JeefKeef's Debut Grow - Soil - Blue Himalaya - Sunlight/CFL - 2016

JeefKeef

420 Member
Hello everyone! :)

After lurking in the forums for the past few months and ogling at some mind-blowing grows, I've decided to give growing my own MJ a shot. Motivation comes from wanting better-quality marijuana than what is available locally as well as from trying newer strains. I visited Amsterdam for the first time late last year and was astounded by the sheer variety of the kind of weed that you could get, especially the different flavors!

Locally, we have a lot of imported Ethiopian Shashamane and less commonly available but better-quality Malawi Gold. A lot of it is very seedy, and is often handled poorly, dried too quickly and cured improperly, if ever, resulting in 'okay', rather than the excellent experiences that I got while on holiday.

A lot of this is mostly just to get my feet wet and to generally experience the process of growing while learning as much as I can along the way. By all means, this should be considered a budget grow, because I wanted to try my hand it, while using as few resources as possible. The next grow should be fully indoors as space will be available, have all the proper lighting, grow tent, and other such necessities. So, without further ado, here are the details:

Strain Information:
Strain: Blue Himalaya (Feminised).
Breeder: Short Stuff Seeds.
Type: Indica / Ruderalis hybrid.
Flowering: Autoflowering.
Height: Dwarf. 10 - 15 inches.
Known Phenotype(s): Short and compact; Indica-dominant.

Grow Details:
Grow Location: Indoor and outdoor patio combination.
Grow Medium: Dirt / Garden soil; A mix of loam and red soil.
Pot Size: 2 Pots. Very small. 0.5 liters / 500 ml.
Light Source 1: Direct sunlight for ~8 hours per day (Latitude 1.2833° S).
Light Source 2: 1 x 23W CFL - 10 hours per day.
Light/Dark Schedule: 18/6.
Temp/RH of Room: Unknown / Unmonitored.
PH of Medium: Unknown / Unmonitored
Pests: None so far.
Watering Schedule: Every other day. Sunlight dries the smaller pots pretty quickly.
Fertilizer: Locally Manufactured NPK + TE Vegetable Fertilizer. 5g / 10 liters of water. (about ⅓ or less of the recommended strength, twice a week).

Why Blue Himalaya?
This was chosen as it doesn't grow very tall, and I wanted a very stealthy grow, because I usually take the pots out in the sun, and a larger plant would have been easier to spot. It is also an auto-flowering strain, which makes things a little easier to handle as I don't have to worry too much about photo-periods and such.

The heavy-indica nature of this strain is something that I'd like for those extremely chill days as there is already a surplus of sativa-dominant strains available locally. The blueberry flavoring is a plus for me as well. In addition, there aren't too many Blue Himalaya grows out there, so this should be one for the books.

Your pots are kinda small.
Yeah, I noticed that when reading through other people's grow journals. Well, my plants theoretically shouldn't get very big / grow very tall but at the same time I do realize that there are notable advantages to using a bigger pot. See, I'm going for super-stealth - this pot size really helps. I'm especially fond of the solo-cup competition threads, so I'll be sure to pick up a few pointers from those grows. Though I shall need quite a bit of help when it comes to dealing with / preventing root-bound issues in the plants.

Aren't you concerned about environment variables such as soil PH and RH?
Not really, because there's not much I can do about it. My equipment is set to arrive in a few weeks and these plants are already growing so I'd best see them to their end. Our climate is also quite favorable for the grow at the moment, even when the plants are indoors. I can post the wiki climate data in the thread, if anyone is interested.

In addition, I know that past performance does not always equal future results and that all plant species are different, but I have successfully grown tomatoes, sweet potatoes, collard greens and red onions in that garden soil with few problems, if any. Next grow will definitely have all that planned out and well in advance.

I'm hoping to learn as much as I can with this little project, and looking forward to all the help that I can get. :Namaste:
 
Backstory:
I'm growing two plants.

The first seed that I planted, was done straight in soil and was germinated in the shade. It got such little amounts of sunlight, that it's growth was slowed to a crawl. I mistakenly assumed that it wasn't growing due to a lack of nutrients and fertilized blindly with the starter fertilizer pictured in the next post.

