Stunger's Organic Balcony: Growing Daughters Of Mulanje: Watering Via Root Aeration Chambers

Welcome to my 2022 outdoor balcony grow using seeds made from last year's Mulanje pollen

I will be growing 2 regular seeds from each of the 3 strains that I made using pollen from an African male Mulanje.

Mulanje x Purple Honduras/Panama* 100% Sativa
Mulanje x (Malawi/Ethiopian x Mulanje) 100% Sativa
Mulanje x Mango Sherbert Hybrid

* Note of correction; when I began my previous journal, I incorrectly transcribed the name as "Honduras/Panama x Purple Honduras". It should have been "Purple Honduras/Panama" as I am showing here.


Seeds began soaking on 27th September

Seeds soaked in a 6:1 solution of 6% Hydrogen Peroxide for about 12 hours (last year I used 3% solution but still with a dilution of 6:1, all still seemed fine, just saying)


Seeds were then planted in their beginning pots on 1stOctober

Aim of growing

The main purpose is to produce enough good quality bud for my own personal use and to be able to share with others. I have been using an Ardent decarb unit to decarb bud that I 'chomp into' an hour or two before sleep, which I find helps give me a great night's sleep especially when taking dose of Magnesium with it.

During the day I either use a Vapcap unit with an induction heater, or chew a little of the cobs I made 2 years ago.

If all goes well this grow, I will most likely make some more cobs as I am keen to try them using pure Sativa buds. I made some cobs from hybrid buds a couple of grows ago, for anyone interested --> here is a Cob overview. And also --> here is pictorial of some cob making I did.

Stealth Growing

Growing on the balcony necessitates restraining the height of the plants. In the last couple of months my neighbours have severely cut the height of the trees growing on their side which has now further opened up 'sight lines' to my balcony, so now I have to be more strict on their training to ensure that no cannabis plants are visually identifiable above the balcony rail planters.

Altho I am growing 6 plants, all males will be chopped when identified, so I am assuming I'll only end up growing out 3, give or take.

A flashback to last year's balcony grow showing that it was crowded with just 4 plants.


Here is a link to my previous grow journal --> Stunger's Organic Soil Stealth Balcony: Landrace Mulanje & Other Sativas

Grow Location

Southern Hemisphere, land of the long white cloud, temperate, humid summers. Growing outdoors on a balcony that only gets direct sun in the afternoon and is open to bouts of rain, winds sometimes in excess of 100kph, and generally known as 4 seasons in one day.

Growing in organic living soil

I have been using this same (evolving) soil for about 5 years. It started off as a locally adapted organic version of Subcool's supersoil (my adaptation turned out to be far too conservatively mixed). But over the subsequent years, additional amendments were added and used, like sources of Chitin and Malted Barley from Clackamas Coot/Jim Bennett's soil recipe, and some of the many fantastic ideas shared on this great site. I use homemade compost, and wormcastings from my home worm farm, and the resulting worm leachate (worm wee) I use in the watering of the plants.

Each year during the outdoor growing 'off season' I amend the soil of the containers and then let them settle/cook for a bit until planting.

In the off season just gone my amendments included;
  • a few handfuls of wormcastings
  • 2 handfuls compost
  • a few handfuls pumice
  • ½cup Neem meal
  • ½cup Kelp pellets
  • ½cup Biochar
  • ¼cup Gypsum
  • ½Ocean Fertiliser
  • ¼cup EF Fertiliser
  • ½cup Alfalfa meal
  • 2 cups Herbi's 4-4-4 for 30L containers or 3 cups for 50L containers
  • 2/3 cup diastatic Malted Barley
  • Watered in with Fish Hydrolysate, Humic/Fulvic acids and Seasol Kelp concentrate
During winter, after I amended the containers, the local garden birds wreaked havoc on the pots trying to get the Malted Barley which was one of the amendments. Last year I used old newspaper and weights to keep them out, fairly rudimentary, but this time I used galvanished welded steel mesh, that worked beautifully in keeping them out, and I can easily store and reuse them for next time.


I converted my containers into home made 'air pots'

I read about 'air pots' a few years ago, and the favourable effect of 'air pruning' on the roots, it seemed very exciting and compelling, but at the time there were no air pots available locally here, so instead I created home made versions by heavily drilling out my plastic pots and used landscape fabric lining to stop the soil falling out the holes (some are almost an inch across in the larger pots).

