Some advice for a newbie grower (Pic inside!)

[Boonie]

Hey there,

I have been reading through the forums and this site for a while now. It seems to be good with lots of valuable information contributed from experienced growers, hopefully some of them see this thread.

I have decided (read: convinced girlfriend) to grow one plant for personal supply. I'll keep this plant low, tying it down and making it kinda bushy. I live in the southern part of Australia and we are in mid-summer, so the sun is hot and the days long making it perfect growing weather.

I've read heaps of guides and have gotten to the point of a well established seedling.

I just picked some seeds out of some *great* weed I had, I am just going to grow my plant outdoors in a pot. I bought some Grodan cubes, raised my seed and now have it outside in a glass vase that sorta acts like a mini greenhouse. It's great because it protects the plant, keeps it a little humid in there but is still open at the top for ventilation.

The little guy seems to have been loving his new home.

This is where I turn to you guys and ask you some questions I have been getting varied responses to from other growers and online resources.

First up, the promised pic. Here is Mr. Youngun:

So ill just list questions, I know some may have already been answered elsewhere, I would love it if anyone could contribute personalised advice though.

Thanks!

1) At what point do I need to worry about sex? Fairly soon (judging from the pic)? I only have one plant, so I really want it to be female. Some online guides recommended spraying the plant with a product that will ensure it turning female, although I can't recall it's name now and the site is down. Is there a magic, spray it on stuff that turns a plant female?

What do you guys recommned for getting making sure this guy ends up a girl?

2) We are going away for a few days, I am worried if I leave him for 3/4 days he is going to dry out and die. I am thinking of putting him in his pot (with potting soil) in the next day or so and using those water saving crystals to make sure he's happy. It's been hot here in Australia, no reason to expect the temp won't be around 30 degrees for most of the 3/4 days. Any tricks to keeping the Grodan wet for that long without an actual hydro setup?

3) Nutrients. I have been using one recommended to me by the guy that sold me the Grodan cubes, I think it's aimed at the vegitative state. I have been using this stuff about half or even less strength, and it's been getting great results. After some of this the seedling seems to grow more the next day.

Do I need another type? Keep going with this stuff for how long? Would changing to another nutrient improve chances of a female plant?

Keep in mind this is outdoors in a pot, getting nearly 8 hours sunlight a day. Full sun.

Here are some pics of the nutrient so you know what I am on about (while i've got the camera out )

As you can see on the front label, bottom right it lists NPK as 26:11:36
I assume this means Nitrogen, Potassium and something else (I wasn't a science major ).

Here is a link to it being sold
HY-GEN GROW A-B 2 LTR

So any advice anyone could give about anything to do with my plant would be great!

 

[KADE]

You won't know the sex for a while... the plant needs 2-6 weeks to show alternating nodes.... then depending how much space you have or how big you wanna grow it... either take a cutting and sex it... or just put the plant to a flowering cycle..
If you are growing exclusively outside then you really won't know till the shorter days start coming.

There are reports of ppl saying there are products FOR producing females. But no reports saying it works... the way i look at it is this..... if it worked.... everyone would use it... it wouldn't be a secret.
If you want a female... keep the stresses down to a minimum... it'll help some.

I've seen grodan (same brand i use actually) keep wet for 6 days b4.... but in 30degree weather (plus whatever rh) it could be rough.... if i were u i'd put 1/2-1 inch of water in the bottom... let the wool soak it up... you wouldn't want to make this a habit... it can damage roots but for a couple days you should be okay.. especially with it evaporating and being soaked up so quickly.

If I were you i'd slack on using the nutrients too much until she gets a lil bigger. Say, 4 groups of leaves.

N-P-K = Nitrogen phosphorus potassium.. the numbers are the percentage of each nutrient in the whole bottle.

 

[Boonie]

Thanks for your reply

That was really helpful.

Do you think it would be too early to stick it in a pot with potting soil? That wouldn't dry out over the next few days, with crystals or something.

But if it's better for the plant to keep going in the glass vase for a while, putting an inch of water in the bottom sounds like a good idea. I could put it in a pot and then put the vase upside-down on top of it, but then no air would get in an I assume this is a bad thing.

The protection the vase gives it is good thou (important for an outdoor plant until it's strong), as well as keeping it moist.

 

[KADE]

haha yeah, sorry i f'ed up the quote tho...

You could put it in potting soil whenever you'd like. I'm a hydro grower.. i'm not fond of the dark dirty side.

You shouldn't have it sealed off.. it'll fry and die... and also have no air to breathe. (co2/oxygen)

 

[Stoney Bud]

Hey Boonie, use only plain dirt. Nothing with added nutrients. You'll need to buy some good nutes for it later. Get something made for MJ. It'll save you a lot of problems later. You could go with Fox Farms Nutrients. I've heard a lot of good about them. I'm also a hydro guy like Kade, but I keep my host plants in dirt just to slow them down.

Plant it in at least a gallon container. You'll need to upgrade that to a larger one also later.