This inevitably caused the young plant to get some serious nutrient burn and was on the brink of death, before I transplanted to the 500ml pot with 'fresh' soil and put it under a CFL for rehabilitation. This slowed the growth down quite a bit, and a large portion of the vegetative stage was spent by the plant repairing itself rather than growing. By the time all was back to normal, pre-flowers had already started showing.

The second plant was germinated using the solo-cup and paper-towel method and its tap roots sprouted just as its older sister was checking into rehab. I planted the young seed in another 500ml pot and left both of them under the CFL. This plant has grown well so far and is a little taller than its older sister.

Fun facts:
  • I'm not sure if it is a difference in phenotypes or the conditions that they were exposed to as they germinated, but the younger plant exhibits 5-fingered leaves and a few 3-fingered ones while the older one has exclusively three-fingered leaves.
  • The blueberry-like smell is faint but ever-present on the older plant. Smells very lovely.

--

So far I've learnt my lesson and the feeding is only 1/3 of the manufacturer's recommended strength. I'm not in any hurry to increase this amount as the soil itself already did have some naturally pre-existing nutrients.

I do plan on adding an extra 28W 'Warm White' CFL, especially as the older plant enters the flowering stage and begins to bud.

Grow progress and pics are posted below. This journal comes a little late, but hey, better late than never, non? :blushsmile::blushsmile:
 
The Fertilizer:

Easygro, a locally manufactured vegetable fertilizer. The starter in a yellow packet below has an NPK ratio of 18-20-21.

Fert-Starter-18_20_21.jpg


Fert-Starter-Back.jpg


The vegetative fertilizer, in green, below has a NPK ratio of 27-10-16. This is is what is currently in use at a 1/3 of the recommended strength.


Fert-Veg-27_10_16.jpg


Fert-Veg-Back.jpg
 
14th Jan - Day 5 from Seed:

This plant germinated under the shade, rather than in direct sunlight. Initial growth was heavily retarded. It was grown in heavy concrete pots that were difficult to move. I'll admit, I had not thought that part through.

14-Jan_Breaking_Surface_1.jpg


14-Jan_Breaking_Surface_4.jpg
 
02 Feb - Day 24 from Seed (Plant 1):

A lot of damage had been done to this young seedling, from nutrient burn and excessive drying out from the sun. These pictures come after several days in Seedling Therapy. The 'burnt' leaves are clearly visible in the picture below:

02-Feb_Seedling_Therapy.jpg


Seedling number two has just been planted a few days earlier in the picture below. From this point seedling 2 is the one in the blue container, and seedling 1, the one in the brown container. Should've labelled those things, come to think of it.

In the picture below, more damage on the leaves is evident. Plant 1 is bouncing back, but man, it has lost so many precious vegetative days, as it repairs itself.

03-Feb_Seedling_Therapy.jpg
 
15th Feb:
Plant 1: Day 38 from Seed
Plant 2: Day 8 from Seed


Garden soil cracks. I'd like to try a soilless mix next time. Good progress for the plants so far.

15-Feb_Seedling_Youngins.jpg


19th Feb:
Plant 1: Day 42 from Seed
Plant 2: Day 12 from Seed


A top-down and an oblique view. Second image is upside-down, apologies for that.

19-Feb_Seedling_Progress_1.jpg


19-Feb_Seedling_Progress_2.jpg
 
Jeff welcome to the :420: grow room my friend! Nice job recovering that 1 lil one man. :goodjob: Ya seem to be off to a pretty good start. Keep them ferts light for a lil while. In a few weeks ya can start on the veg ferts. Start light then gradually increase the dose, ya should be just fine. I too am now using "vegetable and flower ferts" they are working quite well. Toward the start of flowering you will most likely want to revert back to the starter ferts as plants in flowering usually require less N and more P,K. :thumb: Happy growin, and keep em green!
 
Hey Stihl. Thank you for the warm welcome. Feels good to be part of the community.
Will definitely keep that in mind, for the next time I'm fertilizing.

There's still a few more pictures to put up, that are more recently dated. Let me know what you think. :blushsmile:
 
24th Feb:
Plant 1: Day 47 from Seed
Plant 2: Day 17 from Seed


A quick picture of both of them. Looking good so far.

