On Walden's Outdoor Grow In The PNW '18: A Nonlinear Tale

[andIhalped]

Mid July The Leb-Nep phenos are certainly early flowering…one female expresses on 7/15, the earliest flowering plant I’ve ever grown!

Which is cool, because it should be ready for chop by mid-September, so I won’t have worries with it in the rainier season.

Plus my garden plan guesses have worked out—I planted the 3 LebNep in spots where they’d lose significant direct sun in October, due to autumnal lower of the sun’s angle.

A coupla days later, the biggest LebNep’s shows male, dammit. It’s a beast & I briefly consider let it go for seeds, heckuva daddy candidate…

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• andIhalped
• Jul 28, 2018

but I know that it’s going to a busy fall & won’t want to mess with the added work culling seeds. So, with some regret I hack down & compost the biggest plant in my grow. Pretty big trunk for 2 months from seedling in a not so sunny spot!
Bygones…

Meanwhile, the companion plants are kicking out the produce...flowers came out of the garden, too.

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• andIhalped
• Aug 23, 2018

 

[andIhalped]

Intermezzo II
While the grass is growing & the rest of the garden popping, now’s decent time to get more into the Walden part of the grow:

Thoreau famously (at least among those that read Thoreau) listed all of his expenses building his shack near Walden Pond, in an effort to convey how simply one could live.

I tracked all expenses for my simple outdoor grow (which also included lots of tomatoes, peppers, basil, oregano, mint, thyme, and kale). Unlike Thoreau, I won’t list all expenses here, but they were super minimal. At this point, the grow has cost me $39, which includes the costs for local quite cheap seeds (including those that didn’t germinate) & the local cheap steer & chicken manure spread out in the winter. For nutrients, I’m going to be relying on items that’ll cost me ZERO:

• a DIY calcium Emmie's DIY CalMagPhos+ From Eggshells Thanks, Emilya!!
• a weekly thin topcoat of my own cold compost.

That’s it---I never use any pesticides, mycocides, & won’t use any retail fertilizer of any sort this year. My pest control strategy costs nothing because I rely on natural predators, including wasps, ground spiders, leaf spiders, other mite-eaters & insectivores. It’s worked out very well in past years.

The only additional expense I’ll incur will be water, which ain’t cheap here & I’ll do my best to estimate & include in my total grow expenses.

But so far, I’m in pretty damn cheap!

 

[andIhalped]

Early Aug.
Everything’s going great…the two early blooming LebNep are stacking quite nicely & I’m quite satisfied with the plants’ structure from the LST—lotsa tops.

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• andIhalped
• Aug 14, 2018

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• andIhalped
• Aug 15, 2018

The other 3 strains are coming along just fine. The 2 largest Amnesia Hashplants were male (dammit), so they’ve been culled & I’m hoping the remaining plant’s a female. The strain’s supposed to be early to flower, though only the two males flowered fairly early—usually most of the plants I’ve grown have flowered around Aug 9, but so far, besides the 2 LebNep and the 3 males I’ve chopped, nothing else has begun to flower.

So it’s just watch, wait, & water on the cannabis front.

But there’s plenty else to do—the tomatoes, basil, and peppers are doing wonderfully & I’m harvesting some of all of those daily.

pepjellystrt.jpg

• andIhalped
• Sep 23, 2018

aug Tomates.jpg

• andIhalped
• Aug 5, 2018

 

[BeezLuiz]

I see that you used steer and chicken manure during the "off-season". Is there a special reason for doing this in the winter as opposed to blending it into the soil just before planting in the spring?

 

[andIhalped]

I see that you used steer and chicken manure during the "off-season". Is there a special reason for doing this in the winter as opposed to blending it into the soil just before planting in the spring?

I'm just overly cautious. Although I used composted manure, I mix it with my cold compost and apply it over the winter mulch in late February to let it digest a bit & let the worms work it a bit for two months prior to planting, so the risk of manure burn is nil. Again, that may be overly cautious.

FWIW, I do a no till garden, as I have for about the past 8 yrs or so & I'm pretty sold on the results. Plus, it's less effort. It also just makes sense: natural soils develop horizons, so why not let the garden do so as well?

 

[andIhalped]

Mid Aug The table’s set. Everything’s finally bloomed. Happily, the sole remaining Amnesia Hashplant’s a female. It’s an archtypical hybrid with narrow sativa leaves but a bushy indica growth habit. Lovely plant.

