell would they know if it was your weed or not?

 

[Seamaiden]

@inthegorge -- I'm going to link you to a page that discusses how the best Medjool dates are farmed. It is what really helped me grasp canopy control and how it relates to achieving nice, fat buddage, because these folks who've been talking about it are spot on.

http://www.dateland.com/Tutorial.html

I love the whole digitized logging system thingamabob. :D

As for netting, I'll suggest Hortonova and wrapping it around the plants as they spread out. It's a dirty method, but it works to keep branches from splitting and hitting the floor.

I know it. It still blows me away walking over that hill and i've been there 20 something times. There is nothing like that first experience of seeing the Gorge open up over that hill.

Hopefully I get to make it to at least one show this year. I hear Tom Petty is coming back. I might have to go see him for the 5th time.

You are at the perfect time to start thinning the lower bud sites off. They look good for 15 days. Keep it up! Also what is going to be your method of holding the plants up? I'm a stake guy but i know a lot of people are into nets. I like being able to move my plants at anytime during the flowering though, so nets don't work for me.

Tom Petty? That was one of my first shows at the tender age of 14yo. My mother found my friend's cigarettes in my purse the next day and blew a gasket, smashed all my roach clips. SMASHED 'em!

 

[inthegorge]

Thanks Seamaiden for the link to the dates and I will check out Hortonova too.

I saw Tom Petty and the Black Crowes at the Gorge Amphitheater and it was such a kick ass concert:)

They could not know if it was our weed or not Cap but if they even thought there was a possibility it would raise many red flags and quite frankly after all this work I would prefer there were no flags of any kind waving about us especially with the crazy paranoid Washington Liquor Control Board:-/

So...a few more photos:)
The first load of certified organic compost delivered from 100 miles away.

Black gold to me:)

Panoramic of the flowering room early week 4

Lots of Berkeley Blues early week 4

This is a small Bubba Kush that we put into flower a week earlier than the rest of our crop in a grow tent to see how it finished out so it is in early week 5....looking pretty nice.

Another shot of the Berkeley Blues.....we have about 400 in flower, early week 4.....it is an early finisher so we bulked up on it to have lots of early product.

Motivation early week 4.

I imagine there is lots I could have done differently but I am fairly satisfied and it smells so amazing in our flowering room....so many different scents all mingled together....I can't wait for 10:30 each night to turn on the lights:)

 

[Billyboat]

Looking good in there. Do the small grow bags need daily waterings?

 

[inthegorge]

The Blue Dream were requiring daily watering but we put them in larger bags. The Berkeley Blues needs water every 2-3 days for the most part....a few need it a bit more. We have some other strains still in the smaller bags...just the smaller plants that we had hope to do SOG with. Probably do a bigger bag on those next crop though. We have 1/2 gallon, 1 gallon, 2 gallon, 3 gallon, 5 gallon and 7 gallon grow bags. Probably won't use the 1/2 gallons next run. Live and learn:-)

 

[Billyboat]

Totally understand. I switched to beds a long time ago, and that made watering a lot eAsier and uniform. With that many small containers it's easy it miss one, and then she goes dry.

Beds would be pretty easy since you already have rows and tables set up.

Cheers

 

[caregiverken]

.

Beds would be pretty easy since you already have rows and tables set up.

Cheers

I was thinking the same thing

They make "bed bags" that are pretty cool

And you can reuse the soil in beds!

 

[inthegorge]

I doubt we will do beds inside, we have all our outdoor garden for that. I understand the concept but I like the portability of a container for each plant personally. We will be experimenting with some hydro set ups in the next few weeks and that is very exciting to me.

 

[Billyboat]

I doubt we will do beds inside, we have all our outdoor garden for that. I understand the concept but I like the portability of a container for each plant personally. We will be experimenting with some hydro set ups in the next few weeks and that is very exciting to me.

I used to run small containers, then tried one 3x3 bed out....and it blew me away with root growth and plant health....try 1 bed inside in a run or two, I bet it will surprise ya. Amended Coco/clay pebble beds, I treat like hydro and they rock.

Anywho, keep up the hard work!

Cheers

 

[Smokeyjojackson]

Thanks Seamaiden for the link to the dates and I will check out Hortonova too.

I saw Tom Petty and the Black Crowes at the Gorge Amphitheater and it was such a kick ass concert:)

They could not know if it was our weed or not Cap but if they even thought there was a possibility it would raise many red flags and quite frankly after all this work I would prefer there were no flags of any kind waving about us especially with the crazy paranoid Washington Liquor Control Board:-/

So...a few more photos:)
The first load of certified organic compost delivered from 100 miles away.
View attachment 409660

View attachment 409661
Black gold to me:)

View attachment 409662
Panoramic of the flowering room early week 4

View attachment 409663
Lots of Berkeley Blues early week 4

View attachment 409664
This is a small Bubba Kush that we put into flower a week earlier than the rest of our crop in a grow tent to see how it finished out so it is in early week 5....looking pretty nice.

