Oh, and the mention of birds reminds me, time to remove ol’ hooty hoo. Had the dummy owl there on the fence to actually keep the birds away while the last of some seed was finishing up, harvested them yesterday so time to let the birds back in!
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It’ll be legal soon enough. Like much of the South, this area’s populace’s relation with law enforcement is complex. Anyone willing to put on a uniform and take up arms is respected, even if it is for that reason alone. However, more than a couple of people here are usually up to something illegal. Ironically, the 2018 Farm Bill, which made hemp and hemp products legal, has actually simplified things here. If you get caught with weed, just say it’s hemp. A cop said that. Times are changing. A few years after they make it legal, everyone will wonder why the hell it was ever illegal in the first place
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It shall be so! That farm bill sure did change the tide, and your right, most officers could care less now(not many ever really did, but it just takes one, I should know). It can still be a major concern for folks on papers though, as I can attest. As recently as 2020, I spent time incarcerated for marijuana use. Its crazy how fast things can change. Those days seem far behind on days like this…
Will probably use these for next round…
and for dinner…
Then dessert
… Lots of trimming to do, great for a rainy day while Im home alone(girlfriend is out of town), looks like the whole next week will be rain, should have some excellent growth over the next few days. Stay safe yall 
I pray you are all as happy as you want to be. 
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Oh man, these little ones are hard to see here, a terrible shot, but a lucky one for sure! Male and Female together, Im guessing, Yellow Finch?, going to have to look them up, this was zoomed in as close as possible, got the shot, then tried to take one more step and they were gone…
Same old, same old today. Cloudy, raining then sunny, on and off, but this is the kind of weather that gets those buds cranking HARD, the squash is coming in so fast as well as the cherry tomatoes, very important to clean up all the damaged foliage and fruits, allways place your clippings elsewhere, keeping the garden as clean as possible helps to keep pests, fungus, and disease from taking over. Its crazy how fast everything can change. Have been spraying a mixture of neem, hydrogen peroxide, cal-mag, and water once a week. Has seemed to help in multiple ways. Only going to apply neem once or twice more as that shit definitely stinks and is hard to remove from yourself causing your lover to despise you at night…plus, Im not too keen on my buds smelling like that either…will be ordering ladybugs asap, mostly for indoor use but I’ll probably release a few outside, will order from a company that produces regional insects if possible…these girls are gonna need the help… I remove roughly this many leaves every three or four days at this point, though I will start to slow down as the flowers develop…
all debris is thrown in a pile away from the garden, left to dry, then placed in compost bins to use for next season. Have been working on separating the bins between nitrogen rich, and potassium/phosphorus rich, always more to learn and improve on for next year.
Basically, the goal is to keep everything as natural as possible yet always striving to keep up with and learn more about the actual requirements that are needed to keep a tidy and healthy garden or grow space while also continuing to challenge myself on my weak points(laziness!) and being honest about what those weak areas are, which can be the hard part. We all have our own stubborn, and quite often, flat out wrong, ideas and techniques that have been handed down threw the years as gospel because something was read by some dude that another dude practically wrote out of his ass over 30-40 years ago. Not knocking the real OGs, its simply amazing what guys were doing that long ago with literally no information to go on, or so it seems, most true ogs had some background in horticulture and all sorts of tride and true farming techniques used by our ancestors. Though somewhere down the line, the craft got watered down and now alot of people think they have to buy more and more “commercial grade” fertz and snake oils, additives commonly made out of other cheap and easily bought household products) Ok, Wow…this Snowfire Kush is Lit! Went off on a tangent there, a random ramble of free form thought, …just a playa tryn to understand the game,…it can be hard to decifer the true ways of the Jedi…lol…
Catch yalls later, for now, I am one of many, a keeper of the
as always, stay safe, be grateful
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Dang! What goes up, must come down…Was out in the garden this morning and noticed this…
Im certainly all ears…mostly occurring on lower, inner leaves, yet some main fans seem to also be affected. Fom the looks of it, it’s spreading fast. Removed a few of the worst but not all, keeping an eye on it, any ideas appreciated. Knowing that she is around watermelon, squash, tomatoes…Im guessing its some kind of fungus or disease? I stay low on nutrients/supplements but I do give cal-mag, kelp extract, bat guano to name a few…h2o2, recharge, and neem might be all…just showing on one cannabis plant though possibly on the watermelon as well. Thank you for any advice!
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Hey Dendro, Turn the leaf over, and scope it, probably thrips, aphids maybe.
I’d suggest using just ReCharge in your garden. I once amended my outdoor gardens, since we have all thess fertilizers for weed growing, I’d use it outback.
We got CRAZY big fruits, crazy big ornamental grasses, some went over 20 feet tall!!
And, we got crazy amounts of bugs also.
At first, I just figured it’s a bad year for them.
Next year, everything went crazy big, but I started to loose a plant and here and there to bugs.
