Low Input Southern African Window Weed Start Up: Coco Grow

[Carmen Ray]

So so many places To plant in cape town. If are short for space drop some pips in one of the mountains or forest areas (with sun) end part of Newlands forest has been a good spot For when I've been restricted growing. Now I have a sun deck yippee. Does your balcony look over a road beginning with a b? Might have seen them on the balcony . or someone doing the same. Have a read week

Yes to the B Road lololol! There are some lekker grows in the hood

 

[Carmen Ray]

This morning I re-tested my Ph. The ExCheese is right now but the Swaz is a bit over still. They are too wet for anything more now. I trimmed some more fan leaves to give them a bit more light and breeze. The bugs are significantly reduced. I think my next watering will be a feed rather than another treatment. They appear ready to go into the general ward now. The nursery looks good. It's a cold day and rainy, so this is an indicator of what to expect going forward. I may need to look at a seriously cheap light and heat set up. I wouldn't go for fancy stuff and I would need to know how many units that will chow per month before I went that route. Do any of the Saffas have any ideas for me? Also, I came across an inspiring blog on Quartzy, called It's Easier Than Ever To Be A Lowkey Gardener Of Homegrown Weed, by Jenni Avins.
Happy oats and soup day!

 

[bluenoserjoe]

Hi Carmon Ray, I have been following along as I love seeing how other people grow. I am growing inside in hydro and do two crops a winter. The colder temps. keep all pests at bay.(non existent) Love seeing what can be grown on a balcony but the pests are really a pain. I know plenty of growers that have thirty year old strains that do wonders outside in our area, and produce some monster trees. We are just swing around into summer so maybe i will give a couple a try in the garden this year as we are now legal to grow four personal plants. Good luck with your balcony grow.

 

[Lerugged]

All is not lost. We get some sun in winter so they should do ok. I'll be attempting a couple winter flowers if I still get time. And yes some lekker grows in the area for sure. A rouge male as well. Haha

 

[Smeegol]

Hey ms.Carmen just guesstimate here but I reckon your pots are about 10lt pots, I have 7 girls in 10lt coco bags and I feed 1lt every day apart from the odd day I forget and if they rely thirsty I do 1.5lt.
But your watering schedule sounds fine to me..... try some grannys balls ( locally bred in pietermaritzburg )....

 

[MrSauga]

Hi Mr S. I have not used bicarbonate or epson salts yet. I have them in stock should I need to. I was told that epson salts will improve bud quality and that bicarb will raise Ph but as I say, I have not yet used them. My Ph is too high and I have done some research and I see that if I add 15 drops of lemon juice to a gallon or water / 4 litres, that will reduce the Ph to about where I need it to be. I have not tried that yet, so if there are better suggestions I will happily take advice.

I have not heard that regarding Ep Salts improving bud quality, but will investigate it further for my own knowledge. Bicarb does raise the pH, but also adds salt, so you just have to be aware that too much will lead to other issues. @Emilya has some good ways to increase and decrease pH and I'm sure she can help on that. I recall she mixes battery acid to a certain dilution and stores it.

I do not have any testing or measuring equipment as I am not in a position to invest a lot of money on my grows at this point. I bought a cheap tester yesterday fro R30, that has a dropper to suck up a certain amount of drainage water, add 3 drops of testing liquid and shake, then compare with a colour chart.

We work with what we have, and I totally respect that

Regarding the feed, I have been using a fish based food called Seagrow. The new bottles have instructions on how to mix and balance the three bottles at the different growth stages. It is a huge learning curve for me, never having done that before.

Whenever you start working with a new food you want to start at a lower dose, such as 1/4 or half dose until you get a feel of what it does to the plant. Make notes and go from there.

 

[Carmen Ray]

Hey ms.Carmen just guesstimate here but I reckon your pots are about 10lt pots, I have 7 girls in 10lt coco bags and I feed 1lt every day apart from the odd day I forget and if they rely thirsty I do 1.5lt.
But your watering schedule sounds fine to me..... try some grannys balls ( locally bred in pietermaritzburg )....

bahaha, I bet you can imagine what happened when I Googled grannys balls

 

[Emilya Green]

@Emilya has some good ways to increase and decrease pH organically and I'm sure she can help on that. I recall she mixes battery acid to a certain dilution and stores it.

I wouldn't exactly call it organic, but when I ran FF grows I would indeed use auto parts store battery acid for my ph down. A single carton of acid will cost you about $6 and it will last a long long time. To use it, get a gallon of distilled water and remove 1 cup. Carefully replace that with one cup of battery acid. This 15:1 dilution works at just about an identical rate as the expensive store bought pH down product and it is much much cheaper.

 

[MrSauga]

I wouldn't exactly call it organic,

Ya I should have separated that away from 'organic'. I didn't mean to imply it was organic. The battery acid always stuck in my head because I thought it was unique.

