Newbie Dummy in North Africa who needs help and direction. PLEASE LOOK AT MY PLANT

Dear Everyone,

I live in North Africa and I've never done this before. The driving factor is creating my own supply because I miss american weed so bad and I'm so sick of the chemically induced high we get from the hash available here. I had three seeds that I germinated and planted in pots with soil mixed from my backyard with sand. My lovely nanny who happens to be a farmer back in her homeland made the mix. (She thinks I'm planting cherry tomatoes.) Where I live we don't have commercial brand fertilizers and soils and this is where I'm stumped. I have no idea if what she did was okay although we do grow in my backyard mint, parsley, rucola. The weed is sage and sour and they have sprouted. (see photos below, big plant is a week old and smaller one is a few days)

The pots are currently in my backyard and the temp is 81 degrees Farenhiet with 37% humidity. Watered every 2-3 days depending on the finger test.

From what I understand, and kindly correct me if I'm wrong, to get these plants to flower when they are big enough, I should take them indoor and build a grow box.

Question 1: When is a good time to move them indoors?

Question 2: Should I be worried about the soil mix at this point?

Question 3: What are the raw form of nutrients that I need for my plants to continue to grow? What point of growth do I spray or integrate the nutrients with watering the plants?

Question 4: Do my plants look good and healthy?

At this point, my main concern is to find out what the name of the nutrients that I need in its raw form not commercial brand names so I can hunt for the alternative names on this end of the world.


I hope I wasn't too overwhelming.. I need a decent joint.

Hi There! May I ask where in North Africa? This will help a lot. I know what it's like with ferts etc, I'm on the southern tip of Africa. Trust me, I know the drill ROFL... Good hash I am wagering Morocco

Anyhow, if your plan is to move them indoors then you have to do this as soon as possible. I am guessing you will be needing a lot of advice there too as far as lighting, ventilation etc goes.

Soil mix - Well they're already in there so worrying would do you no good. If you could find out what is in there and how much of it, that would be most helpful. I am guessing no lime, though, so you are going to have to watch the pH of your water going in there. A pH meter might be hard to find easily, especially if you are living kinda rural, but we'll get to that...

OK, so you're looking at organic growing all the way, and you want to know about soil. Good stuff, prepare for a lot of reading. Scoot on over to this thread, read ALL OF IT, every post. There are links to download some books and seminars, download them and read it all. If you take this as a starting point, you will have the most beautiful weed any body can imagine. Trust me on this part.

https://www.rollitup.org/michigan-patients/583341-so-who-here-growing-true.html

Using only knowledge off that thread (I used to grow hydro indoors) I managed to get bud like this with only a good soil mix and pure water, zero added nutes:



And in veg:



Those seedlings look like they can use a lot more sun. Bury the little stalks by topping up with some soil so they don't get blown over, they're a little stretchy.

As far as getting the stuff you need, you might have to resort to web shops. It shouldn't be too expensive shipping from Europe to North Africa. Especially if you are in Morocco then Spain is just over a tiny bit of water. You can get everything you need and then some in Spain, trust me. Anyhow, I wish you all the best, and my one bit of advice is DON'T RUSH THE LEARNING CURVE. It takes a while, sometimes months to get going. A good soil cook alone will take 6 weeks. You might be smoking a lot more of that hash than you want to, but by summer your side you will be kicking ass. Take care,

MH

Hey MH,

Thanks for taking a look and the time to respond. I am actually in Egypt which feels like back in the cave days plus a revolution. I will get to that link and try to soak as much of this in as I possibly can. I honestly don't have the patience to wait until Summer and let nature take it course. I was thinking to take them indoor and get to the flowering as fast as possible. You have no idea the sanity that lies in a joint of weed and not hash.
So yes, I'm going to definitely need a lot more advice along the way.

So the soil mix I should top off the plants with, any particular advice on mixing? I know she used sand and soil. I'm not sure proportion.

What do you suggest for lighting and how much for the three size pots you saw in my pictures?

Any idea on the nutrients I'll be needing so I can start hunting?

I'm worried about ordering anything off the internet due to the crazy taxes and laws around here.


I just moved the pots to a sunnier place, hoping that should be sufficient lighting.


All the advice is really appreciated!! and Btw, your picture of your plant is absolutely stunning. I actually salivated.

Mad Hamish said:

Hi There! May I ask where in North Africa? This will help a lot. I know what it's like with ferts etc, I'm on the southern tip of Africa. Trust me, I know the drill ROFL... Good hash I am wagering Morocco

Anyhow, if your plan is to move them indoors then you have to do this as soon as possible. I am guessing you will be needing a lot of advice there too as far as lighting, ventilation etc goes.

Soil mix - Well they're already in there so worrying would do you no good. If you could find out what is in there and how much of it, that would be most helpful. I am guessing no lime, though, so you are going to have to watch the pH of your water going in there. A pH meter might be hard to find easily, especially if you are living kinda rural, but we'll get to that...

OK, so you're looking at organic growing all the way, and you want to know about soil. Good stuff, prepare for a lot of reading. Scoot on over to this thread, read ALL OF IT, every post. There are links to download some books and seminars, download them and read it all. If you take this as a starting point, you will have the most beautiful weed any body can imagine. Trust me on this part.

https://www.rollitup.org/michigan-patients/583341-so-who-here-growing-true.html

Using only knowledge off that thread (I used to grow hydro indoors) I managed to get bud like this with only a good soil mix and pure water, zero added nutes:

And in veg:

Those seedlings look like they can use a lot more sun. Bury the little stalks by topping up with some soil so they don't get blown over, they're a little stretchy.

