Lets see your 2020 Outdoor Plants!

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wesk

wesk

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How do you gromies handle pests for your big grows? I seem to be fighting bouts with aphids and I'm just playing with one plant at a time? How do you spot them? I seem to see them after I take a picture while inspecting the photos. Hard to see them with my tired eyes.

Well, tired eyes exist everywhere. I work with people with bionic eyes who can see aphids just walking by a plant. So I lead with those dudes and dudettes. With many dozens of plants in a greenhouse, aphids and mites and fungus amungus are an even bigger problem than they are outside (at home) where beneficial insects like ladybugs and lacewings can and do help keep bad bugs like aphids under control, more or less. You know that there are as many answers to your question as there are growers, so take this for what it’s worth. Essentially, we’ve found that prevention is the best way to deal with pests, especially in the greenhouse (we don’t generally have bug issues outside because we have a healthy, reproductive population of good bugs on our farm',). Start with healthy, vigorous plants (with happy roots) and be as proactive about pests (and disease) and pest and disease management as you feel comfortable being...easy to be extreme about what constitutes acceptable, so this “comfort level” will vary quite a bit.

Our IPM (integrated pest management) monitoring Is critical to growing healthy plants (monitoring = looking closely everyday at our plants; we need to know when bad bugs are present, which flavor they are, and in what numbers we’re seeing them...and we need to know sooner rather than later...it’s also good to know what our good bug population is). We try to keep a healthy population of beneficial insects going in the greenhouse such as we might see outside (ideally, self reproducing, but this isn’t easy and we grow weed, not predator bugs). Monitoring helps us know when and what we should be releasing.

Hard to know perfectly what the best timing is for proactive releases of predator bugs, and it’s different in every region for every bad bug you might be trying to control, so our farm spends money to apply beneficials _before_ we think we’re going to need them and we keep applying at preventative levels for the duration. Knowing the lifecycle of insects (good and bad) and multiple grow cycles later helps you know about when to expect to start releasing bugs. Look up degree days for aphids in your region (and good luck)...it’s not a straight-forward concept to use, and I’m not sure the concept is useful for a home grower with just a few plants. If you do decide to use beneficial insects, make sure to use at least as many as the “label“ calls for. Maybe if you know a few growers who are like minded enough you can share In the cost of bug shipments.

But even the best laid plans, you know, go to shit. We got hit by aphids one year so heavily and so quickly that we should have just ended the grow and started over (not fun, and we ended up being able to use only about 25% of our flower harvest anyway). We learned about being proactive

And now, I’m so practiced seeing and looking for aphids and ants and mites and flies and gnats and leafhoppers and lacewing and ladybug larvae and calipitters...and fucking nanners...that I can almost spot em just walking by a plant myself...almost.

I don’t think there is an easy button for pests on plants. I hope you get a better (more easy-button like) answer from someone else. :-)
 
MrGnome

MrGnome

36
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Here are some pictures of my outdoor grow 2020 the strain is BC Big Bud pictures take just now.

3 days to Week 7 they will be at the end of Week 8 on the 25th of October.

The bed they are in is clay bottom raised with 6 inches of regular triple mix, landscape fabric covered with 3 inches of black cedar mulch.

The base of each plant has 4 - 2 gal per hour drip heads around arranged in a 6 x 6 square grid during veg stage the system was running 2 min twice a day but i have been giving them up 7 minutes twice a day in the last week and they seem to like it.

They got miracle grow regular mix during veg via a 6 gallon pail and pump to drip system 1 per week, this was switch to miracle ultra bloom on the around the 25th of August when they started blooming but have been on just tap water for a little more than a week now.

Plants are about 5 feet tall but you can judge that by the standard sized blocks behind them although i do a lot of training on them so there are many horizontal runners in the support strings.

I build a makeshift greenhouse around them so these plants have not seen rain or dew since Aug 25th. I have been controlling WPM via PureCrop1 once a week and I am getting a 35 watt UVC bulb on Saturday to experiment with UVC control of WPM.

