Grow journal 📓 2021

[amy24]

Sorry if I post way too much but had to share my experiment. I told my husband I was just going to leave them but he insisted I should try his friend’s idea. So I decided to sacrifice the smaller one to science. It’s a win-win, my husband can be proven wrong or if he’s right, I could get more buds, who knows? A friend said he could still give me another clone, and this is better timing. I’ve got that one I started going too, it’s worth a try to satisfy my curiosity! I don’t know if I should have left more or less of the budding area but I tried to cut most of it away. Also tied them down, these totes are awesome cus they have all these little holes perfectly spaced for tying. I got some soft Velcro ties I got on sale at end of last season, used those to make little loops around the branch then used twine to tie the loop to the holes on the totes. We shall see!

[amy24]

It’s a funny experiment, pretty sure I took one for the team but we will see what ends up happening. At least I can tell my husband he was wrong! The experimental clones are both growing bigger, the non-pinched one is way happier just as it always was but the one with the pinched off buds just looks kinda sad. The ones in the ground are super happy! I have a bunch of stuff that needs to be cut out or pulled out in the garden right now - mint, borage, etc that I will cut up to make more mulch and add to the compost tumbler. I’ve been watering with the liquid tomato food about once a week. I still need to do some training on the one in the garden that I want to train to grow a bit more horizontal so it stays below my fence. My dog knocked over my clone and it died so will try to get another to make up for the experiment.

[SoOrbudgal]

amy24 that looks great and very healthy. I love mixing flowers an herbs in the garden. Yep when those start shooting up later on in summer just pull them over tie the main colas down and away from center. And just like indoor when i get too much under growth i cut off the spindly little under shoots cause you get alot on clones i've found.

[amy24]

SoOrbudgal thank you so much!!! I was thinking of taking a bunch of the bottom stuff off this year. I always hold on to it and then am so mad I did when I’m trimming. So you don’t remove any of it before you tie it down? I don't want to defoliate too much or too little, I guess just like anything, it’s a learning process!

[jacoby37]

Very nice plants...they are really shaping up!

[SoOrbudgal]

amy24 there's lots of time to remove shoots. Just a few at a time before tieing down main cola. Anything that looks to be touching the dirt after tieing down remove that underneith. There will come a point just like indoor photos they'll quit producing leaf an side shoots an focus on bud site growth but it's a long process i get 4 months to work with my outdoor bud sites setting. Ya get what i'm saying? Your gonna be making adjustments ie: tieing, pinning down branches putting cages for support or stakes along side them. Just like a big tomatoe they'll need support from wind or elements.

[amy24]

You’re the best! Thanks for all your help!

[amy24]

Ok, I know this post is way too soon after my last abd I could be getting borderline annoying 😉 but just wanted to add the pics after thinning out the garden a bit, adding new mulch and the 4-4-4 meal mix and some diatomaceous earth, and tying them down. I also cleared a lot of the bottom stuff off of the clone in flowering. It was so hard to rip off those little buds, but I’m glad I did! The sad clone that I removed the buds off of still looks sad, we will see if it rebounds!

[amy24]

PS. The clone that is flowering - I’m adding old oak leaves to my mulch. I read on the mulching article from this site to use green mulch for veg, brown mulch for flowering. Green produces bacteria for nitrogen and brown produces fungi for the other stuff

[amy24]

Saw some posts on here about plants that go into reveg producing funny rounded leaves. Think my clones are starting a round of the funny round leaves, maybe they will shoot up again? Right now it seems like they are just getting bushier rather than taller but maybe as we get closer to summer solstice they will take off. We shall see!

[SoOrbudgal]

Some of my clones are looking like that. My seed plants do not. Yes those will return to normal oh they will take off unless they get eaten by a critter too much.

[amy24]

Ten days after tying them down, you can see all the new growth and the new future kola sites that are developing and reaching for the light. It’s mind blowing that it’s only been ten days! Since I tied the branches back using Velcro, I moved the stakes a bit further and bent them further back. Also topped both sides of the one that has had two tops the whole time, have started calling it my “two-pronger” but now it’s going to multiply! Still been adding the liquid fertilizer about once a week, always making sure to wait for when the plants need a big water - then I can make sure everything is well watered before applying the liquid fertilizer - this helps it all soak into the soil instead of running off and away from my plants. Also cut off some lowers branches so have a bunch of new clones on the go. I cut them, put them straight in water, then trimmed them, dipped them in rooting powder, then put them in water by a sunny window. Been following Nenula Haze’s guide to rooting clones in water. After a couple days I switched out the water and adding the smallest amount of fertilizer - just rinsed out the lid and added a little drop. Tried putting the tops into jiffy pellets, covered with a makeshift cover after another article on here by Mr Green. All to see if it will work, will save one or two and pass on the rest if they actually work haha. Feeling excited!

