First Grow & comments welcome!!!

[Stayin'Sane]

Hi everyone, I just joined a few days ago and this is my first post not counting my intro. I am growing Guerrilla's Gusto from Sensi Seed Bank outside in pots, the plants spent 2 weeks in the ground but were under serious slug and snail attack. They survived the trauma of the move into pots as well as a diet of only Miracle Gro until last week when I found there were sites like this. They are now on Dr. Hornby's Organic Iguana Juice. They are green and perky, and I think considering everything they have gone through...well, just to be still alive makes me happy. Thanks to all of you who share your knowledge and experience with new growers like me. Thanks for taking a look and all hints/tips are welcome. :D Picture 4 is a plant that stayed outside in the ground by the pond, it was holding its own against the slugs so I left it alone. It's so much smaller than the others.

[igohydro]

A good way to keep em slugs away is to cut round a plastic bottle with jagged edges and place ring around the plant.The slugs hate sharp edges.
Glade you babies survived,lookin good.

[gorilla]

Lookin real good. :cool1:

I bet you they're screaming at you for a transplant though pretty soon.

[Fred Lemonjello]

Lookin really good Sane... Great shots!
The shot were ya gotem all sittin round in chairs is kinda funny.....
'Oh we're jus kickin back hav'n a glass of sweet tea!' :p

I'd venture to say one of the reasons the plant in shot #4 is smaller then the rest is because it's having to live so close to it's neighbors... which are sharing the soil, nutes, water and bits of sunshine.

Nice to hear that you got away from the Miracal Grow and moved onto a more MJ plant friendly solution.


Fred

[CB]

look'n real nice indeed :D

slide this over to outdoor grow's

grow on

[midwestbluntman]

Tho ive never used MG [miricle grow] Ive seen some sweet grows done with it so it is possible to get good results use'n it.On the other hand ive seen folks literally burn them up with it also.If those shots are of them use'n M G then you rock with it bro.They look awesome,green and perky and very healthy looking ladies,Great job.:greatjob:

[LdyLunatic]

looking great Sane.....glad to see you started a journal here and i am looking forward to watching it progress :)

[StoninStanley]

those look so healthy and green. growin outside rocks. good job :)

[StoninStanley]

so how are those lookin SS? do they got some buds yet?

[Cranky]

yesss....where is the ol taff?

all cool i hope

take care

cranky

[Stayin'Sane]

Hi everyone, sorry no post on the progress. I will take some pictures the first of the week, For awhile it seemed that not much was happening, a steady growth but no real changes. Suddenly two males really let their sex out of the bag, and I believe I have 5 certain females...and 3 that I still can't call for sure. We had quite a few days straight of cloudy sunless skies, but the past couple of days the sun has been out all day. I transplanted them into bigger pots, I wish I could have bought bigger pots, but I have to keep them portable. I have one female that is more advanced than any of the others. She was the runt of the litter and when the others were planted outside she remained a bit weak so I kept her inside for a few weeks and then put her in a pot on the patio. She didn't go through the shock of being planted in the ground for 2 weeks then put into a pot. As far as I can tell she is 100% female and looking very good. I was looking at one of the threads that had a picture of 'pre-flower' and 'ole patio lady looks just like that. Now that makes me happy!!! I'll get those photo's posted next week.

[StoninStanley]

lol even if just one of those babies is a female your gonna have a good pound of dope to smoke so your set for a long long time

good job

[CB]

look forward to the pics :D

gonna have a nice crop indeed

may the other 3 be ladys ;)

grow on

[Stayin'Sane]

Now a pound a plant...that would be something!!! I will be more than happy if I get a total of 18 ounces from all my plants combined! That would be one and a half ounces a month and that would achieve my goal of being totally free from buying street hash for the entire year. Anything over that I am going to donate to a guy here in the area who helps people and I have just started finding out about, Cranky knows who I am talking about. So I could only hope my humble first grow would not only take care of me for a year but allow me to help someone else out too.
I'm off now to do the chop on the two certain males; I am going to hang them to dry in the area I am going to have to use for my drying area, might as well have a little test run. The stems are so big around that I am going to have to use a saw on them....timberrrrrrrrr

[high2dsky]

They are now on Dr. Hornby's Organic Iguana Juice. .


and your plants are looking good and im curious where can i get that organic iguana juice? i would luv to start using that.:cool:

[Stayin'Sane]

Hi there high!! I actually got the Dr. Hornby's on ebay. I live in a very very rural area...a hydroponics shop is unheard of around here, so I used ebay and had it delivered to the door. I used a UK site since I live in the UK, but I know there are online places in the states and canada that sell the Dr. Hornby range. I would, however, read up on the different recipies and products that are discussed on this site. I choose the Dr. Hornbys only because I was using Miracle Gro and wanted to get a more mj appropriate feeding going quickly. The Dr. Hornbys is pretty expensive and it stinks really bad...like the cheapest kind of cat food you can get...very strong stinky fishy. I plan on doing a lot of reading and learning over the winter on the best soil and additives...and I am going to bet that it won't be Dr. Hornbys. As I said, I needed to ditch the Miracle Gro pronto, so unless you are in the middle of a grow and need something quick like I did, I believe that 99% of the people who are on this site would tell you that Dr. Hornbys is ok, better than Miracle Gro, but there are lots better products for your money. Let me know what you end up with...
Good growing sunshine for everyone!!!

