Springbotch 2015 - Fun In A Polytunnel (Spanish Section)

[The English Cut]

Hello all, it's time for me to start a thread to document my first attempt at flowering plants under the Spring sun in the polytunnel, making the most of the photoperiod being around 12/12.

I'm not going to list all the strains I've started but there's a load of Ace gear, some Cannabiogen, lots of HFH stuff and a few odds & sods too. So as to not have too much off-topic stuff, I'll be documenting the Spanish side of things here and the Danish Side of things over at the Hybrids From Hell sub-forum.

The story so far...
I started germinating seeds in two 12cm deep rootrainer modules (64 cells in total) indoors around the end of last year, replacing any that didn't germ or were lost to damping off or mice and finally germinated the last one on 25th Jan. Then I had them inside the house under 4 x 18w T8s.

3rd week in Feb I potted up to 1l polypots (growbags) and 3l pots when they ran out (I only bought 50 and to be honest they said one litre but they don't even look like a pint to me.) and moved them to the ghetto veg room I'd built from old doors in the basement, under 4 x 36w T8s.

They liked it in there because just over 2 weeks later they were more or less ready for the polytunnel, also I was thinking that if I didn't get them out then, some of them will never finish flowering. It's touch and go with a few of the strains, I'm half-expecting troubles with some of the later-finishing sativas wanting to re-veg. Having done some basic research it looks like I need to get everything down by May 13th to avoid re-vegging.

So now after 2 full months of either rain or snow, last week the sun came out and the forecast looks pretty good for the foreseeable. The lambs are frolicking in the field, we've seen crows flying over with twigs to make nests, it looks like spring is finally here. Some proof...

This last one is some comfrey, I really need to dig up and split them to make more plants this week.

 

[The English Cut]

Polytunnel

Polytunnel

I'd spent the previous few days making up some soil, with a last minute panic as I didn't think I'd have enough (turns out I had plenty, yeah!). I used recycled soil from last year's polytunnel seed plants, to which I added topsoil, leafmould, sieved compost, some well rotted sheep & donkey manure that was layered with comfrey leaves and well rotted chicken shit/bedding last autumn, some homemade blood/fish/bone/feather etc compost, a bit of worm humus, dolomite lime, a bit of sand, vermiculite and pèrlite. The mix looks great, even before it's mixed with the recycled soil. The only reason there's so much perlite & vermiculite is to lighten the mix, so much topsoil makes it a bit too heavy. I'm soon going to be starting a thread about my soil making adventures in the Organic Soil Forum.

btw, the ones in pots got the recycled soil mix, the ones in the polytunnel beds got a handful of Leaf Mould/Compost/Worm Humus/Comfrey Manure/Dolomite/Sand dug into the hole before they were planted. all watered in with a bit of root booster called Deeper Underground. The beds have been getting compost tea for the past few weeks and some nice leaf mould mulch. Lots of earthworms in there too.

That's the bed I'm using in the polytunnel. I've seen a shrew running around in here, they're often nesting in the compost piles, good news for me, bad news for slugs. Another soldier in the army against pests, here are some barracks, the insect hotel I made for my good lady as a christmas gift.

The central bed has been converted into a compost heap for the winter, the idea being to improve the soil in the bed and raise the temps in the polytunnel at night. for the same reason i've put 2 large black plastic bins full of water in there so they can heat up during the day and keep the temps nice at night. I'll remove the compost to finish rotting down somewhere else when I need to start planting the central bed.

 

[The English Cut]

Time to get planting

Time to get planting

ok, finally some plant pics, these were taken 5 days ago now.

3 x Bangi Haze. One of these germinated two plants from one seed (I'm sure there's a technical term for this), I've kept them both just for novelty value, it might be interesting to see what develops.

3 x Orient Express, I'm loving the spiky leaves on the one in the ground and the one on the right.

3 x Nepal Jam. These are from Cannabiogen as Ace was out of stock at the time. Very lush foliage.

Tikal, a bit younger than the rest.

Zamal Hash

 

[The English Cut]

more plants

more plants

PCK x Kali China

Caribe Fem (Cannabiogen) looking ready to explode.

2 x Peyote Purple (Cannabiogen)

Close up of one PP. Not sure why I have no close up of the other.

Cheestral (Underground Seed Collective) okay I know they're French, but I bought the seeds from Cannabiogen, so it's in here. Very excited about this one.

 

[The English Cut]

a few plants more...

a few plants more...

And these last 2 are a couple of Afgooey freebies from strain hunters seed bank. Little and Large. Hawaiian x Afghani.

Still indoors at night but coming out into the sun during the day and to be planted out in the next week - Fatty Bubba, Bubba Hash, Rotten Panda, Kali China x Nepal Jam and some other freebies.

I think that's it for the moment, thanks for tuning in. I'll do my best to keep things updated regularly but it's taken me a while to get pics loaded etc with my crappy internet connection, so have patience please! Peace, TEC

 

[The English Cut]

update

update

Got the last few plants out in the polytunnel this afternoon.
These are all around 7 weeks since germination.

