Auto Frisian Dew in Scotland

[GreanyMeany]

Hi folks
Not sure what has happened here but I started a grow diary and it seems to have disappeared.
So I am going to start again.
I got myself some Auto Frisian Dew seeds as they had been advertised as being suitable for growing outdoors in poor climates such as the UK. I live in Scotland which has a pretty shitty climate. Last year I did a grow diary on a variety of strains that I grew outdoors. Unfortunately none of them made it to fruition and all the plants were lost to either critters or people. So the Auto Frisian Dew seemed like a great idea for me to try.
I staggered the germination of the seeds as I have a few different places to try them out.
Here is my firstborn. Her name is Barbara and this is her at 3 weeks old.

Barbara has some cover, being in a greenhouse which is only semi-glazed. Barbara is in my own soil mix of a good brand of potting compost mixed with some of my own garden compost, some garden soil, some dried blood/fish/bone, some high nitrogen chicken poop and some of the juice from my wormery. If you notice the ring of wire around the base, this is copper wire to prevent slugs which are a big problem where I live.

This is Barbara's wee sister Janice.

Janice is around a week younger than Barbara and still lives on the kitchen window ledge. She is in the same soil mix. Janice is going to go under lights later this week to see if there is a great difference in results between lights and outdoors.

There are three more baby sisters in the cupboard that have just cracked their seeds and should be potted up later this week. The plan is to find a place outdoors in the wild where I can leave these girls to their own devices and see what occurs.
Any comments or suggestions are very welcome.

[cannabis_seeds]

I've read about AutoFrisian Dew .

She sounds great & Barbara & Janice are looking good.

No first hand experience, but I'll be watching to see how they turn out - as long as your log doesn't disappear on you again.

[GreanyMeany]

Hi Folks
Quick update and slight change of plan. Instead of sending Janice of to the indoor lights I sent one of then new born triplets (Amy). Hope fully I'll get some pics next week to check her progress.
The other two triplets are still at the window sill stage. One is flourishing (Tia) but the other (Mary) appears to have stalled in her growth. We'll just wait and see how they turn out.
Been doing a bit of reading on my Auto Frisian Dew seeds and read that Dutch Passion say they take around 10-11 weeks, which sounds much more realistic than the 8 weeks I have got in my head. Not sure where I got 8 weeks from, must have been reading about something else. If I had known I would have planted them a bit sooner. But hey ho, you live and learn.

So anyway, Janice stayed on in the greenhouse. She had some trouble with her weak stem. I posted a question about this on the forum (https://forum.howtogrowmarijuana.com/...eak-stems.html) but received no answer.
Here she is, tied up to her stake.




This is Barbara at 4 1/2 weeks. She needed a bit of tying up to. Was strong enough originally but as I said before, the greenhouse is only partially covered and we had some strong wind the other day that flattened her. She seems quite happy still though.

As usual the Scottish weather is being a bit shit. All I'm asking for is a bit of sunshine. Doesn't seem like too much to ask for.
I'm considering moving somewhere further south....

[GreanyMeany]

All comments, advice, suggestions gratefully received.....

[GreanyMeany]

Quick Update

Barbara is five weeks old today and has just shown her first preflowers. Too small to pick up on my shitty phone camera, but they are there.
Of the two remaining triplets on the window ledge - one (Mary) was a bit stunted and reluctant to grow, but she is finally beginning to stretch. The other (Tia) is looking good and will be ready to move out to the countryside. If we ever get a nice sunny day.

[GreanyMeany]

Hi Folks
We've just had a week of good warm sunny weather here in Scotland and the girls have responded well.
I've used my daughter's fancy pants camera this time so hopefully the pics will come out better.

Here's Barbara and Janice together. You can see that Barbara is much more advanced. I have started feeding them a good organic fertilizer (5-2-5) and their growth rate has increased.


This is Barbara's developing buds


This is Janice's



There will be updates on the triplets before the end of the week.
Watch this space...

[GreanyMeany]

OK - first the bad news. News from my pal with the lights. Amy never made it. Think she must have got damaged on the drive over there.
I don't know, you let them out of your sight for five minutes...........

Mary, who was the runt of the litter, got herself planted by a ditch in a farmer's field today. It will be difficult to check her regularly but I will try and get down in the next few days to see if she settled in.

Tia, the other triplet, found herself a nice home next to my strawberries. Once she's settled I'm going to take a tip from a post I read elsewhere on this forum and feed her with some comfrey juice. I've used it successfully with other flowers and veg, so I thought, what the heck... I'll give it a go here.

Let's hope this good weather keeps up - Barbara and Janice are flowering up fast. More pics soon.
X

[Blaze4daze]

Sorry to here about Amy.

Nice photo's of the plants. I see your using some honker, (big, and flat) stakes. (Looking at the 3rd photo, of 7. (14.51.56jpg). Have you got any thinner material, like bamboo? They work well for holding your plants up. Wire~ties, will also help you attach the plant to the stakes, better too.

