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The above sight was unimaginable until only a couple of weeks ago. I am now using outdoor lights in both my growing beds and in the aviary, where we’ve put two plants. They are attached to timers and they go on from 5:30-7:30 every morning. This little bit of extra light seems to be all that my plants need to not go to flower after being put in outdoor beds. This is a complete game changer for my grow.

I’ve only begun using these, so this is not a product review. What I can report is that these small 150 watt lights only cost $40 apiece, are very bright, and they wake up my plants about two hours before the sun touches them. These lights allow me to accurately replicate the indoor lighting they had indoors, their first four to six weeks. In addition, I will keep these lights going through the third week of July. Then, I’ll turn them off and allow the plants to continue entirely in sunlight. Of course, this will trigger flowering responses from most if not all the plants, which should help us have our harvest before the worst of the fall weather and pathogens arrive.

This is my 9th grow and it’s the first time I think that I’ve finally found the solution to this problem. I’ve changed planting dates almost every year, trying to find that happy date where all my plants got enough light to commit to vegetatively growing, instead of flowering. Utilizing these lights not only solves the early flowering issue, but might possibly also help control the late flowering issue. I’ve had November harvests and I am not a fan.

I do not look at these lights as something I would grow with for a full season, nor do I think they would add much to the flowering portion of my grow. I’ve got the sun for that.

These lights are entirely for tricking my plants during this critical, transitional part of the grow,  and that’s what seems to be happening.

Not everything is going smoothly, however. I have had some questionable plants regarding sexing. Most of the males were very easy to spot. But as we got close to planting day, several plants were not showing their sex. Not even hints. 

In the last blog, I noted how one Royal Kush had to be removed only one hour after planting her in a bed. She and one other Royal Kush, had never shown their sex while inside the cottage and I was rolling the dice on planting them. One of them turned male and was removed. I was quite frustrated with myself for allowing this, so in a somewhat angry response, I went to my seed dispensary and pulled out a feminized Royal Kush, while kicking myself for not starting this seed weeks early for insurance. No matter, I took that seed and planted in bed 18, crown up. Planting a feminized seed directly into the final growing medium is something I haven’t done to date. I wasn’t expecting much, and I also started another feminized seed in the cottage, just in case.

Meanwhile, the other Royal Kush that I planted suddenly showed a growth in the spot where you find male pollen sacks. This was like getting kicked in the stomach. I sat there, head in hands.

But I kept looking at what was growing and it never quite appeared like a pollen sack. Nor did it look like a female preflower. It was in the right spot, but it wasn’t shaped as most pollen sacs are, like a spade in a deck of cards. I consulted my old texts and other books for pictures of potential pollen sacks. I contacted my old teacher and got her take. Nothing looked exactly like what I was seeing, so I went down a rabbit hole and read more than I’ve ever read about male pollen sacks. Found out things I didn’t know, like how you sometimes won’t see the female “hair” that defines a female plant, until the plant is eight weeks old.

I also noticed that on both sides of my plant, the stipules were crossed. I don’t know that I’d ever seen them crossed before. Supposedly, crossed stipules are a hint that it’s a female, because no one has ever had a male plant with crossed stipules. If that sounds a tad twisted, it is exactly as I read it. No one is willing to say for certain that crossed stipules are a clear sign of female, but everyone seems to agree that they’ve never seen a male with crossed stipules. 

This is not the sort of endorsement where big decisions should be made. 

But everything else about that plant screams female. So I’m keeping her in the bed, and checking her for any sign of sex. She turns eight weeks next Saturday. I have another Royal Kush feminized started in the cottage, just in case. She’s eleven days old today.

The last two weeks, my plants have gotten compost teas heavy in mycorrhizae and bat guano. Also noticed after the tea last week, that the mycorrhizae doesn’t dissolve in the tea. It remains attached to the organic material where it rests. So I let it sit in the buckets for another week and another set of teas. 

I’ve used mycorrhizae before, from powder. I’ve never used it directly from my soil to the aerating teas. The impact both inside and outside was revelatory.

All of the plants loved that tea, but certain plants just took off. For instance, Purple Hindu Kush, grew eight inches in the seven days following that first tea and is promising to be a tall lady.

But in the cottage, where I still had a few plants developing and in need of sexing, that tea had a dramatic impact on the plants still waiting in 3-gallon pots. In fact, a couple of the feminized plants got a little too excited and wanted to start flowering. This is the combination of the tea, and the stress of still being in a 3-gallon pot. They need to go to their permanent homes.

So, while I was digging an extra hole for an additional plant in the aviary, this happened in bed 18:

A Royal Kush sprouted.

This is very interesting. I’ve never grown directly from seed into a bed. The thought of the roots being free from the start to go where they want to go, and dive as deeply as they dare, is very exciting to me. It also eliminates one of the activities I enjoy the least: transplanting. 

