
Tobor the 8th Man
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I am starting this thread for any guerrilla grower in the world to share their experiences of the 2010 northern hemisphere growing season. Anybody that is planning an outdoor grow this year can feel free to post their thoughts and photographs in this thread as if it was there own. Anybody that wants to learn how to grow is welcome to follow along and ask questions and contribute in any way they choose.
I am going to use this thread as my internet base for the 2010 season. This thread is going to be completed even if I am the only one who ever posts anything in it. It is starting now and will finish up with dried harvest pics at the end of the season. I have finished every internet thread I have ever started. I am only saying this so anybody thinking about joining and following along knows their time won’t be wasted and will hopefully join in and hopefully commit to making this the best outdoor thread on the web.
Lots of things can be learned in a “Think Tank” thread like this. When many people are involved threads like this move along better and there isn’t as many dead spots because multiple people are making updates on their progress. Sometimes threads done by individuals, especially outdoor when you can’t visit everyday, have long, boring non-updated stretches because nothing new is going on. Multi user outdoor threads seem to cruise right along.
I will now start with my own thoughts on the subject. Please keep in mind these are how I do things. I have changed and adapted my methods over the years partly because of what I have learned on the internet and partly from personal experience.
The last few years I have been planting the cornfields with great success but last year the Helicopters were out in full force for the first time in many years and I lost a lot of work to the Helicocksuckers. I also lost a lot of work and money to the combines because of something called Sonic Corn. It is feed corn but it is ready in September and I didn’t see that one coming either. I am staying out of the corn until I figure out what is up with it this year. I am sticking to stream and river banks, small fields and woodland open areas where I always planted before I got lazy and moved into the corn. That way I will not have to worry if they will get combined or found before they finish.
When it comes to guerrilla growing I have been around the block a time or two. This year my goal is 20 pounds.
If you are using seeds (unless feminized) you need to be starting them soon so you can presex them and sort out the males. It is just too much work to care for and plant a bunch of unsexed seedlings that turn out to be male. I work too hard digging holes to waste the effort on a male. The hardest physical work is in the digging of the holes and lugging supplies for the early part of the season. I eliminate the males.
In past years I have always started with unfeminized seeds and a few clones I was lucky enough to get. This year I am using all clones of moms I have and a pack or two of feminized seeds. I have an advantage in that I have collected some nice moms of strains I know will finish in my area which is 40 N on the east coast of the U.S.A. Sometimes I can finish a 12-13 week strain because we can have no frost until early November. But the average last frost date is officially Oct 25. I stick to 11 week or less. Most are 60-70 days strains (8.5-10 weeks). I harvest Oct 5 to Oct 15.
Inside you just switch to 12/12 outside it doesn’t take 12/12. The plants start sensing longer nights. The longest day is the summer solstice around June 20-22. So after that the nights start getting a tiny bit longer each and every day. By August 1-5 even though there is still 14 hours of light or so the nights have gotten longer and many pot plants will have taken notice. Typically 8-10 week strains will start to have hairs by mid August. Just like switching indoors it takes 12-14 days after 12/12 to see many hairs. This is why I figure outdoors flowering starts to trigger around August 1 and 63 days (9 weeks) from then is Oct 4, 10 weeks Oct 11 and 11 weeks (77 days) is Oct 18th. This isn’t written in stone but this gives growers who haven’t found “their area strains” a place to start when selecting strains for their area. That is where I started my search to find my strains.
I keep seedlings and clones on a 16/8 light schedule for my outdoor plants. I also don’t put anything in the ground until after May 15. IMHO putting plants outdoors too early especially in April when it is already long nights. Combine that with a noticeable decrease from an indoor to outdoor night length could make them trigger into flowering and then have to reveg as soon as June rolls around. At the very least it confuses them and slows them down. This will delay things and actually rob you of a whole month of healthy vegetative growth, maybe more. If you take 2 identical clones and put one out in early April and 1 out on May 20th in my experience when July rolls around the later transplant will have outgrown the earlier one because it never stopped its vegetative state.
It is time to start your seeds and multiply your clones now.
I am in the process of rooting cuts. This year my clones I will be using are Southern Cal Master Kush, the White, Chemdog D and Blueberry. I have grown these before and they will finish by Oct 15 or a little sooner.
The feminized seeds I will be using are OG RASKALS GDP x The White and [OG Kush FC x The White.
