Motherlode Gardens 2014

[bigherb]

How come I went through those conditions in my field this year, and have none then?

Have you also experienced 40/50 degree temps at the same time as 4 days of rain an 80% humidity ? Did you also experience all these conditions near harvest ?


I'm thankful for all you an others share , there is immense knowledge comin from the IC fam especially in the OD section

But mold in certain areas an conditions IME seems inevitable


1luvbigherb

 

[Bulldog420]

Think you guys are missing the point. If you listened to the webinare you would understand.

You can't grow healthy plants if it's raining for 2 weeks non-stop. However you can grow a plant that has enough stored energy to make it through 4 days of rain no problem. I believe the problem most growers experience is lack of nutrition late in the season. Most pot growers think you should stop fertilizing up to a month before harvest. People are now learning that is the main cause of PM, bud rot and bud damage is lack of nutrition late in the season. Listen to the webinare.

Which one is it? BYF said genetics play no role. You appear to support his point while contradicting it.

Genetics do play a role in how a plant grows naturally, and how easy it is to grow, which effects plant health. However, if you have a plant that is 100% healthy and adequately fed you will find it's impossible to develop PM, bugs ext. So some plants are easy to keep healthy and that's due to genetics, however a healthy plant doesn't get sick. From og kush to pumpkins.

 

[Red Berry]

if you have a plant that is 100% healthy and adequately fed you will find it's impossible to develop PM, bugs ext.

No.

 

[mendo-local]

Think you guys are missing the point. If you listened to the webinare you would understand.

You can't grow healthy plants if it's raining for 2 weeks non-stop. However you can grow a plant that has enough stored energy to make it through 4 days of rain no problem. I believe the problem most growers experience is lack of nutrition late in the season. Most pot growers think you should stop fertilizing up to a month before harvest. People are now learning that is the main cause of PM, bud rot and bud damage is lack of nutrition late in the season. Listen to the webinare.



Genetics do play a role in how a plant grows naturally, and how easy it is to grow, which effects plant health. However, if you have a plant that is 100% healthy and adequately fed you will find it's impossible to develop PM, bugs ext. So some plants are easy to keep healthy and that's due to genetics, however a healthy plant doesn't get sick. From og kush to pumpkins.

Alright then I have a clone for you that I promise you will grow the biggest most beautiful buds you've ever seen. .... if you could grow it with out it rotting out on you. Challenge on?
Edit- nevermind... for some reason I thought you were a big plant outdoor guy.

 

[Yes4Prop215]

What you're missing is that when you hand them the paper bags with the herb thats partially bucked down they can separate the fan leaves and stems and throw those out then start trimming and put the close trim in a separate bag ...

You lose money on a big scene paying labor to big leaf. You're going to pay for trimming. Paying for pre trimming is crazy.

me and my partner have been having crazy debates about this exact subject. big leafing sucks…and yes it costing a fuckload extra in labor to have it done. but the trim from it is top notch and is gonna yield around 800 for every LB of popcorn/sugar leaf trim we can convert to extract. on the flip side the per LB trim price is low at 150 since its already been big leafed.

but honestly, if i had to do it all over again, i might just cut and hang and instruct the trimmers to deleaf the fans before and maybe pay them 160-180 a LB to separate it…

my partner is big into hash making so thats why we are paying extra in labor to deleaf everything… but really i see no difference. our friend who didn't deleaf at all might be throwing away his trim, but his trimmers are still knocking out 3-4 a day and say they prefer to just do it that way. his trim is trash though, so much fan leaf in there…he's throwing away thousands of dollars in the name of convenience..

i have a huge market for BHO and ice wax so we are squeezing every penny out of this crop….our yield suffered because of the fucking norcal blend PK lockout so we have to make up in every way possible. the 200 gal smart pots are out yielding the 3 yard mounds which is damn near infuriating…but fuck it at this point the cash is rolling in and all you can do is plan for next year.

 

[Bulldog420]

Alright then I have a clone for you that I promise you will grow the biggest most beautiful buds you've ever seen. .... if you could grow it with out it rotting out on you. Challenge on?
Edit- nevermind... for some reason I thought you were a big plant outdoor guy.

I would take that challenge. Why don't you think I am a big plant guy? Just because I moved this season and didn't plant until July 14th? Give me whatever plant you want and I will grow it full season next year. Unless it's bammer.

