Barneys Pineapple Express Auto and Little Cheese Auto (balcony grow) First Timer

Hi to everyone...
This is my first grow ever and decided to make a journal to take some advice from all the experienced people here

First some details :
I am growing one Pineapple Express Auto and one Little Cheese auto both from Barneys Farm in balcony in a real hot country!
I am using 11lt pots and i am giving them direct sun light from 8 till 12 every morning. Temperatures here are about 32c (90f) average at day but can get up to 40c! and about 25c(77f) during night. Day length is 14hours till the end of August that will be at about 12/12 .

Both germinated directly in soil after 20hours in water. Pineapple was planted at 16/07 and at 19/07 sprouted ! Little cheese is a week younger so was planted at 23/07 and also sprouted after 3 days!
So now its 19 for pineapple and day 12 for little cheese.

After reading tones of pages and forums about fertilisers I decided to use BioBizz.
I gave them after week 1 , BioBizz RootJuice 2ml per litre and gave them this ammount in 2 waterings.
I gave a small dose of Bio Grow -2ml per litre and i watered about 300ml- to the pineapple in the start of week 3 . and that is what i am thinking about the little cheese also.

Now i am planning of giving bio-grow when in week3 and when in week 4 start feeding with both grow and bio bloom in small ammounts also.
I am thinking to use TopMax too but i am a bit confused with all the different things people say. I also have Alg-A-Mic just to spray the leafs once a week.
If someone have to suggest/comment something about this feeding program please let me know because i am a rookie

I use only distilled water since germination , but i dont have a ph meter yet so i cant be sure for the ph condition of the soil/water . The soil i used is just a good flower soil (Combo Sana , 5.7ph) .
The height of the plants are:
Pineapple Express - DAY 19 - 5cm (2inch)
Little Cheese - DAY 12 - 7.5cm (3inch)

Please check the pictures and tell me your opinion about how are these girls looking! Do they look like they should after this period of time ?
Also as spotted on the pineapple close up picture i mentioned that part of the leaves are separated ( black circle) .Is this normal?
Also there is a small yellow corner (yellow circle) in one leaf.. Could this be because of the use of bio grow?? like nutrient "burn" sign?

Hope i provided enought info!!
Thnx in advance !!

nice, the pineapple express auto is a nice plant. its a potent stinky auto that i constantly want seeds of.

They look alittle small...But maybe the roots havent reached the bottom yet..

when i feed i also flush every other watering cycle when I do soil growing to help prevent nute burn.less is more.

Hi guys and thnx for stopping by!

So we are on day 30 for the pineapple. I also don't feed them on every watering but on every second.

Pineapple still looking short even thought the direct sunlight she takes is 5+ hours. The only nutrient i feed her so far is the Bio Grow 2 times and used less than 2mg per litre.

Take a look at the pics and let me know what you think because it doesn't look too healthy to me I included some close ups to check what i am talking about!


Hope what DinafemHashPlant said will be true that the pot is too big so it has to reach the roots down before starting to grow and it will in the next weeks !!

Ok now about the Little cheese.. Is day 23 and she is a little bit taller than the pineapple. The only nut feed her so far is half a litre of Bio Grow (1mg).

This was on start of week 3 and now i am back and i see some dots on one leaf and little more on another.
Check the close ups and tell me what do you think! could this be from nut burn or a ph problem? maybe a sun burn? I really cant understand

I will water both of them today after 5 days(because i was away but the soil is not dried on little cheese too much) with plain water (always distilled) .


thnx in advance for ur help

i would think a little calcium magnesium feed would do the trick. As for size no worries those roots come first also i like a little silica to help build stronger plants.

ironheadxl said:

i would think a little calcium magnesium feed would do the trick. As for size no worries those roots come first also i like a little silica to help build stronger plants.

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Thnx for the info ironheadxl ... i gave each one half litre of an alg-a-mic biobizz (2ml per litre) and also sprayed the leafs.. Hope this will help with the calcium - magnesium problem.

Day 31 for Pineapple Express and just shows the first sign of flowering!!


