Virginia Growers Unite!

[Hawk518]

Hello Everyone.

I'm new to growing and have many questions that only others in my area would know.
So, I've "Borrowed" (ok, stolen) this idea (and most of the exact wording) from a similar post for Michigan from a couple of years back.
I'm a total newbie (started in April), so if I've gotten something wrong, please let me know.


The purpose of this thread is to unite Virginia growers so we can all share some experiences, tips, tricks, recipes, etc, and keep the Virginia marijuana community growing.

With the recent legalization in our state, some of us are looking to learn to grow ganja at home or are experienced growers already looking to branch out and continue to learn. I feel like there is no better place to learn and share info than here!

So with that said, I am calling out all Virginia growers (newbies or experienced ones - I know you are all scattered around here), to come introduce yourself and keep this going.

It is up to you how much information you want to share (considering this is a public site and the interwebs is full of all sorts of people). Please remember to follow all forum rules, be nice, and above all keep it legal (no discussions of selling or buying cannabis products).

To keep things organized in a way let's try to follow this format for intros. From there on, let's see where this goes!

I will kick things off.

VA area: N. VA
Grow set up: Outdoors in grow pots
Grow medium: Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil
Favorite strain: Don't know yet, but prefer higher indica traits
Favorite edible: Haven't tried anything besides the Tasteology gummies from Beyond Hello.
Favorite team/sport/university: From MI, so Red Wings and Michigan State.
Hobbies: Books and learning about Cannabis!

Hope there is interest and we can build a cool cannabis group!

 

[Hawk518]

OK, I'll also start off with questions I'm hoping a VA local will be able to help me with.

First grow. Growing two plants outdoors. Don't have an indoor setup.
Even though I've done something wrong at nearly every stage, my two plants appear to be doing fairly well.
They're not ready to harvest yet, but guessing in the next 2-4 weeks?
But, the weather is quickly cooling off with lots of rain.
It's in the 50's today.
How much do I need to worry about possible negative effects caused by the weather?
I keep hearing about bud rot, etc.
What can I (should I) do to take these two plants across the finish line?
Thanks!!

 

[Azimuth]

That plant looks like it has a bug issue, and I'm guessing thrips. Can you scope the undersides and see? Bugs can ruin a harvest in fast order so if you have bugs you'll want to treat them sooner than later even though you're getting closer to harvest.

 

[Hawk518]

That plant looks like it has a bug issue, and I'm guessing thrips. Can you scope the undersides and see? Bugs can ruin a harvest in fast order so if you have bugs you'll want to treat them sooner than later even though you're getting closer to harvest.

Definitely a bug issue. I still haven't been able to see them (even with magnifiers), but pretty sure you're right that it's Thrips. I've been spraying with SNS-203. Hopefully, they'll be gone soon.

Any advice on weather issues and approximately when to harvest?

Thanks!

 

[Azimuth]

Definitely a bug issue. I still haven't been able to see them (even with magnifiers), but pretty sure you're right that it's Thrips. I've been spraying with SNS-203. Hopefully, they'll be gone soon.

Any advice on weather issues and approximately when to harvest?

Thanks!

Ok, glad you're on it. I've become a bit of an expert at identifying them since I seem to get them every grow. I've had some decent success getting rid of them in veg by spraying them every 3-4 days with a mild soap.

I don't grow outdoors so can't be much help there. You're in pots so maybe put them under cover if it's going rain? You're really only trying to buy yourself maybe another 3-4 weeks. Outdoors may be different, but indoors I wait until the white hairs or pistils (really stigmas) have all darkened and crinkled in.

Then I start checking trichomes with a loop.

All clear = too early, the trichomes haven't filled in with the cannabinoids yet
Mostly cloudy with a bit of amber = more of an energetic 'up' high
Mostly amber = couchlock as the THC begins to degrade into CBN the sleepy time cannabinoid.

Grower's choice for when to harvest.

 

[Hawk518]

10/12/23 - Ok, more questions yet again!

The weather is predicted between low 40s and low 70s. Rainy all weekend.
If it rains on Saturday, should I just bring these in my garage and use whatever light I have in there so that they don’t potentially get more bud rot?

