First Grow: Himalaya Blue Diesel in Uruguay

Hi Everyone

After a few false starts, I’ve finally got a grow underway down here in Uruguay. As its really my first indoor grow (not counting a few disasters and one v. small outdoor grow) AND because its a new low height Autoflower strain – Himalaya Blue Diesel, I thought It’d be great to start a journal, as I may well need some experienced help before this is over (!) and also to (hopefully) document a full grow of a new-ish strain.

I’m now at day 8 from Germination, so to backtrack a bit, all the seeds were germinated in a shot glass with 2 day old non PH’d tap water and placed inside a heated propagator for 24 hours – Germ rate was 100% (ie I stirred the water with my finger and they all sunk). FYI all seeds are feminised.

I then placed the seeds straight into the following soil mix:

Peat Moss 40% / Coco Fibre 20% / Perlite 20% / Worm Castings 20%.

To this (per Pot - and you can see the pot size in the photos) I added 3.5g Dolomite Lime, 2.5g Sea Bird Guano and 1.7g Epson Salts – this whole mix I found here:

http://hightimes.com/grow/ddanko/3873


Watering them as and when needed just to keep moist with two day old tap water that needs a v. small amount of PH down in it to bring it to a PH of 6.5

The Grow Box is a BC Northern Lights Bloom Box on an 18/6 schedule.

Some of the plants are in a humidity dome and some not – it doesn’t seem to make any difference. Min / Max Temps so far are around 73/81 degrees with humidity between 60/80 % on a 24 hour basis.

The plan (and this is definitely open to comments / advice etc) is to leave them in these smallish pots for another 2 weeks or so (so 3 weeks from Germination) and then transplant them into bigger pots – 6.5 litre ones and put them in the flowering side of the Bloom Box on 18/6 under a 400 HPS light.

Now come the questions !!!!

The main problem here in Uruguay is the availability of good growing materials (particularly nutes), so the soil mix you see above is all readily available (ongoingly) here. When it comes to the ‘flowering’ I plan to keep the same soil mixture, but I was planning to add Bat Guano to the mix as well and thought that this would be enough to see them through to the end – bad news – no Bat Guano, so now I’m looking at alternatives and would appreciate advice.

Alternative number 1 is keeping the same soil mix and adding Bone Meal (which is available in Uruguay) - will this replace Bat Guano and provide enough Nutes for the whole grow ?? If so, how much to add to 6.5L Pot ??? I read that another grower in Uruguay does this and then feeds every two days with Banana teas (but I’m not sure how to make the Banana Tea, although I do have a composter for the kitchen with a tap at the bottom, so if I can get the recipe it should be possible)

Alternative number 2 – the only other nutes I have (and don’t ask how I got them here !) are Fox Farm Open Sesame, Beastie Bloomz and Cha Ching, so the other plan is this (from week 4 on – the transplant week):

Week 4: Open Seasame
Week 5: Beastie Bloomz
Week 6,7,8: Cha Ching
Week 9,10: Flush

For every watering once in flowering, I would use the FF’s every other feeding at a quarter dose of the recommended on the FF feeding schedule which works out (for 25%) to 0.4g for every 2.5 litres of water (and then PH it after added the nutes) - the reason for this is that I heard that autoflower dwarf’s don’t like a lot of nutes and I can always add more as they get used to it, but obviously not take it away if I get nute burn !

What is everyone’s thoughts if I have to go with option 2 – will it work (ie add everything that is needed for a full grow) – will the taste of the end product be unsmokeable because of the chemical nutes, even after 2 weeks flushing ??

Although this part (the flowering) is two weeks away, I really think I need help on this one so I don’t mess it up !

Finally (at the very end) I plan to keep in total darkness for two days before harvest.

Last question (!!) when doing the flush, PH the water or not ??? ///add Molasses or not ?? - or should I actually stop watering before the end of the flush ??

Thanks in advance to everyone that reads this and offers help and advice. Sorry for the v. long first post !

I got reg himalaya blue diesel and had 100 percent female ratio out of 8 seeds I've grown.
let me know how many turn up in yours

kromanti11 said:

I got reg himalaya blue diesel and had 100 percent female ratio out of 8 seeds I've grown.
let me know how many turn up in yours

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got feminised seeds so should be 100% girls

good luck for your grow, I got some on the go at the moment. watch out if head room is an issue as some will grow really tall. the smell is really sweet

thanks - any info about your set up / nutes etc ??

Rats, guys! Out of a 10-pack of regs, only 7 germed for me. I got 4 females & 3 males. One of the males was a runt & was destroyed. The other was healthy & strong, so I collected his pollen... Females #2 & #3 showed sex at 2" tall & were moved outdoors as "curiosities" because I have room only for the best indoors. Female #4 was weak & was moved outdoors where she is flowering at 2" tall now.

