PeeJay's Prudent Home-Brewed Organic Soil - Outdoor Out of Sight Deck Grow

[PeeJay]

Darkstar is not going to blow you away with rapid growth in veg. It has a reputation for taking it's time. So long as it looks healthy don't be concerned if it doesn't bulk up as fast as some other strains. It also was not a big stretcher when put into flower. I looked and didn't find much in the way of pictures of mine in veg besides this one of two Darkstars at 21 days. I scrapped the smaller of the two since I didn't have room for it indoors at night in the winter.

 

[Teddy Edwards]

Subbed. Love the history and the photos. I've so much to learn, and round here seems the right place to do it. Thank you, PeeJay

 

[CareStaker]

Just read my way through, very glad to land on page 2, and to follow along.

Congrats on a well deserved MOTM nomination!

 

[CCOiler]

subscribed PeeJay.

 

[PeeJay]

Congrats on your Nomination for MOTM.

Just read my way through, very glad to land on page 2, and to follow along.

Congrats on a well deserved MOTM nomination!

Thanks guys. A MOTM nomination is a nice tip of the hat. With so many great growers here I'm not sure I'm worthy. If the powers that be say I am, then so be it...

Subbed. Love the history and the photos. I've so much to learn, and round here seems the right place to do it. Thank you, PeeJay

Hope you find some helpful information here, Teddy. I'll be following your Greek Outdoor grow closely - it looks like it will be a fun one.

subscribed PeeJay.

 

[B A R]

Congrats

 

[PeeJay]

I was away from home the last three days. On Friday I heard we had a violent sudden downpour and even a little hail. Judging by the leaf litter on the deck the rumors are probably true. There's another reason having the plants under the overhang is good... Once the brief bit of moisture was over conditions went right back to high temps in the mid 90's and single digit rH. About an hour ago I looked and it was 95 degrees, 3% rH and windy - sucks the moisture right out of the foliage. I can't wait for some monsoon moisture to kick in and improve the conditions but it will be several more weeks.

Despite the less than ideal conditions growth has been good. Here is Alpha.

Looking at things this afternoon I decided that the tight initial node spacing presented a fun LST oppertunity. Beta is now into bondage. She's been opened way up and I am going to continue to ratchet her arms down with zip ties. We'll see how it goes... Note all the leaf litter on the deck from Friday's violent weather.

Lastly, here as a picture of a new-growth fan leaf. Cannabis does not like these very dry windy conditions...

 

[Graytail]

Heheh, you have a couple of monsters on the way PeeJay.

This will be fun to watch.

 

[Jay233]

Absolutely beautiful PeeJay...

Strap that bitch down! ...Very nice

 

[PeeJay]

Beta looks good this morning, Jay. I think she likes it.

One thing - it was WAY too easy to bend it down. The branches are not nearly as stout as I'd like them to be.

I hope they don't get too monstrous, Gray. The 137 day negelect veg has entertainment value, but I would have been better off popping a couple of seeds back in April and taking care of the plants inside for six weeks. Back in April I didn't think I'd have any cannabis growing over the summer since I'll be away frequently.

Even though I am going away often, I still had to find someone to water all the other non-cannabis plants I have. There is no good way to get a hose to the little deck and watering can be quite time consuming - at least until the monsoon (hopefully) arrives. I made arrangements in May for a fellow quinquagenarian grad student who lives near by and likes to garden to look in on my garden while I'm away. I'll look after her cannabis-free garden if she needs me to, as well.

In the middle of May I went away for a week. The volunteer waterer came by to see what to do. I asked her flat out, "if there were a couple of pot plants out here would it freak you out?"

She just laughed. "If I didn't have two teenage boys at home I'd probably have a pot plant in my garden, too."

At the time, the two neglected Panthers and the clone were in the veg box inside and the OG I recently harvested was in the flower cabinet. I'd hit the switch that shut off the fans when we walked through the room to get to the deck. I proceeded to show the volunteer my plants. My setup is pretty non threatening. If it was a big tent or a room full of big plants she would have fled in horror, I reckon. As it is, she thought my diminutive grow was "cute."

We've worked together on several projects over the last two years. The volunteer is very dependable. She is also not a gossip or one to freely "tell her business on the streets." I'm confident that the arrangement is a good and safe one. It made putting the WP's out on the deck to flower a realistic possibility. I'll be watering her houseplants and garden and feeding her cats while she's away on family vacation for two weeks in early July.

Yeah, so, I wish that I'd known that this arrangement was possible sooner. Being the end of May I decided to pot up the WP's and see how they do outside. I wish that I'd taken transplant pictures because they really looked like shit. I drew a line on this picture of Alpha to show how well they have done in the two weeks since moving them into bigger containers and putting them outside. Viewed in-person it is very obvious where the new growth has been going on. It's harder with a picture so I added a red line for illustration purposes. Considering there was some transplant shock and the windy, dry conditions, not bad at all.

It's fun watching the plants adapt to the wealth of soil and solid orgainic nutrition. The base of the stems was grey and woody looking at transplant. Here is a picture of the base of Alpha. It's still dropping dense lower leaves. The base stem is greening impressively. The split in the stem a few nodes up is new since transplant. I suspect it is evidence that the plant is re-tooling it's vascular system for aggressive growth.

