Low-Tech Lowryder stockup

[sombro]

Afternoon herb fans.

It has come to my attention that despite last autumn's bounty there will not be enough green to supply my lifestyle until the next harvest. At this point there is a crossroads, a choice to be made. Should I cut right back on the weed, make it last til october maybe even smarten up my act a bit to impress my boss, I could turn my life around by september, go to the gym perhaps.
Or grow some more herb.

Well, about 4 seconds later I set off for the grow shop and thankfully they had everything I was looking for.

So I'm going to put in some Lowryder #2 in about a week or so, please don't expect to learn anything as this will be a very low-tech effort! Feel free to offer any advice.

I bought some blooming ferts and a booster and I'm going to use worm castings with a nice substrate.

Can anyone advise as to the use of the ferts, will the very short grow time mean extra care needs to be taken with this?? Should I use them at all?

here's the first photo

peace

[gorilla]

Very curious to see how these grow. I will be following Sombro.

60 days from seedling? No veg time?

[CB]

gonna be watch'n as well :D

grow on

[Elephunt man]

I haven't grown lowryder but I have popped a few beans under 12/12. I think you will need the ferts, things happen fast in flower as you know and they happen twice as fast to babies. I would probably start them in one gallon pots or so (indoor?) in a weaker seedling mix, rather than transplant them...their life is too short for to be stunted by a transplant. Of course, in a weak mix, you will probably have to start feeding at 2 weeks or so.

Good luck and I will be watching.:)

[sombro]

Cheers chaps

They'll be germinated on the window ledge then straight into pots outside big enough to stay the course, we've been getting plenty of good sun and in a couple of weeks or so the chance of a freeze should be minimal. I can always bring them in at night anyway.

Veg is said to be about 3 weeks, I was hoping that the worm poo would see it through this stage. I'm gonna use about 30% castings.

[eyeseaire]

you wont need much ferts given the time that those flower in. If your done in 60 days you wont even need to feed them more than twice the first month, and twice the second month.

[sombro]

So "hiffi" is Jiffy then aaaaaahhhhh, it all filters through, slowly, slowly.

I just thought it was a funny sounding spanish word.

Anyway in they went last weekend, there was nothing doing for a few days, they were a bit cold on the windowledge so I started to bring them in at night and then some movement could be seen inside the pellets. They would be in pots by now but winter has been shaking his fist for the last time and it would have been a bit cold for dewelcate wittle fwowers.

But all birds must learn to leave the nest (except if you're spanish and male many men stay at home with their parents until they're 35!) so tomorrow morning out they go.

So not an ideal start but all have germinated, there's only 9 because I was baked when putting them in and I couldn't remember which hiffi I missed. I reckon the cold may have added a few days on to the harvest date.

Whilst in the garden centre looking for smelly veggies I came across absinthe seeds, strong but pleasant aroma it says. I bought a couple of packs and then Dr Google rang with a recipe for making an ISO type hash by extracting the thujone from the upper leaves and flowers of the plant. If this guy is to be believed it could be quite interesting.http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=10100

time to get things moving in the garden:D

[swissmj]

sombro, those little sprouts are looking nice and healthy there mate.
as for fert things like worm castings, bat guana and seaweed extracts mixed through the soil will get you through the first two weeks without needing a top up. by then they will almost have started the auto flower and can start at 1/4 strength flowering nutes or give them a flush first.

as for the absinthe seeds, nice find mate ive always been interested in ethnobotany. was growing some salvia plants a while back and what not.
I always thought the worm wood was extracted from the roots of the plant and not the leaves, ill be very interested to see how it goes for you.

all the best with your lowrider grow, hope it keeps you stocked up until next big harvest because we all know what a pain it is to be dry.

cheers swissmj

[gorilla]

because we all know what a pain it is to be dry. I hear that. :cry:

Smart thinkin' Sombro. 30% earthworm castings should be more than enough for 3 weeks veg. I have a feeling your asking for advice you don't need. :p

[sombro]

ok, just over two weeks in and they have found a nice little spot where the sun is reflected off of the tiles.
The forecast is for 0 degrees C tonight so they are in some of the thousands of polythene bags that were mysteriously included in the purchase of this house.

The weather isn't really playing along, all risk of frost should be over by now. Perhaps I should have waited, the last two jars of green in the garage suggest otherwise.

So I'm presented with a problem, the pots cannot be seen from outside the garden but a shady looking geezer in a hoodie regularly outside at first and last light might attract attention, especially if moving a load of pots or replacing/removing placcy bags.

Hopefully there won't be too many more nights below 0 and I'll only have to do the bag trick a couple more times.

Oh, there's one still in the nursery but she's coming along fine now that she has company, the sprout on the left came from a seed I picked out of a joint last week. That plant shall live on the balcony and be my pet.

peace.

