Need Advice on Growing in Mountain Tropics

[Fantonald]

Hey y´all.

I´m new at this and can´t seem to get things right. i´ve tried 2 different grows from bagseed, the seedlings start well, retransplanting goes well at first, but in the end it all comes out small with not enough to even harvest. I live at 5° N, 2250m and mountains all around, with temperatures ranging from 10°-25° C night/day. The photoperiod here is 12/12 basically, and I´ll again be planting in 10L or 20L buckets on my terrace. There is direct light from about 06:00 - 16:30, with indirect light anytime it rains or 5:45 - 18:15. I keep them on the terrace because the rain can be wrath-like, I´m afraid of planting them in our pastures that they won´t get enough light or will get washed away in a storm. I can keep ´em away from the cows easy enough, but bugs, small animals, and birds could be potential problems.

So my base mix is (for a 10L bucket, just double for a 20L):
3L peat, 3L worm humus or compost, 3L perlite, and I threw in 1/4C of cal (it translates to lime, but I´m not sure if its the same thing. We use it on the farm to raise the pH of the soil).

I then mix 1C bone meal + 1C blood meal + 1 cup composted chicken poop + 1C mycorizhae + 2C Sonoma kelp meal. I mix it all up well and add 1C of the nutrient mix to the base. This I let set for about a month to heat up.

From what I have been reading, having a photoperiod of this type keep sthe plants rather small, but retains excellent flavor and potency. Is this true?

Also, I can´t get a good pH meter, anyone know if adding that much cal (lime) is going to raise the pH too high? I can get some substrate pH meters, but unfortunately they are either ass cheap or really expensive, getting calibrating solutions can be an adventure in and of itself. Or do I just suck it up and spend $150+ for a ph meter and take the adventures when need be?

I use water from our waterfall/creek that tests at 7.2, and am thinking of using store compost to make tea for watering. Any thoughts?

I´m trying to go 100% organico, but most of the organic ferts people use here are urine, coffee, apples, bananas, kiwis, worm humus and sugar cane compost. I can´t find good information on these. I also got some delta nueve that I am going to try out, sounds like a decent experiment.

The seeds I am using are all from cannabiogen, i got Destroyer, Nepal Highland, Purple Peyote, Panama, Taskenti, and Sugarloaf. I am thinking of starting with the Nepal highland for a test run. I won´t be growign more than 2 plants at a time in case the army heli´s from above see something they don´t like, and I don´t want to risk the judicial system here.

What I can´t get are fancy ferts like bat guano, kelp meal (I brought some from home so I´m lucky), green sand, dolomite lime, pure organic soils (all the soils here are mixed with chem ferts)etc, and organic ferts, compost aerators, etc.

What I CAN get are worm humus, peat, perlite, chicken and cow manure, coco coir, rice husks, live trout (I read how to make fish emulsion, sounds pretty stinky though), blood and bone meal (pretty sure its from the slaughterhouse, I had to snooker my way into buying the smallest bag they had since they only deal in tons), sugar cane composts, wood chips and ash, basically farm products from the 50´s.

I got my own piece of land, about 3 hectacres, a mix of boonies and residencial area

Thanks for the help, greatly appreciated.

 

[bird mcbride]

You mentioned cows...go collect some of last years cow patties and try one plant in that. Be sure to put an inch or two of gravel in the bottom of your plantpot to ensure good drainage. If like in Canada farmers have been buying litmus paper from the drugstores to test soil ph for as long as I can remember. That might buy you some time to save the cash for a ph meter. The first time I grew bud I put them out in the morning and brought them inside at night. I used growbags with carrying handles so they would be easier to carry etc,

 

[Anotherlover]

For planting into the ground:
Firstly how is the drainage? When you grab some soil in your hand and squash it together what does it do?
How often does it rain?

 

[dannyboy602]

my guess is you need to suppliment with more light. 12 hrs isn't enough to veg your plants. but if you're planting into the ground it's near impossible to do. mb concider pots that can be brought in. set up a room with additional light and give em about 6 more hours. do this for 4-6 wks then move them outside to flower. that should give you bigger buds.

