impatient...

[white_cluster]

Fuck fibreglass or plastic just use chicken wire or leave it be, that would let way more light in.

Thats an ideal place to grow though, in a chicken pen, you'll have to lime the soil well and prepare it now. add a bit of sand or perlite to the soil if it dont drain well. Something good to do if your impatient, cos its not that long to wait now.

[eliiemay]

can someone let me know what the ideal temp is for germinating seeds? ta

[Luke Skywalker]

Hi there elliemay... about 20 - 25 c or so, although the seeds will germ in lesser or higher temps, this is generally accepted as being a good range. You can germ either in paper towel, (which many use, but I don't recommend myself) or in growool blocks, perlite, vermiculite, or good old soil. Some growers even begin the process by sitting the seed in a cup of water, waiting until they sink or split and show their tiny tap-root, and then planting them out.

 

As to your outdoor growing/chookpen plans, great idea! Let's get some specifics on the position and dimensions of this thing first, eh? Now, you've said it's got a tin roof, so I'm assuming it's a simple structure, like a wooden frame, with chicken wire, and the tin roof to provide shade. For best light transmission through the top, you'd be best off removing the roof entirely, but that could be a security risk... my first suggestion would be to talk to some greenhouse suppliers, they may have something like a solarweave or clear polycarb, maybe even an extremely light shadecloth or something. All you want is something opaque enough to diffuse the light, and clear enough to let 90% + through. Cannabis likes light, a lot, so if you choose to reduce it somewhat, try and diffuse it around the growing area, so you get some evenness of light spread...

 

Now, the sides are chook wire now, or so I assume, correct me if I'm wrong here in any way... So for more stealth you may want to do the same thing to the sides of the pen, or at least some kind of protection from prying eyes. This will concentrate the growth on the tops, and growing in an outdoor structure will tend to do that, so you're probably better off with less plants tied down to a short height than lots of sticks with buds on top... How much light you can get to the undercanopy of these plants will determine how big you want to grow em...

 

If you're growing outdoors, you're coming into the season soon. I can't remember where you're from, but Spring is traditionally thought of as the time to plant outside... This makes it warm enough to grow and the light period is getting longer, making the plants veg... You can start them now or at least soon indoors, (I see you've already begun...) and in greenhouses/protected structures you can grow a little earlier and later too...

 

You can flower them early, ignoring the summer photoperiod by blocking out all light after 12 hours,maybe with a large tarpaulin or something... (keep venilation up tho...) But, the time when you should be doing this will be at a slightly diff time each day, and you don't want to forget to do it too many times... If you aren't going to force them then I'd suggest either some serious tying down, or making sure you have enough room for monster plants. A growing season outdoors can produce laaaaaarge plants... in nature cannabis can become very big indeed if all it wants is given to it... So be aware of this... You also want to get out any males you have as soon as you spot em, or you'll end up with some seeded buds... mind you, unless the plants are sealed off, any oudoor male in a few kilometers, maybe more, could end up screwing your ladies... might not get all the flowers, but it could be a bitch. But you can't do anything about what other growers do, you can only work with what you do yourself, eh?

 

Right, I was just going to write a very small reply about seed germing temps, see where it's got me?! It's the fucking flu I tell ya, making me delirious.... I hope this has helped ya, if anything I've said makes no sense then just tell me and I'll try and elaborate for ya... All this is my humble opinion too, and I'm not in possesion of all the facts about your grow, so take that into account. Anyway, talk to you soon elliemay, hope your grow goes well...

[eliiemay]

my chook pen has a complete tin roof, but its a completly wooden structure, looks exactly like a small cubby house, its even got a window and a perdy door im making a trip to bunnings on tuesday I think to find out about some plastic sheeting, so with any luck, i can have a new roof on the sucker by the weekend. its gonna be sweeeeet

[eliiemay]

and thank you for letting me know about the germinating temps!

[eliiemay]

here are some crappy cropped pics of the chook shed

[eliiemay]

side view

[Luke Skywalker]

No worries ellie, if going to bunnings, then get something that can be used for growing plants, you don't want much more than 30% at the most... less is better... You're building a hothouse for your orchids/tomatoes/insert-vegetable-here and you need something that let's through light but will protect the plants from weather...

 

I look forward to seeing some pics of this growing area if possible, do you have the dimensions for this place? If you're thinking about solid walls, get some reflectives in there to bounce the light around... the more light the better/bigger/more potent the buds...

 

(p.s. don't get anything that blocks out u.v., this is thought to be essential to plant photosynthesis and other biological functions which we do not fully understand. Using these lights indoors isn't a great idea, but outdoors there's plenty from the sun... the plants will grow if it blocks it, but they won't be quite as healthy as they could be... )

 

, here I go again, *slap* fuck, I need some sleep...

[Luke Skywalker]

, who's impatient now... sorry I didn't wait for ya elliemay...

[eliiemay]

was trying to get the pics up as quick a possible but the flood thingy wouldnt let me! hehe