OMG......I am ridiculously jealous of some of the beautiful plants in this thread !
My first grow.....as is always the case, I went "go big or go home"......I have 4 grows going (4 generations at once).....growing outdoors in Michigan. Terrible weather (always sketchy here, but I never realized the effects such weather had on plants until now). I live in the woods with 5 flower gardens. BUGS GALORE!
Currently battling a consecutive array of crap......powdery mildew and white flies (same auto plant 2 weeks from hopeful harvest) yellow sticky tape is catching an amazing array of fliers now, aphids, nutrient deficiencies......I have hella hard water (tons of calcium) having nutrient lockout on my only photo which is also revegging. It was a gift clone put out too early & flowered...now back into veg stage.....I ended up having to transplant it.
The entire 5 gallon pot was CAKED with calcium ! PH of soil has been a real b*tch to get down. Now luckily under 7.0 and I think it's absorbing nutes now? she looks better, I really want her to thrive. She is SO sticky. The flowers she had were AMAZING.....now they are getting lackluster as new growth is the norm instead
I am harvesting my autos as I go....and I did pluck a few choice flowers from the photo and they're drying now along with the buds from my first auto plant harvested. They had cloudy trikes and some amber even.....she was only 5 weeks into flower, so I'm surprised. Maybe all this heat? no idea. But......I refused to lose it all. So dank & brilliant smelling.
I just bought an RO system, hooking up today. This big girl is now happier in her 10 gallon pot. Unfortunately it's plastic. I drilled holes in various spots on the sides to help dissipate the extreme heat....hope it works a bit.
She is still strong......a real trouper. Catapillar bites on so many leaves.....but at least I get to do the neem routine since the flowers are now throwing out one fingered leaves instead of gorgeous white pistils. Sigh. Been foliar feeding her also.....her root system is still bad from that initial tiny 5 gallon cloth pot she filled almost instantly. Totally FULL of roots when I transplanted. I was insanely careful when I did it. I noticed brand new growth the following morning with zero wilt or issues. (praying).
Unfortunately though.....I didn't realize she was back in veg and surrounded her with "flower doo". Been supplementing veg nutes via foliar spray hoping to get her color back in check. She's greening up from a very pale green. She was so hungry
Thus far.......I have battled fungus gnats, caterpillars, white flies, thrips, powdery mildew, botrytis, nute deficiencies, torrential rain, crazy high humidity, intense heat (90* for almost a week---twice), all the while keeping 4 stages of plant growth in check.
I feel SCHIZOPHRENIC !
Lmao.....thank goodness I work from home. I can keep tabs on all these issues regularly. If I didn't work from home, I would have no plants alive by now.
I do love Michigan......but wowzers......I may end up an "indoor grower" after all this?
I cannot say how impressed I am at you guys growing HUGE gardens outside organically.....this is no small feat. I spent 30 minutes picking white fly maggots off a single auto flower this morning hoping to hell I can keep the buds free. What if I had dozens of plants???? how can this be done? no idea !
Prevention, I guess. I will never be so lackluster in that area again. My new tact will be TREAT IT FIRST. I had fried a few plants using Dawn earlier in the season and became scared of using preventative measures. Never again. Just be smart about it instead. Bastile soap (or something with no bleach or anti-bacterials) So so so much easier to prevent than to try and treat later. Live & learn !
Not ready to part ways with my local pot seller yet........but? that's STILL the plan !
