Italian Outdoor Adventures - From Pure Indicas to Pure Sativas

Welcome to my new grow, guys :cheer:
It's been a while since I posted an official journal here, but hopefully this one will make up for all these shadow years ;)

This grow will be an outdoor guerilla grow, 100% organic in terms of soil and in terms of fertilizers as well. It will be done in northern Italy, around 45°N. For Americans (yeah, you are definitely a majority here), the climate here is somehow akin to Northern California or Southern Oregon (more or less) with very long season (I could keep growing until December if I wanted to).

In a nutshell, spring is rainy, but warm, summer is very hot and humid, and autumn starts usually in the second half of October with heavy showers and sudden rise in humidity, but we get first snow around December/January. And temperatures start going down around late November, which gives me an opportunity to grow almost any strain I want, providing it's not susceptible for mould.

This grow will be done in two spots/patches. Last year I did a test run with one of these to clear it for further growing and I was successful - both plants were harvested by the end of October - so I'm gonna use it again with 10 plants this time. Let's call it The Shady Spot as it's hidden in the forest and it doesn't get maximum sun exposure, but has enough light for the plants to grow. Another spot has never been tested, but has plenty of light as it's on southeastern slope (my area is quite hilly) and here I'm gonna put 4 plants (starting small with a new spot is what I prefer). Let's call it the The Sunny Spot.

Soil I have here is brownish loam with plenty of minerals. It's more on the clay side with just a little bit of sand, but with decent amount of organic matter in the upper layer. The Shady Spot has been cleaned up with shears last season, fertilized with wood ash in February, and then dug up well with a shovel as there were plenty of blackberry roots (some as thick as 3"), and then cut again with wood ash and wood chips. The Sunny Spot has been cut with garden compost, biochar and bamboo leaves (silica). Both will be amended again in two-three weeks with crushed sandstone, powdered egg shells, worm castings and blood meal.

Seeds were bought from Herbie's Seeds (one of great sponsors of this forum) and will be germinated in 5-6 days as I'm currently waiting for the new moon. If you like what you're reading, check the post below to find out what strains I'm gonna grow... :tokin:

This is one of them:​
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The strains I picked for these year are: Pakistan Chitral Kush (100% landrace indica), L.A. Confidential (100% indica), Green Crack (well-known hybrid), Trainwreck (famous hybrid), Malawi Gold (100% landrace sativa), Orient Express (60% sativa/40% indica). As freebies I got: Cotton Candy, Strawberry Blue and Hawaiian Skunk Haze. Some of these seeds are feminized and some are regular ones, it's all a mixture.

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They will be all germinated by soaking in filtered water overnight and then laid between paper towels until they sprout. They will be started in light soil mix, which is mostly leftover from my last year's Afghan Kush, inoculated with mycorrhizae, amended with crushed sandstone and shredded peanut shells. This mix is mostly garden compost with some bat guano, wood ash, sand and other stuff. It's been sitting in a bucket in my garden since October last year and is well aerated. After plants grow a little bit, they will be transported to their spots for the rest of the season. If everything goes well, I'm gonna start harvesting indicas by the end of September, hybrids around 1st/2nd week of October and Malawi Gold around 1st week of November (if breeder informed me well).

Here are the pots:

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That's what my Afghan Kush grown in Air-Pot looked like:

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Yeah, I'm ready to go further and amend my soil with some more organic additives next week :bong:

From left to the right mother's little helpers: crushed sandstone, bat guano, powdered egg shells, powdered banana skins.

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They will provide my plants with phosphorus, manganese, iron, calcium and magnesium :adore:
 
Welcome everybody, hopefully it's gonna be a trip that ends with some delightful buds :rollit:
 
Ok my men in weed :)
I soaked my seeds in water this morning using good temperature, which is finally stabilizing around 20•C (68•F) and agricultural calendar says from today you can plant whatever you want. As I said before, New Moon will be here tomorrow and that will help them germinate quickly. The only seed that went down was Malawi Gold, the rest is floating on the surface. Will check back in couple of hours. Have a nice weekend all of you :)
 
Ok my men in weed :)
I soaked my seeds in water this morning using good temperature, which is finally stabilizing around 20•C (68•F) and agricultural calendar says from today you can plant whatever you want. As I said before, New Moon will be here tomorrow and that will help them germinate quickly. The only seed that went down was Malawi Gold, the rest is floating on the surface. Will check back in couple of hours. Have a nice weekend all of you :)

Sounds Good...:thumb:

Really wanna see that Malawi Gold pop!!!

Happy Grow and Smoke!!!

:420:
 
They will pop, I guarantee :blunt:

It's my first pure sativa so I have high hopes for these seeds too.
If they like my climate, I'll go next year and do some pollination to have something I can work with in the next few years.
If they are really ready by the 1st week of November, I have a chance though :yummy:
 
Small update! After 36 hours almost all my seeds are cracking up. Waiting only for L.A. Confidential, Hawaiian Skunk Haze and one Malawi Gold. Tomorrow they will be definitely planted :allgood:
 
Small update! After 36 hours almost all my seeds are cracking up. Waiting only for L.A. Confidential, Hawaiian Skunk Haze and one Malawi Gold. Tomorrow they will be definitely planted :allgood:

Hi There Conrad

This is good news please post some photos as soon as they make there appearance to life!!!

Happy Grow and Smoke!!!

:420:
 
Yeah yeah, definitely :)
At the moment I don't want to bother you with pictures of 14 seeds under wet blanket ;)
 
9 seeds in the ground as of this morning. For 48 hours of germination it's not a bad ratio. The rest will get one day more and if they don't pop, I'll soak them in black tea extract.
 
Another update guys :smokin:

Got one more Malawi Gold to crack with black tea extract, but the rest had to be scuffed with a nail cutter.
Especially L.A. Confidential has been giving me a headache (second try with this superindica), but the seed seems viable, so let's hope it's gonna sprout eventually. Soaked two more Hawaiian Skunk Haze seeds as only one on three sprouted, but these are the freebies so I don't care so much. If everything goes well, some of my gals should break the ground tomorrow. Went down to my growing spots today as well and mixed some of my organic additives with the soil, but I need to come back with some shears as I spotted some very thick roots that need to be removed. Temps during a day are fine, around 60-68°F and things are looking up :headbanger:

I'll keep you posted.
Have a nice smoke :passitleft:
 
Another update guys :smokin:

Got one more Malawi Gold to crack with black tea extract, but the rest had to be scuffed with a nail cutter.
Especially L.A. Confidential has been giving me a headache (second try with this superindica), but the seed seems viable, so let's hope it's gonna sprout eventually. Soaked two more Hawaiian Skunk Haze seeds as only one on three sprouted, but these are the freebies so I don't care so much. If everything goes well, some of my gals should break the ground tomorrow. Went down to my growing spots today as well and mixed some of my organic additives with the soil, but I need to come back with some shears as I spotted some very thick roots that need to be removed. Temps during a day are fine, around 60-68°F and things are looking up :headbanger:

I'll keep you posted.
Have a nice smoke :passitleft:

AWE this sounds good glad to hear the Gold has poped that is music to my eyes!!!!

Have a super Best and Blessed day!!!

:420:
 
Thx a lot, mate.
Will keep on keeping :)
 
Say hi to Trainwreck, the first one to break the ground properly :)
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Other are coming up, but Green Crack has a shell stuck unfortunately, so more surgical moves to come tomorrow. More seeds were buried in the ground today as well, cause my scuffing method really worked. :thumb: I destroyed some regular HSH in the process though, but less males that way I guess ;)
 
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