[eyeseaire]

I've seen these plastic insulators for plants which look like a large tube with pockets all around the tube that would be filled up with water, and the idea is that the plant sit in the middle of the tube, and the water heats up during the day and keeps the plant warm at night.

I've also seen people create their own version of this, simply by filling up old 2 liter bottles, and placing them in a circle around the plant, I imagine 1 liter bottles could be used in smaller plants, as the real version doesn't use 2 liters of water, per pocket.

[swissmj]

paint some large buckets black and fill them with water. place them around your grow plot.
during the day the black will absorb heat from the sun and then in the night time the heat will release the heat around your plants.
raised beds also help to keep the roots from getting to cold and slowing the growth rate down.

just a few other options to try and help you out mate

cheers swissmj

[gorilla]

How does the bucket full of water work? Does it heat up more during the day than the soil would? Does it retain it's temperature better than dirt, or say.. sand? Wouldn't the water cool off very quickly on a chilly night? Just not wrapping my head around this one right.

Thanks
-G

[sombro]

Nice ideas, thanks.

As they're already in 5ltr pots, the sleeve idea looks like too much effort. For normal seedlings just off the windowlege that would be great.

Loving the pots of water idea, all done in 2 minutes and the price is right.

No more nights below zero on the forecast, they still seem to be growing at the normal rate for plants that may expect a lengthy veg period.

[sombro]

Well here they are after 4 weeks, the weather has been rubbish, the temps lifted but heavy rain and hail replaced the cold. I had to dash out on more than one occasion to offer shelter.

A small propagation tunnel would have avoided all this grief, thwarted by piss poor preparation once again.

Well, we struggle manfully on, they're not looking bad, neither do they look like they'll be done in 4 weeks time. I did some research and found that some people had to wait 80 days until harvest so perhaps that'll be the case here.

In one of the pots another seedling has started to grow alongside its big sister. Thats a germination rate of over 110% (10 from 9 seeds) I know the logic is to split them up but I don't reckon there's time for them to recover.

[eyeseaire]

interesting germ. rate...
twins?

[sombro]

Ok the weather has markedly improved and a growth spurt is on.

However, its now over 5 weeks and supposedly they're going to be ready in 3. Do you see these ready in 3 weeks?
Well it remains unclear as to whether the slow kickoff will result in a crappy yield or just a late one. There is still no sign of sex (story of my life), I reckon that would point to later harvest, we'll see.

The second couple of photos are from the nursery section on the balcony, in the foreground is one of the L#2's that got frost damage and the other is bagseed from last years superskunk grow, my pet.

:) ;) :)

[DLtoker]

The harvest will just be later. The growth has stepped up in the last week though:). Small but nice. Good stuff. You should expect to see sex in a week or so if they continue growth like this.

[StoninStanley]

hmm :hmmmm: ive never grown lowrider, so i may be way out of line here, but i dont think i would *expect* to see sex from them in a week.

besides the worm poo, what else is in that soil? that could be slowin you down if the soil doesnt have anything to lighten it up like perlite or peat moss...just an idea. there's nothing you could do about it now but will help you on your next grow, if that indeed is the case.

they look healthy to me - good job. i would like to hear how it smokes. ive heard very rave reviews, and ive heard very poor reviews on potency.

peace ill be grabbin me a seat and watchin this one close :watch: :peaceman:

[DLtoker]

Lowryder strains will show sex anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 weeks. These plants look about a week from there.;)

[sombro]

i reckon they'll show within a week, if you've seen the way they've grown since the last pics in just a week it wouldn't surprise me to see it soon.

and the flowering is supposed to start at about three weeks, so i'd imagine that they'd not get much bigger than they are now under three weeks of optimum conditions.

its in a nice substrate, they just started off slow because of the cold.

although its been really sunny for the mostpart, we've been having some thundery showers so I've not had to water them, that wasn't a problem but as they'll be needing some ferts soon so hopefully it'll dry up a bit.

cheers

[sombro]

6 weeks in and they're starting to bush up nicely.

Still no sign of any males, possible signs of preflowering in the lower nodes, I'll keep an eye on it and by next week should have more news.

I used my phone cos I was too lazy to go and get the camera but i'll post up some more pics soon.

peace

[sombro]

7 and a half weeks in.

I should have shipped my plants to the UK where they've had the hottest, driest april in 300 years. Here, 1000 miles south, the weather continues to be shite. Bah!

About a week ago most of the plants started showing sex, there are three males, four females, one yet undecided and one runty one from the nine originals. I've put in a few more because I'm not holding out too much hope for the first lot.

I've put up the greenhouse more for the rain than the cold, I'll need to control watering and nutrients, at the moment they're not drying out properly because of the frequent rain. The temps are around 15 in the day and down to about 6 at night, I'm sure this is going to break soon and hopefully they'll get some decent heat and sunshine to finish them off.