At the same time, I started another feminized Royal Kush seed in the cottage, just in case the seed in bed 18 doesn’t survive, and that’s a strong possibility. There are birds, insects and slugs that could take out that sprout for a snack. But we’ve covered her in bird netting and have a container filled with beer close by. So far, so good. No nibbles and lots of death in the beer. It looks like her second set of leaves are beginning to form. But if she doesn’t make it, she’ll be replaced by the one in the cottage. Interesting observation: Our beds are full of nitrogen, so there is a difference in color between the stem outside and the stem inside. The inside stem is white and the outside stem is slightly pink, indicating the ground is full of nitrogen.

So the cottage will remain open a few weeks longer, just to make certain another Royal Kush fills bed 18. In addition, my wife is using this time to get more lettuce and greens started for a later summer and fall harvest. Summer is the time to fill our beds and keep them full, with cannabis and food. We’re already eating our own zucchini, peas, lettuce and chard.

We’re also very excited to be growing our first tomatillo and she is loving life with us:

I’ve made an interesting discovery about transplanting from a three-gallon bucket into a bed. I love three-gallon buckets. Allowing my plants to grow in these before I take them outside, allows each of my plants to fully reach as far as they can in my growing mediums. Plants in smaller than three-gallon buckets don’t grow as large in my beds. 

But this year, I’ve discovered the key to transplanting feminized plants is to do so in five weeks. You can safely plant them at four weeks, but what I’ve discovered is that one more week inside with the lights; and especially after they get their first sip of compost tea, allows the roots to develop enough to greatly enhance how bound she is in the transplant. When I take them outside at four weeks, the dirt from the bucket is much more inclined to crumble in my hand. By waiting for five weeks, or almost five weeks, the soil largely stays bound through the transplant. However, waiting any days after five weeks is risking those plants going to flower from stress. It gets crowded in those pots, and five weeks seems to be the maximum that feminized plants can stay there. They need to get in their final growing medium to remain vegetative.

Indeed, the plants I had the easiest time transplanting were all 5-6 weeks old. The four week old plants were problematic at best. But the good news is even the four week old transplants have recovered from shock and are now vegging furiously.

It has been many years since we grew an unknown cultivar, but we’re growing one this year. Growing unknown cultivars is actually one of my favorite things as a home grower, and surprises can be very sweet. The last time we grew a surprise, we grew this:

This was Blacklight, another strain you’ll never find on a store shelf.

So we are delighted to have a new unknown to grow this year. She earned her way in. The seeds, from Thailand, came to us two weeks after I started seeds. We got three starts and one female. She’s compressed now because she’s been in the three-gallon pot, but she sure looks like a plant that’s going to grow. We call her S Thai. She’s the only female from her five seeds. She’s also got the thickest stalk of any plant at this very early state.

Her stalk is about 30% thicker than every other stalk in the beds so far, except one. We have no idea what she is, and if she’s a monster, so much the better. I love strong plants. We’ll know much more about her after she’s grown for a month or so.

So one plant remains in the cottage to come out in a few more days and that is Hawaiian Dream. Bed 17 is waiting for her. She got her first mycorrhizae/guano tea yesterday and she is currently showing vigorous growth in the cottage. She was four weeks old yesterday, so my window to safely plant her outside will open soon. By sometime mid to late this week, all the plants we’re growing will be in the final growing spots.

Ten are in beds, two are in the ground in the aviary, and one, the very first time we’ve tried this, one small plant is outside our garden fence, next to some lavender. She’s not a super strong example of Fruitcake, but she’s a girl and she’s gonna get a chance to grow. We will see how animals respond. It’s also a very good test for the effectiveness of lavender as a deer deterrent. I also plan on growing Fruitcake again next year, when I can crack open a stronger seed. 

We’re growing two plants in native soil in the aviary. 

ACDC

White CBG (hemp)

Some years, every plant goes into their growing spot on the same day. Some years, you have to deal with a lot of late developing males. That’s where the later starting feminized seeds come in. This year, we ended up with 15 out of 19 regular seeds turning male, and two others never cracked open. So that’s 17 out of 19 fails. We got one beautiful Royal Kush that nearly gave me a heart attack until she crossed her stipules, and one small Fruitcake. 

Everything else in this thirteen plant grow is feminized. We have one feminized seed sprout in a bed right now, and if she doesn’t make it, I have her replacement growing in the cottage. If we don’t need her, she’ll go to a friend to grow. 

The Final 2024 Grow Roster

2 Royal Kush

2 ACDC

2 White CBG (hemp)

1 Hindu Kush

1 Purple Hindu Kush

1 Night Nurse

1 Rainbow Kush

1 Fruitcake

1 S Thai

4 tomato plants (Czech Stupice, Green Zebra, Red Cherry, Orange Sunburst).

Sweet Peppers, Eggplant, Carrots, Sugar Snap Peas, Tomatillos, Zucchini, possibly some other peppers, lettuces, chard, basil, chives and more. Raspberries and blueberries are growing in the aviary.

Very happy to finally get here, and with these results. It’s my favorite time of year at home. As you can see below, things are growing larger than normal at our property right now. The days are stretching on and on in early summer bliss. Happy Growing!

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