If your truly down, stakes? What's the wager? What's the rules?

 

[Backyard Farmer]

me and my partner have been having crazy debates about this exact subject. big leafing sucks…and yes it costing a fuckload extra in labor to have it done. but the trim from it is top notch and is gonna yield around 800 for every LB of popcorn/sugar leaf trim we can convert to extract. on the flip side the per LB trim price is low at 150 since its already been big leafed.

but honestly, if i had to do it all over again, i might just cut and hang and instruct the trimmers to deleaf the fans before and maybe pay them 160-180 a LB to separate it…

my partner is big into hash making so thats why we are paying extra in labor to deleaf everything… but really i see no difference. our friend who didn't deleaf at all might be throwing away his trim, but his trimmers are still knocking out 3-4 a day and say they prefer to just do it that way. his trim is trash though, so much fan leaf in there…he's throwing away thousands of dollars in the name of convenience..

i have a huge market for BHO and ice wax so we are squeezing every penny out of this crop….our yield suffered because of the fucking norcal blend PK lockout so we have to make up in every way possible. the 200 gal smart pots are out yielding the 3 yard mounds which is damn near infuriating…but fuck it at this point the cash is rolling in and all you can do is plan for next year.

If you need me to post a pic of the trim to how you its possible I'd be happy to do so.

Big leading is a huge waste of time and money...

I spend less than your daily rate to harvest all 6 of my patches.

A real business would factor in the labor savings from not big leafing when factoring in the trim pound price. If it takes you 2 weeks to harvest and you were paying 1500 a day to harvest 14 x 1.5 = 21k , are u subtracting that from potential BHO or ice wax profits ?

 

[Shcrews]

We spent about 5k total on big leafing. I expect to make at least double that from the close trim bho, plus the savings on trimming ~100lbs at 150/lb instead of 200. So by big leafing we will make an additional 10k at least

But like i said if i had a few hundred lbs i probably wouldnt bother. Prop said it best, we need to squeeze every dollar.

 

[Backyard Farmer]

We spent about 5k total on big leafing. I expect to make at least double that from the close trim bho, plus the savings on trimming ~100lbs at 150/lb instead of 200. So by big leafing we will make an additional 10k at least

But like i said if i had a few hundred lbs i probably wouldnt bother. Prop said it best, we need to squeeze every dollar.

Why wouldn't you just pay 150 a lb that's the going rate leafed or not..

The point im making is that you don't need to do ANYTHING to prep the herb for trimmers other than cut it dry it and buck it down...they're there to trim. Big leafing, bucking... It's all part of it.

Those are all things they'd do if served the stalk whole out of the dry room.

There's literally no reason to pay them multiple times for the same job or the break the job up in to multiple phases that each one has a different rate

you spent that 5k on leafing ...your trim cost actually has an extra 50 rolled in to it if you cropped 100 units so you just paid them 50 a unit to leaf and 150 to clean it so your rates right back at 200 per lb

If you want to squeeze out every dollar, spend less dollars. Every one saved is 100% profit!

Imagine what that extra 5000 could have done for your infrastructure?

I'll probably crop close to 4 times as much , and my labor cost for harvesting is less than 1/4 of the money you spent on just leafing...

Money saved is money earned,

 

[Siskiyou]

I'll probably crop close to 4 times as much , and my labor cost for harvesting is less than 1/4 of the money you spent on just leafing...

Really? You sure say some things.

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Beautiful garden Shcrews. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Yes4Prop215]

If it takes you 2 weeks to harvest and you were paying 1500 a day to harvest 14 x 1.5 = 21k , are u subtracting that from potential BHO or ice wax profits ?

yea its gonna get subtracted….potential wax profits at low end estimate are over 50k this year @ 60lbs a trim/pop, and i still have more of the garden to take down and a fuckload left to trim, so yea the labor costs eat into that significantly but its still an extra 30-40k, just have to work alot harder to get that but its still squeezing every penny. i would guestimate that its around a 50% profit margin after costs, its costing 1 dollar in deleaf for every 2 dollars in hash.

