Maria's sub-tropical grow adventures

[Shiva's Mistress]

Maria's Sub-Tropical Grow Adventures 2.0

New grow journal thread for me, with a new garden location and new genetics.
My old grow with Connoisseur Genetics is over on this thread, the 'Haze Hacienda' guerilla garden, complete with funky street art pics and our very own bat-cave (live bats, and plenty of free guano!)

Had a secure scare involving a drone when I was on-site, and decided to abandon that old garden, at least for a while.
Spent some time setting up for this new grow.
Using 'Garden Two' -- need a better name for this! -- that I trialed previously, but without bringing any plants to harvest there.
Details about Garden Two below.
Previously I wanted to run ACE genetics for a long time.
Was going to earlier, but the Connoisseur Genetics seeds I had were won as a prize, so I just ran with those -- and damn they were fine!

Found Sensible Seeds as a great source for ACE seeds.
They accept crypto, deliver with full stealth to my country, and have some nice promo / freebie deals.
Originally I just wanted some Zamaldelica Autos and Zamaldelica Regs, decided to throw in some ACE Tropical Mix Regs since I was ordering, and told Sensible Seeds that for the freebies if they could send long flowering sativa photos or autos, fems or regs, I just need some strains that wont' rot out in the heavy rains.
Sensible Seeds delivered, big time.
Ordered 25 seeds (5 auto fems, 2 x 10 photo regs),
and they ended up sending me 70 seeds (16 fem autos, 20 photo fems, and 34 photo regs).
Plenty to make some seeds for seed self-sufficiency, and make some interesting crosses of photos to photos and autos to photos as well.
(I think that my best season to run is about April through to July, finish in the best weather and avoid the typhoons -- and autos would work for that, as many sati-doms will still veg in my summer on 13.5/10.5.)

About the garden location:

Garden location is an abandoned farm or garden site.
It is about a quarter hectare or so, like an acre.
Surrounding area is all forest / jungle.
The garden looks like it was set up with some terraces,
but now it's all over grown with weeds and stuff, bamboo, etc.
In the summer, it's hard to get into as the weeds are very tall.
But now the weeds are dying back and its slightly more accessible.
There are a couple of giant 1 cubic meter bags of compost.
Compost still has signs of eggshells, other lumpy things in it,
but it is usable if you mix it with the local soil.
Local soil is quite clay and small flaky rocks, not ideal, so mix with the compost.
Hard to get large quantities of soil to this site, but maybe not necessary.


Climate information:

We're at approximately N25.0, climate type Cfa (temperate, hot summer, no dry season).

Average temperatures

Summer / July 28.9C and Winter / Jan 15.6C.
July usually about 30C-35C
January usually about 15C-20C

Monthly average rainfall

January-April about 250mm / month,
May-June about 300mm / month,
July-August about 125 mm / month,
September-December about 275 mm / month

Typhoons in July through to October or so, extremely strong winds and rain, potentially devastating to plants.

 

[Shiva's Mistress]

What are we growing?

These are all the seeds I received in the order.
The 80s numbers are their packing codes shall we say...

Original plan was for Zamaldelica photos and autos.
Their description on the ACE website and seeing grows here made me choose the Zamaldelicas.
The description, the bud shape, it's high resistance against wet / high RH environments, etc.
My other option was getting the Golden Tiger 3rd 'Thai' version for the same reasons.
Most seed banks that would work for me didn't have the GT3rd.
So I went with the Zamaldelicas, and of course I wanted the regs (no regs for the GT3rd as all fem).
And then nowhere seemed to have the Zamaldelica autos either.
But the Malawi x NL5 autos look so awesome too.
And if my next step is crossing them, it's just a parallel line of ( auto Mlw x NL5 ) x Zam anyway...

80 - Ace Seeds -- Zamaldelica, 12 Reg

Just a pic ripped from the ACE website.
The Thai and Zamal highs, with the power of the Malawi, finally get to grow some!