[Insane]

Hey there Stayin'Sane, looks like you did a better job than I :p

Been lookin at this thread the last couple days, and thought I'd stop in. Those are some real beauties you got there Sane. Miracle Gro isn't a bad fert of course, it's just a really strong fert, lots of people grow with MG and have a lot of success, and swear by it's simplicity, and even more follow the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" rule.

But me? Nah. Who ever said growing good weed should be simple? Not me ;)

I have used MG before, and was happy with the results, until I tried out some ferts that were designed with mj in mind, then I saw what I'd been missing out on. The best mj fert brands are Fox Farms, General Hydroponics, Advanced Nutrients, and Dutch Master. These ferts generally aren't any more expensive that any other fert, although some bloom/bud boosting ferts can be a little pricey, but if you don't mind spendin the extra bucks, then it's definatly the way to go.

Before this post turns into a novel (lol ;))I want to get to my main point against Miracle Gro. It lacks the extra nutrients that the plants need during the late stages of flowering, when the bud is really packing it on. Miracle grow will keep this process moving along, but at this time the plant really needs a very complex array of phosphoros and potassium that MG simply doesn't have. Basically, MG will grow the plants just fine through vegging and even early flowering, but for during late flowering the plants need a bud booster, and MG usually reacts badly when mixed with other ferts, and the plants can be damaged.

Anyway, if you have any questions feel free to PM me. MG or not, those plants look awesome! Can't wait to see what they look like in a few weeks. :)

[Stayin'Sane]

Hi everyone, here are the long overdue pictures of the ladies. As it stands now I have 6 and one half females. No, not a hermie…the stunted one by the pond is a female and I think I will probably get some popcorn buds from her. I still have 2 that just refuse to show their sex so I have moved them far far away just in case they are hermies and I don’t have enough experience to know. Insane, the picture that includes one of my hanging baskets is for you…to show you where I use the Miracle Gro these days. I do think the secret with Miracle Gro is little and often…I never use it full strength on any of my plants... The one I call ‘patio lady’ (because she was the runt and never went through the outside planting) is much more advanced with her early flowering than the others…can anyone tell me when I should switch her over to the bud formula instead of the growth formula? I have Dr. Hornbys Big Bud, again I know there are better products and formula's out there, this was a quick buy just so I could be sure I had something especially for the flowering stage. Thanks for your comments and help!

[Stayin'Sane]

In these pictures I have added a couple of my pond, the one that the little stunted one is planted by...just to the left of the orange lillies. Also in the picture to the right is a machine that looks like a shop vac, and in fact that is just about what it is. It is a special vac for the pond, I use it to suck out the sludge that settles on the pebbles in the shallow end. The pond has 5 large koi carp and a dozen smaller ones. I always dump the sludge on my plants because lots of gardners swear it is the best. I was wondering if anybody has any experience giving this muck to their plants, or for that matter dipping into the pond for water to use just for plain watering ????

[Stayin'Sane]

I can't find the way to remove the double photo's...sorry. The little ones are the Mexican Sativa I germinated 5 weeks ago. They seem to be doing very well...

[Stayin'Sane]

darn...forgot to add photo's to that last reply!

[Stayin'Sane]

I think these are the last of the ones I took today.

[Fred Lemonjello]

Man what'er those gettin up too... 6 feet tall? Lookin gooood! :rasta:
Looks like your Guard Cat is sleepin on the job...... :fired: :rolleyes:


Fred

[CB]

WOW

look'n real nice indeed :bananna:

as for the double pic post.... gonna have to keel haul you for that :eek:

grow on

[bigsmoker420]

nice plants lookin real good and there huge

[drumin]

looks like you got a nice growin area out there bro! Good lookin plants too. Sorry I can't help ya with info on that muck.

[slater]

nice looking plants...if they are clustering already then i would start feeding them flower ferts instead of veg....around here there is another 4 weeks of veg before the flowers set...well on most strains that is...i have one strain that is flowering quite nicely...wtg bro...looking sweet...you may want to transplant them into bigger containers or stick them in the ground. doubt the slugs could do much damage now...lol the wider your holes the wider your plants will get...deep is important as well but not as important as wide....trust me about theslugs and even if they do...use beer in a bowl that they can crawl into...they will go straight for it.