A zucunni plant, super healthy…LOOKING, spewed out a small number of fruits, then it got wilty, and when I culled it, inside the stalks are like tubes, and was full of bugs!!
I had an internet friend, deep into the permaculture scene, and asked his opinion.
He said, he never adds nutrients to his gardens. He did/does use a chicken tractor, rabbitt pens, and would put pens in fields he planned to use a year later on.
He said, plants growing outdoors, have everything they need. He applies some of his matured compost, in spring before planting, but nothing else.
He said, bugs come to plants, that have unhealthy root mass. Usually over burdened with nutrients, He suggested things like ReCharge, or other Myco products ,they feed the Beneficial’s in your ground, they fill it with their poo, that feeds the roots, with zero work involved by the roots. Breaking down elements into usable nutrients is work, if not balanced, issues crop up, No pun intended, LOL!
I use no pesticides, no fertilizers, just compost, from my compost pens. And dinosar vomit, but thats it. Can I find some leaves with some holes, oh hell yeah! However going next door, their garden is chewed UP! The lady, asks me why, is yours so nice, and mine is eaten alive? I do not feed my soil.
Rabbits will love your fan leaves. My buddy, gets a huge bag from me, and has stopped buying so much rabbit pellets.
Just my $.02!! Best to ya!
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Hey, thanks for the feedback and some great info on organic practices. I’ve scoped and can’t see any of the usual suspects. Maybe something that lays eggs that hatch inside the leaves? I’ll have to figure out how to feed the garden all season long without adding/top-dressing, I honestly dont add much of anything, only natural and organic nutrients mentioned in previous posts, and If I dont add throughout the year, the plants use it all up very quickly and stop producing usable fruits very early, though I like the sound of not having to keep adding layers…I do have some new homemade compost going but it wasnt ready this year, for now, I’ll just have to keep an eye on things, its most likely nothing crazy, most plants make it through so much its ridiculous, but if only I had that dinosaur vomit!..I do have some concentrated unicorn foreskin that Ive been saving as a last resort…but Im not seeing this on any of the other cannabis plants, so Im hoping its a pest problem, and that I can handle, just not some wierd disease or random deficiency…I’m certainly not the doctor here, have always played it by ear, and everything works out just fine 9 out of 10 times…if this is my time, Ive done what I can…so be it! Thanks brother, I’ll keep yall updated, hopefully this crap is pests and not something more complicated. Not going to change anything in my routine for now…oh, here is the underside of leaf…
looking up, I can see alot more of these than I would like, I dont mind a blemish or two but this is spreading like wild fire and right as flower is setting in…oh well, Im really not stressing much, hard to be mad when everything else has worked out so far this year, got to let some slide by ya! I know it could be worse and I am just feeling blessed to be alive, ya know? Thanks again for your thoughts, Im stumped as usual but I think Ill just go and sit out in the space for awhile tomorrow, try and figure it out while tokin on a hogs leg…
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Tagging in looks awesome as hell 
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You were right @webeblzr, its trips, I believe. Thank you for pointing me in the correct direction. I was terrified that it was something else. After some very intense inspection, I was able to observe one of the pupae(i believe, just guessing here)circling one of the spots underneath. Damn they move fast for such little things! I cant find alot of the actual insects but their damage is becoming fairly noticeable, did some research and am fairly pleased with what I found out about them and it matches with what Im observing here as well as with your pointers on keeping the garden low on pests. Its got me thinking, a dummy garden could be helpful? Something to attract the pests and get them away from mine? Maybe I will go to have a talk with my neighbor and tell him how great these new fertilizers are doing? 
maybe not so nice? So for now, I will just continue on and not do anything drastic. Thanks again for keeping me focused Hope all is well.
Welcome! and thanks for the visit and encouragement @ColeLennon, here is the garden this morning, the big bushy girl is the one affected, looks like shes dustin them off her shoulders today…
…have a good one OGs!..
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Bugs are a huge issue here in the South. This region would be perfect if it weren’t for damn bugs. On the other hand, there are some really cool critters here. We had one of these show up one night. Climaciella brunnea - Wikipedia
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Wow, that is the coolest insect Ive ever seen! Have never heard if them or seen them before…crazy combo, a wasp that has the forearms of a mantis? Insane! With stuff like that patrolling the garden, I’d feel fairly safe. How is your garden getting along? Hot out there! Thought we’d have some rain but it was underwhelming for us. Hoping for a little bit of a break from all the watering soon. Speaking of water…We just decided to try our first watermelons 
they’ve been going for about 70 days now, there are a few more big ones left and alot of smaller ones that Im hoping will now get alittle more energy to grow bigger themselves. Hopefully they’ll be ripe…
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mmm, melons 
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Its actually a mantis that has the pattern of a wasp. I believe it’s a concept called “mimicry.” Mimicry - Wikipedia
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Happy Friday OGs…
Thanks, I needed that @Cartwright , to keep it real, those melons looked nice but they needed a bit longer…only slightly pink inside, sweet, but not quit there yet…luckily there are always more melons to go around. The trick is to never get too attached to one particular pair of melons…Now, I know, its a big let down when your melons don’t work out, but you need to be able to move on to the next set of melons, because you never know, there just might be better melons out there…bigger, juicer melons. We can only pray and wait for the melon gods to deliver.