Each year I plant some new stuff to see if it finishes and this year it will be clones of my own cross that I have not had time to flower indoors. I made a cross of the White x Original Haze and I am excited to give it a go this year. In case you haven't noticed by now I have fallen head over heels for The White and I want to experience it in different crosses. I want to play with the keepers I find in the crosses too.]
I also usually add a strain or two that I ran into or end up deciding to start other seeds. This year I want to keep my plant numbers manageable. I also want to reach my weight goal so I am going to really put the work into the holes and maximize each plant as much as you can with a NO TRAILS TO THE PATCH guerrilla grow.
This will involve deep, well prepared holes and 2 foot tall 1 foot diameter chicken wire fences. It is a total crap shoot without fences. If you can hide a plant you can hide a fence.
I will post some pictures of the moms and cuts rooting in the next day or so. In the meantime feel free to ask questions or post what you have planned for 2010. You can also start to organize your own grow by asking yourself a few questions. What strains are you going to grow? How much weed do you want or need at harvest? How many plants do you want to plant to reach that goal? Where can you grow outside? If you need help with these decisions ask away.
I have had 30 years of outdoor harvests. All planted and harvested by myself. My wife does help with trimming. I usually get 10-20 pounds with not much trouble. When I was much younger and the man wasn’t watching as close I had a 7 year run of 50 pound seasons but that was seeded bud. A few years ago I had a harvest of 100+ lbs. That year I ruined myself for a year afterwards. I had 400 plants 150 of which were fenced in the wilds and 250 were unfenced and in the corn. That was the year I went corn grow crazy. I had some 2-4 pound 10+ feet monsters in the corn. I ended up trimming that year by putting a tarp under each plant and trimming with a rechargeable hedge trimmer. Then I packed the big bud branches and jammed all lower branches into garbage bags with the trim for hash. It was still overwhelming. I ended up just cutting the big colas and packing them nice and jammed the other branches in bags. I harvested every night from 1am to 4 am from Oct 4 until I was finished on Oct 23. It took until right before Christmas to finish the final trimming.
The spring of that year I planted 3-4 hours every night from May 20 until July 1st. My feet and hands were as sore as they have ever been but in the end it was worth it but I will never go that big again. I included some pics for your enjoyment. Consider it my online resume. They are all 10+ feet tall. It was quite the year.
Good Luck to all and welcome outdoor growers worldwide.
I am going to use this thread as my internet base for the 2010 season. This thread is going to be completed even if I am the only one who ever posts anything in it. It is starting now and will finish up with dried harvest pics at the end of the season. I have finished every internet thread I have ever started. I am only saying this so anybody thinking about joining and following along knows their time won’t be wasted and will hopefully join in and hopefully commit to making this the best outdoor thread on the web.
Lots of things can be learned in a “Think Tank” thread like this. When many people are involved threads like this move along better and there isn’t as many dead spots because multiple people are making updates on their progress. Sometimes threads done by individuals, especially outdoor when you can’t visit everyday, have long, boring non-updated stretches because nothing new is going on. Multi user outdoor threads seem to cruise right along.
I will now start with my own thoughts on the subject. Please keep in mind these are how I do things. I have changed and adapted my methods over the years partly because of what I have learned on the internet and partly from personal experience.
The last few years I have been planting the cornfields with great success but last year the Helicopters were out in full force for the first time in many years and I lost a lot of work to the Helicocksuckers. I also lost a lot of work and money to the combines because of something called Sonic Corn. It is feed corn but it is ready in September and I didn’t see that one coming either. I am staying out of the corn until I figure out what is up with it this year. I am sticking to stream and river banks, small fields and woodland open areas where I always planted before I got lazy and moved into the corn. That way I will not have to worry if they will get combined or found before they finish.
When it comes to guerrilla growing I have been around the block a time or two. This year my goal is 20 pounds.
If you are using seeds (unless feminized) you need to be starting them soon so you can presex them and sort out the males. It is just too much work to care for and plant a bunch of unsexed seedlings that turn out to be male. I work too hard digging holes to waste the effort on a male. The hardest physical work is in the digging of the holes and lugging supplies for the early part of the season. I eliminate the males.
