Southern Hemisphere Growers (KIWI STYLES)

Hello all! How are we today?


Well.....
I've been looking online for quite a while now for somewhere for Kiwis (and Aussies I guess hahahaha) and those on the opposite side of the planet with opposite seasons to share some love and get some advice for their outdoor hobby! Now maybe it's because of the cones of 'Black Rose' I've been smoking but I can't seem to find a forum anywhere! So with that I thought I would jump on here and introduce myself to you all by showing you what I've been getting up to with a few friends down here in NZ! We maybe a few hundred Km away but we sure know how to smoke up large and grow some high quality bud!! Hahaha and maybe we'll have a chance to help everyone else get though their winter no grow blues just like you guys do for me in our winter!!

Now I thought I'd kick things off by sharing how I've been going so far this season and where I'm up to now with my babies! These girls are a bit of fun for me and my 3rd attempt at an outdoor grow, they are situated on a north facing deck in the North Island of New Zealand.

This time of year we have around 13 hours 40 mins of sunlight a day and are almost 2 months after our longest day of the year. So we're heading into autumn (Fall) and my babies are between 2 and 4 weeks into bud. I'm guessing another 8 to 10 weeks to go till they are ready to pull (and that's just a guess!)

All my babies were started from seed and were sown in Sept 2011. I originally started with 19 seedlings (after giving away a few to friends) of 3 different strains ( DB or Double Brown, Sideways and Lemon x Sideways). So of those 19, 15 are females and 9 were males and of course as they showed their sex have been identified and destroyed.

Today i purchased some "XPRESS Coco Bloom" to help with the budding stage and seeing as i watered her this morning writing this post is helping get me through till the next water where I can try my new nutes out!

I will post my pics taken so far in the order I've taken them in and will put the odd bit of info in as we go along. I have quite a few pics so i hope i don't bore you with them lol! But as they are from pretty early on i hope you can get an idea of how I'm trying to use the space i have to the best of my ability while keeping my babies low to the ground and discrete. (I am growing in a urban area)

To tell the strains apart i put one green twist-tie on the Sideways two green twist-ties on the Lemon x Sideways and no twist-ties on the Double Brown. Later on i tag them with red bands to show identified females (stops any stoners pulling out the wrong plant by mistake hahaha).... Anyways these first pics are of they day i planted them still in their peat pots into in a soil and compost mix ready for the rest of their growing lives!

Sorry if I'm boring you but here are the pics finally lol!!

6th Dec 2011
As you can see there are 4 plants in one planter 5 plants in the other. In the tub in the middle I have put 7 plants around the outside and 3 in the center. It's quite dense planting but I havn't got much space or height to work with and as the strains are known there's no guarantee of sex so I'm expecting to have to pull out up to half of what I'm looking after now.


I think I'll leave it at that for now and put up a new post for each set of photos I've taken. That way i can break it up a bit and make the dates of everything a little less confusing! Also this way I can keep this thread looking the same the whole way though as I plan to give every one updates every week or so. Sadly I was hoping to have the photos come in my post not in that viewer thing so if anyone could help me with that I would be very grateful! So hang tight boys and girls and I'll try my best to get you up to date to where I'm at A.S.A.P (I've got a big bag of 'Black Rose' so not sure if that will help or hinder lol).

See you again soon!

Hey all!

It’s the 13th of December in these pictures (as you probably guessed by the title of my post) and I'm showing my babies first weeks growth in their new soil and in their new spot in the sun. A day or two last week after planting my babies I tipped all the plants I hadn’t tipped earlier. This helps to keep them low and to create two top shoots for bending manipulating later on. I normally do this all at the same time but this year I sort of tipped each plant as it was ready.

You can see in the tub close up where the main stem has split into two (I just pinched off the top of the plant with my finger tips). Once the plant has sprouted two new shoots and each one of those has grown a few more nodes you can tip again and create another two tips where there previously was only one so instead of on cola you now have the chance to grow 4, 6 or even 8 fat colas!

To make room I am also training them to grow towards the outside of the planters and the tub by staking and tying the stalks down.

In some of the photos the leaves aren’t facing up to the sun, that’s because I have just moved and tied them before the photo and the plant hasn’t had a chance turn and settle in to its new position.

Anyways enough waffle here’s the photos!



See you in a couple of weeks after Christmas and New Years!

Wassup everyone!

After a cup of tea and a bong or 3 we are into the New Year! It’s now the 8[SUP]th[/SUP] of January 2012 and I left my babies in the care of a close mate while I went on my summer holiday and wow they have filled out beautifully!

Before I left to go away I went and got some bamboo stakes and started tying my plants down even more, you can see in these photos how much manipulating I’m planning on doing and how early I’ve started doing it. (I use hemp twine when tying down my babies) Now I’m back I’m going to tightening up the ties that are on now and adding a few more for any new shoots to direct them where I want them.

After each shoot produces a few more nodes I tip it again to keep it as bonsai as I can without stressing my baby out too much!

As you can see they have gotten really bushy since the last set of photo’s. This is all thanks to the lovely compost and water they’ve been getting but its time to give them a bit more, so from now on I will also feed them once a week with a basic plant food till she starts to flower. Just to give them a little boost!



