my outdoor grow in india (12 latitude)

keebod.dobeek

Active Member
palm meadows is in whitefield...but just because that place is 2.5 L per month rent doesn't reflect on the area, it's one of a select few complexes in bangalore that has that kind of rent...really has nothing to do with the area...

well buddy bangalore is expanding rapidly, i'm not so sure there's any good reason to be near the 'centre' of the city really cause there's nothing special that's there that isn't anywhere else...

by mesh i mean either shade net (green net) or an actual fine metal mesh.
Well, the reason why we were looking towards the centre of the city was just that we don't have a company to go to everyday, and the only outings would be to the malls, MG Road, Brigade Road, Forum, and such which are anyways not on the outer part, but rather around the city centre. :D
Considering bangalore traffic, it would be awkward if we have to sit amidst traffic block, which could make up to a couple of hours(one way) travel if we live on the outer parts of bangalore.

The metal mesh seems stronger and sturdy, but convenience and ease of use would be that green shade mesh, unless it limits sunlight by a lot, as balcony might already be limiting a lot of direct sunlight.
As sun rises in the east, and sets in the west, I hope a north or south facing balcony is what's better to get more hours of sunlight as that would receive sunlight from sunrise till sunset?

There is a portable greenhouse thingy thats available at sterling farms, whose ferts and products I'm currently using. This costs 9000/- but its translucent plastic, so people will see as 'something' being grown without understanding what it actually is.
This could be of use if we are finding a good independent house, by which we would have the entire terrace access :D This wont fit a balcony, as after opening it up(unfold) and setting it up, its pretty big.
 

elchupacabra

Well-Known Member
again man, i'm telling you, there's no NEED to go to mg road, brigade road any more like it used to be, everything that's there is there EVERYWHERE else...
forum is not central by the way, it's in adugodi...
balconies are fine, you need to find one facing the right direction...
again if you don't have much family in blr then there won't be any reason to really go to town at ALL...malls have spread to every part of bangalore...big ones...
there are lots of self sustained areas like whitefield, jayanagar, hebbal, etc.
 

curly604

Well-Known Member
whats up chupacobra cool thread ya got here man i would love to have good outdoor growing conditions like you all year round .... im in canada .... BC to be exact and we only get time for one crop a year :( unless you got a good autoflower strain and im stuck inne city right next to an elementary school anyhow so outdoor is not pheasible for me. i would suggest finding yourself some fast maturing indica strains to cut down on waiting time .... maybe even an autoflower. im running some blueberry right now and it flowers in 45-55 days i also have another strain in seed that has a flowering time of 5-6 weeks something along these lines would help your production like mad! either way i do love a good sativa strain now and again , actually i was down in mexico last year and brought back some good hearty mountain sativa strains only grew one out so far and it came out male but i crossed it with some og kush i have and im excited to see how it goes :). anyway cheers man very cool grow im subbed in for sure ..... how the plants looking recently?
 

elchupacabra

Well-Known Member
whats up chupacobra cool thread ya got here man i would love to have good outdoor growing conditions like you all year round .... im in canada .... BC to be exact and we only get time for one crop a year :( unless you got a good autoflower strain and im stuck inne city right next to an elementary school anyhow so outdoor is not pheasible for me. i would suggest finding yourself some fast maturing indica strains to cut down on waiting time .... maybe even an autoflower. im running some blueberry right now and it flowers in 45-55 days i also have another strain in seed that has a flowering time of 5-6 weeks something along these lines would help your production like mad! either way i do love a good sativa strain now and again , actually i was down in mexico last year and brought back some good hearty mountain sativa strains only grew one out so far and it came out male but i crossed it with some og kush i have and im excited to see how it goes :). anyway cheers man very cool grow im subbed in for sure ..... how the plants looking recently?
hey man...yeah a lot of people are envious of that fact, however i'm envious of you guys for having a long outdoor vegetative period in the summer...man i could really grow some hybrid trees if we had that kind of photoperiod over here...where we get enough sunlight in summer to keep them in veg for a while...everything i grow is pretty much 12/12 from seed...on june 21st we get 12.5/11.5 and that's the longest day haha
i think that the flowering period is different for plants when they're grown 12/12 from seed vs distinct veg/flowering. it is probably because in the first few weeks of the plants life they don't receive light for the duration of time they're used to receiving from an evolutionary standpoint. that results in the plant showing sex very early but having a slightly extended flowering period, i'm working on a hypothesis for that (as i'm typing this) in my head.
most fast maturing indica strains are almost purely indica, and the weather is getting slightly colder (will probably stabilize at about (18-20 Celsius or 64-68 Fahrenheit), now it's still at 28 C tho (82 F), but the humidity stays at about 80% RH in the nighttime year round - i'm sure that 80% RH and 68 degrees Fahrenheit at night time is a recipe for mold as far as hardcore dense indica nugs are concerned.
that aside, which seedbank is your blueberry from? or is it a clone...
i am considering autoflowers but the price of good autoflowering seeds vs 20 quid for 20 regular mandala seeds or 15 quid for 10 of nirvana's regular seeds is really making me think twice. i just ordered 10 seeds of nirvana's bubbleicious and 20 seeds of mandala's safari mix last night, heard that bubbleicious is good for 12/12 from seed, and the mandalas are just good for this climate man...will be posting pics in a few minutes...
grow out those sativas and tell me how long they take to respond to the 12/12 change. curious because mine showed pistils for at least 2.5 months before it actually started budding...
 