 

[COorganics]

Nice u have a reliable person to water for you PeeJay, as simple as it sounds, I've found that getting someone reliable to water for me, and in the manner I want my plants watered, is easier said than done. Of course for my set up someone has to haul a bucket of water up into the attic.

 

[GardenFaerie]

This is very interesting to me. I would hire people to do nothing more than water. Morning, mid-day, late afternoon. Just drag a hose around and get it all watered. We had 9 acres of cultivated gardens and greenhouses full to the brim with all manner of perennial, annual, herb, woody plants and evergreens.

I would literally TRAIN people to water and even with a full day of training (which seems ridiculous) they still do not water properly. I was always utterly baffled by this.

 

[PeeJay]

Boggles the mind, doesn't it GF? Fortunately my volunteer is a 50s yo who has been gardening in my environment successfully for years... Judging from my survey of her property she has a clue... Her interest in nutrition and biochemistry is coupled (like mine) with a deep interest in permaculture, organic growing practices, and sustainability. She knows to only water the cannabis with RO water from the big blue jugs and understands why. She understands intuitively that watering does not mean moistening the soil each day, but means soaking the crap out of stuff when it starts to look a little sad. Hard to hire someone who understands all that. Plus, the maintenance that I desire is not long term - there is only so much damage that either one of us can do to the other's gardens in two weeks... I would have a difficult and expensive time hiring anyone to do what the volunteer is willing to do. The fact that she is a gardener, not a weed person, is an added bonus in my book.

If we lived close together I would gladly water and care for your yard while you were away and have fun doing it. Probably nothing would die...

 

[jessecain81]

Subbed!
Lookin great so far !
Climate sounds like Colorado weather

 

[COorganics]

I like to water my container plants twice. First a slow, even, light watering on each container to moisten up the soil which allows the container to take the second watering better, with no dry pockets.
My watering guys would come and water and then I'd come home to see big holes in the top of the soil on all the containers. Telling me someone just poured a bunch of water into the container, real fast and in one spot.
I actually had a bubba kush die while I was on my honeymoon in CA.

Now I'm in 10gal nursery pots I don't think ill be gone long enuf to need any watering help in future.

 

[raisingcain]

PeeJay your plants look pretty awesome I hope to get mine bushy like that some day.
I dont mean to crowd your journal but I cant PM yet.
Im a newbie and have a quick question.
I noticed you said you water twice. How much water do you pour on the 1st and 2nd application? Im in 10 gallon pots and would like to learn this technique. I currently "slowly" pour 3/4 of a gallon of distilled water on each plant every 3rd day. Is this adequate?

I have a journal running if you wanna take a peek and tell me how im doing.
CHEERS! Have a good day!

 

[COorganics]

Shoot, don't mean to crowd PeeJay spot here either. I don't know if PeeJay does the watering twice thing.
Whatever he does works well. The watering twice is simple, and PeeJay hopefully u don't mind me chiming in here.

Lift your pots regularly, it becomes quite easy to feel for a light pot. Then and only then do I water. I first slowly pour water on the top of all my container plants (that need water), evenly and slow.

Then wait a bit and go back around and water each till you see some runoff.
It never requires a measured amount of water, u just get a feel for it.
This is just what works for me.

 

[PeeJay]

Corgie is spot on, Raisin. The problem is that when you initially pour water on top of the soil it takes the path of least resistance to the drain holes in the bottom of the pot. Soil is sort of like a sponge. If you let a sponge get dry and hold it under the faucet the water runs off the sponge instead penetrating and soaking in. The top of the soil is dry and the same things happen. Water will run down the side of the pot and out the drain holes. Many folks assume that because they dumped some water on top and some ran out the drain holes that the plant is adequately watered, but the interior of the pot remains dry. An initial light watering, followed by a several minutes long pause prepares the dry "sponge" to soak up water more readily. Watering in stages a few minutes apart after the initial light watering enusres that the whole root ball is well watered.

I even have a picture that shows what CO and I are talking about.

In the picture I had poured water onto the plant while the soil was fairly dry. I watered the plant in the pot until I was getting runoff, then pulled the plant out of the pot and took a picture to illustrate this concept to Festus and VG, if I recall right.

If you look closely at the picture there is a low spot in the soil at the top. If you look closely you can see where the water went from the low spot, down the side of the pot, and out the drain hole. Most of the soil mass remained dry as a bone...

Once the plant was replaced in the pot it was watered in stages. Even though I had gotten runoff from the first dose of water, it took many doses of similar amounts of water before I saw runoff again.

In a ten gallon pot you should only need to water thoroughly every week - ten days from my experience. That said, in larger pots I do like to give the top a little moisture a couple of times between watering since there are bazillions of beneficial bacteria, fungi, and protazoans in the top inch of soil. They benefit from a small amount of moisture periodically - so about a pint of water every four or five days and a major watering every week to ten days seems to work well for me. The major watering uses about 3 gallons of water for a ten gallon pot.

 

[Dyold]

Things are looking good for the outdoor ladies. Looks like your going for the low profile monster hedge's perhaps. Keep em green and congratulations on the MOTM nomination.

 

[PeeJay]

Subbed!
Lookin great so far !
Climate sounds like Colorado weather

I'm not in Colorado, but some areas there have a similar climate to mine. The Cortez area springs to mind.