No cover is needed. Make sure to water by weight. After filling the pot with dirt and putting the seedling in it, pick up the container and weigh it in your hands. This is the dry weight.

Then, water slowly until some water comes out the bottom holes. You may want to put the plant in partial shade until it's larger. Seedlings don't like full sunlight in a hot climate.

After watering, weigh the container again in your hands. This is it's wet weight.

Don't water again until the container feels almost as light as the dry weight. Don't wait too long and make the plant wilt tho'.

Good luck man. Let us know how it goes. You could start a Journal...

 

[Cakes]

here is a spray like the one y'all are talking about:

http://www.ecogrow.com/index.cfm?product=1172&mid=0&nid=0&CFID=1176521&CFTOKEN=35596430

Sometimes things can tip the balance towards being male or female for herb:

for female:

your high humidity
your lowering light levels (you had your longest day on Dec. 22)
your southern lat cause it have more bluish light
the high N content of your fert
the protection from the wind

against female:

the high potassium content of your fert
the high outside temperatures

Repotting her is a good idea. I hope you will be able to strip away that covering that is around the soil cube. And also, having a light permeable cover like that is not good for the roots, btw.

If you don't repot her before you leave, I agree that leaving some standing water in that vase prolly won't kill her but I'd doubt it would be adequate. Very few materials wick water upwards at the rate herb needs it. One way to tell would be to give it a trial run before you go so that you could watch what was going on. Moving her to the shade would help a bit (or giving her shade from a cover like a lawnchair or whatever). If you put her in the fridge it would do it for sure but it will take her a week to recover (wrap her roots in a couple layers of towel). Shade or dark from the fridge is okay for 3 days but on the fourth day she might begin to stretch.

If you do repot her, then water crystals are okay but you might use a heavy mulch because her roots will not have had time to grow into the wet areas yet. And, as always, wet crystals and let them soak up as much as they are able to before mixing them with soil.

and you might have room for watering devices to be placed around her on the soil; like plastic containers filled with water<<put pin holes in the containers so that the water seeps. You may have to loosen the caps a bit. so trial it before you go.

She looks too tall for her leaf structure. Unless you had her inside and just moved her out into the sun, then I'd question whether that glass is letting the appropriate wavelengths through.

and she looks like she needs more fertilizer. See how the lower leaves are lighter colored than the upper ones? it's supposed to be the other way around. The older growth is supposed to be a darker green and the newly forming shoots are supposed to have the bright light color of new spring growth. If she were getting too much fertilizer than the lightening occurs but it does it in a different pattern than the one exhibited by your plant. It would be a lightening from the outside edges of the leaves towards the centers (which is similar to certain deficiencies but the contrasts between the edges and the centers are different for each of those conditions).

To be sure of a female, one must plant four seeds. One can go with two seeds per gallon pot but they must have a couple of inches between them.

Now is your time to get growth on her. Give her a pot at least 3 dm wide and 15cm deep (12" x 6"). Give her at least 2.5cm of fert water every day (1").>>>>you are right to notice that she grows on the days that you give her sustenance>>she will do that every day if you help her by feeding her. She should grow at least 2.5cm every day (1").

 

[GrewUp To ScrewUp]

I have decided (read: convinced girlfriend) to grow one plant for personal supply. I'll keep this plant low, tying it down and making it kinda bushy.

so you only want one or ur afraid a crowd will bring problems? heres my question looking at that pic, can he take a cutting from the top part above the starter leaves? if so could he cultibvate the clones to be females if the first one fails to be fem?

and what is that thing the plant is in? looks like a candle..

 

[KADE]

could he cultibvate the clones to be females if the first one fails to be fem?

Nope... clones are whatever the host plant was.

 

[Elephant Man]

Wow everybody forgot the stem fan? I would get her out of that vase and get a gentle breeze on her to thicken up that stem.

 

[GrewUp To ScrewUp]

Nope... clones are whatever the host plant was.

yes i kno that but with all this hermie talk you make it seem as if there is sum point of gender neutrality and that then other factors assist in making a gender. maybe a f/m can = a h but not vice versa..

 

[KADE]

yes i kno that but with all this hermie talk you make it seem as if there is sum point of gender neutrality and that then other factors assist in making a gender. maybe a f/m can = a h but not vice versa..

Yeah, if you wanna let a plant almost die and bring it back.. there is a 1/5 chance it'll hermie on ya... (just tried that this grow for a experiment) But you shouldn't ever let a plant almost die =)

 

[Boonie]

Hey guys!

MUCH thanks to everyone that posted advice. You're all awesome and I really appreciate the help you've given me.

If being a stoner means smoking weed and helping other people (like I see in my thread) then call me a stoner anyday, I'll wear it like a badge

Well, tommorow will be a month (to the day) that I posted this thread. So ill be posting update pics to show you guys what your advice has enabled me to do. We are making great progress, I think, and I am sure in a month or two I'll be smoking my first home-grown bud. It'll be damn sweet

I put it in potting soil (like a few suggested) but stayed away for a day longer than we intended. I came back and he was burnt to a crisp! Not dead, just most leaves were dead and brown and it had shrivelled right up. Imagine a scene out of ER (or whatever prime-time medical drama show), sirens wailing and me running the pot into the laundry.

