El Bandito Rides Again

[El Bandito]

Hola amigos! El Bandito has returned for a second season of backyard cultivation, equipped with some BOG genetics and a bit more knowledge than last year, thanks to all of you.

Today I put 11 girls into the greenhouse: 4 clones of my keeper BOG Sour Bubble (monster cropped) and 7 BOG Sour Strawberry Kush plants from seed. Everything is about ten weeks old.

The clones just got put in their final 25 gal smart pots and the seedlings are still in 3 gallon pots for another week or two. I am using Happy Frog soil amended with blood and bone meal and a bit of perlite.

Vamonos!

 

[944s2]

hiya,,welcome back el bandito,,best of luck and hope you have perfect weather for your new outdoor run,,peace and regards s2

 

[El Bandito]

Today is a very special day- last year on this exact date (June 1) I made my umpteenth half hour trek to the ghetto dispensary for some medicine. My back was killing me because my girlfriend and I had been planting a vegetable garden. I dropped over a hundred dollars on a quarter ounce of overrated flowers and, on a whim, bought a few clones. I had never grown before.

Now, just one year later, I am puffing away on my own mind blowing and delicious head stash from my third harvest. This year I got an earlier start, and instead of 3 inch clones, I have a robust collection of 18-24" tall clones and seedlings.

Beautiful Sour Strawberry Kush from seed:


Branchy SSK, also from seed:


Recently pruned Sour Bubble clones - since they were monster cropped, it is taking time to train them and focus the growth into the right areas:



Happy one year anniversary to me! And a special thanks to all of you for showing me the way. Good luck this year everyone!

Abrazos,

 

[anonymousgrow]

Looks good, I am sure you will kill it this year.

 

[El Bandito]

It's 105 degrees in the shade today and I have a dozen kushy indica plants out there in the greenhouse looking at a long scorching afternoon ahead of them. They are holding up, but when the sun finally goes down, they do some serious drooping. Between the careful and diligent watering, 3 inches of mulch, and a program of frequent foliar spraying with neem oil and protekt, we are dealing with the heat the best way we can.

Growth rates are super good on the sour strawberry Kush. The monster cropped sour bubble clones are a good deal slower, but that's to be expected. I am getting some nice smells from stem rubbing the SSK plants. There are 7 of them, and I just topped them a second time. Two cuttings from each went into my cloner on a 10/14 light cycle to see if I can identify the females. Gonna need to make some room in that greenhouse soon...

 

[944s2]

well done el bandito,plants look happy and healthy,,doing a great job,,keep safe,peace and regards 944s2,

 

[Hazy Eye]

Your plants are looking great!
Tagging up for this one.
Good Luck this season.

 

[DevilWeedSeeds]

Looks like where in for another special season this year! Happy outdoor garden.

 

[El Bandito]

We're gonna need a bigger boat!

I was away for 3 days on a business trip and the plants have exploded with new growth.

 

[Chunkypigs]

Whoa! the bandit un-masks!. your girls are looking good. welcome back.

 

[Mr.Fastcast]

Those are nice plants man! Anxious to see them flower.Looks like you'll get a good harvest.

 

[Infinitesimal]

hey there El Bandito,

I had lurked through your grow last year... and thought I would make sure I get a seat for this years show.

good choice on the bog gear, it does great at this latitude... I have a Sour Bubble pheno that when grown, well, outdoors it produces as high quality as any indoor...



they can be done by the end of sept. to the beginning of oct. too

 

[El Bandito]

Yeah Chunky- I was going to cover up my face, and then I just thought "what the hell" because I'm not breaking the law or anything. Hope all is going well with you!

Thanks for dropping by, Fastcast! I'm anxious to see what happens with these, and a bit intimidated by the idea of dealing with plants that are so much bigger than the ones I've dealt with in the past.

