New Grower Waira's 11-strain-in-the-membrane outdoor grow

[Waira]

At last the day has finally come! :dance2: Weather and daylight hours are now sufficient to get the show going... My thanks to the various sensei's, other growers, and this site in general for really flattening out the learning curve and getting me off to a good start..
Why such a crazy shot-gun blast of auto-strains for this grow? Simply put, limited opportunity, space and sheer lust for variety! (Getting my Doctors recommendation has opened up the doors to this wonderland, and now I'm just plain spoiled) Of course, cost's can put a damper on that, along with all the other hassles associated with this,.... so last season I had a last minute quick and dirty mini grow with photo's, and it was a joy, as many of you can of you can relate!... and AF's fit the bill perfectly for my situation. Indica, sativa, hybrids,... all are enjoyed and employed for their specific efficacies, and I'm pretty sure I've covered the bases on that! :smoke: ...and how great is it to even have such a spread to choose from these days... Trying to resolve a final list was enough to cause frontal-lobe collapse! :joint: So,... as Bullwinkle says, "rolling up my sleeves,... presto!!"
Here's today's line up: B.Lee , cobra, Hercules, MI5, HBD, RRF, red dwarf, purple kush, star ryder, UV, crm. mandarine (delayed due to shipping error)....

Seeds: 2 each, except for Hercules(1) and a Gigante that failed to germ'...
16/20 germed (1 star ryder, MI5, HBD, gigante failed, so far)
I used the cup/paper towel method, using filtered water with a little wetting agent mixed in; within 3 days, all 16 were cracked, shooting and then potted up; 2 of other 4 cracked, but shoots stalled out, other 2 nothing... potted them anyway, wait and see...

Starter soil: 80/20 blend of light warrior+ocean forest
Everybody's off to a fine start; all got a little Superthrive watering to ease the transition; spending nights inside for the next week or so....
Allll righty-then..............!

 

[The Dude]

SWEEET Waira!!! Gonna be a plethora of good times rollin on.

 

[sofa]

im in for the ride.

 

[Waira]

Thanks for the welcome guys :smoke: this really is something of an experiment, and I hope it will be informative for those whom are growing under similar conditions as well... My expectations for yields are modest; it's quality results that I'll happy with most!.... it'll be interesting to see how they progress and ultimately turn out living 'la vida fresca', so to speak,... Almost certainly light will be the primary limiting factor for growth, as at this time of year the plants will see 13-14 hours at best,... but they are full sun hours, so we'll see.... temp's will play a part in this too, both ambient and soil; I've found those nice white square pots at my local store, so between this and/or using pot-inside-a-pot shielding it should help to keep the soil/root temps at comfy levels,...otherwise Spring here is usually upper 60's-70's. If I'm lucky, I can fire off another round during summer, with peak light levels during that early critical veg phase, and compare... this is my main worry now, with shorter days,.. I don't really want to end up with total runts either. I guess this is where we'll see how much of the ruderalis genes kick in; I know that other landrace types can really hike up their skirts and hustle when they need to, given the limited growing season they're adapted to. Last year I had a pure Afghani gal that started from a single seed in mid-June, about a month and a half later than the Jack H. hybrid clones I got, and she smoked her tires so hard she almost caught up with the Jacks at the end! :hot::cough: Harvest for her was only 1 week later than the others... So folks, feel free to chime in about this outdoor thing,..... and thanks for hangin',... :beast:

 

[Sir Chiefs a Lot1]

Those babies are looking good Waira! And good choice of strains by the way. I heard lots of good things about all of them.

 

[Waira]

Thanks G'! I hope they live up to their billing,... I can't wait to find out! ,......and it'll be good to see if the respective breeders descriptions are reasonably accurate, for consumer faiths' sake. I was discussing with Rebel a little bit about fert' regimes, since he has many strains growing, at various stages to boot.... and he's spot-on right to say 'take notes!' The mix I have will likely be all over the nute' map sometime down the road here too, so I'll heed the advise :check: .... For this 'offical' journal, I'm thinking weekly or bi-weekly updates will the plan; more pics maybe in about a week,...we'll see!

 

[Rebel]

Nice selection of strains! If I may suggest... If you are going straight into the final living space... (not transplanting or tier transplanting...) try putting the seed right in the dirt and ditch the paper towel method. I suggest this because again like we talked about you want to get the best start and no stress... you will get better/stronger root development right from the start. Stronger taproot...etc... That's a bummer on the Hercules and Gigante duds... 7 Dwarfs Strains are not cheap! I'm subbed up and ready to rock! :head: Let's get to it!

:smokebuds:

 

[Waira]

Hi Reb', thanks for checking in,.. :smokebuds: I see my misleading wording above now about the 7 dwarf seeds! I got 1 each of them, Herc' germed right away, it's Gigante that's still a no-show... and spendy they are, so I hope their genes are worth it! Reports I've seen and good pics were enticing,... Again, referring to seed banks earlier,.... who the hell are these 7 Dwarf cats? Their website is minimalist, with low info/profile web-wide,... and yet they're ballsy enough to charge a premium price,... hmmmm (lol!) somehow I feel,... challenged... It'll either be great, or I been schooled
My replacement Crème mandarins came today, so I'll sow them directly.... I can't even remember why I chose the PT method, maybe the quicker gratification of seeing the crack sooner and ending the suspense...! Happily, both the other Star Ryder and HBD have emerged finally,.... now only Gig.' and MI5 are AOL.....

 

[Rebel]

I used the PT method for years and was tired of ruining sprouts and losing money. I would have to say in the last year I had 3-4 not come up. And that's no doubt out of 100 seeds. I don't know who 7 Dwarfs are honestly BUT it wouldn't surprise me if they were a "branch off" from a Big Time seedbank that have been doing Photos for years and now have their "Auto" line seperately as to not ruin their Photo rep... It's a shot in the dark.. But it's possible... Here's some germination Karma coming your way!

 

[Waira]

Doooood! Your germ' Ju-Ju is powerful good! LOL - The other MI5 has emerged! Holy bat-crap, Batman...:dance2: see, I didn't expect the germ' rates to be this high (19/20), and at this point I'm not sure if it's wise to even start the Crm. Mandarines....between the non-germ's, general mishap, and sexual undesirables (giggady) I figured that I'd end up with about 12 good-to-go girls..... so the biggest x-factor now is sex-out ratios, and my space/resource/stealth dilemma is now larger.. The main reason I didn't pot direct into final containers is that there's no way to hide or disguise 20+ 3gal pots around the place, to say nothing of the $$/time for the associated resources and hassles, while waiting for them to sex-out... I deliberately chose mostly small to med. (theoretically!) size strains, with narrow builds (ditto) that won't really need 5gal pots for this reason; MI5, C. Mand., maybe UV have the potential to require 5er's, which I might be able to accommodate... a good but potentially,... unnerving problem to have, I guess...:brow: Bottom line, the gals get what they get, and so to will I (lol!).... I do see that many growers advise against transplanting, and the potential woes, but it can be done with little disruption or trauma. I had a real iron-fisted perfectionist garden queen, from the retail plant nursery I worked at, school me proper about how and when to do it in such a way that the plants hardly knew it happened! This is her picture: :beast: (only a slight exaggeration....) However, you, my friend, have the skills and accommodations to grow those beauties out to their fullest genetic potential! That's why I'm in the pews, and you're in the pulpit, Rev.'!