24-Feb_Both_Sitting_Pretty.jpeg


More pictures in the sun. First up is the older lady. I was worried that the stems aren't thick enough in these pictures, but there has been some slow but steady improvement. The bud sites are visible below:

24-Feb_Older_Preflowers.jpg


24-Feb_Older_Sunlight_1.jpg


24-Feb_Older_Sunlight_2.jpg


Next up is the younger girl. Not very fond of that thin stem; I've seen a few journals with seedlings that have seemingly thicker stems at around the same days.

24-Feb_Younger_Sunlight_1.jpg


24-Feb_Younger_Sunlight_2.jpg


24-Feb_Younger_Sunlight_3.jpg
 
29th Feb.
Plant 1: Day 52 from Seed
Plant 2: Day 22 from Seed


Making good progress so far. Stems thickening up a bit as I've exposed them to slightly windier conditions. Let's start with the older lady:
I was extremely excited about taking the pic below. This was my first time seeing the white frosting in person. :yahoo:

29-Feb_Older_Closeup.jpg


29-Feb_Older_Indoors_1.jpg


The brown on one of the leaf-tips below was a remnant of the original screw-up with the fertilizer.

29-Feb_Older_Indoors_2.jpg


One of the the old damaged leaves clearly visible below:

29-Feb_Older_Indoors_3.jpg


My favorite view:

29-Feb_Older_Top.jpg


The younger plant follows. I'm quite happy with this one. It has healthy leaves and a rich green color, considering the bare minimal amount of effort / technology that has been put in so far. The pics are a few close-ups showing the thicker stem and a final top-down view. The 5-fingered leaf phenotype is now clearly evident. Enjoy. :blushsmile:

29-Feb_Younger_Closeup_1.jpg


29-Feb_Younger_Closeup_2.jpg


29-Feb_Younger_Closeup_3.jpg


29-Feb_Younger_Top.jpg


That should be all for the February pics. Comments and criticisms are most welcome. :blushsmile:
 
4th March.
Plant 1: Day 56 from Seed
Plant 2: Day 26 from Seed


Picture updates.
The younger one is evidently taller than the older lady. Here are both of them sitting pretty:

04-Mar_Both_Sitting_Pretty_2_updated.jpg


04-Mar_Both_Sitting_Pretty_1.jpg


Spotlight on the older lady. The following are close-ups of the plant showing the bud sites and some frosting on the plant:

04-Mar_Older_Closeup_1.jpg


04-Mar_Older_Closeup_2.jpg


04-Mar_Older_Closeup_3.jpg


04-Mar_Older_Closeup_4.jpg


04-Mar_Older_Closeup_5.jpg


04-Mar_Older_Top.jpg


The younger plant is pictured below. Most of them are close-ups.
The stem is still not as thick as I'd like, but it's better than the last time. I'm also concerned about the lighter-green leaves at the bottom of the plant. Lack of enough light perhaps? - Or maybe a Nitrogen deficiency creeping in? I could really use some feedback on that.

The plant doesn't grow very tall, as seen below. The bud sites are now visible:

04-Mar_Younger_Closeup_1.jpg


The lighter green bottom leaves in the picture below is what I'm referring to:

04-Mar_Younger_Closeup_2.jpg


04-Mar_Younger_Closeup_3.jpg


04-Mar_Younger_Closeup_4.jpg


Otherwise, all seems well up top:

04-Mar_Younger_Closeup_5.jpg


04-Mar_Younger_Closeup_6.jpg


04-Mar_Younger_Top.jpg


That's all for now.

I'm currently away from the plants from until tomorrow (Monday), so they've been on a 24/0 dark/light schedule for the past two days. I'm curious as to how they'll have fared.
 
They look good! And dont worry about them small single fingered bottom leaves. they really dont do anything. The plant will eventually eat up the viable nutrients in them lowers and simply shed them, no biggie. :thumb:
 
Stihl, thanks for the advice. Will stop worrying about the leaves. :blushsmile:
Czecho, great! Hopefully this will be first of many successful grows. :thanks:
 
I'm currently away from the plants from until tomorrow (Monday), so they've been on a 24/0 dark/light schedule for the past two days. I'm curious as to how they'll have fared.

Small error here. This was meant to be 24 hours of light, not darkness.. :yikes:
 
Hope all is well in your world.

Is this grow still alive?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read our Photo Gallery Tutorial.

I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.

:Namaste:
 
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