curly604

Well-Known Member
ya theres ups and downs to growing 12/12 from seed for sure overall i just like the year round aspect of it whereas im stuck to 3 months a year :( sucks ass. i grabbed my seeds from vancouver seed bank and its a great strain fast growing and heavy yielder im in love with it :D.
 

elchupacabra

Well-Known Member
a few points to note:

cut the top buds of one of my mandalas, massive spider mite infection, and i wanted to remove area for them to feed and reproduce and the buds look pretty close to done
gonna let the bottom buds sit for a bit and see the situation, there are almost no fan leaves left though because those were the ones that were harboring the most mites, so i picked
em off and put em in a bucket of water. buds are smelling ridiculously strong and potent, a really citrus-y kind of smell that rushes straight up your nose.

smoked my last bud of the papaya and wow, it was the only bud that was cured for about 2 weeks (really short i know but understand that patience is a virtue...one that i don't have)
in just 2 weeks the taste took on a much more ripe fruit flavour rather than a more sour fruit flavor it had after the full dry and no cure. and what a high man, indicas are beautiful
for night time smokes. but the taste was just to die for.

don't buy 'organic' ant powder in india, i followed the instructions and sprinkled it over the soil liberally and the ants are just walking over it like they don't give a rat's ass.

Mr.Nice's ASH seeds completely tanked, thanks a lot Scott

Sannie's freebies tanked as well, but that's probably also because of some messing up on my part. anesthesia seeds are germinating.

in my 3 selected plants from the MNS walkabout pack, i've got what smells to me like one skunk, and two sativas of some sort. the skunk is furthest into flowering, relatively. one of
the sativas was only supercropped, the other was only topped. the supercropped one looks like it's gonna be developing a bigger central cola and the topped one, smaller but more buds...
we'll see which one yields more...the supercropped one is ahead of the topped one as well.

that free blue widow from dinafem is getting ridiculously frosty.

and is it just me or for a few hours did attitude have this one INSANE deal on their website where it said 'buy a pack of connoisseur genetics and get a pack of chemdawg and chemmy jones
absolutely free!' ? cause i saw that and got so fucking happy and put an og chem pack of seeds in my cart to order, came back in the night after some work and the deal was fucking gone
what a kllljoy, i ordered 10 bubbleicious seeds from nirvana and 20 of the safari mix again from mandala. i wanna grow it right this time without a rain washing my seedlings down the drain.

i found a SHITLOAD of tiny tiny critters crawling around an inch below the surface of the soil in my potted landrace! i think thats why nutes, flushing, etc nothing has really helped. now i'm going
to start heavily adding organic pesticide/fungicide/insecticide to the soil - it's a mix of eucalyptus oil, neem oil, lavender oil, and chrysthanthemum flower extract. we'll see if it works.

adding honey towards the end of flowering (i think) really makes the taste awesome. however i'll check my control plant when it's done to see if it's really the honey or just the organic growing.

