Hello everyone! 
After lurking in the forums for the past few months and ogling at some mind-blowing grows, I've decided to give growing my own MJ a shot. Motivation comes from wanting better-quality marijuana than what is available locally as well as from trying newer strains. I visited Amsterdam for the first time late last year and was astounded by the sheer variety of the kind of weed that you could get, especially the different flavors!
Locally, we have a lot of imported Ethiopian Shashamane and less commonly available but better-quality Malawi Gold. A lot of it is very seedy, and is often handled poorly, dried too quickly and cured improperly, if ever, resulting in 'okay', rather than the excellent experiences that I got while on holiday.
A lot of this is mostly just to get my feet wet and to generally experience the process of growing while learning as much as I can along the way. By all means, this should be considered a budget grow, because I wanted to try my hand it, while using as few resources as possible. The next grow should be fully indoors as space will be available, have all the proper lighting, grow tent, and other such necessities. So, without further ado, here are the details:
Strain Information:
Strain: Blue Himalaya (Feminised).
Breeder: Short Stuff Seeds.
Type: Indica / Ruderalis hybrid.
Flowering: Autoflowering.
Height: Dwarf. 10 - 15 inches.
Known Phenotype(s): Short and compact; Indica-dominant.
Grow Details:
Grow Location: Indoor and outdoor patio combination.
Grow Medium: Dirt / Garden soil; A mix of loam and red soil.
Pot Size: 2 Pots. Very small. 0.5 liters / 500 ml.
Light Source 1: Direct sunlight for ~8 hours per day (Latitude 1.2833° S).
Light Source 2: 1 x 23W CFL - 10 hours per day.
Light/Dark Schedule: 18/6.
Temp/RH of Room: Unknown / Unmonitored.
PH of Medium: Unknown / Unmonitored
Pests: None so far.
Watering Schedule: Every other day. Sunlight dries the smaller pots pretty quickly.
Fertilizer: Locally Manufactured NPK + TE Vegetable Fertilizer. 5g / 10 liters of water. (about ⅓ or less of the recommended strength, twice a week).
Why Blue Himalaya?
This was chosen as it doesn't grow very tall, and I wanted a very stealthy grow, because I usually take the pots out in the sun, and a larger plant would have been easier to spot. It is also an auto-flowering strain, which makes things a little easier to handle as I don't have to worry too much about photo-periods and such.
The heavy-indica nature of this strain is something that I'd like for those extremely chill days as there is already a surplus of sativa-dominant strains available locally. The blueberry flavoring is a plus for me as well. In addition, there aren't too many Blue Himalaya grows out there, so this should be one for the books.
Your pots are kinda small.
Yeah, I noticed that when reading through other people's grow journals. Well, my plants theoretically shouldn't get very big / grow very tall but at the same time I do realize that there are notable advantages to using a bigger pot. See, I'm going for super-stealth - this pot size really helps. I'm especially fond of the solo-cup competition threads, so I'll be sure to pick up a few pointers from those grows. Though I shall need quite a bit of help when it comes to dealing with / preventing root-bound issues in the plants.
Aren't you concerned about environment variables such as soil PH and RH?
Not really, because there's not much I can do about it. My equipment is set to arrive in a few weeks and these plants are already growing so I'd best see them to their end. Our climate is also quite favorable for the grow at the moment, even when the plants are indoors. I can post the wiki climate data in the thread, if anyone is interested.
In addition, I know that past performance does not always equal future results and that all plant species are different, but I have successfully grown tomatoes, sweet potatoes, collard greens and red onions in that garden soil with few problems, if any. Next grow will definitely have all that planned out and well in advance.
I'm hoping to learn as much as I can with this little project, and looking forward to all the help that I can get.
After lurking in the forums for the past few months and ogling at some mind-blowing grows, I've decided to give growing my own MJ a shot. Motivation comes from wanting better-quality marijuana than what is available locally as well as from trying newer strains. I visited Amsterdam for the first time late last year and was astounded by the sheer variety of the kind of weed that you could get, especially the different flavors!
