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[wortlore]

Day 42

Day 43, we started getting signs of nutrient deficiency. I think this might be calcium deficiency?? We fed it for the last time. A build up of salt in the soil can make it harder for the plant to take up nutrients, so I started trying to water it extra to flush out the salts.

Around day 50. I didn't take any pictures for awhile because we took a vacation. The nutrient deficiency is progressing, but I'm not too worried because it's so close to the end. I probably should have fed it once or twice more, but I'm not good at gauging how long until harvest.

Day 51. So close! The plant looks rough but we shan't mention it to her.

Day 42, it has been getting taller!

I've been slacking on pictures, but lately I've been having to move the light up about an inch per day because it's been growing so quickly! It's taking about a liter of water every other day, and we're fertilizing it almost every time :x may be a little too much. Humidity is a constant struggle--it keeps getting up to 80% when it should be around 40-60%. We've been dealing with it by opening the flap on the tent, although that's not ideal because it's getting a little light exposure through the flap while grow lights are off (currently they turn off at 2 pm and back on at 6 pm since I'm always sleeping at that time). I'm slowly changing the light schedule so that the lights are off at night and it should be less risky to keep the flap open. We really need an intake fan, that's the best solution, but we don't want to pony up the cash.

Day 48, the hairs are beginning to change from white to amber on a few buds. I pulled out the jeweler's loop for the first time, there are definitely trichomes! I believe week 8 will be at the end of June, so we are close to the end! This is Northern Lights auto from Royal Queen Seeds, and they estimate harvest at 8-10 weeks after germination. It's hard to know when to stop the nutrients because you have to look for visual indicators to harvest, yet you should stop nutrients a week or two before harvest. I think we'll feed one more time and leave her be. I also want to try leaving her in darkness the last two days because I've heard it increases resin production. They may be true, because I've also heard you should harvest in the morning because the resin is highest after the plant's dark period. I hope the buds start fattening up!!

[wortlore]

Day 42, it has been getting taller!

I've been slacking on pictures, but lately I've been having to move the light up about an inch per day because it's been growing so quickly! It's taking about a liter of water every other day, and we're fertilizing it almost every time :x may be a little too much. Humidity is a constant struggle--it keeps getting up to 80% when it should be around 40-60%. We've been dealing with it by opening the flap on the tent, although that's not ideal because it's getting a little light exposure through the flap while grow lights are off (currently they turn off at 2 pm and back on at 6 pm since I'm always sleeping at that time). I'm slowly changing the light schedule so that the lights are off at night and it should be less risky to keep the flap open. We really need an intake fan, that's the best solution, but we don't want to pony up the cash.

Day 48, the hairs are beginning to change from white to amber on a few buds. I pulled out the jeweler's loop for the first time, there are definitely trichomes! I believe week 8 will be at the end of June, so we are close to the end! This is Northern Lights auto from Royal Queen Seeds, and they estimate harvest at 8-10 weeks after germination. It's hard to know when to stop the nutrients because you have to look for visual indicators to harvest, yet you should stop nutrients a week or two before harvest. I think we'll feed one more time and leave her be. I also want to try leaving her in darkness the last two days because I've heard it increases resin production. They may be true, because I've also heard you should harvest in the morning because the resin is highest after the plant's dark period. I hope the buds start fattening up!!

[wortlore]

Days 37 (top two) and 38 (bottom two)

I removed the stakes and untied the branches, and you can see the plant is definitely getting taller! I also fertilized it on day 37--in some pictures you can see some yellow leaf tips, which is a sign of nitrogen or potassium deficiency I believe. It's ok for it to be a little deficient, since that tells you that it's utilizing all available nutrients and you aren't over fertilizing. In flowering, the plant needs more phosphorus and potassium and not as much nitrogen. I gave it one quart of root stimulator, which had some nitrogen, and another quart of fertilizer with just the P and K, just to cover all bases.

Days 31, 33, and 35 (bottom two) you can see how flat the canopy is! There are a few branches that are a little higher than the others, but pretty even all things considered. This way, the light is more evenly spread across the canopy.

[wortlore]

Day 36. It's filling out a bit! In the third pic you can see the white hairs that are the hallmark of the flowering stage. The last pic shows one of the bud sites that's pretty well shaded. I've been learning as I go, and I read that during flowering stage autoflowers should not be pruned or defoliated.

Pruning autoflowers in general is not recommended--the plant stores nutrients in its leaves, and it's more bioavailable than the nutrients in the soil. Over-pruning can also stress the plant, causing it to flower early or even turn it hermaphroditic. We were pretty frugal cutting off leaves, since of course the leaves are needed for photosynthesis and theoretically more leaves = more energy for the plant. I am curious if giving the bud sites more light will really make them grow bigger, which is what a couple of videos I saw said. I'm thinking it might not be all that important and the buds should still be getting nutrients... I have heard a lot of conflicting things. I would love to run experiments comparing different training techniques and see if there's a difference in yield. I am having a hard time finding comparisons like that!!

