Himalayan Blue Diesel Grow

Trying to get a little bit of advice. And to also start a new journal on here from start to finish.

Have grown NFT hydro before till my mate got busted with all my equipment so until I get the money back to buy another and grow in my own place am doing it different this time around and on the cheap.

Purchased 5 x feminised Himalayan blue diesel from attitude (trusted supplier and used before). From seed to harvest around 10 weeks. Am gonna do all 5 at the same time in a small plastic greenhouse in a cupboard (1m x 0.5m x 2m) in a mate's house. Gonna run 2 x 125W cfl's (both red spectrum as plants are auto flowering so no need for the blue). How high can these lights be above the plants? My 400W HPS was 12"-18" so not sure on cfl's.

Gonna mix 6 parts standard compost to 3 parts compost with John Innes to 1 part Perlite (is the Perlite necessary and what does it actually do?).

Pots are 3L in size and is this big enough? Not gonna plant into smaller pots and transplant as plants may suffer shock and take longer to finish.

Placing seeds direct into soil and will keep lights of till seed has broken above the soil, and temps will be around 75F (23C I think). Not doing the paper towel method this time as I won't be able to keep an eye on them. Is planting straight into soil ok? Will water for first 4-5 weeks with plain water, obviously being left to come to room temp and for chlorine to evaporate first before watering. Then going to add nutes (soil with John Innes has enough feed for 4-5 weeks) for another 4-5 weeks before flushing for 10 days. What nutes would people recommend and also how much to start with? Will also be adding molasses (or untreated demerara cane sugar) to the feed cycle too. Will be tending to the plants every 3-4 days and each time I will water - feed - water -feed, etc during the feeding cycle. Mind I have grown hydro not soil before. From about the 2nd or 3rd week I will have either 1 or 2 oscillating fans on constantly to harden them off and to keep air moving around constantly.

To supplement the light, when i get some more money, I will add either 2-4 30W cfl's around the sides and will probably line the walls of the cupboard with black and white plastic.

Looking to get around 21g+ per plant. Looking to start this coming weekend, if the seeds arrive by then, and can buy the other bits and pieces as i go along. Or perhaps start next week at some point. Looking to be ready to harvest by then end of May, or very early June. Want the crop ready for a music festival coming up in July.

Any help greatly appreciated and will post pics as soon as i get a chance to.

Pics below are from previous grows. Chronic haze, strawberry blue, and lr's (lr#2 x ak47, auto haze and roadrunner).

u can put the cfl as close as possible wo the leaves touching the bulb,i wud use atleast a 4 to 8 lt pot!u want room for the roots!yes perlite is nessasary..u need it for proper drainage!i always plant directly in soil..works great for me!ferts..i use the fox farm line!good luck!

ur gonna need blue spectrum more than red with autos my friend

I have heard that red spectrum is better for flowering and seen as auto's basically pass the veg stage (which is more blue spectrum) then there is no need. I could get one of each, but would it not be better to have 2 x 125W cfl red rather than 1 of each? Assume that I would get bigger buds that way. I could perhaps get a dual spectrum bulb, but that would be rather pointless as well wouldn't it?

Here's an update now that I have started growing. All seems to be going well so far. 4 out of 5 seeds have sprouted and 1 seems to have had trouble getting above the soil so we will see what will happen with that one. Also potted 6 bag seed and only 3 have rooted but these are for my grow outside in a wooded area which has no public access and there are a couple of clearings so they will get some good sunlight. Decided not to bother with the mini-greenhouse so they all in the closet. Only getting the chance to tend to them once a week so they are only getting water just now, will add nutes towards the end of this month, beginning of next for a couple of weeks then will flush. They are only auto's so feeding not needed much.

Couldn't get a hold of red spectrum bulbs from a grow shop nearby, they only had purple in stock so got 2 x 125W purple cfl's, and have lined the closet with b+w plastic.

Take a look at my pics and see what you think so far. Will add pics once a week if I can.

