Late Tropical Outdoors

[amlez]

OK cool.  Just an another note on light.

 

In terms of natural light (sun) - how much difference is made DIRECT sun as opposed to indirect. While I have quite a large backyard, large palms down both side fence lines mean that the most direct sun any area of my yard receives is about 4hours. I've been time wasting and coming home at midday each day to move the plants from one side of the yard to the other following the sun, which sees them get maybe 8 hours direct sun. Is this worth the time/effort, or should 4 hours direct sun & then indirect daylight be OK ?? (once I'm getting 13hrs/day in a few months that is).

[Vape]

Hi Amlez, basically more light the better.. as long as its not in heavy shade i dont think it will be a major issue, as the sun is very strong and sun light does penetrate quiet well..  especailly when your close to the equator..

 

check out the cannaversity section on this site , its a great resource and will answer most questions you will have..

 

Lou is on the Money as always...

 

best of luck with it all..

 

  cheers!!!

 

Vape4life

[tangwena]

Amlez you have received gold info above, you have a natural flowering light outside, just grow/vedge your plants under a cfl for 18hrs a day inside, they will grow fast.

Then when you get them to the size you want, let nature do the rest outside. I wish I lived next door to you I could save a lot of electricity.

Lou and vape know their stuff mate.

Tangwena

[amlez]

OK - bit of an update (and seeking a bit more advise).

 

My 2 little bonsai'd Charas have run their race and I'll give them the chop this weekend - turned out to be sticky, fat lil fukka's, and while clearly no enormous yield, good enough for a bit of smoko and learn along the way.

 

   

 

Got a bit carried away with the 2 additional seedlings and my new 130w CFL - fried the poor buggas the first night I had it running (obviously not enough ventlilation in the makeshift broccoli/grow box I temporarily setup ).

 

Rejigged the light into another equally temporary 'grow box' - how's this for dodgy work :-

 

 

 

Large cardboard packing box with insides painted white !!!

 

Managed to wangle 2 more Charas seeds from my mate, and I've got them under the lights from 1am till 7am each day, then put them out in the sun for the rest of the day. Plan is to plant them out in a large hole I'm preparing in the backyard in a few months. As you can see from following picks, I'm having the same VERY slow growth with these seedlings. I germinated them in a mix of compost/coir/perlite (1:1:1) and transplanted just a few days ago (at about 25 days from germ) into larger pots with compost/coir/perlite/cowshit (1:1:1:1), and with a few healthy handfuls of dynamic lifter, and watered with first fertilizer feed (1/2 recomended strength Maxicrop Seaweed Extract).

 

       

 

Most of my googling suggests that there is no need to fertilize for the first 3 weeks or so after germination, and in fact I've seen many instances online of seeds purported to be growing in straight coco/perlite (unammended or fertilized) where there is outstanding growth. My first few attempts I was probably overwatering, but I'm sure I'm not now, and wait till the mix is quite dry before watering again. Any ideas what I can do to get better early growth happening?

 

I have some White Widow & Super Silver Haze arriving (I hope!!) any day now, and after furking around with a few trial runs, want to get it right with these ones.

 

[Frank Reynolds]

I feed my seeds from day one, start at 1/4 strength in coco.

 

Outside I put a tiny amount of slow release fertillizer in seed starting mix as well. Something with not too much nitrogen.

 

So if you want better early growth, I would e apply nutrients, not full strength but at least giving them something whether its slow release or liquid. 

 

Also a rooting hormone might also help with early growth, bunnings sell plant starter which I use sometimes

[itchybromusic]

My suggestion for rapid root growth is this product http://www.nutri-tech.com.au/products/liquid-fertilisers/root-and-shoot.html

using in soil grows in & out

[amlez]

Just had a nice cone, cracked a frosty, and thought it time for a rambling update before sitting down to watch the Dockers smash the Swannys ...

 

Also a rooting hormone might also help with early growth, bunnings sell plant starter which I use sometimes

Cheers Frank - I saw this mentioned in one of Louise's grow jnls (and also noted that she starts feeding from 4or5 days together with GoGo Juice). Thought I'd start feeding my new lot of seedlings earlier - unfortuneately Bunnings in my part of the world don't stock Plant Starter so will need to try & source elsewhere. (I'll also have a look at the Root & Shoot Itchy ...).

 

Well I chopped one of the Bonzai'd Charas - came in at 20gm green weight - good enough for a bit of a choof!

VERY small root ball with 1 single long tap root - any comments??

 

Since the pot upgrade/transplant the Charas are just starting to kick along nicley :-

 

 

Been feeding with alternate 2ml/ltr and 3ml/ltr Maxicrop Seaweed Extract, and decided to be not such a tight arse, and shouted myself a bottle of GoGo Juice which I've treated them to once.

 

I changed my plan up slightly (such that it was) and reconsidering banging these in my prepared holes in the garden - may leave the holes to the White Widow & SuperSilverHaze - have a reno happening in the next few mths sometime & I'm wary of having half a dozen young tradies wandering the back yard .... !! I hadn't planned topping either of these, but curiosity got the better of me & I've lopped one. Not sure whether to top the 2nd one - I probably won't get a chance to have another go at Charas, and curious to see one grow 'natural'/untopped in all it's glory?