One video I watched compared low stress training vs topping for a photoperiod plant, and he found that LST had a higher yield, but he didn't give figures. But he said that if he had waited a couple more days before switching to flowering, to let the topped plant get a little bigger, it would have yielded the same. It just took a little longer to recover from the topping. So many variables!!

We plan on growing two photoperiod plants next, so I would really like to try two different techniques and see what happens!

Days 31, 33, and 35 (bottom two) you can see how flat the canopy is! There are a few branches that are a little higher than the others, but pretty even all things considered. This way, the light is more evenly spread across the canopy.

[wortlore]

Days 31, 33, and 35 (bottom two) you can see how flat the canopy is! There are a few branches that are a little higher than the others, but pretty even all things considered. This way, the light is more evenly spread across the canopy.

[wortlore]

Days 27, 28 and 30. I broke off another branch end fuuuuck. My fault, I have been fussing over moving the stakes like every 12 hours when I should wait every other day. And the plant had been watered recently, which I think makes it snap more easily. It's definitely in pre-flower now, if not full flowering? But we cut off a bunch of leaves today, so all the bud sites should have good light exposure. I did leave a few in the shade simple because I wanted to see how it would affect the size of the nug. So far we haven't fertilized it except when we transplanted it. i gave it a 4-10-3 root stimulate. Today I grabbed some flowering fertilizer that's a 0-10-10, so I will apply that during the next watering. I'm thinking a quart of the 4-10-3 so it can have a little nitrogen, and then another quart of the 0-10-10, both made to the recommended strengths. So far I have yet to give it enough water for it to flow out of the bottom, even though I gave it almost a gallon last time! I was considering giving it a full dunk.

[wortlore]

Days 13-18? We transplanted into the final pot, I don't think the plant cared. I went on a trip so my partner took these, so I'm not exactly sure what day is each was taken. If you look closely you can see a black zip tie that we were using to begin low stress training

Day 23. After my flight got cancelled and I had to wander around DEN with the other lost souls for nearly 24 hours, and then still drive the remaining 3.5 hours home, I kinda forgot to document?? Anyways, the plant exploded with growth. The first picture was before I moved the stakes, and the last two are after. I accidentally bent one branch too far and it broke and had to be removed, it was the one in the 8 o clock position. It feels sorta wrong to fuck with the plant this much, but if you spread out the plant then each node gets more light exposure and increases yield. It also helps with air circulation

Day 6. Having a hard time balancing heat and humidity to get the VPD in the recommended range...

In an exciting development, having all this shit for the tent plugged in overloaded the breaker when my landlord tried to run his saw! ☠️ So we are moving all my craft stuff to the basement and the tent is going upstairs. And here I thought all I had to do in the morning was plant a few things and bottle our cider lol

[wortlore]

Days 8-12. We are going to try repotting it tomorrow. It's got the first set of five-pointed leaves coming in, so that means we are technically in the vegetative stage!

Day 6. Having a hard time balancing heat and humidity to get the VPD in the recommended range...

In an exciting development, having all this shit for the tent plugged in overloaded the breaker when my landlord tried to run his saw! ☠️ So we are moving all my craft stuff to the basement and the tent is going upstairs. And here I thought all I had to do in the morning was plant a few things and bottle our cider lol

[wortlore]

Fasciation - a type of deformity in flowers🌼

It can happen as a result of random mutation, infection from disease, bacteria, or hormone imbalance

[wortlore]

We moved the tent upstairs so it wouldn't trip the breaker again, and in the time it took to get everything set up this happened. This is why you keep the VPD low, all the water gets sucked out of the leaves at higher VPD!

Day 7. Another set of leaves coming in! I think overall the seedling looks pretty good, it isn't leggy and it's growing fast. The slightly yellow color around the left edges concerns me a little. We've stressed it a little, so maybe that's why! I also learned that you should plant autoflowering strains directly in their final pot because transplanting stresses them and stunts growth 😬 oops

Day 6. Having a hard time balancing heat and humidity to get the VPD in the recommended range...

In an exciting development, having all this shit for the tent plugged in overloaded the breaker when my landlord tried to run his saw! ☠️ So we are moving all my craft stuff to the basement and the tent is going upstairs. And here I thought all I had to do in the morning was plant a few things and bottle our cider lol

[wortlore]

Day 6. Having a hard time balancing heat and humidity to get the VPD in the recommended range...

