Critical Mass in the bush.

This is patch 2. I watered them today, they hadn't been watered for 12 days.

There are three Mango plus one Critical Mass clone and one Afghan Kush.

Two of the Mango had a white pistil on them, so they are female. The third one I'm not sure yet.

Last time I was there I cut the four bottom branches of each plant for clones, so that's why their stems look a bit bare; in effect I lollipoped them.

I was going to pull up the Critical Mass clone as it had started to get flowers and it's growth had stalled, but I saw today it had grown, so even though it has some female flowers on it, it is still growing vegetavily, so I won't pull it up now.

Watered them today with the last of the water from the reservoir, so they are on their own now. Rainfall is forecast however.

thelorax-albums-lorax-s-album-picture13410-20190104-064436.jpg
 
Last edited:
Looking excellent Lorax, they've come a long way already. All in the prep, words to live by ;)
I'm hoping you get all the rain you need for the whole grow.
 
Another stealthy one, good catch.
Old indoor guys like me don't notice stuff like that ;) it's either the vision or the lack of walls lol
 
The pheno of Critical Mass I'm using is the one I selected for indoor growing, as it was short and squat and budded up well.

For outdoor growing I would have selected one of the taller pheno's.

But they are doing ok.

I have decided not to make patch 1 a seed patch, as I can't pass up the buds on those Critical Mass there, so I will go there tomorrow and plant another two Critical Mass clones.

I will have to make up a seed patch somewhere else, with the male Mango clone I have and also one of the Critical Mass clones I have indoors.

This is the rootball of a Critical Mass clone grown in a forestry tube. Forestry tubes are designed to stop root circling and to make the roots grow downwards.
But you also get phenomenal sideways root growth from forestry tubes when you put them in the ground.

thelorax-albums-lorax-s-album-picture13418-20190105-213046.jpg
 
Last edited:
Visited patch 1 this morning, and watered them. Running out of water in the reservoir.

The older Critical Mass clones are starting to flower, though its mid summer.

thelorax-albums-lorax-s-album-picture13420-20190117-055749.jpg
 
A week ago I also planted 4 new Critical Mass clones; they have grown a bit, and should be an ok size at harvest.

thelorax-albums-lorax-s-album-picture13421-20190117-055801.jpg
 
Usually most things start flowering end of January here, but this pheno of Critical Mass is an early flowerer, I noticed that indoors.

It may lean towards the Afghani in it's heritage a bit.

Probably one of those plants that will flower when the days are still quite long.

Going to check patch 4 tomorrow; haven't watered it for a while, although it did rain once during that time.

Critical Mass seems a pretty drought resistant variety, we will see tomorrow how it survived the week long extreme heatwave.

Sometimes I imagine breeding a drought resistant plant, I have even thought of a name for it, "DroughtMaster"

I imagine one would have to start with landrace Afghani's, and maybe Morrocans, they grow in a dry climate over there.

Obviously they would have to be plants that stay short, as big plant's need a lot of water, whereas a small plant needs less.

They say in drought conditions, don't give too much Nitrogen, as you will get too much leaf growth, and the roots will not be able to provide the extra water that is needed to maintain the extra leaf growth.

Would be a complicated job though, as you would have to also maintain the genes for yield and potency, while selecting for drought resistance.
 
Last edited:
Nice information on outdoor growing in the post Lorax. I wouldn't have made the nitrogen connection myself.
I used to grow pure afghani and they were plants you could abuse and they would keep on chugging for sure. If I had some left I would offer them :(
 
Yes, some Afghani's would be good. My favourite smoke actually.

Checked patch 4 about a week ago, and watered them.

They had not been watered for 19 days, and it's been a succession of heatwaves.

But they were looking ok, but hadn't grown as much as I was hoping.

Partly due to lack of water, and partly due to the Critical Mass clones going into flower early. The few Critical Mass that I planted later then the others are actually significantly bigger than the early planted ones; I think because they went in when the days were longer so didn't stall.

This pheno of Critical Mass I'm growing needs to be planted when the days are longest, otherwise it will stall. The start of summer is actually b bit early to plant clones of this pheno, need to wait a couple of weeks into summer.

But I gave them a good watering, so I think they will have put on a growth spurt by the time I get to water them again.

Didn't take any pics as LEO was lurking and I didn't want to hang around; I ran the water pump at too high a speed so it was noisy, and sound carries a long way in the bush, and someone living some distance away had called LE, and they had gone into the bush following the sound of the water pump.

But the bush is really thick, and it is a hard job going cross country through that terrain, so they couldn't get to the spot easily. I have a secret trail to the spot so that's how I get there.

So I think LE has worked out it was a water pump, and someone is growing there, but I doubt they could find the grow on foot, the terrain is too rough and the bush too thick. My only problem is if they call in a helicopter. A helicopter would spot it.

I think I better water that patch using buckets next time.

Hoping for lots of rain so I can stay away from that patch.

All the other patches have no water left in their reservoirs, so it's up to raiinfall now.

Obviously what's needed for next year in a second water reservoir at those 3 patches that have water reservoirs. One 240 litre reservoir is not enough.