Last year i did 2 Kosher Kush and 2 Tropical in the same space the plants were 6 feet tall and yielded aprox 40 oz cured.
Now that's what I call frostey dankage! I sort do what you do I built a hoop house last year but built the roof too big 13 ft. It was first year growing last year and I was way too paranoid about turned out to be too much airspace. I prefer not to grow huge plants. Its just too damn much extra work. And not sure if bigger plants take longer to mature outdoors especially if your looking for good amount of amber. I might be totally wrong about that theory haha. It was too big I couldnt heat it so that was the biggest problem. And pulling the plastic over it was a nightmare because it being 13ft tall. Anyway after all the hell of getting the plastic on about the end of September high winds came in and ripped apart the greenhouse. I almost lost it but luckily only damaged one cola on the skunk 1. Instead of fixing the whole thing, we just chopped the roof off to about 8 ft and sqaured off the 8 plants with plastic. Cut a few vent holes and installed a couple zipper stick doors. Now can finally heat the thing, but damn what a pain in the ass! Keeping the rain off and keeping the frost off for dank is hard but well worth the final product! I refuse to harvest early I need stoney knock your ass weed not weak early cut dispensary weed! I will never go back to dispensary weed after growing my own Organic weed!
 
MrGnome

MrGnome

36
18
Forgot to post this for scale. Strawberry Banana x Purple Punch is huge... At 6'5" 220, my hands are not small. Almost comical... giving them 2 more days.
Nicely plump and swollen man! I love when the calyxes practicality explode like that! My plants are also starting to really swell!
 
shaganja

shaganja

1,429
263
Now that's what I call frostey dankage! I sort do what you do I built a hoop house last year but built the roof too big 13 ft. It was first year growing last year and I was way too paranoid about turned out to be too much airspace. I prefer not to grow huge plants. Its just too damn much extra work. And not sure if bigger plants take longer to mature outdoors especially if your looking for good amount of amber. I might be totally wrong about that theory haha. It was too big I couldnt heat it so that was the biggest problem. And pulling the plastic over it was a nightmare because it being 13ft tall. Anyway after all the hell of getting the plastic on about the end of September high winds came in and ripped apart the greenhouse. I almost lost it but luckily only damaged one cola on the skunk 1. Instead of fixing the whole thing, we just chopped the roof off to about 8 ft and sqaured off the 8 plants with plastic. Cut a few vent holes and installed a couple zipper stick doors. Now can finally heat the thing, but damn what a pain in the ass! Keeping the rain off and keeping the frost off for dank is hard but well worth the final product! I refuse to harvest early I need stoney knock your ass weed not weak early cut dispensary weed! I will never go back to dispensary weed after growing my own Organic weed!
IMG 20201010 1241403

Yes! Lots of work keeping mother nature at bay! But worth it! It snowed up here yesterday.
 
shaganja

shaganja

1,429
263
Well, tired eyes exist everywhere. I work with people with bionic eyes who can see aphids just walking by a plant. So I lead with those dudes and dudettes. With many dozens of plants in a greenhouse, aphids and mites and fungus amungus are an even bigger problem than they are outside (at home) where beneficial insects like ladybugs and lacewings can and do help keep bad bugs like aphids under control, more or less. You know that there are as many answers to your question as there are growers, so take this for what it’s worth. Essentially, we’ve found that prevention is the best way to deal with pests, especially in the greenhouse (we don’t generally have bug issues outside because we have a healthy, reproductive population of good bugs on our farm',). Start with healthy, vigorous plants (with happy roots) and be as proactive about pests (and disease) and pest and disease management as you feel comfortable being...easy to be extreme about what constitutes acceptable, so this “comfort level” will vary quite a bit.

Our IPM (integrated pest management) monitoring Is critical to growing healthy plants (monitoring = looking closely everyday at our plants; we need to know when bad bugs are present, which flavor they are, and in what numbers we’re seeing them...and we need to know sooner rather than later...it’s also good to know what our good bug population is). We try to keep a healthy population of beneficial insects going in the greenhouse such as we might see outside (ideally, self reproducing, but this isn’t easy and we grow weed, not predator bugs). Monitoring helps us know when and what we should be releasing.

Hard to know perfectly what the best timing is for proactive releases of predator bugs, and it’s different in every region for every bad bug you might be trying to control, so our farm spends money to apply beneficials _before_ we think we’re going to need them and we keep applying at preventative levels for the duration. Knowing the lifecycle of insects (good and bad) and multiple grow cycles later helps you know about when to expect to start releasing bugs. Look up degree days for aphids in your region (and good luck)...it’s not a straight-forward concept to use, and I’m not sure the concept is useful for a home grower with just a few plants. If you do decide to use beneficial insects, make sure to use at least as many as the “label“ calls for. Maybe if you know a few growers who are like minded enough you can share In the cost of bug shipments.

But even the best laid plans, you know, go to shit. We got hit by aphids one year so heavily and so quickly that we should have just ended the grow and started over (not fun, and we ended up being able to use only about 25% of our flower harvest anyway). We learned about being proactive

And now, I’m so practiced seeing and looking for aphids and ants and mites and flies and gnats and leafhoppers and lacewing and ladybug larvae and calipitters...and fucking nanners...that I can almost spot em just walking by a plant myself...almost.