In an exciting development, having all this shit for the tent plugged in overloaded the breaker when my landlord tried to run his saw! ☠️ So we are moving all my craft stuff to the basement and the tent is going upstairs. And here I thought all I had to do in the morning was plant a few things and bottle our cider lol

[wortlore]

1. May 5 - started germination.

2. May 5 - 14 hours later

3. May 6

4. May 8 (1 day after potting May 7)

5. May 9

6. May 10

Seed is Northern Lights auto from Royal Queen seeds. We also tried to germinate a seed of Power Flower (photoperiod) but it was a fuckin' dud! That seed cost $10 bitch! I think we will try to get some other seeds but idk how well it will work out growing it together with a seedling that's a couple weeks older...the Northern Lights was a free seed and it's an autoflowering one so I don't care much how it turns out...I think I could prioritize a photoperiod plant and just neglect this one but I don't knoooooow

[wortlore]

I've been in a gardening-induced fugue state brought on by a heady combination of warm weather and my landlord giving me carte blanche with the beds in the backyard. It's been years since I've done any proper gardening; all the traveling for work made it hard to even keep house plants!

I should have taken before pictures, but for the last few days I've just been ripping lilies out of the backyard. They are toxic to cats. My coworkers have been bragging about their cats' sensibilities, but mine has the self-preservation instincts of a kakapo and would run right up to the lilies for a nibble. This made pulling them out very satisfying--trying to poison MY cat, huh?? We'll see about THAT.

My landlord wants to replant the bulbs in his yard, so I've been saving them in that Rubbermaid bin. The bin in the above picture doesn't even include the bulbs from the bed behind it!! I'm tempted to throw some of them away. I kinda hate these lilies now. I don't think they are doing much for wildlife or pollinators and it will likely take years to completely eradicate them. The roots are shallow, but they form these bulbous shapes at the end of thinner roots, which makes them liable to break off.

They can grow back from just a piece of the root, and they can spread underground. Maddening. But the soil is pleasantly workable, unlike the Texas clay I'm used to, and I love some mindless manual labor. Trying to dig around the ferns was a challenge, but there were only a couple casualties.

The ferns! I'm so excited about the ferns. They seem so exotic to me. The way they curl out of the ground is so enchanting

They say not to plant things until mother's day here, if you can believe it. I am not going to wait any longer, though--I don't see any day where the temps will fall below 50F, so I'm going to bet we won't get another freeze. I had to get the beds ready, anyways. But in the morning I will put things in the ground. I'll have to do a proper garden tour after that, and I can document what all I've got growing. Stay tuned!

[wortlore]

Turgor Pressure

The tissues of plants, bacteria, fungi, and some protists are kept erect by water pressure within their cells, called turgor pressure. 

The cell plasma membranes of plants are differentially permeable, so that while water molecules can enter and exit, the larger salt molecules inside cannot escape: since turgor pressure is maintained by osmosis (the diffusion of solute molecules from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration) the solute concentration within the cell affects water pressure to build up in the cell membrane, giving the plant a rigid structure.

National Gardening Association

This is why plants wilt when they have insufficient water: their cellular membranes are essentially deflated, which normally provide support to the cell walls.

Gifs: My Coffee Plants; houseplantjournal’s timelapses 1 - 2 - 3 - 4

#gif #garden science

[wortlore]

The streets of San Francisco are lined with pear, plum and apple trees thanks to ‘guerilla grafters’ secretly grafting fruit-bearing scions onto ornamental, non-fruit bearing trees making fresh fruit free and available to everyone who wishes to pick some.

‘All you have to do is make a slit with a knife in a branch on the host tree, insert a branch from a fruit-bearing tree, and secure it with tape.  Once it heals, it connects.“ – Tara Hui started the movement and has been grafting fruit branches to city trees for two years now.

How great would it be to see free fruit from guerilla grafters growing in your city?  Want to start a trend?

[wortlore]

New, improved and finally finished:

The firepit and herb spiral

I started building this area from scratch two years ago, but was never really happy with how it turned out the first time around. Like most things in the garden, it has been a constant work in progress.

In context

This circular patio is the structure around which my hügelkultured swale is built, which also hosts my meadow gardens.

Water drains off the patio and in to the swale, and the wildflower-covered crescent-shaped hill that now surrounds the patio blocks wind, so it’s much easier to keep a fire going here now.

An early-spring view from the top

The rock-lined swale beside the hügelkultur mound

The wildflowers in bloom on the hügelkultur mound

Building

The bricks I used to make the thing are salvaged (I dug them out of the ground in another part of the yard, and got others from construction sites), and they are now laid over very environmentally-unfriendly layers of plastic bags. I figured using the bags as a weed barrier was no worse than putting them in a landfill, and I may as well take some responsibility for our own waste by using it on our property. They plastic layer is surprisingly permeable to water, owing to the gaps between individual bags.