Heat on the balcony

My containers can be under a lot of heat during the peak of summer, so I need to be mindful of what can happen to heavily drilled out pots if left in the hot sun for a week, even if they were soaked prior...

One such time they were left for a week and there was no rain ...


However it did actually recover, and eventually produced over half a pound of nice buds


So, I am concerned with the containers overly drying.

Last year I put a thermometer on the stone tiles for a few minutes and it measured 50.5C or 122.9F, which was being radiated back at the containers and plants.


No wonder I could never walk on the stone tiles in bare feet in the sun, they can be burning hot. In those temperatures the containers do dry out quickly so I usually put a mulch layer of pea straw/lucerne or similar on top of the soil, it helps keep the moisture in and allows the roots to come right up to the soil at the top, and the earthworms like to hang out underneath the mulch too.

Container sizes

Mulanje x Purple Honduras/Panama - one 30 Liter/8 Gallon container
- one 50 Liter/13 Gallon container

Mulanje x (Malawi/Ethiopian x Mulanje) - one 30 Liter/8 Gallon container
- one 50 Liter/13 Gallon container

Mulanje x Mango Sherbert - two x 30 Liter/8 Gallon containers

In my next post I will describe the approach that I am changing to for watering... :ganjamon:
 
Update: Watering via - SIPS... SWICK... Root Aeration Chambers..?


In all my grows thus far, my watering has always been via natural rain or a watering can, i.e. surface watering.

For this grow, initially I thought I would try using a surfactant, and in expectation I bought some yukka extract which is said to work well for that. I feel once the outdoor pots dry out too much, then when they are watered, that water tends to flow restricted down the pot media in small 'rivers' rather than evenly soak all of the underneath soil. So, I thought, using a surfactant could be good if too much soapiness doesn't harm things?

But then...I got shoulder tapped by @Azimuth, and thank god he noticed me nodding off. I had actually read posts by @Buds Buddy, @Krissi Carbone, @ReservoirDog, @Emilya Green and others who were praising the advance of watering via SIPS and doing their best to alert those dozing off like me, but somehow I was too busy in my mind to take it in and apply the concept to my own growing efforts. I later realised that I even have an actual SIPS pot that I once grew a grafted tomato in a few years ago, only back then I didn't know the name SIPS, it is a smallish pot only 15L for soil with a 10L water reservoir with 2 small overflow windows, but the Tomato plant grown in it, produced over 1760 cherry tomatoes that summer, I remember being so surprised that in spite of hot temperatures it's roots would drop down bare thru the air several inches to reach the lowered water level when the reservoir needed refilling, and it flourished.

Once I gave the SIPS concept my full attention, I found it very exciting, but yet I thought my existing pots wouldn't work because they were too heavily drilled out for a reservoir, and too, I would have to lug them all downstairs and outside to mess about to make new SIPS containers, and empty and refill the soil, and then lugging them all back upstairs. I am still nursing a blown hernia and I didn't really want to risk worsening it with a lot of awkward heavy lifting. So full SIPS seemed out of the question for this grow.

Azi mentioned how he suspected the air gap was really helping the plant in addition to the subterranean irrigation. My gut feeling was the same, and I realised I could still do something similar and still be able to use my existing pots. Delivering the water to the bottom half/third of the pots could/should/may work great, in the least it seems well worth a try. But what I am doing, doesn't have a reservoir, so hence it probably shouldn't be called SIPS, but nonetheless, that concept is the inspiration for trying this out.

RAC - Root Aeration Chamber

For my hot-balcony-drilled-out-pots situation I have a good feeling about this, Oxygen to the roots and watering directly deep into the soil instead of the surface, it may be an improved way of getting all important moisture into the soil in a good uniform manner rather than wet 'river runs' thru dry hydrophobic soil when given to the soil's dry surface. I see this as mostly watering thru the downpipe and every now then giving the top a sprinkle. I googled the RAC name above and I can see that plenty of others have used this expression for similar root aeration devices (and better looking than mine) so no claim to originality here, haha.


Here, you can see I have drilled holes into the walls and bottoms of some old household containers that I requisitioned for this. I imagine some ingress of soil (but not much) would come in, and some roots may block some holes but I think mostly that any water poured in would soon enough seep out thru the holes or the taping which was not made particularly watertight. I used some old irrigation hose and duct tape in their making, and I figure that they'll be fine for at least one grow season to test out the concept.