OR

Should I just give up and start harvesting? I can’t really tell from looking at the trichomes. Think they’re still more clear than cloudy. I’d love to give them another couple weeks if possible, but don’t want some disease to wipe the whole thing out before harvest.

As always, any / all advice is Greatly appreciated!!

 

[Azimuth]

Still a lot of white hairs so she still has a ways to go. Can you cut out the rot and cover the plant from the rain?

 

[RedskinnedRhino]

Growing outdoors here is a bastard.
If you let your plants get rained on in September and October, you're almost guaranteed to get rot. The wet and cold nights leading into hot sunny afternoons is the perfect setup for an infection.
You have to either have a mold resistant strain (typically a plant with small/medium buds), or try to keep em dry from September 1st until harvest - if you want a prized crop.
Those big thick colas have a hard time making it to harvest outdoors.
Just my experience, and the reason I grow mine in boxes.

 

[RedskinnedRhino]

On a Side note... outdoor bud rot is an unstoppable nightmare that eats 24/7. I chop Everything at the first sign - Take what you can get while the getting is good, because rot goes after the best buds First!
Spraying stuff on it just pisses it off, and if you've already seen it, it's out there chewing on your fattest nugs. Chop, Chop, Chop while you still have something worth chopping.
(I'm the paranoid type, if you can't tell!

 

[Hawk518]

Thanks for the help w. the bud rot! I cut away all the sick areas and 9 days later, still not seeing any more rot. Of course, I've also brought them into the garage and put a fan on them, so no more cold rainy days!

Are my girls close to harvest time? First time growing, so not sure if these trichomes are considered cloudy or not. Definitely not seeing any amber yet!

 

[Azimuth]

Are my girls close to harvest time? First time growing, so not sure if these trichomes are considered cloudy or not. Definitely not seeing any amber yet!

Looks like you're getting close but still not there.

The trichome color is best viewed through a loop. They'll start out clear which is the stage before the structures are filled with the cannabinoids, turn cloudy once that happens, and further ripen to amber as some of the cannabinoids begin to degrade.

 

[Hawk518]

10/29/23 - Yet another beginner Q. This time it's SPIDER MITES!

I'm VERY close to harvest. Noticed a lot of leaves with issues. Trimmed them all off. While trimming I saw what must be spider mites on the top of one of the large colas. WTH?! I'd swear they weren't there yesterday!

Please give me advice on what my next steps are. I’ve now read everything from:

• it’s no big deal if you’re close to harvest (which I am)
• it will be ok if you wash the buds
• OMG! Your harvest is destroyed. The End is nigh. Give up now.

 

[RedskinnedRhino]

I've never had spider mites to the point of webs, but SNS products are widely used on this forum to combat them. I used it when I had a minor infestation a few grows back, and it worked very well. I use a sulfur spray now and it's basically a nuclear bomb for everything but fungus gnats, not much kills those little bastards proper.

 

[SmokingWings]

Yet another beginner Q. This time it's SPIDER MITES!

Please give me advice on what my next steps are. I’ve now read everything from:

• OMG! Your harvest is destroyed. The End is nigh. Give up now.

Well, the bad news is that The End is Nigh but the good news is that The End is not coming because of Spider MItes.

I'm VERY close to harvest. Noticed a lot of leaves with issues. Trimmed them all off. While trimming I saw what must be spider mites on the top of one of the large colas. WTH?! I'd swear they weren't there yesterday!

That is a fairly well established colony growing on that stack of buds. Once you get the hang of it you can see the signs a week or two before the webbing gets large and thick like that.

Things to look for or think about. Notice the size of the mites. They are large enough to see but two or three weeks ago they would have been so small that a loupe or magnifier would have been needed.

I seem to always find the signs and the webs in the youngest or newest growth which means the bud area once flowering starts. The things are living inside the buds where they are out of the light. Before that they are in the clump of small young leaves at most or all of the growing tips.

Gotta concentrate on getting whatever is being sprayed into that area. Still spray the rest of the plant including the older leaves. Since the plant is flowering it means something safe to spray at this stage of growth.