Rotten Panda

Nepal Jam x Kali China

Bubba Hash

Fatty Bubba

Jack El Frutero (Philosopher Seeds)
Respect #13 x Jack the Ripper #1

 

[The English Cut]

Damnesia (Strain Hunters) Dwarf-like and very slow so far. I'm only really running it to compare to the HFH Amnesia x HP2.

Now photos of some of the plants that went in a week ago to show how they're settling in. It's also a week since they started 12/12.

PCK x Kali China

Zamal Hash

Smaller Afgooey

Caribe

 

[The English Cut]

Peyote Purple

The other Peyote Purple

Cheestral

This is how this corner of the polytunnel looked 6 days ago...

...and today. I'm happy.

 

[The English Cut]

3 x Orient Express

3 x Nepal Jam

3 x Bangi Haze

Thanks for tuning in, see you next time. Peace, TEC.

 

[Gardening Angel]

hey tec


great thread so far,
hoping to do the jump to spain in the near future myself

ill be staying tuned

thanks
GA

 

[Baron Greenback]

This is wonderful, what a great experiment. I wish you every success.
That compost heap in the polytunnel is magnificent, it's inspired me to go and crack on with mine again.
The insect hotel is a thing of utter beauty, and should provide habitat to many and varied species.
The ladies look great too, lovely selection, will be very interested to see how they come out.

 

[The English Cut]

Hi GA & BaronGB, welcome along to the show. Thanks for the good vibes. and yeah, Spain is great but it's not quite Colorado as everyone seems to think!

 

[Gemüse]

Lovely Tunnel

Lovely Tunnel

Hey the english cut!
Really like the compost hot bed in the Tunel! Are you seeing any temperature differences with it? very nice strain Selektion too, here in Germany the ace season is starting soon and im looking Forward to it
greetings gemüse

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

Love the setup and area, never been over that way, spring must be amazing.

If you still have some space, do not underestimate Autos, small and ready before rain, cold, Police and other thieves. If you grow them properly mature they are now often better than most normal weed.

 

[The English Cut]

Hey the english cut!
Really like the compost hot bed in the Tunel! Are you seeing any temperature differences with it? very nice strain Selektion too, here in Germany the ace season is starting soon and im looking Forward to it
greetings gemüse

Hey there Gemüse, thanks for the good vibes, I'm sure the hot bed is raising the temps in there to some degree, I've got seeds trays with tomato, pepper and aubergine seedlings sitting on top of it and the heat they're getting from below them is perfect, just like the heated propagator. It looks like it will be put to the test this weekend as we've got a forecast of a sudden drop in temps and maybe even snow tomorrow morning. Luckily it's not supposed to last too long. Fingers crossed.

 

[The English Cut]

Love the setup and area, never been over that way, spring must be amazing.

If you still have some space, do not underestimate Autos, small and ready before rain, cold, Police and other thieves. If you grow them properly mature they are now often better than most normal weed.

Hi Chaos! Yeah, spring is always a big relief after a fairly hard winter like this one has been here, although some years it feels like the wintery weather last till May. Hopefully thje last 2 weeks haven't been a false start!

I've grown autos in the past and enjoyed the experience but never been all that impressed with the flavours, but this year I'm 90% certain to get a few of the newer generation autos to test the full potential. I like the look of the Mephisto gear, I'll probably pick something from them and maybe run some auto crosses I made from the last few years too and try to refine my search for something mould resistant. Last year I lost autos to botrytis in June! Peace, TEC:

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

Yes, plenty of microclimates here going on. Even on the "sunny med" you can get freak hailstorms trashing the lot in June..

R.e.Botyris, you know there is a new UV lamp product you shine over the plants that zaps botyris ? Might be an idea for you, I lost the details, but me them at Spannabis last year, guess they will be there again, so will grab some details for you if needed.

Yes, the Mephisto stuff looks very nice, I was also very impressed by Kannabia's mega autos, 4 month plants and a good friend had some very very nice train wreck from Sweet Seeds.

Good luck, going too enjoy keeping an eye on your work

 

[scai]

Just fantastic, going to keep on eye you.You gave me some ideas for my polytunnel.

 

[dubi]

Hi The English Cut,

Yeah, very nice area and outdoor location, great selection of genetics too!

If i'm not wrong you want to flower them now in Spring, maybe you will need to cover the polytunnel a few hours from April onwards to force the 12/12 photoperiod and to avoid reflowerings and undesirable leaf production during flowering.

Thanks you very much for sharing your pics and diary.
Best wishes for the upcoming 2-3 months of flowering!

 

[vostok]

I like to collect large plastic storage bottles 10-20 us gallon(30-60 liters) paint matt black and make a solar wall to keep them warm at night ...I'm sure you have heard of it ..?