And that's it, I hope they do something. It seems worth trying. I'll probably fashion some plugs soon for the downpipes to help keep the moisture in.

In my next post I will focus on the plants of this grow. :ganjamon:
 
Update: The plants

Seedlings


I succeeded in germinating 11 of the 12 seeds. And then soon after their 'soil birth', one developed a broken neck and could no longer continue, and then another developed 'damping off'. But it didn't matter because I only wanted 6 to up-pot, and I am assuming that ultimately only 3 of those will be female, give or take.


They are very leggy because this time I planted them in small strawberry pots on 1st October and did so indoors without much good light. Last year I planted directly into their outdoor final pots but I lost more than 1 seedling to slugs, so hence this time I went back to initially 'rearing' them indoors. Perhaps I'll get a propagation light next time? But anyway, I didn't have a light on hand so just started 'hardening up' the seedlings by leaving outside in the sunshine and air movement, initially just a few hours then the whole day. Because of their legginess, I used 1-2 wire supports for each of their weak stems.


I then started 'hardening' them up outside each day


They're now ready for up planting to their final pots, a bit leggy, but of the leggy ones I will bury their stems deeper into the soil like tomato plants.


I used a local Mycorrhizae product when transplanting the seedlings, altho I have never used mycos before so I can't say much about them other than I hope they are a positive help.




Initially I left them with stem supports and pieces of cut up trellis netting as some protection against birds

After 8 days I removed all but 1 stem support, and added mulch on top.


Here they are 8 days after transplant into their final pots.

Their strain names are a bit cumbersome so I will probably refer to them in posts as follows;

2 "Mulanje HP" aka Mulanje x Purple Honduras/Panama



2 "Mulanje ME" aka Mulanje x (Malawi/Ethiopian x Mulanje)



2 "Mulanje Sherbert" aka Mulanje x Mango Sherbert



So, now we're all up to date! I am not going bother too much about the particular plants for each strain until we have gender identified them and got rid of the males.

Thanks for dropping in to check out the start of my new grow. I am going to have to train them quite hard to keep them reasonably stealthy, so I hope in doing so I don't cause them to turn hermie and mess up the grow.

Best wishes to you all and may your own gardens be blooming! :ganjamon:
 
Welcome to my 2022 outdoor balcony grow using seeds made from last year's Mulanje pollen

I will be growing 2 regular seeds from each of the 3 strains that I made using pollen from an African male Mulanje.

Mulanje x Purple Honduras/Panama* 100% Sativa
Mulanje x (Malawi/Ethiopian x Mulanje) 100% Sativa
Mulanje x Mango Sherbert Hybrid

* Note of correction; when I began my previous journal, I incorrectly transcribed the name as "Honduras/Panama x Purple Honduras". It should have been "Purple Honduras/Panama" as I am showing here.


Seeds began soaking on 27th September

Seeds soaked in a 6:1 solution of 6% Hydrogen Peroxide for about 12 hours (last year I used 3% solution but still with a dilution of 6:1, all still seemed fine, just saying)


Seeds were then planted in their beginning pots on 1stOctober

Aim of growing

The main purpose is to produce enough good quality bud for my own personal use and to be able to share with others. I have been using an Ardent decarb unit to decarb bud that I 'chomp into' an hour or two before sleep, which I find helps give me a great night's sleep especially when taking dose of Magnesium with it.

During the day I either use a Vapcap unit with an induction heater, or chew a little of the cobs I made 2 years ago.

If all goes well this grow, I will most likely make some more cobs as I am keen to try them using pure Sativa buds. I made some cobs from hybrid buds a couple of grows ago, for anyone interested --> here is a Cob overview. And also --> here is pictorial of some cob making I did.

Stealth Growing

Growing on the balcony necessitates restraining the height of the plants. In the last couple of months my neighbours have severely cut the height of the trees growing on their side which has now further opened up 'sight lines' to my balcony, so now I have to be more strict on their training to ensure that no cannabis plants are visually identifiable above the balcony rail planters.

Altho I am growing 6 plants, all males will be chopped when identified, so I am assuming I'll only end up growing out 3, give or take.

A flashback to last year's balcony grow showing that it was crowded with just 4 plants.


