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Aloha from my Hawaiian Medical Garden

cornvillain

New member
Hi,
I've been a fan of this site and the wealth of knowledge that it contains for quite a while now, however this is my first time actually participating. In fact, this is the first time I've ever participated in any online forum so please excuse any bone head newbie mistakes I might make. I've been blown away by the level of knowledge and expertise that many of the members on this site possess, and any advice or suggestions from veteran growers will be greatly appreciated

I'm lucky enough to live in beautiful hawaii, and I've been growing cannabis for a few years now for my own personal medical use as well as for a handful of other people who have made me their official caretaker. Medicinal laws here are not quite as lax as in California--each card entitles the patient to grow seven plants (3 flowering and 4 vegging), so while the medical cards ad the invaluable trait of legality, the restrictions on number of plants creates some challenges as far as maximizing yield and efficiency.

One thing that we in hawaii are blessed (or cursed) with is a latitude and climate that makes it possible for plants to flower year round. This is nice because I'm able to perpetually harvest all throughout the year, but the lack of a long season makes it harder to get my plants as big as some of the multi-lb monsters that I see on this sight. I get around the short days by using supplemental light, and multiple transplants to extend my girls' vegging time. Every day I take the the plants outside in the morning to soak up the lovely hawaiian sun and then carry them back inside at night to spend their nights under fluorescents.

I start my plants in one gallon pots and transplant every three weeks or so. My clones start in one gal. pots and then are transplanted to two gals, then to 5 gals, then to 10 gals, and finally I transplant into 45 where I either give them a week or so of extra light to recover from transplant shock and establish roots before going into flower, or just let them go straight to flower. By using this method I've been able to pretty consistently produce 8-16 oz. plants year round.

I use all organic soil and nutrients. I also use compost and fermi-compost teas in the soil as well as a foliar spray. I've mainly been using roots organic 707, and I make a super soil that contains 707, worm castings, fish bone meal, Guano, Kelp meal, as well as some other odds and ends. I put the super soil in the bottoms of my pots as my main nutrient system but also occasionally feed with molasses, and other over-priced fertilizers from the hydro store. I collect rain water which I mostly use for waterings, but also use city water which I aerate before use.

I thought I'd share my little production in the interest of getting some feedback and maybe some suggestions of how I could do things better, as well as showing the mainland growers how you can do things out here on the aina. Any constructive comments would be awesome. Thanks everybody in advance!

 

cornvillain

New member
IMG_1543_zps782b4413.jpg
 

hup234

Active member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
looks good ,I've used construction string lights 1 hr per night to keep out of flower and not have to move plants around,Big Island aloha
 

TheFlyinHaWyn!

Active member
very nice bro, how do you control the pests? expecially bringing them out and in at night? really tho, you are killing it with that method, i doubt there are things that the mainlanders will be able to help you with. you start from seed? that is impressive, what strains are you running? aloha bro, good to see another local brother killing it out there.
 
howzit. nice place you got there. everything is looking real happy in the sun. Just started making EWC and going to try run a organic grow next flip. You got some impressive plants bro.

Aloha
 

cornvillain

New member
Thanks for the comments!
Hup234: I really like the idea of using construction string lights and just vegging them in big pots instead of doing all the transplanting. That way I can avoid all the transplant shock. Just gotta figure out a way to separate them enough to avoid re-vegging in the other flowering plants. How long do you usually keep the lights on?

Flyinhawyn: Shoots brah thanks. The only real pests that effect me where I am (elevation 3000 ft.) are caterpillars and the occasional rat attack. I spray safer caterpillar killer which seems to be pretty effective and try to kill as many rats as possible because they can and have done some serious damage (the electronic rat traps are good--expensive but effective). I do struggle with powdery mildew but I try to spray with either serenade or safer fungicide about once a week and it does a pretty good job. I have grown some plants from seed but mostly just clone. It's not worth dealing with the males for me especially with the medical restrictions on numbers. I run a lot of strains but my main ones are Dutch Treat (which is the shit), Hash Plant, Headbanger, and Grape Ape. I just got a Godzilla start which I'm pretty excited about as well.