 

[Fantonald]

You mentioned cows...go collect some of last years cow patties and try one plant in that. Be sure to put an inch or two of gravel in the bottom of your plantpot to ensure good drainage. If like in Canada farmers have been buying litmus paper from the drugstores to test soil ph for as long as I can remember. That might buy you some time to save the cash for a ph meter. The first time I grew bud I put them out in the morning and brought them inside at night. I used growbags with carrying handles so they would be easier to carry etc,

Thanks for the ideas. I will look into the litmus paper idea later this afternoon, and look for some information on how to use them. Any helpful hints in using them?

I don´t think I could distinguish between 2 month old manure and 1 year old manure. it rains here so often and at different intervals and amounts it all turns to mush eventually. The runoff creates quite a beautiful field of pasture for us, its always green here and the grass is always growing for the cows.
I have looked for composted cow manure, but they don´t sell it where I have looked. I assume its because the chicken operations create enough chicken manure that the cow manure isn´t as financially profitable, but who knows really. it should be composted, right?

We throw in some manure into our compost, which I´m starting a worm composting pile here shortly. From what I´ve read that will work out in a bit.

I have read using lime water to lower pH organically. There is also sulfur around here that is used, any opinions on which would work best?

Again, thanks for the quick reply!

 

[Fantonald]

The drainage I think is alright. With the perlite it seems to drain well, but the peat seems to keep things moist for a few more days than I thought. My first grow was with soil and the sun dried it out quick like, every couple of days. With my base mix and nute addatives, after I water it during the heating cycle in the buckets (before planting the seeds) I can squeeze it and water will drain out a bit down my arm, but not a stream. I wouldn´t say sopping wet, but I would say its pretty damp. I water until water starts to flow out, not drip out.

Let me guess, too much water?

I´m afraid of having some of the plants indoors in a closet. I can´t really rig my closet with filters and such to keep out the smell, and we have guests over enough that I´m afraid someone might smell somethign. Plus with the bone and blood meal, won´t it reek pretty bad and attract animals? I can´t have animals coming in, being close to the equator we get lots of crazy stuff, from termites to tarantulas, owls and bats and snakes (venomous and not), my wife might not want to be married too long after that.

This is awesome, thanks for the quick replies!

 

[Fantonald]

my guess is you need to suppliment with more light. 12 hrs isn't enough to veg your plants. but if you're planting into the ground it's near impossible to do. mb concider pots that can be brought in. set up a room with additional light and give em about 6 more hours. do this for 4-6 wks then move them outside to flower. that should give you bigger buds.

I was thinking the same thing. Since I have enough space for two plants, and its tall enough for about 6´of growth vertically, only about 2´ of growth horizontally. but I´m afraid of the organic supplements, bone meal and blood meal to be exact, to attract critters ranging from killer ants to tarantulas the size of my palm, snakes sometimes as well. I might not have a wife much longer if that happens

Any other solutions you can think of?

Also, the strongest CFL´s I found are 45W, is that going to be enough? I have read a bunch about light sprectrums and whatnot, it seems like that might not work.

Thanks for the advice

 

[Fantonald]

For planting into the ground:
Firstly how is the drainage? When you grab some soil in your hand and squash it together what does it do?
How often does it rain?

If I plant in the ground, the soil is very acidic, but its brown and a bit clay filled. it doesn´t look like the black soil I grew up with in the midwest of the states. I don´t know much about soil types, I have read about loam, sandy soils, etc, but couldn´t get my head wrapped around what kind I have. I know its acidic, we use cal every so often to keep the pH up for the pastures and trees. If I pick it up in my hand its rather loose and brownish, but it doesn´t feel like clay soil to me. its mountain soil, does that matter? we have lots of landslides from the rain also, if that helps define anything.

I was thinking of planting on a south facing slope, digging a hole and putting in my mix, then covering the top with a clear plastic so as to keep the rain off. its a pretty steep slope, so I imagine the water will drain pretty well. And the plastic will be about 6´ above the hole. Winds here can be pretty nasty though, especially coming up the valley slope where I´d be planting.

