Hello all. Thank you for looking in. This little journal is for educational purposes. Mine. I know nothing and any and all advice will be most gratefully received. The Wife and I moved to Greece some 9 months ago from England where for over 50 years I had not even grown a houseplant. Here I've planted a mixed border, established a vegetable raised bed - now happily full of tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, melons, cucumbers, courgettes - a rose garden (Lordy, roses are difficult: name a critter and it will attack them) and a fig and cherry tree. But made a schoolboy error. What about something to accompany a few cold drinks? Camels don't quite cut it.
Having done a fair bit of web research, 420 was by far the most useful source of intelligent information. So I joined to say THANK YOU to all staff and members who have given me such (unknowingly) terrific advice; and in such a friendly fashion. Tamir suggested that I start a journal as a great way to get expert input. This journal is not to show my work: it is an unashamed plea to learn from all your experience. So here we go.....Please forgive my ignorance.
Location: Greek mainland, about 300km north of Athens. 400m elevation. South-West facing.
Climate: Plenty of winter snow (will be asking advice about grow-rooms, lights etc later) but May-October pretty much guaranteed sun, currently about 12 hours a day and 30-35 degrees. Too hot for an Englishman.
Seeds: From a reputable Dutch supplier. Had little idea, so thought I'd try a bunch and see what does best. Fems - Passion No.1 and Frisian Dew. Autofems - AutoXtreme, AutoMazar, Star Ryder, Polar Light, AutoBlueberry, Think Different. err...I think that's it. Oldest is about 3 weeks. Six seeds are still in the fridge.
Soil: Well, I messed up the first attempt. Not so much a grow as a germinate-wilt-die. I managed to make every mistake simultaneously. Wrong soil, planted too early, over-watered, fed too early. (I just loved them tooo much). Burning the money I spent on them would have been more fun. Now I've had initial success using a 50/50 mix of a ph neutral vegetable soil and humus from the surrounding forest, with plenty of added perlite. There's not much available here, ditto when it comes to...
Nutrients: None used so far. Only thing available is a balanced 20-20-20 fertilizer. Planning to use (diluted) when I pot on - but when to do this and will this fertilizer do?
Watering: Bottled. Keep holding back on the bigger babies, but with the heat they get very light very quickly, so currently watering every morning. Every other day with the very little 'uns.
So here's the visual evidence from today m'lord...
L to R - Passion no.1, StarRyder, AutoXtereme:
Star Ryder - doing best at 21 days:
Passion No.1 28 days. The eldest and slowest. I assume it's because it's not an auto (?):
AutoXtreme - also 21 days. Smaller/slower sideshoots at the joints - nodes(?) (gawd, sorry for the lack of correct terminology but this is a bloke who thought ph was at the end of a letter until a month ago) than Star Ryder:
And finally, another Star Ryder and a Think Different, both at 11 days today.
Errr...sorry for the sideways photos. I'll just take landscape format in future.
So, 420's, any comments are (auto)extremely welcome. Mr Teddy needs you. Thanks. Happy Daze.
Having done a fair bit of web research, 420 was by far the most useful source of intelligent information. So I joined to say THANK YOU to all staff and members who have given me such (unknowingly) terrific advice; and in such a friendly fashion. Tamir suggested that I start a journal as a great way to get expert input. This journal is not to show my work: it is an unashamed plea to learn from all your experience. So here we go.....Please forgive my ignorance.
Location: Greek mainland, about 300km north of Athens. 400m elevation. South-West facing.
Climate: Plenty of winter snow (will be asking advice about grow-rooms, lights etc later) but May-October pretty much guaranteed sun, currently about 12 hours a day and 30-35 degrees. Too hot for an Englishman.
Seeds: From a reputable Dutch supplier. Had little idea, so thought I'd try a bunch and see what does best. Fems - Passion No.1 and Frisian Dew. Autofems - AutoXtreme, AutoMazar, Star Ryder, Polar Light, AutoBlueberry, Think Different. err...I think that's it. Oldest is about 3 weeks. Six seeds are still in the fridge.
Soil: Well, I messed up the first attempt. Not so much a grow as a germinate-wilt-die. I managed to make every mistake simultaneously. Wrong soil, planted too early, over-watered, fed too early. (I just loved them tooo much). Burning the money I spent on them would have been more fun. Now I've had initial success using a 50/50 mix of a ph neutral vegetable soil and humus from the surrounding forest, with plenty of added perlite. There's not much available here, ditto when it comes to...
Nutrients: None used so far. Only thing available is a balanced 20-20-20 fertilizer. Planning to use (diluted) when I pot on - but when to do this and will this fertilizer do?
Watering: Bottled. Keep holding back on the bigger babies, but with the heat they get very light very quickly, so currently watering every morning. Every other day with the very little 'uns.
So here's the visual evidence from today m'lord...
L to R - Passion no.1, StarRyder, AutoXtereme:
Star Ryder - doing best at 21 days:
Passion No.1 28 days. The eldest and slowest. I assume it's because it's not an auto (?):
AutoXtreme - also 21 days. Smaller/slower sideshoots at the joints - nodes(?) (gawd, sorry for the lack of correct terminology but this is a bloke who thought ph was at the end of a letter until a month ago) than Star Ryder:
And finally, another Star Ryder and a Think Different, both at 11 days today.
Errr...sorry for the sideways photos. I'll just take landscape format in future.
So, 420's, any comments are (auto)extremely welcome. Mr Teddy needs you. Thanks. Happy Daze.