MidEast Balcony/Indoor combo track

[Holylander]

Hi, I wanted to track and share my 1st go and say hello!

This is unknown bagseed, being grown while still small enough on top of an hanging AC unit outside, that gets direct sun from 6am to till around noon, then much softer indirect light for the rest of the day. In the evening it comes indoors for 4 hours of reg 4 foot fluorescent (1 bulb, farish off.. 1.5 feet above plants.)
Since this is the Mideast the temps are high, humidity is high, the sun is strong

I germinated 4 in paper towel, and put them in 1 gallon potting mix. 1 came up properly.
Hello little buddy!


I did not follow proper direction and put him directly into the sun (living dangerously! this is supposed to be fun 1st time). It's hardy though! Coletoids or whatever you guys call them were a bit yellowish. but the 1st set of actual serrated leaves were there pretty much on day 2, which was nice. Also had slight yellow tips. I guess this is because the soil mix I have has ferts in it.

5th day after coming up

The 1st set is fully grown in, and the 2nd set coming in nicely as well, 3rd leaf on this set was a bit late.. Hard to tell but it is there, just small. But Seems to enjoy this direct to sun action.

9th day
I have been watering here and there because it is very hot here, the top dries over quickly. Today was my 1st full serious watering until I saw draining coming out below. The plant is doing well, the 3rd leaf on the 2nd set is happy now, and things are nice and green. I have no idea if this is slow growth, fast growth or normal. I'm a newb, but I am happy. No rush since this is balcony outdoor.


Both sets of leaves now have little nubs foretelling some coming growth.. Pretty excited about that.


Since this one is doing well, I have germed two more and stuck them in soil, same size pots. One is seed out, but not opened with no 2 starter leaves yet. The other seed is about to come up too I hope. I can see it trying to poke out. Of course these might all be males, but this is a first go test. I plan to veg these into 10 gallon pots and make trees since I have so much time until I am even close to a 12/12 cycle. Once too big for the outdoor in a few weeks, I will transplant to big pots and they will come into my indoor balcony which gets very good indirect light, and is painful on the eyes in the morning/day. I think that will be enough light, I hope at least!

Welcome all tips, advice and comments. I have lurked and read many of your posts and learned a lot from you all. Will keep tracking!! Thanks

 

[spek9]

Welcome to RIU!

What kind of soil are you in there? Have you done any research on nutrients or feeding cycles? Sounds like you have a nice light setup with the sun, but do some homework on feeding.

Also, get a pH tester and learn how to keep pH in balance for watering soil. This is critically important.

Happy growing!

-spek

 

[Holylander]

Hi, thank you for the welcome!

That's the best mix I could get my hands on. The name brands like miracle grow etc not available here sadly. It's a growing turf with peat, (soil?), nutrients pre mixed and water retention stuff. It has some natural rocks and things in there too. I didn't take those out. When I transplant I'd like to add some perlite I can buy.

You are right on the money though, I need to get PH checker this week, and also my 1st batch of nutrients for in 2 weeks or so when I start to add. There's a hydro shop not too far, but a lot of the name brand sets I read about here like Biobiz, or Canadian stuff you may know like growtek, or bionova, or B52 is really expensive and looks really complicated. I will ask them for a simple 2 or 3 bottle setup, grow and bloom. Because although I am really enjoying and keep checking the plants like a psycho.. I will mess up anything more complex.. Badly!!

 

[Holylander]

Day 11
Some new growth on my plant, the main top of my seedling is now pushing out new leaves. I am happy to see that coming along quickly, this little plant is not in veg yet and it has been hot.


The 1st node is also showing growth, slightly better than the top. Both the 1st set original serrated leave nodes now have a double set of 2 leaves each sprouting. I have never seen a MJ plant grow before, I don't mean to be a big geek but it is kinda fascinating to watch for me. Color all looks good, and I am trying to be patient about feeding. Hopefully I can give it some diluted food in a week or two.