It sucks having bad weather, when your trying to grow outdoors. Even here, I am dealing with several days in a row of overcast skies, high winds, and no sun. Luckily, I can bring them indoors, since their still seedlings, and put them under some low wattage lighting, to at least give them some light, and protection from the wind.

Plus, It's been real windy here too, and I almost put bamboo stakes in the pot, to hold them up, so the wind wouldn't flatten them too. But their still to young for stakes, and I just bring them in, when it gets real bad.

I think It's better to wait on the stakes, until they are in bloom, and are leaning, from the weight of the buds. But you gotta do, what you gotta do, to keep them upright

I chisel the end of the bamboo stake to a point, and very carefully wiggle it down, thru the soil, and pray I don't stab the roots.

Hope the weather there, gets better for your plants. They look healthy.

Here is how I attach the stakes to the plant. First, you wrap the wire~tie, around the stake, then give them some room to grow, and wrap the trunk of the plant. Wrap the extra wire back around, and tuck it in. Click on image, to see close~up.

[GreanyMeany]

Thanks for your input. I'll fix that. I do tend to be a bit of a 'chuck it and see' gardener :-)
Here they are a week later. Barbara is about 6 and a half weeks now. There's a big difference between her and Janice even though there's only a week's difference in age.
Wee Mary is out in the fields. I'll check her out next week.


There are some marks on Barbara's top leaves. Any ideas?

[Blaze4daze]

Yes I see those, Wow

You could use a magnifying glass, or a good eye piece, and look under those leaves, (real good). You might have some sort of insect infestation, again, I'm not a plant Dr., but just guessing of course, they look like something might be having a snack on those leaves, or it might have occurred, from the wind, that you mentioned, earlier, thrashing them about.

Have you sprayed 4 insects yet? It's good practice to spray with a good all around, natural, organic bug spray, at least every other month, at the minimum, to ward of any attack from bugs. Especially Outdoors. I use a product called (Seven), available at any garden supply store. I'm sure there is a better product, out there, but this works well enough 4 my needs.

I would guess it's time 4 a spray. Read any product very carefully, before you purchase it, so you don't inflect more damage to your plants.

Take a good close look at those leaves, with a good eye piece. Underneath the leaves, is where most insects, hang~out.

[GreanyMeany]

Thanks pal. Yes they definitely look like insect munching marks. I will have a good look with the magnifying glass and look out for a good organic insecticide. I use soapy garlic water for my other plants and it serves me well. I will post a thread in another section and see if anyone has any good ideas.

[GreanyMeany]

Update + Cats

News from the garden. As I said, I planted one of the triplets in the ground in the garden to see how it got on. Trouble is, the cat has dug it up twice! Now, it might be that I have planted it where the cat likes to go, but I don't think so. Am wondering if anybody else has ever had trouble with this problem?
What I decided to do was dig the plant up, put her into a pot and take her over to replace the plant that was under lights but died. I took her there this morning. We'll see what happens.
The two that are left in the greenhouse - Barbara and Janice - are going great guns and seem very happy, apart from the possible bug marks as described above.
Mary is out in the farmer's field. I will go and check on her during the next few days.

[Blaze4daze]

I even sprayed my little Eldorado, Yesterday. Being Outdoors, and in a forest setting, their are many types of insects, that are cruising around the area, and didn't want to take any chances getting a critter factory started. lol.

[Blaze4daze]

Because something got to my Royal~Flush, a few days ago, and destroyed it, I have taken precautions, with the Eldorado. I covered it with a wire cage, (shown here)To prevent it, from being destroyed by any forest critter, also. We have skunks, racoons, Stray dogs, wild cats, coyotes, and bears, that cruz this area, regularly. Even with my property being 80% fenced~off, I still have critter traffic, thru here. And that's not all, This area has Stellar Jay's, (Blue Jay's)(Birds), that are huge, along with Large crows, that swoop down, and land, all around the property. So I sleep with all the windows open at night, and even put bells on the cage, to let me know if something is getting to my plants.

[GreanyMeany]

Hi Folks
Here's an update.
I went out to the farmer's field yesterday and not only could I not find Mary, I couldn't find the bottle of water and feed I had hidden nearby. Most strange!
I'll check again later on in the week but to be honest it's made me a bit nervous.
Things are much better in the garden. After going on so much about our shite weather we have had a gorgeous few weeks here. Barbara and Janice are loving it.
I had a good look for the critters that had damaged the top leaves but found nothing. There has been no other damage and the girls look positively healthy so I am just going to leave them to do their thing.

Here they are side by side.



You might notice that Janice has a different pot. Although they are only one week apart in age, they are miles apart in size. The only main difference I could notice in their cultivation was that Barbara had much better drainage. When I water her the water runs quickly out of the bottom of the pot whereas Janice was much slower draining. SO I've repotted her and improved the drainage. A bit late now I know, but it will be good to wring an extra few grams out of her.

Barbara is going from strength to strength. She is about 7 and a half weeks old, so has around 2 and a half to go. I think that our nice period of weather has finally broken, but she's looking pretty good to me and I'm quite happy with her.

Here she is