Hi folks. Thank you for the warm welcome and great advice so far.
I am in Cape Town, growing on in indoor balcony that gets plenty of daylight yet no direct sunlight. It made sense for me to begin my first grow / grows with low inputs. My first two plants were seedlings and fortunately both turned out to be female plants. They were started in December by a friend, in his hydro system, and he gifted them to me. One a Swazi land race plant, and the other an exodus cheese.
There are notes on other threads about how I over-watered the coco medium and subsequently developed a bug problem, which I am treating with caution whilst they are in ICU. Both plants have been in shock and their pistils browned and desiccated, but I do see new white pistils in the flowers, so I am ever hopeful that they will recover and produce reasonable bud.
My choice to grow indigenous plants is a financial one. It makes sense to me to experiment without over capitalizing to begin with. I have taken seeds from my dry herb and sprouted them in two different ways. I prefer the latter. The first is to drop a pip in a polystyrene cup of water and leave in a dark cupboard until it sinks to the bottom and the tap root is about a cm long, then remove and place in a split sponge on the top of the same cup, to grow a shoot. The second is the paper towel in baggie method. I prefer that, as there is less handling and therefor less room for human error.
One of the places I buy stuff from, ie. medium and pots, sells great biodegradable cups, so as soon as there is a leaf on the sprout, I move it into the coco in one of these biodegradable cups and that means I can put the whole cup into an intermediate pot of coco. I have four babies now in different stages of growth, two local "skunk", a swaz and all hope pinned on my smallest, which is aMaphondo, the "Transkei" land race, from the Eastern Cape of South Africa.
The skunk is Indica and a fast grower. The Swaz I think is Sativa, and whilst it is a big plant and fast grower, it is not as fast as the Skunk. I have had my heart set on growing the Transkei land race, which is a Sativa, and honestly, the best I have had (I like a good kush and the girl scout cookies are super nice too though). It is a cerebral high with a body calming, perfect for PTSD for instance. It is mellow and allows me to be creative and happy, whilst calming the nervous system. Great for energy for a "zen" type approach to active gardening, writing, making art, cooking etc.
A few weeks ago I was gifted a vile of Transkei seed, and I have sprouted my first. I potted today and now I cross fingers that she turns out to be a girl.
I am in Cape Town, growing on in indoor balcony that gets plenty of daylight yet no direct sunlight. It made sense for me to begin my first grow / grows with low inputs. My first two plants were seedlings and fortunately both turned out to be female plants. They were started in December by a friend, in his hydro system, and he gifted them to me. One a Swazi land race plant, and the other an exodus cheese.
There are notes on other threads about how I over-watered the coco medium and subsequently developed a bug problem, which I am treating with caution whilst they are in ICU. Both plants have been in shock and their pistils browned and desiccated, but I do see new white pistils in the flowers, so I am ever hopeful that they will recover and produce reasonable bud.
My choice to grow indigenous plants is a financial one. It makes sense to me to experiment without over capitalizing to begin with. I have taken seeds from my dry herb and sprouted them in two different ways. I prefer the latter. The first is to drop a pip in a polystyrene cup of water and leave in a dark cupboard until it sinks to the bottom and the tap root is about a cm long, then remove and place in a split sponge on the top of the same cup, to grow a shoot. The second is the paper towel in baggie method. I prefer that, as there is less handling and therefor less room for human error.
One of the places I buy stuff from, ie. medium and pots, sells great biodegradable cups, so as soon as there is a leaf on the sprout, I move it into the coco in one of these biodegradable cups and that means I can put the whole cup into an intermediate pot of coco. I have four babies now in different stages of growth, two local "skunk", a swaz and all hope pinned on my smallest, which is aMaphondo, the "Transkei" land race, from the Eastern Cape of South Africa.
The skunk is Indica and a fast grower. The Swaz I think is Sativa, and whilst it is a big plant and fast grower, it is not as fast as the Skunk. I have had my heart set on growing the Transkei land race, which is a Sativa, and honestly, the best I have had (I like a good kush and the girl scout cookies are super nice too though). It is a cerebral high with a body calming, perfect for PTSD for instance. It is mellow and allows me to be creative and happy, whilst calming the nervous system. Great for energy for a "zen" type approach to active gardening, writing, making art, cooking etc.
A few weeks ago I was gifted a vile of Transkei seed, and I have sprouted my first. I potted today and now I cross fingers that she turns out to be a girl.