a few questions from a first time central mississippi grower

[FlyingNatural]

HI guys,I thought I would throw my two cents in.I grow on a mountain filled with deer.I have had great success with fishing line around the perimeter at 4 feet high and just pissing when I stop in.It works very well for me.I use neem oil (dilute concentrate) on my plants as well as the surrounding flora.I feed the native ants jelly on my stems,this breaks their symbiotic relations with the aphids,thus sending them on a seek and destroy mission killing all who threaten the jelly source.Usually this summons the daddy long legs Stay cool,Stay Safe

 

[voxito]

great idea on the jelly, but I really don't want ant beds on mt stems I don't think. I'm not sure if ants are the same where you live, but here if you get close you get swarmed. Being slightly allergic I itch and swell, and it sucks big time. I'm doing my hardest to keep the ants out, so far no problems with the aphids.

great suggestions though I don't think I really want to go that route, attracting anything is bad in my opinion, except maybe some predator bugs. Anybody now how to get them on the plants besides relocating them there?

 

[voxito]

couple more pics, but these I got with my cell phone in a hurry on the way to work this morning. I got 4 that are on their 7th leaf set. When can I clone and take them to a little flowering box I made to make them show sex?

That one I topped is a little 6" monster bush. Got leaves everywhere now, I hope its a girl, would be a lot of little nuggets I bet, and 2 of em are now almost a foot tall. Also it looks to me like many are outgrowing their indica traits. I did want some diversity but that's what I get for dumping out 200 collected seeds and picking a dozen I thought would sprout, which all did.

Been thinking about white satin for my indoor grow this fall and winter. Any other seeds yall suggest for a low-smell, fairly fast flowerer that will do well with clones taken to directly to 12/12 for sog? Plannin on continuous harvest until next summer and my outdoors get ready.

Any and all help greatly appreciated

thanks

 

[FlyingNatural]

No,the ants by me are not the biting kind they don't destroy the plants,or make homes in my grow area.I am familiar with the ants you speak of though,I had the misfortune of stepping on a fire ant hill in Fl.
Good Luck

 

[voxito]

I think fire ants know where you don't want them to be and they build their hills there. I had a huge ant problem as soon as I made the clearing but I put out poison and that seems to keep them outside my fence.

Any other good tips like the jelly? Every now and then I get a few beetles in my plot, what about them?

thanks for the help

 

[FlyingNatural]

Beetles are a pain.They sell traps for them in the garden stores,the traps remain away from the plot a few feet and use pheremones the lure them to their death.The basic cure all that I use is neem oil.I buy it in concentrate form and spray it under the leaves and on the stems.Neem works well to control pests as well as some types of mildew/mold.there are also different types of pyrethrin sprays that are stronger then neem,but just as organic.Garlic and hot pepper puree works pretty good for some pest problems.It is much different and more difficult controlling pests in the south east then in the mountains of the northeast I presume.In high altitude you rarely have major infestations of garden pests due to the lack of succulant plant species. STAY COOL

 

[voxito]

yeah tell me about it. Bugs are plant killers no doubt. I had one tied down and it got eaten. It was only an inch off the ground and it was a buffet for 3 huge black beetles, but it was their last meal...

I don't know if it's because they're getting taller, they're sturdier now and the rain doesn't knock em down, or if it's all the poison I've been using but knock on wood my bug problem isn't a problem anymore. I've also been leaving all the spiders in the plot. I don't see a problem with them until there's bud and I don't want webs on it but I think they're helping kill the bugs I don't want.

I'll definitely go get some neem oil. I just read a growing guide that mentioned it and that convinced me and you just backed it up.

I haven't got any answers about the cloning though. I've read a ton of how-tos but I can't find any whens. All I've ever seen is wait for them to be 2 months old but it's over 20 days till that happens and I want to go ahead and get the males out. Main reason for me being so impatient is so when the summer droughts hit I won't have to be mixing and carrying so much water in to support all 10 plants. I went and checked this morning and 5 of the plants are on their 7th leaflets. When can I clone and put them in my flowering box?