Here is a link to my previous grow journal --> Stunger's Organic Soil Stealth Balcony: Landrace Mulanje & Other Sativas

Grow Location

Southern Hemisphere, land of the long white cloud, temperate, humid summers. Growing outdoors on a balcony that only gets direct sun in the afternoon and is open to bouts of rain, winds sometimes in excess of 100kph, and generally known as 4 seasons in one day.

Growing in organic living soil

I have been using this same (evolving) soil for about 5 years. It started off as a locally adapted organic version of Subcool's supersoil (my adaptation turned out to be far too conservatively mixed). But over the subsequent years, additional amendments were added and used, like sources of Chitin and Malted Barley from Clackamas Coot/Jim Bennett's soil recipe, and some of the many fantastic ideas shared on this great site. I use homemade compost, and wormcastings from my home worm farm, and the resulting worm leachate (worm wee) I use in the watering of the plants.

Each year during the outdoor growing 'off season' I amend the soil of the containers and then let them settle/cook for a bit until planting.

In the off season just gone my amendments included;
  • a few handfuls of wormcastings
  • 2 handfuls compost
  • a few handfuls pumice
  • ½cup Neem meal
  • ½cup Kelp pellets
  • ½cup Biochar
  • ¼cup Gypsum
  • ½Ocean Fertiliser
  • ¼cup EF Fertiliser
  • ½cup Alfalfa meal
  • 2 cups Herbi's 4-4-4 for 30L containers or 3 cups for 50L containers
  • 2/3 cup diastatic Malted Barley
  • Watered in with Fish Hydrolysate, Humic/Fulvic acids and Seasol Kelp concentrate
During winter, after I amended the containers, the local garden birds wreaked havoc on the pots trying to get the Malted Barley which was one of the amendments. Last year I used old newspaper and weights to keep them out, fairly rudimentary, but this time I used galvanished welded steel mesh, that worked beautifully in keeping them out, and I can easily store and reuse them for next time.


I converted my containers into home made 'air pots'

I read about 'air pots' a few years ago, and the favourable effect of 'air pruning' on the roots, it seemed very exciting and compelling, but at the time there were no air pots available locally here, so instead I created home made versions by heavily drilling out my plastic pots and used landscape fabric lining to stop the soil falling out the holes (some are almost an inch across in the larger pots).

Heat on the balcony

My containers can be under a lot of heat during the peak of summer, so I need to be mindful of what can happen to heavily drilled out pots if left in the hot sun for a week, even if they were soaked prior...

One such time they were left for a week and there was no rain ...


However it did actually recover, and eventually produced over half a pound of nice buds


So, I am concerned with the containers overly drying.

Last year I put a thermometer on the stone tiles for a few minutes and it measured 50.5C or 122.9F, which was being radiated back at the containers and plants.


No wonder I could never walk on the stone tiles in bare feet in the sun, they can be burning hot. In those temperatures the containers do dry out quickly so I usually put a mulch layer of pea straw/lucerne or similar on top of the soil, it helps keep the moisture in and allows the roots to come right up to the soil at the top, and the earthworms like to hang out underneath the mulch too.

Container sizes

Mulanje x Purple Honduras/Panama - one 30 Liter/8 Gallon container
- one 50 Liter/13 Gallon container

Mulanje x (Malawi/Ethiopian x Mulanje) - one 30 Liter/8 Gallon container
- one 50 Liter/13 Gallon container

Mulanje x Mango Sherbert - two x 30 Liter/8 Gallon containers

In my next post I will describe the approach that I am changing to for watering... :ganjamon:
:ciao:
I'm in.:yahoo:
Have a great day my friend.




Stay safe
Bill284 :cool:
 
Nice work on those sub-irrigation containers. I did something similar with some houseplants, but I didn't make any holes in the containers.

What I did was to find food storage containers with lids that were just a bit smaller than the bottom of the containers, made a hole in the lids for the fill tube, and then made 3-4 'X's in the lid. Then I stuffed some short sections of large polypropelene rope (I used 5/16" -or- .80 cm) down to the bottom of the container, and up through the 'X's into the soil spreading them out as evenly as possible.

Water wicks up the rope and gets deposited into the soil keeping it uniformly wet and there is no run-off out the bottom of the pots unless I overfill the reservoir. The size of the rope will determine how much water gets moved, but eventually the roots just grow right down the rope to help themselves to the water directly.