Slow going..
The story on my new germination is not as promising. For about two days I have one seed up, but it is just hanging around there it will not open


I have read some of the more experienced posters talking about cutting open the seed with a razor or toothpick. I have unsteady hands and I also do not know what I am doing, I don't think that's a good idea for me. I will instead pray to GAIA that this thing opens. The stalk is greenish already as opposed to just white. I have a bad feeling. If anyone has seen this sort of thing and has knowledge please let me know!!

I really would be fortunate to have a 2nd plant, I wanted two to work with and practice on. The other two seeds I put in soil are not up at all. That's life I guess, I will be patient especially since I don't have all the cool equipment, trays, domes, rockwool etc and all the really cool stuff a lot of you more experienced growers use to great effect!

 

[Holylander]

Day 15

Hi! My seedling is doing well, looks happy I think though I wish it were bigger. Some of the stuff I see here and in other places say 15 days and they look like full plants which is WOW!! Lots of new growth on top, so keep on trucking my green friend. I am thinking 1 more week until it enters veg mode then some diluted nutrients, and a week or 2 after move to 10 gallon final container.



Maybe it will be a girl, one can certainly hope!

 

[Holylander]

Day 17

Lots of exciting things with my 1st test grow. The plant continues to sprout new growth and stretching is decent, just under 5 inches tall.


It is not growing explosively though, it has been extremely hot here, 100 degrees. There is nice new growth up top, hard to make it all out but a lot of 3 sided little fan leaves coming.



Underneath, more modest shoots of 3 sided leaves coming in.


Nutrients!
It is slightly less green, so I will be buying food today. I read tons and tons (thank you all for your posts) and decided on House and Garden Soil A+B as my nutrients, something not too complicated but which people seem to praise. I will start at 1/4 dose every 2nd water and see how the plant reacts

Equipment
Much more exciting though is good fortune. My friend is selling me his unused equipment for 250 bucks to help me experiment. 2 HPS 600 (cooltube) + 1 HPS 250 MH with a regular reflector.
I will setup 1 600 light on a pulley, using the morning sun 6 hours, and then whatever remaining sun + the light on to supplement an additional 12hrs staying in veg.

My area will be 1.5 meters by 1.5 meters. 2 walls, 1 floor to ceiling glass door which slides open with a full shutter for flowering time, and one end open which is the rest of the indoor balcony. I will be hanging a black divider (for use when flowering time comes), rolled up during the day to the ceiling to separate from the rest of the balcony on the open side. The 2 walls are already white, the black divider is white on the internal side. I have access to fresh air for some cooling from the sliding door which makes up the 3rd 'wall', it's actually exposed to the elements when desired and will duct a single small exhaust from the cooltube. In other words I am using the divider only for light dampening purposes.

I do not want to build a fully enclosed area as I will already be struggling with heat I foresee. So this is sort of an indoor outdoor hybrid. I would have preferred a 400 watt light, but I am certainly not complaining. I will according to your posts buy a Sylvania dual bulb (blue+HPS) for the single 600 W light I'll be using for now. I am concerned about odor, but I have no extra budget at this time for the wildly expensive carbon filters, I cannot justify them for 1 or 2 plants, nor do I want to setup a complex system since I'll be using an open side to the elements for air, it's not hermetic. I may add a small fan on the floor to create more draft and cool a bit more.

Sorry for length (nobody viewing this thread really but me mostly) but if you think I am making mistakes, or you can impart advice that would be great! PLS post and let me know. One mistake is all this light for my little plant, I am trying to germ 2 buddies so it will not be lonely and I will not be wasting so much watt energy. This is an experiment to see if this can work well! I hope the slight novelty of this setup carries some interest for you more experienced growers to check on me.

 

[spek9]

You're on the right track here, and you definitely scored big on the purchase! Is the ballast electronic? If so, the 600w ballast may be able to turn down to 75% or even 50%... look closely.

Don't worry about odour now, but save up a budget ~$200 so when you do go to flower indoor, you'll be prepared... I promise you won't regret it. They won't start smelling too 'badly' until a few weeks into flower, so just keep this in mind.

Many indoor friends swear by Ona gel for only a couple of plants, so it may be worth trying that out while keeping a backup plan of a filter just in case.