Cheers

[DLtoker]

Looks like they're truckin' along...:cool:

[StoninStanley]

im lookin forward to seein buds on these, havent seen many good pics of em yet :shrug:

[sombro]

..in your smile,
Bring me laughter, all the while.
In this world where we live there should be more happiness,
So much joy you can give, on each brand new bright tomorrow
Bring me fun,
Bring me sunshine,
Bring me Luuuuuuuurrrve!:cheeky:

The sun has arrived and it's having a nice perky effect on both boys and girls (as it will on people too), they're reaching up nicely. Tomorrow I'll give them a weak dose of the bloom ferts. They're even looking pretty happy in the pollen donor section, the plant that was growing as twins has shown male preflowers, be interesting to see what the other is, I guess it'll be a bloke but you never know.

The males of course have been kicked out of the greenhouse and are showing the effects of being left out on cold nights, still looking healthy though.

The plant that was suffering porchlight shock is even starting to look better, it's a bit munched but that's because I used her as a test to see if the insects were biting, they were so I gave the greenhouse area a blast with some organic stuff before putting it up.

Oh, and the mrs took a nice photo of the dwarf roses we have on the balcony, I'm starting to become a big fan of roses, i'm getting so old. We went to the park a while back for a picnic and I was thinking that I used to go there to score hash at night and now all I'm thinking about is taking cuttings!

now where are my tartan slippers?

[DLtoker]

Nice man. Looking really good. Crazy little strain to grow eh?

[sombro]

They're stretching up nicely now, starting to get hairy armpits too!
I watered today for only the second time in 8 weeks! They don't look like they need it but I wanted to add some ferts. The temperature in the greenhouse gets to over 30c during the day so I'm not worried overly about rotting the roots.

A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing however and I used a swimming pool tester to check the ph of the water, it looked like it was up around 8 before I added the food and then down to about 6.5 after. Don't think I'll worry too much about it, last years grow went ok using the same water.:rolleyes:

lets hope they're done soon, can't face another trip to the park to buy crap.:mad:

The fastest male is nearly done, can anyone advise as to how to collect the pollen?

Onwards and upwards.:)

[sombro]

8 and a half weeks gone, I thought I'd post up a pic cos it's looking like they're going to jump out of the pots at any moment.

Pics are getting a bit samey though, I'll be back when there's more to report.

Peace.

[sombro]

looking happy, a few weeks to go yet but all the gaps are filling up nicely, there's not going to be a ton of bud but there should be a nice smoke in it.
round 2 is ticking along.
turns out the "twin" was a rogue Superskunk seed, well, i was caned.

peace

[DLtoker]

Wow! Those are some big Lowryders there! Good job so far. Just keep giving them what they want and you should be all set in a couple of weeks.:cool1:

[dredank]

nice looking plants:mmmm: lookin real happy with those all ap:bananna:

[sombro]

10 and a half weeks and they're looking older, the trichs on the top are getting cloudy. There's still plenty of space to fill up but when the sun shines they fill up quick. The weather has kicked my plans in the balls again, huge winds and massive storms broke the metal frame of my greenhouse. I had to leave the plants where they were protected from the wind for a bit.

Sunshine predicted, and it better get its arse moving as the mother-in-law is coming over in a couple of weeks.:rolleyes:

[Permagrin]

Nice looking plants indeed. They are so tight it reminds me of a pineapple top. :)

[sombro]

:mad:


it looks as if they've stopped growing, we've had loads of great sun but when I check them out closer, nothings happening except that the trichs are growing darker on the top, they still sparkle on the lower flowers, you cant call them buds really.


Also there's a mite attack happening so tonight I'm gonna give them some weak washing up liquid solution and in the morning I'll hose them down and give them some organic spray. The males were covered in little black beasties, I cut them down.

I'll give it another week.

[Fred Lemonjello]

What a huge bummer Bro!
Hope ya bring a quick death to the mites and get the girlz growth back in order.

I've also heard tale of a larva or a worm type of creature in yur neck of the woods that eats the buds. These are big juicy fokkers I guess... have you had any worries in the past with these at all?


Fred

[sombro]

didn't see these little mites last year at all, they dont seem to like the plants until they're mature, no sign of them on the next round of LR2's or on the other stuff I've started. Very odd.

Haven't heard of the larvae thing, the good bit is that insects on the plants tend to be baked and dont move unless you wave pizza in front of them. Makes them easy to pick off.

As the LR's are only small I'm using the weeds that have grown naturally as cover, I'm sure that doesn't help when it comes to bugs. There was no problem in the greenhouse until it blew away. A propagation tunnel will do the job next year. http://cgi.ebay.es/INVERNADERO-180-x-140-x-94-cm-NUEVO_W0QQitemZ270126660234QQihZ017QQcategoryZ3186 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

we live and learn.

