Balcony - 5-6 hrs Direct Sunlight So Far

mive

Active Member
Hello there fellow smokers,

im new to this community and thought I'd share my current grow and see if I cant learn some more. Im still relatively new to growing, only started 1 summer ago, with the same simple setup, on our balcony. Like in the title mentioned, right now they are receiving about 5 hrs sunlight. As the summer progresses, this will rise to about 6-7. I have heard that this should be enough and last year it certainly worked (4 fem. red horse, out of 6) but not with a very satisfying outcome i must say. I have attached some pics and as you can see, they grew quite high, but didnt yield a whole lot. I never managed to weigh them after drying but I would assume, it was about 100g-150g from 4 plants. They took about 14 weeks all in all i'd say.

Now this year, I planted 2 seeds of that red horse stuff (no idea why i bought it. the guy made it sound like it was particularly good for outdoors) and 2 seeds that I got from a friend. Sadly, I havent managed to ask him what kind they are but im sure ill know soon enough. These last 2 are looking very good so far so Im just gonna post pictures of these.

Also because of the not ideal lighting conditions I am thinking of perhaps throwing them under two little 17 watt cfls, 6500k, to help them grow a bit quicker. I have attached the setup as well. I know its very Mac Gyver style, im not much of a DIY person, hence the lack of proper light (for now I dont even know if this would improve anything) and equipment ;)

Do you guys think this will actually do anything at all? Maybe ill just put one plant under since there is barely any light. But I kinda think, the more help, the better, its not much but better than darkness? :D

Anyway, enough ramblings, now to the pictures and in advance, thanks for any advice. Btw. I didnt use any nuts last year, this year, I havent decided yet.
 

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mive

Active Member
Sweet, just ordered some seeds. Anyone got any experience with either outdoors?

Order Inventory:
Product: Sweet Seeds Big Devil Feminized
Options: Feminized Seeds Per Pack - 03 Seeds
Quantity: 1
Product Code: SWES104/SWS314
Price: £18.99

Product: UFO#1 Dinafem Seeds White Siberian
Quantity: 1
Product Code: FREE SEED
Price: £0.00
 

mive

Active Member
Hey, thanks for checking in. Yes, I am gonna try to spread them a bit more this year. I mean, I dont mind the height, just hoping that perhaps I will get a bit better results this way. We'll see. Im gonna wait till the first 5 leaf-nodes are there and then slowly do a bit of LST. At least, thats the plan.
 

mive

Active Member
I finally found out which seeds these were: The Purps.

Mmmhhh.. googled some pictures and looks damn delicious. Cant wait! :P



No input yet on whether or not those two little 17w lights actually do something?
 

kmksrh21

Well-Known Member
those 17w you got are definately better than no light at all.... but will not produce anything like that purps bud... that takes some serious wattage to achieve buds like that. Nice pic tho
 

mive

Active Member
so, decided to post an update. not much happening really. maybe because i see them everyday i think they are growing very little? after some complaint by my lady, it really was only 2 nights, i decided to stop putting them indoors during the night. so, as last year, pure outside grow :P

ive made a side by side picture of the strongest the purp plant below (2 days difference) as well as my first lst on one of the red horse plants (the first 2 are red horse, the other 2 the purple). do you think its too early? i planted them almost 4 weeks ago and they just started producing their first 5 leaves leaf. any feedback appreciated and ill try to keep this up to date, whenever i see them growing, which is probably around every 2-3 days ;)
 

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mive

Active Member
Btw. I forgot to mention that I did decide to try fertilize them a bit. I started mixing 8% N, 8% P, 10% K, into 2l water bottles. Its those sticks you put in the ground. Found them somewhere in the house and as my budget is very very limited, why not see if it works. I hope this will increase the growth/yield at least a little bit, compared to last year. Im just gonna have to be very careful not to overdo it.
 

mive

Active Member
I realized LST is a bit too early so I took it down again. Will wait till I have repotted them. Cant see any roots yet but it should come soon. Maybe next week. Ill show some new pics then.
 

mive

Active Member
Repotted the purps plants today into 9l pots. Should help them grow a bit quicker. Still nothing else much to show though, too little difference. Instead I'll show some more from last years crop. Only red horse. Had to harvested around mid october because of weather conditions. Could have needed another 2 weeks or so to get a stronger high but oh well, pretty much free weed is always good, no? :D

Anyway, hope you enjoy some old pics and looking forward to show some progress from this year, once there actually has been some, heh :)
 

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stoopy

Well-Known Member
I don't know where you are but that building could be easy to identify considering its unique style... Love the grow!!
 

mive

Active Member
thanks for the concern but in southern europe that kinda building is very common. its not legal here, but "tolerated" so im not stressing too much about these pics, i mean im growing on my balcony facing the corner of quite a big street here (!) and then again, these arent the only plants in this street or this city on a balcony :)
 

kmksrh21

Well-Known Member
That's pretty cool... I wish I could throw my favorite plants on my balcony and it just be 'tolerated'... but instead confined to indoors. Oh well make it work right. Happy grown mate
 

Krysta

Active Member
Looks pretty cool, i've got my shit for like 1 month and it's growing pretty good, haven't really used any feritlizers or any special light or something. After one month one of the plants is a male , so i'm sticking it away from the other plant which sex isn't identified yet. She's quite alot bigger than the male so let's hope for a female. Keep us posted with pictures of yours.
 

mive

Active Member
thanks guys. ill try my best to make it worth the slight increase of work this year. :roll:

so i decided to get some new toys. have a look.

btw. the veg fert has NPK 3.5, 1.0, 5.5, the flower fert 2.5, 2.0, 5.0.

again, i have not used fertilizers for now so this will be my first "proper" attempt. had to spent a couple more bucks to keep it organic. hopefully worth it.

so any experience on either will be greatly appreciated.

cheers and enjoy the sunny weekend.
 

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mive

Active Member
So, today I topped two plants. One red horse (she is already almost on 6 weeks) and one the purps (almost on week 4), I think. So, ive never topped my plants before and deep in my heart it does seem a tiny bit wrong to just snap of the beautiful top but I am only hoping/imagining that they will love it in the long run :)

Some new pics (colours are bit off, didnt set WB properly):
 

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mive

Active Member
hey there, thanks for checking it out :)

it does seem like they are growing quite slow though. might have put too much stress on them the last couple of days. first repotted on friday, then started with first fert on sat, and now the topping on monday. gonna give them a bit of leisure time for now and see if they will pick up. peace!
 

mive

Active Member
quick update:
last night (1st night after topping) something strange occurred. like most nights, as soon as it gets dark, the plants drop their leaves down, only the topped red horse was standing straight up. maybe the topping influenced her and she was already producing new hormones? or rather do you guys think she was too stunned to get droopy? i hope im making myself clear here. this morning she looks still a bit "edgy" id say but not anywhere near to how she was standing last night. ill try to get some pics up later. cheers! :)

update: pictures added
 

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