ILGM Big Bud Outdoors

Wow. So, I've done these outdoor grows for a couple of years now, sticking to my primarily organic mode of growing mostly because it's cheap and convenient; the closest store of any kind to me is about twenty minutes away, a gas station. For me to go to a gardening store better than Lowe's is about an hour drive. SO I've kind of always done it this way, and there's one consistent theme: nature needs constant taming. I've fought powdery mildew, bugs, rabbits, deer, beaver, you name it. But I've never fought them all at once. This strain of big bud is not mildew resistant at all. I noticed a dusty white patch on one of the plants on Tuesday. I treat powdery mildew with neem oil, but I was out of neem oil. So I put in an order of neem oil on Amazon; no big deal. Wednesday I notice the tips on almost all of my plants, both this grow and my corresponding blueberry autos, were browning. Nute burn seemed unlikely given my grow technique, but I have managed to make overly hot soil once or twice, so I decided to monitor it waiting for the neem oil to come (we don't get Prime out here). Thursday, the tip browning had spread and made itself obvious - magnesium deficiency. Awesome. Drive to Lowe's to pick up a sack of lime. Get home, and I notice two of my blueberry plants are showing beginning signs of spider mites. FFFFFFFFFFFFFF. I have spinosad, but I don't want to use it until the neem oil gets here. I'll just defoliate some of the bad leaves, and since the quadrifold plants were bushing out and needed their final tying to complete their crown, I'll just do that waiting for the neem to get here. And so I proceeded to snap a stem. Holla atcha boy. Neem oil arrived here Friday, I made a 4 gallon mixture of 5 ml/gallon neem oil + 2 oz spinosad/gallon, doused the leaves of all plants in both grows, making care to pay special attention to the undersides of the leaves, and then soaked the soil until water started dripping out of the pots. Now, I should clarify - that's the story of the girls on my deck. The girl I planted last week is thriving. She's 31" tall - she's gained 7" this week, and that's after having to repair all of the root damage I did when replanting her. She also has several beautiful little mushrooms growing all around her. I'd like to think there's some symbiosis going on there. Clean country living. Sometimes. EDIT: For those interested, the mushrooms are Coprinopsis lagopus.