The Garden of Weeden - GreenPassion.org - Dedicated to Medicinal Cannabis Cultivation and Education

subcool · #1 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 08:42 AM

The Garden of Weeden

Part 1

Growing medical Cannabis outdoors sounds as easy as planting it and then watering it and maybe feeding it and walah Buckets of Buds right? Not Exactly!
I was born down south in a climate where you could grow giant reefer trees but alas the laws of the land did not allow this to be so it has always been a dream to see plants grown in full sun in optimum conditions. I had the opportunity to document a very nice medical garden this year and I was given full access so that I could record the growth of the patch every 7 days. Over the next few months I will provide an inside look to what is a remarkable amount of work and dedication to provide healing herbs to a lot of sick people. All of the medicine you will see grown that isn’t attacked by caterpillars, chopped out early and fed to cows or thrown away do to boytris mold or mildew is given away to those in need. This isn’t some cash crop so lots of the lower branches went to patients as they were harvested, these early immature buds were life savers for those with no or limited access. What you won’t see if some huge money shot mound of buds at the end of the story. This medicine is given away to those with cards as soon as its ready and many people pitch in to do the hard job of harvesting.

As I start this article all but a few plants have been harvested and the bulk of the work is done. This may be a legal garden following state guide lines to the letter but we all know there’s some evil people that would prefer even a legal garden not be allowed so I waited till the show was over to tell you this story.

subcool · #2 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 08:44 AM

I first met “Dave” as we will call him in this story ( Dave’s Not Here) in my forums and we happened to share some of the same online friends so there was a trust based on the reputation among these people. After chatting online he invited Jill and I out one day for a smoke out session. He taught me how to make the now infamous, glycerin tincture that day and also send me away with 6 ounces of tasty outdoor meds. Where I come from no one just gives away weed and over the next few months I saw Dave’s Charity repeated over and over again. Now without sounding to weird I need to say this all had a profound effect on me and I started seeing Cannabis in a whole new light. Back east no one would understand this but in medical circles in Oregon Medical Cannabis is Free! Its not falling from the sky continuously but here if we have we share. This simple concept and way of thinking has created a new way of life for me and through meeting Dave I am a much better human and a much more giving person, ok enough sappy stuff lets see the garden. If the world would adapt this simply way of thinking it would be such a better world. Over the winter Dave and I kept in contact and I started attending his medical events providing clones and seeds to those in need and I was introduced to an entire circle of people that looked out for each other and generally gave a **** about the planet and human kind. Dave and I grew as friends and when it was time to plan out his 2008 garden I was able to donate a few clones to him and one plant from seed he started just after memorial day.
The first time I saw the garden, I was led down to the secluded area and immediately I spotted the JTR clone that was vegged and trained for 2 months before even going out and was quickly becoming a small bush. Jack the Ripper can be slow to grow indoors and tends to form a short bush with very tight internodal spacing. I could not wait to see how she will perform in the outdoors with the Sun over head to bring out her best.

subcool · #3 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 08:46 AM

Dave grows on a hillside that gets almost all day sunshine. In Oregon with a limit of cards a grower can grow 24 plants to maturity under state law. Since we can only grow for 4 months here in our extreme climate these meds have to last patients for a full year so just like any type of farming you hope for the best but plan for the worst. This plot was previously a horse coral and is in a perfect location for this garden. Only in the late afternoons does the sun fall behind the trees and shade the garden. In our area the hard part is finishing the plants before the wet and cold invites mold and mildew, it’s a long long wait before these small plants will become buds. Before the rains come the plants will be covered with green house plastic using metal frames that form a Quonset tent that will prevent rains and morning dew settling on the plants.

Dave uses heavy equipment to dig a bed eight feet deep and thirty-five x forty wide pit. This pit is composted and cared for during the winter months and before each planting season additional manures and compost along with truck loads of worm castings and rich soil are tilled in. The plants seem to grow very slow at first but it’s deceiving because the work is going on underground. Dave is known for his huge plants and I set out to learn his secret, it wasn’t some magic trick healthy plants with huge root mass produces huge Bushes. This confirmed a theory I have had for a very long time and now I understand why plants grown indoors in 11 gallon pots do so much better than ones grown in 5 gallon buckets, it all comes down to root mass When you walk in the garden there are specific areas you have to walk in. This is yet another reason these plant get so large is the soil bed is never compacted. No one steps inside the 4 foot area around the root base and its kept loose and soft allowing the roots to grow very fast into the soil bed.