and here are pics.
in order from left to right,

blue widow, Kali Chakra (KC) bud, KC, KC, KC, KC, Landrace Bush, Topped Walkabout, supercropped walkabout, topped walkabout, supercropped walkabout, skunk, supercropped walkabout, and the rest are KC

IMG_0471.jpgIMG_0525.jpgIMG_0492.jpgIMG_0488.jpgIMG_0487.jpgIMG_0486.jpgIMG_0485.jpgIMG_0480.jpgIMG_0479.jpgIMG_0478.jpgIMG_0476.jpgIMG_0475.jpgIMG_0474.jpgIMG_0467.jpgIMG_0470.jpgIMG_0465.jpgIMG_0466.jpgIMG_0530.jpg
 

keebod.dobeek

Active Member
Postponed the move a bit more as you said landrace takes 4-5 months to flower! This is just so that I wont be weed-starving when I reach bangalore :P I can come with my own home-grown ;)
My assumption that what I'm growing is a 'landrace' is just based on the fact that indian weed is never sold by name. It's all just 'weed' :D

Compared to some columbian gold, or malawi gold, my supposed-to-be-landrace is flowering a bit fast! Each day a hell lot more of hairs are showing up. Now every single node and secondary branch is filled with hairs. The upward growth has been completely stopped since a couple of weeks. That's a relief ;)

What week are you on your landrace's flowering? Mine is in week 7-8. Could you please show the topmost flower area of the main branch just for me to compare my flowering speed as I felt mine is flowering faster. The landrace photo you have posted now doesn't show the flowering area :(

The Walkabout plant pictures you have posted almost looks like my supposed-to-be-landrace! Just that my leaves(fingers) are a bit longer :|

You also mentioned yours showed pistils, and stayed like that for quite some time, while mine stayed like that with just a few pre-flowers for a maximum of 4-5 days, after which it started flowering everywhere!
No frost anywhere. And no smell as well, unless the stem is rubbed!
 

Sunset1

Member
You have done well to do so much with all
that is against you.

Do not put honey in your plants soil or add
to water that is going to be fed to the plants.
Molases good, honey bad for the soil.

Look for azamax or azatol for the mites.
There are several mitacide products but
never spray flowering plants with anything
bad. Mix up a hi brix tea and spray several
times per day if mold wasn't a problem. So
for you I would recommend don't spray and
next crop try for the better plants.

While plants are in veg mode misting the leaves
with insecticide on a schedule 3 or 4 times,
every 4 days for a total of 12-16 days should
kill all the bad bugs. But more bad bugs may
arrive by airborn insects or human contact to
another plant with pest somewhere else and then
touch the clean plant, reintroducing the insect
pest again. We have medo mites and bug worms
that cause serious crop damage in my area.

The bad insects lay eggs that hatch over a
predictable time frame. Spraying or if the
plants are in a container, mix up a large
bucket of any of the insecticides then
invert and submerge the green part of the
plant in the filled bucket.

I cover the container with plastic and invert
the plant into a bucket filled with todays
bug bath.

I hold the plant under water for about
10 seconds and give it a little swish arround
to clear any air pockets in the leaves, then
reinvert the plant and try not to splash to
much of the bug bath on me or others.

Please don't take this as anything but
someone trying to help.

Thank you for sharing with all of us.
Best Wishes.
 

elchupacabra

Well-Known Member
thanks a lot mate...

a)why not honey...it has the necessary carbohydrates/sugars required by the soil. although it is anti microbial/anti bacterial in nature, so is neem oil, but somehow these things only harm problematic microbes/bacteria, it's beautiful...i've yet to compare against a control which doesn't receive the honeywater which is happening right now, and we will see in a month or so what kind of difference it makes. another brilliant additive is sugar cane juice mixed with water in a 1:15 ratio. it's a stew of available nutrients and sugars, stopped a nitro-def and a phosphorous-def for me...

b)azamax is a form of neem if i'm not mistaken, which we have a shitload of over herre. i also use neem cake in my soil mix but i figure the bugs here are half immune to that shit

c)yeah preventively misting for bugs, have started doing that a while back, forgot with 2 of my plants to be honest. one's fine, other's infested, but it's pretty much cleared up now after chopping off the top half of buds and majority of fan leaves and painstakingly squishing almost every single mite and egg casing with my fingers. haha

d)interesting, i'm assuming that's only during veg correct?

