Theked - Backyard Outdoor - 2016 - SoCalGrow

[theked]

So I moved into a new house in Long Beach after 16 years of apartment dwelling and decided to start a backyard grow, as my new yard seemed to be perfect. I am starting with clones from dispensaries as I didn't want to start from seed this time. The last time I attempted an outdoor grow was 1986 and nosey neighbors, theft, and general cluelessness ended in zero final product. Given I was only 20 at the time and there wasn't too much available literature on the subject, I figured 30 years later and an over-abundance of references at my disposal, not the mention, the legality issues, it's time to give a proper shot at this
Clones were purchased on June 6th and were left outside for 2 days and then planted in several grow mixtures as an experiment

The strains are:
2 Cookie Tonic
1 GDP
1 Rascal O.G.
1 Banana O.G.
1 Blue Dream

I'm using this converted magliner to chase the sun while it circumnavigates the backyard, maintaining direct sunlight from about 8am to 6pm

This is one of the cookie tonics the second day after I planted it into soil

This is the Cookie tonic after being transplanted into a 3 gallon smart pot containing Happy Frog soil and Grow rocks, she also got topped today, well actually fimmed, accidentally

This is the top view of the GDP which is in a mixture of Happy Frog, peat moss, grow rocks, and compost

This is the Banana OG which also is planted in a mix of Happy From, grow rocks, compost, peat moss,and left over garden soil. I also did a bit of LST using a wire hanger to promote bushyness and reduce vertical growth which I will be doing in some form with everything

The Rascal OG isn't looking so hot, it is in the same mix as the Banana OG

Lastly the Blue Dream, which is in the same mixture as the GDP. I topped her today as well to encourage horizontal growth

All plants are in fabric 3 Gallon pots
The last 2 weeks have been June Gloom with almost no actual sunshine, but the Sun finally came out yesterday and continued to shine all day today, which in turn made a huge difference.
Watering every other day and I started A Fox Farm nutrient regiment last week of Grow Big and Big Bloom
Thanks for viewing and I'll continue to update!
KED

 

[theked]

Here is an update for my outdoor grow as of today. Temps as if anyone needs to know, hit well over 100 degrees for the past few days, luckily here on the coast, cooler weather is trending. I decided to withhold water during the past 3 days as an experiment to see if they could do ok, and they seemed to hold off just fine, which is good because I am going away for 4 days starting Friday. All six plants were give there first 3rd week feeding today, several hours before I shot these photos

Cookie Tonics are responding nicely to the fim as well as the LST I gave her last week which is opening up her lower canopy nicely

GDP is also doing ok, tho the color seems a bit less green, not sure why this is

Blue Dream is looking a bit thin, but I am guessing because it's a Sativa dominant that it looks like this. My brother grew this several years ago and it grew about 8 feet tall and looked like a Xmas tree

Banana OG is looking good and is also responding well to the LST performed

Rascal OG is also not looking to great and looks thin, not sure why, might have been a bad cutting?

Thanks for Looking , I'll try another update on Thursday
KED

 

[Lester Freeman]

The hot weather can be harsh for a fresh clone, they'll grow out of it

 

[theked]

So I came back from my surf trip late last night to Mexico, and was expecting the worst, as I didn't realize the temps in So Cal had been so warm. Fortunately I put the girls under some 40% black shade cloth, as I knew that they might not get watered for 4 days. I went into the backyard and did a little watering just to perk them up as I could tell they were all a little droopy, but not too bad
Following the Foxfarm nutrient guide for week 3, I fed them this morning.
Cookie Tonic

this is, or I should say was the smaller of the cookie tonics, I haven't done any LST on her just a bit of topping, the entire plant looks strong lush. I don't know anything about this strain other than its A White Cookie/Cannatonic cross, I chose this for it's supposed higher CBD levels to combat chronic pain from 40 years plus of skateboarding
I still might give her a bit of LST, still want to see how she responds to a couple of more toppings
Cookie Tonic 2

This is the Cookie Tonic that received the LST and some topping/FIM procedures. This is really coming along nicely!
Banana O.G.

This girl is looking nice with lots of growth over the weekend
Blue Dream

Filling in nicely as well, tho still a bit spindly compared to the Indica dominants
Rascal O.G.