Patch 3 I haven't visited since the water reservoir ran out about a month ago.
I'm not going to that patch until a week after it rains heavily, whenever that will be.
No point going and checking on them now, there's nothing I can do to influence the outcome at that patch now.

But I have found that MJ is a hard plant to kill from lack of water; they just don't grow if there is no water, and remain stunted.

Check out the pics of plants growing in Morrocco without irrigation; at harvest they are smaller than knee height, and are just a single stem with a cola on top, and most of the leaves have yellowed and fallen off.

Anyway tomorrow I will go and water patch 4, and hope LE hasn't found it and ripped the plants. Will get some pics of the plants there tomorrow, if they are still there.

OPSEC is the keyword now that LE is sniffing around. I need to stay away from the area as much as possible, so as to not focus LE's attention on the area.
 
Most important is to stay safe to grow another day.
Thanks for the update Lorax, always a pleasure reading about your grow.

LEO, such a bunch of killjoys. They need more Indica in their life!
 
Yes, LEO need to get couchlocked, so we can then go about our business in peace.

Maybe I should leave an ounce of weed in a jar at the grow, with a note saying take this, and if you don't pull the plants up I will leave another ounce for you after harvest.

I know a lot of LE smoke, I have seen them. I also caught a LEO growing a plant in the bush.

Didn't water patch 4 today like I was going to, as ir rained overnight. I think about 15 millimetres, which is not soaking rain, but they will get a bit out of it.
 
Last edited:
giving me flashbacks man! Last big outdoor guerilla grow I did years ago had a ton of CM. Same conditions, super dry season with hand watering. I used some crystals in the soil which helped but mostly had to backback gallons of water in. CM got huge, too big as near harvest some plants split their stalk. CM Usually finishes near the equinox ime or a little after. My last time gg = leo helicopter rippers...manged to pull maybe half the CM before they got the rest. It was a brutal end to a brutal season and the last time I did gg for commercial purposes. But hey its outdoor farming where 6 months of work can be gone in 6 minutes.....gl
 
Haven't checked on any of the spots for a while, so I better get out there and see how things are going.

I think there may be a male Mango at patch 2, so I better get it before it starts pollinating.

I think it has probably already done a bit of pollinating, and I think the buds there are going to be lightly seeded, but that's ok, it''s good to have seeds on hand, and a few seeds don't affect the finished product.

Speaking of seeds, the Mango came from another seed company, and 5/10 germinated, and 0/10 of the KC Brains KC 33 germinated.

The seed company sent me a survey, and when I said in the survey most didn't germinate, they said they would send me some more, but tracking says they have been in customs for 3 weeks, so I think they have been seized.

Not to worry, it will only be my second seizure in too many seed orders to remember, going back to Heavens Stairway days.

Rained last night here, but I don't know how much it rained where my plants are, as they are about 30 km away.
 
Checked patches 2 and 3 today.

Patch 2 the plants have lost their lower leaves due to lack of water, but if it rains decently I will get something off them.

Patch 3 looks like it will be a write off. Five plants have been killed by termites, and the rest are small and crappy due to lack of water.

I better go and check the other two patches, see how they are doing.
 
Checked patch 1 today; I think it's been a month since I checked it.

Brought 10 litres of water in a backpack to water them, and also it had rained so there were several buckets of water in the reservoir, so they all got a watering.

I'm worried about them getting attacked by termites, as termites are attracted by damp soil, and while they are there they will eat the plants roots and stem, killing the plant.
I will have to order some Imidacloprid from Ebay. Never used it before, but I heard they use it on sugar cane to combat termites.

This is the two earlier planted Critical Mass.

thelorax-albums-lorax-s-album-picture13456-20190216-063453.jpg


This is the Mango, reaching for the sky. It's too tall to reach the top of the plant. Didn't see any signs of female flowers yet, I should have used the magnifying glass to check closely. But I'm quite certain it's a female plant.

thelorax-albums-lorax-s-album-picture13457-20190216-063537.jpg
 
Last edited:
I had better finish this thread off.

So it rained at the time the two biggest Critical Mass were due to be harvested, and I went there and they were bent over from the weight of the buds and the rain, so I harvested the buds on the end of the branches, which allowed the branches to stand up again, and went back two weeks later and harvested the rest of the buds as well as the smaller Critical Mass plants.

The Mango I harvested just recently; I have a feeling LE found that spot.
Usually they just pull up any plants they find, but they may have left this one in the hope that they would catch me coming back from harvesting it.
They may even have put a hidden camera at the site; I didn't see one but then again I wasn't looking that hard for one, to busy harvesting the plant and getting out of there.

I did see a suspicious car parked nearby on a few occasions.

So I will assume LE found that spot after I had harvested the Critical Mass but before the Mango was ready.

Too many things point to LE having found the grow.

So I will concentrate on improving the other patches for next season, and leave this patch till last, maybe I will even rest it next year, but a better strategy would be to set up a trail cam there, and see if LE comes back early next year to see if something is being grown there, and if not, then plant it late.

Got a heap of Critical Mass x Mango seeds from the seed spot though, so all set for next year.

See you all next guerilla season, although I am already busy improving the spots I have.

As they say, the game is won or lost in the off season. It's what you do now in the winter and early spring that decides the outcome of the coming season.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top