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• andIhalped
• Aug 23, 2018

am-hashplnt.jpg

• andIhalped
• Aug 23, 2018

AmHashaug.jpg

• andIhalped
• Aug 31, 2018

Chopped one Purple Goat male & the other two, including the runt, are females. This is the runt PGoat:

purpgoat.jpg

• andIhalped
• Aug 31, 2018

Also chopped one big El Chuy male & the other two are female. So, I’ve got 7 females from 4 strains. At least the elimination of the males gave everything else more room, which will be important come the rainy season—less crowding = better ventilation & every little advantage.

No more LST…I’ll let ‘em all go vertical from here on out. Got no idea how much they’ll stretch in flower, because I’ve never grown any of these strains. But I’m in good shape— with the LST all remaining 7 plants are about 4-6 feet in diam & about 3 feet high. I’m aiming for a final height of 4-5 feet so I should end up close to the goal, depending on how they stretch.

I’d figured that I’d end up limiting the final grow to 4 plants, per the legal limit, but I find myself unwilling to axe 3 of ‘em—they’ve gotten this far & I just can’t bring myself to do it, so I’m illegal.

But there’s little to worry about, the plants are well out of sight in fenced garden.

Stink’s gonna be a factor, though, the Purple Goat & El Chuy are particularly stinky, already. Easily the two smelliest strains I’ve ever grown & there’s still about 2 months to go, so the grow’s going to reek in September.

 

[andIhalped]

Later in August...The two LebNep’s are continuing to stack & it looks like they’ll both be ready for chop about 60 days from the start of flower. It’d be great to have a staggered harvest so that I can spread out the chopping, trimming, drying, curing work!

The two LebNep cousin/sisters are obviously quite different phenos (as was the monster male, too.) The earliest bloomer of the two has exceedingly hairy tops, longest pistils I’ve almost ever seen, with no frosting of the leaves. Doesn’t worry me a bit—in those respects, it reminds me of the great Oaxacan I grew, which also had long pistiled buds & no frost & that was some kicking smoke. We’ll see, though.

lebnep1-agosto tarde.JPG

• andIhalped
• Aug 25, 2018

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• andIhalped
• Aug 31, 2018

This night shot really shows the long pistils:

SepCola.jpg

• andIhalped
• Sep 4, 2018

The cousin/sister is starting to show purple & the bud structure’s quite a bit different, as are the leaves & it's starting to put out frost.

lebnepsistah-agostotarde

• andIhalped
• Aug 25, 2018

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• andIhalped
• Aug 31, 2018

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• andIhalped
• Aug 31, 2018

Might not be that odd for the lineage. According to the very knowledgeable @BigSur (check out his super informative thread Original source seeds from the 70's: Yes I have some !) the Lebanese and Grape Ape have a high degree of phenotypic variation.

Fine by me…it’s fun to have variety in the garden!

 

[andIhalped]

Time to meet some of the sponsors of this grow. A major one is the sun, which I’d hope needs no introduction.

A second group of sponsors is the invertebrate insectivores, which have kept my outdoor grow largely pest-free for three years running & are a major reason that I don’t use any sort of pesticides. The insectivores work for free & are highly effective.

The garden’s patrolled by a variety of leaf & ground spiders that are mighty effective & aided by the airborne: wasps & predatory beetles. So let’s meet just a few of these sponsors that worked so effectively and tirelessly in my garden:
The “digger” wasp (Scolia Dubia). The photo’s from the web, but I’ve watched these little soldiers take down many leaf munchers in my grow.

diggerwasp.jpg

• andIhalped
• Oct 1, 2018

The assassin bug, patrolling one of my roses. They’re voracious predators of many garden pests including flies, mosquitoes, beetles and large caterpillars.

abuddy.jpg

• andIhalped
• Sep 7, 2018

And, the spined soldier bug, another predatory beetle.

ssb.jpg

• andIhalped
• Sep 23, 2018

It’s crackin out to be the third year growing with no pest problems. I don’t think it’s in spite of not applying pesticides, but rather because of that approach, which allows the insectivores to flourish & keep everything else in check. Plus they’re really fun to watch!

Lotsa folks have insisted, including on this site, that this approach can’t work. But it’d be foolish to believe that instead of the evidence to the contrary that’s been on display in my grows for the past 3 years. Not only effective, but cheaper, & much better for the environment. Thanks sponsors!!

 

[andIhalped]

Early Sept…Nice time in the garden—the tomatoes, peppers, basil, oregano, sunflowers & mint are pumping it out. Particularly great year for sunflowers.

