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Day two of my back to back blogs: It’s July 20, a date I associate with being the halfway point of my grow. It’s been three months since I cracked seeds and it’s about three months before the last plant is dried and trimmed.

From this point forward is when the most crucial work begins. Of course, it was important work before this point, but the objective is to grow the best possible flowers. Over the next 12 weeks, fourteen plants will be harvested. By the time we’re trimming the last plants, some of the early harvest will already be turned into FECO (full extract cannabis oil). With fourteen plants coming in at various sizes and times, it behooves us to stay ahead of the plant processing. We’re fortunate to have the Etoh-Pro from Extract Craft, because it processes a lot of cannabis at once.

The final, purely vegetative compost tea was poured this morning. Next week, we begin the flowering formula. To be clear, even the flowering formula has some nitrogen in it, so the plants will continue to grow, but the emphasis changes to flower production, development, and mold prevention.

Every foliar application is now a minimum four gallon spray, which means an almost full tank for my sprayer. Depending on how large the plants get over the next three months, at some point, the spray will take filling and refilling. To foliar spray my entire garden at its peak will take about 45 minutes. It will take six to seven gallons of whatever I’m spraying. I am beyond grateful for my battery powered foliar sprayer. Without it, a six-seven gallon spray done with a one gallon, manual pump sprayer would take two or three hours. During the first six years of growing, before the battery powered sprayer, in order to get a Regalia spray finished 30 minutes before the sun hit my plants, I would start spraying no later than 4:00 am. Full Disclosure: This almost burned me out on growing. 

Now, I start the spray at 5:45, and finish spraying in plenty of time for the plants to dry before the sun hits them. And I absolutely adore being up that early. As I get older, I prefer seeing as much of each day as possible. I charge the foliar sprayer once a month during the grow.

My battery powered sprayer, and no, I’m not an affiliate of MY 4 SONS. Great product, btw. 

From here on, there will be foliar sprays four or five days a week. Two separate, 10-gallon compost teas will be brewed and poured each week to cover both cannabis and vegetables. Pruning will be almost daily. Training is ongoing. Flower inspections will evolve from daily to multiple times daily. BT sprays must be worked in, because even with just a few flowering plants, white moths are already on the rise. They love to deliver their eggs near flowers where babies eat trichomes. Timing on BT sprays is important, because when I spray BT, I have to suspend spraying Regalia for a week. BT and Regalia do not interact well. This can be tricky. August, September and October tend to be the most humid months in my region and increased humidity brings an avalanche of potential pathogenic problems. I look for breaks in the severe humidity. Those are my opportunities to spray BT, which generally needs to remain on the plant for close to a full week in order to be most effective against worms. During a BT week, if I see any evidence of Powdery Mildew creeping back in, I’ll use a spot spray of Neem to combat the powdery mildew, until I can return to the Regalia protocol. I have only had to spot spray Neem one time. Most years, the Regalia will hold for a week. Each growing season usually means 2-3 BT sprays, usually once a month for August, September and possibly October. BTW, unlike Regalia and Neem, BT can be sprayed any time of day. The best time is in the afternoon, because that’s when moths lay most of their eggs. I know that might seem counterintuitive to other foliar sprays, but I got those instructions directly from the manufacturer, when I was doing research, before writing the Home Grow program. And I have personally sprayed BT on a 90 degree afternoon (32.22 Celsius), when the white moths were particularly thick. No damage occurred to my plants. The worms were eradicated.

This monstrous hornworm was not in my garden, but don’t allow worms to invade your plants. I know they’re kinda cute and wiggly. But they leave destruction and mold in their wake during flowering time. 

If you feel bad about killing worms, feel free to remove and relocate. But if you have a crop as large as mine, it’s not feasible to relocate all of the worms. We tried it once and almost lost our entire crop to mold. BT saved our crop. You’ll have to decide for yourself which is more important to you: Cannabis or worms. I know people who stopped growing because of this.

The halfway point is a great time to double check supplies for the rest of the grow. Get what you need now, as opposed to when you need it later. This is not hoarding, this is practical shopping. Have you ever gotten to the end of harvest and tried to buy mason jars for your flowers? We almost ran out one year during the worst of the pandemic, and had to look at possible random jars from apothecaries, which can be pretty, but costly and not as effective in storage or space management, as mason jars.  

I also have noticed that prices for practical things, like trimming scissors, pruning shears, trimming trays, etc., are oftentimes higher at harvest time than earlier in the year. I don’t like getting gouged for what I need, so I shop for things at times other than the big rush.

Two winters ago, I purchased a couple of small knife sharpeners, specifically designed for trimming scissors. I don’t know about you, but I have this knee jerk response to seeing trimming scissors. “Yep, gotta get me some of those.”

Except, I’ve already got about 30-40 with perfectly good springs still in them. All they needed was sharpening. Last harvest, I sharpened my scissors. Not sure if I’ll ever have to buy them again. LOL, what a concept.

Take your old scissors and sharpen them yourself. Such a simple savings.

I’m good on all my foliar spray supplies, but I’ve been making some calls and doing some pricing on products I’ll need to buy for next year. If I can lock a store into a good price right now, it would be wise to make the purchase. The products will almost certainly cost more in another year, when I actually need them. 