Catch ya again soon!!!

please feel free to post any comments its an open topic here

Looking good so far !

Hey all!

Well it’s the 16[SUP]th[/SUP] of January now and things are going strong! Our longest day of the year was almost a month ago but our sunlight hour have improved over the last week and a bit big time! We have had an unusually cloudy and rainy start to our summer here in NZ but this week things have picked up and we are starting to get some really hot sunny summer days!

I am doing the same ol’ with the babies and watering regularly (but not too much every 3-4 days) and am feeding them once a week. I have trimmed off the odd leaf here and there as needed to free things up (please note this is only if you have have have to!)




To keep them low I am tightening up the ties every few days and adding new ones where needed, still no sign of sex on any of the plants but the distance between nodes is getting shorter so wont be too long now till we know what sex they are!!

Wassup everyone!

So here we are! Since my last set of photos we’ve had a few things happen! How exciting!! I’m not sure how well you’ll be able to see these changes but ill do my best to show you with what I have!

Two days after the last photos I had 3 plants start showing their sex! One of which sadly was male so got pulled out without my sympathy but two are girls! Now we’re down to 18 plants but al least we know 2 are going to be useful!

I have also given the girls a prune back just to encourage a bit of growth in the tips and not so much on areas that will produce swag (not enough light to get fat plump buds), and also to let the light and air to flow through a bit better.

Here’s what they are looking like…




The last 4 pics are of the tub (less one male) so a total of 9 plants in it, sorry for the bad lighting!

Hey everyone!

Hope this post isn’t dragging too much lol! I’m trying to fill it with info that might help people in a similar situation to me and enough photos for others that just want to perve at some outdoor kiwi bud!

Since our last photo shoot I have been on a male ripping rampage!! (Well a little bit) I have since taken out 3 more males (4 males in total destroyed so far) and only been able to confirm 4 females. That leaves us with 12 unknown plants to go. To help with my stoner brain I’ve started tagging the girls with a red tie around the trunks so you may notice them in the photos.

We have also had that run of nice weather continue, so the vegging is going great and they are starting to need to be watered more frequently even though the number of plants is decreasing.

Funny enough all the males to be pulled out so far have all been in the tub? I’m not too sure why but its giving me a chance to spread out what has been confirmed as female so not a bad thing.

I think things are ticking along just nicely see….



Please feel free to share any comments suggestions stories or support as sharing is caring!! Till next time! PEACE!

Just a quick update on things!

These photos were taken just before and then the day after my big prune back for budding. As most of my plants are showing now (12 out of 15 confirmed females) and only one more male showing up since the last post, I think its time to start getting rid of unwanted shoots so we can direct the girls effort into some big sticky nugs.

You will notice in the before photos how dense and bushy they have got and how little light and air would be penetrating into each plant. Because these babies are outdoors airflow isn’t too much of a problem for me and the sunlight does an amazing job of getting deep into the plant.

Here’s what they look like before the prune…



And here is after…..



As you can see I have aggressively trimmed back any unwanted growth and started to interlace the branches to use the plant to hold itself down. Over time as I have been tying them down the odd stem has split or snapped, now I’ve opened them up you can see quite clearly the bandages and twine I’ve used to patch them back up.

I have taken photos of each individual plant in my long planters and you can see how twisted and manipulated they have got as I’ve trained them to keep it all compact. You can also see the last plant to be identified that I haven’t tied down as much and also missed the last prune so is a lot bushier. I’m not sure if my over pruning will work in my favour yet but as it’s all about learning I thought id keep that bushy one and see what we find.

Funny enough now all the plants have been sexed I ended up with 5 in the tub, 5 in one long planter, 4 in the other long planter and a single girl in a quick escape early pull terracotta pot. Why all the males were found only in the tub I don’t know and I feel very lucky to have as many come through as I did!

Anyways enough waffle!

Our next up date will have us at real time so we’ll be all caught up!!

Damn its february already.

11[SUP]th[/SUP] February 2012

Wow what a day of typing and reminiscing! It’s been awesome!

Well here we are…. Today lol….

I have just been out to give the girls their first taste of their new food! Now what great chance to snap some fresh new shots for you!

I haven’t done anything to the girls today just give them a water and say hello for a bit, have a chat and that. I have taken the individual shots like last time of each plant and also some group shots, at the end I’ve tagged on a shot of the nutes I’ve started to use for this flowering stage. If anyone has used them before and knows any tips and tricks that would be much appreciated! I picked up the bottles from my local hydo shop and was recommended these after a short chat about my situation.



so whatta you think? subscribe to this thread if you wanna get my updates and I’d love to hear from some fellow kiwis or even you guys that have traveled here or even just met one of us unique people hahahaha!

Peace out all and I look forward to hearing from you all!!!

Looks good bro,yeah the season not great this year and you started late, you should do well at the finish. Flowering nutes now ans as much sun as possible.

*BUDS said:

Looks good bro,yeah the season not great this year and you started late, you should do well at the finish. Flowering nutes now ans as much sun as possible.