81 - Ace Seeds -- Tropical Mix, 12 Reg

Since I was ordering, throwing in a pack of the Tropical mix seemed like a no brainer.
Should be crazy fun.
Seeds in their bag look like a number of different shapes.

82 - Ace Seeds -- Auto Malawi X Northern Lights, 6 Autofem

The famous auto Malawi x NL5.
The pics at ACE are beasts.

86 - Ace Seeds -- Orient Express, 8 Fem

This was freebie for 'Promo', no idea what promo, but thanks all the same.
Saving these for spring to summer.
Those buds look too huge to be growing over winter if ya know what I mean....?

87 - Ace Seeds -- Panama X Malawi, 2 Fem

These were also thrown as just 'Promo' as well.
Some ACE promo maybe...?
Funny, as I had just been talking with @gorilla ganja about his auto Panama x Malawis!
These buds maybe best keep for another season....

83 - Scott Family Farms -- Pure Love #8, 10 Reg

Very little info about this.
Only seem to have this at Sensible Seeds.
It seems Scott Family Farms is Reeferman, apparently. (??)
Given for ordering with 'Superstealth'. Cool.
Description says is Love Potion back crossed to the mother Santa Marta Colombian Gold:
= Love Potion #1 (Santa Marta Colombian Gold X Airborne G13) X Santa Marta Colombian Gold (M)
10-12 week flowering.
Good sati-dom candidate for trying over winter perhaps?


84 - DNA Genetics -- Cannalope Haze, 10 Fem

Given for 'Social media promo' --- but I didn't do any promo for them?!
Thanks to their people in the order fulfillment and packing room, hehe.
Supposedly Haze Brothers Haze x Mexican.
9-10 weeks.


85 - Royal Queen Seeds -- Amnesia Haze Auto, 10 Autofem

Random pic from Royal Queen Seeds website... given for 'Freebies'.
Seems to be a very popular grow, hundreds of grow journals online..., must be reliable and strong.
Some descriptions are very heavy sativa plants.
Nice to have another auto strain to play with.

I tried to calculate how many $ all the freebies / promos / etc. they added were worth.
It was like two or three times the amount of my original order, haha.

---

For this run, because I'm trying to squeeze in a late winter run to make up for losses at the original garden.
So I'll do both of the autos, two beans each of the auto Malawi x NL5, and the auto Amnesia. And for some photo regs, my original choice of Zamaldelica, and also the Pure Love #8, two beans each as well.

 

[Shiva's Mistress]

2 x ACE, Zamaldelica regs

2 x ACE, Auto Malawi x NL5 fems

2 x Scott Family Farms, Pure Love #8 regs

2 x Royal Queen Seeds, Auto Amnesia Haze fems

Will sit in a warm place for a couple of days...

 

[Shiva's Mistress]

And ...

We have four small and badly treated Haze seedlings from harvestreaper
Sprouted a while ago, and sat in a window with minimal morning light and terrible cloudy weather for a couple of weeks until I put them on the balcony outside with the same minimal light.
Now near Garden Two for more hardening up but in far better light conditions.

There is another one still on the balcony that was stunted when sprouting.

Their siblings, now long abandoned in the original garden, looked like this at seven weeks vegging in early summer, three different plants, they were just showing sex. In the middle back.

They are harvestreaper 's crosses from MadMac crossed with the Tom Hill / Positronics.
Serious strength and vigor in these plants.

 

[Shiva's Mistress]

Om Sat-Chit-Ānanda Parabrahma Purushothama Paramātmā
Śrī Bhagavatī Sameta Śrī Bhagavate Namaḥ
॥ ॐ सत्चिदानन्द परब्रह्म पुरुषोत्तम परमात्मा श्रीभगवती समेत श्रीभगवते नमः ॥

Prayers for a successful grow to Śrī Amma Bhagavan!​

 

[Shiva's Mistress]

I put those eight seeds into tissues six days ago.
Originally I would have taken them out in a couple of days into small pots.
But I couldn't get to the location for six days.
Temps around 20C-24C give or take.
Today a little higher, up to about 27C.
I knew that those 'tails' were going to be long...
One poking out already...

