Skunk #1 Sensi Seeds: First-time Grow West Australian

G'day folks.

I've been lurking on this forum for many months trying to learn as much as possible before I started my first grow.

The biggest issue thus far has been sourcing decent (or any for that matter!) planting material. I've ordered seeds from Seedmadness and Seedsman and never got my delivery. While I'm sure this has more to do with Australia's Gestapo-like customs and quarantine services than the businesses I ordered from, it still sucked a whole bunch of testicle, so I'm utterly stoked and absoluted hyped to get this grow finally on it's way.

Now, I've been lucky enough to have a fellow Aussie take pity on me and send me 3 seeds he had lying around. He tells me they're Skunk #1 (normal) from Sensiseeds. While I don't care whether it actually is or not, I'm really excited that it could be a proper strain with pedigree. I could do a lot worse I'm sure.

Now, I realise all 3 could turn out to be male, so I'm still on the look out for more seeds, but even if 1 ends up female, I'm in business!

So here it goes:

I've put the seeds on some of those cotton makeup removing wipes (my housemate's, not mine!) and then covered them with others, and wet it all with tap water. Not heaps, but enough for there to be a little run off. They're on a ceramic plate which I've covered with another, so they're in darkness. I have a heatmat as well going underneath, but I will monitor it and possibly turn it off at some point lest I cook the beans!

I'm leaning towards a coco drip system to waste (if that makes sense) but I'm open to suggestion on that, and I'm going to use the SCROG method, as I have very little planting material. I like the idea of an automated system, which is why I'm not going the soil in pots route. I'm away a couple of days a week for work, and I honestly don't think I can rely on my housemates to keep up with the watering regime when I'm not there, lovely people that they may be and all.

Feel free to offer your suggestions, criticisms and general vitriol - the latter so long as you can take as much as you give - as I am a complete n00bcake.

I have an Agricultural Science degree, but that means dick as I specialised in viticulture and oenology, so grassy species in indoor grows are not my thing... :-/. So any and all advice will be much appreciated.

Let's get this part-ay started with some picks of the beans

Oh, and I will be starting them under CFL's till they're of a certain size and then it will be straight under a 600 or 1000w HPS for the rest of their days. While I'm intrigued by LEDs and even more so by Induction Flouros, neither are attractive at this point as far as opportunity cost, availability (in Oz) and "runs on the board" are concerned. But maybe next time.

Anyhoo, no point in getting ahead of ourselves. Lets see if they crack first!

I'm very sure those seeds have been taken by custom. You guys don't allow ANY kind of seeds or plant matter crossing the borders. Be happy you can get curry at least ;O)
This is probably a big problem in Australia - i feel with you. Here we can just trade seeds freely. We can even write "this contains marijuana seeds" on the envelope - but doesn't help you a lot.

Always be sure to plant seeds of good quality. If you don't know where they are from it could easily be bird seeds or other kinds of none THC strains.

I never tried the buckets, but started out making me an ebb & flow system, that i'm never going to leave. You can see my system here: homemade ebb and flow
I just like this way since it's perpetual and i can move plants around for lighting and bonzaiing - this is just the most flexible system to me. It also allows to grow a number of small plants for seed production or other nerdy stuff.
Anyway - good luck with the grow - just wanted to show you an alternative to the buckets.

Thanks for the goodwill, Brimi!

Yeah, you're right. Australia has always been funny about plant matter imports. Hell our closest ally and trading partner New Zealand has only just got permission to export their Apples to us! lols

Well, I know a few of these seed banks suggest deliveries to Oz are more successful when sent with T-shirts, hats, wallets or something. Beans on their own get snaffled immediately apparently, but when packaged with something else they get through. Makes sense I suppose. I just didn't want to fork out pennies for a crappy top I didn't want or need. I've learnt my lesson, that's for sure....

You should see the hell I'm going through trying to import some obscure Italian grape varieties into Western Australia.....

WestAussie said:

Thanks for the goodwill, Brimi!

Yeah, you're right. Australia has always been funny about plant matter imports. Hell our closest ally and trading partner New Zealand has only just got permission to export their Apples to us! lols

Well, I know a few of these seed banks suggest deliveries to Oz are more successful when sent with T-shirts, hats, wallets or something. Beans on their own get snaffled immediately apparently, but when packaged with something else they get through. Makes sense I suppose. I just didn't want to fork out pennies for a crappy top I didn't want or need. I've learnt my lesson, that's for sure....

You should see the hell I'm going through trying to import some obscure Italian grape varieties into Western Australia.....

Click to expand...

Yeah - sucks for you. But you have VERY good reasons to act like that in customs (i'm sure you know and agree).
I tried to import tomato plants to here last year and they got confiscated in customs (like 30 strains).