 

[rikdabrick]

I'll get back to this when I get to my computer, but you've got everything you need to grow some huge beautiful trees. In the meantime read through some of the "Hawaii Growers" thread on this site and Old Haole's grow journals on icmag.com. Plenty of knowledge about growing in the tropics

 

[Fantonald]

I'll get back to this when I get to my computer, but you've got everything you need to grow some huge beautiful trees. In the meantime read through some of the "Hawaii Growers" thread on this site and Old Haole's grow journals on icmag.com. Plenty of knowledge about growing in the tropics

Very very cool, this lifts my spirits, I appreciate it. I don´t know any growers in the area, but I have tried getting information from a message board here (a colombian website). Unfortunately nobody uses the ferts or grow substrates that I do, they are not easy to come by and most people don´t have the money to pay for them if they can even find them I assume. Thanks again, I have been bummed out about it after two test runs (over 8 months of trying!) have just come up with only good smells and plants no longer than my shoe.

 

[rikdabrick]

Very very cool, this lifts my spirits, I appreciate it. I don´t know any growers in the area, but I have tried getting information from a message board here (a colombian website). Unfortunately nobody uses the ferts or grow substrates that I do, they are not easy to come by and most people don´t have the money to pay for them if they can even find them I assume. Thanks again, I have been bummed out about it after two test runs (over 8 months of trying!) have just come up with only good smells and plants no longer than my shoe.

Sorry it took awhile to get back to you. Hopefully you've been reading through the suggested reading material. There's a lot of great growers on this site, however most of them are not experienced with growing in the tropics. The two threads I mentioned have tropical growers with lots of experience. Also, I know icmag.com has some growers on there from Colombia; check it out.

I think your nutrients are fine. You can throw a thousand supplements in your soil and there's is still only about 20 nutrients that your plants will absorb. Just be careful not to over do it on the nutes. Growing in soil is fairly forgiving, but only to a point. It's easier to top dress with some fertilizer later, if need be, than it is to try to remove too much chicken manure out of your dirt.

Anyway, if you want big plants, then you have a few options. Option one is to get an euquitorial sativa strain. If you can find some from your area that would be the best because it would be acclimated to your climate. If you have to buy seeds then Ace, CannaBioGen, Holy Smokes, Tom Hill, Malberry, Mandala, World of Seeds and probably some others all have strains that would flower well in the tropics. Put them outside toward the middle to end of April and let them grow all summer. They'll get huge if they are a strain that is from the tropics. Most of the tropical strains also take a long time to flower so they won't be ready until late October to late December (assuming you're in the Northern Hemisphere) depending on the strain. Also a lot of tropical strains are light nutrient feeders. You can put them out during any other part of the year too, but they won't get as big and some of those strains might not handle your lower winter temperatures well, but I'd try it if I were you and I make a bunch of seeds too if you can for experimenting with throughout the year.

Option two, as mentioned already, you can either veg them inside to your desired height or supplement the amount of hours of daylight they get with some man-made light. I used to put my plants outside every morning and then bring them inside at night. Put a light on a timer and they would get a few extra hours of light in the morning to keep them in veg until I wanted to put them outside to flower. The light doesn't have to be huge, just enough to keep them vegetating. Or you can rig some lights up outside and then you don't have to move them.

Option three. Grow whatever you want and selectively breed something that will work in you climate. This is what I would do during the winter growing season. Breed and make seeds through the winter. You can go through a lot of plants in six months when they are going straight to flower. Select for the ones that do better with your temperatures, humidity and have a nice structure. If you end up with some indica/afghan hybrid leaning strains then look for the one that take the longest to go into flower and maybe also the longest flowering time. If sativas, then you can breed with plants that have shorter flowering times if you want. This might sound like it'll take forever, but if you're growing year-round you could have some strains that work out well for your area in short time with any sativa leaning strain and maybe even for some indica strains depending on how well you pick phenotypes for you area, but the indicas will never do as well as the sativas in the tropics. We have some great indicas here in Hawaii, but sativas are always going to be king or I guess queen would be more appropriate.

Hopefully, I covered something that will work out for you. I'm subscribing, so if you got any questions I'll check back in when I can and check out the suggested reading material, there's is a wealth of information with the growers in those threads.