Lets hope the Ca,mg problem will be solved and no more curved-dotted leafs appears on both. I am planning of getting a ph meter this week so i will post with the ph results of the soil and water

theres no def in them pineapple expres there mate mag def is dark green veins light leaf yours arent looks like bugs to me probaly thrips check closely also they are small mine mine are day 35 ill show u pic i fed water to day 21 then canna flores half does every feed flushed them once.the reason i say its small it aint gettin enough light simple

yeah it needs more than 5 hrs of light for sure....

jrstarr said:

theres no def in them pineapple expres there mate mag def is dark green veins light leaf yours arentView attachment 1737209View attachment 1737210View attachment 1737211 looks like bugs to me probaly thrips check closely also they are small mine mine are day 35 ill show u pic i fed water to day 21 then canna flores half does every feed flushed them once.the reason i say its small it aint gettin enough light simple

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Thnx for info... I will check about the bugs later today with the microscope so i can be sure . To be honest i noticed some very very small black dots last day and i though about bugs as well :-/

So now about the lights, last ten days they take much more direct sunlight. From 7:30 till 14:00 they take full sun and after that they are exposed to full daylight. I know that indoors with 24 hours of lighting or a 16/8 schedule it could be much bigger! But the sun here is much much stronger than netherlands or any other north country!

My plants are getting higher each day now i can see that clearly and also pineapple allready stinks !!

Let me ask you guys something.. What about combining indoor and outdoor grow?? if i give them more light with some cfls after the sun goes down? Will this stress the plants and cause any other problem than that bugs can come into my house


thnx!

Jrstarr was right... fking bugs

I tried to keep my hand stable in order to snapshot one of them and finally after 30 shots i took one as clear as i could.!!

Take a look and tell me what should i do in order to kill them! A friend i have that is a agronomist told me to use natural green soap in water and spray the plants.. In order to kill any eggs he told me to use water with garlic and that i should repeat this every week without worries for the condition :-/

I am confused , guys any suggestions that may work better? I know that i will have such issues in the future because of the outgrow so i have to manage how to fight these bugs!!

thnx in advance

Ok after reading this post :
https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/171075-pests-bugs-guide.html

i think that these are :
White flies - These 2 mm insects acts just like Spider mites as they hide under the leaves and suck their enzymatic dinners cell by cell. Not only does this cause a great economical loss in crops around the world, but white flies have the ability to carry diseases from plant to plant. Their damage has been estimated to be hundreds of millions of dollars every year. Some plants that can be used as deterrents from white flies are marigold, mint and Nasturtiums.

Checking for White flies - White flies are usually be found stuck on the under side of the leaves. Shake your plant and they'll fly around.



I shake the plant but even if they fly away they can be back at any moment... I am going to take the traditional fly paper lets hope this works !!

Trap work well with whitefly yellow ones best or like your friend said insecticidal soap spray 5 to 10 day intervals or pyrethrum. As for the light that cant hurt it but it might make ur house stink dont think cfl make much difference unless u get one of those big 250w 2700k envirolight but if you gonna do that u may aswell get 250w hps.

jrstarr said:

Trap work well with whitefly yellow ones best or like your friend said insecticidal soap spray 5 to 10 day intervals or pyrethrum. As for the light that cant hurt it but it might make ur house stink dont think cfl make much difference unless u get one of those big 250w 2700k envirolight but if you gonna do that u may aswell get 250w hps.

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Thnx again jrstarr! after looking well all of my plants i find out that the little flies and some other bugs like small butterflies leave in my basil and spearmint. So i can guess that they move to my ladies just to eat and then go back where the food is much more!

I have mint also that is clean of every insect ( i read they dont like mint at all) so i put mint close to my ladies and moved away all the other plants.. Also i am going to by some insecticidal soap and sprey them today. I looked in the yellow fly traps tommorow morning and there allready a lot of bugs in there!


I will also try to find and by some ladybugs but i am not sure if i will find them where i leave! lets hope i will be lucky!

i will update later with some pics!