Also, your plants look great thus far... don't do anything rash. When you do get nutes, start at 1/4 recommended dose (on the label), then do only water for the next two feeds. This way, you'll be able to observe how your plants react. If the bottom leaves start to yellow, up the dose to 1/2. You'll quickly be able to 'read' your plants as to how much food they need. I bought my nutes at my local grow shop, and it was their own name-brand nutes at a fraction of the cost of 'taylor-made'... ask them if they have such a thing.

As far as pH tester, I bought mine on Amazon.ca for $7. I then bought pH "calibration" liquid at my grow shop for $12, which should last me 6 years

I must admit that I haven't had time to read every word of all of your posts, but keep it up, and keep the pics coming!

-spek

 

[Holylander]

You are really nice guy Spek (like most Canadians). I appreciate your looking in! I don't have the equipment just yet, but I am almost positive the ballasts look like this and are of the simple locally built type.


Even the most simple electronic ballast is imported and they are not widely available. So it is back to basics here, but I did get a great gift and am grateful to my buddy for sending his extra stuff my way. A cooltube here is insanely expensive. There's also a few pumps, beads etc and the extra stuff he uses for water growing but it will not be used. That's all just too complicated for me
Thanks again!

 

[Holylander]

Here's a little update on my plant. Had some insect issues, leaf borers and a few mites. What can ya do, outdoor. Trimmed leaves with borers and made tobacco juice which I have sprayed on twice. Plant is doing fine though. This is still only using sunshine, and is still in veg. Tomorrow is transfer into big container with perlite.


Natural double top.

I was going to top this plant or fimm it, but I was too scared. Big guy upstairs looked out for me though, it has topped itself with a second top naturally. This is just starting with the bush growth on top, but it is clearly about to branch into 2 main branches. So that's nice I guess. No sign of sex yet, there's still 14-15 hours of natural light outside.




Plant could use a bit more food / nitrogen, but I'm relaxed and pleased overall. Looking forward to giving it more room in a new big pot and seeing it really grow. Thanks for taking time to look. Comments always welcome.

 

[Super Subliminal]

really enjoyed reading your journal, Holylander. Hope you get a girl!

 

[Holylander]

Day 41

Having completed my transplant into a larger container my plant has really grown.. But I have also faced 1st time grower issues and problems as one can see with lower leaves. The plant is now just under 2 feet tall, and the two natural tops have really shot upwards and make up the bulk of the plant.

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I believed I was suffering some nutrient deficiency, primarily nitrogen. So I upped feeding a lot, with obvious leaf burn evident as a result. This was also compounded by the transplant and fresh soil which had nutes in it.

The tiny growth most of it much older is dying off at the bottom middle of the plant. I also changed PH to try to get a range going in the soil in case something was being locked out. Spent many hours looking at images trying to figure the problem, and eventually just went with heavier balanced nutrients to feed new growth. Clearly this had an effect as new growth has been vibrant and strong, but nonetheless the bottom of the plant is ugly. Maybe nitrogen is still being sucked from there to feed growth, or maybe this older stuff just never recovers. I'm not experienced enough to know.

No sex yet, but finally branching.

This Sativa dominant looking plant is taking forever to mature. I figured it was male 100%, but I'm still holding out hope because I have started this week to finally see strong branching, meaning for the 1st time growth coming out of the nodes themselves as opposed to from the main stem. This was exciting, I read this is a sign of middle maturity. Here are the images, and one can see that there is heavy growth starting now from almost every node which will make things bushier..

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New growth is solidly green and daily. I can only hope I have fixed the problem going forward with my leaves (Have eased back on feeding to slow nute burn) and that calyxes will show up soon with signs of preflowers. I wish my plant was a nice looking as other grows, but I am learning as best as I can.

Schedule

25 litre pot.
Peat, Soil and Vermiculite mix (that has nutrients in it)
Feeding every 2-3 days with 1 to 1.5 litres of water.
Every 2nd to 3rd feeding is Nutrients. AD Sensi Grow (now at 3/4 dose)
Still just using outdoor sun until flowering.
My Water is between 7-7.25 at tap, I lower it to around 6.5, and runoff is around that range I think. It is hard to measure PH with the paper sticks. Oh well, that's what I have.