 

[Carmen Ray]

*check pics* - New white pistils in general ward
Reapplied diatomaceous earth to flowering plants and baby Transkei (first application)... Bugs reduced but still too many. A teeny bit of powdery mildew on disposable bottom leaves on cheese plant. Opened windows for slight draft (calm, sunny day today) and disposed of lower bits and crowding from fan leaves. Prepared 3 different feeds for next feed according the on label instructions. Now we sits and have a beer in the sun for Workers Day. Greetings on this international chill day to all

 

[Carmen Ray]

Happy days! My recovering plants are pushing out new pistils now, confirming all hope. All plants are now on the appropriate nute solution for their growth stages.
Question: Can any saffa suggest the cheapest way to hook up some additional light and warmth for the plants? I don't want to buy a branded set up. Just the very basics that I can do myself please

 

[Lerugged]

Happy days! My recovering plants are pushing out new pistils now, confirming all hope. All plants are now on the appropriate nute solution for their growth stages.
Question: Can any saffa suggest the cheapest way to hook up some additional light and warmth for the plants? I don't want to buy a branded set up. Just the very basics that I can do myself please

I use cfls but really lighting isn't my game. How are you doing with loadshedding? Cfl is cheaper on power as far as I u understand but could be wrong about that too. The camping cupboard in my journal was put together for less than 1 k but yours could go.cheaper than that If you want too. Sure.The guys will be around to give you some sound advice

 

[Carmen Ray]

I use cfls but really lighting isn't my game. How are you doing with loadshedding? Cfl is cheaper on power as far as I u understand but could be wrong about that too. The camping cupboard in my journal was put together for less than 1 k but yours could go.cheaper than that If you want too. Sure.The guys will be around to give you some sound advice

Thanks Lerugged, I have been reading more about lighting and ambient temperature control and honestly your mention of Eishkom sobered me up. If we don't go dark this winter, I will eat my best beenie. Best to v.voord au naturale for now and harvest teeny tiny cold plants lol.. better than nuffing

 

[Carmen Ray]

I am excited to say with certainty, that my Swaz is looking bulgy and my Exodus Cheese is filling out again with pretty little white pistils. Three of my four seedlings, another Swaz and two "Skunk" are ready to go into the big 25 liter pots as they are now pushing roots out of the bottom of their present pots. Heading to the shop early next week. I am going to run out of space soon. It's possible of course, that one or more of the seedlings turn out to be boys and then that won't be an issue. Those yellow sticky cards are the business. The one I have is filling fast hehehe... I have no empathy for those nasty critters... I bet Sir Laurens Van der Post would disagree... he's the dude who suggested we build monuments to the anopheles mosquito and the tsetse fly

 

[Carmen Ray]

Miraculous Mother Nature delivers. Prettier than lace and silk. Exodus Cheese decides to live. Landrace girls look pretty strong now

 

[Lerugged]

Hey Carmen looking good. Are they real land race seeds or swazi /swaz/ the regular in south Africa? Hope you are having a goodie weekend.

 

[Carmen Ray]

Hey Carmen looking good. Are they real land race seeds or swazi /swaz/ the regular in south Africa? Hope you are having a goodie weekend.

I am not growing certified seed so I can't vouch for the genealogy of the plants Lerugged, but I am not growing scientifically or for commercial purposes, so I'm not sure how important that is for me. I have seed gifted and collected over time and this is a hobby for me. I can't make any grand claims Trying to keep warm... hope your weekend is good

 

[Lerugged]

I am not growing certified seed so I can't vouch for the genealogy of the plants Lerugged, but I am not growing scientifically or for commercial purposes, so I'm not sure how important that is for me. I have seed gifted and collected over time and this is a hobby for me. I can't make any grand claims Trying to keep warm... hope your weekend is good

Thanks. Was just curious. Turned into a pearler day here. Off to the prom for the.little one to ride. Man I love Cape Town so hard

 

[Carmen Ray]

Thanks. Was just curious. Turned into a pearler day here. Off to the prom for the.little one to ride. Man I love Cape Town so hard

It's a brilliant city. I am formerly from Durban and I haven't had a winter here in 19 years... forgot what "cold" was because as you know, Durban is temperate in winter and a sauna in summer. I love that the infrastructure here works well on the whole and facilities are generally well maintained. Plus, it is is simply beautiful... have fun with the littlie at the prom

 

[Carmen Ray]

Here are pics of the swaz thickening out a bit, and the cheese fighting back... question to the experienced growers? Where do you think these plants are in their flowering stages? They have taken 2 weeks to recover to this point since I nearly murdered them. How much longer will they grow for do you think? Also, do you think that the cheese will thicken out, or am I looking at isolated mini-buds for harvest when the time comes?
As predicted by the seasoned growers, my seedlings at 3 months old are starting to show pistil activity due to the shorter daylight hours. Their roots are coming out of the bottom of their pots. Do you think I should transplant into bigger pots, and if so what size would be optimal given climate and flowering stage? @Lerugged @Strainyourbrain @irie lion @Smeegol and anyone else who is interested in advising and encouraging please