i dont know we are on our last 15 or so plants and I'm tempted to just put all the deleafing machines away and instruct trimmers to pre-trim all their buds into a separate bag but honestly i can see them complaining about that unless i up the rate a bit…..i have to go look at the latest labor bill to get a better idea. part of the deleafing process also includes popcorn separation which is also significantly adding to our trim/popcorn weight totals. i have so much hash material its already getting backed up…

if I'm paying them 150 to trim deleafed herb with no separation, I dont think they are going to want to add another step of work without some kind of up charge. my neighbor who skipped deleafing is paying his trimmers 150 but they dont separate shit. they would also want an up charge for separation at dry trim. i guess the only way to remedy that is to set the standard on next years scene that 150 includes them doing an initial dry deleaf before trimming. it also means more bags, more trim bins, thing are already crowded enough with just one bin per trimmer. i dont know, i will talk to the crew today and see what they think about dry deleaf.

 

[DAT]

jeez this is some serious chit here. how much do you big farmers actually make in profit a season, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Red Berry]

jeez this is some serious chit here. how much do you big farmers actually make in profit a season, if you don't mind me asking?

you should start a thread just for that and then we can get started on that list....

 

[Bulldog420]

so the first person to direct me to a peer-reviewed study on the issue, wins.

http://www.bionutrient.org/audio/2013_soil_nutrition_conference/a-01-31-2013-JohnKempf.mp3

Been listing again to this, so I noted where it talks about plant health and immunity to disease. 1h16m - 1h23m. The whole lecture is all about this, but I felt those who care to listen to this point of view now know where to look without having to listen to all 2 hours. Really this is part of an 8 hour seminar, that I thoroughly enjoyed listening to.

 

[Yes4Prop215]

jeez this is some serious chit here. how much do you big farmers actually make in profit a season, if you don't mind me asking?

pretty much nothing since it all just gets reinvested like a proper "non profit" does!

but seriously i know alot of people see those revenue numbers and get big $$ signs in their eyes, but those numbers dont include infrastructure investment, revolving monthly costs, the amount of work this shit is and how much your regular life suffers because of it, i can go on and on….

i forgot to include that since we dont make the BHO ourselves since its technically illegal, i have to have someone else do it for 20-25% depending on quality. we make all the ice wax ourselves so that would be better margins.

basically it all comes down to time with deleafing, if a storms on the way maybe better to skip it. but if you can afford the extra time, the margins might not be as good but its still a margin. my initial convos with people today indicate that no one wants to dry deleaf unless the rate gets upped to 200 a lb, and i dont want to have to deal with separating dry so I'm just gonna keep them on wet leafing for now. I'm only using 4 people now so my daily costs aren't too much…they just spiked during that huge push we made last week on the glues and pies.

 

[Backyard Farmer]

Really? You sure say some things.

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Beautiful garden Shcrews. Thanks for sharing.

Truly.

I spent less than 1250 to chop my entire garden.

How? Minimize labor ... No big leafing , my girl hangs everything up , me and one and at most two other people working in the field.

Can take down 8-10 plants per day that way.

 

[DAT]

Thanks for reply YESProp215...wow, It still seems fun to me though. Its seems a job that kinda GROWS on you. its so spiritual and unpredictable which makes it challenging and super exciting!!! Good luck with your farming business.
Do you ever see yourself doing anything else?

 

[Backyard Farmer]

Dry deleafing is super easy , they get the bucked down bag and it's got big leaf in it, takes literally less than 30 min per grocery sack for eh em to deleafing and buck it down off the stick and throw the trash away...

They'll only up charge you because you're letting your workers dictate their pay instead of being a boss and setting standards for standard work and explaining to them they can get whole plants if u choose to chop and dry that way and they should be happy to do any work associated with trimming for the agreed upon trimming cost...

 

[Shcrews]

Byf You are assuming that our trimmers will do more work for the same money. Like y4p said, they will not be into that, and since my trimmers are friends i dont feel like firing them

And you are saying that big leaves arent harder to separate/trash once they have dried on the buds/branches. I disagree with that. And oil comes out darker when made from trim that contains fan leaves.

To me it sound like you are suggesting i find a new trim crew just so i can save a few grand and end up with useless trim. Maybe i am wrong, or am misundarstanding you. Either way it dont matter til next year cuz everythings already chopped and leafed

Respect your opinion tho so i will keep it in mind.

 

[Shcrews]

Pono we are entering our Ancient OG in the emerald cup i think, or whatever else turns out the best