First Grow (Cali Backyard Greenhouse)

[El Bandito]

Hi All,

First ever grow- I am doing it legally in the Sacramento area. I bought 4 clones on June 1 and another 5 on June 15 from a local dispensary. There are some GDP's but I am kicking myself for not writing down the other strains. Perhaps posting photos of the plants throughout their cycle will formulate some clues from this awesome community. I did have a few Girl Scout Cookies seeds that I planted in mid-May, but only one survived. I stored it at my parents' home an hour away in case it turns out to be a male.

I knew nothing when I bought the first four. Since then, I have spent every spare hour studying this plant. Thanks for letting me share.

Here's the first four, early June, heat stressed:

Couple weeks later:

July 1

More in next post...

 

[El Bandito]

Current details:

Moved my best six plants into a greenhouse for security and privacy. The other three will be adopted by a friend who lives nearby in a couple of weeks.

10 gallon smart pots with Happy Frog soil and 5 foot tomato cages. Drip irrigated with 2 emitters per plant, automatic timer for being out of town.

I feed 1-2 times weekly with Earth Juice Grow, Catalyst, and a little Bloom. Not aerating it yet but I am dechlorinating the water first.

It's often over 100 degrees here and my plants get direct sunlight 10 hours per day at least, so I have to water them daily. I recently mulched them with shredded straw and that's turbo-charged the soil's water retention. It will be interesting to see what effect the greenhouse has on the transpiration rates and temps. I have the screens and door open so there's plenty of air flow.

More pics- this greenhouse is awesome.

The 3 leftover plants. 2 are in seven gallon pots.

Also- this is the view from where I am sitting now:

El Bandito is happy.

 

[Growcephus]

Looks good!

The heat is a pain in the ass where I'm at as well, and unless the strain is a hearty variety, I would'nt risk growing outdoors without a lot of shade clothe, but even then, temps would be in the 90's - 100+.

I've got some peppers I'm growing outside in containers, but I won't risk my cannabis. I'll keep my ladies in the AC.

Best to you and yours.

 

[Zdub7k]

Im dealing with the same issues....I recently put vents high in the roof on both ends and found that it helps tremendously with heat removal.

 

[Bonzo]

 

[ColoraDro]

Diggin the greenhouse whats th name of it?

Dro

 

[Granger2]

Bandito,
Looking good. I grew in an 8x12 greenhouse in the 70's. I had a 16" greenhouse fan exhausting constantly from just before dawn till about 10 p.m., then every other hour for an hour thru the night. Be sure to keep the ventilation open thru the night to keep the humidity as low as possible.

You're on track for a ton of massive buds. Keep us informed with pics. Good luck. -granger

 

[El Bandito]

Thanks for the well wishes!

The greenhouse is the Spring Gardener Gable Greenhouse. Super well made and 200 bucks.

http://www.jewettcameron.com/store/products/greenhouses/70608-spring-gardener-gable-greenhouse.html

 

[El Bandito]

Yeah ZDub, with both doors open, as well as the screens on both of the longer sides, the greenhouse doesn't get too hot. With just one of those doors closed, however, it hit 110 degrees in there on a 93 degree day! The cover is a one piece poly-type material with some heavy duty canvas on the seams. There's enough room for a 6-inch exhaust vent at the top above either door- I'm thinking about trying to put a flange in there and running some ducting to an fan outside the greenhouse. I'm guessing I would just use the same CFM calculations for an inside grow room... think that would work, Granger?

 

[El Bandito]

Mystery clone - check out the purple on the stems. I have two of these and can't wait for them to flower!

 

[El Bandito]

So for the time being, I decided to go the cheap route and buy a couple of small fans, which I attached to the greenhouse frame with cable ties. One is placed up high near the exit, blowing hot air. The other is at plant level at the other end of the greenhouse. Hooked them up to a digital timer with lots of programming options. The weather's been unseasonably cool the past couple of days but the 100 plus degree weather is coming back soon. Crossing my fingers.

 

[anchient]

looking good. good luck to you!