 

[ArCaned]

Good luck with your grow, hope they are ladies!

 

[Holylander]

Good luck with your grow, hope they are ladies!

Thank you, that makes two of us! If it's a female I promise I will treat it even better like a lady

 

[Holylander]

Time to experiment.

I decided even though I do not know the sex, in case the plant is a female and also to gain some experience I would make my 1st clone attempt. I chose a nice juicy small branch at the bottom, and gave it the old shearing! Then I even photoshoped a crude little red arrow into the pic for everyone because I am thoughtful like that.. Also, I like drawing like a 4 year old.



I kept 2 nodes at the bottom of the stem that would go into my soaked jiffy puck. Cleaned growth from there, scraped the stem slightly and put it into some rooting powder coating the 2 nodes on the stem nicely. Of course I didn't have a humidity dome, and the Tupperware I had was not high enough. No problem, here's my cheap solution.. The Verti-Dome!

Who knows if this will work, but Tupperware is Tupperware right!? I present to you the Verti-Dome in all its made in China glory!

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haha, so far making this post has been as much fun as the actual cloning Time will tell if I get any roots.

 

[hbbum]

looking good, be careful of the stretch in flower because she's going to get really tall

 

[Holylander]

I appreciate the insight hbbum. I was going to wait until mid August when the Sun changes to bring it in for flower, but depending on how much it grows in the next 2 weeks I'll consider your cautionary advice and setup my equipment earlier to get it to pre-flower artificially.

 

[Shivaskunk]

You can use a technique called super cropping to help keep your plant shorter...its very easy and you can do it.

 

[ArCaned]

Your excitement and passion is contagious! Good luck with your grow!

 

[Holylander]

You can use a technique called super cropping to help keep your plant shorter...its very easy and you can do it.

Thank you Shivaskunk, I have read a bit about it.. Breaking branches seems a bit crazy, but I'm a crazy dude if necessary. I will watch some video and read more about the technique. Also just wanted to shoutout and say I have read a lot of your posts over past while since I started lurking. Thank you for contributing and helping people learn.

 

[Holylander]

Lesson learned.

I have been fretting about leaves dying on the bottom of my plant, but in the end I learned a few valuable things as a 1st time grow. Death is part of plant life, and trying to fix things can make them worse.

Here's a breakdown. Instead of pumping mass amounts of nutrients, or swinging PH around, freaking about lockout, rushing to buy cal/mag, or any of the endless other posts giving wildly differing advice on these boards sometimes you need to just let the plant do its thing.



Crisis!
This image above is enough to give a 1st time grower a heart attack! While it initially looked to me like disaster, I've figured out that the stuff that is dying in these images are actually doing so for a reason. The plant is sucking these initial leaves dry in order to feed new branch shoots. In fact everywhere I see stuff dying, it is because there is strong new growth that is both more mature and better designed to eventually get to light. This is not lockout, nutrient deficiency.. I learned this is nature.




This second image above shows an original fan leaf. The stem is becoming lighter, the leaf is losing its vigor, because there's a new kid in town growing out of the node. I learned that simple leaves are round stemmed, and branches have serrated like stems, and that losing a few leaves in order to get new branches is not something to freak about, but embrace



Do you really want to hurt me?

Above here's another shot. As a 1st time grower I look at this and scream I need MORE nutrients!! But now I believe that will harm the plant, because it doesn't need nitrogen.. I think it wants to get rid of this yellow stuff to allow the little new already green stuff to grow. This is a hard lesson to learn, because instinct is to fix, and then fix some more because the fix isn't working.. A vicious cycle of chasing a ghost that will eventually cause severe distress to my plant..

Both sides
(sorry about the harsh light)
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Things overall are fine, plant is bushing out some, and new branches are coming in. If I chase my tail trying to fix what seems like bottom problems I now believe that would be a mistake. A valuable lesson learned for the future.
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Clone update
Hmm, looks the same almost a week later. No sign of any roots but nothing is dying so I guess it's fine.