Outdoor Balcony Grow?

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mwarren83

Active Member
Question.

I used to grow back in college (indoor). Last 3 years I moved out and with a roomate and our apartment was not very good for growing at all. Now I'm getting my own apartment. Bad thing is (I guess) is that its the top floor of a building with NYC views. I want to grow on the balcony. How reasonable would this be if I keep on triming the plant back (can it be 3-4 feet? My indoor was a 6 foot monster). What about the light from the NYC skyline, will it eff everything up?
 

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lehua96734

lehua96734

Well-Known Member
aloha. I had read a thread, somewhere, about this guy who grew on his balcony using a 33gal. rubbish can with a lid. he lined the insides with mylar( or flat white paint) drilled holes in the bottem for drainage. added his grow mix, watered that then put his seedings inside. he tilleted it alittle to catch the sun, put the cover on at night for the 12/12. I guess it was some auto's or he did a tie down or fimed. hey i ever got me a rubbish can to try it but i am gonna put it in my back yard. hey, worth a shot just to see what happens. good luck on you season, aloha
 
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pabloesqobar

Well-Known Member
lehua96734 said:
aloha. I had read a thread, somewhere, about this guy who grew on his balcony using a 33gal. rubbish can with a lid. he lined the insides with mylar( or flat white paint) drilled holes in the bottem for drainage. added his grow mix, watered that then put his seedings inside. he tilleted it alittle to catch the sun, put the cover on at night for the 12/12. I guess it was some auto's or he did a tie down or fimed. hey i ever got me a rubbish can to try it but i am gonna put it in my back yard. hey, worth a shot just to see what happens. good luck on you season, aloha
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This thread is a couple of months old, but....I'm kinda in the same boat. I've been growing 1 plant on the patio since February - or thereabouts. It's a unique situation/location, but I'm still worried about appropriate camouflage. It's getting pretty bushy, and about 1.5 feet tall. I bought a tomato plant to put in front of it to prevent the folks down below from seeing it, but the stupid tomato plant isn't growing anywhere close to the speed of my pot. I'm thinking about keeping it on the floor of the balcony, and train the branches and colas horizontally across the balcony railing. If I get that far. Who knows.

I just planted 1 seed in a pot of miracle grow. It might be a female, not 100% sure, but I've seen the little hairs/pistils that grow from the little nodes in the "v" of where the branch meets the stalk. I've done this once before, and it was around this same time when the plant had a bunch of little pollen sacks, and was obviously a male.

I think one of my main concerns may be the smell. Sometimes when I'm on the balcony I get a whiff of the plant, even at the stage it's at now. Flowering hasn't started. If this thing starts flowering and does what I want it to, is everyone in my complex going to smell it as they walk by? (They can't really walk by, but they would be walking underneath my balcony on the ground level, one story down.

I've been searching this site for info on this. I saw one poster suggest that you can cover balcony plants with colored plastic, presumably to hide them. Not exactly sure how that works tho.

If this plant gets out of control I might just have to donate it to someone I know with a yard and some privacy.
 
godsgarden

godsgarden

Active Member
pabloesqobar said:
This thread is a couple of months old, but....I'm kinda in the same boat. I've been growing 1 plant on the patio since February - or thereabouts. It's a unique situation/location, but I'm still worried about appropriate camouflage. It's getting pretty bushy, and about 1.5 feet tall. I bought a tomato plant to put in front of it to prevent the folks down below from seeing it, but the stupid tomato plant isn't growing anywhere close to the speed of my pot. I'm thinking about keeping it on the floor of the balcony, and train the branches and colas horizontally across the balcony railing. If I get that far. Who knows.

I just planted 1 seed in a pot of miracle grow. It might be a female, not 100% sure, but I've seen the little hairs/pistils that grow from the little nodes in the "v" of where the branch meets the stalk. I've done this once before, and it was around this same time when the plant had a bunch of little pollen sacks, and was obviously a male.