[amy24]

It’s been 13 days since my last post... Since then, I’ve done another layer of dry meal mix/powder and mulch (chopped up borage, lavender, mint, dandelions, oregano, yarrow, etc) and have continued to do the liquid organic 7-3-5 every second water or so. It’s been a while and the plants are bigger so been making it a bit stronger. I am surprised by how fast the mulch breaks down, I could be doing a layer every week but I’m a bit too lazy And they are super happy so not too worried... They are getting huge! I’ve spread the branches out more and the centres of the plant are just shooting right up and filling out. I bent the tallest branches over til they were almost pointing down the other day and by the next day you couldn’t even tell, it has turned itself right back up again. Just need to be slow and careful to make sure you don’t break a branch off....it’s started growing past the dirt area of my garden so I filled a pot with a bunch of rocks and a big stick and have it tied to that! Hoping I can get to a lattice to see what that would be like! 😂

Side note if you’ve read the whole journal, just going to plant my asparagus seedlings now! Going to put them along a border that is between my weed plants and the road because apparently the ferns grow pretty tall? So maybe a bit of extra coverage will be a bonus

One clone took off and made roots in the water by the window but a few others just started rotting. I have that one in a red solo cup in soil now and have just started putting her outside. I have one other clone going and it has produced so many of those little white dots but they just won’t grow into roots! Any suggestions??? Or do I just need to be patient...

Happy Summer everyone!

[SoOrbudgal]

yes i don't know why but when i get those little white knobs they will root good in soil so just stick it in a soil cup like the other. We had asparagus growing from some roots that must of got washed out somewhere up river and settled on a bank near our property. It gave us a handful at a time for couple years then they disappeared i can't find them anymore. Boy those last for years an years once established. Hey amy24 if that stem is too long with the nubs on it you could cut abit off the bottom to fit in a solo cup of soil. Garden looks great

[amy24]

SoOrbudgal Thank you so much! With all the sun and heat everything has been thriving! I appreciate the advice too I went ahead and put it in the soil tonight, so fingers crossed it works! 🤞 I cut some of the bottom off like you said, then gently filled the soil around it, then watered it with the water it has been hanging out in. Do you think I should trim back any of the leaves? Asparagus transplant was successful too, three years until we eat any tho. Can’t wait haha.

[SoOrbudgal]

I clip the tips off a few just to kickstart them alittle just old habit. Not sure if it really does kickstart the rooting as i've got 2 GG#4 clones in a cup of water now clipped an soaking for 7days so i'm still waiting to see nubs. It's gonna take few weeks i guess, i never count how long frankly i ignore them LOL just check if they need more water in cup. These will be for a fall/winter grow indoors. I want to try just 2 photos under my newer light get them really big an trained in veg. Well that's my hope LOL

[amy24]

Haha sorry for the late reply! I ended up mostly losing the two clones in the crazy heat wave! I panicked and gave them a bit of seaweed fertilizer to try to help them out but ended up totally nute burning them, had to laugh at myself. The one with the nubs is kind of holding on I think because it didn’t have roots, the other one just died, oh well! Focusing on trying for some for the fall/winter too

[amy24]

I went away for about two weeks and had a neighbour and family water for me. I missed my garden but was so excited to see my girls! All doing great! The two weird revegging clones both got super bushy, they allllmost look the same now with the one I pinched the buds off looking slightly smaller. The two in the ground just thriving away. I need to keep them below my fence line and they are getting taller, so started working on bending them back and away from the middle of the plant some more. I tried to go slow and pull back gently but I still cracked some by accident and still by the next day, they were pointing back up at the sky. I noticed one stem/branch that had broken earlier had the craziest bushiest branch so wasn’t too worried - those breaks at this point seem to serve the plant well. I remember reading on here that healed breaks are like turning to two lane of nutrients to a hiway of nutrients and have to agree!

a couple questions…

-I have some poles with two branches attached, one lower on the pole and one more upper, the middle of the plant is looking pretty sparse, should I let one of the branches go so one pops more to the middle and one stays on the pole?

-I accidentally crossed a couple branches as I realized I should be making dinner not working on my plants 😉 should I uncross them or will they be fine?

-the very first signs of flowering are starting which means the “big stretch” is happening right? Or am I wrong? I totally can’t remember the timing, just trying to figure out how much taller they could get… I can go read on this again too.

I did a liquid fertilizer application right away, and am going to add a new layer of compost/meal/mulch again tomorrow. Probably mush some banana up in there too cus I have a bunch and they are high in the nutrients for flowering.