Oh and that one with the red stems and yellow leaves is doing fine now after I fertilized it. It's all greened up and had 2 new shoots coming out of the top. I guess karma balanced out me losing one to feeding the beetles with the other...

thanks for the help man and keep any suggestions coming. I've got a lot left to learn about growing well

 

[FlyingNatural]

you'll want to clone when your plants are sexually mature and have alternating nodes.This is also when you'll be able to determine the sex of your plants.You will be cloning from the branches that grow off the main stem,when they have at least four sets of true leaves on them.Be sure not to clone males If you know the sex of your plants already,and have branches on the fems with at least four sets of true leaves,go ahead and start cloning,but if not DONT RUSH IT.Check out my thread "green cloud" I have a rain water drip irrigation system set up to keep from carrying in a million gallons of water a week.I was climbing the mountain side with a staggering amount of water the past few years,this year I should have a more bountiful year due to my collection system which collected about 15 gallons for me in a short couple of nice rains.I have a 36 gallon system will an extra 15 gallons of run-off.as of right now,since I have hooked it up,we have had no substantial rain.but like I said,a couple of short showers got me 15 gallons,which is pretty good IMO. Stay Cool

 

[voxito]

Your rain catching system is quite ingenious my friend. At the moment I have 2 35 gallon garbage cans in my driveway catching water for me. They work very well, but I can see the advantages of having the container at the site. I'm gonna try to rig something similar to that around my plot.

I already know one change I'll have to do to it though. Around here mosquitoes will lay their eggs in any stagnant water and this is perfect for them. Any water that sits will have larvae swimming around everywhere. I'll just have to put a screen over my top bucket, the black one in yours.

Thanks for the idea.

I guess it's kinda pointless for me to clone then huh? Being mostly sativa if I took some clones indoors and put em on 12/12 it would probably take at least 2 months till I could harvest anything right? I guess I can just wait, unless yall tell me something different.

thanks for the help and please please keep it coming.

 

[voxito]

got some new pictures today. It finally rained after almost 2 weeks too so I'm sure they're just loving it. The grass I planted is really taking over too, I'm gonna have to start cutting it.

They smell great, just like a skunk, I really enjoy watering them and high stress training. Plant #4 is really liking the hst, it's stem is now .25" and it's not even a foot tall. All 10 are doing well now.

I've started fertilizing, every ten days and I've only done it twice and I'm still at half-strength. I just hope they make it to harvest and most are girls, I don't even care how big they get.

Bugs aren't a problem anymore, I guess the poison is working.

Please tell me anything I need to do.

 

[FlyingNatural]

cool,glad to hear bugs are keeping their distance.Just make sure you keep an eye out especially after the rain,as it will was away pesticides.I was up on green cloud today and found a hermie in my patch.No biggie ,I have many plants to watch after.I do have a screen on my water tank,it's a draw string black net bag that goes around the whole black bucket.It is definitely great having the water available.We had a nice bit of rain yesterday which gave me approx 10 gallons.More to come tomorrow.Stay Cool

 

[GorillaGrower72]

piss around your plants? deer know human sent and piss would be the ultimate.

 

[voxito]

well I'm really not at all worried about the deer because I already put up a 5' fence. I'm only worried about the things fences can't keep out, like bugs and diseases. Thanks for the tip though man, with all these sativas and me on the 32 parallel I just might have to be taking my fence down this fall if they don't mature faster than all the leaves fall off.

I'm still working on my water container Flyingnatural. I'm thinking about doing a constant drip system like you had, but I'm wondering, how you fertilize with that system? Do you have the nutes in the soil, in the reservoir, or does the water flow through something to absorb the fertilizer that way? Or do you go up the mountain to fertilize by hand? This is my holdup for the reservoir plan, and I'm greatly intrigued on how you pull it off.

As always, any ideas are greatly appreciated.

 

[FlyingNatural]

Hey,I fertilize with a separate reservoir which is solely used for nutes.I add my fox farms liquid nutes and let her drip.I also have some goodies in in the soil: bone meal,bat ****,worm castings,manure as well as a little fox farm 'marine cuisine'.These are all additives to a soiless mix,added at specific measurements as to not over do it.With this I only feed liquids every two weeks until flowering.Then I flush and start with my secret tea and fox farm as well.I was "up top" the other day and found a hermie.Which I think is a good sign IMO,since alot of these seed dealers are trying certain pollinating techniques to increase female production.I have experimented with certain things and have found high fem ratios with one or two herms,which I move and grow to maturity and make make canna-cooking oil with them.Stay cool

 

[voxito]

So you're saying your ferts are on a constant drip too? I'm liking this idea and I need to build mine. It's been gettin really dry for over 2 weeks and then pouring all day long. Do you think two reservoirs are necessary or since I can get to my plot at least once a week could I add my nutes when I go down there to whatever water is already in the reservoir?

Also what rate of flow do you suggest? I realize I'd have to fine tune the flow to my environmental variables but what do yall think would be a good starting point since I won't be going everyday to check up on em?

thanks for the help and please keep it comin. And I wouldn't mind a hermie either. This being my first grow and all I'd be plum giddy if all I got a j's worth of something I grew myself.