 

[Fantonald]

Yes Mon! thanks for the reply. So i decided over the weekend to veg inside and set outside to begin with. I don´t have ANYTHING at the moment, and want to first get something under my belt to show myself I can actually grow. I am going to start with Cannabiogen Nepal Highland, it seems to be the seed most suited to my climate that I have at the moment. In the future when regulations lax up a bit, I will order something more set for my region like you suggested (I teach scuba diving courses on an island called Old Providence, they get their stuff from jamaica, hopefully my friends are working on sending me some seeds). I am still afraid of getting caught by colombian customs, its not a pretty picture I have painted in my head.

I started checking out the threads you suggested on icmag.com and have slowly been reading through them. You are right, there are some growers from Colombia and also from places similar to my region on there, it has been insightful. Thanks for the advice, I will continue reading through that and improving my techniques.

I have two questions:

1. There doesn´t seem to be any wet or dry season anymore, the weather has changed so much that you can´t mark it on the calendar like before for the start and finishes of the season. I was thinking of planting on a south facing slope (I´m at 5° N) and throwing a plastic cover over the top to protect from rain. The slope is steep enough I feel that water would drain pretty well around and not inundate it, plus the tarp overhead would protect it from torrents when the bible flood happens every so often. What do you think?

2. Can I start my seeds outside in April like you suggested, or do I move my seeds outside at that time for flowering? I woudl love to start them at that time, it gives me time to prepare the land and the tarp, etc, for the coming season. And how high should I leave the tarp? 10" or more" I figure I can bend my plants if they get too high.

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it and will take you up on the offer if I have questions. i live on a farm so i am trying to go as self-sufficient and organic as possible. Right now I am working on making my own worm humus, compost, and trying how to figure out to clean the soil around our fields to use for future grows.

 

[rikdabrick]

Yes Mon! thanks for the reply. So i decided over the weekend to veg inside and set outside to begin with. I don´t have ANYTHING at the moment, and want to first get something under my belt to show myself I can actually grow. I am going to start with Cannabiogen Nepal Highland, it seems to be the seed most suited to my climate that I have at the moment. In the future when regulations lax up a bit, I will order something more set for my region like you suggested (I teach scuba diving courses on an island called Old Providence, they get their stuff from jamaica, hopefully my friends are working on sending me some seeds). I am still afraid of getting caught by colombian customs, its not a pretty picture I have painted in my head.

I started checking out the threads you suggested on icmag.com and have slowly been reading through them. You are right, there are some growers from Colombia and also from places similar to my region on there, it has been insightful. Thanks for the advice, I will continue reading through that and improving my techniques.

I have two questions:

1. There doesn´t seem to be any wet or dry season anymore, the weather has changed so much that you can´t mark it on the calendar like before for the start and finishes of the season. I was thinking of planting on a south facing slope (I´m at 5° N) and throwing a plastic cover over the top to protect from rain. The slope is steep enough I feel that water would drain pretty well around and not inundate it, plus the tarp overhead would protect it from torrents when the bible flood happens every so often. What do you think?

2. Can I start my seeds outside in April like you suggested, or do I move my seeds outside at that time for flowering? I woudl love to start them at that time, it gives me time to prepare the land and the tarp, etc, for the coming season. And how high should I leave the tarp? 10" or more" I figure I can bend my plants if they get too high.

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it and will take you up on the offer if I have questions. i live on a farm so i am trying to go as self-sufficient and organic as possible. Right now I am working on making my own worm humus, compost, and trying how to figure out to clean the soil around our fields to use for future grows.

I was totally thinking Nepalese Highland would do good in you area. It would be rad if you could get some of the Colombian Highland. I've never had it, but the heirloom varieties sound amazing.

As far as the plastic cover goes, I'm assuming you mean something like a clear canopy or greenhouse like structure and not actually wrapping a bag around it or something like that. The clear canopy idea is great for tropical areas. You will have virtually no mold problems if you keep your buds dry, excluding dense indica budded plants if you have high humidity. You really shouldn't have any mold problems anyway if you're getting strains that are from the tropics or have been bred to survive in the tropics. As an example, one of the early strains here in Hawaii that did well on the wet sides (East and North) of the islands was Thai strains. The plants guys had growing here could be drenched in water everyday and have no mold issues. If you meant something like wrapping your plants in bags, I would say don't do that. You could also do some berms around the top sides of the holes to help shed water.