 

New recuits since last post - 3 Thai Skunk (potted 4, only 3 germed) and 1x Fem'd White Widow and 1x Fem'd Super Silver Haze (got the fem'd seeds imported from ILoveGrowingMarijuana - reasonably cheap, and stealth delivery method was ingenious!!).

 

 

Thai Skunk at 5 days :- 

            This little girl went limp on me - have no idea why?  treated exactly the same as the 2 healthy ones. Hopefully she'll survive my dodgy 'splint job' !!  

 

fem'd White Widow at 2 days  

 

fem'd Super Silver Haze at 2 days 

 

Having a blast rooting around with these - never thought I'd get so 'technical' on growing shit !!

 

On a down note, the bunch of tomatoes I planted 3 months ago as 'camouflage' are heavily in fruit and ripe - being smashed by fuck'n possums 

 

Oh well - I guess they're leaving my dope plants alone - for now .....

 

Cheers & Beers All - & go the Dockers!!!!

[amlez]

Time for a bit of an update .....

 

Had a bit of a mishap shortly after my last post (put up a post here:- https://cannabis.community.forums.ozstoners.com/topic/69893-charas-problems/ )

 

The plants have basically responded to doing nothing, and now back to a more patient water/feed schedule (thanks again to Louise for advise).

 

Here's the current crew :- 

 

Charas A - this is the oldest plant I have on the go. 74 days now (although it did have a "near death" experience at about 3 weeks which severly set it back, and then the issue I posted here https://cannabis.community.forums.ozstoners.com/topic/69893-charas-problems - so if nothing else it;s a survivor).

 

 

 

 

Since I repotted it's younger sister (I hope sister anyway!!) into a 400ml pot, no room left in my dodgy light box, so this one's spending 24hrs outdoors for the past week - just getting to 12hrs+ sunrise/sunset in my part of the world now, so I hope it's still able to flower?

 

To my newbie eye, looks like a she??  

 

Found this yesterday - is this the dreaded spider mite (I thought they were much smaller?? - this critters about the size of a large grain of rice).

 

Don't really want to spray shit on the plant as I reckon it was my over zealous touch up with Pyretherum that caused my last issue (I have since procurred some EcoOil but would sooner not spary if this guy is just a 'regular' garden spider??)

 

Charas B :-

At 55 days now - still spending 6 hours under 130w CFL from midnight to dawn, and then out in the sun for the day - as with the 3 young guns below.

Also hoping this is a girl - appears to be to me ??

  

 

White Widow (Fem'd) - 24 days. Might bight the bullet and nip the top out of these - probably left the older ones a little late, but nervous of putting too much stress on until they've really convinced me they're up & away ...

 

 

Super Silver Haze - same as White Widow ........

 

 

Thai Skunk - 27 days.  These have really been problematic for me. The first batch of 10 I only managed a couple of germinations & they then went weak & fell over. AMS replaced with a nother 10, and I got 3 from 4 up, but 2 of those have gone weak & died - this is the last survivor, but hopefully past the danger point??  Love the look of the narrower Sativa'ish leaves :

 

Thanks for reading .....

Edited September 28, 2014 by amlez

[Vape]

Hey Vape - are you saying you only need to do the additional light thing for around 30 days??

 

 

hi Amlez

you can vege your plants as long as  you need.. they will show sex at around 30 days..  the bigger the plant the more buds.. so the longer you vege it, the bigger it will be..  i vege mine for about 8 weeks.. this is all dependent on how much space you have.. ?

 

best of luck..

 

the reason your root ball was so small is because the plant lacked a vege cycle.. 

[amlez]

I'm back - bit of an update, and seeking some advise   

First the advise bit - how to go about feeding this girl that is now doing her thing full on?



Up till a few weeks ago when I put her outside full time (ie no more evening light box) I'd been feeding fairly
conservative doses of Seaweed Extract & GoGo (the soil is ammended with Cowshit, Compost, Dynamic Lifter).
So I keep reading about people really starting to smash the feeding once they commence flowering - is this the same for soil grows?

Couldn't help myself and sprinkled a Tbsn of Rose Fertilser        then watered in last week, and earlier this week a Tbsn of Potash     watered in with Seaweed Extract.
1/. Should I still be serving up the Seaweed Extract & GoGo now she's flowering?
2/. How often should I apply the Rose Fertilser/Potash (if at all?)


Upgraded my dodgy cardboard lightbox to the real deal - much easier to get in & out of (all sides of this sucker slide up & off if needed)
 

Here's the previous girls younger sister - nearly time to stop putting her in the box overnight cos the 3 smaller plants are due for repot
next week, and they won't all fit in the light box then).

Charas :    

 

This Charas strain seems to like growing here, so this morning took the lowset 2 branches off & gunna have a crack at continuing the bloodlines
with a few clones (my first attempt at cloning ganga - fingers crossed)
 


Here's the younger guns :-

White Widow     


Super Silver Haze    

Thai Skunk - which continues to struggle along, but I really hope I can get this one to flowering stage.
 

Thanks for reading - any advise appreciated !!