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Cheers dude, yeah gunna crank the nutes big time for the next 6 weeks or so. I gotta say i wish they could be getting more direct sunlight to tighten up the buds but hey you gotta work with what you have, anyone got any tips on increasing the amount of light around my babies without using heaps of tinfoil or anything that would make my crop stand out like dogs balls??

Hi man, Your plants look awesome! I am in Western Australia (although my bloke is a kiwi - south island, Jacksons Bay). I wish I could send you some sunlight, we have had 2 weeks of 40 degree heat and my babies do not like it - we have to put them in a shade house! Damn mites love it though and they are being attacked big time. Do you have many problems with bugs over there? I am finding it really difficult to treat the mites coz of the heat. Bloody birds have a nest in our shade house and are shitting all over my plants - wonder if this is attributing to the mite problem, oh and the whitefly, and the aphids and scale! argh! some days i wish we could move to NZ! We have only just started growing outdoors, have a 10 acre block and 2 horses so I recycle all their manure into giant earthworm farms which then becomes the base for the dirt in our pots. I am suffering from huge information overload after reading this forum night and day, so made an entirely new soil for our next batch which will hopefully be better than this lot coz they are looking quite dismal I look forward to reading your updates

hey, looking good. am also a kiwi from christchurch. I started mine 20th october from seed. i've uploaded a video i took today (sorry about the quality) there are 4 AK48s and 1 blackjack right down the end side, all femd seeds. I am using Budzilla and Head master for flowering and am my 2nd week into flowering



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngUcDWb-PLQ&feature=youtu.be

ammun said:

Hi man, Your plants look awesome! I am in Western Australia (although my bloke is a kiwi - south island, Jacksons Bay). I wish I could send you some sunlight, we have had 2 weeks of 40 degree heat and my babies do not like it - we have to put them in a shade house! Damn mites love it though and they are being attacked big time. Do you have many problems with bugs over there? I am finding it really difficult to treat the mites coz of the heat. Bloody birds have a nest in our shade house and are shitting all over my plants - wonder if this is attributing to the mite problem, oh and the whitefly, and the aphids and scale! argh! some days i wish we could move to NZ! We have only just started growing outdoors, have a 10 acre block and 2 horses so I recycle all their manure into giant earthworm farms which then becomes the base for the dirt in our pots. I am suffering from huge information overload after reading this forum night and day, so made an entirely new soil for our next batch which will hopefully be better than this lot coz they are looking quite dismal I look forward to reading your updates

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Hey ammun!

Sounds like your battling against a few things to get through your season! You sure know how to make me feel lucky to not have most of those issues (tough wood!) I have found the odd leaf with chomp marks and have squished a couple of bugs I've found lurking around the girls but other than that I have been really lucky with bugs this year. My mate down the road on the other hand has had such a bad time we're not sure if its the amount of bugs that may have stressed the plants into turning male so be careful?? (not even sure if its possible but someone may know) With his plants we tried all sorts of home made solutions to spray on them and nothing seemed to work. (my mates too much of an amateur and a tight arse to go to our local grow store and buy something that works lol)

Have you tried asking at a local garden store about the bugs? They can sometimes have some really good advice for your vegetables..... i get most of my help from my local garden store as i find most of the online stuff isn't for us down-unders!

Its awesome to hear from you and would love to see a pic of your babies if you get a chance to snap one!

PEACE

8footsativa said:

hey, looking good. am also a kiwi from christchurch. I started mine 20th october from seed. i've uploaded a video i took today (sorry about the quality) there are 4 AK48s and 1 blackjack right down the end side, all femd seeds. I am using Budzilla and Head master for flowering and am my 2nd week into flowering

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngUcDWb-PLQ&feature=youtu.be

Click to expand...

Wassup 8foot!

Nice grow dude jealous as hahaha that's what i was hoping for but never managed to find a spot on time so sorta using what space i can! Looks like your got some gorgeous buds on there way.

Do you order seeds on-line? I've been wanting too and from what I've read am quite confident they'll get through, I'm just yet to talk to anyone that's actually done it lol.

Keep us up to date with your grow and you never know we may be able to have a trade in a couple of months time!

PEACE

haha cheers man i'm stoked with how things are going, just cant wait for some buds lol. I've had 3 orders from nirvana and no problems at all they take between 2-4 weeks for shipping. out of 30 seeds ive had 2 that didnt germ, 100% females highly recommended them. I'm interested to see how the Canadian Xpress nutes go, i use their soil and my plants seem to love it. I started flowering nutes yesterday, I'm a bit confused to what week theyre on for flowering, they showed sex 8+ weeks ago and 2 weeks ago they started to show pistils on most places. wheres the rest of the NZ growers? im sure theres a few of yous

good luck with your grow mate ill be watching good to see kiwis on here

Met a bloke on the Sunny Coast...had some fine flowers.
Too bad about the mites. Spider mites, I presume...I hate them little buggers. Odd thing, they usually do their worst when my plants are indoors. They seem to go away during the summer, here. I live in Arizona. Grasshoppers are a problem around harvest. They girdle the branches. You find your flowers "cured" on the vine.