By far the most vigorous of the 6 cultivars I started this year. Thick, strong branches and deep green healthy foliage. The topping paid off: dozens of large colas, tall and fat with tight inter-nodal spacing. Strangely (or not... maybe because it's a land-race?), it flowered 4-5 weeks ahead of my other plants and will finish soon. Not that I'm complaining -- outdoor harvest in early September in zone 9b works for me. My others are looking like mid-October at the earliest due to a mild Summer.

Found 1 caterpillar and some unknown gnats ~August 10, controlled with light BT spray and then a few cards of green lacewings and trichogramma platneri wasps.

Soil is basic bagged organic "raised bed" mix from G&B Organics amended with G&B Organics Farmyard Blend manure in 30 gallon fabric bags. I used mostly Down to Earth brand nutrients (fish meal, azomite, bio-live early on, then bud & bloom blend from G&B Organics to finish) with worm poop and homebrew compost tea from my compost bin (mostly chicken poop and yard/kitchen waste that my worms did their work on). I started with green compost (clover), but the clover died back while I was out of town for a few weeks during mid-Summer and my guest waterer didn't seem to care about my clover. Can't complain, the cash crop did fine. So, I'll probably toss some light straw on top to finish. It's been unusually mild this Summer so I'm not super concerned about the compost layer on top not being consistent.

ETA to harvest is 2-3 weeks from now (early Sept).