Grapefruit Grow

Not my first grow, but a first personal grow. This one is all mine. I bought 10 feminised grapefruit seeds... price 55 pounds sterling.

Germinated 8 of the seeds using two plates, and plenty of tissue, both below and on top of the seeds, which I then soaked with normal tap water. I then placed the second plate over the first and stored it in a dark place at room temp'.

For the other 2 seeds I decided to try a different method. I'd been advised that to better germinate seeds you should drop them into a glaass of water WAIT for them to sink, whereby they should crack open and be ready for transplant to the growing medium, which in my case is a special, sterilised perlite, soil, sand and whatever else that I bought from the same place I acquired the seeds. The soil cost 13 pounds Sterling for 50 litres, or about 12 gallons. I bought 2 bags.

Back to the seeds... Never one for patience, the 2 in the glass were just floating, so I decided to do what I was advised not to do... I gave the seeds a couple of gentle nudges, and lo and behold they sunk. I gave the glass a little shake to make sure they weren't going to float back up again (this took a few goes, lol) and took out the first seed. It was a little tough, so I squeezed really hard and the seed turned to mush in my fingers. Obviously, it was a no go: but, never one to give up, I placed the seed in the tissue alongside the other 8 in the vain hope that it might still pull through. I was a little more careful with the second seed... I waited a few more hours. I cracked it gently, and was quite pleased to see a little, undamaged root. I placed this into the tissue paper too, to help it's development along.

between 24 and 48 hours all the seeds, except the crushed one had germinated. I decided to place them in small pots and re-pot once they had sprouted as there wouldn't be any root to stress, well hardly any. I ph'd the soil using 5ml of OGP in 9 litres (2 gallons) of water. I water down the ph down 125ml per 2 litres water. It took 5ml of the diluted ph down to get the ph of the feed down to 6.5. Perfect, no need to add any ph up.

I placed the soil in the pots, quite loosely, then put a litre through all nine pots before placing the seeds in... about 5mm down.

3-4 days after this and 8 of the 9 had sprouted. Veg' stage initiated.

I'm currently 2 weeks into veg' today. I've fed them twice since. First though I transplanted all the plants into mainly 2 gallon pots. I have 1 in a 3 gallon, but this pot is wider, and square-shaped.

The first feed I used 1 litre per plant, mixing 5ml OGP, 30ml voodoo juice, 10 ml carbo load (carboload makes a handy food source for the good enzymes in voodoo to feed from), into 8 litres of water. I had to ph down to get it to the 6.5 mark. I'm using a normal ph test kit.

On the second feed I again used 1 litre per plant, mixing 30ml voodoo juice into 8 litres water, again ph'ing down.

I'm going to really try and just give the plants what they need. It's so tempting to want to build them up with shit loads of fert's. But I'm going to be minimal, I'm going to look for signs from the plants that will tell me what they need. Even watering. I will not water untill I see leaves start to droop a little, this guarantees that the roots are getting maximum oxygen benefit before being drowned again.

I have two plants in contention for Mother at the moment, and every part of me is screaming to take them both. Both really are impressive. All the plants are fairly uniform in height and node, node length. The plants are all three nodes high, compact, and busily sprouting the other three nodes I'm going to need before I top them.

What makes these 2 stand out is their broadness, they outweigh the others by far. I'll post pic's soon... now that I've caught up.

Sounds nice man keep us up to date

My mates got a fucking enormous white widow, it's only the 1 plant but he has it under a 1000w hps and a 300w hps for side lighting, lol it's a ridiculous amount of light for 1 plant but it's bloody huge

At the moment I have a 400w hps on all 8 plants. I also have a 400w mh which I'm going to use for the seperate vegging/cloning area. I have the light but I have yet to set the area up. It's going to have to be within the next few days.

I'm intending to give these plants a longer veg' time as I will be topping them once they reach 6 nodes straight back down to 3. I'm working in pretty tight conditions, so topping is the way to go.

I promise I'll post pic's soon, I'm just a lazy c**t. I have to change the batteries in the camera and everything. Smoking some pucka mango at the mo'. I'm buying it a little damp (the way things are over here at the mo'. I can't complain, i was selling mine the same way!), but I've dried it the rest of the way and it's a mighty fine smoke.

Just realised that the only place I can set up the veg area is right next to the flowering area. Due to the tight spacing it's going to be a nightmare working my way round to the flowerers.

Oh, well. 'He who dares, wins.' (SAS. Also Del-Boy out of only fools and horses.)

Sorry about the pic's. I've taken them, but I've recently moved house and can't find the connector (camera-computer). I know where it is, it's in the spare-bedroom, only trouble is that room is filled floor to ceiling with bags and boxes.

Still chonging on that mango... pucka shit. I'd go so far as to say it's the best mango I've ever smoked.

