[OvergrowDaWorld]

Originally Posted by OvergrowDaWorld

AFTER STAKING AND ROPE ~
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What a difference a few weeks make during stretch.

Aug 8th ~



AUG 24th ~

[two heads]

Well for a site that I thought would be maintenance-free, it's been a lot of work lately. There were more strong winds on Monday so I went out Tuesday to see how my staking held up. The good news is none of the plants had tipped over but the two that had tipped in August had many broken branches, likely weakened by falling the first time - none of the other plants had any damage. The Sweet Tooth that had tipped right over was in particularly bad shape. This is what I saw when I arrived. You can see that almost all the lower branches on the Sweet Tooth on the right had sheared at the main stem and were turned downward:



It may be a lost cause but I spent quite a bit of time carefully putting the branches back in position and tying them to the main stem with twine. It was almost dark when I finished so these pics are quite blurry:





The other thing that concerns me is how much yellowing is going on with the sun leaves. I know it's normal but the last two visits it seems a bit extreme for so early in flowering. They also seem a bit spindly compared to previous years in the same swamp. I added flowering fertilizer to all five pots in case it's a nutrient issue. Here's the best looking Sweet Tooth, followed by the biggest Critical + 2.0. They both look like they could be denser and seem to have a lot of yellowing sun leaves (which I removed after the pics were taken):





Bud pics (such as they are) to follow.

[two heads]

All the plants are at roughly the same stage of flowering and I expect they will be done by the end of September-early October. Again, it seems to me the sun leaves have started to die back far ahead of what the bud development would indicate. Here's how they look.

Sweet Tooth, plant #1



Sweet Tooth, plant #2 (the damaged one)



Sweet Tooth, plant #3 (the best of the lot)



Critical + 2.0, plant #1



Critical + 2.0, plant #2 (getting too dark for close-ups so just a shot of the top of this very tall plant)



In addition to the repair work, spreading more slug bait and fertilizing I also added more stakes to keep the pots from tipping and tied the main stems off to sturdy vegetation where I could (not easy in a swamp). I don't want to make many more visits before harvest. After so many years, my pathways are starting to be more noticeable, to my eyes anyway. I'll probably go back in a few weeks to judge potential harvest date(s). Hopefully none of the plants are a total loss but such are the vagaries of guerilla growing. Never any guarantees.

[Dday391]

They look way nicer than my plants this year. I lost a bunch early and now I'm stuck with the late starts.. It's been a rough one this year. But I hope the feed you gave gets them through to the end. Good luck

[OvergrowDaWorld]

You really need to add some nutrients to your soil. Maybe a tbl spoon of bat guano or worm castings at the base of each stalk?

[two heads]

Agreed, I gave them each a dose of flowering (15-30-15) fertilizer while i was there. Normally the Osmocote seems to be plenty for the approximately 3 month season. I gave them the same amount of Osmocote as usual even though the root pouches are 10 gallon and the totes they replaced were about 15 gallon so I'm at a loss to explain the deficiency.

Would a natural fertilizer like guano or worm castings break down fast enough to help the plants given they only have 3-4 weeks left?

[OvergrowDaWorld]

Ya, probably not. Maybe just keep going there and give them heavy feedings every 3 days until harvest?

[two heads]

I can't call this season a failure - I managed to harvest almost 22 oz. off these 5 plants - but it definitely falls into the category of a learning experience. The yield could have been much higher if it weren't for a mysterious nutrient deficiency that hit the plants over the last half of the season.

Everything looked great at the end of July but every visit after that was progressively worse. Since I used the same amount of Osmocote as I have every year for the last 20 years, it took me a while to figure out that the early yellowing leaves were a nutrient issue and not a trait of these strains I had never grown. By then it was almost too late. On September 5 I gave them a dose of flowering fertilizer and when I went back on September 27 it was pretty shocking. Some branches had recovered and some had died off so each plant was a mix of fairly healthy green branches and sad looking brown ones. I cut the dead branches off and returned on October 2 to harvest everything.

This is typical of how they looked on harvest day. This is one of the Critical + 2.0:



Fortunately the remaining branches looked better on closer inspection. Here's a bud shot from that plant:



I think I've figured out what the problem was. This was the first year I've used Root Pouches, a type of landscape fabric pot. We had a fair bit of rain this summer and I think too much fertilizer leached out of the pot through the fabric. My old Rubbermaid totes had holes in the bottom but otherwise contained water and nutrients quite well. If I had added fertilizer regularly during August and September this year I think everything would have been fine. I'm not used to doing this using Osmocote (which I've only ever had to apply once per season) but it's certainly a lesson learned if I continue with Root Pouches.

I'll post a bunch of bud shots in the next post. The plants looked pretty bad but buds always look good!

[two heads]

I'll have enough bud for the year which is always cause for celebration when you're guerilla gardening but it could have been much better. As I left the swamp at dusk on October 2 I felt a wave of nostalgia. I've had a site in this swamp for at least 15 years and, if Trudeau follows through on his promise to legalize home growing, I may not be back. It felt weird and there's a part of me that thinks I'll be back anyway. Legality won't stop rippers so having a back-up guerilla site will probably always be a good idea. We'll see how I feel next spring when it comes time to venture back into the icy swamp waters.

In the meantime, here are some bud pics, starting with Sweet Tooth:







And Critical + 2.0:





Both strains were new to me and I'm quite happy with both of them. The Sweet Tooth is nicely balanced hybrid and reminded me of other balanced hybrid favourites from the past, including Blue Velvet and our own Baby's Breath (still have seeds but haven't grown it for a few years because feminized makes so much sense in the swamp). Of the two strains, Sweet Tooth is better for night time. It's not overly couch-lock but it does leave you mellower than the Critical.

The Critical + 2.0 is a good find. It may be the early sativa I've been looking for for a long time. I've been disappointed by other sativas that were early but lacking potency, Serious Six and Thai Rain come to mind, but this one has good potency and a really great upbeat high. Fantastic as the first smoke of the day and very motivating. Great for making music, riding bikes, cleaning the kitchen - whatever, just do it!

That's it for 2017. A bit of a mixed bag but as long as the bag is full come October, I'm happy. I may or may not be back to this swamp but it will never leave me. Such great memories of guerilla growing. I wonder if legal growing will seem boring by comparison?

[bestothebest]

Im worried about the future of legalization. It means huge taxes, and saying how many plants you have, copyright suits, etc... Plus there always is that thrill of walking out to a remote location that no one else knows about to see an illegal plant, growing up towards the sky.