As far as how long they will veg outside, I don't know. If you just grew them outside from seed, with no extra supplemental lighting, I think they would probably go into flowering right away because the Nepalese strain isn't accustomed to the 12/12 photoperiod of the tropics. If I was growing it, I would guess it to get around 2ft-3ft. tall and yield a couple ounces, give or take a foot and/or an ounce. That's just a guess though from previous experience of growing strains that aren't accustomed to the tropics. And I don't know how green your thumb is so that adds another variable. So, if you want a bigger plant that will yield more, then you'll either have to get a different strain suited for the tropics or supplement the amount of light the plant gets, like you mentioned, to keep it vegging until you want it to flower. I would guess that strain will probably not stretch much.

It doesn't sound like you want a big plant, but if you ever do, I would look for the strains with the long flowering times for the most part. At least 10 weeks. Then you could get a big plant. A lot of the tropical strains will continue to grow through flowering, so you could imagine how big a 150 day sativa could get. The sativas from La Reunion island apparently just continued to grow like a perennial and could get up to 20 meters tall. Traditionally, they didn't harvest them until they were 2 years old. That's what I read from some breeders who got some seeds from there, so take it with a grain of salt. I would want to grow one like that just for fun and the experience, but it's not realistic for most people and that's a long time to wait to smoke it,but it would be so cool to have a 60' sativa in my backyard, ha ha ha.

And did you really mean 10"? Not 10 feet? Maybe that would be fine. I'd probably give it a least a couple feet for ventilation. It doesn't really matter, but I wouldn't want my plants right up against the plastic in case you get condensation on the plastic from having it so close to the ground. Do you guys have some hardcore aerial eradication programs? Are they pretty harsh on growers there? DEA cruising around? I thought it was kind of relaxed there with cannabis.

Anyway, don't give up. People make growing weed difficult. It's just a weed. Give it some nice soil with some good micro-organisms, a nice environment and check on it to keep pests away and you should be golden. Don't fiddle with it too much except for those things and it should stay happy and grow you some nice flowers.

My cousin lived in Bogota for 4 years, I think, and he loved it. He's actually moving back there this year for good. I read a bunch of travel and expat blogs about Colombia awhile back. It sounds really nice. Did you move there from America? How do you like it? I read about some guys who cruised up into the mountains outside of Bogota and some farmer offered him a burlap sack full of Colombian Red Hair for $150US. Kind of made it sound like there's plenty of weed there. Is there not many growers on your island or what?

I hope that helped.

 

[Fantonald]

Definitely I was thinking of a plastic tarp cover for the outdoor grow, kind of like a greenhouse, not covering them in a plastic bag. The land I have is pretty steep, I couldn´t tell you the angle of percentage, but from a horizontal standpoint, 5´horizontally out is about a 4´ or 5´ drop on my south facing slope. I figure I can rig some sort of top to cover it, dig a nice hole with berms on top like you mentioned, and let it set. Good to hear that solves the mold problem, but as you mentioned pests and critters abound where I´m at.

I´m thinking for the critters I can line my hole with chicken wire, or maybe some of the shade covering that we use for our orchids made from some type of plastic. that has some pretty small holes in it, and I figure if something is going to get through, it will have to dig pretty well. Some of the bushes you can see mole-type tunnels underneath, but far underneat, I´m talking maybe a meter or more. They are so small they would easily fit through the chicken wire anyway if they were digging.

Do you have any advice on pest control? I know I need to watch out for slugs, we got a million of them. With our orchids we use lettuce leaves surrounding the plants, you just have to go in and check every day. there is also a top dressing anti-slug powder I could use, it would probably work better. Bug are a big problem, I don´t want to spray the plants with chemicals per se, but from what I read the organic pesticides don´t work too well. Any advice? For fungus on our orchids we use some organic blended stuff we buy at the store that works well.

The wind whips aroud pretty good too up that slope, so I have been stealing and cutting tall bamboo stalks from my neighbors fence line, about 3 meters tall each one, and leaving them to dry in the sun. I have about 10, I figure that should hold up the stalks and branches if need be.