Infinitesimal- thanks for coming out of the shadows! Those trich pics sure do look familiar. You just can't stack any more resin glands on these things. Glad to hear that others have had success outdoors in this latitude. Indoor quality (or as close as possible) is my goal as well. I wish I had a way to do light dep so I could finish them even earlier and spare those flowers a few extra weeks of baking in the sun. I just can't see me being able to control the temps in there with a big thick tarp pulled over it at 8PM. I only have one pheno of the SB in my greenhouse, so I hope it's one that performs well outdoors. It's got thinner leaves and is more branchy than the cornstalk-type leaves.


These things have tripled in size in just three weeks- it's amazing to watch. The leaves on some of these SSK plants are twice as big as my hand already. More pics soon.

 

[Infinitesimal]

Yeah Chunky- I was going to cover up my face, and then I just thought "what the hell" because I'm not breaking the law or anything. Hope all is going well with you!

Thanks for dropping by, Fastcast! I'm anxious to see what happens with these, and a bit intimidated by the idea of dealing with plants that are so much bigger than the ones I've dealt with in the past.

Infinitesimal- thanks for coming out of the shadows! Those trich pics sure do look familiar. You just can't stack any more resin glands on these things. Glad to hear that others have had success outdoors in this latitude. Indoor quality (or as close as possible) is my goal as well. I wish I had a way to do light dep so I could finish them even earlier and spare those flowers a few extra weeks of baking in the sun. I just can't see me being able to control the temps in there with a big thick tarp pulled over it at 8PM. I only have one pheno of the SB in my greenhouse, so I hope it's one that performs well outdoors. It's got thinner leaves and is more branchy than the cornstalk-type leaves.

this plant is the pole type pheno and resembles a lot, the Sour Bubble bud that BOG vends.

I had a branchy pheno that did almost as well quality wise (still indoor quality just not as kick ass as this cut) and yielded twice as much.

I didn't notice any issues handling the heat... it was the moisture "morning dew", because of the bud density, that came on in october that caused a small amount of mold in the pheno pictured... the branchy phenos handled the moisture much better and didn't notice any mold or mildew on them... but with your greenhouse the moisture shouldn't be an issue anyways... so you're probably golden.

here is the branchy pheno... the pics aren't great... its more of an OG type bud

 

[El Bandito]

Yeah that looks more like mine. Probably has a bit more of that coffee/chocolate smell as well. It's the one that I had tested- just over 20 percent THC.

So I'm kinda nervous that at least one of them might be TOO branchy, with SB being such a dense strain. The monster cropping sure did a number, I got a super early start, and I more than doubled the size of my pots this time. It's probably difficult to see from these pictures but this is ridiculous:





Don't know if I should prune them heavy, use bamboo, maybe wrap it with hortinova later, etc. I feel a bit scared. This is going to be an adventure for sure. I should probably re-read Pure Knowledge's thread to brush up on how to care for Sour Bubble trees.

 

[Infinitesimal]

I like to remove big fan leaves from the interior of the canopy... and bend the growing shoots down and out... it allows more air flow and much much more light penetration... which results in less "larf" meaning a better quality/heavier yield.

you should rarely ever need to remove a branch, if you defoliate

 

[MrSterling]

Bandito, you a cousin of Anthony Bourdain?

 

[El Bandito]

Got it Infinite. Makes sense to me- thanks so much for taking the time to share.

Hehe Sterling! I am a fan of his- I read his memoir several years ago and he's my kind of traveler. I firmly believe that the richest experiences come from spin what the locals do.

For those near Sacto that are familiar with the News and Review, I thought this pic would add some perspective to show the size of these SSK leaves:

 

[Smoke Buddy]

Looking good Bandito. Very healthy, should be a great season for you. That leaf is huge. I had some big leaves from the BOG SourBubble as I recall. Not that big though. Im a little north of Sac growing in 30G smarties this year. Best wishes on your grow neighbor!

 

[Infinitesimal]

the county still allows outdoor grows right? I remember some cities/counties were banning outdoor grows, because of the smell or something... don't remember hearing if sac county did it not?