Maybe you need to take a chance and buy the t-shirt with some quality seeds. You really want to get good quality if possible in ANY way. Bud is just way more potent with the same work. You only need one good mother plant, that could be kept anywhere under any flourscent light. Then take clones and plant them when it's time.

If that wine field is where you work it looks like you have an interesting job. (don't you have a lot of poisonous spiders, snakes and stuff? - i love all kinds of animals, so would go hunting for that imediately ;O)

Good luck - wish you a happy grow.

UPDATE:

Ok, so it's been 20hrs since I started the germinating process. I've checked the moisture content of the cottonwool wipes and they seem to be staying damp the way I want them to. I've put a magazine between the heatpad and the ceramic plate I'm germinating in. I thought it was getting too warm, so the magazine's a good buffer.

Still no sign of a shoot/root, but they seem to have swelled a bit. Not sure what that means. They've most likely absorbed some water, which might explain the increase in size.

Nervous. Hoping to see some movement by tomorrow...

Ok, so I came home from work at midday and after putting on a load of washing went and checked on my seeds.

Happy to say that we have a result!

So, thus far that's 2 out of three that have popped in less than 48 hours, which I'm tip-top happy about.

Will give the other one tonight to pop, and if it doesn't I'll grab the 2 that have and pop in some peat starter pods and get that root zone cranking.

Beer o'clock? Indeedy-doody!

WestAussie said:

So here it goes:

I've put the seeds on some of those cotton makeup removing wipes (my housemate's, not mine!) and then covered them with others,

Click to expand...

That's a new one on me, but at least you didn't use Tampons.

Lols

Yeh, it would indeed have been awkward if my housemate had suggested that. I imagine tampons would wick-away the water to much anyway. Until they reach their maximum absorption point anyway. Don't think I have enough room for that....

Good luck with your grow fella, skunk #1 is a great smoke and easy growing strain been growing it on and off for a few years now one of me favs. Coco is a great medium to grow in just switched over to it after years in NFT. Theres a few seedbanks i use that ship worldwide and offer stealth shipping, http://www.marijuana-seeds.nl/ is a great seedbank with cheap as chips seeds they will hide your seeds in a CD or glued between pages of a magazine might be worth a look mate.

Thanks for the support man.

I'm just really keen to be finally having a red-hot crack at this!

And thanks for the suggestion re. ordering seeds; I might hit them up for next grow. I spoke to seedmadness yesterday and they're gonna resend my Afghan Kush seeds with a T-shirt in the hope that that will get it through. Still got talk to seedsman about my lost white widow though...

Updates to follow.

UPDATE:

So how about that 3rd seed popped too! I was having an OCD moment this afternoon and thought I'd check the seeds for the 10th time or something today, and lo and behold I noticed a little white nub coming out the side. A noob nub, if you allow me the poor attempt at internet alliteration.

So before I thought about taking a confirmation pic of it I expanded some Jiffy (from Bunnings) peat seedling cubes, made a little hole in them and popped my seeds in.

I put the cubes in a seed raising tray (Yates, from Bunnings) with the dome on but the vents open. I watered with distilled water (don't ask me why, I just had it and thought why not..) then put the whole lot on the heat bed in my room. I have a Phillips 24w cool CFL ready to go once I see some action.

In fact, here's a question. How soon can I/should I put the CFLs on? Now? Or wait for x amount of leaf primordia (?)?

I'm making a 3 CFL array for the initial veg stage before moving it under an HPS.

Never been to OZ managed NZ for 6 months tho fell in with some nice fellas there who kept me in smoke. Lived with an aussie mate here in the uk years ago, got him mashed every night on quality skunk, think he was gutted when his visa ran out lol so i know it can be a right pain in the arse getting seeds in OZ so i wish you luck mate. That seedbank is well worth a go tho mate if your struggling for seeds they dont fuck about and wont rip you off like some other seedbanks.

Stick them under you CFL now man, keep it close and leave it on, lets hope you have a female.

Hey hey hey Wozzy my new found friend

Just want to say mate that i wished we talked sooner, i was only over in perth a month ago! This thread and the way you write is magnificant mate, im real happy that all three popped as i know (from my keen eyesight and zooming feature on my computer hahaha) that one of the seeds was smaller than the other two...im glad it has popped cos i was worried (why would i worry) that it wouldnt.

Great start, and i have been told by a few growers here that KISS is the way to go -- keep it simple stupid. im already up shit creek with my ebb and flow, more the nutes and root probs, but now im ready to start again, i am highly interested in run to waste with coco, but if you are happy with a recirc with coco then that is fine too, i guess ya just have to filter out the run off a bit.

becareful not burn them with the heat pad and keep moist at all times, mine had a days work worth without lights when they popped and stretched like 6 inches in a day to search for light, as in i had my lamp on top of my dome exactly like yours and yeah..... so if you are and i know you are checking them every hour then as SOON as the colytedons are out....BAM hit em with the light, no CFL thats size will burn them at 2"above so your good to go, becareful too my tap roots were out of their RW cubes in less than a day, and one nearly airdried so have your next stage nice and ready!!

peace out brother

EDIT: oh yeah and my seat is pulled all the way up to the computer and subbed for the ride

jimmygreenfingers said:

Stick them under you CFL now man, keep it close and leave it on, lets hope you have a female.