Female #1 is the best of the group... Currently 14" in a 3-gal pot, with no side branching, just a stick. She is seeded in the bottom few buds & smells delicious. (OK, so I already burned a tester bud & I loved the effects so much! Bud from middle section was taken very early (50% cloudly) at 7 weeks due, weighed .3g dried.

Some of the best smoke I've ever had! If this is what CBDs can do for pain & muscle inflammation, I'm sold on AFs. This strain will be very useful to those who are looking for an antidepressant, uplifting, motivational, energetic, get-things-done kind of day medicine.

I'm convinced the problems I had were part of my learning curve on AFs. These are the 1st I have grown. But the quality of that little early bud was enough to make me determined to learn & improve.

Thanks for the informative thread, guys...

I grew some Himalayan Blue Diesel last year and it is my favorite auto behind Mi5. Love the blueberry smell when I open the jar and the nice after taste when it's smoked. You'll really like it.

I've use bone meal in the past with good success. I still use it for my remote outdoor grow simply because I can't get there often enough to keep up a good schedule of liquid nute feeding. But if you can get your hands on the FF I'd use that instead.

I've placed Mi5 on my "wish list" for next time I order beans... You are right about the lovely aftertaste (of the HBD)... What really impressed me was its potency, as I used only the .3g, and had about 3 hours' pain relief. Especially good relief of muscle spasm, too.

Ok - Day 9 - everything still ok - 3 plants now at 4cm each.

One thing that worries me a bit though - in the past 24 hours, the relative humidity has dropped from around 60-70% to 45-52% - is this a problem ?? I put all of the plants back into the humidity domes and this seems to keep the humidity more constant at around 50% (although two days ago it was constant around 65%) but the weather has changed - are these new levels still ok ??

Also, would be great to hear from someone about transplanting - when to do it and what transplant shock side effect can I expect for these dwarf autoflowers ?? I know its not a good idea but size restrictions means that for this grow it has to happen

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happy to give some to you for free IF you can figure out how we can do it

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so inbetween Punta Del Este and Punta Del Diablo more or less ????

I guess I need someway to contact you away from here (and without you having to post it here !) - try and figure that one out ! Off out now but will check this thread again in 2-3 hours

I don't really want to have to travel to meet you or send via bus so it would be a case meeting near where I live in the departmento of maldonado

but yes I can 100% guarantee if you can figure out how to safely get together the seeds are yours - all Nirvana all feminised and all FREE

Removed post, was not thread-related. Apologies

INTERPOL?

Removed post, was not thread-related. Once again I apologize. Last one

I'm curious to read more about your progress as it comes, simonh, as well as how you obtain your growing materials in Uruguay, and the corresponding names in Spanish, such as bone-meal, and bat guano.

anikas88 said:

INTERPOL?

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Eh ????

SimonH, how in the world did you manage to get a BC Bloombox to Uruguay? That's quite nice! Have you considered coffee grounds in place of chicken guano? or along with it?

I wouldn't be too concerned about the drop in humidity. If it was going from say 90% to 10% that might be of more concern but a few percentage points isn't a worry.

I start my autos indoors and then transplant outdoors after I sex them. I start them in 4" square by 5" deep pots and then transplant into 2 gallon pots. By then they are usually around 6" tall and have 4-5 good sets of leaves. Try disturb the roots as little as possible. Just water them good and they should be fine. Growth may slow or even stop for a few days while they get used to the new environment but then they should take off again. Try to only transplant once if possible.

simonh said:

Ok - Day 9 - everything still ok - 3 plants now at 4cm each.

One thing that worries me a bit though - in the past 24 hours, the relative humidity has dropped from around 60-70% to 45-52% - is this a problem ?? I put all of the plants back into the humidity domes and this seems to keep the humidity more constant at around 50% (although two days ago it was constant around 65%) but the weather has changed - are these new levels still ok ??

Also, would be great to hear from someone about transplanting - when to do it and what transplant shock side effect can I expect for these dwarf autoflowers ?? I know its not a good idea but size restrictions means that for this grow it has to happen

Click to expand...

Muddy said:

I wouldn't be too concerned about the drop in humidity. If it was going from say 90% to 10% that might be of more concern but a few percentage points isn't a worry.

Thanks

I start my autos indoors and then transplant outdoors after I sex them. I start them in 4" square by 5" deep pots and then transplant into 2 gallon pots. By then they are usually around 6" tall and have 4-5 good sets of leaves. Try disturb the roots as little as possible. Just water them good and they should be fine. Growth may slow or even stop for a few days while they get used to the new environment but then they should take off again. Try to only transplant once if possible.

Click to expand...

Thanks - these pot sizes are the same I am using so this is great info !