Here is an update of my grow. The 2 in the back right are california hash and i can't remember what the other was. They were free seeds from attitude. The ones in the small pots are bag seed, i think 1 is a pure sativa and the other 3 are indica/sativa hybrid, very skunky from what i remember. The rest are the himalayan blue diesel. One seems to have partially sprouted but looks like it'll be extremely small, almost looks dead.

Some of the ends of the leaves on some seem to have been crispified and some have curled a little, not sure what that is down to. Anyone any ideas?

They were planted at end of March and sprouted probably right at the beginning of April so I will say 1st day of growth is from the 1st, that way I keep it plain and simple, so this is day 12 from seed (excluding germination).

No feed for them just yet, plain water once a week. Will add a fan next week and start adding some unrefined molasses sugar to the water for initial feeding till the end (inc flush). The soil and compost have enough feed for 4-5 week so nutes will get added at the end of the month, as will the bagseed getting planted outdoor in a guerrilla grow.

Here is my current update with pics from day 18. All looking good so far. Changed light schedule from 24/0 to 20/4, also added a fan to the proceedings. Gave them a feed of unrefined sugar cane molasses on day 18 too. Still only getting to them once a week as it is all I have time for. Fingers crossed they don't dry out too much.

interested to see how the blue diesel grow out. i am germing it right now. subd

peace

Now for an update, sorry I've not been on for a while, was having problems uploading my pics from my phone to my pc. All are doing well. I remembered the name of the other plant which I forgot - it was a dinafem diesel, found the wee baggy the seed came in the other day.

Also the wee runt that I though wasn't going to make it - not has sprouted into life. All within 5 days it went from a couple of tiny leaves into several nodes and has also sexed too! Yay. Last time I seen them was 2nd May, so 33 days into their grow. Hope you like and I will keep you posted.

The wee runt is the one to the front left, if I got any pics that show all the plants together.

Have added a fan to the cupboard to ensure the airflow is moving around the plants. I think temps may be a little high but they seem to be doing well, and I can't change things at the moment till my mate comes back (it's his house I'm using and he's away just now). Did try to change lights from 24/0 to 20/4 but the timer switch I did have seemed to not work, so will need to get another. Don't want to leave them on 24/0 throughout the whole cycle. And the soil had dried out in almost 5 days of being unattended so will now have to make time to see to them at least every 3-4 days. One of the plants was looking a little limp, probably due to the fact of not having enough water.

Am now going to be feeding once a week (every monday) with Ionic bloom nutes, hoping to get some boost nutes as well for the rest of the grow and between feeds they will just get water. Will add some molasses for every water as well just to stimulate the micro nutes in the soil and get a bit more from them. I was adding molasses every time I watered but was advised this wouldn't do them any good and would cause nute lock! Let me know what you guys think and any comments/help is appreciated.

Day 50 of the grow. No more problems, with the exception of getting photo's uploaded. Think I will use the digi camera next time and post that way. Had a problem with the timer switch as it decided it didn't want to switch off so it got an extra week of the lights being on constantly. Now they are on the correct cycle of 20/4 and the fan is on all the time. Thinking of moving them into a bigger cupboard where there will be more room, more air will circulate around them and I can secure the lights better than what they are just now. The buds are really starting to fatten up (haven't seen them myself, buy my mate told me as he is now back looking after them) and they are about half the size of a golf ball. Am thinking that they probably won't be ready in a couple of weeks to harvest so will probably be looking at giving them another 2 weeks of growth so should get chopped middle of next month.

Once that is done then I will turn the lights onto 12/12 for the 2 photo-period plants to induce flowering. Will attempt to take some clones off them and put them in a wee cupboard under a couple of low wattage cfl's so they can take root. Once they have done so I will give them 2 weeks of veg then move straight onto flowering thus giving me small plants, low yield, but should be able to have 6 -10 on the go at the same time and they will be ready in 8 weeks from switch to 12/12. May even clone the clones if they are looking healthy and strong and do the same again. Once I get more pics I will post on so you can have a look and leave me your comments.