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• andIhalped
• Sep 10, 2018

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• andIhalped
• Sep 10, 2018

All 7 females from the 4 strains are stacking quite nicely. The earliest LebNep’s getting hairier—looks to be about a week away from harvest

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• andIhalped
• Nov 25, 2018

& it’s cousin sister is frosting & purpling up. It’ll probably come down about 2 weeks later.

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• andIhalped
• Sep 8, 2018

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• andIhalped
• Sep 8, 2018

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• andIhalped
• Sep 16, 2018

 

[BeezLuiz]

I could have benefited from some of those Soldier Bugs during my caterpillar invasion.

 

[andIhalped]

Mid September The early LebNep is coming down within days…

elebnepsepnite.JPG

• andIhalped
• Nov 27, 2018

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• andIhalped
• Nov 27, 2018

It’s vastly different sister/cousin is getting frostier & more purple with each passing day.

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• andIhalped
• Nov 27, 2018

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• andIhalped
• Nov 27, 2018

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• andIhalped
• Sep 17, 2018

Very cool color, but it makes it really tough to inspect for bud rot…but there’s worse things & it’s a very cool looking plant!

 

[andIhalped]

I could have benefited from some of those Soldier Bugs during my caterpillar invasion.

I don't ever get caterpillars in my garden, for whatever reason...could be the formidable amount of spiders & wasps, but who knows? I do occasionally get grasshoppers & more infrequently some mites, but they don't last long!

 

[andIhalped]

Mid September Chopping day! Took down about 80% of the early LebNep…earliest I’ve ever harvested a plant in the course of decades growing. Not a bad thing…its location in the garden is going to start losing sun soon due to the planet’s seasonal wobble.

I left about 20% on the plant, because the remaining buds looked like they could use a bit more time. Staggered harvest for this one, which is fairly common.

elebchoppd.jpg

• andIhalped
• Sep 10, 2018

Trimming the plant, it’s apparent that this is one of the odder phenos of anything I’ve grown—the buds are super fluffy & very non-resinous.

early-lebnep.jpg

• andIhalped
• Sep 7, 2018

Odder still, the buds just shed pistils…the pile in the foreground is comprised almost solely of the shed pistils. Never seen anything like it.

elebnepjard.jpg

• andIhalped
• Sep 10, 2018

 

[BeezLuiz]

Wow, that is a big pile of pistils! I bet it made for a great, smooth smoke .

 

[andIhalped]

Wow, that is a big pile of pistils! I bet it made for a great, smooth smoke .

Haven't tried the pistils proper, but did try an early pre-complete cure bud. Served up an upper high with a distinct body-buzz that I associate with high CBD weed. The strain is purported to have some high CBD phenos, so this may be one. If so, it's pretty balanced, because it got me quite high.

 

[andIhalped]

Later September Chopping time for the purple pheno of the LebNep. It’s quite apparent during the trim, that it could hardly be more different from it’s earlier cousin/sister. Besides the bud hue, it’s extremely resinous, with very dense compact buds.

plebnep-top.jpg

• andIhalped
• Dec 9, 2018

Really nice to have two plants curing before the usual wet rainy October comes!

 

[andIhalped]

Early October Now, there’s only 5 left…two El Chuy, two Purple Goat & the Amnesia Hashplant. All getting fatter & frostier on a daily basis.

The two El Chuy are packing and frosting nicely.

belchuy2.jpg

• andIhalped
• Oct 5, 2018

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• andIhalped
• Dec 16, 2018

Like the LebNep, the Purple Goat has two quite different phenos. One’s runt that’s running quite purple, true to it’s name & putting out the frost.

pgoat-late-sept.jpg

• andIhalped
• Oct 1, 2018

But it’s sister cousin is much larger, without a hint of purple, though it, too, is frosting up.

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• andIhalped
• Oct 5, 2018

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• andIhalped
• Dec 16, 2018

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• andIhalped
• Oct 5, 2018

pgoat-sis-late-sep.jpg

• andIhalped
• Oct 1, 2018

The Amnesia Hashplant is just days away from the chop. Hard to get perspective on these colas in these night shots, but the ones in the second photo are about the length of a forearm.

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• andIhalped
• Dec 16, 2018

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• andIhalped
• Oct 1, 2018

I’m a curious about how all of ‘em are gonna smoke, but I’m definitely quite curious about the Amnesia Hashplant.

Also more than satisfied w/ the readiness sequence of this grow!

 

[Zincite]

Nice journal, thanks for sharing and glad I stopped by to take a look. Your garden is certainly bountiful. Great job.

 

[andIhalped]

Thx, Z!

 

[BeezLuiz]

I really like that last pic of your Hashplant, with the tomatoes as a backdrop!