1st Grow - 4 Strains outside on balcony!

[balconyfun]

I have had these clones for about a month... they were probably 2 - 3 weeks old when I aqcuired them. I've only fed them nutes twice, and am now giving the girls only water so that I can attempt to clone them next week. (Thinking of water cloning since it's free and not in a huge hurry).

The 4 strains are Jack Herer, Barney's LSD, Sour Diesel, and Lemon Lavender Haze. All the pics are labeled. There's something going on with the tips of the plants but since I'm semi-flushing them anyway, I hope that will just go away.

I posted once after I transplanted the girls into the home depot buckets... I had trouble with the LSD initially, but as you can see, they all are doing pretty well. The Sour Diesel had an accident and lost maybe 8" to 10" of the main stalk because of trying to be stealth with it all. She's still holding up pretty good, trying some LST with the Sour D and the LSD, since they're not as awesome as the other 2.

Comments / Suggestions / Critiques welcome!

 

[dirmer3]

I love it, awesome job. How much sun are they getting on that balcony a day? Can't be more than a few hours... Did you start them indoors or just straight outdoors from clone?

 

[balconyfun]

thanks!

straight outdoors from clones... got them early so for about 10 days i brought them inside every night cause it was kinda chilly, even in SoCal. They loved being transplanted into those soil buckets, tho!

The balcony actually faces direct south and gets A TON of sun.... the two closest to the rail get around 4-5 hours of direct sunlight and a whole bunch more of indirect for all of them. I have to get some lattice or something from Home Depot to start camo'ing them (despite being a legal medical grow) - they're about to go over the solid part of the balcony!

 

[pabloesqobar]

Nice, a fellow balcony grower. Good looking (and brave) grow! I grew for the first time last year on my balcony. Quite the experience. The smell got a bit obvious with a 4 1/2 foot plant up there. Had me worried. Now I just do autos, but I'm contemplating doing a Kandy Kush or something else this year as well. You have any issues with the smell yet? Any worries about the neighbors?

I'm hoping that with some creative topping and LST'ing I can keep a plant under 4 feet. I've got plenty of non-auto seeds, so I may as well give it a shot.

Best of luck with your grow.

 

[balconyfun]

yeah, it's gettin pretty smelly out there... I'm going to look for some plants at home depot to help mask the smell and add some other greenery that isn't just weed that is more visible to the neighbors. maybe honeysuckle and some super flowery smelling flower... i dunno. we'll see what's on sale and whatever for the big plants.

my neighbors are all pretty old and have lived here for centuries. They're pretty oblivious, so i'm not necessarily worried about the people in my own building. The building across the way is actually shorter than my story in my building, so they can't really see a lot. That building across the way, however, is owned by my landlord, so I am still planning on buying "privacy lattice" from home depot to add more cover. Only the person right above me could possibly smell it with as much airflow as my alley gets, and hopefully with honeysuckle or overwhelming flower it will confuse everything. I'm feeling pretty good about it all.

I originally only wanted the 4 girls, but since i don't see myself force flowering them, it seems kind of silly NOT to clone these pretty girls and get 2 or 3 of each more out there and get me to the legal limit! I have another corner on the opposite side of the balcony [which doesn't get quite as much sun], so I can easily double everything without being overly blatant!

 

[balconyfun]

this is how the girls started out, btw

 

[jumboSWISHER]

instead of privacy latice, i wud find some kind of big vine type plants to wrap around ur rail. the greenery wud make the plants behind the railing look like ne other (legal) plant ya know. lol

 

[balconyfun]

thanks for the idea, I'm heading to home depot today or tomorrow so I'll definately look into viney type plants.

The girls have a few more months out there , so there's no doubt they're going to be noticeably above the solid wall on the balcony. They're already right up to the top of it!

Thanks for the replies!

 

[balconyfun]

oh yeah i also have some miracle gro (i ended up using fox farms for these ladies, thank god!) so i was also going to maybe buy some easy to grow flowers and hope that aids in the smell. why not?

 

[pabloesqobar]

thanks for the idea, I'm heading to home depot today or tomorrow so I'll definately look into viney type plants.

The girls have a few more months out there , so there's no doubt they're going to be noticeably above the solid wall on the balcony. They're already right up to the top of it!

Thanks for the replies!

Yep, I kinda had the same issue. Fortunately, I'm the only balcony in the complex. Kinda weird, but that means nobody above me or immediately adjacent to me. Just the ground floor below. If I do decide to grow another non-Auto, I will do what I can to train it to prevent it from getting too tall. I also grew huge tomato plants on my balcony which virtually blocked my plant from view. This year I know what I'm up against and will be more prepared. I think the lattice idea is an option for me too, and will check it out.