I selected Nuke'Em from Flying Skull. The company says it can be used in flowering and even right up to and the day after harvest if wanted.

Spray that webbing really good. Come back tomorrow and some of those mites will have made it into hiding and some will be still there since they died where they stood. Take the webbing off and spray again. Use the strongest spray dose recommended by the company. Try to get it into all the nooks and crannies of the buds.

After harvest clean up and spray down everything in the grow area. If doing a perpetual grow then learn to live with a good spray schedule that keeps them under control, especially spraying while the plants are actively growing.

 

[Evergreen89]

I’m a Va grower

 

[RedskinnedRhino]

I feel like this thread should have been bigger, there are alot of us here in the Virginia heartland, we should have a BBQ this summer. Sample each other's produce, play some cornhole, drink a few beers, talk about the Redskins. Or we could all meet up at Top Golf, shag a few balls, go out for a steak afterwards...

 

[Hawk518]

Newbie grower about to start my second outdoor season. Live in N.VA. It’s nearly officially spring and I’ve been itching to start growing again!

Q: When do you start germinating your seeds indoors to eventually bring them outside?

I’m thinking of trying 2 photo fems and 2 auto fems. Since we only get 4, can’t waste time w. regular seeds. One photo will eventually be transplanted into a 25 gallon fabric grow pot and the other photo will eventually be planted into the ground. I’ve read that autos should be planted in their forever pot and not transplanted. SO, thinking I’ll plant them in…5 gallon fabric grow pots? Sound about right?

Any / all advice is greatly appreciated!!

 

[Grand Daddy Black]

I'm in D.C., but if you folks ever get together I'm crashing the party!

 

[Azimuth]

Newbie grower about to start my second outdoor season. Live in N.VA. It’s nearly officially spring and I’ve been itching to start growing again!

Q: When do you start germinating your seeds indoors to eventually bring them outside?

I’m thinking of trying 2 photo fems and 2 auto fems. Since we only get 4, can’t waste time w. regular seeds. One photo will eventually be transplanted into a 25 gallon fabric grow pot and the other photo will eventually be planted into the ground. I’ve read that autos should be planted in their forever pot and not transplanted. SO, thinking I’ll plant them in…5 gallon fabric grow pots? Sound about right?

Any / all advice is greatly appreciated!!

For the autos it doesn't much matter other than you want good, strong sun, but maybe an early start will get you an extra round before winter. Autos are tricky to grow well as any stress will stunt them and they flower based on an internal clock. Any setback permanently stunts them and most new auto growers end up with really small plants and therefore small harvests.

I'd suggest you rethink your selections and try photo's for a few rounds until you get your system down as you'll get much better harvests with them. I know they market autos as great intro to growing plants but they're anything but.

The photos are a different story. For them, you need to decide how big a plant you want since it will veg until mid-july or so. But, you don't want it to be sexually mature before the spring equinox which is March 21ish because otherwise it will try to flower and then reveg and then reflower as mentioned above. Very stressful on the plant and you waste growing time as it flip flops back and forth.

It typically takes a seedling 4-5 weeks to reach sexual maturity so you're passed that window now and could start the plants any time. Many growers veg for 1-2 months for nice sized plants, but, since you're fairly new at this, I'd suggest staggering your seed starts assuming you have the room for monster plants.

If you want more normal sized plants you'd work backward from when they flip, which is after the summer solstice (June 21ish) but it is a very slow process from there. So, June 21 minus say 60 days brings you to mid-April to start your seeds.

So, maybe start one now and start a journal and you'll get good advice on your process and then you can take what you learn and apply it to the second third and fourth rounds. A staggered start will get you different sized plants and if you keep good notes you'll know what you want next year.

My 0.02 anyway.

 

[RedskinnedRhino]

Pop those seeds baby! No time like the present.
If you're gonna grow autos, you'll need to be on top of your seedling game. The seedling phase will determine their size and yields. Don't be afraid to up-pot those autos, just make sure the soil is good and moist when you do it, dry up-potting causes plant shock.
It's too early to put anything outside, but it's a great time to get planting. Go ahead and get dirty.