View attachment 409665
Another shot of the Berkeley Blues.....we have about 400 in flower, early week 4.....it is an early finisher so we bulked up on it to have lots of early product.

View attachment 409667
Motivation early week 4.

I imagine there is lots I could have done differently but I am fairly satisfied and it smells so amazing in our flowering room....so many different scents all mingled together....I can't wait for 10:30 each night to turn on the lights:)

If concerned about the liquor control board it might be a good idea to go back and edit those posts about where some of your clones came from and when you got them. Would suck to get burnt this far in.

 

[Seamaiden]

@inthegorge -- WOW!!!!!!! Those panoramic shots, WOW! You don't mess around, do you? :D

Totally understand. I switched to beds a long time ago, and that made watering a lot eAsier and uniform. With that many small containers it's easy it miss one, and then she goes dry.

Beds would be pretty easy since you already have rows and tables set up.

Cheers

I can't do beds, so I have everything (inside) in a tray that I can flood. Outside my best runs are always in the beds.

 

[inthegorge]

SJJ.....I am not in the freaking least worried about where my clones came from. The LCB made the rules knowing full well that there was no strictly legal way to acquire them.......their inspector touched upon it on my final inspection calling it the "magic period" that we could bring in our plants regardless of where they came from. I did the absolute best I could with how they put the rules into place and all of them have been in inventory for 45 days now so I have no worries about it at all:) I am advertising that we now have over 1000 healthy happy clones for sale to I502 licensed growers in over 80 different strains and we even have most strains available in hardened ready to grow outside. Maybe we can make a little money before retail shops open to help me not worry about cash flow so much:-/ There are lots of people wanting to throw money at us but any investment or loan costs so much more than just selling our product outright so I have my fingers crossed that we sell some. We have an order for 400 but still no cash has been delivered for them so they are still on the table for sale.

We do mess around a little Seamaiden but not with the plants:) Before they were budding out it was still a little scary....even though I knew it would happen.....watching every days progress is just so rewarding! One of my partners has never seen a grow operation and so for him it is just all new and amazing.....really cool to see his face every Thursday night when he comes back from his day job in Vancouver where he has been all week long and sees how much the plants have progressed each week:woot: Finishing up the outdoor garden today, having a big BBQ, and rejoicing in our combined joy with how things are going so far! Anyone in the Columbia Gorge is welcome to come by, eat some great food, raise a glass and toast the gods of sunshine to bless us this summer!

 

[burn4me]

SJJ.....I am not in the freaking least worried about where my clones came from. The LCB made the rules knowing full well that there was no strictly legal way to acquire them.......their inspector touched upon it on my final inspection calling it the "magic period" that we could bring in our plants regardless of where they came from. I did the absolute best I could with how they put the rules into place and all of them have been in inventory for 45 days now so I have no worries about it at all:) I am advertising that we now have over 1000 healthy happy clones for sale to I502 licensed growers in over 80 different strains and we even have most strains available in hardened ready to grow outside. Maybe we can make a little money before retail shops open to help me not worry about cash flow so much:-/ There are lots of people wanting to throw money at us but any investment or loan costs so much more than just selling our product outright so I have my fingers crossed that we sell some. We have an order for 400 but still no cash has been delivered for them so they are still on the table for sale.

We do mess around a little Seamaiden but not with the plants:) Before they were budding out it was still a little scary....even though I knew it would happen.....watching every days progress is just so rewarding! One of my partners has never seen a grow operation and so for him it is just all new and amazing.....really cool to see his face every Thursday night when he comes back from his day job in Vancouver where he has been all week long and sees how much the plants have progressed each week:woot: Finishing up the outdoor garden today, having a big BBQ, and rejoicing in our combined joy with how things are going so far! Anyone in the Columbia Gorge is welcome to come by, eat some great food, raise a glass and toast the gods of sunshine to bless us this summer!

thats awesome that you are having a great time with all of it. and i hope you get what you need to ease your mind and worries. truly an inspiration to us all. way to go. i love reading your updates it gives hope

 

[Cartman]

This is amazing. Read this thread from day one and can't believe what you have done......GREAT JOB AND KEEP POSTING !

 

[Cartman]

Oh ....that's a shit loads of buds to nip....hope you have a crew !