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 !
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 !
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