pompel
Member
Greetings, fellow growers!
First, some tedious trivia: I started growing a couple of years ago, in a home-made hydro system. Typical closet-grow, lots of mistakes, nail-biting and finally out-of-this-world overjoy when the first joint (Nirvana's NL X BB) was lit, and... YES!, you're stoned, it works! I think that you all remember how it felt like being God for one second. Or I'm just suffering from grand illusion. Anyways, I was hooked and made a five-step plan to get me the hell out of this dreary, atomistic and banal society that is becoming increasingly suffocating and ... painfully middle-brow.
So, first step done (just get growing already, damn it!) Step two: expand! This time I settled in a tiny flat and set up shop in a 135 cm x 420 cm (4.5 x 14) room, 2/3 for bloom and 1/3 for veg. Again home-made, and it all went quite not-so very well, actually. Lots of problems with heat, ph, deficiency-symptoms, spidermites, disease, root rot and ALGAE! Argh! How I truly and deeply hate algae! Worst of all, the taste was... not quite there at all yet, let's put it that way. With the tiny outcome I invested in 3 panda systems from GHE, assuming this would address the problem. Things lightened up a bit, in the sense that all the problems were moderately reduced. Except the taste. OK, and the spidermites (foilar regularly with neem-oil 'til 5th week). The annus horribilis (or The Plant-Holocaust, if you like) finally came to and end last summer, and according to plan I was supposed to be loaded with cash, ready for investing in a hyper-modern, state-of-the-art, high-tech, computer-controlled automatic-feeding hydro-system. That was very, very far from reality. Which was that I barely scraped together enough to get to where I was going, but with very little to get going with. BTW, moving a smelly and heavy hydro-system in the middle of it's cycle into a suburban neighborhood was something I imagined was going to be very dodgy and nerve-wrecking, and I was so right. Anyways, I had a clone-tent and one XXL-tent from Homebox, and approx 10 m2 (110 sq ft) of grow space. So I discarded most of what I thought I knew, and began anew. Approaching horticulture from a different angle, trying to conceptualize the plant as a living part of a living eco-system, hoping to achieve the best tasting bud and the best high and not just the largest yield (but that's OK too!), reading lots of literature (including this most exelent site)... I finally arrived to this conclusion: organic soil with a comprehensive and diverse bacteria and fungi culture, . And no!, though this all sounds very... new agy, I'm not a tree-hugger (but, not a tree-hater either). I still have a lot of work to before satifaction can be claimed (and most importantly, investment funds).
This autumn the panda's oozed their last algae-stinking breath, and were stashed away forever (or until someone buys them). They left me with currency to buy a new XXL-tent, lights, the rest of the stuff needed to grow in soil, and a trip to Amsterdam with my girl during the cannabis cup, enjoying a healthy overdose of fine ganja, and acquiring plenty of new strains (long overdue, since succeeding in leaving my Master Kush and White Rhino without daughters, and stuck with Double Dutch for the last 2 grows, and I still am! - 4th and final). A fine smoke, but tolerance-levels were reached too long ago... or so I thought, until I smoked the first dry samples of soil-grown bud (a week ago). Totally different experience, I can vouch for that. A whole range of new smells, the ashes were light-gray (and not black), no sore throat and it burned evenly. So right now I'm pleased with the initial results.
Anyways, let's get going with my first grow report!
These are the 12 (with germination rates):
Amnesia Haze (fem) - Soma 4/5
Cannalope Haze (reg) - DNA 5/5
Cannasutra - (fem) - Delta-9-Labs 5/5
Chocolope Haze (reg) - DNA 6/6
Hawaii x Maui Wowie (fem) - Nirvana 5/5
Hawaiian Snow (fem) - GHS 4/5
LA Confidential (reg) - DNA 2/6
PG-13 (reg) - TH Seeds 10/10
Purps (reg) - BC Bud Depot 11/11
Sour Diesel (reg) - Reeferman 6/10
Super Silver Haze (fem) - GHS 1/5 (argh!)