[gorilla]

Dude... You have a gorgeous yard and your plants fit it just perfectly.

Good for you! :eek:

[StoninStanley]

im jealous :D

[gorilla]

How are the roots doing in those pots, Sane? And how big are the pots to begin with?

[Stayin'Sane]

Hi Gorilla (love your new picture). When I transplanted them a few weeks ago the root system looked like a bowl of spaghetti (no sauce :D) that has set around for a few hours. I would imagine they are feeling the pinch in these pots too...but it cannot be helped. I need to keep them portable and this is as big a pot as I can handle. I know it is going to effect the size of the buds, I would get a much better yield if I could sink them in the ground...but that is a big no no this year too. I need to be able to stash them away in a matter of a few hours notice if need be. Our house is going up on the market soon and could have any number of strangers wandering around on very short notice. Bummer!!!!

[StoninStanley]

nice :cool: your growin the herb under those circumstances, well thats either incredibly stupid or incredibly admirable, grow on brother!! OVERGROW THEM THER GUVERMENTS

[CB]

well just read the last few post in here and thought i would clear up a small point about grandma sane :eek:


On the factual side, I'm a 57 year old grandmother...and proud to be 57.

grow on SIS

[Stayin'Sane]

you blew my cover there cowboy...I was enjoying being 'bro and dude :D
Hi everyone, here are the latest pictures of the ladies. If this strain, guerrillia's gusto, turns out to be a decent smoke I will try and do a proper end of harvest evaluation, maybe some new grower next year will benefit from seeing my first crop and learning from all the mistakes I made. Here in the UK for the past week we have had very strong winds, all the plants on the patio were blown over a few times before I gave in and moved them into the shed. Two of the small mexican sativas got crushed by the big girls fall, you can clearly see the bend in their stalks but I tied them up and they seem to be doing just fine. All the big ladies did just fine too, not so much as a single broken stem. The shed has a frosted glass (plastic) roof, so its almost like a green house. There are doors on two sides, one side has double doors about the size of a single garage door, so they get lots of fresh air flow. Luckily the heat wave did not come at the same time as the wind...the shed gets like an oven in there in full sun and the plants would have been fried. Two of my ladies I left outside, their pots sit in soil so I was able to brace them up, they too survived the wind without the loss of a single stem. The smaller plant by the pond is a female and I have a confession to make...I did not end up chopping all my males down. I am getting the yard ready to put the house on the market and I had one far corner of the yard that was a total mess. I decided to clear it and make a little seating area (yes, I have been watching all those home and garden shows) that would make the yard look better. I needed a couple of strong large plants to make it look nice...and there I was looking at these beautiful plants that were just waiting for me to kill them. I transplanted them to the area and they look great. They are very far from my back yard females, and about 150 feet from the small female by the pond. I am taking the balls off on my strolls around the yard, at least once a day, most days more. I know I will probably miss a few, and I have my fingers crossed that the small female by the pond will pick up a bit of pollen. I have to wait to see what this strain is like to smoke, but I have to give it top marks for survival...it really has taken abuse of all sorts and it just takes it in its stride. I can't help but think that some breeder on this site could take some seeds and improve it with some breeding and come up with a very very easy to grow and hardy strain.

[drumin]

Those are some nice lookin plants you got there bro :erm: ... umm... :gt: sis... :rasta: dude... :chick: chicky... whatever :cheers:

[StoninStanley]

how tall is that? 7-8 foot? pritty damn tall really, beautiful plants

[Stayin'Sane]

:D Drumin you made me smile :D StoninS, they are pretty tall...maybe one of them is 7 foot. I would say that most are about 6 foot or so. I am 5'0" and they are all over my head, but I don't think 2 foot over. Must be the pictures make them look taller. Thanks for thinking they are good looking plants...those comments mean a lot to a new grower. And if I may say so...not bad for a 57 year old grandmother. And by the way CB, you rascal, you could have finished the quote. I said I was proud to be 57 because if I were any younger I would have missed the 60's and boy I am so glad I was there! You're messing with my street cred you little whipper snapper :D

[gorilla]

hahah, that's awesome Sane. :roll: street cred.

great looking grow, and something tells me you're going to have more weed then you know what to do with.

well.. :rasta: :bong: :smoke: :pipe: you'll figure it out.. :share:

[European weed fama]

hey Stayin'Sane

Your plants look abfab and your garden is the best place i have ever seen to grow the 7 fingerd-leef-plant hope you get a bumper crop and am looking forward to see the 2 smaler ones grownin up

Take care

European weed fama

[CB]

