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The first phase of harvest is almost complete, with the jarring of almost all of the CBG plants. My prediction that this year’s CBG plants yield more than last year is proving to be true. The first plant, WCBG from bed 19, yielded 351 grams. Last year’s plants yielded 190 and 188 grams, respectively. As noted in the last blog, the interesting thing is that last year’s plants grew the entire season, and this year’s plants both flowered early. I’ve never had an early flower plant out yield a full season plant. Something is going on out there.

The final CBG plant won’t have her last boughs taken down until the 20th, so the CBG total is not yet complete. This news is very encouraging for the rest of the crop, which has many plants significantly larger than either of the CBG plants.

For now, it’s nice to have 11 half gallon jars to burp.

Today, we are one month exactly before the first projected harvest date for the bulk of the crop. I actually anticipate that something will be harvested before October 8th. We’ve got about four weeks before plants start coming down. There is a group of plants that will come down on or around that date. There’s another group that will come down 10-12 days later.

Yellowing leaves are on the rise as the plants drain resources from within to finish the flowering process. 

Worm damage is visible only a couple of days after stopping the BT sprays. It really is hand to hand combat out there right now as everything is reaching towards a seasonal climax. The white moths are desperate to lay their eggs before the first frost. 

Harvest time is also when other plants in the garden reveal themselves after a long summer of being hidden under cannabis. Below, a single dill plant has recently emerged into the sun for flowering, from beneath Hindu Kush:

It’s a Regalia week ahead, with lots of plant inspections. The humidity remains high most or all of the day. I noticed a bit of powdery mildew on a lower bough last Friday and immediately resumed Regalia. I’ll spray again on Monday and Friday this week, while I study the weather and look for a break in the humidity for another BT spray.

Temperatures are also beginning to dip at night as we trend closer and closer to the kinds of temperatures that can bring color to cannabis.

Right now is when you can clearly see the evidence and effectiveness of training.

Some of Bee’s most impressive work has been done on ACDC in bed 16. This was not a vigorous grower in the cottage. She was the smallest of all the feminized plants I put in beds on May 28.

This bed has been very good to us historically, and I was hoping to coax this CBD plant to greater growth. Two key things happened to make it so: First, she got trained. Second, her roots found the fish zone. This is something that happens to plants the summer after we plant fish in the beds. At a certain point, every plant finds the most rich soil, and that is when we see the explosive growth.

But that growth is best taken advantage of by training. I explained in an earlier blog about the point of training: To stretch the plant out to cause inner growth to get as much sun as the outer tops. By training, we create many more potential tops that get maximum sun. 

Because of the training by Bee, this plant has been stretched over each side of the aisle. The deep inside of the plant has been cleaned out. We want everything growing to be legitimate tops. When I first (reluctantly) put this plant in a bed, I hoped for half a pound to three quarters of a pound. I’m certain she will yield more than a pound now. Of all the plants we grew this year, this plant got the most training.

In other news, it’s looking likely that I’ll be able to collect a full gallon of bat guano this season. The most I’d gotten previously, was a full half gallon, but I’m doubling it this year. There are more bats, and they are occupying more than one house. In fact, many of the bats that moved to the more shady house when it was very hot, have moved back to the more spacious house upstairs. I counted 32 that came out one recent evening.

And I also observed something for the first time: I can tell there are babies in one of the houses, because a few of the bats that leave first in the evening, make some captures and immediately return to the house. There can only be one reason for this: they have babies unable to fly yet. I see young bats already flying, but there must be a few more in the nursery that need feedings.

Tomorrow, I will make separate teas. One will still have Bloom formula added, because they are still within the first month of flowering. The other plants will get their next to last tea, and it’s a basic tea. They don’t need anything else to finish. So the basic tea is molasses, humic acid, SEA-90 and horsetail. After two more basic teas, there will be nothing else to do for the flowering plants, but foliar spray and inspect.

Soon, I will clean the drying room, and on one side of the room, new strings will be hung and tied.

In the meantime, I am also preparing to start re-recording A Home Grow Show, my podcast that I’m planning to drop on 4/20 next year. I have already recorded the first 20 episodes, but upon listening to them, they were too reflective of this year’s grow. I want the podcast to be about what I’m doing next year, so I am re-writing and will soon record again.

I am excited about A Home Grow Show. I know that many people these days are better learners when they listen, as opposed to reading. So I’m putting together lessons and information that I hope will be both educational and entertaining. 

So, some of my life these days is spent in a soundproof room, speaking aloud to no one. It’s a little strange at first, getting excited in front of a soundproof curtain, but I’m getting there.

My other work station–where I’ve recorded all my audio books. It’s fun to be back here.

Tomorrow, I will spray Stargus. Friday, it’s Regalia, while I inspect plants and look for another BT opportunity.

What I’m seeing is some windy days, which is good, and the first possibility for rain, which is maybe ok, and maybe not. At this point, since the plants haven’t been watered in many weeks, any rain will be well received by the plant. Anything up to about a half an inch is like giving the plants one more little boost. Over half an inch, and we’ll start developing conditions ripe for mold.

As an aside, I write a lot about how little water I use, and one of the benefits of using so little water is that at a certain point in the growing year, we stop seeing slugs. Of course, my beer traps have something to do with that. But slugs are constant, where there is moisture. Where there is no moisture, however, they don’t like to travel. So even when I water, I am direct and controlled about where the water goes and how it is poured. It’s a gentle stream that does not disturb the soil. But it also only goes in the root zone. Once I have plants in beds, I never fully water the entire bed again. Because if the ground around your plant is dry, slugs will stop making the journey to nibble. They are looking for easy access, and dry soil is not easy access for them.

So that also means that by this time, the beer traps might no longer be needed. They are largely empty. However, I generally keep the slug traps full the entire year, because of banana slugs. They are monsters, of course, and I have had late season giants actually climb my plants to encompass a flower. After a slug had it, I had to remove the entire bud. Sorry there are no pictures. Nor did we get to watch the subsequently baked slug. We just had to deal with the damage.

Right now, my beds are bone dry, but with rain possibly in the forecast, slugs will come into play again. So the beer traps stay until harvest is over.

Gloves are on. Back to work.

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