Some of these are crazy long, like mung bean sprouts!
Not ideal, but here we are.
I few had grown into the tissue, but managed to come out okay.
I did break the very end off one sprout, but it will be fine.

In the pic:
2 x Scott Family Farms Pure Love #8 reg || 2 x Royal Queen Auto Amnesia Haze fem
2 x ACE Zamaldelica reg || 2 x ACE Auto Malawi x NL5 fems

All very strong seeds, I must say.
The ACE seeds I ordered and the promo / freebies.
Sensible Seeds doesn't seem to be giving out old / poorly viable seeds for promos / freebies.

I then put these into pots.
The leaves are just under the surface.
Let them push themselves up and out.

ACE seeds in the orange pots, the promos in the black pots.
Medium is a combination of broken coco coir starter plugs (like Jiffy),
with sieved leaf compost that's about a year old,
plus a tiny bit of local heavier soil as well.

Later the rain was coming down hard.
Moved them to a spot under shelter from rain but still get some sunlight.
Thought sunlight right now is dull gray cloudy weather...

Meanwhile we are down to one Haze seedling.
Two damaged with this storm over the last week...

 

[Shiva's Mistress]

Eight seedlings 100% germ

Top to bottom
2 x Zamaldelica reg
2 x Auto Malawi x NL5 fem
2 x Pure Love #8 reg
2 x Auto Amnesia Haze fem

Since they are small and unrecognizable ... they are presently living in luxury accommodation.

Garden Two

This is near the middle.
Mostly these grasses and stuff.
This is a little ridge with bamboo to the north.
So I'm planting on the south side of it, using it as protection against north winds.
And gives very good light coverage to the south.

Several weeks ago I had dug three holes and added compost from the on-site compost bags.
But today I could barely find those holes, haha!
Decided to abandon one of them as the location too exposed.
And dug two more holes here in the area of this photo.

Lots of photos of the local dirt.
Each hole is about just 5 L in size.
But the surrounding area has also been broken up.
The 5 L will be the base for the main root-ball,
and roots can spread out further from here.

Two above picks show mostly yellow clay type soil.
But it's not solid, it still breaks up a bit.
I has just been raining a lot earlier this week,
so this is saturated, not too bad, and not flooding or pooling water either.

These next two holes already had some compost added.

And I added a lot more compost to each hole.
About 1.5-2.0L each hole.
Three pics, four holes, so I missed a photo.
After the photos, the compost mixed into the local clay-based soil.

The compost is mostly broken down.
Can still see egg shells -- nice for Ca (and a touch of Mg)!
Some other larger chunks which haven't broken down I didn't use and left in the big bags.

I also added some organic fertilizer pellets, about 1 cup each hole, not shown here.

Last, I stuck a little bamboo in each hole,
so that I can find them again the future!!

Now waiting for these little seedlings to put on some size,
probably just a week or two, though weather is crappy, not much sunshine.
Then they'll go out to these holes.
I can add more compost when I do the plant out.

I may do two seedlings per hole.
Four holes x two seedlings each = eight of them.
Will need another hole for the little Haze!
Or I may just do one seedling per hole,
and dig some more holes,
either at Garden Two here, somewhere,
or another location a few hundred meters from here.
But I haven't developed the other location at all.
Still see what eventuates.

Love and Hugs,
~MJS

 

[Shiva's Mistress]

tag some growmies....
@Mossy @Waira @trailanimal @Jean-O @Green Hornet @Mara Cachafa @MasonJarOG @TheMongol @WildBill @Sawney_bean @Mañ'O'Green @Nosias @SOOTDAWG

 

[Shiva's Mistress]

Thanks for the love bombs @Mara Cachafa !

 

[trailanimal]

Can still see egg shells

My compost always has visible shell, and is always in my soil. At first I wanted to crush and grind, to much hassle, throw in chunks let the unseen hoards grind em. Takes time, but I don't see cal deficiencies. No need to rush I guess.
cheers on the new grow and thanks for sharing.