I think one of my main concerns may be the smell. Sometimes when I'm on the balcony I get a whiff of the plant, even at the stage it's at now. Flowering hasn't started. If this thing starts flowering and does what I want it to, is everyone in my complex going to smell it as they walk by? (They can't really walk by, but they would be walking underneath my balcony on the ground level, one story down.

I've been searching this site for info on this. I saw one poster suggest that you can cover balcony plants with colored plastic, presumably to hide them. Not exactly sure how that works tho.

If this plant gets out of control I might just have to donate it to someone I know with a yard and some privacy.
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yea i would be a bit worried about the smell.... dunno what you could do to cover it up.... since your only one story up id suggest donating it to someone with a yard and some privacy before it starts to flower and then cut a deal in favor of your needs and make sure you collect that bud come harvest.
you dont wanna have nosey (literally) neighbors smelling your tree as it flowers. some strains reek more than others though, do you know what strain it is? be careful and make sure your land lord dosnt see it he could use it as leverage and jack your rent or worse kick you out.
be safe
my 2 cents
 
Richie LxP

Richie LxP

Well-Known Member
mwarren83 said:
Question.

I used to grow back in college (indoor). Last 3 years I moved out and with a roomate and our apartment was not very good for growing at all. Now I'm getting my own apartment. Bad thing is (I guess) is that its the top floor of a building with NYC views. I want to grow on the balcony. How reasonable would this be if I keep on triming the plant back (can it be 3-4 feet? My indoor was a 6 foot monster). What about the light from the NYC skyline, will it eff everything up?
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What a fuckin view. :shock:
 
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pabloesqobar

Well-Known Member
Damn, I'm more worried about the smell than someone seeing it. I'm above everyone and can block them from being able to see the plant. Not too worried about the landlord, but will take the necessary precautions. The smell, on the other hand, is not something I can control. Unless someone knows a way to do it. Right now the jasmine is in full bloom, which makes a nice aroma in the complex. This won't last long, tho.

I don't know what kind it is. I've tried to attach a couple of pics, one when it was smaller and one from today. Anybody care to hazzard a guess as to the strain?

Not a huge deal really. It was one seed that I plopped into some miracle grow potting soil. It sure seems healthy, tho. Thanks for all the input!
 

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godsgarden

godsgarden

Active Member
pabloesqobar said:
Damn, I'm more worried about the smell than someone seeing it. I'm above everyone and can block them from being able to see the plant. Not too worried about the landlord, but will take the necessary precautions. The smell, on the other hand, is not something I can control. Unless someone knows a way to do it. Right now the jasmine is in full bloom, which makes a nice aroma in the complex. This won't last long, tho.

I don't know what kind it is. I've tried to attach a couple of pics, one when it was smaller and one from today. Anybody care to hazzard a guess as to the strain?

Not a huge deal really. It was one seed that I plopped into some miracle grow potting soil. It sure seems healthy, tho. Thanks for all the input!
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Its near impossible to guess what strain it is at this stage other than that it seems to be both indica dominant strains... when it buds its easier to somewhat make a guess but still there are so many strains you cant really be sure
they arnt that big so you should be fine. unless they are real stanky strains when its got nugs on it
 
ink slingin' in the 805

ink slingin' in the 805

Well-Known Member
keep topping. there is good info in this site about topping methods. i top all my plants, grow on my balcony and indoors (soil, hydro, and deep water culture). the plants on my balcony are ready in 3 weeks, 2 feet tall, and will likley yeild 2-4 oz. each plant. good luck man
 
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pabloesqobar

Well-Known Member
Thanks so much for the replies and advice. Couple of questions: Beginningbotanist 420, what is an "auto-flower"? (I'll try typing it in the search field and see what it turns up).