And by the way CB, you rascal, you could have finished the quote. I said I was proud to be 57 because if I were any younger I would have missed the 60's and boy I am so glad I was there! You're messing with my street cred you little whipper snapper :D

what about the 70's :p

[Stayin'Sane]

Hi everyone, seems like forever since I have left an update on how my crop is doing. I'm happy to report that the ladies are looking very good...at least to me. I know there are a lot better looking crops from the experienced growers here, but since this is my first grow, with so many many mistakes made along the way I am really pleased that I managed to get them to survive and have them flower. Fingers crossed it looks like my goal will be reached of having a years supply and thus end the need to ever go out and buy shitty street hash again. If any of you have followed my grow I planted 6 Mexican Sativa's after my Indica's were well on their way. Sadly I got only one female...but she is heavy with bud and looking very good indeed. Here are a few photos taken today, the 4th photo was taken about 2 weeks ago. This is about 3/4 weeks into flower.

[Cranky]

id put ya plants up there alongside the best outdoor plants ive seen in the uk.
gonna have plenty for sure;)

super healthy looking and what monsters they are too:eek:


nice growing:cool:
cranky

[Stayin'Sane]

thank you cranky...that means a lot to me coming from you!!! You have really made me feel great! I moved the ladies into the shed area two weeks ago when we had another batch of gusty winds...you know what they are like in Wales. I also read on one of the threads here that wind and light are bad for the thc crystals...so even after the wind had returned to normal (still windy but not gale force) I decided to leave them in the shed. I think it was a wise move because the two remaining females outside in the back yard have buds that look much smaller. Again Cranky, you have made my day. :D

[becky420]

those are way nice plants!!!
my fellow Yankee in the UK Granny
Wo- man -dudette - Sister!!

I must come south and take grow lessons,, may chat over it in Feb. 2007 in Dam..?? (we have dicussed this meeting)
ever try watering them with your pond water ? just a thought, must be something in the water all ready? i need grow lessons..!!
:) fellow granny yankee
becky420

[gorilla]

Love the picture of you hanging around with the plants, Sane. Very humbling! :D Those plants all seem about twice your size. Good job. ;)

[Stayin'Sane]

This is a post-Amsterdam report on my ladies progress. I was forced to turn over the care of my precious ladies to my very not-greenfingered daughter, good thing I was floating around Amsterdam too blazed to worry about them :eek: I am pleased to say they all survived, the one I call patio lady now has brown tips on all the leaves, so I think it was either too much water, not enough water or she was a bit heavy with the Big Bud. It is the only plant with brown tips and I have looked very closely for pests, so all in all I'm pleased with her care. She did, however, manage to outright kill 3 of my hanging baskets and leave another 3 drooping and gasping. One of them right next to the shed door where she had to go every night to water and every morning to open the door for air flow. I can't imagine how she could miss its death screams from thirst...
All the ladies are now under cover in the shed, mainly because of the thread I read about wind and light being bad for the tric's (or however you spell that word). I have started them on a 2 week flush, I think I may be a tad early as the tric's are only now starting to have a few cloudy ones. The strain has a end of Sept. finish...but they were so shocked and we had such a cold sunless August that I think they are a bit retarded in growth progress. If anyone thinks its too early for the flush...scream now and I can give them another week of big bud and start the flush again. The sativa (my lone female) is looking very good and fluffy. She is pretty short (I didn't plant her until mid-July) but has quite a few bud sites, and she and Pee Wee are still on big bud. I have them in the shed with the big ladies and I have my fingers crossed they finish before the cold weather gets them. I have chopped the two huge hermies I planted in the far corner of the garden, and believe it or not I have dried some of the buds and its a pretty good smoke. I'm really glad I let them grow, they are in their 4th day of drying and I'm going to be doing a 'snip the hairy bits off' treasure hunt for the next couple of days. I snipped a bud off and checked it with the microscope and darned if the little thing didn't have loads of tric's so down they came, we are having a drought here (no gear available) so I am already enjoying the fruits of my harvest. I expect that I will gather enough from the two hermie plants to see me through harvest of the real ladies and even allow a few weeks cure. Not bad huh? Well, that's the update on the ladies.
I wish a bountiful harvest to you all.
Attached Thumbnails

[drumin]

Nice work SS, sure is a good feeling when you're getting high off the fruits of your labor, eh? :smoke1:

Excellent looking plants BTW. :gthumb:

[RedEyezzzzz]

That's some garden you got going on Stay-Sane! As far as the brown tips go it's usually a result of one of two different things...
a) Excess salts from fertilizer and water or
b) a really dry environment.

If memory serves you are located in the uk then I'm guessing its the latter of the two. I'd ph check your water & give'em a flush. Then they'd prbly be back on track. :2cents: