Refrence plot for optimum harvest date.

[hamstring]

Normally I like to keep different strains segregated into different plots because during harvest time its easier to keep them straight and you harvest all of one strain at once rather than visiting the plot several times to get 3 different strains with different harvest dates. Security is always at premium during harvest at my locations.

May sound sort of unnecessary or rudimentary to others but because many of my grow sights are long distances and into heavy bush I can’t visit them enough to stay on top of optimum harvest times to beat the mold and get the best bud.

When you are talking about 3-4 different strains with some of them having more than one distinct pheno and you would have to visit the plot everyday starting at the end of August to stay on top of things.

To get around this I will try and put two plants of each strain I am growing into a easier to reach plot allowing me to monitor conditions more easily. I should be able to get a much better understanding of each plant's, and each pheno if more than one, best harvest dates.

This way I can go to each of the segregated plots at optimum harvest date.This shoud cut down on visits and stress or at least I hope.

Has anyone used this method and what are others thoughts and experiences?

Peace

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

I have often though this would be a good idea, but I have never done it purposely.

 

[phate]

i was planning on doing some guerilla lowryder next year. this would be perfect for almost anyone because it would be easy to conceal the reference plot almopst anywhere.

 

[phate]

one drawback would be diferent environments and lifestyles (like lack of sun or water) of the plants could lead to different times of peak ripeness.

 

[hamstring]

BC
Great to have you back providing advice and look forward to next season with you.

Phate
I agree that different environmental conditions would definitely vary the harvest times. No way to get around that for sure but something Silver Back said got me to thinking. Paraphrasing " You have to work a strain several years to get a real good understanding of plant needs in different environmental conditions and harvest times."

I have found that to be so true and when you like to try out new strains (like most of us do) or try to increase plot size of a newer strain it can get tough. It’s no big deal if you have 1 or 2 plants but what if have 15-20 plants you don’t want to show up a week late or early to have 15 moldy or unripe plants to harvest.

It doesn’t seem like a season goes by where I am not forced to make tough decisions on when to harvest because of wet or dry conditions not to mention security reasons.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to pick some buds at different stages of flowering so you can make those tough decisions? You would have a good base line with your reference plot so you would know whether you are wasting a visit to a plot and security always plays a role in this too.

Although a reference plot does not take into all the different environmental conditions that you will see from plot to plot I am hoping it will give a good base line on new strains or phenos you may be working with or at least that’s the theory.

All advice or comments welcome because opinions are like butts.

PEACE

 

[Guest]

Hey hamstring. I won't pass up the opportunity to show my butt.

Youve raised a good topic and as BC said, (its good to see you back in the ring BC), one we all have ponderered from time to time. I have some plant sites similar to yours in that I cant just run out and take a look each day and in the last weeks of flower one needs to look at the plants periodically to check them for disease and harvest prospects.

Over time however, Ive come to view harvesting cannabis in the same lite as harvesting peaches or blackberries. Harvest each peach, bud, when its ripe. In many strains, bud development and maturation occurs differently up and down the plant and from the south side to the north side of the plant. I usually harvest my peaches over about a 14 day period with the last harvest of those small internal lower buds just at the end of the season. For years, Ive felt my greatest gratification from cutting those very first few buds. "you bastards won't get it all now!"

To some extentl, Ive settled on the opposite of what youre plans are. After lots of back and forth, I plant one specimen of all of my strains at each site. This allows me to ovbserve specimens of a strain and then to project that probable development/likelyhood of mould/ and maturation onto the plants that I cant visit regularly. If the ones I can check need water or are beginning to flower, then theres a good chance the ones I can't check do as well. I also do this because I believe it increases dramatically, the likelihood that i will get to at least harvest one or 2 specimens of the strains Im growing as it is unlikely that the law or rippers would find all of the sites. I failed to follow this rule in the o8 grow and planted all of my BBXNL in one spot and paid dearly for it thanks to a logging op. I didn't get to take the first puff of the smoke. I've never done well at following rules, but I cant figure out why I don't follow my own rules that I make!