Ink slingin': I've read about topping and find somewhat conflicting info: One theory is to NOT top plants that are outdoors, because they don't need it. They get plenty of sunlight throughout the entire plant. I'm not worried about the height of the plant. I can grow up to about 3' in height, and plan on training it horizontal if need be. Any thoughts or counter-arguments to this?

Godsgarden, I hope you're right about the smell. I'm only growing one (1) plant. Those pics are of the same plant at different stages. Hopefully 1 plant won't stink up the complex. I've got a good nose, so I'll just monitor it as I go along. If it gets too smelly I'll remove it from the balcony.

Something I've been thinking about: A bottle brush tree grows right next to my balcony. Some of the smaller branches actually hang onto my balcony. It also provides me with great camouflage from that particular side of the balcony, almost completely obscuring a portion. I'm going to move my pot to that location in a couple of days. Is there any reason why I couldn't train my branches to just grow into the tree? I could just tie the branches together?

Thanks again!
 
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pabloesqobar

Well-Known Member
I just wanted to update this thread. My plant is still on the balcony and appears to be arguably healthy. I've posted in the plant problem forum because of what appears to be a nute deficiency. This was planted in Miracle Gro potting soil with the 90 day supply of nutes, about 3 months ago. I think I planted it the last week of February. I bought Neem Oil and some sand yesterday, but haven't done anything with it yet. I'm kinda surprised at how healthy it looks, particularly when I was pretty worried about it one week ago. I will need to start adding a basic NPK mixture soon. I've asked someone to recommend a good mix, but nobody ever responded. No biggee, I'll figure it out. I took a couple of pics today. Any thoughts/advice? Particularly, I'm interested in what kind of NPK ratio I should start using given what kind of soil it's been in, and the fact that it's already 3 months old. Anyone? Thanks!

Oh, does anyone have an idea as to what strain this is?
 

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lehua96734

lehua96734

Well-Known Member
you have a real beauty of an indica that looks like it has been toped at some point. i would start her on mg. single shots at 1/4 the strength, and some mollasses, 1 tablspoon per gal. mix it with your mg. the mollasses onc3e a week. you can leave her in that pot but make sure you water her everyday. good luck, aloha
 
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pabloesqobar

Well-Known Member
Cool, thanks for your input. Yes, I topped it about a month or so ago. By the way, I don't know if it's a male or female. Can you tell? Is Miracle Grow "single shots" an actual brand? Why would I want to use molasses? I've read a bit about it here, but I thought that was used during the end of the flowering stage. Again, thanks for your input!
 
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pabloesqobar

Well-Known Member
spikey007 said:
beautiful plant bro
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Thanks man, but it could all be for naught if it's not a female! Still don't know the sex of this thing. Since I'm outdoors, in California, and it was planted the last week of February, when should this thing start to flower? I don't think the days start getting shorter until late June.

I watered it today and used a little miracle gro nutes - for the first time since planting. You can see it's kinda stretching upwards because of the feeding, compared to the other pics. I also tried to include some up close pics.

If it turns out to be male, is there anything I can do with it - other than chuck it?
 
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pabloesqobar

Well-Known Member
Just thought I'd post a few more pics of my balcony plant. At the suggestion of a friendly poster, I topped it several days ago. (Don't know if I did it right, but whatever - it seems fine).

I started adding nutes because it's been in a pot of miracle gro for a bit over 3 months now. I just used very low strength miracle gro nutes. I saw some little white spots on some of the leaves, and some tiny little flies and such, so I picked up some Neem oil and gave it a good dousing. It appears to be fairly pest free now.

Still don't know whether it's male or female. My thoughts have always been that I won't find out until the light cycle changes - perhaps in July timeframe in SoCal?

This plant is too big for my balcony, tho. I'm thinking about actually buying some seeds and planting the stuff that I've seen some of you post on here. I've only been smoking the same stuff from my same source for years. It would be nice to try something different! In the meantime, I'm thinking about how I can go about tying some of these branches down as it continues to grow.
 

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