An unusual season.......

[D.S. Toker. MD]

First it was flood,9" in 1 day, then no rain at all. Colder than hell from April thru may, now its so fukin hot you cant go outside?!!


Add to that the fact that i have numerous plants in flower, not just a few pairs of hairs here and there, i mean full bud forming flower???!!! WTF!? These arent autoflowers either and some of them are 7' tall, but ive just never had plants of any number,(occasionally a plant will auto for some reason) begin to flower in the first week of July.

Is anyone else having an unusual season or is it just my persistant bad luck?/

 

[argoagro]

At least 1/2 of my plants showed sex at the beginning of July, healthy ones, and that has never been the case, I use to consider healthy plants showing sex at the beginning of august early! I hope it works out good for the late season mini's that I just popped!

Hey, this might not be a BAD thing, we'll see how it all plays out. I'm running alot of bagseed so I can't say it is or isn't the strains for sure, but I really think everybody is using earlier genetics these days.

 

[THC123]

well here all my vegetables are flowring much later

 

[Brickie]

I have the same thing!

Some are stuck in some strange "half flowering" stage. They aren't growing much either.

Now the ones that are firmly in veg are doing very well. Especially since the rain this week.

I think I have to wait until late may before I can put them out.

 

[nomaad]

None of my full season plants have jumped into early flower, but I am hearing reports that you are not the only ones with the problem.

This year's major challenge for me has been soil borne pathogens and root rot. I seem to be finally out of the woods.

 

[shrpshooter]

ds toker hotter than hell here also @ 35' n

 

[Guest 150314]

Same deal here .. It was cloudy and rainy from april-july.. hasn't been a cloud in the sky for all of july and hot as hell. Lot's of plants I put out started budding right away probably because of how cloudy it was. Some plants that I forced indoors for two weeks started to reveg after I put them out during the cloudy period .. very strange.

 

[badbeans]

guerilla grower checkin' in here at 39deg North. we had a nice long soaking rain last saturday, I planted out 6 mothers during a downpour on Tuesday. but since tuesday its been mid 90's and dry. some strains are growing like crazy with all the sun weve been having, others not so much... I'm glad I mixed in plenty of water crystals they really seem to help, first time I used them.

I'm keeping them wet/fed wether we get rain or not... i need the harvest.

I have a weather forcasting question for you all...

what is the difference between "scattered' thunderstorms and "isolated" thunderstorms? seems to me that scattered just means that the "chance of precip" in your area is higher... what say you?

keep em wet guerillas!

bb

 

[Brickie]

Maybe isolated thunderstorm means a storm that stays stationary. It rains until the cloud runs out of moisture.

Scattered may mean it develops and moves over a certain area. Bringing rain over a larger area.

I get up early for work so I water before I leave so no one sees me. I'm glad that the sun is coming up later. It gives me more time under the cover of darkness.

 

[straintester]

I live in Canada in a 4b zone and having the same thing going on
I've seen many of mine preflower for a long period of time but have one right now that starting flowering early and doesn't seem to want to go back to veg cycle.

I'm not sure if this means she will finish earlier than normal or whether she will be permanently messed up but it sure is interesting to see

Half of my others are in preflowering stage but only due to the age and type of strains they are.
My more indica strains haven't started doing any such thing and are completely in veg cycle still.

This is certainly interesting that others are seeing some changes this year also.

 

[Brickie]

It must be a characteristic of some strains. Some of the ones I put out in April are vegging but are rather small. Others are in that weird "half-flower" limbo.

Now the ones I put out in June/July are chugging along in veg. They don't seem confused about anything. Everyday they are bigger and bushier.

I think next year I'll let them get bigger in my basement under 18/6 until june. Then I'll put them out.

Once again patience seems to be the key in this occupation....

btw I'm at 40N.

 

[zapatoloco]

Put out earlier than usual because of particularly warm spring (east coastish 45N). Plants are now well over 7 feet tall and many have been showing signs of flowering since early july...unusual indeed !

 

[straintester]

I put mine out from having them veg in the basement, some for a couple of months and now most of them are 5 to 6 feet tall and about 4 to 5 feet wide, but I did some serious topping as well. They are like big bushes now.

'half flower' limbo...

hee heethats funny

 

[feral]

I think we should just blame Al Gore for the weather.

 

[D.S. Toker. MD]

I have the same story as you zapatoloco. I planted mid april and many are now over 7',and some are flowering. I'm curiouis like others about the pace of flower. Its one thing to see multiple pairs of hairs, its another to see them pile up into buds. 2 of the bigger plants that are in flower are 50 day bloomers and 3 are 60-67 day finishers. Im going out tommorow to see if there is any difference in the rate theyre packing on flowers. I hate slow flower developent as Brickie describes. Heat causes slow, stretchy bud development and i have high temps.

