EPIC GROW 2016

[nvmedigrower 69]

hello all hope you guys are having a good day. any ways iv been working on my 2016 medical grow. i have the green house all ready. doing some things a little diffrent this year. i dug about a 30 gal hole and mixed 1/3 peat moss,compost and perilite 1 gal chicken compost. also bat guano and happy frog bone meal with the mycroize.  i got the beans started and they are doing awsome. there is white widow, super silver haze, og kush, super skunck, sour dielsel and gold leaf.i started them in 1 liter super root pots. i hope that will keep them from becoming root bound.  any ways i plan on putting them in the ground as soon as they get big enough i put them out side for the day so they could get some nice sun. i started them with a 1000 watt mh with a dimmebal ballest seems to do nicely. well ill keep you all updated as the summer progresses

[nvmedigrower 69]

got some cages built to suport those massives buds and to train the plants 

[nvmedigrower 69]

so a quick update. i got them all planted in the greenhouse. and they seem to be doing nicely. aslo there were no signs if being root bound. they looked awsome. in my opinion the 1 liter super root pots are worth the money for getting plants ready to put in the good old ground

[nvmedigrower 69]

so yesterday i removed the plastic covers and put plastic chicken wire. to prevent cats from using the greenhouse as a bathroom. seems to be doing the trick. also went to some sun tunnels to watch the solstice sun line up with the tunnels. it was a good time

[nvmedigrower 69]

why hello. so quick update.  i fed the girls today. i used one gal soultion per plant of gro big by fox farms. i bought it for my tomatoes but got the wrong one. so i guess ill try it on the girls.  i also put a half teaspoon of armor si by general hydroponics . a silica suplement to help make the stems strong and reduce stress we have been having 50 degree f temps changes from day to night. but every thing seems to be doing good. the soil mixture i used is teaming with life and is poping up mushrooms. tomorrow im going to get some worms to through in and put down some straw to help hold in the the water 

[nvmedigrower 69]

i also have a question. so i was watching some youtube on tomatoe groing and they were doing some foiler spraing with a mild solution of calcium. magniesum.   i did it to the tomatoes this morning but skipped the magniesum. and put armor si. cause the maxi bloom from gh has magniesum. what i was wondering is if any one has tried it out on there girls and do you think it helped any. i have never foiler fed my plants before so its all new to me. thanks

[nvmedigrower 69]

so today i got every thing in the works. im pretty excited. i got a real nice ph meter. my well water is an 8 so pretty high. i also got some GH ph down.  my chart says water feed water for the fox farms grow big. so i just watered and put in the armor si. cause when mixed with other stuff it turns to a nasty slime. i was also surprised how much it raised the ph 1 teaspoon in 5 gal of water raised it to a 9. so i brought it to a 6.3 and fed 2 gallons per plant.  i aslo got some more bat guano to mix in with my nutrient solution. i tilled the soil lightly with my fingers then covered with straw as a mulch. i pulled out the cages. and will put back when they need it. they where kinda in the way. i also took off the bottom branches so they didnt touch the straw.  so any ways here are some pics in order. og kush, super silver haze, gold leaf, white widow, sour diesel and super skunck. 

[nvmedigrower 69]

so the pics are back words from the bottom up they are in order

[Dust 6,284]

Hello Man! Looking promising around here   I wish for you that it will end in some nice fat bushes

 

Concerning the foliar feeding, if the other solution you had with the calcium had magnesium already you probably did good not adding more, but in general the cal and mag in plain soil if you see the plants do not have underfeeding of cal/mag better not start touching it too much, but the foliar feeding in general is a good thing, try to use the cleanest water posible, osmosis or deminerilzed if you can, and remember to give them a wash from time to time with only water to clean a little bit the stoma and make sure they do not get obstruated. 

 

Have a good grow !

[nvmedigrower 69]

ya for sure. thanks for the insite dust . ya they seem to be growing like a weed. i hope i didnt wait too long to start but i have faith these girls are very important. they have a job to do.  so whats your thought on dealing with grasshoppers?

[Dust 6,284]

Only thing you can do is poison for insect and lots of hungry birds around your grow there are some efficient posion for them you can use it without problem in veg time. try to find some good grasshoper predator, maybe some lizards ^^

[nvmedigrower 69]

ya i was afraid you were going to say that lol. have you ever heard if making a pepper spray out of hot chili peppers.  i dount think it would hurt the plants. its not a problem yet but i see it in the neer future. i just dount like the fact of using poison. got to love growing outdoors you never know whats going to happen. but its a good gamble. 

[Dust 6,284]

There are probably a lots of organic way to fight the grasshoper, poison doesnt have to be chemical

[Cannabissapean 1,223]

Neem Oil (an extract from a plant) is good.  It makes the plant taste bad to most insects.  It should be used primarily during Vegg-Stage, but it can be used sparingly during Bloom-Stage (of course avoiding the flowers where possible).  It is harmless to humans as long as you stop spraying it 2 or 3 weeks before harvesting.  The harmful effects are minimal, but one should still read the MSDS on Neem Oil to understand what effects there may be. 