Click to expand...

Hey, yeah, I've got a cool (blue spectrum) 24w CFL from Bunning's on it now. It's amazing how anal I am about these puppies. If I'd planted chilli or tomatoes I wouldn't give a fuck. Unfortunately, I'm scared I'm going to kill these babies with too much love, lol.

WestAussie said:

G'day folks.

I've been lurking on this forum for many months trying to learn as much as possible before I started my first grow.

The biggest issue thus far has been sourcing decent (or any for that matter!) planting material. I've ordered seeds from Seedmadness and Seedsman and never got my delivery. While I'm sure this has more to do with Australia's Gestapo-like customs and quarantine services than the businesses I ordered from, it still sucked a whole bunch of testicle, so I'm utterly stoked and absoluted hyped to get this grow finally on it's way.

Now, I've been lucky enough to have a fellow Aussie take pity on me and send me 3 seeds he had lying around. He tells me they're Skunk #1 (normal) from Sensiseeds. While I don't care whether it actually is or not, I'm really excited that it could be a proper strain with pedigree. I could do a lot worse I'm sure.

Now, I realise all 3 could turn out to be male, so I'm still on the look out for more seeds, but even if 1 ends up female, I'm in business!

So here it goes:

I've put the seeds on some of those cotton makeup removing wipes (my housemate's, not mine!) and then covered them with others, and wet it all with tap water. Not heaps, but enough for there to be a little run off. They're on a ceramic plate which I've covered with another, so they're in darkness. I have a heatmat as well going underneath, but I will monitor it and possibly turn it off at some point lest I cook the beans!

I'm leaning towards a coco drip system to waste (if that makes sense) but I'm open to suggestion on that, and I'm going to use the SCROG method, as I have very little planting material. I like the idea of an automated system, which is why I'm not going the soil in pots route. I'm away a couple of days a week for work, and I honestly don't think I can rely on my housemates to keep up with the watering regime when I'm not there, lovely people that they may be and all.

Feel free to offer your suggestions, criticisms and general vitriol - the latter so long as you can take as much as you give - as I am a complete n00bcake.

I have an Agricultural Science degree, but that means dick as I specialised in viticulture and oenology, so grassy species in indoor grows are not my thing... :-/. So any and all advice will be much appreciated.

Let's get this part-ay started with some picks of the beans

Click to expand...

hey man i am in the process of growing the same skunk 1 seed, i have a defident female, shes about 6 nodes high right now, its time for me to do my topping of the plant right now
but hopefully it turns out well for us
good luck with the grow man

You're right Tricka! I'm checking them every hour whenever I'm home.

The thing is I'm down south on the farm this weekend and I've left my housemate to make sure the peat cubes stay moist. Just before I left I saw that 2 of the three were showing! It looked like the tap root had headed towards the light and then chucked a U-turn and started heading back down again. I wish I'd taken a picture. It might be a cotyledon or it could be the tap root. I'm not about to dig and find out.

My mate's a bio-medical science grad and he's telling me I should water with tap water instead of distilled. He reckons I'm causing an osmotic imbalance by using it. He might have a point; but I was just trying to negate pH issues at this early stage, and didn't want to affect beneficial microbes with the chloramine/chloride in the tap water. I figured I'd hold back on using high ppm water (be it with nutes in it or not) until I know they've got a decent rootsystem cranking. But he'll give 'em tap water this weekend....

What do you reckon?

FARK! As I said above, if they were tomatoes I'd be pissing on them already! But 'cause they're MJ and they're so damned precious (and you know how hard it was for me to get them...) I'm handling them with tender hooks - tiptoeing around them, hamstrung by indecision.... Jesus! What's happened to me. Harden the fuck up! *bitch slaps himself*

Anyhoo, hopefully my mate won't fuck it up. He's grown before, so he should be 'right.

I've got some 15L buckets I'm going to put them in. I'll put a bucket liner in them, put an inch of hydroton in the bottom for extra drainage, and then fill with coco. The little peat Jiffy starters will get bunged right in once I see some root action below.

I'm thinking drain to waste at this time. Means you don't have to worry so much about pH since the res should remain stable at the pH you mixed it too.

Or not, I mean, what the fuck would I know. lols

I threw away my skunk #1's cuz they would not flower like the others. I had three different plants do this. I kept one as long as possible. At 8 weeks it was barely spitting out white hairs. My system was linked to others and all the other strains were loving it. Maybe i got a bad batch, but it wasn't for me. I wish you luck.