I don’t think there is an easy button for pests on plants. I hope you get a better (more easy-button like) answer from someone else. :-)
Companion plants also! There are plants that smell bad to soft bodied bugs. Peppermint, and many others. And there are plants that bugs like better than weed. Red kale is one of them. The soft bodied bugs will go to the kale first!
 
Rooke

Rooke

1,342
263
Hi all! Heavy frost last night they are tuff omg gave them straight ph’d well water this morning my last 3 to be flushed for a week. My Lvtk and GW4 have been flushed for a week they will be coming down starting today and Monday hanging in there still good!
Some folks made mention of how trichs continue to ripen while they are hanging in the drying room is this true I’ve never paid
 
Rooke

Rooke

1,342
263
I know that big plants are a lot of work and can be disappointing when you break big branches in heavy winds but if they have some shelter from the prevailing winds and some structural support they can be quite vigorous. They ripen slowly but if your patient and you have good genetics they can be very productive shout out to Cannaventure seeds they are the toughest strains I’ve grown so far thanks Rusty!!!! Hardy mo fo’s
 
Rooke

Rooke

1,342
263
Companion plants also! There are plants that smell bad to soft bodied bugs. Peppermint, and many others. And there are plants that bugs like better than weed. Red kale is one of them. The soft bodied bugs will go to the kale first!
Hey buddy when are you going to be harvesting you gals?
 
Rooke

Rooke

1,342
263
How do you gromies handle pests for your big grows? I seem to be fighting bouts with aphids and I'm just playing with one plant at a time? How do you spot them? I seem to see them after I take a picture while inspecting the photos. Hard to see them with my tired eyes.🙏
Shake your branches and then you will see them ?
 
amekins

amekins

2,684
263
My remaining Bubba Kush plant will be coming inside tonight for the first time. I hope to kick her back outside during the day to get as much sunlight as possible as I don’t believe my lights will be enough to finish her. Habanero is the same deal. Taking it’s sweet ass time to finish. They will get seriously pruned and overwintered.
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1D4AB567 8232 42A9 8E0D 6FAE5702F998
B98D8CA6 2F6F 4C2D A553 01C0E154F47C
F47E5128 1FD0 4693 A163 592ECC807CCA
E61A4DA0 1AEE 4268 9BBA A30D9C4D2418
 
wesk

wesk

95
33
Attention
Hey, Rooke. You want bro-science or a science answer? I'm not a chemist, nor can I comprehend "scholarly" chemical papers; I'm sure there are real chemists looking at this page who could give you a more satisfying technical answer. There are also chemists looking at this page who should keep their thoughts to themselves...they'll only confuse you and me more. I had a chemistry teacher ask me once whether I believed any of what he was teaching since we've never actually seen a valence or how an electron actually moves from one level to another...it's all just a good story that so far "explains" some of what we think we observe. He was a great teacher and taught me, well, he taught me lots-o-stuff...I think he left those halls of learning to sell popcorn at his artsy theater and spend summers in the mountains of eastern Oregon with his wife, who also sold popcorn.

Anyway, I can say that the high I get from an early sample of my NL5 x Haze is nothing like the high I'll get from this plant after we've dried and cured it for the next 6 to 8 weeks (some similarities, but mostly the effects will be mostly different). I don't know if that's called ripening or degrading. But yeah, it's my experience that cannabinoids and terps change over time, leading to the change in the effect over time. This isn't hard to believe in. Change is the most common state in the universe (maybe I need to smoke some more of that NL5xHaze).
 
wesk

wesk

95
33
Companion plants also! There are plants that smell bad to soft bodied bugs. Peppermint, and many others. And there are plants that bugs like better than weed. Red kale is one of them. The soft bodied bugs will go to the kale first!
Indeed, companion planting is a wonderful tool and a great way to get your geek on. It's also a great way to justify weeds in the garden, so there's that. Many predators will satisfy themselves for a time with pollen in the absence of insect meat (so to speak). So grow a lot of different types of flowers all year long in the vicinity of your marijuana plants at home, and maybe a little buckwheat...predators love buckwheat. A good mix of local wildflowers never hurts and almost always looks good (you should be able to find a wildflower mix at a local nursery or farm store). In the Willamette Valley (seed/pollen capitol of the entire universe), there are seed producers who provide wildflower mixes just for beneficial insects, which is quite cool. Same is probably true wherever you live (beneficial insects are a Big Deal). You could also try the Xerces Society.
 
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