But same general concept as yours except for the way the water moves. Something to consider if you find too much water running out the bottom of the container as the general idea is you want the plants to have accesss to all of the water you provide and they won't absorb it all immediately.

I'm looking forward to your grow! One thing we've noticed with these sub irrigated containers is that the stems seem unusually robust so that may change the way you do your training. I use @Hafta 's weight training for my other plants but the standard weights were simply insufficient. I'd have to go with much larger weights, but instead I reverted back to some light bondage as I built out my quad.

Cheers! Grow on...
 
Could I still be on page 1? Too much to hope for methinks. Stunger I've poured through your journals with great interest as I find the opposition factors you live with to be very similar to those of my friends who complain about them nonstop. And yet these friends do not have to face the most difficult factor of all, 420 prohibition! I have referred dozens (literally) to your work and I'll be following this with great interest. Thanks for being here, your patience, your excellent teaching ability and for being such a solid 420 citizen. I look forward to discussing your new tech with you. Please accept my wishes for the very best for you, your family and friends, and of course, your garden. You go Stunger!
 
I'm in!.... to see what that magic balcony produces this year :thumb:
 
Great start, Stunger!
Outsmarting the birds. :popcorn:
Thanks Stinker!
This is going to be good! :tommy:
Cheers Skott!
:ciao:
I'm in.:yahoo:
Have a great day my friend.




Stay safe
Bill284 :cool:
Thanks Bill!
Subbing in.
Cheers Deeve!
Page one. Whoop
Thanks Lerugged!
Alrightly then, game on! :popcorn:
And especially thanks to you Azi for going out of your way to alert me to SIPS!
Glad to see you're back at it!
Cheers Mel!
Nice work on those sub-irrigation containers. I did something similar with some houseplants, but I didn't make any holes in the containers.

What I did was to find food storage containers with lids that were just a bit smaller than the bottom of the containers, made a hole in the lids for the fill tube, and then made 3-4 'X's in the lid. Then I stuffed some short sections of large polypropelene rope (I used 5/16" -or- .80 cm) down to the bottom of the container, and up through the 'X's into the soil spreading them out as evenly as possible.

Water wicks up the rope and gets deposited into the soil keeping it uniformly wet and there is no run-off out the bottom of the pots unless I overfill the reservoir. The size of the rope will determine how much water gets moved, but eventually the roots just grow right down the rope to help themselves to the water directly.
I have several big outdoor ceramic pots holding some New Guinea Impatiens. They were never my favourite flowers because they are fragile and they don't have a scent but they're amazing for their colour and flowering all year round. I realise that their big pots would go great with a set up like you describe.
But same general concept as yours except for the way the water moves. Something to consider if you find too much water running out the bottom of the container as the general idea is you want the plants to have accesss to all of the water you provide and they won't absorb it all immediately.
I was mindful to keep my drilled out containers above the bottom of the pots to hopefully allow the soil underneath to 'catch' the water and help wick it back up the pots a bit.
I'm looking forward to your grow! One thing we've noticed with these sub irrigated containers is that the stems seem unusually robust so that may change the way you do your training. I use @Hafta 's weight training for my other plants but the standard weights were simply insufficient. I'd have to go with much larger weights, but instead I reverted back to some light bondage as I built out my quad.

Cheers! Grow on...
Thanks Azi!
Great start, I'm in!
Cheers LK!
Could I still be on page 1? Too much to hope for methinks. Stunger I've poured through your journals with great interest as I find the opposition factors you live with to be very similar to those of my friends who complain about them nonstop. And yet these friends do not have to face the most difficult factor of all, 420 prohibition! I have referred dozens (literally) to your work and I'll be following this with great interest. Thanks for being here, your patience, your excellent teaching ability and for being such a solid 420 citizen. I look forward to discussing your new tech with you. Please accept my wishes for the very best for you, your family and friends, and of course, your garden. You go Stunger!
Thanks very much for your kind words RD, and for describing your efforts with takin a SIPS approach. I do apologise for being too dense in the beginning to appreciate it as being something that I could adapt. All the very best to you and your's too!
Not that anyone was counting!
Haha, thanks Shed!
It's that time of year again...

:woohoo:

Count me in.:popcorn:
Cheers Joe, the door's open!
I'm in!.... to see what that magic balcony produces this year :thumb:
Many thanks Carcass!
 
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