Locally, we have a lot of imported Ethiopian Shashamane and less commonly available but better-quality Malawi Gold. A lot of it is very seedy, and is often handled poorly, dried too quickly and cured improperly, if ever, resulting in 'okay', rather than the excellent experiences that I got while on holiday.
A lot of this is mostly just to get my feet wet and to generally experience the process of growing while learning as much as I can along the way. By all means, this should be considered a budget grow, because I wanted to try my hand it, while using as few resources as possible. The next grow should be fully indoors as space will be available, have all the proper lighting, grow tent, and other such necessities. So, without further ado, here are the details:
Strain Information:
Strain: Blue Himalaya (Feminised).
Breeder: Short Stuff Seeds.
Type: Indica / Ruderalis hybrid.
Flowering: Autoflowering.
Height: Dwarf. 10 - 15 inches.
Known Phenotype(s): Short and compact; Indica-dominant.
Grow Details:
Grow Location: Indoor and outdoor patio combination.
Grow Medium: Dirt / Garden soil; A mix of loam and red soil.
Pot Size: 2 Pots. Very small. 0.5 liters / 500 ml.
Light Source 1: Direct sunlight for ~8 hours per day (Latitude 1.2833° S).
Light Source 2: 1 x 23W CFL - 10 hours per day.
Light/Dark Schedule: 18/6.
Temp/RH of Room: Unknown / Unmonitored.
PH of Medium: Unknown / Unmonitored
Pests: None so far.
Watering Schedule: Every other day. Sunlight dries the smaller pots pretty quickly.
Fertilizer: Locally Manufactured NPK + TE Vegetable Fertilizer. 5g / 10 liters of water. (about ⅓ or less of the recommended strength, twice a week).
Why Blue Himalaya?
This was chosen as it doesn't grow very tall, and I wanted a very stealthy grow, because I usually take the pots out in the sun, and a larger plant would have been easier to spot. It is also an auto-flowering strain, which makes things a little easier to handle as I don't have to worry too much about photo-periods and such.
The heavy-indica nature of this strain is something that I'd like for those extremely chill days as there is already a surplus of sativa-dominant strains available locally. The blueberry flavoring is a plus for me as well. In addition, there aren't too many Blue Himalaya grows out there, so this should be one for the books.
Your pots are kinda small.
Yeah, I noticed that when reading through other people's grow journals. Well, my plants theoretically shouldn't get very big / grow very tall but at the same time I do realize that there are notable advantages to using a bigger pot. See, I'm going for super-stealth - this pot size really helps. I'm especially fond of the solo-cup competition threads, so I'll be sure to pick up a few pointers from those grows. Though I shall need quite a bit of help when it comes to dealing with / preventing root-bound issues in the plants.
Aren't you concerned about environment variables such as soil PH and RH?
Not really, because there's not much I can do about it. My equipment is set to arrive in a few weeks and these plants are already growing so I'd best see them to their end. Our climate is also quite favorable for the grow at the moment, even when the plants are indoors. I can post the wiki climate data in the thread, if anyone is interested.
In addition, I know that past performance does not always equal future results and that all plant species are different, but I have successfully grown tomatoes, sweet potatoes, collard greens and red onions in that garden soil with few problems, if any. Next grow will definitely have all that planned out and well in advance.
I'm hoping to learn as much as I can with this little project, and looking forward to all the help that I can get.
grow room my friend! Nice job recovering that 1 lil one man. 
Ya seem to be off to a pretty good start. Keep them ferts light for a lil while. In a few weeks ya can start on the veg ferts. Start light then gradually increase the dose, ya should be just fine. I too am now using "vegetable and flower ferts" they are working quite well. Toward the start of flowering you will most likely want to revert back to the starter ferts as plants in flowering usually require less N and more P,K. 
Happy growin, and keep em green!
