First grow... need a mentor...

[agreenthumb]

Hi all , I recently started growin' and know a pretty good amount of info, but I lack experience... any pointers, tips, additional info would be quite wonderful... right now I have several strains going, only a few of which are actually outdoors yet... Short list of whats going... white widow, and rhino, bubblelicious,durban x skunk#1, oaxacan sativa, big bud, k2, misty, ice, super skunk, and citral all of which were ordered from nirvana seed co. I started them under 24hr light for about a month and a half then moved to windowsills. After moving them several started to show sex, is this unusual? I know for other outdoor growers in my area their babes don't sex until about mid July-ish. I thought it might have something to do with the light change, but I'm not sure at all. I have tons of other questions if anyone feels so inclined to answer them, any help would be greatly appreciated, here are some pix of a white rhino in my yard



the preflowers aren't defined in the pic but they're definately there...

 

[issack]

yes light change. when you took them out of your 24. and exposed them to minimal light( that is if you really put them in a window sill) such drastic change will show sex right away...wich is good!! now you can find your girls...so my question is how much light are you giving them now? a month and a half is a bit too long. usually 10 to 15 days veg is fine. but if you want to grow trees and have ample light outdoors you can veg them for awhile then throw them out and they will thrive. how tall they get during veg?..

 

[zeppelindood]

we're here and with you for your run Agreen... if we don't know, we'll find out.

 

[agreenthumb]

Thanks for droppin' by...

Thanks for droppin' by...

Most of 'em got to be about 2 ft tall before going to the great outdoors. As I had assumed the males showed first thankfully More fems have appeared Is this windowsill method ok? They get pretty good light and have good ventilation the room they're in stays about 70 degrees or so fluctuating about 8 degrees or so both ways... I'll try to get some updated pics soon. They're looking so good! Especially the Bubblelicious... I hope to have em all in full outdoor within 2 weeks... I have plenty more q's but i think thats good for now... Peace -A

 

[bartender187]

If you have any questions, shoot... ill try and answer them as best i can.

Nice list of strain, i started with nirvana my first grow... you wont be disapointed. great smoke.

its great to have another greenthumb amongst the group.


What light cycle do you have them under indoors? Ive heard of plants flowerin when put outside when they were vegged under 24hrs of light indoors.

In my experience... it seems.... males usually show sex first (with some exceptions).


take care,

 

[agreenthumb]

thanks for the input, Yah, I started them under 24 hr light, had a few ppl rag on the choice of seed co. but I think I'll decide for myself. This might be a silly question, but what soil mixtures do you use? I've heard many, many different recipes but was wondering what everyone here was using... Right now I've been changing it up slightly to see what effect it has if any. Mostly adjusting amount(s) of wormcastings/perlite/vermiculite I use a coco fiber based organic potting soil with bat guano/soft rock phosphate/and kelp meal. I was also wondering if using a low stress training program would be beneficial to an outdoor plant? I was looking at Cap's guide, and it seems really interesting. Also, I was wondering about flowering times, I searched the web and found an estimation on a few of them, but was wondering if anyone had grown out any of the above listed genetics,and what they observed the general flowering time to be... TY for all the help -A

 

[bartender187]

i grew out bubbilicous... once upon a time... cant recall how long it took to flower... it was my first grow, i didnt go by any guideline, i just pulled them when they looked ready...

rule of thumb... dont go by flowering times.... get yourself a decent 10x up to 100x magninfin glass (they sell cheap ones for inspecting diamonds/computer parts are Radioshack)... and chop em when about 20-50% of the crystrals are amber...

your mix sounds pretty dead on... i personally start off with a Pro-Mix as a base, and i ammend with, guano (or bone or blood meal, wichever i have avaible), kelp meal, humics (sometimes), and bunches of wormcastings and perlite.

LST will help in any grow that isnt confined by space. The technique should effectively bush out your plant, which is what you want when growin outside, right?

hope i could be of some help,
bartender187

 

[agreenthumb]

Right on... Yah I just picked up a 30x jewelers loupe, should do the trick, eh? Is it possible to "over-do-it" with perlite or vermiculite? Made a mix with what seemed like way too much perlite, plant seems to be fine. So when I cut is a matter of when the trichomes look amberish? I've never seen a flowering plant before so it's all new to me. Definately starting to notice the faster flowering plants from the get go. Some seem to moving slower than others, the bubblelicious is kickin' ass, followed closely by the super skunk, hope to have some new pics asap. So LST would be helpful? I was trying it on a few of my sweeties but wasn't sure if was actually helping them or hurting them... Thanks for the help bar -A

 

[shaolin730]

I wouldn't put more than 20-30% perlite in, but its very hard to over-do-it.

 

[agreenthumb]

Heh, the "accidental" soil mixture prolly has somewhere around 60-70% perlite doesn't seem to bother the plant too much... Muchos Gracias -A

 

[agreenthumb]

Will my ladies reveg if the days aren't short enough? I'm not sure but it looks like that's what they're doing... Thanks in advance -A

 

[lester gas]

Hey green! Yes they do re veg, especially with enough nitrogen. However, it is possible to 'stall them out' with early spring flowering. Sometimes they just quit growing or they produce strange leaves and never quite put on the size; but usually they pull out of flower and back into veg. We prefer to grow outdoors without sexing because the plants haul ass to a large size(if that is our goal for a givin spot).
Use mulch outdoors, especially in the mountains. You'll see better handling of wind and heat and frost. Pile up a nice 6" of leaves around the plant without touching the stem. Also, we can highly recomend organic bulb food mixes. They are higher in phosphorous yet will supply adequate nitrogen. Mix them into the soil when you plant and sprinkle them underneath the mulch.
Wear camo in the patches but never in public or around leo( esp out of hunting season).
Lets all grow more to rip the fabric of western civilization!