e)advice is always good mate, cheers
 

keebod.dobeek

Active Member
Unless you were speaking about worm shaped things, I have those pests in my pot too. Not on the cannabis pot, but on one of my potted orange plants! They are always under a few centimeters of the soil until I water the plant. Its creepy to look at it when they all walk around here and there for few seconds until they go back under the surface ;)

I have neem cake in the soil mix. So, your assumption that the bugs in india are half-immune to neem cake is true :D

I haven't done anything just because it is not on the cannabis plant. Also, the mentioned orange plant is growing quite normal without showing any problems.
 

keebod.dobeek

Active Member
They look like miniature cockroaches :| But black! Don't fly. Walks really fast! Digs into the soil too fast, and comes up to the surface too fast.
 
First of all, good job on your grow and creating this thread,[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] elchupacabra[/FONT]. Was a fine 45 page read :p and I must say I learned a lot.

I was in the US for the last 8 years and just got back a couple of weeks ago and plan to continue here. I'm thinking of growing some seeds that i had ordered from Nirvana. (White Widow to be specific). Would the conditions in Delhi would be suited for an outdoor grow. I'm thinking of growing on my balcony, 12/12 from seed to harvest. Keep in mind that winter is right around the corner and temperatures would drop down to 40 - 55 (2-10 degree Celsius) during the day with sunlight being available only for 10 hrs or so.

Is it better for me to grow indoor and what suggestions would you give me since this will be my first grow ever. I have soaked my seed as of last night in a cup of water and started seeing some progress in 24 hrs. (Shell opening up)

I will also post on the general section regarding my grow if any of you guys would be interested in following / guiding me. I am fairly new to this process and have very basic information regarding a healthy grow.
 
Any suggestions on where i could buy good soil, ph meter, fertilizers etc in Delhi. I tried looking online for the required raw materials and could hardly find any Gardening / Hardware store that sells these items..

Gawd I miss Amazon so much!!

I still have an active membership to Prime that i cannot take advantage of anymore :((
 

MajorCoco

Well-Known Member
a few points to note:

cut the top buds of one of my mandalas, massive spider mite infection, and i wanted to remove area for them to feed and reproduce and the buds look pretty close to done
gonna let the bottom buds sit for a bit and see the situation, there are almost no fan leaves left though because those were the ones that were harboring the most mites, so i picked
em off and put em in a bucket of water. buds are smelling ridiculously strong and potent, a really citrus-y kind of smell that rushes straight up your nose.

smoked my last bud of the papaya and wow, it was the only bud that was cured for about 2 weeks (really short i know but understand that patience is a virtue...one that i don't have)
in just 2 weeks the taste took on a much more ripe fruit flavour rather than a more sour fruit flavor it had after the full dry and no cure. and what a high man, indicas are beautiful
for night time smokes. but the taste was just to die for.

don't buy 'organic' ant powder in india, i followed the instructions and sprinkled it over the soil liberally and the ants are just walking over it like they don't give a rat's ass.

Mr.Nice's ASH seeds completely tanked, thanks a lot Scott

Sannie's freebies tanked as well, but that's probably also because of some messing up on my part. anesthesia seeds are germinating.

in my 3 selected plants from the MNS walkabout pack, i've got what smells to me like one skunk, and two sativas of some sort. the skunk is furthest into flowering, relatively. one of
the sativas was only supercropped, the other was only topped. the supercropped one looks like it's gonna be developing a bigger central cola and the topped one, smaller but more buds...
we'll see which one yields more...the supercropped one is ahead of the topped one as well.

that free blue widow from dinafem is getting ridiculously frosty.

and is it just me or for a few hours did attitude have this one INSANE deal on their website where it said 'buy a pack of connoisseur genetics and get a pack of chemdawg and chemmy jones
absolutely free!' ? cause i saw that and got so fucking happy and put an og chem pack of seeds in my cart to order, came back in the night after some work and the deal was fucking gone
what a kllljoy, i ordered 10 bubbleicious seeds from nirvana and 20 of the safari mix again from mandala. i wanna grow it right this time without a rain washing my seedlings down the drain.

