G'day everyone,
Please join me in my latest quest to grow some tasty bud, rather than trek 1.5 hours into the mountains and risk getting ripped off or busted.
I've gone for a totally new set up, mainly beacuse I'm in a bit of a hurry and can't wait for my stuff to be shipped over. I tried to keep it cheap this time....
This is my set up:
1.4 x 1.4 seahawk tent - not impressive, a few minor light leaks.... I miss my old wardrobe, but this is larger, so hopefully bigger harvests!! (and easier to get around).
6" extraction - Phresh Hyperfan
no carbon filters yet, we have no neighbours.
4" intake inline fan
600W MH bulb - Powerplant
600W HPS bulb - Phillips Son-T
Adjust-a-wing large reflector with heat shield
dimmable Solis Tek 600W ballast (4 settings: 400W, 400W boosted, 600W and 600W boosted)
rocket pots (or airpots)
40cm pedestal fan
medium is 3 parts low nute potting mix 1 part coco and a handful of lime free sand.
I'm using rainwater - our only water supply, so we have to be conservative. If we run out of rainwater in the summer, we can get tanked water in.
I will rig up some sort of watering system later on.
After watching Border control programmes, I was a bit concerned getting seeds, I ordered some seeds from Seedsman because they offered 'stealth' delivery. They remove packaging (but then rebag them) wrap them up in a onesie, and send them via 'tracked' delivery. In truth, they are only trackable in the UK.... after that you have no idea where they are. After 3 weeks I thought they had been intercepted in Customs, so I decided on a different approach... I ordered seeds from Southern Star Seeds, who are in this country, so no Customs!
2 weeks later, I received a package - signed for - from Seedsman. The box said it had a onesie in it.... surely any Customs officer worth his salt would have wondered why anyone in their right mind would want a onesie - signed for - they are not valuable, and the one they sent was shitty anyway. I won't use that method again, but in the end, I got the following:
Dutch Passion - Blue Automazar x3
- Auto Think different x 3
- Autoultimate x3
Greenhouse seeds - Jack Herer Auto
TH seeds - Automatic Northern Hog x5
and they sent the following freebies:
Dinafem - Critical Jack Auto x 5
Joint Dr - Chronic Ryder Auto x2
- Ogre (auto) x2
Paradise Seeds - Pandora (auto) x1
- Delahaze (photo) x1
Seedsman (photos)- Dr Seedsman x2
- Jack Herer x2
- Big Banger x2
- OG Kush x2
3 days later, the Southern Star Seeds came, regular post no worries, mate!
They ony do reg photos:
Super Deluxe x10
Frost Fortress x10
GG Allin x10
and the following freebies:
Nice Chunk x10 (I was looking at getting some of these later anyway)
All Stars x 10
......so all in all, I have quite a few seeds, something for everyone! I'm quite looking forward to trying the Think different, and the Southern Star beans should be great.
My main worry here is temps, its already 27 in the day, and will rise to mid 30s later in the year, electricity here is dodgy, fuses trip if too many things are on, so that's why I'm not doing DWC (along with the fact that water is a precious commodity here). so this 1st grow is a test grow to dial in the set up and also to get some quick buddage.
I don't wanna waste the Dutch Passion gear, so I selected the following for this grow:
Greenhouse seeds - Jack Herer Auto x2 - indica/sativa
TH seeds - Automatic Northern Hog x2 - indica
Joint Dr - Ogre x2 - sativa
I also wanted to do a test with the airpots.... I know everyone says do not repot them, but having reviewed Ledbud's epic Automazar grow, he got amazing results with explosive growth on repotting. Airpots are well known for airpruning the roots and preventing spiralling roots, but once the root system is fully developed in the pot, growth slows down. Repotting - or a translation into a larger pot allegedly produces the exposive growth of the airpruned root tips, giving a boost to the plants growth.
So for each strain, I planted the seeds directly in the soil, one in an 11L pot, the other in a 21L pot.
Covered them in clingfilm, and got sprouts in 2-3 days for all. unfortunately the cotyledon for the 11L Jack Herer broke off, so I replanted one more yesterday. The others were planted on the 8th Sept, so they are 9 days from seed, 1 week from seedling.
During germination, I kept them warm by keeping them under 24/7 light 400W MH, but now they are on an 18/6 schedule, with the lights off during the day. this way, I will hopefully get less fluctuation between dark and light temps, as ambient temps make it too hot to run the light during the day.
I water them by hand every 2-3 days just plain water, with 0.1ml/L H&G Roots Excelurator. my ph pen is not calibrating properly, but it's around pH 6 and EC is zero.... not sure if my truncheon is working properly either....
For the last few days I have been syringing some of the run off around the seedlings 3-4 times a day.
Anyway, here they are:
Glad to be back Guys, nice to hear the hum of the fans again... wish me luck!
TT