Didnt u say u had a 400w hps??Use that boss those cfls arent gonna be enough for 6 or more plants...u might get 10gs off a plant at that...JMO

Finally was able to upload the photo's onto my pc so I can get them on here.

This is now day 66, photo's taken on day 60 or 61. Just finished flushing them and over the past few days from when I last seen them the buds have almost doubled in size! Even speaking to my mate yday who is looking after them says they have gained another 25-33% in size. Was gonna add another 125W red spec cfl for the remainder of the time but never got time to go out and get one so just left the lights that are in there for now. Also had a problem with the fan which burnt out so got another. Luckily it was without a fan for only 2 days as the temps just soared without it :-/

Not sure when I will cut them down, probably wed or thur next week, that's 9-10 days after flushing them, will this be enough? Will also leave them for about 3 days or so without water and place into a dark cupboard for a couple of days before chopping them down.

Gonna be transplanting the 2 photoperiod plants into some huge containers and let them veg for another month or so before switching to 12/12. May take some cuttings off them as well and let them root and veg for approx 6 weeks before adding to the cupboard to flower them.

All seems to have gone well, let me know what you think of my latest pics.

They are all dated so you should get some sort of idea of when they were taken. Two of the plants that look very droopy were just down to lack of water. Within the space of half an hour of watering them they perked back up again.

To dinafemhazeauto - i did have a 400W hps, but my mate got busted with all my equip. This has been done on the cheap and buds are looking pretty impressive overall. And if I get 10g per plant then I will be very happy, will tie me over till the others are finished.

hey bro i would say u have about a mth left on those..GL..JMO

A month, not a chance. Looking at the trich's thru a 100x microscope they are all milky looking. A lot of the pistils, visible with the naked eye, are orange, around about 50-75%, so they are at optimum range for chopping. Can anyone tell me what problems I will have if I just take off the big ripe buds and leave the buds lower down on the plant for another week or 2? These small, popcorn size buds are worthless to chop off just now (although I could smoke them they are not fully ripe). I know obviously chopping the plant will put stress onto the plant but surely leaving these small buds on for a wee while longer should help them to fill out a bit and make them much more worthwhile for chopping at a later date.

Chopped them all yday. Have around 120g of wet weed from the 5 plants. Was gonna leave the popcorn buds under the lights after chopping off the main buds but couldn't be arsed to leave them any longer. Early guesses would say (and from others I have spoke to) that dry weight would be around 50% less of wet weight, which is more than I was expecting. Got them in a box just drying naturally. Putting a fan on from time to time but the fan isn't oscillating so am placing the fan in front of the box a few inches away just to circulate the air around them and just every so often, don't wanna dry them too quickly. Will post again towards the end of the week or perhaps next weekend and give you the final dry weight.

Finally got my ass in gear to let you guys know what the final weight was of these plants. 41g or dry bud. Very nice stone too I must admit but think in future, unless I need a quick turn-around of weed I will probably leave the lr's now. Perhaps if I had grown in bigger pots then I would have got bigger plants, hence bigger buds and more weight. Also a bigger light, or more lights will have helped with the size, fatness and weight of the buds. At least the other 2 free seeds I got are not doing great. Moved them into 2 big 2.5 gallon containers and flipped them onto 12/12 a couple of days ago. These plants are fucking monsters. Had to move them from the wee cupboard that they were in and construct a bigger better more spacious grow room. Will post up some pics soon of new grow area and how they are doing. Here are the pics of them just now.

Needless to say the himalayan blue diesel is all smoked while some was given away and I received a small donation of thanks for it, lol.

man that is not near enough light those are big plants lol what strain are they?

Since blue is associated with over growth and larger plants usually mean more buds most people that grow autos use colors in the 6000K range and keep them on a 18/6 schedule the entire grow.