The Ultimate (fem) - Dutch Passion 4/5
If anyone has grown one of these strains before, any information and advice is most welcome. Some of them I've wanted to grow for a long time, while some were bought spontaneously in Amsterdam after I tried them (ex Hawaiian Snow and Amnesia Haze, which became our favorite. And we tied a lot. During the first 24 hrs 13 strains was smoked, reviewed and considered. Yes, I know, it is hard work.)
Due to limited grow space, I've cut this grow in two phases: phase one began with Amnesia Haze, Chocolope, Hawaii x Maui Wowie, Hawaiian Snow, Super Silver Haze and The Ultimate at beginning of December. Germination rates were satisfactory, except the SSH by GHS. 1 out of 5! I can only blame my own stupidity, as Shantibaba's SSH from Mr. Nice was easily available in Amsterdam. The last five; Cannalope Haze, L.A. Confidential, PG-13, Purps and Sour Diesel were repotted earlier this week into 1 L pots after 14 days under t-5's, 34 out of 42, which is as expected. They are now under 400w MH.
I noticed that the PG-13 and Purps seeds were absolutely huge (the biggest I've seen), and they germned very quickly. L.A. Confidential and Sour Diesel were tiny, and delivered late and poorly. Just stating a fact...
As for grow medium, I'm still feeling my way to a satisfactory mix, but this is roughly it:
Same thing goes for nutrients and additives:
BTW, the reference to days in 24/0 is a bit misleading, as I did not include the 12 days prior from seed under t-5's, so total time from seed until flowering induction was 43 days. I started with 29, 2 were hermies (Cannasutra), and one male Chocolope.
Here's a summary in pictures (included some Magus Genetics' Double Dutch):
First, some tedious trivia: I started growing a couple of years ago, in a home-made hydro system. Typical closet-grow, lots of mistakes, nail-biting and finally out-of-this-world overjoy when the first joint (Nirvana's NL X BB) was lit, and... YES!, you're stoned, it works! I think that you all remember how it felt like being God for one second. Or I'm just suffering from grand illusion. Anyways, I was hooked and made a five-step plan to get me the hell out of this dreary, atomistic and banal society that is becoming increasingly suffocating and ... painfully middle-brow.
So, first step done (just get growing already, damn it!) Step two: expand! This time I settled in a tiny flat and set up shop in a 135 cm x 420 cm (4.5 x 14) room, 2/3 for bloom and 1/3 for veg. Again home-made, and it all went quite not-so very well, actually. Lots of problems with heat, ph, deficiency-symptoms, spidermites, disease, root rot and ALGAE! Argh! How I truly and deeply hate algae! Worst of all, the taste was... not quite there at all yet, let's put it that way. With the tiny outcome I invested in 3 panda systems from GHE, assuming this would address the problem. Things lightened up a bit, in the sense that all the problems were moderately reduced. Except the taste. OK, and the spidermites (foilar regularly with neem-oil 'til 5th week). The annus horribilis (or The Plant-Holocaust, if you like) finally came to and end last summer, and according to plan I was supposed to be loaded with cash, ready for investing in a hyper-modern, state-of-the-art, high-tech, computer-controlled automatic-feeding hydro-system. That was very, very far from reality. Which was that I barely scraped together enough to get to where I was going, but with very little to get going with. BTW, moving a smelly and heavy hydro-system in the middle of it's cycle into a suburban neighborhood was something I imagined was going to be very dodgy and nerve-wrecking, and I was so right. Anyways, I had a clone-tent and one XXL-tent from Homebox, and approx 10 m2 (110 sq ft) of grow space. So I discarded most of what I thought I knew, and began anew. Approaching horticulture from a different angle, trying to conceptualize the plant as a living part of a living eco-system, hoping to achieve the best tasting bud and the best high and not just the largest yield (but that's OK too!), reading lots of literature (including this most exelent site)... I finally arrived to this conclusion: organic soil with a comprehensive and diverse bacteria and fungi culture, . And no!, though this all sounds very... new agy, I'm not a tree-hugger (but, not a tree-hater either). I still have a lot of work to before satifaction can be claimed (and most importantly, investment funds).