I have traditionally held Aug. 1 to make my determination about finish dates. I make rounds on 8/1 and determine when i should be able to harvest each specific plant. Usually if i see good flower development on Aug1, the 50 day bloomers will be done by 9/29and the 65 day plants should be done Oct 10-15th, but lots of things can happen in those last 60 days. Dry soil can slow things considerably, heat can add 7 - 10 days, the moon phase can add a week. Plenty of moisture can reduce the time but that same moisture can facilitate other problems.

Right now, my 40 plants indicate im looking at a about 12lbs, but ive learned you cant judge the success of your harvest until its ready for jars

 

[D.S. Toker. MD]

I have a question for everyone. Its one of my greatest frustrations

40% of my plants are within 1 mile of my home. Another 40% are within 2 miles an any direction which means that most of my plants are within 2 miles of my house. I do have 1 plot that is almost 3.5 miles to the North and another that is not quite 3 miles to the south, but all are fairly close by.

In years past, rain meant rain and that i didnt have to water. That hasnt been the case for a few years now. The amount of rain i recieve here often has no relationship to what happened even a mile up or down the road. Last week, my rain gauge here said 2.4 inches. My gauge at the northern site registered .12" and my plants to the south registerere 1.75". It had been 9 days since that rain so i went to the southern plants this morning to add 2 gallons of ferts/water and sometime during the night, that site recieved just over 2" of rain, while no other site recieved a single drop of rain at all. Ive been watering my most northern plants for 2 weeks now, but the most southern plants are soaked and i dont have to touch them for at least 2 weeks. The sites are hardly more than 6 miles apart.


My rain is now solely in the form of scattered thunderstorms and what happens at any given location doesnt reflect anything except the amount of rain in that spot. I have a cambells soup can as a rain gauge at every site because otherwise, i dont have anyway of knowing and recording how much moisture the site has recieved or if and when i need to water..

Do others have that problem?

 

[feral]

I have a question for everyone. Its one of my greatest frustrations

40% of my plants are within 1 mile of my home. Another 40% are within 2 miles an any direction which means that most of my plants are within 2 miles of my house. I do have 1 plot that is almost 3.5 miles to the North and another that is not quite 3 miles to the south, but all are fairly close by.

In years past, rain meant rain and that i didnt have to water. That hasnt been the case for a few years now. The amount of rain i recieve here often has no relationship to what happened even a mile up or down the road. Last week, my rain gauge here said 2.4 inches. My gauge at the northern site registered .12" and my plants to the south registerere 1.75". It had been 9 days since that rain so i went to the southern plants this morning to add 2 gallons of ferts/water and sometime during the night, that site recieved just over 2" of rain, while no other site recieved a single drop of rain at all. Ive been watering my most northern plants for 2 weeks now, but the most southern plants are soaked and i dont have to touch them for at least 2 weeks. The sites are hardly more than 6 miles apart.


My rain is now solely in the form of scattered thunderstorms and what happens at any given location doesnt reflect anything except the amount of rain in that spot. I have a cambells soup can as a rain gauge at every site because otherwise, i dont have anyway of knowing and recording how much moisture the site has recieved or if and when i need to water..

Do others have that problem?

I do. I'm having to haul water in whatever the conditions. My plot is about a mile from my house but that doesn't mean nothing. About 2 weeks ago we had a storm come through and if you looked out my dining room window you could barely see from the rain coming down. walk across the condo and looked out the living room window and it was drizzle only.
So I haul it up and water the plants regardless on less we have had some good rain storms like we did the beginning of the past week. When that happens I go up about 5 days later and water them since this heat is sucking the moisture right out of the soil. Just a pain because I have to crawl under 3 sets of downed trees, then walk through partial marsh/swampy area, then through sticker bushes/vines just to get to 4 plants.
But it goes with the territory of growing outside and just makes the smoke that much sweeter in the end.

PS: Like the idea of the 'rain gauge' cans at each site. Is there much evaporation in a short time? I would imagine so if your heat/humidity is like mines.

 

[.clunk]

edited.

 

[Panama Red]

I'm starting to see flowering on some of mine already too, at about 40°.

D.S., summer rains iare like that all over. Isolated.

Here in the N.E. I've seen it sunny when I leave the train station, go black within a ten minute ride and dump buckets, then clear 5 minutes down the track.

I"ve been in Fla. where you can stand on one side of the road it's sunny, across the street it's pouring and you can see a clear line in the road showing the wet/dry demarc sharp as a razor.

 

[D.S. Toker. MD]

Feral, the gauge is essential for me.

2 things.

1. I dug a little hole and sunk the can a couple of inches which keeps it closer to soil temps rather than air temps

2. There's a little 10' tree a few feet from the plants. Im not under it, but im about 5' to the north of it which means my can/rain gauge stays in the shade for most of the day which reduces evaporation. but....

i usually have to check it within a couple of days because if the site didnt get any rain or only alittle, ill have to start watering soon, so i cant wait long until i check.

Panama Red, thats happening here all the time and im not in florida!!