<Take a look and tell me what should i do in order to kill them! A friend i have that is a agronomist told me to use natural green soap in water and spray the plants.. In order to kill any eggs he told me to use water with garlic and that i should repeat this every week without worries for the condition :


Your freind is right about the soapy water. Insects breath this way ''They don't have lungs, nor do they transport oxygen through their circulatory systems. Instead, insects use a series of tubes called a tracheal system to perform gas exchange throughout the body.'' , By spraying with soapy water you will drown them as the soap stops the membrane covering the tracheal from being water proof. This methord really works. I use it on all my plants and it never harms them. Old cooled washing up water does the trick.

bones1966 said:

<Take a look and tell me what should i do in order to kill them! A friend i have that is a agronomist told me to use natural green soap in water and spray the plants.. In order to kill any eggs he told me to use water with garlic and that i should repeat this every week without worries for the condition :


Your freind is right about the soapy water. Insects breath this way ''They don't have lungs, nor do they transport oxygen through their circulatory systems. Instead, insects use a series of tubes called a tracheal system to perform gas exchange throughout the body.'' , By spraying with soapy water you will drown them as the soap stops the membrane covering the tracheal from being water proof. This methord really works. I use it on all my plants and it never harms them. Old cooled washing up water does the trick.

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he s right soapy water works like a charm.sorryfor the misinfo on the cal mag observation, I normally don't miss. One thing I do like when spraying soapy water is letting it sit in the sun fpr a day with chopped garlic in it, i strain it then spray. the garlic oil helps insect to just say no to good plant destruction.

ironheadxl said:

he s right soapy water works like a charm.sorryfor the misinfo on the cal mag observation, I normally don't miss. One thing I do like when spraying soapy water is letting it sit in the sun fpr a day with chopped garlic in it, i strain it then spray. the garlic oil helps insect to just say no to good plant destruction.

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No worries ironheadxl !! a little boost of cal and mag doesnt hurt at all as for the tip with the garlic i will use it on the next spray! Some say that these can kill some eggs also

bones1966 said:

<
Your freind is right about the soapy water. Insects breath this way ''They don't have lungs, nor do they transport oxygen through their circulatory systems. Instead, insects use a series of tubes called a tracheal system to perform gas exchange throughout the body.'' , By spraying with soapy water you will drown them as the soap stops the membrane covering the tracheal from being water proof. This methord really works. I use it on all my plants and it never harms them. Old cooled washing up water does the trick.

Click to expand...

Thnx for stopping by and for the great anatomy info!! Today i made 2 things.
One was to spray the hole balcony with soap water - found some bugs on the fly traps too - also i sprayed all flowers (not my girls) with a biological ant-insect mix a friend gave me . I will use my microscope tomorrow to check for any eggs or alive bugs!


After that i bought 4 23watt Philips cfls (almost 6000lum) and put them in a closet (i dont care about smell) for the night .
I am going to put the plants every night from 9 till 8 in the morning in the cfls and into the balcony for the rest of the day.
Temp levels are 29c-30c (85f) cooler than outside world! and the hum levels are below 50% .
I dont have a ventilation system but could this hurt them if these levels are stable for the 11 hours they will be in there? I also open the doors every 2 hours to refresh air. Maybe i could by a small fan to help ..

That gives them almost 6 hours direct sunlight, 11 hours in the cfls and 7 hours in daylight!

Lets hope i will be bug free and give them a real boost !

Will try to post tomorrow with some pics!

Today i boosted my cfl "grow closet" i now have 5 philips cfl's 23watt soft white and one 23watt cool daylight . I also bought another soft white 32watt but wtf its burned so i have to returned to the store and add it tomorrow. That will make us a total of 170watts that equals over 11.000 lumens
I decided to keep them in the closet for 16 hours and combine an outdoor time of 8 hours total 5 direct sun and 3 daylight.

So i am going to fix this place a bit - a lot - I will make it look like a real grow place and i will also put some ventilation.

Ok so lets see the pineapple express. I have it now for 48 hours on the cfl with just a break of 8 hours that was on direct sunlight (and away from bugs).
She looks like she is recovering but definitely it looks like shit specially on some leafs that
Its height is now 23cm (9inch) on day 35. Lets hope ight - nutes and bug free environment will help her !



I also included one pic of the "grow closet"