The first pictures start way back in July when they were transplanted into the soil and its was a nice warm day. I have never seen my genetics run in an outdoor garden personally so I was really looking forward to my first photo shoot at the ODC.
This was a learning experience for me each time I visited and I will try and pass on what I learned.

These are the strains in the garden:

Agent Orange
Black Domina
Blueberry
Bubba Kush
California Orange
Cheese
Chocolate Chunk
Dannyboy
Great White Shark
Proud Mary
Purple Kush
Romulan
Snodawg
Space Queen
Jack the Ripper
Jacks Cleaner 2

subcool · #4 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 08:47 AM

The plants are lovingly transplanted through out the garden and foliar fed with vulvic acid which helps the plant uptake Nitrogen through the root base. Dave is a firm believer in both Vulvic and Humic acids and uses them through ought the growing season.
I did not get a chance to return to Weeden for almost 2 weeks 12 days to be exact. I expected them to be larger to be honest getting full-unobstructed sunshine every day but Dave explained that most of the energy was going to establish the root base first.
Now I want to tell you about Pistils Perch and Sportsters Bucket, Pistils is my best Mate and he lives in England. He wants to come and visit us here in the PNW and check out some of the natural wonders like Mt Saint Helens, Crater Lake and possibly even a few days in San Francisco. Like many of us he is very busy and has not had the time yet so we honor him with his very own bench and invite him in each of the photo shoots we do each week.
Sportsters bucket is along the same lines but honors a good friend of ours that makes his way up at harvest and sitting on the bucket helps Dave process mountains of medicine, with him in mind we feature his bucket at each visit, it’s a tease but it’s all in good fun.
I decided to get out and get some late sunshine and fresh air and go smoke a joint with KA and take a few pics of the progress on Tuesday a tradition that would be repeated each week until harvest.
I arrived about 4 pm and by the time we walked down to the garden it was 4.20 so we fired up a hogleg of Cheese and KA made these signs.
Want to see just a spectacular place to get high and talk about life?

subcool · #5 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 08:49 AM

Now that the roots are established watch these things go crazy over the next few weeks. I am not sure he left enough room.

July 28th was my third visit to by now my favorite place on the planet to contemplate life was a learning visit and I got to actually watch the installation of the wire cages that will help support the lower buds once they add weight and start drooping due to gravity. The plants are cleaned up at this time by removing any of the lower “sucker” shoots and this allows the plants better air flow and in theory the energy wasted on these lower branches will be diverted upward to the main colas. The remaining lower branches are carefully weaved through the wire cages opening the plant for more sunlight and better air flow.
Before we got started we enjoyed some nice hits of some indoor Jacks Cleaner a Sativa to give us some morning energy and reduce some of the pain that Dave deals with everyday. We take time to Honor Pistils and Sporster and then get to work. Dave makes a stern general as he commands everyone around the garden to help with each plant getting them secured just like he wants them.
You can see the plants starting to take off but your going to be shocked when you see our next updates.

In our next article you will see giant plants forming, Cannabis Loving Cows and the erection of the covering tent and the first Bud Shots!
Stay Tuned

Subcool

MedGarden420 · #6 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 08:56 AM

Very nice, subcool. I love seeing plants grown outdoors. I long to grow one outside myself.

GSR · #7 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 11:32 AM

Subcool,
I totally enjoy seeing what you guys have done, not much better than some fine outdoor from the PNW. Very compassionate also! Way to grow!
GSR

chuckd420 · #8 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 03:16 PM

That's a very nice garden, thank you for posting it. I wish it was legal to grow outside where I live but it's not so I'll settle for drooling over these good lookin' plants.

deventhedude · #9 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 03:44 PM

YES! Another epic adventure brought to you by non other then SUBCOOL! I've been hoping and wishing for a new thread man. This should keep me occupied for a while. Thx gotta love it!

Mr.Moonbiscuit · #10 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 03:57 PM

very nice man, there is actually a growing trend around the south east where im from now, guerilla grow ops! every one helps out, and then split the crop after. i pray this is a sign of the times changing.

subcool · #11 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 11:12 PM

When we last visited the garden we spent the day caging the plants and removing lowers to allow better air flow. I didn’t understand how big they were going get and I was concerned with the amount of shoots Dave removed but I didn’t need to worry. Thinning the garden became a must as the plants grew into each other and air flow was reduced. We stopped by on August 4th early in the morning so I could capture some shots that included some nice sun beams and what a glorious day it was. Dave met us in the garden with his Oregon Green Free T-shirt on and a sprayer full of Fulvic acid that he was spraying the plants with. Fulvic acid Dave tells me helps the plants uptake of Nitrogen and he swears by it veg and even in early budding. Lots of old school growers think you have to start from seed to achieve giant plants but your going to see Dave prove this wrong.