3 weeks veg' today and I watered for the third time yesterday. Again only a litre per plant. Into the 8 litres of water I added 5ml OGP and 30ml Voodoo Juice. Ph'd down to 6.0.

I've set up a rudimentary vegging area for the two mothers. Rudimentary as it will soon have to be moved. I wanted to do it today but the builders yard was closed so I have to wait till the 2nd Jan' to set up a proper area. The other 6 are doing fine except for one. A complete runt. The most gutting thing is that I gave this seedling the biggest container... 3 gallons. I've put it into a better position beneath the light but i'm not sure if I'm wasting my time, if the position would be better occupied by one of the others.

Also, just before watering yesterday, I knocked over my third best plant, destroying at least half of it's root system. I re-potted it as best I could... it seems fine today. Hopefully the Voodoo will work it's magic.

I've noticed that between this 2nd and 3rd week of veg' there hasn't been much upward growth. I'm not worried by this as it indicates to me that I am doing everything right. The plants are getting adequate light and are now concentrating on root growth.

After knocking over my third best plant I was quite surprised to notice how much root it had developed in just under 3 weeks.

Built the seperate vegging area, and the 2 mothers are doing great under the mh bulb. I'm going to be switching the other 6 to flower very soon. Also, I've found the camera cable, so I should be uploading some pic's later today.

Watering day... and just plain water to flush out nutes before flower. Took 7 clones yesterday from the mother plants. I'm going to clone the others too as I need some to boost my other grow. I will take pic's... it's just that I'm too busy... having just moved house, x-mas, new year, new baby. I'm exhausted... I'm just glad I'm not the one that has to give birth.

hey skunk im just growing grapefruit now and blimey there a right assortment of plants.tall ones;small ones'bushy ones,thin leaved ones.never seen out like it before .unique to say the least.i suppose thats what you get messing with genetics.

Mine are all very uniform... except one. The runt.

what you gonna do with the runty one.i have two standing at 12 inches 2 weeks into flowering there over a foot smaller than the rest but i am very reluctant to cull them.do you think they would be best keeping.or do i get rid of them.hmmmm decisicions decisicions.

Keep them... just don't bother cloning them.

Glad to see you are still in it. Just had a minor setback. But I see you are going to recover fine.

Yeah, good job I'd already started this grow... it's going to help the other one get on it's feet too. The other place has been completely sterilised and is just waiting for the clones. This grow is my personal grow... the other one is much bigger, 1200w for veg', 1200w for flower. This one is 400w veg'... 400w flower, but it's provided 30 clones for the bigger grow. I'll have to take some pic's.

Been flowering for a couple of days now, and I already have four clones that'll probably be about ready to start veg tomorrow.

The new clones are going to be grown in 2 6" rockwool cubes, one balanced on top of the other in a bucket. The bucket has holes in it to allow for drainage. The rest of the bucket is going to be filled with perlite.

The 2 6" cubes standing on each other are a little too tall for the pots, so I'm going to cut about a quarter off the bottom. The quarter will then be chopped up and mixed with the perlite.

The plan is to continue hand watering... will I need to water more regularly? Nah, scratch that... I'll find out for myself. Just by keeping a close eye on them I'll be able to tell if they need feeding. I estimate that the mix will be 60-65% rockwool and 35-40% perlite. Sound good? Let me know if you can see anything wrong with this.

2 weeks into flower gone of my last ever grow in soil, and I'm now down to 6 flowerers. One of them is a definite hermy, one branch (as I topped them) male, the other female. It was always a risk using feminised seed, and the added stress of the topping caused this plant to 'turn'.

I'm keeping it because the benefits are great if I can pull it off. I'll get loads of female seed. I'm a bit tight for space, as I already have 2 seperate areas for veg and flower... so, I've decided to keep it in the bathroom. It will get natural sunlight throughout the day and I'll put a bag over it at night and keep it in a permanently darkish part of the house.

I messed up pretty bad with the vegging hydro's, giving them too acidic a feed after buying a new ph meter, the wrong type. I've since gone back to colour, and have started seeing some results. Things are still pretty early for these guys, I just wish they'd hurry up and grow as I need a suitable replacement for mother as she is still in soil and I'd just love to flower her off.

Here are some pic's. A mixture of flu and being stoned made me forget to add the attachments.

lol... the pic's!

The veggers are finally growing. I feel confident now in being able to flower the mother fairly soon. Just take a few more clones from her and then flower her at 8-9 wks veg.

I've been panicky for ages, worrying about this new medium, but now I've seen some definite growth I feel tonnes better, it's like a weight has been lifted...

I'm also starting a dwc grow. Just the one plant. I'll post pic's of this as soon as it's up and running. I've bought the air pump, an air-tube and something called a bubble disk, just forgot to buy the container.