Same goes for compost tea supplies, trying to find the best prices for molasses and humic acid. Incredibly, I’m going to need more SEA-90 for next year. I don’t even remember when I bought my first bag. The next bag will probably take me to my final grow, because you only use one teaspoon per five gallon tea. For the money, there’s not another product as cost efficient as SEA-90 on the market.

Ok, since I’m writing about it, I should remind everyone that I’m an affiliate for SEA-90, so if you are interested in buying any, please click on the following link:  https://www.sea-90.com/?rfsn=7896627.01e7114 and use the code HOMEGROWINGLAB for a 10% discount.

My plant overview is I have 14 plants growing of varying sizes and potentials. Two hemp plants and one CBD plant are flowering. Possibly one very small Royal Kush planted directly in the ground as well. Everything else is still vegging out, though a few plants are showing pre-flower signs. I still think we’re 2-3 weeks away from most of the remaining plants to start flowering. We might even be a month away with certain cultivars; especially ACDC, which is half Ruderalis. Those plants do what they want and don’t always obey the rules. We had a November harvest for one ACDC that had 21% CBD.

This is the Hawaiian Dream. It’s disappointing she is flowering early, but there will be enough to test and sample, to determine if we try to grow her again next year.

The White CBG–With the early flowering, she resembles an auto flower.

We have four plants that are directly into the ground, the first four we’ve ever done here. One is definitely flowering (White CBG), one is probably starting to flower (small Royal Kush start), one started to flower, but is now back to furious vegging (ACDC in the aviary), and the last, Fruitcake, is still in veg mode, and untouched so far by any animal. She is outside the beds, directly next to the lavender. We decided to fully test the notion that lavender can protect cannabis from deer. So far, we have two plants that deer could access at any time, but have chosen not to. We’ve got a steady stream of deer going through, or hanging out on our property. We have had fawns born and be like toddlers here. Deer are everywhere, strolling around, nibbling on plants. They could walk right over and eat the vegetative cannabis to the ground any time they want. In six weeks, not so much as a nibble. It’s not a vigorous example of Fruitcake, being small is one of the reasons we chose her. We won’t try growing a giant there until we’re certain she won’t get eaten. Once the plant starts flowering, I don’t think there’s any chance a deer will eat her. But I’ll wait until these plants are harvested before declaring the results of the experiment.

Fruitcake is currently being protected by aging lavender flowers. 

The remaining plants that are not flowering yet are:

1 Fruitcake

2 Royal Kush

2 ACDC

1 Hindu Kush

1 Purple Hindu Kush

1 Rainbow Kush

1 Night Nurse

1 S. Thai

I am encouraged when I look at the top tops on Hindu Kush and see how this plant is still growing. The first two Hindu Kush I ever grew were clones and my total yield from those tiny plants was less than half a pound. It would not surprise me if this one plant alone topped over one pound. I wasn’t expecting that from Hindu Kush, which tends to be short and stout. 

This is basically true for all the remaining plants in veg. They’re all growing great and Bee is training the sweat out of them. For example, look at all the potential tops on top of ACDC in bed 16:

I counted 23 potential tops yesterday on this plant from training.

This was a plant that didn’t show much promise in the cottage, but once she got her first tea featuring pure mycorrhizae, she caught up with most of the others within a month. My only concern with CBD plants is if they’ve got CBD. As you’ve read in other blogs of mine, I have run into a lot of bogus CBD seeds that had no CBD. If this is another one of those, I’ll let everyone know where I got it, and have to keep looking.

This ACDC was a potential giant that tried to flower early and had all those flowers stripped from her. She is vegging again now. I’m actually very excited about the medicine she will eventually produce. She’s had a lot of stress in her growth, and that kind of stress can lead to more powerful medicine from the plant. Sort of like training. In this case, I’ll gladly trade quantity for quality.

There are a couple of cultivars I’ve never grown before. One of them is Night Nurse, which is a great name in my opinion. She alleges to be a 70/30 sleep dominant plant with a higher than normal amount of CBG. Half of her lineage is Magic Jordan, which supposedly has the highest amount of CBG of any cannabis plant. I have tried and failed to find Magic Jordan seeds. I am intrigued by a sleep plant with extra CBG already baked in. That sounds like a potentially great night of sleep.

Night Nurse is spacious and easy to grow, which isn’t typical of a sleepy time plant.

Lastly, there is S. Thai. We call her that, because we don’t know her actual name, only that she came from Thailand and was given to us by someone who’s first name begins with S. She’s got a sativa hybrid vibe about her, but there’s no way to know for sure just yet. We didn’t start her until the other plants were three weeks old, so she’s also doing a bit of catch up. She has a stalk that looks like she could grow a bit.

We’re coming to the end of veg growth and preparing for the season of flowers. Supplemental outdoor lighting ends in seven days. This marks the beginning of the busiest part of the season and this will last through the end of harvest. There are no off days from this point to the end.

There’s another hot and sunny week ahead. It’s time to roll up the sleeves and rock this grow. 

It won’t be long before training starts spilling into the aisle.

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