Its been a few years since I’ve grown, and first time since moving about 10 hours North from where I grew up. We bought an old farm in a river valley with amazing soil, so looking forward to lots of gardening. With our cold climate, this summer is a bit of a crapshoot to see what will actually work outside. Most of my efforts will be indoor, but only in the cooler months (which is most of the year up here).
On deck I have:
Manitoba Poison, an early flowering variety with supposed African roots. One in a pot on the deck, one in the garden beds.
Sea Level, should be a semi-auto with Mighty Might lineage. Three of these are in the beds, one straggler in a pot.
Diablo Indica, a short and stalky Indica. This was a freebie, I don’t know much about it.
A DJ Short Blueberry bagseed (LOL) for good luck
Two Durban Poison fem seeds from Crap King
Five NYC Diesel Autoflower Fems
Everything started indoors around April 15th, moved outside into a small heated greenhouse mid-may, and have been outside on their own since June 1st.
The NYCD Autos in the back, and the big vigorous Manitoba on the right. Real strong sativa look to her, so really curious how it does. I love a good sativa. The other manitoba isn’t showing sex yet, if its a boy I may be tempted to dust a few branches on this big girl. The tomatos are “Russian House Tomato”
Looks good. Nice property. I’m curious to see how your Sativa does. Sounds like your grow season is similar to My area. It’s tuff for me here to pull off a full Sativa grow outdoors. Usually need an indica or a 60/40 hybrid or something.
Thanks, I love it here. Amazing soil on this property, good hunting right out the back door, can’t ask for more. Well maybe less snow would be nice.
I’m curious to see how it does too. Descriptions of the strain sound like it’s got a lot of indica leaning properties, Vancouver Seed Bank has it at Sept 1st for outdoor and lists it as a sativa. I was planning on light dep but maybe I’ll just leave to nature it and see what happens.
Frost free dates here are June 10th to Sept 10th, but two years ago we had a hard frost August 24th. The biggest issue is that we don’t hit actual 12/12 until mid September due to the northern latitude (48N).
I ordered some Malawi x NL autos from Ace but they haven’t arrived yet. Might be getting late in the year to pop them unless I finish indoors.
Plants begin to flower much quicker than the 12/12 date. They’ll usually trigger as soon as they can tell the “dark” hours are increasing looking forward to watching your grow
Those Russian tomato’s can be trimmed back and brought inside over the winter. Apparently some people have kept them producing fruit for over 30 years! They’re in the same soil mix as the autos, which is pro mix HP, very well composted sheep shit and work castings. Fairly light mix, adding some teas every few waterings.
The in-ground plants and the potted Manitoba are in a 1/3 mix of pro mix, perlite and composts with some amendments. Compost is a mix of sheep shit from my neighbour, work castings and fafard sea compost (nice stuff, very rich). Amendments are dolomitic lime, kelp meal, chicken compost (pelleted). I let it cook about a month and mix in a few shovels of the surrounding fine sandy loam. My plan is to keep these beds going as no-till and amend as needed each year.
We had frost last night, got down to about -1 C. We covered over what we could with straw and row cover, looks like only a few leaf tips got hit. Crazy cold spring this year! The squash and pumpkins would have gotten killed if we hadn’t covered them.
The Manitoba girl is chugging along, put an inch of growth on yesterday. I haven’t decided whether to kill the Mr Bananas here or dust a few of her lower branches and save some seeds. I only popped two of ten of these seeds so I’m not really doing a proper F1 selection… But might be good seeds to give to friends and relatives for their backyard four.
If I do save him, I’ll probably dig him up and put him off away from the others so we don’t end up with a pile of mutts.
Girls are getting big! The Manitoba Poison is putting some nice stretch on while she flowers, and the autos are adding some bulk. I may start light dep on the photoperiod plants in the next week.
Like you, I am pushing the envelope in the dance with Frost.
Get them through mid May and I am good, most years. Frost damage is not a huge deal unless it goes deep enough to kill.
Wise old timers tell me, after Labour Day… any time it can happen with a cold wind blowing in.
This season, going with mid Summer flowering for a couple, vegetative growth for a couple more I can shelter in the Fall. Moving crates to track the Sunshine for dawn to bed time.
Good luck with your grow, lot of direct Sunshine, going to some very happy plants.
Yes, we have a Deutsch drahthaar right now, my best buddy Wilma. I grew up with labs, but a pointing dog that retrieves like a lab has been amazing. She’s a great pheasant dog, good for waterfowl, and has mostly figured out grouse. I might like to get an English setter in the future, but I think I will always have a drahthaar in the house.
looking forward to watching your grow 
