Back in Tucson

 We are in Tucson for the year (I think), This will be our first Summer in the desert in several years and it is a question of MsBubba and Summer Sun and heat. If we last I will be doing an experiment with growing both Auto and Photo plants outdoors, in the back garden. 

It is set up to grow 4 Autos and four Photos. The Autos are Durban Poison & Bruce Banner. The Photos are a local grown Thai Nights (based on Durban Poison genetics) and a Afghan Land Race.

Two things I'm trying to test are: will the Cannabis plants survive the heat and is there too much light pollution at night for the Photo plants to flower. 

Auto flower plants are different and will not always follow the rules of growing photo Cannabis. Most Cannabis literature is about growing Photo Plants. Many times the information and/or process is wrong for Auto plants. Most of the time you have to learn by doing. It can be a slow process.

As an example, Auto plants are on a hard genetic time line. If the plant is stressed it will not grow to full potential. It doesn't take much to stress and slow a Autoflower plant just the stress of transplanting will affect the life cycle of an Auto plant. 

This is a plant that was set aside without care until I noticed it was still alive and making flower at about 5 or 6 weeks. Potted it and it's sister a couple of weeks ago, I doubt it will grow anymore but I expect we will get maybe 20 or so small smoking buds off the two plants.

 

MotorHomes

 On the road to Houston for a month or till the kids piss me off, trips in a motor home are seldom without drama. The new to me 2002 40' Country Coach Allure did its thing before the trip could begin. The bedroom slide would not retract. As an aside; Slides are a bargain with the devil, when parked they give a feeling of room and make life easier but as with all things there are also tradeoffs. The first tradeoff is slides are problems waiting to happen. I can not tell you how many times as a State Park camp host I've had to help campers fix a stuck extended slide. 

This AM our planned "first light" departure for Silver City, NM was delayed by a stuck extended bedroom slide. Best I can tell there are two major types of slide mechanisms, Jack Screw or Hydraulic, I've had both and I've had problems with both. The Country Coach has two slides, both Hydraulic, a friend has a bus with one slide hydraulic and one with jack screws, the worst of all worlds. Anyway cut to the chase: I had just had what is one of the best Country Coach maintenance shops not located in Oregon (BCCMSNLIO)go through the Bus checking all the fluids and systems, they may have missed one. The slide hydraulic system was low on fluid, that was the good news, the bad was because I do not know the CC systems yet it took several hours and a call to "the best CC maintenance shop not in Oregon" to fix the problem. A half cup of transmission fluid and the bedroom slide works like a champ and we were on the road. Now the question is did the "BCCMSNLIO" miss checking the slide hydraulic fluid or do I have a leak. The good news is there are no signs of a leak, that could also be the bad news because there is a lot of plumbing between the pump and the slide. 

The CC Bus parked Harris Beach: 

 We have had our share of problems with the new Bus, all expensive but most caused by my not knowing the systems. The bus is sound, it is just the nut behind the wheel.

See you on down the road. 

 

Monday We Are Going To look At A Different Motorhome

Monday we will do a pre-buy on a 2002 40' Country Coach motorhome. I've been looking for a different MH for awhile. Usually for pre-2006 Foretravel or Country Coach. Lately Country Coach has been the go to.

This one is clean, we will see how the pre-buy inspection goes.

One Last Thought on Growing Weed

 In AZ we are allowed 6 plants per adult in the household. My tent and RDWC set up only allows 4 plants to be grown at a time. One crop of four plants and I have more weed and weed byproducts than I can use in a year even with very generous giving it away. In spite of that fact, old habits die hard, I really have a hard time wasting weed by smoking joints or other forms that use a lot of product for little high. I guess it is true, Old farts are hard to change.

One More Bubble Hash

 I'm running the last of the 2025 trim through the Bubble hash Process:

 The process makes more sense the second time, still pretty simple. Here is the first run, I expect there will be two more runs before I'm finished with this bio-mass:

 This finishes the 2025 crop. It is all harvested, dried and cured, the last of the trim has been processed into Bubble Hash. We will have to see how the Hash is used, I expect some vape, some gummies and brownies will follow.

Making Bubble Hash

 I made "Bubble Hash" for the first time. Interesting process, not hard, just steps that need following. Per suggestions from the folks that know what they are doing I ran three wash cycles. You can see the results going left to right and top to bottom on the drying screen:

 All the usable production is from the 120 micron and the 25 micron bags. There was almost nothing from the 73 micron bag. 

From this years crop I have ~1 pound of top shelf flower, almost a pound of not quite top shelf but good flower (still tests to 24% THC) and I didn't weight the trim but three more bags of trim that should each make about the same amount of Bubble Hash as the first bag did. 

AC Infinity and Gorilla Grow Tents

 Gorilla grow tents have one big advantage over other small (5'X5' or less) grow tents. Gorilla tents come with a two foot height extension, 8' v. 6' for other small tents. You run out of headroom very quickly with a 6' tall tent. The RDWC buckets are 15" tall, the LED grow lights need ~1' of headroom for cooling, with a 6' tent that only leaves 45" of grow room for your plants. Bottom line with a 6' grow tent by the time all the height needs are added together you end up restricted to ~3' of plant growth. With a 8' tall tent your plants can approach 5' if needed.

One problem with a 8' Gorilla tent is no mid level bracing so the tent feels a little unstable to side pressure and for an old fart like me there is nothing to hold onto when moving around inside the tent. AC Infinity has come up with "Mounting Bars" for 4'X4' and 5'X5' grow tents that work with Gorilla tents and they make the tent feel more stable plus give this OF something to hold on to and help maintain balance went working in the tent. 

The mounting bars are hard to see but they run alongside the 6' zipper seam. Now if Gorilla tent would add a controller mounting plate on the front like AC Infinity has or if AC Infinity would offer a two foot extension  I could have a near perfect grow tent.