In other news… its a rainy day out this way…Ive been worrying myself silly over the damn invisible bugs but eventually, every year, I just give in. Where the hell are my mantid flys when I need them?(looks like they are neither wasp nor mantid, but yes, a damn good mimic if I’ve ever seen one, reminds me of that cheesy 90’s movie,lol) Hopefully this rain will help and the gardens predators will sort things out. Found my first horn worm on the tomatoes today as well. They really suck but at least their able to be removed by hand, these little micro bugs are a real pain. Other than worrying about them, Ive been adding more poles and tomato cages to help tie down branches in a month or so, but I like to have everything set up by now, so as not to disturb the roots anymore. As stated in previous posts, this is my first grow using clones outdoor. They seemed to have grown differently than what Im used to, lots of branches with not much to them, not sure if topping them was a good idea, the short plant that I was able to put under the screen was the only plant from seed and I never had to top her…so much fun to grow in different ways, so boring to do things the same every time. Always have to try new strains as well. Cant get stuck on the same buds, same as the melons, you never know what else is out there!
and ’s
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Good day OGs…in a bit of a rush this afternoon, trying to get four acres of grass cut before it rains again, but here are this mornings cliff notes…Found the male box turtle in the garden digging around for worms again, and the cucumbers are starting to come in, the growth is getting so thick and they like to hide!
Oh, and the weed is still there too
Feeling good today, I hope you are as well Let’s get er done!
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Beautiful! What’s the blue flower?
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Morning all…Yeah, that little one caught my eye too, we have a ton of wildflowers here, guess its time to start learning a bit about them?..(roughly 20min later)…and so now that I thoroughly read all about blue wild flowers of Virginia, … I can confidently report back that we have a sighting of Cichorium intybus, most commonly known as Chicory, but names can include…Blue Sailors, Cornflower, Wild Succory, and Coffeeweed. I’ll have to do an in-depth study on the local population…kidding, but thanks to @FieldEffect we might know what it is now. Welcome and thanks for adding to the charm here!
Just going out to the garden now, got Bobo(Baumead is his fancy Royal name) with me and we’re about to take a hike through the property today, Ive been thinking of making a photographic tour of sorts for you guys. Such a beautiful time of year, gotta love when the rains start to come in late summer, brings out so much activity. Other than just chillin out and enjoying this fine day we have, not much going on then, I hope! Should be back with some pictures later tonight✌
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No kidding, that’s Chircory? Same stuff that’s in the New Orleans coffee - I don’t care for the taste but my other half does. Learn something new everyday! Sure is pretty though.
Hope the garden is enjoying the weather. Spent the morning weed-wacking and cleaning up the veggie bed, the tomatoes and chiles needed some defoliation around the ground, weed pulling and harvesting. Loving it.
I’ve got some watermelons too, they’ve been out about 90 days. Do I go by the time on the packet or is there a trick to knowing they are ripe? No trichomes on those
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Oh man, I was serious when I said I read for twenty minutes…maybe less, didn’t even get into wicki or anything, so I cant tell you if thats the same plant at all. When I saw Chicory, I had a very different idea in my head too of what it was, I thought it was a bark or something …now Im even more intrigued. Have really just started to scratch the surface of this property, this is our second summer here, though I’ve lived in Va for awhile now, I need/want to learn about all the native species as we plan on being here for a long time. Just took some more shots with Bo…
Mother Nature to the rescue beneficials are getting it in today and so is Baumead
So about those watermelons, Im glad you asked because we were super let down by my picking of those three too early, I obviously should have just done one but Ive waited much longer before at our last place a few years ago and they didnt put out very much later on and they still weren’t the best, Im hoping that this year they will keep throwing out more this time, but as far as ripeness goes its such a guessing game, the color should change and there should be a nice creamy spot underneath but all types are different Im sure, Im doing “Suger Babies” and the packet said 63-70 days, I waited that long and they looked good but needed at least another week, maybe two. So Im letting everything else, there are about 5 so far, continue to go, I sure hope to make up for the early picking of the three, they were actually pretty sweet and had very slight pink flesh, but just as bad a feeling as cutting buds down too early! I had to hold back tears…lol…Ive read that the part connecting to the main vine should start to shrivel and brown, there was alittle bit of that on mine but not much…thats what I will wait for next time, along with the other signs. Im betting that its hard to go too long, from what I saw, oh and the thump test seems to be one of those things only Jedi or musicians can do. I am nether. I hope you have better luck, 90 days seems like a long enough time, but dont listen to me, are they full size types? Happy Growing
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