I also do it because I get a sense of gratification from harvesting at least one plant/ some smoke from any given site. If I plant 5 different strains in one area, they will mature at different rates and the probablitiy of me harvesting at least one of the plant s from the site is greatly increased. This also lets me systematically reduce the number of plants at a site while the pressure from the air and from hunters is increasing.

Of course, us old growers have spent so much time alone in the woods and talking to ourselves that these musings could just be the tinkerings of a madman.

With regaurd to conditions that effect flowering of OD plants. I think I know of 2 aspects that truly effect that maturation of OD plants.

1. Afternoon shading. I discovered this by accident. Several years ago, I planted a row of 15 small clones along a fence row. I didnt know it at the time of planting, but the positioning of the row of clones was such that one end of the row became shaded around 2:30 in the afternoon, and then the shade slowly progressed down the line until the last clone in the row didnt' shade at all hardly. The clones, all of the same strain from the same mother, matured over a 10 day period in the order by which they were shaded, with the most heavily shaded clones finishing first and the other end of the line where no shading occurred were almost10 days later. There was only a few days different in the onset of flowering along the row, but the pace of flowering was affecting dramatically. The same phenomenon occurred the next year as well with a completely different strain. Im convinced that afternoon shading in the right context affects maturation.

2. Moisture. This has been a tough lesson for me to learn but quite a few years ago, i noticed that same strains would fininsh earlier or later depending on the amount of rainfall we had that year. Wet years seem to lead to an earlier finish. Ive refined that understanding to apply primarily to dryness during the flowering period. Dry, wilted plants during veg seem to have no effect on maturation but its been my experience that even a minimal lack of root moisture during flowering can add as much as 2 weeks or more to maturation.

Finally, in those locations where I know I cant check properly, I plant strains that I know their maturation dates and grow limits and I use fems so I don't have to make all of those trips to determine sex and cull males. I feel it cuts down on pheontypical expression as well as there seems to be less variation of phenos in the femmed plantts. Ill only grow short strains so the wind don't blow them down, theyre mould and pest resistant and usually arent the biggest yielders.

There's my butt!!!

 

[hamstring]

SB
All advice from you is welcome thanks for the input.

Hey, I feel you on the loss of the NLXBB. I got to harvest one small lower bud left behind by the rippers and if I had spread them around in more sites I would have had a whole plant hehehe. I did however harvest 3 well-seeded BBXNL and will grow them again next season.

The reason I am looking into the reference plot is I am expanding on some of the strains I grew last year. I really liked one of the GG phenos and hope to expand on it and the AK99XFL was a winner too. I am also putting 2-3 new (to me ) strains out.

Many strains have completely different harvest dates and especially the GG with such an early harvest date and small stature (not much air flow in tall vegetation) I need to stay on top of the flowering times.
Kicking around ideas on choosing the right date to harvest because its so damn hard for me to go to a site (A)one week and decide I need to get to the site (A) again next week to harvest because I need to be at site (B) to care for that plot. I know you and other guerrillas have felt the same time constraints.

The life of the guerrilla is never easy but always exciting.

PM me if interested in more info on the NLXBB I had 2 different phenos out of the 3 seeded females.

PEACE

 

[Guest]

Everything good requires effort doesn't it. Cannabis growing is a lot like fishing. You can sit on the bank and wait for a bite, or you can brave the bushes, bees and mocassins to get just in the right spot - the one where Moby Dick lies in wait for your worm! The good things in life arent easy, they take work, scratches and cuts.


We might as well be honest here hamstring, just like with my own situation, other aspects will almost always determine your harvest dates. Wayward 4 wheelers, rain, rain, rain, cold, farmers, helicopters, hurricanes, freezes, did i mention rain and cold?

YOu know hamstring, that's really what seperates us outsiders from the rest of the pack; We know we're going to get cut, scratched, almost caught, attacked, eaten, sunstroked and drenched and yet we throw the stuff on our back and work like hell with no more than some seeds and some hope. I love outdsiders, they defy all resistance and perservere. Every outdoor grower I ever met was strong willed and determined to succeed. Even when we loose crop after crop, we're back the next year with new seeds and renewed hope.

Nature be damned, I bet you accomplish your goal!