In past years I have always started with unfeminized seeds and a few clones I was lucky enough to get. This year I am using all clones of moms I have and a pack or two of feminized seeds. I have an advantage in that I have collected some nice moms of strains I know will finish in my area which is 40 N on the east coast of the U.S.A. Sometimes I can finish a 12-13 week strain because we can have no frost until early November. But the average last frost date is officially Oct 25. I stick to 11 week or less. Most are 60-70 days strains (8.5-10 weeks). I harvest Oct 5 to Oct 15.
Inside you just switch to 12/12 outside it doesn’t take 12/12. The plants start sensing longer nights. The longest day is the summer solstice around June 20-22. So after that the nights start getting a tiny bit longer each and every day. By August 1-5 even though there is still 14 hours of light or so the nights have gotten longer and many pot plants will have taken notice. Typically 8-10 week strains will start to have hairs by mid August. Just like switching indoors it takes 12-14 days after 12/12 to see many hairs. This is why I figure outdoors flowering starts to trigger around August 1 and 63 days (9 weeks) from then is Oct 4, 10 weeks Oct 11 and 11 weeks (77 days) is Oct 18th. This isn’t written in stone but this gives growers who haven’t found “their area strains” a place to start when selecting strains for their area. That is where I started my search to find my strains.
I keep seedlings and clones on a 16/8 light schedule for my outdoor plants. I also don’t put anything in the ground until after May 15. IMHO putting plants outdoors too early especially in April when it is already long nights. Combine that with a noticeable decrease from an indoor to outdoor night length could make them trigger into flowering and then have to reveg as soon as June rolls around. At the very least it confuses them and slows them down. This will delay things and actually rob you of a whole month of healthy vegetative growth, maybe more. If you take 2 identical clones and put one out in early April and 1 out on May 20th in my experience when July rolls around the later transplant will have outgrown the earlier one because it never stopped its vegetative state.
It is time to start your seeds and multiply your clones now.
I am in the process of rooting cuts. This year my clones I will be using are Southern Cal Master Kush, the White, Chemdog D and Blueberry. I have grown these before and they will finish by Oct 15 or a little sooner.
The feminized seeds I will be using are OG RASKALS GDP x The White and [OG Kush FC x The White.
Each year I plant some new stuff to see if it finishes and this year it will be clones of my own cross that I have not had time to flower indoors. I made a cross of the White x Original Haze and I am excited to give it a go this year. In case you haven't noticed by now I have fallen head over heels for The White and I want to experience it in different crosses. I want to play with the keepers I find in the crosses too.]
I also usually add a strain or two that I ran into or end up deciding to start other seeds. This year I want to keep my plant numbers manageable. I also want to reach my weight goal so I am going to really put the work into the holes and maximize each plant as much as you can with a NO TRAILS TO THE PATCH guerrilla grow.
This will involve deep, well prepared holes and 2 foot tall 1 foot diameter chicken wire fences. It is a total crap shoot without fences. If you can hide a plant you can hide a fence.
I will post some pictures of the moms and cuts rooting in the next day or so. In the meantime feel free to ask questions or post what you have planned for 2010. You can also start to organize your own grow by asking yourself a few questions. What strains are you going to grow? How much weed do you want or need at harvest? How many plants do you want to plant to reach that goal? Where can you grow outside? If you need help with these decisions ask away.
I have had 30 years of outdoor harvests. All planted and harvested by myself. My wife does help with trimming. I usually get 10-20 pounds with not much trouble. When I was much younger and the man wasn’t watching as close I had a 7 year run of 50 pound seasons but that was seeded bud. A few years ago I had a harvest of 100+ lbs. That year I ruined myself for a year afterwards. I had 400 plants 150 of which were fenced in the wilds and 250 were unfenced and in the corn. That was the year I went corn grow crazy. I had some 2-4 pound 10+ feet monsters in the corn. I ended up trimming that year by putting a tarp under each plant and trimming with a rechargeable hedge trimmer. Then I packed the big bud branches and jammed all lower branches into garbage bags with the trim for hash. It was still overwhelming. I ended up just cutting the big colas and packing them nice and jammed the other branches in bags. I harvested every night from 1am to 4 am from Oct 4 until I was finished on Oct 23. It took until right before Christmas to finish the final trimming.
The spring of that year I planted 3-4 hours every night from May 20 until July 1st. My feet and hands were as sore as they have ever been but in the end it was worth it but I will never go that big again. I included some pics for your enjoyment. Consider it my online resume. They are all 10+ feet tall. It was quite the year.
Good Luck to all and welcome outdoor growers worldwide.