[DLtoker]

What a pain... Let's hope for the best and keep us posted!

[sombro]

:mad: :mad:

well thats the end of this go, they're not any bigger or buddier, foiled by shit weather, impatience and a low-quality greenhouse. never mind, there'll still be something to toke on next week,maybe an ounce in total if I'm lucky. they smell great so I've high hopes for the next round, 3 plants which should be ready in about 4 weeks. they already look like they're maturing much faster than their predecessors.

peace

[sombro]

well there were three seeds left from the 20 planted this year,the first lot foiled by weather, the second lot were eaten to bits by small black mites, that left me with about 2 days worth of crap weed with bugs in it. Not ideal. I reckon that as the life cycle of the plant is so quick any small problem has a big effect in the end.

So far the whole lowrider experiment can't be considered a success, there's been no real bud to speak of, so with expectation scraping it's arse on the floor I threw in the last 3 seeds. In France I picked up a propagation tent so I set it up and sprayed inside with organic pesticide, then put the plants inside after they'd germinated.

2 males and a female were what I found the other day, bah! so the smallest male met a swift end and I've left the other 2 plants to grow old and acquainted.

About 5 weeks to go.http://www.homegrownbud.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11612&stc=1&d=1188648803

[Sticky_Budz]

hey bro sorry to hear about your plants i know how it feels to loose plants to mites those bastards are a mean bug that multiply by the thousands and can ruin any plant insight i lost six plants to those bastards:mad: Ive also heard from a friend that a couple of growers that he knows have had the same problem so those pests have been a problem for alot of people this year:mad:.
well i wish you the best of luck with these ladies just make sure u keep a close eye on them inspect them everyday good luck my friend will be keeping an eye on this grow peace:D

[sombro]

thanks sticky man

the thing that pissed me off most was the effort I put in to get rid of them, oh that and how they continued to eat while the plants were drying, and how the few I missed tasted when they burnt :yack:

[sombro]

Well this experiment has come to an end. To claim other than an unmitigated failure would be to lie. Every single female plant I had burst into flower once and then didn't seem to have enough energy to do it again. I blamed it before on weather and bugs but this last plant was treated like royalty until it's 60 days were up. After that it went outside and got attacked once more by bugs. Every single female plant has had only 6 or 7 small flowers, you can't really call them buds.
Massive waste of money for the seeds. This last one has been pollenated but seeing as the mother is shite......

Perhaps there was something fundamental I was doing wrong, what is clear is that the strain is very susceptable to mites and one that, due to the short life, requires close attention.

http://www.homegrownbud.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12074&stc=1&d=1192295904


One for sticky oh and a "bud"

http://www.homegrownbud.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12075&stc=1&d=1192295904

[gorilla]

holy crap, sombro. that stinks dude.

[CB]

:eek: dang look at them bastards :eek:

gonna block this strain from my memory bank....

thanks for share'n your grow with us all bro :)

grow on

:pass:

[Dawg]

HOLY COW!!! Thats a ton of mites!!!
glad you got sumthin outa it ;)

[Fred Lemonjello]

That really bits Bro, sorry to see....... ya gotta lil bud out of the deal anyhow.... and some really Grand learning..... weather and pests...... things to do different next season.

A lil +K your way is in order I think!

Fred

[sombro]

Thanks you men.

And no worries, we live and learn. Gonna carry on trying to find stealthier ways to grow in the garden without having it off limits to everyone outside the circle of trust.

One of the problems with the tiny plants is that you don't get much bud, even if the lowryders had all been perfect I wouldn't expect to get more than an ounce off of each. Therefore a single 4ft plant will grow more weed than a whole pack of 10 LR seeds (if 50%female).
However it is a way to grow some bud if you're pushed for space. The stealth aspect is somewhat undermined by the fact that they really stink when mature.

I guess now I'll have a look at some Ruderalis, the skunk cross apparently has 50% of the females autoflowering when they get to the 5th-7th node. The idea is to get some green in early and shorten the time that the garden is out of bounds to noseybonks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_1QyOQDx6w .

At least I now have a load of LR seeds for next seasons overgrow campaign.

[drumin]

Hey bro, just looking back through your journal and in message #40 you have a small framed covering over your girls. I'm interested in that, got some info on it? :kewl:

[sombro]

alright drumin,

it's just a small propagation tent, I found it while I was on holiday in France. I've seen similar on ebay like the following......
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/COLD-FRAME-OR-MINI-GREENHOUSE-NEW-IN-BOX-GREAT-ITEM_W0QQitemZ120173252421QQihZ002QQcategoryZ13994 3QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem