Plant and pray

[Captain Bonez]

Hello one and all, im back for another go!

well my last attempt at Christmas didnt work out, (i knew i should have stayed in the country) so now im back giving it another attempt.

I have tried growing again since xmas, but im yet to get any kind of proper green fingers and still trying to work out how to get nice aerated/half decent soil going on.

With my last attempt at growing, the soil was all clay and just strangled the roots, so now im using a mixture that i was going to make myself but found some old bitch on the street corner who makes her own bags of soil up

It's just the regular shitty soil they sell here in Cambodia but shes made a mix adding burnt rice husk (i think thats what it is) and regular rice husk to the soil (i wish growing herb was as easy as growing rice, the amount of little rice shoots ive had to pull out of the pots is mucho)

So a little while ago i started to germ the seeds and figured id put them on the roof to veg as i had this one strip of light that was hitting my balcony and was just right for germinating and vegging, alas birds pecked at the little seedlings and the ****ing neighbors kids thought id be a really awesome idea to poke their fingers in the pots and fuck up all my lovely guerillas gusto and lemon haze i had going on (AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!! i hope their shitty rice crop fails)

I lost about 10 or so plants to that shit, i was able to save 2 that are a bit stunted now but i wont give up on them, so i brought them all indoors and now im going to have to be mother nature.

I've still got my little ghetto grow op going on, just a 150watt system, metal halide on it now for 18/6, small little fan for oscillating and an extractor fan up top for the heat, if it wasnt for the 18 hours of light id like to sleep in that room as its probably the coolest room in the house.

The seeds are (ive been told) mr nice and super skunk, i just planted the best looking seeds and hoped for the best, i water them about once every 12 hours, once at 12am and once at 12pm, i dont drown them or anything, just enough to make sure the soil isnt bone dry, so far this seems to be working, none have drowned or anything, yet....

Heres a small peek at my grow, it's nothing special and i need to make something to go around the plants to act as a reflector (anyone want to send me some mylar? for free!?....)

But this is it, about 2 or so weeks in

thats all for now really, i will update but only when theres something worthy to look at, as at the moment theyre growing slow, waaaaaaaah!

take care people!

 

[Art Vandelay]

Ask that "old bitch on the corner" if she'll give ya some Mylar for free!!

 

[Captain Bonez]

the only thing she hands out for free is disrespect.

quick question, i heard an old wives tale once that the dull side of tin foil is better than the shiny side when using it as a refector, yay? nay?

 

[Captain Bonez]

god, im the slowest grower out there, but finally things are picking up

had those plants in the small pots for a while, they ceased to do anything much really except just be content with being midgets, i watered them normally blah blah blah
anyway i didnt water them for a change for a couple of days so the soil could dry out, i up-ended some of them to check out the root balls but saw very little sign of any juicy roots, for the length of time theyd been growing the roots should've been in mucho abundance, negative.

so i bought some more soil that was some of the better quality stuff ive seen around town, mixed that in with existing soil i had which is a mix of average soil, rice husk and ash and then mixed in about a 1/3 of slightly coarse sand and re-potted them in (i think) 10 liter pots.

i was running them under a 150watt MH with a 125watt fluoro next to it for some extra punch, but now with BIG thanks to my friend here he's lent me a 400watt that takes MH and HPS (fucking score!)

so now i've got that running on 18/6 and have just started dabbling with some ferts as well

the problem with the ferts is im not 100% sure on the exact dose/ratio as it's all in Thai, but from what i could gather from the dude at the market and my wench interpreting was that i needed about 1 gram for 10 liters, so what i did today was put about 0.4g in 5 liters of water and gave them a taste, then i'll gauge their reaction and go from there, as for the liquid i dont even know what the fuck that is?....

unfortunately (and this happened before i started running the 400) i had some leaves starting to curl up like this (not my picture)

my buddy said it could be due to the heat, so i've moved the fan closer and turned up the power a bit to give them a nice breeze and i guess in a couple of days i'll see if the ferts working or not and if the fan being closer and more powerful will uncurl the leaves.

wish me luck!

 

[Captain Bonez]

nearly forgot about this guy too, saved him from my cat the other day

 

[Captain Bonez]

what am i doing wrong?

 

[guest845704]

I dont know whats wrong with your plant, but the guy looks hungry, look at that big head There should be appeared some soil and ambient parameters before.

 

[guest845704]

I dont know whats wrong with your plant, but the guy looks hungry, look at that big head There should be appeared some soil and ambient parameters before.

edit; dbl post. Maybe its heat issue?

 

[Tatz]

How far from plant to light ? No need for plantlets to get 400W, you'll burn 'em with the radiant heat ! I have these three White Widows, waiting for their new home under 24/7 11W PL-L....tap water only

Please tell us more. (Temp's etc.)
The more you tell us, the more we can assist.....

The fertilizer you use, can you find a thai who can translate for you ?

For your soil, as you seem to have problems getting good quality soil, you should do what you can to improve your mix.
Maybe get charcoal, lime/chalk, seaweed and whatnot, have a large tub on that roof of yours and just mix.
Search the organics forum for info on soilmixing.

Tender Love and Care will get you far, but many people love their small plants to death.
Hang in there !

 

[Captain Bonez]

Yeah sorry i didnt give a bunch of info, i was kind of heading out the door at the time and just wanted to throw up some pics, see if anyone could shed some light on the issue.

like i said in a previous post the leaves actually started curling up before i switched to that 400 watt, theres never been too much of a heat problem as at the time of them starting to curl i only had a 150 watt MH running on them with a 125 fluoro hanging next to it, they gave off pretty much next to nothing in heat and wasnt close enough to burn them anyway.

i always have a fan oscillating 24/7 in there and the door to the room is open from 12pm lunchtime (when the light comes on) until about 1 or 2am when i go to bed.
once i go to bed i shut the door to the room and plug in the extractor fan, which does a pretty good job at keeping the room cool.
when i get paid next week i'll be investing in a thermometer to stick up in there and a 400 watt HPS

the only things that have changed is that 1) i mixed in some sand with my soil, i tried to give the sand a wash the best i could before i mixed it in with my soil but maybe something nasty is in there doing some damage?

2) i havent been feeding them much of this anymore

so either starting tonight before i go to bed or tomorrow when i wake up im going to start putting this back in their water and see if that perks them up

thats really about it, i could have a go at throwing some more guano on but even with that i dont know how much is too much

one day grasshopper will learn

 

[Captain Bonez]

oh and the light is about 18" from the canopy, if you can call that pathetic attempt a canopy

 

[Captain Bonez]

my feeble attempt thus far

and this one i just cant figure out why the leaves are curling up, i might tie her down to see if its the heat doing that to the leaves as she's getting the same treatment etc as the other plants but just behaving differently from them

heres the same plant but further down where shes shooting and the leaves arent curling, hence why i think i should LST her maybe as the further away she is from the light theres no curling

 

[MrCopyZ]

That leaf curl looks like heat stress to me...

Try raising your light

or may be some better air circulation on the actual light something to blow the heat away before it gets to the plants

 

[Captain Bonez]

i have an oscillating fan on them 24/7 and the extractor fan running always as well, seems a bit weird that 1 is doing it and not the others, they all get exactly the same treatment