Country Bandit: Thanks man. I have a few worm bins and try to harvest and use the castings as much as possible. It's super easy. If you plan on making teas I will say that you might as well invest in the beefier air pump. The more air you got going through the tea the better it does and it's less likely to go rotten. Here's what I use:
IMG_1546_zps0220f831.jpg


I'll try to get more pics up soon. Kinda tough this kind of year 'cause the plants just aren't as vigorous as usual.
 

OLDproLg

Active member
Veteran
Very good!!

Did better than me on the pics!
Mine only come out small...
Look like a nice private spot!!!
Cool...
 

Swamp Thang

Well-known member
Veteran
Hello Cornvillain. Your place is picture-perfect beautiful, and with that tropical climate your plants will grow like crazy.

Lived in SoCal for a while, and just about everyone I spoke to there dreamed of relocating to Hawaii some day. From those pictures you put up of your garden, I can see why everyone in Cali is Hawaii dreaming.

Those are some mouth-watering buds you have growing as well. I couldn't help wondering whether there are any local Hawaiian strains that you ever cultivate. I remember with nostalgia toking on highly fragrant buds of Kona Gold and kickass Maui Wowee, back in the day in Cali.

In that last shot you posted, is that a tree of ripening longan fruit, or is it a citrus tree ? Just curious. I bought a few hundred longan seeds from a vendor in Hawaii last year, and after having those highly perishable seeds shipped half-way around the world, a few managed to survive the ordeal, and will one day be the first ever longans to fruit in this part of the world.

Aloha, and all the best with those killer buds growing under the tropica sun.
 

Greyskull

Twice as clear as heaven and twice as loud as reas
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Aloha from my Hawaiian Medical Garden

How long do you let your dutch treat go for?
 

cornvillain

New member
Hello Cornvillain. Your place is picture-perfect beautiful, and with that tropical climate your plants will grow like crazy.

Lived in SoCal for a while, and just about everyone I spoke to there dreamed of relocating to Hawaii some day. From those pictures you put up of your garden, I can see why everyone in Cali is Hawaii dreaming.

Those are some mouth-watering buds you have growing as well. I couldn't help wondering whether there are any local Hawaiian strains that you ever cultivate. I remember with nostalgia toking on highly fragrant buds of Kona Gold and kickass Maui Wowee, back in the day in Cali.

In that last shot you posted, is that a tree of ripening longan fruit, or is it a citrus tree ? Just curious. I bought a few hundred longan seeds from a vendor in Hawaii last year, and after having those highly perishable seeds shipped half-way around the world, a few managed to survive the ordeal, and will one day be the first ever longans to fruit in this part of the world.

Aloha, and all the best with those killer buds growing under the tropica sun.
Thanks for the support and kind words man. Unfortunately that tree is just a big tangerine tree. Never heard of Longan before--sounds interesting. Good luck with that.
 

cornvillain

New member
How long do you let your dutch treat go for?

Greyskull, whatup man. ideally I try to let the DT go about 9 weeks although this time of year it seems like it finishes a little earlier like around 8 weeks.
I'm a huge fan of the strain because of the hardiness, growth rate, bud density, cloning ease, and mildew resistance, not to mention I think it's real nice smoke as well. I saw you were growing some yourself--looks really nice. How long have you been letting them go for? I think we might live in a similar neck of the woods, and it seems like you got your shit together pretty good. Maybe we could swap a few strains some time if you're interested.
 

Greyskull

Twice as clear as heaven and twice as loud as reas
ICMag Donor
Veteran
upcountry maui is the place to be if you ask me

everything i grow gets allotted 63 days in the cage before it needs to come out and the next wave goes in... thats the schedule ive set up for myself anyways...
but to answer your question directly hahahaha
between 60 & 63
thanks for the kind words
 
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