Doing much better, I also did some LST on her, which bushed her up a bit. It's amazing how much growth you notice when you are away for 4 days, as opposed to looking at them everyday
GDP

Also doing much better and really starting to thicken up

One thing I did notice, in my vegetable portion of my garden was some powdery mildew that took over a raspberry bush, which I pulled out and trashed. I also had some leaf eating caterpillars on my veggies, so I did a little hand removal and sprayed the girls down with some pyrethrum/BT just to be safe. Probably do another dose at the end of the week.
Thanks for looking

 

[Conradino23]

Nice grow man, they're definitely catching on the color. Skateboarding eh? I guess you broke a bone or two in 40 yrs. Keep it green.

 

[theked]

A little update and question
Just finished the 4th week feeding this morning and noticed more growth so I decided to perform some LST/bending on all of the girls this afternoon as am getting concerned about distribution of light and vertical growth

Cookie Tonic 1
Was going to leave her alone but decided I should start a bit of training on her to maximize output

Cookie Tonic 2
Did a little more LST and really spread the lower shoots out that were getting lost by the upper canopy growth. Sorry for the blurry photo, didn't see that until I uploaded the gallery

GDP
I was only able to really bend one shoot away at this time. It looks like this might just be one big cola in the end

Rascal OG
Really thin leaves, must be sativa dominant, light LST to spread her out a bit

Blue Dream
This must be the runt of the litter, it still isn't really growing as fast as the others, but that could be the way these girls grow, again very light LST

Banana OG
This is the weird plant of the bunch. I noticed today that she is going into a bit of early flowering. I am not sure why, possibly the variety. Does anyone know or have experience with growing this plant from a clone outdoors?
Here are some pics of her pre-flowers

and an overview:

Thanks again for having a look!

 

[theked]

Update for Monday. Came out to the garden this morning to have a look at the girls as they wake up in the morning sun and I saw a few things that made me smile. The larger Cookie Tonic and the GDP both had a couple of new Lady Bug friends hanging out on their leaves. Hopefully this should be a great natural deterrent to caterpillar moths that have been laying their eggs and destroying my broccoli plants. No damage or any egg larvae on the girls as of yet, just the broccoli.
Cookie Tonic

This plant is filling out quite nicely, lots of tops for colas to start forming. Almost all of my plants have started pre-flowering as they are in week 6 of their respective feeding schedule. Watering schedule is also increasing to 1/2 gallon everyday for the big Cookie Tonic as it is really drying out the soil. All the other plants get 1/2 gallon every other day for now, tho I thing that will probably change when flowering goes full tilt

GDP

looking a little thicker, still a bit lighter in color then the other plants. I ran a PH test and the soil is around 6.2

Rascal OG
For some reason, all the leaves are pointing straight up and the canopy is sort of thin between nodes,

The Blue Dream and the Banana OG are both showing some more vertical growth, I'll show those next week, I'm actually pretty excited the Blue Dream started getting a little larger

Interesting side note, I had what appeared to be powdery mildew, which is strange, given the super low humidity and constant sun here. I seemed to have peaced it out with a spray on wash consisting of Hydrogen Peroxide/Baking Soda/liquid dish detergent I didn't take any photos as I was in a bit of panic after seeing it. That's it for now, I'll try an update on Friday. Thanks for looking!

 

[theked]

Sunday Update
Going out of town on Tuesday for a 5 day camping trip in the High Sierras so I thought I would do a quick update.
Just finished week 6 feeding and the Blue Dream continues to show some more vertical growth as well as some early pre-flowering. A bit light, color wise, but since I have never grown it before I don't know exactly what it's suppose to look like, just glad it's looking a little grittier before full on flowering occurs

The GDP is also getting a bit thicker, but isn't really growing to much vertically. I can tell the difference in the soils and will be doing my next grow exclusively in the either the Happy frog or the ocean forest mediums. The mix of veggie garden soil/ isn't really cutting it. Lesson learned

The Rascal OG is in full flower mode and is starting to get some pungency in her. The interesting thing about her is that everyone of her leaves are a 3 leaf pattern, including all newer growth. Curious how she will finish

Looking forward actually to not having daily check ups, you really notice growth when you step away for a few days
I put up some shade cloth to keep the girls protected for the following week, as I have my girlfriend on watering details and she isn't very green thumbed. See you in a week!

 

[Lester Freeman]

Plants looking great! Nice work. I think I see a small patch of PM on the Bluedream? Might want to check that out before you go. Other than that I'm sure you'll return to some good looking plants.

Best wishes and have fun on your trip!

