A new downunder grow...

Hi all,

decided to start a journal of a first time (sorta) grow. Its been over 10 years since I last grew, so its basically being a newbie again.

Anyway just before christmas I put a order in with Planet Skunk for 2 packs of beans. One pack of Super Lemon Haze (by Greenhouse Seeds), and one pack of Green Spirit (by Dutch Passion). After a week and a half I had no communication at all and I used their Local bank deposit option, which is the BEST for us Aussies.

So I contacted them and with a bit to too and fro'ing they admitted their computer died and they had no idea I put the funds in for the order, so they sent my beans. Less than a week later a package arrived from them. 1 pack of Green Passion and 1 pack of Jack Herer.

Oh well close enough I guess, I really wanted the SLH but was happy to try the JH instead.

So I popped out 3 of each and into water they went for a day and then into damp paper towels in plastic bags sitting on my router for warmth.

Within a day or so all the Jack Herer's popped and I did a little happy dance on the spot, woo hoo growin again.

After a week none of the green spirit had popped. But I didnt give up hope, surely one bean would pop, the whole pack could'nt be duds.

So into rockwool cubes the GH's went and into a humi dome thing, the same we have all used since the start of time.

At this point eh cubes were pre soaked in straight water, and thats all.

A couple of days went by, no action, then woooo a seed shell and its glorious contents popped up from the first rockwool cube.

Within 2 days the rest had popped their heads out of the cube, and so did a Green Passion seed pop its root out, the thing took almost 2 weeks to germ, is that in any way normal??




Anyway, its a closet grow, and yep you guessed it, I had 4 baby plants and only 2 tubs would fit in, I want these to become mothers later so I got big tubs. I got some Dutch Master Gold nutes for food and a 600W HPS for light. Umm top venting, cold air in the bottom, self levelling recirculating top feed nutrient system, etc. etc.


So I still had 4 plants, so 1 Jack was a little weedy compared to her sisters so she got the chop, which leaves 2 Jacks and a Green Spirit, now I know that 2 different strains will not grow the same, and the space I have is really limited for the moment, to make my life less stressfull my 2 remaining Jack Herer girls went into the closet, and the Green Spirit is living al fresco. Yep she is in a big tub sitting
in the back garden, and she is loving it too !


WELL the closet grow went like clockwork............NOT. The light was heat stressing the girls something serious. Leaf burn along with Nute burn on 1/4 nute strength. Hmm gotta fix this fast.

So play the A-Team music I'm in the shed building.

Later that day I have a 4x CFL (philips 160W 6500K) reflector all built and painted ready to rock and roll.

That fixed the heat issue instantly, but my babies were still burning up on quarter strength nutes. The PH was going crazy and the plants were also showing nute deficiencies.

MAN this is too hard.

So I read Laceygirls adventures and she swears by Canna nutes, so I bite the bullet and get one of everything except boost.

Complete flush and clean of the system and refill with canna.

What an improvement.

BEFORE



A FEW DAYS AFTER



Anyhow thats the past few weeks condensed in a post, more will follow, please comment/critique as needed but please play nice with the new kid..........

hey mate awesome looking plants. how have u set up ur drainage system? ad when u say a pack of seeds how many are in the pack and how much were they? as im in australia to and want to order some seeds so wat site u order them from

Hi Nemo - good luck with the grow. I came back to growing after a long break as well - the steep re-learning curve begins with the first grow.
The plant you put outside should grow great, a few more weeks before flowering kicks in - not enough time to get huge but enough to give you plenty of buds.

Azza427: I get my seeds from Seedsman.com.

If you buy some in January and use the code JAN15 at checkout, you get 15% off.
Also, as we don't live in the UK, they deduct the Value Added Tax (V.A.T.) which is 17.5% - so the price is even lower.

and ... if you spend a certain amount you get freebies.

awesome thanx ill give them a try

Azza, mine is a basic recirculating system with a remote reservoir, I used to run a larger one back in the day, but I built a smaller lunchbox version this time around. If you want instructions/help in building a system let me know.

yeah man that would be awesome thanx

Okay thats the setup I use, easy as to build. The float level is a plumbing part, its a simple ballcock float level. It's connected to your main reservoir and keeps a supply of nutes to the system. The pond pump sits in the bottom of the container and that pumps nutrient solution to the tops of your pots. They drain down and as liquids in a closed system always find a common level they drain back into the main container. I use 3/4 inch common irrigation piping and fittings, they are dirt cheap and available anywhere. I also have a air stone in my main container to aerate the nutes too. But thats the basics, any more questions just ask.

cheers mate i am on my way to bunnings lol

Well another week has gone by and my shrubs are happy. Will give em about 2 more weeks and I will turn the lights to 12 hours. Cant wait to try it, every smoke review I have read says it will rip ya head off.

Gee sounds like fun

Okay another week has gone by and I have decided I need some nice smoke and I hate spending good money on ditchweed. So I am turning the lights to 12/12 earlier than I originally planned.

I have cut 2 clones off of each and if they dont go well will cut another 2 next week.

I want 2 clones of each seed stock for my next grow.

Anyway here are my girls now

Count me in for the ride, goodluck.

im from down under aswell...