Couple of pics. My balcony has the iron railings which leave it pretty wide open. There's a bottle brush tree that grows on one side of my balcony which blocked the view of my plant from that side. But, I still placed a thin board there just to be safe. You can see the tomato plants on the other side, which grew large enough to almost completely block that side as well.

 

[Bhellowasup]

nice, risky, but good luck ^^

 

[balconyfun]

Yep, I kinda had the same issue. Fortunately, I'm the only balcony in the complex. Kinda weird, but that means nobody above me or immediately adjacent to me. Just the ground floor below. If I do decide to grow another non-Auto, I will do what I can to train it to prevent it from getting too tall. I also grew huge tomato plants on my balcony which virtually blocked my plant from view. This year I know what I'm up against and will be more prepared. I think the lattice idea is an option for me too, and will check it out.

Couple of pics. My balcony has the iron railings which leave it pretty wide open. There's a bottle brush tree that grows on one side of my balcony which blocked the view of my plant from that side. But, I still placed a thin board there just to be safe. You can see the tomato plants on the other side, which grew large enough to almost completely block that side as well.

Yeah dude, I checked out your grow... f'n crazy bush holy moses!!!! what did you end up pulling from her? I saw you got 1/2 from the smaller one but never saw a number on the big one (and that thread is 14 pages or whatever!!!)

My place is pretty secure... There is a neighbor who lives next to me on that side, but his apartment only has a tiny window that must be for the bathroom right there. So hopefully he takes stinky poos. A 4' x 8' segment of "privacy lattice" is like $21 at Home Depot... I think one of them with 2 or 3 tall other plants with greenery will be a great camo.

 

[balconyfun]

One other question for anybody: Should I try topping any of the lovely ladies? I haven't done much cutting / trimming except for a few problematic leaves, so I'm a little hesitant to fix what isn't really broke on them. But the prospect of MORE is always alluring....

I also need to invest in those wire cage things that help prop the plants up.... gonna look on Amazon or the internet somewhere

 

[pabloesqobar]

Yeah, I didn't know what I was doing and never intended to have that big of a plant out there. Now I know. Not sure how much I harvested as I don't have a scale. 5 big mason jars full.

I topped that plant twice - once probably around 1 1/2 months in, and again about 3 months (at multiple locations). That could be why it was so bushy with bud sites everywhere.

I've got a couple of wire cages (I think they were called tomato cages) for my tomato plant and bell pepper plant. Getting one for a pot plant could be useful to train the branches, thereby keeping it somewhat shorter. I purchased mine at the local Ace Hardware. I thinking about modifying it a bit so it'll be more suited for training a pot plant.

Good to know about the size and pricing of Home Depot's lattice. I think 2 of those would do the trick for me. Cheers.

 

[balconyfun]

I've had some people worry me a little about the plants reverting back into vegatation... I remember them looking pretty much like this since the 19th for sure, and I assume at least a week before that. I remember seeing the pistils weeks and weeks ago (3 or 4 weeks, maybe 5), so I think I'm in the clear and that they'll finish flowering. I hope so, anyway!!

Here are some more close ups!

 

[pabloesqobar]

Ah, nice! Healthy and full of trichs. Here's a pic of those cages I have - not sure if that's what you were thinking of. They make them bigger too. I was thinking about knocking off the lower smallest circle at the bottom if I use one for a pot plant. I think that piece would be in the way and probably more of a hindrance than a help.

 

[balconyfun]

yeah those cages are nice. found some on amazon but shipping kills most "deals" so i might just buy locally, or scour craigslist.

i think you're right about the bottom rung, unless you're planning on another bush! hehe

 

[balconyfun]

Also, here are new closeups taken today.. It was sunny, and I rearranged [with some more cover] for all four girls to get as much direct sunlight as possible. I think 3 - 4 hours a day is accurate on how much they're getting.

Bought some rapid rooters today and am taking some cuts (thanks to this board and others for all the knowledge), wish me luck!

 

[pabloesqobar]

I've seen various journals where growers just stake their plants and tie the branches to the stakes. Don't really need a cage to hold up branches. They look like thin dowels stuck into the dirt. I did the same method with my tomato plants last year. Might be cheaper.

It was nice to finally have a full day of nothing but sun in SoCal today. It felt good to go down to the beach and feel the sun on my face even tho it was still cool. Good luck with the clones.

 

[balconyfun]

yeah dude it was awesome today... of course I had to spend 2 hours of it inside watching Nightmare on Elm Street, but those were 2 hours well spent anyway!!!

just did the clones, tried 3 of the girls in the dome with some Rapid Rooter, and I'm gonna try 1 or 2 Sour Ds doing just water cloning, just because. Hobbies are fun!