 

[FlyingNatural]

two tanks are not necessary.The initial reason for my two tank design was to catch overflow from the first tank.I then came to a conclusion: I needed to fertilize but did not want to contaminate a separate tank with ferts,nor did I wish to do it by hand.I have the drip system set to about 4GPH.Originally I was just going to have a 1/2 inch hose coming from the water tanks with a shut off to fill a watering container,but I got ahead of myself Make sure your tanks are elevated pretty well or else your pressure will be null.If you cannot elevate them then just set up a catchment system and use a hand held pitcher to water them.Having the water there for you,no matter how you apply it, is alot better then dragging it in I'll have pics to post on my thread probably tomorrow. Stay cool

 

[voxito]

Oh i see. The way i've been doing it is I fill up a gallon jug, the one in the pic. I water every 3-5 days, depending on the weather, and I fertilize every ten days, which is usually every other or every other other time I see em. I went today and they were looking real nice. They got a gallon of the nearby creek's water with ferts mixed in. Full strength now, do yall think I'm fertilizing too much? Is the limit when you start to see yellowing or should I stop before then?

They were starting some new growth in between the branches and the main stem. Maybe that's preflowers or new branches, I really have no idea. The one big plant for some reason really wants to be the biggest. It keeps the pace of growing a little faster than the rest, I hope it's not a male... It is the best position in the plot though for the most sun so maybe and hopefully that's why it's doing so much better. I sure do really hope they start showing sex soon. It would be awesome to know how many girls I have.

Are there any brands of drip systems I want to stay away from? This is something I don't want to mess up on me. It needs to work flawlessly.

thanks for any and all help, it's greatly appreciated. Soon I'll know enough to not have to ask questions, but I thank you in particular flyingnatural for your help, and everyone else who has given me tips along the way. But like I said, please bear with me, I still need help for another 4 or 5 months...

 

[voxito]

Got some more pics. They are starting to show themselves to be different strains and I have at least 3 now. 4 of them smell really skunky, 4 are more of sweet smell, and 2 don't really have a noticable smell. The one I topped, pics #3 and 9 has some pink stems as well, who knows. The sun is really too bright to see it in the pics though, maybe next time I take the camera it won't be so bright so we can all see it.

They're all doing well except the one that died...hahahahaha. It was that sick one, the red and yellow one, it greened up but died sometime in the last 3 days. It's okay though, it was never going to amount to much anyway, being as sick and scrawny as it was. I actually think it was just too small to compete with the grass growing around it and it got blocked out and shriveled up. Oh well...

The two big ones are as high as my knee now. All the plants will be 8 weeks old this saturday, so hopefully they'll show soon. The hst is surely paying off too. 4 of the plants' stems are over a quarter of an inch now.

Today they got plain water, and they're really begging me to set up my drip system. It's literally hot as hell down here, getting in the 90s today, perfect for my plants to turn male or hermi huh? The soil is drying out super fast now, and they need more water than normal, and it's only gonna get worse.

I thought I was gonna be able to post without any questions but here's one. If anyone has done it, how hard would it be for my to syphon water through a hose from a creek 20 yards away with only my mouth? I have done this to swimming pools but never from this far away. I have really no idea when it's gonna rain again but if I could do this to fill my reservoir I wouldn't have to worry about it.

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[voxito]

gettin some yellowing. Finally got some pics. Is it over/under ferts(N i'm guessing), too much water, or too much heat? Its been over 95 for the last two weeks, hasnt rained in 5 weeks and the heat index was 108 the other day. You can see what the heat did to my rye grass

The ph is between 6.5 and 6.8 for all of them

Please help me

 

[voxito]

Went to check today after over a week. They are recovering from the nute burn and/or magnesium deficiency. I mixed up some epsom salt water at a tablespoon per gallon to give em once the soil dries out from all this rain. Its been raining a good bit this last week and the soil is still very moist.

Bad news first. One of them that was over 2.5' is a definite male. Had balls over the top two inches of growth. And a few of the side branches had some little clusters.

Now for the good news... Three of them are definite female!!! The tallest one, which is now 3.5 feet had a few pistils on her and then 2 plants that are a touch over 2 feet had a lot of pistils on the top 3 or so inches. Not at every node but close. The best thing thats happened in this grow so far... They are really starting to branch out too, even the ones I didnt top. One that I topped twice already has branches growin out of the 4 new tops.

I'm just so happy I actually had some females turn out after all the abuse they've endured. The nute burns, cramped roots, months of over 100 temps... I'm amazed I have any girls at all But hey, I still got 5 plants that havent showed sex yet... maybe even more females


I just had to come brag about my good luck :ignore: