Homesteader's Diary

[Homesteader]

So I’m going to be restarting my rooms this week and figured I’ll try my hand at a diary for THCfarmer while I am at it and see how it goes.
My family has a small farm here in Maine where we grow much of our food for the freezer but also sell cut flowers and fruit & nut trees as well as a few others. Horticulture and soil science is a big part of my life but so is raising animals, so you may see some of them as well. I normally only grow cannabis inside these days, but for this year I decided that I will grow a few landrace monsters outdoors as well (Probably two Mazar-i-Sharif strains and two Nepalese strains) I have a feeling that they will inevitably become seeded from drifted pollen that my neighbors grow like in the past but oh well.

Strains
I have always loved growing landrace strains and the search for a different high is a big part of that but for medicine I prefer having hybrids available and using the landrace herb for special occasions.

I grow a bit differently than many others but I’m not here to argue about which is best. I think I have learned my lesson on that by now. If it works for me and it is economical then it is best for me.


Clones for this round are:
Critical Kush
GG4
Trainwreck Arcata cut

Landrace selections:
Malawi Gold Landrace
Nepalese Landrace (1 female will go outdoors)
Mazar i Sharif Landrace (1 female will go outdoors)

Soil
I make most of my on soil from scratch
I mix the bottom half of my bags with recycled soil along with leaves and sticks that I raked up from the forest and then top it off with freshly amended soil. For nutrients, I use gypsum, soybean meal and bone char and mix it with Coco, peat and sand.

Lights
I make my own lights but have learned to avoid arguing about them. I use meanwell drivers and Osram SSLs (in 3000k and 660nm)

 

[Hidd3nGr0w]

Really interested in seeing the Land race stuff. I hope I am still around in 6 months when the magic starts to happen. Curious to see how they do in a different hemisphere compared to their place of origin.

 

[MIMedGrower]

Im in to watch. :-)

 

[Cattapilla]

Let the good times roll!

 

[Perception]

Soil
I make most of my on soil from scratch
I mix the bottom half of my bags with recycled soil along with leaves and sticks that I raked up from the forest and then top it off with freshly amended soil. For nutrients, I use gypsum, soybean meal and bone char and mix it with Coco, peat and sand.

You ever have problems with pests or PM? On a couple of my first grows, I brought outdoor materials in, and introduced just about every pest and pathogen you could think of. I’m emotionally scarred, haha.

How do you mitigate this?

 

[Homesteader]

Was sick with the flu and fell behind with the room the past few weeks, but thankfully am feeling better now and can get this room going in full swing as well as this diary. Most of the seeds popped out of the soil but several of the Nepalese seedlings came out stunted and withered away for some reason a few days later.

My camera is awful and has a bunch of cracks in the glass but it will have to do. The lights are hitting about 400-500 umol/sq on most of the projected canopy. The clones will be allowed to fill in for about three more weeks and then I will switch over this room to flower after taking some cuttings. I want to build a few more lights for my other room over the next few months but this room is pretty much set.

@Perception- I can understand your fear and remember reading some of your posts with the headaches you had with mites. My biggest advice to anyone growing with soil like this would be to learn the life cycles of the beasts you are trying to control. I'll try to go over it in the future but a lot of it is timing when making the mix and disrupting the cycle as much as possible before putting plants in.

Gnats always seem to come from fresh peat. Soaking the peat for a few days then as the larvae emerge, kill them off with either cold or heat.
Thrips will most likely come in native soil and are the biggest pest to me and require the most work.


The genetic variations of the seedlings from Nepal, Afghan and Central Africa were fairly apparent. All of the Mazar-i-Sharif sprouted with a grey/purple color in the leaf but the color was gone after a few hours. The Malawi thin leaf and the curl of the Nepalese
Nepalese

Malawi

Mazar-i-Sharif

 

[Beachwalker]

Glad you're feeling better!

 

[Hidd3nGr0w]

I appreciate you showing the seedlings and allowing us to check out the variation. I try to check out the things you notated, but my eyes are not what they used to be. Thanks for the documentation.

 

[Homesteader]

The clones were topped and ready to flip once they fill in. I use thick copper wire (10 guage) to hold a few of the branches until they reach the string.

The GG4 on the left, Trainwreck in the center and Critical Kush on the right.

The Nepalese strain hitting a few nodes while the radish and soybean are pushing up along with garlic I planted earlier.

