The Backyard Garden by by Jorge Cervantes
After a decade of living in Spain where I could legally grow cannabis for personal consumption, I returned to the USA. Even though I was examined by a doctor and prescribed a "Medical Marijuana Certificate" from the State of California, my new "home," I still felt uncomfortable with the legal system.
After a decade of living in Spain where I could legally grow cannabis for personal consumption, I returned to the USA. Even though I was examined by a doctor and prescribed a "Medical Marijuana Certificate" from the State of California, my new "home," I still felt uncomfortable with the legal system.
After a decade of living in Spain where I could legally grow cannabis for personal consumption, I returned to the USA. Even though I was examined by a doctor and prescribed a “Medical Marijuana Certificate” from the State of California, my new “home,” I still felt uncomfortable with the legal system. When I left the USA “criminal medical cannabis gardeners” received long prison sentences and their homes and assets were confiscated under civil law. It took me a few months to warm up to the new life in California.
This is a brief 3-yeary history of a backyard garden located at in California at 38 degrees north latitude and is influenced by maritime Pacific Ocean weather. It is in Sunset Garden Climate Zone 14.
This simple history demonstrates that soil is the essential base of the garden. Sunlight, temperature and varieties grown are the next most important factors. Once these elements are in balance, growing outstanding medical cannabis is easy!
The first year the soil was very bad, heavy clay littered with river bottom rocks. Drainage was slow and little oxygen and organic matter was in the soil. Water would accumulate on soil for after heavy rains.
I started amending the soil in February, tilling in plenty of organic matter – compost, bark dust, sand, and used indoor soil – extra chicken manure was added to help break down bark dust. Bone and kelp meal but no lime or other supplemental fertilizers were added. The soil texture transformed. Water drained readily with good retention. The soil still lacked the proper balance of organic life that would take two more years to attain.
2010 Backyard Garden
My first crop maintained low profile growing three of each Bubba Kush and OG Kush. The varieties, purchased from a local medical cannabis dispensary, were developed to grow indoors under lights.
I transplanted the clones in rockwool cubes into one-gallon (3 L) containers. I let them harden-off for more than a week and patriotically transplanted the 12-inch-tall (30 cm) clones on the 4th of July, Independence Day in the USA.
The plants in a 6 x 10 foot bed raised 8 inches are covered with 50 percent green shade cloth. The shade cloth was extended over one side to help block ocean breezes.
A week after transplanting they were slow growing. July days were hot 85 degrees F but the nights were cool, 45 degrees F. The shade cloth over plants kept them cooler during the day and warmer at night.
By August 4th, plants were growing well. The shade cloth cooled soil and lowered water consumption.
This OG Kush plant receives plenty of light for rapid growth.
The garden is located between a two story wall and a tall fence. Once the sun disappears behind the trees and walls, the garden receives low levels of light. When the sun is directly above on June 21 all plants receive almost 6 hours of direct sunlight, but the first of October the sun is lower in the sky and just over half of the plants receive 1-4 hours of direct sunlight and the rest receive only ambient light. Plants in the foreground also subjected to light from an adjacent window. Shade cloth helped block the nighttime light and all parts of plants matured at the same time.
On 10 August female flowers are starting to grow under a 13 hours 50 minutes of sunlight! By the end of the month flowering is in full force under 13 hours of daylight and 11 yours of darkness.
Five pounds of bat guano was applied and cultivated into the top layer of soil August 1. The bat guano was expensive but it helped buds swell and also imparted a sweeter taste.
Two weeks before harvest all foliage is green including large leaves. A heavy dose nitrogen (chicken manure) was necessary to combat the bark dust in the soil.
All six plants grew to about three feet tall with big thick flower buds. The first signs of powdery mildew and bud mold started in mid to late August as buds began to thicken. The mold became progressively worse when control measures were not taken. Serenade® was applied as a spray at one-week intervals until the first of September. This appeared to keep the disease at bay, but it did little for the disease that migrated inside the plant. Bud mold progressed and was cut out when visible.
The cannabinoid-potent crop was harvested branch-at-a-time, on the first of October. Branches with large amounts of bud mold were left in the ground so the disease would progress.
The bud mold infected about a dozen big buds. I let them go to see how it would grow. At the end of the experiment, I decided the best way to banish the mold from buds is to send it up in smoke!
Caution: Do not try this at home!
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2011 Backyard Garden
The second year clones were transplanted a couple of weeks earlier, June 14. The soil absorbed water and retained it much better; 12 months of biological activity helped the soil mature. The varieties – Chemdog, Headband, Blue Dream – grew taller and were more robust and more resistant but not immune to powdery mildew and bud rot (botrytis cinera).
At planting time dispensaries offered the best commercial cuttings available and the easiest to acquire. Of course my research was based on convenience and I choose from stock on hand. The indoor varieties were not acclimated to the rigors of outdoors. Stems must be strong and growth sturdy and fast.
The garden was easier to tend because weather was milder and clones were established when hot weather arrived in late July. Water penetrated the soil better. I watered by hand every few days, about 10 gallons per plant, using an aerating watering wand and local tap water.
By the 20th of August plants were growing robustly and female flower stigmas and bracts were just starting to grow.
Branches blew in the wind and many of them could not support the weight of the newly forming flower buds. I installed a nylon horizontal trellis consisting of 6-inch squares. I fastened it to lightweight stakes in the ground. Installing the horizontal trellis was the most work after transplanting. It took two hours to press the posts into the ground, string the trellis, bend top branches and clean up.
The last day of August more small flower buds were forming and branch tips elongating. The extra 8 inches of sideboard added to the raised bed increased the height to 16 inches. I also added compost-enriched soil to fill the void. The bed warmed sooner in spring, but got too hot in summer until plants covered the soil.
The 6th of September just over half the plants receive 2-5 hours of direct sunlight and the rest receive only ambient light.
Buds are starting to plump up by the 20th of September. Branches of big buds will be harvested in 30 days. Lower branches are left to fatten-up a week or more before harvest.
The 2nd of October a big rainstorm blew in. Headband a leafy variety with a narrow stem is lying over in front. Strong stems, few leaves and compact buds keep the variety, Green Crack, in the background has standing upright.
Powdery mildew once again haunted the crop but was kept at bay with applications of Serenade® every 10 days.
The first bud with a two-ounce (56 gm) flower was taken the 4th of October. Flower buds ripened at different rates extending the harvest two weeks.
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Soft Secrets