 

[theked]

Today's update after a brief hiatus. Came back from my trip last weekend and had some serious issues with the girls. Apparently Aphid season has arrived and both Cookie Tonics were dealing with some infestations which affected quite a few of there leaves which were curling and browning. I had to use my 60x loupe to spot the critters, but when I did I knew I was in trouble. I purchased some 3 in 1 organicide which seemed to put Kibosh on the bastards

I must have had to remove 30 fan leaves form both plants, they still look good, but I am still removing caterpillar eggs almost daily from the underside of the leaves as well as daily sprayings of Safer Insecticide soap
They still are in pre-flower mode and haven't really started full flower mode, but have bushed out quite nicely

The Blue Dream
Has shown a bit more vertical growth, as well as starting to flower. She also has lost her yellow tinge and all new growth is a nice even green. I had to remove some fan leaves as well which were crispy from the Aphids

Rascal OG is in Full flower and had a disheartening discovery when i discovered a bunch of little tiny black specks on one of her flowers, which was also suffering from half of the leaves being brown and curled up. I took one of the leaves covered in the black spots under the 60x loupe and to my horror and my worst fear, was staring at looked lie microscopic human poop. It looked exactly like shit! I saw some videos via youtube on this and figured that it had to be a caterpillar, and sure enough I found the 1" asshole deep in the bud he was dedicating all over. I was kind of shocked as I saw no leaf damage at all of the plant, just the bud he was munching on. I also saw a bunch of eggs on the leaves and removed as many as I could, but the resin is so sticky it was hard to do. Purchased some Safer Caterpillar killer and will douse the plants when it shows up tomorrow

GDP is showing a bit more vertical growth, and is in flower mode, I think I need to get rid of some the fan leaves to allow light to penetrate her as she looks so bushy. I'll wait another week and decide on that
I didn't see any pests on the GDP which is interesting to me

Banana OG
This girl caught a little of the Aphid damage as well, but seems to be ok after dousing her with the Organacide
Nice developing colas too

All the girls will finish their 8th week feeding on Sunday. Hopefully I have controlled all of the pest issues for now. I'll update next midweek

 

[theked]

August 10th Update, just started week 10 of the Foxfarm feeding schedule
Blue Dream
This girl has really started to improve in the past 2 weeks since my last update. The main 3 colas are around 12 inches in length covered in dense flowers and are beginning to really stretch. All new growth looks a healthy shade of green.
This is her 3 weeks ago:

This is her today:

Banana OG
Showing some denser colas as well, with the main ones all around a foot in length as well. Just starting to kick into frosting up mode tho, not too many trichs just yet

Rascal OG
Here a few pics of the buds that are fattening up on the girls. This was the first of the 6 plants to start flowering, and the the sugar leaves and buds are just covered in sticky resin. After her caterpillar attack a few weeks back, I have been diligently checking her daily for any stray worms/eggs, and my fingers just get coated with the girls goo. I think she might be closer to harvest, maybe a few weeks away. Keeping an eye on her stigmas/resin glands with the 60x loupe

Been dousing the girls as well as the entire veggie garden with a Hudson Sprayer filled with Safer Insecticide Soap as well as Safer Caterpillar Killer just to be on the safe side every morning. I had some Brown Widow Spiders living on the fence next to the vegetable garden so I had to murder those bugs before they got to my dog with some toxic Spider killer. Luckily I'm growing in easily mobile containers so I was able to get the girls far away while I was on Spider eradication duty
I'll put up another update next week. Thanks for checking in

 

[theked]

August 23rd
The end is near, or so they say.
After almost 3 months of tender loving care I had a bit of damage to the girls, which I believe was a direct result of the their close proximity to my Veggie garden which suffered some powdery mildew/rust/fungal disease. Live and learn. If any plants near your garden are sick, pull them out immediately!

Raskal OG
She is just about finished, I am potentially harvesting either today, or in a few more days, depending on whether or not she succumbs to the same rot the other plants have adapted. I stopped nutrients on her just in case 7 days ago. I did see some powdery mildew on one of her fan leaves yesterday evening, so if I see anymore today she is getting harvested. She is pretty much done anyway. Lots of resin, nice cloudy trichomes with a few ambers. Most of the Buds are pretty plump, tho I would love to see them pack on a bit more weight. This girl seemed to be the most resistant to the disease the other plants are taking on, tho there is a bit of brown on the fan leave tips

All the Buds are all super frosty

Blue Dream
The Blue Dream really started to pack on some bud weight, tho it was also suffering from the foliar rot/burn so I snipped the lower buds off in order to save some harvest and maybe deter any more of the disease from spreading to the upper terminal colas which look amazing. I really wanted to let her grow another 3 weeks or so, but depending on how much the rot progresses will determine how long I let her flower as I want to get some smoke out of her! Buds are pretty sticky/frosty but really need some more grow time