And if you have EVER sprayed anything chemical on your plants, it is always a good idea to foliar-spray-rinse your plants of any residues a couple times during those last 2 or 3 weeks before harvest (of course avoiding too much rinsing of the blooms). 

Grasshoppers can be quite aggressive eaters of cannabis.  I agree with Dust.  A couple pair of lizards might be just the trick.

BUUUTTT, you have cats too.  Hmmm.....

You could try predatory wasps or some good spiders.  For Grasshoppers, you might need to get some big jumping spiders or writing spiders.  Small web-building spiders probably cannot take down a grasshopper.  I don't know what kind of spiders are available to you there in NV.

You could contact your local County Co-Op and ask them for their suggestion of a predator against the Grasshoppers (Ask carefully, tactfully).  Be careful how you ask, they might look at you strangely if you ask for help to protect your tomatoes against Grasshoppers.  I could be wrong, but I think Grasshoppers don't eat tomatoes (Tomatoes are a form of Nightshade, a poisonous plant, where for us, only the ripened fruit is edible.)  You could tell them that it is your lawn or some other plants that Grasshoppers like to eat....  But regretably, the Co-Op might suggest chemicals. 

I would be interested in hearing what solution you come up with.

Edit:  Or maybe to protect your small stand of tobacco....     I don't know whether grasshoppers eat tobacco.  You just gotta do some research to figure-out what to ask...

[nvmedigrower 69]

ya i forgot about neem oil. do you know of a good way to mix it so it wount plug up the sprayer?   i also read about sprinkeling flour on the plant and then washing off. i was thinking of spreading it around the greenhouse to protect them . i was also thinking about praying mantises. we also have some spiders locals call popcorn spiders. i had them last year.  but we didnt have a infestation of grasshoppers.  heres a pic of the spider from last year

[Cannabissapean 1,223]

She is a beauty!  She looks like some form of a writing spider.

Your idea of praying mantises is excellent, but of course, they will take-out your spiders too.

 

I have never heard of using flour to sprinkle on the plants and then wash off.  Personally, I would steer away from that.  My fear is that the flour residues might encourage molds, like the molds that appear on bread, which is made of flour.  And then there are the insects that like to lay eggs which hatch into tiny maggots and meal-worms that eat the flour and eventually transform into those pesky little gray moths that inhabit the old boxes of cereal or muesli or unsealed containers of flour.  I think they are harmless, but still, I hate seeing them flying around in the kitchen or crawling on the walls; that indicates that they have successfully invaded one of my boxes of cereal.

Although possibly harmless, I hate the thought of the possibility of smoking a moth that got stuck in one of my buds.  Yukk...

 

I have heard of using a light mixture of dishwashing liquid and water to spray on outdoor plants (mostly fruit trees) to ward off aphids.  It might work against grasshoppers.  I don't know.  Just don't use too much soap.  Soap is alkaline, and too many drops of soapy water into your grow-medium can turn it alkaline.  If you use it, I would recommend first protecting your grow-medium/soil with a covering(plastic, newspaper, whatever) during spraying, and then rinse-spraying the soap off the vegetation 2 or 3 days after application.  I don't particularly like the idea of smoking soap either.

 

Yes, to keep your sprayer from clogging (I assume you mean a simple hand-pump sprayer), always use distilled water to mix with the Neem Oil, and only mix-up small batches that you will spray completely empty by the end of the day or the spray-session.  When finished spraying, rinse-out the bottle and the sprayer nozzle with clean water before storage.  If spray chemicals or oils are allowed to remain in contact with the internal plastic parts and the various materials used for O-rings or flap-valves, the chemicals can attack those materials over time and ruin the sprayer.  If your sprayer has a metallic spring in the mechanism, it is a good idea to allow the mechanism to dry-out instead of screwing the lid on tight for storage, otherwise rust or other corrosion could destroy the spring.

If you are re-using spray bottles left-over from commercial products like window cleaners, etc., you should expect that they will fail after some time.  They weren't designed for long-term use.  If you are happy with replacing them from time-to-time, why not re-use them?  Re-use is the best form of recycling.

However, if you desire reliability, you could invest in 2 or 3 truly professional hand-sprayers like those that are used by professional florists or green-houses.  The good ones will last a long time.  Just ask the professionals at your local greenhouse which sprayer is most reliable.  But even then, keep your mixes clean and clean-out the bottle and sprayer-nozzle before storing it.  (Why 3 sprayers, you may ask...  Mine are marked;  I use one for only distilled water, another dedicated to a light mix of Root-Juice which I use when pushing clones and/or seedlings to produce roots, and another for foliar feeding of Fish- or Algae-Juices.  I use very small glass-bottle sprayers when mixing Neem Oil or other insect repellents and I keep those sprayers stored bound together with the original bottle containing the concentrate.)

 

The same principles of purity and cleanliness apply also for the pump-up pressure sprayers.  But even more so.  Many times some of their internal parts are made of spring-steel or brass, both of which can be corroded from the chemicals being sprayed.  They should be rinsed especially well after use and allowed to dry before storage.  And they should be stored with the lid loose. 