There are no cannabis erradication programs as far as I know, but we live close to an airbase and the helicopters do pass over low enough that I can see the soldiers smile at me when I wave. And word passes around here quick. In Colombia the adults in the upper class do not do drugs, some of the kids, it is mainly for the lower and middle class. Part of it is because they grew up during the drug wars, and almost all were directly affected either by kidnappings or extortions, murders of family or friends, and seeing shootouts int he streets. My wife´s father was pretty upper echeclon in the military during those years, he was supposed to be accompanying the president when Pablo blew up the plane in 1989, but it was his decision to not take a commercial airplane, hence he came out unscathed. He also led many of the bombing attacks on the narcos and FARC during those years. It was no holds barred back then, and a lot more open than it was now.

Its very similar to what is happening in Mexico right now. Eventually the narcos there will feel enough public backlash that the government will REALLY have to do something about it, and it will become more low key. here you can tell who the narcos are (I actually know one who lives up the road), but they don´t flash it like they used to or what you read about. They learned that its better to be low-key and keep things rather quiet. For example they used to blow up an entire building to just murder one guy, now they do hits more conspicuous. Right now its pretty hot, the head guys are toppling in town, and you see house cleaning for power every so often. There might be three murders for a month, but then in a weekend there will be 26 or something. They´re just fighting for power.

So basically, if you want to find the shit, you can go and find it. But if you mind your business and stay out of their way, they won´t mess with you. The guy that lives up the street, you can tell from his house he is just saying, "Leave me be and I won´t cause any problems." I wave to his bodyguards when I walk by with my dogs, and they wave back. If they are driving by they wave and say hello. If he´s out with his posse on their four wheelers and he sees me, he stops and says hi and just shoots the shit for a minute, then he´s on his way. But he does things like gifts state-of-the-art cameras for the entrances to the gated community, and offers his bodyguards to help out if the guards at the gate ever need it. You know, he´s just saying don´t touch.

Colombia is just different. Its really hard to explain. the people here are very close minded mostly, and are hard to open up. they seem nice to begin with, and they are friendly, but they really aren´t coversationalists or do exciting things. On weekends it go to the mall and hang out, or go to the finca and spend the weekend with their family. I´ve been here for ten years, and if it weren´t for my wife I would be long gone by now. I bike ride with a group of guys every weekend since 3 years ago, but I know nothing about them. They never talk about their personal lives, and its just hard to get to know them. They ask you over for dinner, but its always dinner with their entire family which is kind of weird. The questions are always the same, "Do you like Colombia? Are you happy here? It is a beautiful country, isn´t it? Your Spanish is excellent." etc. If you aren´t married you usually live at home with your parents until you are, so thats really weird for me. The women are gorgeous, and they never seem to have boyfriends. But most of them are prudes, live at home, and are overdratic. I bagged some beautiful women, but it just got old going on a date with a 30 year old who lived at home with her parents, and couldn´t stay the night.

So thats living here. But visiting is great. There are some great carribean islands that are hidden gems, I say check out felipediving.com and San Andres Island for some hidden out-of-the-way places. The Pacific is fucking jungle crazy, leapards, killer frogs, great surfing over there and whale watching. The amazon is unbelievable, the river is just immense, and if you catch it with the tidal bore you see the river just swell like a tsunami and retake the forest. The women are gorgeous, there is no way to describe it (you get used to it though. I swear, a 9 in the states is just a 6 here), and if you bike the mountains are just epic either on a road or mountain bike. there is Malpelo island, one of the top 5 dive destinations in the world (when you see the thousands of hammerheads swimming overhead on Discovery, thats taken from Malpelo, and its EVERY DAY, its epic).

I´m rambling, need to stop. DAMN INTERNET! and yes, it helped, much appreciated

 

[rikdabrick]

I'll get back with you in a couple of days. Busy with work and babies. Thanks for the Colombia info.

 

[MasterDabbin]

Is the 18/6 cycle absolutely necessary? Can u just use 24 hr cycle for vegging?

 

[Fantonald]

MasterDabbin, love the name!

