Mother Lode Gardens 2015
March 23, 2015
Just got back to the farm after a trip to Santa Cruz for a few days having fun and handling some business. It’s finally starting to hit me how much stuff there is to do in the next couple months. Beach time is over now – its time to grow some weed!
We are popping seeds this week, and will probably sprout about 100 seeds of the different Bodhi strains to end up with 24 prime females. Once they sprout I veg them indoors under t5 florescent tubes for a week or two, then they will go outside in 5 gallon pots until their final transplant.
It will be nice to have a bunch of plants to choose from, as long as the local pigs don’t stop by like last year. If they do come, I hope it’s at least after May so I will be within my legal plant number limits. I hate the stress that causes.
Still trying to figure out what strains to grow this year. We can only have 24 plants so decided on a limit of 10 varieties or less. Ancient OG is one, still need to choose about 5-9 more.
March 27 2015
We are popping seeds today! So hard to choose!!! Plus I don’t know which of these is a proven “big yield” plant, but if anyone has info I will be stoked. Last year we averaged eight lbs per plant, except the Ancient OG which was 23 lb from two plants.
Here is the final list, totaling 132 seeds:
Rare Dankness:
-Flo OG
Bodhi:
-Ancient OG
-Afkansastan x Snow Lotus (got these as testers)
-Blueberry Hashplant
-Dream Beaver
-Heaven Mountain
-Love Triangle
-Sky Lotus
-Snow Leopard
-Sorcerer’s Apprentice
-Stardawg x Goji f3
April 10 2015
All our seeds are starting to grow. Out of about 130 seeds only 10 didn’t sprout. Pretty good germination rate from Bodhi seeds.
They are still in cups, under t5’s. We didn’t bring them outside much yet because of the weird weather this week. it got down in the 20’s here and snowed some. We are a little behind some of the other guys on here but still ahead of where we were at this time last year.
The weather is warming up now so I think we will transplant the seedlings and put them outside soon. I have to decide whether to build a hoop-house with supp lighting for them or just put them right outside on the porch. Also should we put them in 1gals first, or straight into 5’s?
April 17 2015
Did 40 transplants tonight before the sun went down. Will finish the rest tomorrow morning. I decided to skip the hoop-house this year. We did OK without it last year and I’m a lazy fuck with not much help, although I did just hire an out-of-state couple to help move soil and terrace the hill.
The seedlings are all looking better, I think they recovered from the cold night a few days ago. The Ancient OG’s and Dream Beavers are looking especially nice.
April 18 2015
All the seedlings got transplanted and are looking great, we are ahead of where we were this time last year. I am beyond stoked for 2015! Last year half our plants preflowered or dudded, and we still pulled triple digits, this year I am hoping for ALL MONSTERS!
The Dream Beavers are really impressing me BTW. They are the most vigorous of all the seedlings. I hope there’s a few females!
Final Final FINAL soil mix
40 yards total:
-12 yards 5/16″ lava rock
-12 yards peat moss
-10 yards Oly Mountain fish compost
-2 yards Malibu compost
Plus
240 lbs kelp meal
220 lbs crab meal
260 lbs gypsum
240 lbs oyster flour
120 lbs neem meal
100 lbs alfalfa meal
1000 lbs glacial rock dust
Not going to have time to test this and adjust it, but this mix seems like it should work.
05-10-2015, 08:03 PM
Finished terracing the hill. Now I’m waiting for my new dirt, and the lab results for the old dirt. Cant do much else until then. Have to make up all the pots, a major project still to do.
5 12 2015
I think the pictures don’t do the plants justice, because they are pretty lush right now. They were stoked today, tracking the sun from 6am-8pm. At sunset the tops were practically turned sideways, trying to soak up the rays. Really cool to look at. I was checking the plants for pre-flowers and found a female today, first one!!! She’s a Snow Leopard, pretty big too, so it might get a spot in the final garden.
5 15 2015
Both the soil tests for my old soil and the new soil will arrive next week, so we will be working this weekend to finish terracing and make pots. Then it’s time to mix dirt and fill pots, which should take another week or so, and by then it will be planting time. Everything is pretty much on schedule, but there is lots to do. Plants are looking healthy despite the horrible weather the last couple days. It got down to 44 F last night, and it was cloudy today with some rain. I hope that isn’t a sign of things to come. I’ve got a Farmer’s Almanac, but haven’t read it yet.
5 20 2015
The soil test results arrived:
5 22 2015
You can buy 800 gallon smart-pots but I make mine without sewing them together. Basically, it is just hardware cloth lined with landscape fabric.