This autumn the panda's oozed their last algae-stinking breath, and were stashed away forever (or until someone buys them). They left me with currency to buy a new XXL-tent, lights, the rest of the stuff needed to grow in soil, and a trip to Amsterdam with my girl during the cannabis cup, enjoying a healthy overdose of fine ganja, and acquiring plenty of new strains (long overdue, since succeeding in leaving my Master Kush and White Rhino without daughters, and stuck with Double Dutch for the last 2 grows, and I still am! - 4th and final). A fine smoke, but tolerance-levels were reached too long ago... or so I thought, until I smoked the first dry samples of soil-grown bud (a week ago). Totally different experience, I can vouch for that. A whole range of new smells, the ashes were light-gray (and not black), no sore throat and it burned evenly. So right now I'm pleased with the initial results.
Anyways, let's get going with my first grow report!
These are the 12 (with germination rates):
Amnesia Haze (fem) - Soma 4/5
Cannalope Haze (reg) - DNA 5/5
Cannasutra - (fem) - Delta-9-Labs 5/5
Chocolope Haze (reg) - DNA 6/6
Hawaii x Maui Wowie (fem) - Nirvana 5/5
Hawaiian Snow (fem) - GHS 4/5
LA Confidential (reg) - DNA 2/6
PG-13 (reg) - TH Seeds 10/10
Purps (reg) - BC Bud Depot 11/11
Sour Diesel (reg) - Reeferman 6/10
Super Silver Haze (fem) - GHS 1/5 (argh!)
The Ultimate (fem) - Dutch Passion 4/5
If anyone has grown one of these strains before, any information and advice is most welcome. Some of them I've wanted to grow for a long time, while some were bought spontaneously in Amsterdam after I tried them (ex Hawaiian Snow and Amnesia Haze, which became our favorite. And we tied a lot. During the first 24 hrs 13 strains was smoked, reviewed and considered. Yes, I know, it is hard work.)
Due to limited grow space, I've cut this grow in two phases: phase one began with Amnesia Haze, Chocolope, Hawaii x Maui Wowie, Hawaiian Snow, Super Silver Haze and The Ultimate at beginning of December. Germination rates were satisfactory, except the SSH by GHS. 1 out of 5! I can only blame my own stupidity, as Shantibaba's SSH from Mr. Nice was easily available in Amsterdam. The last five; Cannalope Haze, L.A. Confidential, PG-13, Purps and Sour Diesel were repotted earlier this week into 1 L pots after 14 days under t-5's, 34 out of 42, which is as expected. They are now under 400w MH.
I noticed that the PG-13 and Purps seeds were absolutely huge (the biggest I've seen), and they germned very quickly. L.A. Confidential and Sour Diesel were tiny, and delivered late and poorly. Just stating a fact...
As for grow medium, I'm still feeling my way to a satisfactory mix, but this is roughly it:
- 70% Biobizz Allmix or 50% quality soil (trying out some local brands; heavy and incl. bacteria culture)
- 10 20% perlite
- 10 15% Biobizz worm castings
- 5% Biobizz pre-mix
- 10 20% cow manure compost
- GHE Mineral Magic, beneficial fungi/bacteria
Same thing goes for nutrients and additives:
- GHE Biosevia Terra
- AN Grandma Enggy's Seaweed Extract, Humic and Fulvic Acid
- B.A.C. PK Booster, Root Stimulator, Bloom Stimulator, The Final Solution, Pro-Active
- Blackstrap molasses
- Superthrive (in veg)
-
and soon probably Guano
I foliar regularly 1-2 times pr week until 5th week of bloom
BTW, the reference to days in 24/0 is a bit misleading, as I did not include the 12 days prior from seed under t-5's, so total time from seed until flowering induction was 43 days. I started with 29, 2 were hermies (Cannasutra), and one male Chocolope.
Here's a summary in pictures (included some Magus Genetics' Double Dutch):