i found a SHITLOAD of tiny tiny critters crawling around an inch below the surface of the soil in my potted landrace! i think thats why nutes, flushing, etc nothing has really helped. now i'm going
to start heavily adding organic pesticide/fungicide/insecticide to the soil - it's a mix of eucalyptus oil, neem oil, lavender oil, and chrysthanthemum flower extract. we'll see if it works.

adding honey towards the end of flowering (i think) really makes the taste awesome. however i'll check my control plant when it's done to see if it's really the honey or just the organic growing.

and here are pics.
in order from left to right,

blue widow, Kali Chakra (KC) bud, KC, KC, KC, KC, Landrace Bush, Topped Walkabout, supercropped walkabout, topped walkabout, supercropped walkabout, skunk, supercropped walkabout, and the rest are KC

View attachment 2367599View attachment 2367612View attachment 2367611View attachment 2367610View attachment 2367609View attachment 2367608View attachment 2367607View attachment 2367606View attachment 2367605View attachment 2367603View attachment 2367602View attachment 2367601View attachment 2367600View attachment 2367597View attachment 2367598View attachment 2367594View attachment 2367595View attachment 2367614
Nice work. Some great smoke from some seriously challenging growing conditions!

I'd put money on your non-honey control plant being just as tasty as the others. Organic soil usually stays healthier when it contains lots of microbes and bacteria etc. These help break down the nutrients in the soil and keep other nasties at bay. Using honey can eventually kill all these good microbes because it can be a very strong anti-bacterial. Kelp extract would be a better feed to use to help keep the soil healthy and productive, as it promotes growth of the good bugs. Good that you've got a control to test your theory out though! My views are based on the theory rather than practice....
 

Sunset1

Member
Balcony growers all over the world grow for
themselves and are some of the best people
on the earth. Being 17 degrees latitude you
should look for the strains that grow best
near the equator. I only know what is
best for me, so good karma to you.

The balcony grow is a very good way to provide
your own medicine. Adding a simple 100w. light
that turns on as the sun sets and stays on til
10:00pm then turns on again at 4:00am would
give an 18 hour light cycle for vegging.
Security is always part of growing, you can
never be to careful. I would convert a small
indoor 4 foot square area to veg and only
flower on the balcony, but you know what is
best for you situation. As always grow as you
feel safe.

I harvest about 8 months out of the year by
doing pretty much the same 18 hours veg and
just place a maximum of 6 plants in my back-
yard every 35 days since my favorite strains
take 70 days to finish.
I veg indoors with lights on from 7pm till 1pm.
(1-7 lights off during the hot part of the day)

I never have more than 18 plants outside as
my location allows 18 plants total with
6 mature and 12 vegging. When I harvest
the 6 plants that have been outside for 70
days I have 6 more inside under 18 hour
light cycle ready to replace the plants
that are harvested.

June through Sep. are too hot to have a good
outdoor crop but I have harvested in August
by pulling a tarp every day over the plants
at 5:00pm and then after sundown I uncover
the plants. I can forget the uncover but
if you miss one day of pulling the 5:00pm
tarp, the plants may reveg and start
counting as day one of flower again.

The worms I spoke about are a bud catepiller
that eat the cola and excrement a bacteria
that promotes bud mold causing damage to the
best parts of the plants. I spray BT up to
the last 4 weeks of harvest then accept the
damage vs healthy smoke. I spray all over
my backyard keeping tomato plants and all
surfaces that the moths land on covered
with BT, I love finding a dead infant size
catepiller that did not hurt my colas.

The worms spoke about in the thread sound like
fungus gnats. The larve eat healthy roots and
your plants may look over watered with the larve
in the soil eating the roots cause the overwater
look. The mature gnats fly arround like little
black fruit flys seen most during watering.

I use nematodes and the gnat larve disappear in
7-10 days. The nematodes are tiny worms that are
the best for your soil.
After applying the nematodes check when you water
for the next 2 weeks look for the larve and if
one container is bad take a spoon of soil from
the good containers and add back a spoon of soil
from the infested plants as food for the nematodes
in the good pots.

During veg I spray every six weeks and have
the best looking plants I can possibly grow.
I spray with organicide on my first day of
insect control and follow with az. product
then 3rd treatment is simple insecticide soap
lastly with organicide again.