So I have asked a couple of questions about this also. What I have heard mostly is that 24/0 can stress the plant quite a bit, and as a newbie its better to start an 18/6 schedule. From what I also understand, 18/6 is all you need to keep inducing the vegetative stage. Again, I might have understood it wrong. After a bit more experience some people on another site told me I should start experimenting with 24/0, but not going all into it right away without knowing how to correct the plant stress that could be exhibited.

Best of luck yo!

 

[Fantonald]

absolutely no worries. I am going to set my water out tonight, and start soaking my seeds tomorrow. Hopefully by Monday I should get them into the seedling substrate and keeping them humid until the first leaves form. I got my grow area set up so I should be all good for the first 2 weeks at least. At the moment I am working on my grow calendar and I am going to start a journal to keep tabs on how it goes. I´m excited.

Do you go on orchid hunts in Hawaii? I´m heading out tomorrow for my second one, and I´ll post pics if I can get some good ones of the guys pirating up into the trees. When I mean pirating, I mean wrapping legs around the trunk, pulling up with the hands (a bit like monkeying up a palm tree for coconuts, but just a bit different from how I learned), and holding the machete in their mouths on some occasions. This is the stuff most foreigners don´t see

 

[rikdabrick]

Is the 18/6 cycle absolutely necessary? Can u just use 24 hr cycle for vegging?

No it's not. Read below.

MasterDabbin, love the name!

So I have asked a couple of questions about this also. What I have heard mostly is that 24/0 can stress the plant quite a bit, and as a newbie its better to start an 18/6 schedule. From what I also understand, 18/6 is all you need to keep inducing the vegetative stage. Again, I might have understood it wrong. After a bit more experience some people on another site told me I should start experimenting with 24/0, but not going all into it right away without knowing how to correct the plant stress that could be exhibited.

Best of luck yo!

Any cannabis plant will continue vegetative growth with more than 15 hours of light, except autoflowering strains, but we're not talking about autoflowering strains. As long as you use a light cycle with more than 15 hours you can keep any cannabis plant growing. Equatorial strains take even less to continue vegetative growth. Equatorial strains could continue the veg stage with a little over 12 hours of light (up to 13 hours of light depending on what area of the tropics it comes from).

People use different light periods because they believe it's the best way to grow their plants based on whatever research they've done or advice they've gotten. You can use as low as 15/9 up to 24/0. I believe 24/0 light schedule for the veg stage will produce big plants with small root structures. I admit, I've never tried it, but from my understanding of plant growth, the roots grow during the dark cycle/night and the rest of the plant above ground grows during the light cycle/day. And I think that's how guys who grow using 24/0 will have a two foot plant growing out of a Dixie cup because the plant grew, but the roots didn't. And a good root structure will pay off greatly. I use the SmartPots and I can tell the plants love it. They stay nice and healthy and get some awesome root structures going. As some people say, "big roots, big fruits". If I was using a strain that wasn't used to the tropical light cycle, then I would use either 18/6 or 20/4. The plants will get plenty of energy from the amount of light it gets and then will get some time to use the energy and build a nice root system during the dark cycle. And if I'm growing a strain that's used to the tropical light schedule, then I would go with 14/10, but like I said, that's for severe leaning (equatorial) sativa strains. Anyway that's my two cents.

absolutely no worries. I am going to set my water out tonight, and start soaking my seeds tomorrow. Hopefully by Monday I should get them into the seedling substrate and keeping them humid until the first leaves form. I got my grow area set up so I should be all good for the first 2 weeks at least. At the moment I am working on my grow calendar and I am going to start a journal to keep tabs on how it goes. I´m excited.

Do you go on orchid hunts in Hawaii? I´m heading out tomorrow for my second one, and I´ll post pics if I can get some good ones of the guys pirating up into the trees. When I mean pirating, I mean wrapping legs around the trunk, pulling up with the hands (a bit like monkeying up a palm tree for coconuts, but just a bit different from how I learned), and holding the machete in their mouths on some occasions. This is the stuff most foreigners don´t see

No, I haven't gone orchid hunting. Orchids grow all over the area I live, but I've never thought of going to look for some rarer varieties. That's cool, I really enjoy orchids. I used to have a bunch of different kinds growing on my property on the Big Island. Post some pics if you can. And pirating sounds like how I try to climb coconut trees.