What I learnt growing cannabis this season 2019–2020
Tags: Gardening, Organics, Plants, Marijuana, Cannabis

Sheesh what a season it’s been and although it is’t finished just yet I thought I would share some experiences.

August 2019 was a long month, I was counting the days like Tom Hanks on Cast Away, the idea of cutting notches on the kitchen counter did cross my mind at some point.

I researched and spent a lot of time thinking about what strains to grow, bear in mind I’m growing on a small balcony, so need something that will work in those conditions.

I was thinking I should try and grow a monster, one that blocks out the neighbour who still has a landline, who the fuck has a landline telephone, but I also don’t want the cats climbing up the plant and jumping over to certain death because I haven't fed them on time.

So I choose some strains that I thought best suited the environment and would present opportunities for great bud porn photography. September 23 arrived, the official day of spring in the southern hemisphere, I dropped the seeds in water to soak, and then popped them in Jiffies and within a few days they popped, I was shaking like a shitting dog with excitement.

after a day or two I placed them in an area with decent lighting and air flow, they seem to be growing well. I came home from work the one day and found that both seedlings had flopped over, causing the main stem to kink and thus causing the plant to wilt and pretty much die on the spot. Sad emotions washed over me for failing those young plants, they could have been great. So weather it was a case of overzealous seedlings, a very dense jiffy disk, or just old weak seeds or maybe I should have put them in full sun? We will never know.

So to solve the floppy seedling issue I used a kebab stick an a pipecleaner to give them support, this worked really well, no more floppy seedlings for me.

Winning

October arrived and the plants were looking great, things were going smooth, too smooth, and then… all of a sudden like a shopping trolley when one of the front wheels starts spinning violently similar that girl from the exorcist, I noticed the plants had started flowering.

I had started the outdoor growing season too early, and now my plants would have to reveg, loosing a lot of time, and once a plant goes into reveg, it’s very messy and requires a lot of clean up.

I noticed as well this season that the “living” soils sold for cannabis cultivation just don’t seem to have enough goodness. I was always told to feed your plants sparingly and not rely on bottles of nutrients, so this has always been my approach to growing, however this season I noticed my plants were very hungry and had to supplement with every watering, and Jesus that shit isn’t cheap, you need this bottle, then that bottle, and then make sure you’re not duplicating your NPK’s.

I turned to FPJ(fermented plant juice) and LAB(lactic acid bacteria) a cheaper alternative to store bough nutrients and completely natural, this worked really well and the plants reacted very well to it. If you haven’t tried making homemade nutrients I highly recommend it.

Over this growing period, I noticed one product that really worked and I mean really worked.

I was sent a bottle to try out, and I thought it was a bit of a gimmick but I tried it anyway and after about a week or so, things changed on the balcony, BOOOOM or KABOOOM as an Eastern European would say. The cannabis plants were popping.

We had a lemon tree that had been hit by the strong summer winds, and it was no longer a tree but a stump, well…new shoots started showing and the plant is making a full recovery.

My super hot peppers were also looking stronger than ever besides having aphids, the plants just had a boost of confidence like you won’t believe and they just gave absolutely no fucks, they were here to grow, and they meant business.

Thanks Explogrow, this pepper will make any aunties lips flap.

I also tried out salt based nutrients again, this time I had a better understanding of how plants grow, so far the salt plants are looking a lot better than the organic ones, but will they taste better? we shall find out hey.

Fat Banana growing in coco and perlite.

Another setback this season was a really nice Durban Poison that after a week of gale force winds turned hermi due to the stress. So if there is a strong wind I will try and bring the plants inside now, at least for the night to a avoid shock.

Very sad indeed. The cats showing their last respects.

The wind in the Cape is a real problem, nothing strips a plant of it’s leaves like a South Easterly wind, breaking branches and burning leaves.

This is why I grow Indica dominant plants as they grow shorter and bushier.

Well that’s it for now, thanks for reading, will be adding more updates soon.