 

[Homesteader]

Building a small light because I had a few heatsinks and drivers kicking around and figured I would add it here in the diary. Ill build a bigger light in the next week when my other parts come in but the idea will be basically the same. These heatsinks are 24"x4" but moving over to a 12" by 16" heatsink with the new builds.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

 

[Terpz719]

Great landrace strains. Pulling up a chair. Good luck!

 

[Homesteader]

Probably going to flip over to flower these plants in the next few days. The trainwreck in the center is clearly ready to go but Ill let the other catch up a few more days.
Ill also keep most of the landraces in the other room and flower these hybrids with one of each of the landraces (Malawi, Mazar and Nepalese) and monitor them to ensure they are female and swap out any males.

Had a few minutes this morning since its so dark when I wake now, to work on these lights.

I cleaned the backs of the boards with alcohol and attached the double sided thermal adhesive tape, then cut around the board using a razor blade to trim the excess off.
The heat sinks were not brand new on these, so I sanded them down with a palm sander and finished off with a #1000 grit steel wool and then cleaned it up with alcohol.
The HLG-185 drivers I am using on this can handle three of these boards, so I need 6 for this light.

My new parts came in Saturday so Ill be working on both this week and will put up some more posts on it when I have time.

 

[Homesteader]

Switching one room to flower. The Critical Kush is lagging behind a bit but it will catch up.

I anticipate A LOT of stretch from the Nepalese and maybe the Malawi too, but I am guessing 4x on the Nepalese but could be more. I guess time will tell.

Been dealing with some fungus gnats from the pro mix I top dressed with so I brought in the wife's vacuum to get as many as I could. My shop vac is too powerful. They often hang out in one spot behind the grow bags where the air isn't hitting them, so I can usually get quite a bit that way. I will also use some BTi to get any larvae in the soil.

I forgot to mention that I circulate the air and Co2 between the two rooms which is why the duct work is at the bottom of the bag. CO2 is set around 800. Temps are between 77-82 most of the time and humidity at 50-60% pretty constantly. The volume of soil I use helps with that.


The Malawi

The Mazar-i-Sharif

The Nepalese

 

[Hidd3nGr0w]

Switching one room to flower. The Critical Kush is lagging behind a bit but it will catch up.

I anticipate A LOT of stretch from the Nepalese and maybe the Malawi too, but I am guessing 4x on the Nepalese but could be more. I guess time will tell.

Been dealing with some fungus gnats from the pro mix I top dressed with so I brought in the wife's vacuum to get as many as I could. My shop vac is too powerful. They often hang out in one spot behind the grow bags where the air isn't hitting them, so I can usually get quite a bit that way. I will also use some BTi to get any larvae in the soil.

I forgot to mention that I circulate the air and Co2 between the two rooms which is why the duct work is at the bottom of the bag. CO2 is set around 800. Temps are between 77-82 most of the time and humidity at 50-60% pretty constantly. The volume of soil I use helps with that.


The Malawi
View attachment 949381


The Mazar-i-Sharif
View attachment 949379

The Nepalese
View attachment 949380

Are you growing spring onions with your smoke? No way

 

[Homesteader]

I have grown onions but these are hard neck garlic. I have some wala wala onions seeds started in my other room though.
Also strawberry, radish, basil, ginger, cilantro and dill in the grow bags. I feed my rabbits with it thru the winter

Ginger is a real good one to grow under the canopy.

 

[Homesteader]

Got a little work done today on some lights.
Cut some angle bar with the chop saw and drilled some holes with the drill press, tapped a few with the drill.
I need to go back and redrill the angle bar holes for the wires to go through and then attach the angle bar on the 12" side.

 

[Homesteader]

Attached the 12" end bar. Now time to make some hangers for the corners and make something to attach the driver to.

 

[Homesteader]

A few photos from this grow. I haven't had much time lately but they are coming along nonetheless. Two females from the landraces so far and a few males have been pulled. The females so far are nice fast growing Mazar and a Nepalese are showing female now. The Nepalese have giant fan leaves. The Malawi are a bit slower to show it seems and the tips are twisting slightly but overall they seem healthy.

The GG4

The Mazar-i-Sharif

The Nepalese

The Malawi

 

[Homesteader]

A closer look at the Nepalese

 

[Hidd3nGr0w]

Everything looking great! That Mazar looks beast mode.