Cookie Tonic
This was the first plant that really showed the effects of the disease. Luckily I have another Cookie Tonic that appears ok. I had to trim almost half of her to salvage something out of her. There is also some brown spotting on her stem, which I am sure is the disease tho I can't diagnose

Banana OG
She isn't really showing any of the signs of the disease yet, tho i did see a few leaf tips start to turn this morning. I ordered some Serenade Garden Disease control that should arrive today and will hit her with it before anything starts to happen. Probably could use another 3 weeks as well

GDP
This is the most heartbreaking of the bunch as I was so looking forward to seeing her purple out and finish. It seemed as tho the entire plant was a sticky resinous budding delight, but the powdery mildew took over and would barely wash off with the mixture of Hydrogen Peroxide/Baking Soda. I decided to trim the infected colas a week ago to try and get some more growth on her main/terminal cola before I harvest.

I have stopped feeding nutrients to all of the plants last week with the exception of the Banana OG and the other Cookie tonic in case I need to harvest this week as I wanted the soil to be flushed.

Will probably do an indoor setup next round in my garage to avoid all this chaos, tho I might still do an outdoor grow from seed next Summer to avoid any potential clones that had disease already in them. Any experts on Disease I would really appreciate comments on. Thanks!

 

[dubnation]

Great work theked!

I'm also in SoCal and been growing in my backyard too. Have you ever flowered during the winter? That's my current experiment (journal in my signature). I'm going from seed though but before had clones at about week 5 and took them the rest of the way in my backyard. Organic and in fabric pots.

I've also ordered very similar strains to yours for my grow next year. Will be following your grows!

 

[theked]

Dubnation
I'm possibly thinking about doing just that, vegging indoors and flower outdoors just so I have a continuous crop. I need to fix whatever is going on in my veggie garden adjacent so I don't wind up with the crap that's going on with my current crop. Still a bit shocked they waited till they were almost done before all this disease started to show

 

[Conradino23]

I'd say most of your problems with pests and diseases come from overfertilization, but you can't grow infected clones either. I've just left my friend who kept telling me about these infested clones being sold around, so you'd have to start drenching them with pesticides straight away after repotting ir just try seeds, just saying

 

[theked]

Harvest Day Part 1
Raskal OG
Today was harvest day for the first of the six plants I started as clones around the second week of May. Lots of trial and tribulations and lessons learned from my first outdoor grow in 30 years. In the end it was fairly easy. A slow start due to the gloomy, overcast weather typical of southern California coastal climate weather. Finally after the sun started to poke through the clouds around mid June, I was really amazed at the final output, tho, I'm not sure what a typical harvest of this strain grown in a 3 gallon fabric pot should yield. I weighed all the buds after trimming and the total harvest weight was around 410 grams, which I'm guessing should clock in around 7 ounces or so when the curing process is finished. Trichs have all matured from clear about 2 weeks ago, to cloudy and about 10-15% Amber. Most of the fan leaves were yellow and it was clearly ready to harvest

The buds were getting so heavy that I thought they might start breaking and self super-cropping!

This is one the upper colas:

This is another:

Cookie Tonic Lollipop Clone Experiment
This was just a little experiment for the fun of it. When I did a little lollipopping about a month ago of the smaller Cookie Tonic, I cut a shoot off that was way buried under the canopy, and placed her in a glass of water on the window sill next to my office desk. I used zero nutrients and just tap water from the sink. The cut basically received about 2 hours or less of direct sun as it rose over my neighbors house in the morning, and then just ambient light from the office/window over the course of the rest of the day. Clearly the root growth shows the resilience and ability of the plant to clearly thrive in such a harsh growing environment with zero effort of my part at all. Of course I would never clone so late in the growth(around a month into Flower), but this was clearly just for fun. The root structure is really amazing on this little girl, which is clearly in full flower, albeit a miniature version.

I suspect the rest of the girls will be ready for harvest in the next few weeks, especially the Blue Dream and the Banana OG
which are receiving no nutrients at this point. I am gonna let the GDP go a bit longer to see if I can get her to purple out as well.

 

[dubnation]

hey theked!

how's the harvest coming along?

anything coming up next round? let's get some winter bud going. i'm curious to see the difference in color as i'm told the exotic colors come out best when the weather is cold. i'm going to try a few kush strains (germinating now) along with what i currently have to see if winter bud really does pack on the color. i'm expecting lower yields and less dense nugs but with the warm winter (supposedly), maybe they will flower just fine!

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

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Sending you lots of love and positive energy.