 

[lester gas]

almost forgot: Have ordered nirvana several times with good success. They have a strain of afghani that mountain growers should know. It's potent and tough as nails. Takes high heat and winds much better than some other strains we've tried out here in the west. Turns dark purple when hit with frost and hangs on into the winter longer than others ; possibly for a second pull of the purple. Crossed it with Jack herrer for a truly amazing f1 that also did well at our higher altitude gardens. This year, we go with a two-way hybrid between nirvana afghani and white widow-- we'll see how it takes mountain conditions...

 

[agreenthumb]

Thanks for dropping by LG, when I noticed they'd started flowering I cut back on the N and gave them mostly P and K with a good shot of kelp also. (Age Old Organics ferts) Would coconut coir be an acceptable mulch or should I use something else? What's the N-P-K on the bulb food mixture? So far the Nirvana strains seemed to be doing extremely well... The durban x skunk #1 & the bubblelicious particularly. I thought about the afghan, probably pick some up on next order... Thanks Peace & Love -A

 

[agreenthumb]

updated pix if any1 cares...

updated pix if any1 cares...

Here are some updated pix taken earlier today...

 

[lester gas]

Healthy looking pets, green! Can't imagine anything wrong with coir as a mulch--just have never used it. The bulb food I like to use is 4-6-2 but I also add other things with it: bonemeal, horse manure, and coffee grounds-eggshells-chopped alfalfa when I can get them. The manure I pick up off the dirt road-- that way, no poison has been sprayed on it. My favorite brand of organic bulb food is e.b.stone, which has soil organisms added. At first, I thought this was a pitch, but plants of anykind seem to thrive with it. They also make ultrabloom organic which is 0-10-10. Any brand will do and it can be general purpose fertilizer--I just prefer the bulb food's ratio for our favorite species. Early on I also use fish emulsion but find in the mountains the first time I use it in a season, raccoons and skunks are attracted to it and might mess up one or two plants so I spread it around a bit. The e.b. stone has ground chicken feathers in it so I spread it all over the patch for the same reasons. God I love this lifestyle.

 

[agreenthumb]

Thanks LG been busy lately hittin' up the spots, Startin' to get my queens into the great outdoors. How often do you feed your plants? I've been doing once every two weeks... Is that enough...? or does it just depend on the strain? Gonna get some more updated pics today. Looking more and more gorgeous every day... Have you ever had to deal with grasshoppers? My area is infested with them... ravaging all our veggies and MJ ladies also... We've tried a few different things, but still everytime I go check on them I find about 4-7 'hoppers on each plant! any ideas? Thanks in advance Peace & Love -A

 

[lester gas]

I feed roughly every two weeks once they are in the ground. With dry fertilizer/ dried horse manure I water heavily after the application-- kind of water it in. About every two weeks through the big veg period(may, june, first two weeks of july).
In august/september, I do perhaps a couple of applications of ultra-bloom or bulb food--- the extra phosphorous does seem to make extra-fat buds.
Yes, in this part of the west we have dealt with three kinds of hoppers on pot. Most common has been the little green mini-hoppers. Surprisingly destructive when ya have twenty or so together on a plant. Next, is the very large bright green grasshopper, of which we might find 10 or 15(at the worst) in the whole patch. They're easy to spot because they're so heavy they weigh down the plant. Occaisionally we find a large brown locust doing heavy damage to a plant; usually it will be the only one around.
Favorite remedy is the thump and stomp procedure. Kill each hopper by hand and in a thirty minute session you can clean a large patch of hoppers and add food value to the mulch. Ants will process the green mini-hoppers the minute they get the big thump. Nothing wasted. On a grander scale the way to deal with grasshoppers is to outgrow them. They usually hit mid-summer and by then you can have some stocky 3 and 4 footers that can easily survive a hopper invasion( which are just a few weeks long). We also like to have lots of toads and fence lizards hunting on the mulch. Fence lizards or sagebrush lizards will wolf down the mini-hoppers if the patch is wild enough to support them.

 

[lester gas]

Almost forgot ( wakenbake ): all through north america we've got those little brown/grey hoppers that are two inches long, and show either yellow or orange wing patches when they fly. These sometimes will get so numerous way out here in the west that they hit on our sacred plants. They rarely are much of a problem but they are the most common around- even in the deep south. Guess they dont prefer pot but every year I kill several on our plants.
I have heard of spores you can buy at nurseries that attack grasshoppers but have never had to try them.

 

[agreenthumb]

Right on thanks for the input... been out and about a lot lately got several spots and job to manage not much time for sittin at the computer. Dry ferts eh? I tried making my own tea with bat guano, soft rock phosphate, and kelp meal, haven't tried it yet, but I'm not sure how well it'll work. we'll see... Yah our ladies are taking a pretty severe beating but they're too big to kill completely at this point, diminshed yield perhaps but what can ya do? I'm gonna try and get some more pictures soon, but we'll see. Peace & Love -A