Attempt #1

[Innocent criminal]

I would suggest throwing some perlite in the soil as it will help stop your plants from drying out.

 

ummm, doesn' perlite improve drainage, whereas vermiculite holds water?

 

or do I have it a about f?

Nah mate, your right, perlite dont hold stuff all water, vermiculite holds a lot.

Thats the reason a lot of people use perlite mixed with their coco coir, it aids drainage and makes it a lot harder to overwater/waterlog the coco.

Vermiculite is commonly used to increase the water holding capacity of a medium (perlite/vermiculite blend is common).

 

As far as sex goes, there are a lot of factors that are said to have a slight influence of ratios of male/female/hermi, however most effects are so slight as to be virtually unnoticeable (especially to an everyday grower with very little environmental control).

Things that are said to influence sex are...

Nitrogen levels @ conception and germination

Temps during the life of the seed

light wavelengths (blue light said to promote males) in first two weeks

pH

and just about anything else you can think of...

 

From what I can figure it goes like this...

In a year where we get a mild spring with very sunny warm weather and some light rain you can expect more males, in a year where we get a cold spring or very little rain females seem to be more predominant.

My theory is that in a good year there are more males as better conditions mean higher survival rate for females, allowing a higher number of males to provide a greater genetic diversity for the next generation.

Alternately in a bad year where less females are likely to survive there will be less males as the plants concentrate on preservation rather than diversification (bad seasons also have higher ratio of hermi's).

 

Not sure where I read the research, most likely here somewhere , the change in male/fem ratio wasnt huge but it was notable (about 10 to 15% I think)

 

[BaronS]

PHEEEEUUUU

 

'coz while in Bunnings (yet again) today one of the few things I picked up was some perlite, hoping to improve the drainage of my Yates potting mix. I did however notice that the pack said 'Improves drainage, aeration, and _water retention_'. I was almost ready to apologise for my stupidity.

[jurrbs]

well, i've got three little sprouts (named sprout, genghis and ninja in order of sprouting)

 

sprout has managed to produce 4 leaves and is shooting off a second level of leaves

 

genghis is chugging along with the initial 4

 

and poor ninja has the 2 round ones but nothing else.

 

 

kinda exiting

wooo

[jurrbs]

AGH!

 

something took a bite of genghis!!!

 

looks to be a snail.

 

 

what to do???

 

jurrrrrbs

[BaronS]

snails and slugs like beer, you can distract 'em from your plants with a shallow bowl of beer nearby. They drink up, get pissed and drown.

[jurrbs]

gonna repot the trio tomorrow. perhaps i will crack open a substandard beer also (unless they have expensive taste like me)

[brick]

AGH!

 

something took a bite of genghis!!!

 

looks to be a snail.

 

 

what to do???

 

jurrrrrbs

 

I sprinkle sea salt around the plant about a 12"/30cm radius. keeps the slugs and snails away.

[jurrbs]

so, 2 of the 3 are doing awesomely well.

i think they may have shown sex, kinda earlyi know but both females i think

 

*fingers crossed*

 

any way, the third one is a bit dwarfish, two round leaves and a funny looking one coming out the middle.

 

i chucked into a light box for a couple of days but its not looking all that much better unfortunately.

 

its outside now, i've almost given up on it. will leave it outside for now and continue watering it.

[jurrbs]

hmmm

 

i have a question, the two little round leaves which initially sprout, what normally happens to them?

 

they are looking might yella is all

 

 

and poor little ninja has shown some growth in the warm weather but its little trunk isn't enough to hold it up

 

was staked a tad with a dried twig

 

\\jurrrrrbs

[FDL]

Sounds like all is going well, sounds very similar to my grow. I had thre plants the first two were both going very well but the third was alittle slow to grow. Then got eaten by some sort of grub which made it even harder. Seems like everything is going well for your youngens.

 

P.S the grow diary section of the forum is where this should probably be, maybe a mod move it?