Chopping tomorrow night. The following days are going to get a low of 35 or less. That's too cold for my girls! Thankfully we had like 4-5 ending days with sunshine and 60+.
Did you end up chopping them yet? Post some dry shots if you get a chance before you jar them for the cure if you don't mid. Would love to see what those babies did for ya! Was there any good tric formation on any of them?(I've had plants outdoors not pack the trics on really but indoor they sparkle....) Hope you get some good smoke off them.:thumbs-up:nice grow man!
short season crops are the best crops I love short-season crops; they provide the guerilla grower with lots of chunky buds and are only outside for 9 or 10 weeks....... Your soil mix, the surrounding soil, and size of the grow hole will mostly determine final yields. After that comes sunlight exposure; strive for at least a minimum of 7 hours per day, especially with those later-season plantings. Since your soil contains clay, it is probably not very well drained, and will stay wet for long periods of time after it rains. The roots become rotted and waterlogged, and infected with bacteria and fungi that thrive in these wet conditions. I agree with Ognennyy; dig the grow holes much larger, at least one cubic foot (about 7 gallons of soil) in volume, or just a little larger than a typical, 5-gallon plastic bucket. If the soil holds standing water for any period of time longer than about 12 hours, then the holes must be dug larger, and perhaps, the beds should be raised above the surface. It just depends upon the drainage in your area. If the area holds a lot of standing water for a long time after a rainfall, the beds must be raised above the level of the ground. This will allow the mix to dry out between rainfalls and watering times. But, you can use the standing water to your advantage; locate the grow holes at the edge of low areas that hold water. The water will then slowly absorb into your grow mix over time, providing plenty of water for your babies. I would mix that clay/topsoil about 50/50 with peat moss, and then add about 1/5 part of a quality compost. For example, a 7 gallon grow-hole filled with 50/50 topsoil/clay mix would have 1.5 gallons of added compost mixed in. Add any flowering ingredients (I add high P bat guano) at this time, to allow it time to begin breaking down before the buds start to form. After all of this is mixed up well, and is allowed to cook down for a few weeks, take a pH reading and use lime or sulfur to adjust the pH either up or down towards the 6.5 ~ 6.7 range. Your plants looked OK as far as buds and crystals go, but were stunted due to the soil condition (the plants are definitely magnesium and iron deficient, probably due to the soil pH) and the lack of sunlight. A short-season garden like this needs maximum sunlight exposure in order to produce maximum yields in the very short period of time that they have to grow and flower. Short plants like this can be planted into the middle of a field, or a wetlands area, and receive full sunlight almost all day long. Fields and wetlands have few trees, so there is almost no shade to be found in these areas. The plants will stay short, so if you do not have to travel to them, and no visible trails are left, no one will ever spot them. My commercial method for short season plants is to place a heavy yielding strain (usually an Indica) into a large plot of pre-prepared soil about July 15 ~ July 20. The gardens are built and mixed up the Fall prior to the season in which I will be growing. My favorite strain for this method is Calizahr, which finishes up here in Chicago on Oct 15 ~ Oct 20th, and yields very heavily. This planting date gives the rooted, female cuttings about two weeks to root and to get established in their new homes. After this (about August 10th) they go into pre-flowering mode. They end up at about 2 to 2.5 feet tall, with 1.5 feet of solid main cola, and five or six, small side branches loaded with plump little buds, usually more than one ounce per plant yield. A good rainy season will yield more than two ounces per plant. Guerilla gardens are placed in the woods, or on high areas located in swamps/wetlands. Amendments are dug in by hand, then rototilled into the soil using a Mantis mini-rototiller. My gardens are usually about three feet wide, and ten feet long, and hold about 20-25 short season plants, depending upon the security at that location. One garden can provide you with 1.25 oz X 20 plants = 25 oz X [the number of plots] that you want to do this in. Anyway, do not want to hijack the thread...Good Luck Vinnie Kaz