All it takes to achieve an even plane between irregular cracked bricks is covering the area with sand, and sweeping the sand in between the cracks. Usually, I go over it with a mallet and a plank of wood and pound down sections of bricks, in order to even them out in between applications of sand.

Finishing up

The end result is a cosy little retreat that I think I am finally satisfied with. It’s surrounded by cherry trees, weigela, black lace elderberry, and a purple catalpa. The hügelkultur meadow gardens have seven different colours of butterfly bush in them on them as well, so eventually, this place will be a mess of fruit and flowers.

It took laying the bricks twice, planting trees around it, and building a long wind-breaking hill, but I can now enjoy a morning cup of coffee out here without agonising over how to finish it properly.

[wortlore]

Vine Control

Okay, so somebody asked about how to deal safely with Wisteria and Virginia creeper and Poison Ivy in a mix, but I’m unable to reply to replies so here goes.

I don’t have a magic bullet. I wish I did.

That’s a really nasty mix. Fire cures a lot of ills, but NEVER burn poison ivy–the smoke contains the active ingredient, gets in your lungs, and then there is sorrow upon sorrow. 

I have a lot of vines in my garden, mostly coming in from the woods, and of course they always arrange themselves so that fire is not the answer. (Otherwise, the Weed Dragon is your friend.) People will tell you that there are organic weed-killers that work–vinegar and boiling water or whatnot. I’m glad it works for them–it doesn’t for me. Boiling water’s never done anything much for me, and if you’re avoiding glyphosate because of frogs, I don’t think the frog is going to feel great having vinegar dumped on it either. (Full disclosure: In the early stages of reclaiming the garden from weeds, I used glyphosate on the honeysuckle that had eaten the fence, because it leafs out before anything else and you can hit it then if you’re lucky. But once off the fence itself, we start getting too close to ground that occasionally contains vernal breeding pools for me to be comfortable with even tightly controlled applications–the chemical that makes it stick to leaves will stick to frogs and smother them. You gotta figure out what will work on your property and what you feel comfortable/competent to use safely. This also goes for fire, which is ALWAYS a two person job minimum, and one of those people should be holding a running hose.)  

Okay, safety lecture concluded. Onward!

Virginia creeper is native here, and I mostly ignore it when it’s not in the middle of eating the house or something I am fond of. It is surprisingly not horrible, or else my standards have gotten warped from dealing with stuff like kudzu and catbriar. I’ll tear big swaths out when I have to–the old fashioned way, heavy gloves, sharp hand-shears, and a lot of sweat–but it’s not one of my bad weeds. That could possibly change, but at the moment, I can yank it up by hand where it occurs.

I get wild grape too, and Japanese honeysuckle. The grape I ignore or cut back as needed, the honeysuckle I tear out by hand, and in all honesty, I’ll never get it all. I succeed in keeping it mostly on the other side of the fence. About every two years in spring I do a massive honeysuckle slaughter and get it all away from the fence, but it always comes back. (Given what it was like when I started, however, I have reduced it enormously.)

Poison ivy is different. If it gets into a tree, I’ll cut the vine at the base and let it die. Otherwise, if it’s the woods I don’t touch it, and if it’s in the garden, I very gingerly use the shears to clip it off at ground level. The last use of any pair of garden gloves–I kill two to three pairs a year–is to pull poison ivy encroaching on the garden.

(I’ll be honest, it’s a holding action with the poison ivy. I took out a few roots last week that should set it back a bit, but it’s all through the woods and I gave myself a very exciting rash pulling it. I have since received three bottles of Tecnu from friends and/or fans via Amazon–it’s great stuff and works really well getting it off, I just didn’t have any this time. If I ever have about twenty college students and a whole lot of ambition, I will make an ivy killing day and take it out.)

Wisteria is actually the easiest of the bunch to deal with. I don’t have it in this garden, though I’ve had it in others. It is much less prone to re-rooting than honeysuckle, so you can get in with shears and cut it and then track down the root, whereas if you just drop honeysuckle on the ground, it’ll re-root immediately. I’ve successfully cleared wisteria out of a lot before, which I can’t say about any of the others. 

So…that’s my experience. There’s no easy method. You MAY want to see if goat rental is an option in your area, although I am told that you have to pretend you want to keep it away from the weeds before it will consider eating them because goats are perverse. I cannot speak to this, but it seems plausible to me. Goats, however, are very difficult on other garden plants and not so good for spot-cleanup.

…that got long. Hope it helps, and if it doesn’t, accept my sympathy at least, ‘cos lord, I’ve been there. Solidarity!