SmithsJunk
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Very nice.I've been reading a lot of threads on here for some time now. They've all been very informative. Thank you for your collective wisdom. I haven't had a question yet that hasn't been answered with a quick search.
This is the first year I've grown my own plants, though I've helped with others grows previously. I live in the inland mountains of Nor Cal, elevation 2500ft, arid conditions, and a 3 month summer 85 to 105 degree average. I have an outdoor grow of six plants under 40% shade cloth, three Sativa leaning Orange Creamsicle and three Royal Nepal Kush in 100 gal smart pots. I started with a recipe of four soils and expanded clay pellets that I found in a Jeorge Cervantes YouTube video and fertilize every couple of weeks with 7-3-1 bat guano and humic acids as needed. (Thinking about buying a 5 gal tea brewing kit put together by these Humboldt guys. With hip replacements it's gard to get down under the plants to mix in the guano.)
I've helped on big grows with guys using heavy fertizer saturation. Even though the plants grow big and produce large powerful buds the flavor is gone. I really believe that flavor is part of the therapeutic experience. So, I decided to grow my own top shelf nugs with a minimalistic approach. After almost 60 days my plants are almost as big and much healtier and sturdier than their over fertilized counterparts growing beside them (my smallest Creamsicle was a little light starved by an oak I didn't account for when I set up the pots but now it's grabbing better light and starting to catch up with the others. It's still stacked with pre-flowers though).
I'm really looking foward to fall. My Creamsicles are already stacked with pre-flowers giving me an idea of what their colas are going to look like in September-October. So stoked! This is such a fulfilling experience.
Thank you all again. My plants would not be so pretty if it weren't for this forum.
The previous pic was from Sat, this is this morning. I'm going to have to bend them before this weekend or they'll be pushing the shade screen.
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Thanks for sharing. I am your " neighbor" at 3000 ft el Dorado forest grow. I am wondering why the shade cloth? That may attribute to your slightly early flower onset, maybe not, but why not let those girls get full sun?
I also like your minimalist approach seeking the plants natural terpene flavors. Last year we grew natural organic and complete pesticide free and we had great success. This year I am letting them grow with almost no fertilizing. I won't get the volume like last year but it will be interesting to see how the taste is effected.
Good luck with your grow.
Welcome to the Farm and happy gardening to ya! Beautiful lookin girls, glad you caught the mites early! I'll be watching this one.
Thanks for explaining, makes sense. I look forward to following your well thought out grow.Nice to meet you neighbor.
The shade cloth serves two purposes, shade obviously, so my girls won't get so stressed at over 80F and can put their energy into growth instead of cooling down, and even more importantly, to protect the flowers against hail. Last year I had several friends lose whole crops to hail so I decided to take a gamble with their growth rate and use the shade cloth. It seems to have paid off. While the plants growing in full sun were showing stress even on only moderately warm days, my girls continued their growth without pause, showing zero signs of stress. (I'll show a photo, 1st pic)
Though the region I live in isn't known to be hot, my specific area has it's own microclimate. It is almost always hotter by 5-10 degrees than the surrounding 2750-3000 ft.
I seriously doubt it's the shade cloth causing premature flowering. Only my Creamsicle have bud. The three Kush also growing under the shade cloth are just barely showing their very first hairs. The Kush in full sun are showing the same few hairs. You may be right, but I'm leaning heavily towards autoflowering. There is one that was light starved, and other than being shorter, it is acting no differently than it's big sisters. Even has the same amount of bud but stacked more densely. If the Orange Creamsicles live up to their rep then early flowering and long flower cycle would account for their reported super heavy yields. If this is true, then it won't be the last time I grow this strain.
As far as growth goes under the shade cloth, five of the six plants are over 5ft tall at 9 weeks and are looking to reach 7ft withing the next two. (2nd pic, left Orange Creamsicle, right Royal Nepal Kush, both roughly 5.5ft) I am very, very, happy with those results. When I have more space I'd like to do a side-by-side of the same strains to find out for sure. The girls that were grown in the exact same spot last year were in full sun and were harvested at 5ft. That's no proof though. I didn't grow them so they were watered and fed differently.
When you get right down to it, at this altitude and climate, I believe shade cloth may be a matter of preference only, the differences being negligable. (Except for protection from hail) I will use it again.
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Thanks for explaining, makes sense. I look forward to following your well thought out grow.
nice looking outdoor you got there!Nice to meet you neighbor.
The shade cloth serves two purposes, shade obviously, so my girls won't get so stressed at over 80F and can put their energy into growth instead of cooling down, and even more importantly, to protect the flowers against hail. Last year I had several friends lose whole crops to hail so I decided to take a gamble with their growth rate and use the shade cloth. It seems to have paid off. While the plants growing in full sun were showing stress even on only moderately warm days, my girls continued their growth without pause, showing zero signs of stress. (I'll show a photo, 1st pic)
Though the region I live in isn't known to be hot, my specific area has it's own microclimate. It is almost always hotter by 5-10 degrees than the surrounding 2750-3000 ft.
I seriously doubt it's the shade cloth causing premature flowering. Only my Creamsicle have bud. The three Kush also growing under the shade cloth are just barely showing their very first hairs. The Kush in full sun are showing the same few hairs. You may be right, but I'm leaning heavily towards autoflowering. There is one that was light starved, and other than being shorter, it is acting no differently than it's big sisters. Even has the same amount of bud but stacked more densely. If the Orange Creamsicles live up to their rep then early flowering and long flower cycle would account for their reported super heavy yields. If this is true, then it won't be the last time I grow this strain.
As far as growth goes under the shade cloth, five of the six plants are over 5ft tall at 9 weeks and are looking to reach 7ft withing the next two. (2nd pic, left Orange Creamsicle, right Royal Nepal Kush, both roughly 5.5ft) I am very, very, happy with those results. When I have more space I'd like to do a side-by-side of the same strains to find out for sure. The girls that were grown in the exact same spot last year were in full sun and were harvested at 5ft. That's no proof though. I didn't grow them so they were watered and fed differently.
When you get right down to it, at this altitude and climate, I believe shade cloth may be a matter of preference only, the differences being negligable. (Except for protection from hail) I will use it again.
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