2018 Outdoor Cannabis Grow - Week 11 of Flowering

2018 Outdoor Cannabis Grow
Week: 11 of Flowering
Strain: Super Silver Haze

Well we did it! We were able to get one of the three Super Silver Haze plants to get nearly through the flowering stage. There were a lot of doubters out there. And a couple of times it really looked doubtful that these plants were could go the distance. But hey to poorly paraphrase MeatLoaf, "1 out of 3 ain't bad". And that's basically how we feel. 👏🙏

So we are seeing that this plant ended up having the slowest development during the flowering stage. It also had the least bud rot. Which could have been due to the fact that it was the farthest away from other plants and bushes.

The top colas were looking pretty ripe. And with the incoming weather bringing frost warnings and rain it seemed like a good time to harvest.

As you can see below even some of the top colas weren't fully ready for harvest. Oh well. There is always next year. And we'll have plenty of product from this season to convert into hash and canna-coconut oil for edibles.

We're definitely going to be testing our baking abilities this holiday season. 🍪🍫🍬

So of the plant really started showing a lot of purples.

According to WikiLeaf and other sources on the interwebs. Purple is unfortunately not indicative of a higher potency. But this could be due to genetics or the environment was optimal.

In our case it was almost certainly environmental. By that we mean the plants were allowed to flower in cold temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Under these conditions the chlorophyll in the leaves started to break down and another compound called, anthocyanin starts showing through as the concentration overtakes that of the chlorophyll. As you can guess this compounds color is purple.

The purple buds also stood out with these thick orange pistils (see below). The buds were ultimately not ripe and were not as filled out as we would have liked them to be by week 11. It was probably due to the cold, rain and end of the growing season weak sunshine.

We are very excited to try out these purple buds though. Our indoor grows haven't yielded any of these so this is a first.

From our research Super Silver Haze lineage is primed for purple buds. Northern Lights is a strain known to contain large amounts of anthocyanin.

Anyways this was a fun run. After this post we're transitioning into harvesting posts / videos. And then edible creations.

If you have any suggestions for edibles we would love to hear them and get any special recipes.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment or check us out at:

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Happy Growing!!!

MM's

2018 Outdoor Cannabis Grow - Week 9.5 of Flowering

2018 Outdoor Cannabis Grow
Week: 9 and 1/2 of Flowering
Strain: Super Silver Haze

Week 9 and 1/2 and we are cutting down the second plant. Unfortunately it is also immature, but the harvest was required to prevent the spread of bud rot. And the weather in New England was supposed to be cold and wet for the majority of the next 10 days.

Looking at the plants using a jeweler's loupe we saw that the plant had a pretty decent presence of amber trichomes. Not enough to really warrant harvesting at this time, but a higher concentration than the first harvested plant.

Some of the buds still had a lot of white pistils on them. As you can see in the photo below.

Some thoughts after growing Super Silver Haze outdoors in New England.

1. Train and top the plants 

We didn't do this and they grew to be between 10-13 feet in some places. That was fun but it made them hard to manage. Had we topped and trained them over the course of the summer. The heights would have been managed better, and we could have better addressed other issues as they developed.

2. Provide support for the plants as the buds developed

Here in New England as the season changes from summer to fall the area gets a lot of wind and heavy rain. Both of which did a number of the tall top heavy sativa plants. By not providing them with proper supports, most of the plants had branches and stems that snapped and died.

3. Manipulate the light cycle

We allowed the plants to enter the flowering cycle naturally. This was by far our biggest mistake of the outdoor season. Had we forced the plants into flowering one month earlier, they would likely have reached their full potential in the flowering cycle.

4. Pesticides during the vegetative cycle

We didn't use any pest control methods this season. As a result the plants were attacked by caterpillars. These were in the buds as they were harvested and dried. Doing some general research on this subject, we could have found a number of safe options that would have helped the end product.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment or check us out at:

YouTube <--- please subscribe to our channel!!!

Happy Growing!!!

MM's

2018 Outdoor Cannabis Grow - Week 9 of Flowering

2018 Outdoor Cannabis Grow
Week 9 of Flowering
Strain: Super Silver Haze

The Super Silver Haze strain is a 100% true sativa plant, and in our opinion they have truly thrived here in the New England climate. Today is chopping day for one of the three plants. It is farthest into the flowering stage, and also is getting hit the hardest with infection.

Although these plants have been very resilient to the cool climate here in New England (lows in the high 30's), they were susceptible to both mold and pests. And that has pushed up the harvesting timeline.

But that was not exactly their fault. We decided not to use pesticides, and did not provide them with any covering during the wetter weeks between September and October. It is very possible that these plants would not have had these issues if we tended to them differently.

Ultimately this was an experiment to see how well the strain could grow here in New England. And we provided them with minimal assistance. Other than the nutrients in the pre-mix store bought soil, we fed them nothing during the entire vegetative stage. And then offered only a handful of feedings during the early-middle flowering period.

In our opinion this strain did very well, and grew tall and healthy. And probably could have gone another couple weeks if the rot and pests weren't a factor. And that is without a covering.

All of the flower and sugar leaf from the plant being chopped today will be converted into concentrates which will be used for edibles. The plant matter will be bagged and frozen fresh. From what we have read, drying can remove some of the Terpene flavor profile from the concentrates if plant matter is allowed to dry.

That will be another video down the road.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment or check us out at:

YouTube <--- please subscribe to our channel!!!

Happy Growing!!!

MM's