 

[El Bandito]

Well, after a week of 100 degree-ish weather, the plants are still looking healthy. They are probably growing a little slower than they would in a cooler climate, but since I have no experience, it's tough to tell. I do have one plant that's growing almost a foot each week. Gonna need to put the greenhouse up on blocks for some more height soon. Vertical growth in the others has curtailed a bit, while the stems are furiously growing tons of new leaves, filling things out. I can't describe how much of a difference it's made to have a good thick layer of mulched straw over the tops of the pots. Prior to doing so, the top few inches of soil were completely dry and lifeless. Now that same soil is always moist. Just trying to plunge my finger an inch into it to evaluate the moisture level is tough to do without breaking roots.

I'm now using the weight of the pots to determine when to water. I also picked up a nice air pump at the hydro store. It has 4 outlets, so I'm brewing my Earth Juice nutrient solution in 2 different 5 gallon buckets, with 2 airstones in each. I want to brew my own compost teas, but I didn't really learn about them until after I dropped the 100 bucks on the EJ nutes. I built a compost bin in the backyard and had a ton of straw and grass clippings to get it started. Threw in a big bag of EWC as well, just to get it off on the right foot.

Oh yeah, also grabbed some Earth Juice Catalyst, Meta K, and MicroBlast just to round out my nutrient program. I think the extra K should help with the heat tolerance.

 

[Buju09]

I was thinking a box fan would be great, and just duct tape the poly around it on one side, and just have the other side open, not sure how loud the box fans are but I'm sure it could move a good amount of air, helping out with this extra hot summer.

http://www.orchidstogrow.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Weathershield-fan.jpg

However amazing outdoor grow, I'll be sure to watch this till its in jars.

 

[El Bandito]

Thanks for dropping by, Buju! I might try the box fan idea.

MOAR pics:

Blue skies for days. Aaaahhhhh.

 

[El Bandito]

I'm already starting to jot down names of strains that I want to try out next season. I like me some good sativas/sativa dominant hybrids, and they would be well suited for growing in my climate. My latest favorite strain is Dutch Crunch, and I'm definitely going to try some next year. Any other recommendations? I'm going to start earlier next year (inside) and then move them outside as weather permits. Would like to try for a couple of trees...

 

[El Bandito]

Hola! Hope a few of you jaded expert growers look over these "first grow" diaries sometimes and remember the excitement of watching your first crop start to flower. I spent four or five days up in Mendocino on vacation and the ladies have been busy! I picked up a 30x loupe and have spent hours peering at every emerging bud site.

Temps are still hot- 90 plus, and often 105 in the greenhouse at the peak of the day. Switched to a 12 hour watering schedule - 7:30 am and 7:30 pm and no problems so far. They are drinking more water recently.

Been very lucky so far! I had a few minor problems- last week I found a bright green caterpillar looking thingy that was actually IN the process of chewing through the main stem of my favorite plant, just six inches from the top. It had chewed two thirds of the way through it and I could see it's mouth actually opening and taking another bite. I can't explain the feeling of horror and revulsion I felt. Haha it seems a bit silly now. Ended up wrapping it with some electrical tape, along with another branch in a different plant that I accidentally broke. They both healed up fine and the tape has been removed. Amazing plants!

So here are pics from the first week in flower:

Here's the plant that the caterpillar thingy savaged:

 

[Zdub7k]

are you light depping them? or are they just starting to flower naturally at your latitude? Mine look like they are a week or two behind yours as far as flipping to flower.

 

[El Bandito]

Not doing any light deprivation, although I did put up a shade tent thingy nearby a couple of weeks ago that is cutting out about 1-2 hours of direct sunlight at the end of each day. Not sure if that could have accelerated the flip. I'm at 38.6 degrees.

 

[Ganja Queen]

They look really good and amazing for a first grow! I understand exactly what you mean to discover a bug eating on your girl lol...I found one indoors too after noticing bits of my leaves missing! Innocent enough, but horrifying when you're trying to keep the babies 100%.