Thanks everyone! Good luck with all the extreme weather!

[DeadlyFruit]

Beautiful garden! I love all of the greenery.

Spacing the branches is kind of an art. As a general rule you move them away from the Center to open up the space to airflow and light but if you are sparse in the middle you may want to let a couple shorter branches grow there but ultimately it is a judgment call. I have started just letting mine grow naturally when outside as it is pretty cool to see how big they get. I know that isn’t an option for you because you want to stay belo the fence line. If they are starting to flower now you should see a few weeks of crazy growth but there is a genetic component. Some grow a little, most will grow somewhere between a little and up to twice their height and a few can go three times. If you check out the seed literature it should give you a plant height that it commonly goes to.

[SoOrbudgal]

Those are looking really good gal. Yes the stretch of pre flower is on who knows for sure how much taller i just guess maybe 12-24" but you never really know LOL. Both the big bushy pics 2nd & 3rd remind me of my pre98BubbaKush and my Peanut Butter Breath many tiny off shoots. Time now to trim up those and lower half alittle for the late summer bud building on the bigger branches. I remove center tiny shoots an you'll see little at a time what needs to be done. Let the light shine

[amy24]

Thanks so much for the advice and compliments! I so appreciate the community! I will do some more trimming, and also try to just bend more to keep them horizontal. Two feet would def make them too high for the fence. Maybe I’ll top the two centre ones and let them bush out a bit in the middle?

[jacoby37]

Those are perfect...so much fun watching you work this grow.

[amy24]

Thanks So much! 😊

[amy24]

Hi again

My husband put some wire mesh around the two in the garden and I started “scrogging” them through. Haha might not be perfect but enjoyed getting to use the lingo! I bent them gently to a hole that didn’t put much stress on the branch but that it could easily bend to. I used a couple upper Velcro things to hold a few in place, but will probably release those as they grow bigger. I also topped the tallest branches that were in the middle, just a little bit, cus I’m a hoarder haha 😂 Hope it wasn’t too stressful putting them through all that effort again!

The two huge bushy ones were making me a bit nervous with how dense they were, so decided to really thin them out, just kind of went through and cut every second skinny branch, and a bunch on the bottom of the plant. As I trimmed, I noticed a few dusty white spots, worried it could be the beginning of powdery mildew, or maybe some leftover bug nest or a combo of both? Saw some little bugs that looked a bit like black and white mini ladybugs? Also a few little black specks that I thought could be soil or maybe eggs? Then I also found a sketchy “sore” on one of my branches, that Velcro stuff is supposed to be soft but it looks like it was cutting into the branch a little…now, it looks almost like a bit of mold forming…I’ll include a closeup. Should I chop that branch off? I could be being paranoid but I was the opposite of a hoarder this time and tried to really cut away anything that caused me worry. Since it revegged, there are a lot of dense bud/curly leaf areas so I really just wanted to open it up to lots of air flow. I included zoom ins of that too, and some before/after pics of the ones in totes.

Any advice would be again appreciated. ❤️🌳💚

[amy24]

Thanks so much!!! ❤️ I have some diatomaceous earth- I noticed some people have it sprinkled right on the leaves? Is that ok to do?

[DeadlyFruit]

Nice lush plants! Yes, anywhere you attach something is going to get a little damaged - the breeze moves the plant a little and that constant rubbing will do it. I just try to move the contact point around a little so it isn’t constantly rubbing in the same place and the damage stays manageable. Keep an eye on it but I doubt it is mold, just where the outer green is scraping off and showing a lighter interior. The plant can heal that level of damage pretty easily.

[DeadlyFruit]

Also, if you are worried about bugs and they are not yet in bloom spray the foliage with insecticidal soap and dust the ground with diatomaceous earth.

[amy24]

Hmmm so something is definitely wrong with that branch. It’s so weird! Came home after a couple days away and it’s just sagging away while the rest of the plant is happy? I guess I’ll just cut it off but wondering if I should keep my eye out for any other issues…. The two plants in the totes look a little droopy at times, maybe just so thirsty? I’m going to get a pic next time they look super droopy. Will make another post about the branch too but wanted it recorded in the journal.

[amy24]

Thanks for the replies!!! Not great news, but I’ll see what I can do.

[amy24]

Rwise Read something on one of the threads I saw you on about using BTK to kill them? I have some - was thinking of just really stripping the bottom of the plant to see if I can see any burrows? Then spray with BTK tonight, put some diatomaceous earth around the plant… I don’t have any neem oil, saw that as a suggestion, but I do have neem meal? 🤞🤞

[DeadlyFruit]

If it’s killable that should do it! Good luck!