As far as getting the stuff you need, you might have to resort to web shops. It shouldn't be too expensive shipping from Europe to North Africa. Especially if you are in Morocco then Spain is just over a tiny bit of water. You can get everything you need and then some in Spain, trust me. Anyhow, I wish you all the best, and my one bit of advice is DON'T RUSH THE LEARNING CURVE. It takes a while, sometimes months to get going. A good soil cook alone will take 6 weeks. You might be smoking a lot more of that hash than you want to, but by summer your side you will be kicking ass. Take care,

MH

Click to expand...

Cool beans, I have a good friend up in Egypt. Crazy times up there. He works security so you can imagine how often I worry about his safety.

Well about the nutes, I actually use ZERO bottled nutes at the moment. And if you are not willing to buy off the web, then I have no idea how to even begin telling you what you'd need. You will have to hit up a local nursery at least and make a list of the ORGANIC nutes available. I can help you choose but not knowing any brand names etc and being bound to what is available locally I can't even wager a guess.

OK so to give you an idea of what I mean about what is in the soil, here's a mate of mine's soil recipe:

Base:


1cft of Happy Frog Soil
1cft of Coast of Maine Bar Harbor blend http://www.coastofmaine.com/soils-barharbor.shtml
2cft of coco rinsed to death
2cft of perlite (large and small)
1cft of EWC
1cft of Maine Coast Lobster Compost http://www.coastofmaine.com/soils-barharbor.shtml


Amendments are:


12 cups of Happy Frog 5-5-5
4 cups of greensand
6 cups of oyster shells
4 cups of dolomite powder
14 cups of prilled dolomite
2 cups of blood meal
2 cups of rock phosphate
4 cups of gypsum
4 cups of kelp meal
32 cups of cow manure
2 cups of high N bat guano
4 cups of feather meal
8 cups of bone meal
4 cups of Happy Frog bulb fertilizer
2 cups of excellerite
2 cups of azomite
4 cups of humic acid
4 cups of alfalfa meal
8 cups of organic rice

As you can see, 'sand and soil' is a bit of a minimal description for me to make much of it. You unfortunately will have to learn patience if you don't have it. Getting this stuff right takes a long time. As a noob, at least 3 months of prep and study on average. The alternative to that is getting so little bud that it would not be worth the risk of cultivating it in the first place.

If you want things done and tweaked fast, then hydro is your only option. Soil takes a while to cook, like I said 6 weeks goes into prepping a good soil. At a MINIMUM 4 weeks of 'cooking' for the lime to even start working. And the lime is important to have working trust me!

There is a lot of info on here about lighting. You will have to read up on as much of it as possible and weigh your own options. I know you can get the correct CFL lighting up there for sure, so do a search for CFL grows using the search box here on RIU.

Right now my advice would be to go find a good compost, it has to be black and not sandy at all. If you can get earthworm castings these are even better. In an un-buffered soil like what you have, adding nutes can be disastrous. The key factor there is pH. Simply top-dress the soil with compost or EWC for now. This is the safest road you can take. But you still NEED to know the pH of your water going in, this is a MUST.

That's another thing, you HAVE to research pH and cannabis, it is a crucial part of the growing process to understand. pH, and water, and nutes. Read through the thread I linked you then come back to me.

EDIT: If I were you I'd leave those plants outside in a spot that gets at least 6 hours worth of sun per day, DIRECT sun. You can grow badass herb outdoors in the African winter. Not as big and dense as summer, but you will get bud.

Hey!

So I've been driving all around this backwards place and found a few things for planting and setting up the grow box. I was tempted yesterday to do like you said and just leave these plants outside but it'll mean that I'll have to wait for a natural flowering. I've got three kids, two of which under the age of 1 and a full time job. Ive been using the little spare time that I have to read up and soak up as much information as I possible can. I have patience to learn and do this right, just would like to control the enviroment so I can force flower the plants.

Here is the stuff I found available in this God forsaken Country:

20-20-20 (weird brand named Greenlife) for vegetation
19-19-19 (german brand) for flowering (couldn't find anything else)
Found the philips CFL 6500k / 75 watts
The soil brand called RICH COMPOSITE that is biodegradable and made of animal manure. That is what the nanny mixed the sand in.

The guy at the nursery gave me something called SUPER that he said can be mixed in the soil. It is made up of:
Calcium 2.5%
Magnesium 200ppm
iron 150 ppm
zinc ppm
Phosphate fertilizer
Bacteria Enhancer

Should I add that to my soil or just leave it as is?


PH meter is the old school one, i ordered one from a pool company and should be here by tomorrow.

Here is how my plants look today. Should I be worried that the baby leaves are curling downwards?

I'm thinking of going setting up the growbox outdoors with CFL lights on 24/0 timing. I'll nute once a week 1/4 a teaspoon/gallon of water. I already gave the carpenter dimensions and set up.

What do you all think?

be carefull with the 20-20-20, use as little as you can may be a couple of drops per gallon, it might burn your plants like it did mine.
the super phosphate is used for flowring stage.

i have this 1.7 liter sprayer thing... the 202020 is solid.. what do you suggest? a pinch?