And if you do use pump-up pressure sprayers, it is imperative to understand what type of chemicals had EVER been in a sprayer.  It can be devastating to your fruit trees or your cannabis to mix-up a batch of insect-repellent into a sprayer that had even once been used to spray an herbicide.  It is virtually impossible to completely rid the pumping- and the spraying mechanisms of the residues of previous herbicides.  Once a sprayer has ever been used to spray herbicides, it should never be used to spray insect repellents or insecticides on plants.  I mark my pressure sprayers with an indelible marker, something similar to "Use ONLY against WEEDS" for the sprayer used to spray herbicides, and "Use ONLY against PESTS" for the other sprayer used to spray insecticides.  You may wish to use yet a third sprayer if you ever need to spray any solution against mold or mildew.

[nvmedigrower 69]

ya i bought a half gallon hand pump sprayers that works with preasure. for foiler spraying.  as long i wash it out and spray clean water through it i should be able to use it for neem oil and foiler spraying?  ya i had a bad dream about putting flour on the girls scratch that idea.  

wow the weather is going crazy. it got down to 38 degrees f last night. they didnt look to happy this morning but the greenhouse is the only way to go out here. i wonder if that silica suplement is helping with the temp changes.  any ways thanks alot for your time and sharing your knowledge.  one more question. if i take bubble hash and melt it in avacado oil. and use it as a oral suplement.  if i didnt activate it. so you can take larger portions. my buddy with ms is getting pretty bad. but he only likes to smoke at knight to help him sleep. whould that still have medical properties to help him out?

[Cannabissapean 1,223]

It sounds as if your friend's condition would be helped by the CBD cannabinoid.  To my knowledge, CBD doesn't need to be activated in order for it to impart its medicinal effects.  I think the activation you speak of is necessary only for converting the THC cannabinoids into THC Delta-9 (also called de-carboxylation), and that is only for the purpose of creating the recreational effects (the high).

Of course, if the recreational effects help to reduce pain or to improve one's mood, then that can also be considered a positive therapeutic value.

[nvmedigrower 69]

ya that sounds about right. so i made one activated. and one not.  it turned out pretty good. i posted some pics in the medical extraction if you want to check it out 

[Cannabissapean 1,223]

Where did you post the pics?  You can post the link in this thread.  That way other readers can follow the link to the pics, too.

Later, dude.  I gotta go to work...

Let us pray for the victims and families of those killed in Nice, France...

 

[nvmedigrower 69]

yes it is a verry sad day for france.  its hard to belive all this happening. 

[nvmedigrower 69]

so heres a quick weekly update. i watered 2 days ago. they are still plenty wet. ill check them agin tomorrow.  i put the wire cage up for the white widow today its filling up nicely.  the super skunck seems to be a bit stunted. hope if pulls through. i also sprayed down the leafs to get the dust off. they look really happy now. so 4 more days and they will have been in the ground for a month. 

[Cannabissapean 1,223]

Really nice.  I like your set-up there.

[nvmedigrower 69]

so heres a quick update. so iv been putting a foiler neem oil spray on the plants every other day and it does not stop the grass goppers at all they are mowing down my girls. im so bummed but i thing im going ro take a bunch of cuts and cloan what i can and call this one a loss. ill get lots of cloans. and then just see what happens. i got some granual bug poison and spread it all around the yard as a counter deffence im about to sprinkel flour on them hoping to kill those suckers. i killed at least 50 this morning on the plants. i also have one plant that all the new groth the leafths are folding up. i thought that i was over watering so i let it get super dry with out making it droop down but nothing has changed no new groth in the last 2 weeks. any ideas what is going on with my little lady?

so this is the hurten one that needs help. it is the gold leaf it was doing super well then just started messin up 

this is another one of the gold leaf

super skunck

sour diesel

white widow 

og kush

super silver haze. 

so they dount seem to be doing as good as last year i sure hope something can be salvaged from this summer dang you grasshoppers

Edited July 24, 2016 by nvmedigrower

[Cannabissapean 1,223]

nvmed,

I am so sorry that you are getting mowed-down by grasshoppers.  I thank my lucky stars that I don't have those.  My outdoor monsters are deer and slugs, that's why I haven't planted in the wild for quite some time now.

I'm sorry that the Neem Oil didn't do the trick, but I truly believe that any chemical that kills those grasshoppers will also poison your smoke, so along the lines of sprays or chemicals, I will not make any further recommendation (I'm out of ideas.)

Maybe you could encase your entire grow area in a thick (1mm to 2mm) clear plastic.  Of course, then you will need to re-think your air-evacuation and air-circulation.

Or maybe next time, germinate earlier or later in order to avoid the peak grasshopper-time.

Or maybe you could become a full-blown indoor grower like some of the others here.

Or build a real greenhouse.  Here's a link to my greenhouse project (still not finished).

http://forums.strainhunters.com/topic/9365-gear-review-building-a-greenhouse-a-vitavia-zeus-2-8100/

Don't give up, buddy.