subcool · #12 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 11:14 PM

One plant that clearly stood out on this visit was Eric77’s California Orange a famous cutting that I have grown indoors myself many times but I had never seen it in full sunshine. It already towered over Jills head and the stem was already so think she almost couldn’t close her fist around it.

subcool · #13 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 11:15 PM

We also tried our hand at Cow Catching that day and when we spotted a few of the neighbors cows over near the fence Dave made up a line with a fat fan leave on it and went to casting. I howled in laughter as the cow actually came over and sniffed the leaf. You will see cows munching down on leaf in the harvest chapter. They love the stuff and we even named our favorite cow “Bogart”.

subcool · #14 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 11:16 PM

This was the week of Hempfest so I drove over for a quick evening shoot as the sun went behind the trees. The first thing I noticed was all of the plants seemed to have doubled in size. Dave explained that on my first few visits while the plants may have seemed to be growing fast the real growth was going on underground as the plants dug their roots deep and formed a giant web filling the entire bed he prepared. This is one of the secrets to the amazing size of his plants. I am convinced no one can gets plants like these in containers. Keep in mind Dave is not pouring hundreds of gallons of water on his plants like people growing in huge containers. Water can be a serious issue in the summer and the fact this garden requires very little is a huge plus. The JTR was a good 12 feet around by now and the Great White Shark was over ten feet tall.

subcool · #15 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 11:18 PM

The only plant started from seed came from a pack of door prizes given out at an OGF event that we called Memorial Day Mix. It was growing straight upwards reaching for the sky. You can see Dave has started installing the supports that will hold the nursery grade plastic that will keep out the rains and Dew that will start forming shortly. When you see these amazing plants understand it’s a long way to harvest, Dave has to manage them to the very end. Mildew is really bad here and no chemicals will be used in this garden, instead it will be controlled using lemon water and keeping the moisture off with a cover.

subcool · #16 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 11:19 PM

I would like to see Dave run power down to this area so he could run some fans but hes been doing this a long time and this is his 17th consecutive grow so I tend to keep my mouth shut and just be a good observer. In the garden you feel really close to God or Nature and you feel a over all calm that gives you the feeling of being meant to be! I took time with Dave to smoke a few bowls of Bubble in this amazing location.

subcool · #17 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 11:21 PM

The POtent
When we arrived for our weekly visit Dave had a nice surprise waiting for us. He had his portable vaporizer heated up at Pistils Perch and we started the photo session with a smoke session to shake out the morning cobwebs. Dave spent all week getting the thick plastic up and then daily adjustments so that no water pools up anywhere and equal tension is applied so that it doesn’t sag and touch the plants. In fact he was still making small adjustments when we arrived. This was a bit early to be covering the plants but the weatherman was predicting some heavy rains and the plants are thick enough you really don’t want that kind of moisture to accumulate.

subcool · #18 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 11:22 PM

The bed that he grows in is nice and dry and that has to help prevent mold and mildew from taking hold. I walk down into the canopy which now towers over everyone’s head in a few areas. The Romulan is over 9feet tall and really starting to stretch out and the massive California Orange and Dannyboy are in danger of touching. It’s hard to believe this is the same garden now as the cover and the size of the plants give it a jungle feel….as I mentioned, this is a very cool place to hang out and we have always felt very honored to have this type of access to such an amazing reefer patch. I won’t ever forget this experience! The Cheese clone and the Jack the Ripper which grow pretty slow indoors were achieving rates of growth I never expected. It was so fun to watch the plants just grow so fast under these near perfect conditions, the Memorial day mix, the only plant from seed was growing several inches per day and was over my head already.

You still haven’t seen anything yet as this is the day when the plants actually start budding.

Lumix · #19 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 11:24 PM

I enjoyed the pictorial of the large grow like a fine movie with popcorn

Thanks

subcool · #20 (**permalink**) 07-18-2009, 11:25 PM

By this point close to 10,000 people had viewed the documentation of this garden at my online and I think Dave became self conscience because he hand trucked in some ceder chips to make the place look really nice. Actually just another old school trick he uses to keep pest away and keep the dust down. Since this is essentially now an indoor garden this upgrade will keep the plants nice and clean from dust. He also put up a cover over Pistils Perch to block the harsh sunlight that streams down in midsummer giving us a small retreat from the heat of the garden.