'I NEED WATER, STAT'
'Doctor, soil level very dry. Plant vital signs low. It doesn't look pretty'
'I DON'T CARE. I'M NOT GIVING UP ON YOU. COME ON, COME ON, YOU CAN MAKE IT!! CLEAR!'
*put water in pot*
'CLEAR!'
*more water*
'COME ON DAMN YOU! CLEAR!'
*more water*
'Doctor! We've got pulse! You've done it!!'

After a huge drink and a couple of days light sun he has made a full recovery. My water crystals didn't seem to do much, then again it might have been long gone if I hadn't put them in.

Just then I went out to check on him, and what did I find. Little spots, looks like they've been eaten. Ok, don't panic. Call my mum first (grade A green thumb, although not like us guys lol) and she said straight out, white fly. Then some googling, reading of the sticky in this forum, some more googling and Dr. Boonie is confident in a diagnosis of whitefly. Little bastards!

Ok, so it's nearly 9pm here and I can't rush out to a store and buy some stuff (like Neem Oil, or the yellow traps). I don't have anything really yellow to make a trap out of, so I have make a mixture of LOTS of water, garlic and dishwashing detergent and sprayed my plant liberally with it. Let it dry for half an hour and when I went out to check again, not a whitefly to be seen.

I don't want to keep doing this though, I am sure the dishwashing detergent probably has something in it not too good for the plant (and for me eventually, but as we are nowhere near buds yet that isn't really the problem). So tommorow ill get some Neem Oil and traps to keep up the warfare, tonight's brew was just to keep it safe while I sleep so I don't wake up with a nice infestation.

Looks like I caught it early (I give it love everyday so no wonder lol).

Anyways, stay tuned for tommorow's progress pics and feel free to suggest whitefly related stuff if you think it'll help.

edit: lol sorry for swearing. I thought considering the subject matter of this forum we would have to be all adults and the least of our worries would be swear words. Obviously I am wrong

edit by Stoney Bud: That's ok, being an adult also means that you can learn to talk without swearing. Some adults don't want to hear it and the fact that this is a marijuana based group doesn't mean that we all like to hear swearing. Thanks - Stoney.

 

[stan]

Okay I cannot take any more.Dig a hole fill it with potting soil and vermiculite.If possible some shade in the afternoon.Plant your seedling up to the first set of leaves and water it.After that 1x per week pee on the soil surrounding it and water every 3-4 days. The plant will then grow better.If this seems too easy then try messing with it continually until it dies, I have done it too many times myself and killed some real beauties.Then I met a real veteran and he let me in on his routine for outdoor, now I pass to you.
The preferred method in this part of the American heartland is to grow some from seed in the winter and clone your best females to get 4-6 mother plants then clone ALOT of them 4 weeks before putting outside.As a note if you want to grow an indoor/outdoor clone it needs to be hardend off for 2 weeks prior to placing in its hole.

 

[Boonie]

Sorry for the delay guys, I had stuff to do.

Ok here he is. One month in, thanks to advice from this forum.

That pot is about 30cm across. Is it too small? Should I repot or just leave it? I know repotting will stress the plant, but I don't want it to get really root-bound ethier.

Spider mites now along with the whitefly (ffs lol) but I've got my natural soap solution and ill just keep spraying the bastards.

Also, is it female? I think it is.

Those things are under each node, im guessing they are pistils and we are looking at a young girl. Sure hope so!

 

[StinkBud]

The pic is a bit blurry, but it looks to me that that spike you circled is inherant to both males and females. I forget what it's called, some of the more experienced guys can help with that.

What you're looking for is what starts out looking like a new node growing in, but instead it sprouts 2 white hairs.

Check out Hick's info on this stuff;

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1938

If you look at this pic, the spikes on the far left and right are what I'm talking about. It's the white hairs behind it that make it a female.

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/foru...ead.php?t=2026

 

[Boonie]

Ah you are right.

Maybe it's too early to tell. It's still pretty young.

 

[StinkBud]

Alot of guys would argue otherwise, but I firmly believe you can tell male from female by how they grow, especially if you have a group of plants to judge by. For starters, what strain are you growing? Looks like an indica so what I look for may help. Males tend to be darker than their siblings, grow bushier right off the start, and need less light to get that way. They tend to be the healthiest plant in your batch right off the start. Females are lighter, reach for light more, and, from what I've seen always look a bit sparce compared to the men.

I won't jinx you by telling you what I think it is, but you can use this cryteria on yours. Doesn't prove if it is or isn't, only gives an early warning.

Again, not an exact science.

 

[Boonie]

I've only got the one plant

I know it's taking a hell of a chance (ending up male), but where I am from it's semi-legal to have a plant if you have just one. That's why my girlfriend allowed me to have it in our house (she doesn't smoke).