Where are the weekly tips?

Hey Gang,

SB Guerilla is taking a bit of a summer sabbatical. In the meanwhile, the 2009 Lunar Growing Guide and Calendar is about to go to press. Soon it will be in our shop for purchase!

Weekly Tip: June week 3 – Legal Issues

If you live in a state that allows you to grow medical marijuana for others, you should make sure to keep your recommendations in order to safely cover your plant numbers. Always have a phone number for a good medical marijuana lawyer in your wallet. For a list of lawyers, check out High Times Legal Directory.

Weekly Tip: June week 2 – Harvest Your Greenhouse

When your ladies are ready to be harvested, the first thing to do is start organizing your trim party. (Stay tuned for our “T-Party” article to be posted soon!) When harvesting, we recommend using garden pruners and having someone else there to hold on to the clipped buds. Take care when cutting the thick stalks of the big plants. Sometimes they fall over into the dirt or on the ground, and sticky buds pick up dirt particles quite easily. Once you bring in the buds for trimming, cut them down into hanger-size branches. The best length is 3-5 inches. Any more, and the branch may flop over when I hold it up to trim. Any less, and you might end up with popcorn (buds with nothing to hang on to, so they have to dry in a bowl). Now you’re ready for your trim team to go!

June 20th is a great start date for the second greenhouse depro.

Weekly Tip: June week 2 – Flushing for Harvest

TIme to start flushing your greenhouse for harvest.  Keep PH at 5.0-5.8. This will ensure the last available P and K (Phosphorus and Potassium) are still being taken up by the plants. We apply water for the last two weeks, and during the last week, we feed the plants 2-3 times more water than usual. This flushes excess salts and nutrient from the medium, ensuring the sweetest of flavors from your medicine. Remember to withhold water for the last 24-48 hours to help trigger the natural defense of the resin to stop the plants transpiration. We find this helps the resin glands swell a bit more. And as an added benefit, your buckets are a lot lighter to move.

Weekly Tip: May week 4 – Bi-monthly Maintenance

In your greenhouse, you should be half way through flowering cycle. It’s not too late to thin and release (also known as skirting) and stake and tape. See the Silverback Guerilla Speeks blog post, “To Skirt or Not to Skirt” for more info.

Weekly Tip: May week 3 – Planting for the Outdoors

Plant transplants now and continue planting until end of July to ensure that you will harvest from mid-September to end of October. You may be transplanting 6-inch clones to a full 6-foot mother plant. Watch for over watering and over fertilization during the first few days of transplant. Mulch around plants the day you transplant. Mulch is essential because it protects soil and retains nutrients. We use native foliage as our mulch for a few reasons- it’s readily available, light impact on area, and it’s good camouflage. Inspect for slugs, snails, grasshoppers, gophers, deer, etc. At Roots & Harmony, we use a microbial insecticide (Bacillus Thuringiensis, aka. BT) for bud worms and caterpillars. Do not use slug or snail baits, because this can kill warm blooded animals if slugs or snails are ingested by them.
p.s. Security first! Curious neighbors and kids are out and about now. Be sure to leave no trace for the safety of the land and your plants.

Weekly Tip: May week 2 – Add Beneficial Bacteria and Fungus

Inoculate your rhizosphere (also known as your root zone) with mycorrhizae.  This can be accomplished by purchasing a mycorrhizae powder formula and applying it through a drenching method – fill a resevoir, mix dry powder thoroughly following the directions, and then apply with water. This will greatly increase nutrient uptake so you will need to feed less. Whether your plants are indoors or in a greenhouse depro, it is a good time to add flowering nutrients at this stage in the flower cycle.

Weekly Tip: May week 1 – Good Bugs, Bad Bugs and Companion Planting

Spray with your whole site (indoor/outdoor/greenhouse) with Neem oil on the same day. Spraying with Neem oil safely and organically fights off spider mites and powdery mildew. On regular intervals, we encourage beneficial insects such as nematoads and lady bugs. When all your chores are done around the greenhouse, its a good time to plant marigolds, cilantro, etc. Read companion planting blog post for more. Top dress before planting so as not turn burn companion plants. Add pearlite as needed for drainage.

p.s. Be aware of over watering and over fertilization during these first few weeks of flowering.

Weekly Tip: April week 4 – Transplant to Larger Containers

When transplanting be sure to move into large enough containers to see the plant through it’s entire flower cycle. We choose to use larger containers to ensure enough space for root growth and reducing the need to water as often.

As Danny Danko, Cultivation Editor for High Times says, bigger containers mean bigger years. When transplanting, be sure not to press and compact the soil, let the water do this over time. Center and position your plant in container to maximize your flowering site potential for light uptake. When placing your plants in the greenhouse, place the tallest plants on the north wall going from east to west. Try to create a stadium effect, the following rows should gradually be smaller and smaller, placing the shortest plants on the southern wall.

When preparing your soil for transplanting, use your favorite fertilizer as a top dress. Stay tuned, since Roots & Harmony will be putting out their favorite top dress for sale soon!

Weekly Tip: April week 3 – Deprivation of the Greenhouse (“Depro”)

The sun is strong enough now to produce dense flowers. Our preferred date is 4/20! The process of deprivation is removing the light from the greenhouse to force the flowers. Our tried and true methods is wrapping the greenhouse with a visquen (“panda plastic”, one side black/one side white), white facing outward, and we clamp it down with big wood working clamps. We wrap the greenhouse at 7pm and unwrap at 7am. By starting this process on April 20, you will be ready to harvest 3 full flowering cycles in one year. I.e., the second flower cycle depro would be initiated June 20th. The third flower cycle (starting August 20) doesn’t need depro since the sun is at the proper timing from the solstice. Cut clones today, so you can transplant ready plants by harvest time on June 20th.