Hope I didn't offend anybody.
Best karma to you and yours.
 

vnwarrior

Member
@elchupacabra - just came onto this site.really, really amazed at the stuff you're doing, especially in India. Hoping to pick up some stuff from your posts.
 

elchupacabra

Well-Known Member
Balcony growers all over the world grow for
themselves and are some of the best people
on the earth. Being 17 degrees latitude you
should look for the strains that grow best
near the equator. I only know what is
best for me, so good karma to you.

The balcony grow is a very good way to provide
your own medicine. Adding a simple 100w. light
that turns on as the sun sets and stays on til
10:00pm then turns on again at 4:00am would
give an 18 hour light cycle for vegging.
Security is always part of growing, you can
never be to careful. I would convert a small
indoor 4 foot square area to veg and only
flower on the balcony, but you know what is
best for you situation. As always grow as you
feel safe.

I harvest about 8 months out of the year by
doing pretty much the same 18 hours veg and
just place a maximum of 6 plants in my back-
yard every 35 days since my favorite strains
take 70 days to finish.
I veg indoors with lights on from 7pm till 1pm.
(1-7 lights off during the hot part of the day)

I never have more than 18 plants outside as
my location allows 18 plants total with
6 mature and 12 vegging. When I harvest
the 6 plants that have been outside for 70
days I have 6 more inside under 18 hour
light cycle ready to replace the plants
that are harvested.

June through Sep. are too hot to have a good
outdoor crop but I have harvested in August
by pulling a tarp every day over the plants
at 5:00pm and then after sundown I uncover
the plants. I can forget the uncover but
if you miss one day of pulling the 5:00pm
tarp, the plants may reveg and start
counting as day one of flower again.

The worms I spoke about are a bud catepiller
that eat the cola and excrement a bacteria
that promotes bud mold causing damage to the
best parts of the plants. I spray BT up to
the last 4 weeks of harvest then accept the
damage vs healthy smoke. I spray all over
my backyard keeping tomato plants and all
surfaces that the moths land on covered
with BT, I love finding a dead infant size
catepiller that did not hurt my colas.

The worms spoke about in the thread sound like
fungus gnats. The larve eat healthy roots and
your plants may look over watered with the larve
in the soil eating the roots cause the overwater
look. The mature gnats fly arround like little
black fruit flys seen most during watering.

I use nematodes and the gnat larve disappear in
7-10 days. The nematodes are tiny worms that are
the best for your soil.
After applying the nematodes check when you water
for the next 2 weeks look for the larve and if
one container is bad take a spoon of soil from
the good containers and add back a spoon of soil
from the infested plants as food for the nematodes
in the good pots.

During veg I spray every six weeks and have
the best looking plants I can possibly grow.
I spray with organicide on my first day of
insect control and follow with az. product
then 3rd treatment is simple insecticide soap
lastly with organicide again.

Hope I didn't offend anybody.
Best karma to you and yours.
while i'd fucking love to grow some massive hybrid plants,
the necessity to use the electricity and keep the plants on
is something that really makes me feel like i'm paying extra
to grow the pot...the primary reason i'm going organic is
that once the bacteria in the soil are cultivated, they will
continue to live as long as they are given a source of
carbohydrates and a suitable host medium. creating a host
medium is relatively cheap compared to chemical fertilizers
and even organic fertilizers, and only needs to be done once
in the beginning of the grow, ideally. a supersoil mixture is
what i'm preparing for the next set of seeds i'm getting, mixed
bone meal (liberally), vermicompost, coffee grounds, hair (given
unknowingly and willingly from my dog's bed and blanket, as well
as when i trimmed my beard), neem cake, a few crushed eggshells,
piss, banana peels, and watered with a very very very mild brown sugar
solution to provide some usable carbs. will be shoving
a fish head in the bottom of the soils in a couple days, but only in
a few pots...figure i'd better wait for the ones with the fish heads to
break down and then use them in january... anyone know any other
waste products from a butcher that can be safely used?

also, i'm at 12 latitude, not 17 ;) i want to select strains native to
further north as well because i don't get that kind of weed here

honey is anti microbial, but studies suggest that it only attacks certain
microbes, and while 'they' haven't found a particular trait that the honey
seems to look for when 'attacking' microbes, it is supposed to be more
useful than harmful to beneficial microbes in the soil.
 
Top