my outdoor grow in india (12 latitude)

Fantonald said:

Yo, love your posts cabra, good information and experiences I can learn from. I´ve been an expat now for ten years and am starting something along your scale. Some of the questions are hilarious, so many people don´t understand that living in a third world country CAN be like living in a first world county, but its just different. Like I tell my friends back home, we got streets and stuff with cars, but theyre just different. there are fast-food joints and restaurants, but they´re different. We got malls and stuff, with shops, same clothes and whatnot most times, its just different. lol I think its from most americans not traveling as much to far away lands, not all of course cause you can´t generalize like that, but most at least.

I had a a guy at home ask me if we have phonebooks and microwaves. I just tell everyone I saddle my goat or mule up before heading to the country store to buy bread daily. And we use bartering systems with fruits and river fish, money doesn´t exist yet

So just to clear something up, with your photperiod, your plants aren´t growing too tall? How are they tasting and the yield turning out pretty well? sorry man, 63 pages of posts on your thread, can´t sit still long enough to get through them all today

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you nailed it man...it's the same but different.

see it depends a lot on the strain. the only thing that prevents some strains from growing taller than other similar strains (i.e. while papaya grows comparatively poorly but afghani grows well) is the tolerance to heat. some breeders' strains i've found are not the best suited to take the climate i have here. with temps above 30C every day without fail for most of the year, most strains made by subcool, dutch passion, and BCSC grow relatively poorly, while strains made by Mandala and SB (mr.nice) grow really well. boils down to growing what is best suited for your climate. near the equator, i'd suggest more sativa leaning strains; you cannot go wrong with mandala, if you have more money Mr.nice is a better option, you pay more but the strains are more refined and homogenous if that's what youre looking for...i'm frankly a fan of varied genetics, the mandala safari mix and mr.nice's walkabout are two packs i'd strongly recommend any first time grower or 100th time grower to try. : )

yield was as little as 20 grams for dinafem's blue widow and as high as 500 grams dry for my indian landrace...i'd say most online purchased seeds average about 1.5 - 2 oz a plant.

Thanks for the info. We finally got a seedbank here and I got a bunch of cannabiogen seeds. I too was looking at the Mandala selection, but decided not to order. My wife´s father has inside information on customs here, and he was telling me how they are able to sniff out seeds and confiscate most plant products that come through the border without papers, including varieties of corn, orchids (I cultivate orchids as well), etc. Luckily a seedbank popped up here so I loaded up right away.

I think I will start indoors for a month, then throw it outdoors and see what happens. I´d like to have enough to medicate for a bit before I am forced to take a break because of running out of supply.

Props yo, I will be checking back to follow your journal. I think I will start a journal as well, it seems to have helped you a bunch, maybe the same for me.

One question about India, and sorry if this is ignorant (never been there). I practice yoga a lot and have this romantic notion of heading to India for a retreat, how wonderful it woudl be, yada yada. I have read though that there is a stigma attached to yoga practitioners and yogis, like believers vs. nonbelievers. And the nonbelievers don´t take too long to hassle you and maybe rustle your feathers a bit for it. Whats your take?

to be honest, i wouldn't have any idea, i practice pranayamha but that's about it, every day in the morning. it's more of a solitary thing for me. figure i need something to counteract the smoking and it works wonders

mate, hows it going? any word on the african landrances?

also, i think i asked this before, but how does the indian landrance smoke? how is the high as compared to the imported seeds you have grown?

african landraces are taking the 35C average beating they're getting fairly well...very imp to shade seedlings in this kind of light and heat...

as usual, Mr.Nice's seedlings are on the top of the survival charts

the indian landrace smoke has a ways to go. you have to remember that imported seeds are made by choosing one plant out of hundreds to cross with another one out of hundreds...unless i've grown and smoked hundreds of plants i don't think i'm the right person to take a decision on how the 'landrace smoke' was...the particular plant i chose out of about 50 during the veg stage was quite an intense smoke, hardcore sativa high, but still not as good as the columbian gold i grew once...

i'm sure with a wide selection you can find some real winners though...

Fantonald said:

Thanks for the info. We finally got a seedbank here and I got a bunch of cannabiogen seeds. I too was looking at the Mandala selection, but decided not to order. My wife´s father has inside information on customs here, and he was telling me how they are able to sniff out seeds and confiscate most plant products that come through the border without papers, including varieties of corn, orchids (I cultivate orchids as well), etc. Luckily a seedbank popped up here so I loaded up right away.

I think I will start indoors for a month, then throw it outdoors and see what happens. I´d like to have enough to medicate for a bit before I am forced to take a break because of running out of supply.

Props yo, I will be checking back to follow your journal. I think I will start a journal as well, it seems to have helped you a bunch, maybe the same for me.

One question about India, and sorry if this is ignorant (never been there). I practice yoga a lot and have this romantic notion of heading to India for a retreat, how wonderful it woudl be, yada yada. I have read though that there is a stigma attached to yoga practitioners and yogis, like believers vs. nonbelievers. And the nonbelievers don´t take too long to hassle you and maybe rustle your feathers a bit for it. Whats your take?

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I just got back from 4 months in India, and met plenty of lovely people there doing yoga. So it really isn't a bad place to visit if yoga is your thing. I'm sure you'd enjoy it.
I would personally only ruffle yoga-types' feathers if they started laying it on me with bullshit about India being all spiritual and holy etc...Tourists who confuse poverty for asceticism and lack of education for spiritual awareness annoy the hell out of me. Especially if they try to claim that they are not tourists, but say that I am because I'm not "immersing myself in the culture" like them. Grr..

So...Just avoid doing that and you'll be grand!

Hey man nice thread, pretty interesting stuff. But I do have a few questions. How much of a spike in your power bill did you have during your veg phase and then during the flowering stage? You grew outdoors so that defiantly made it cheaper I assume. Powers not so cheap in India being 220 an all. Also do you know of any places in Bangalore where I can buy a glass pipe? I was thinking of buying a few in the States and bringing them when I came to India but decide against it. And I cant seem to find any here considering most people here smoke by rolling joints. I hear you can get bongs on the street side in Goa but what about glass pipes? Like say a pipe somewhat similar to the one I have in my avatar?

Or are there head shops in Bangalore that I don't know about?

im' yet to see mate as i'm starting a large indoor grow very very soon in an 8x8x8 space. for veg, my wattage was under 100w for seedlings for about 1-2 weeks max on 18/6 with cfls in a small 2x2.2.5 ft3 area. really no noticeable change in electricity bill, about 200-300 bucks. but likewise, if that is to be translated on a scale like 2400 watts which i'll be doing indoors soon then that'll be it could wind up at almost 6000. i sure as fucking hell hope not.

should have brought a glass pipe from US. you get them only in goa on the streets. all over north goa. morjim, vagator, calangute, anjuna, candolim, etc. the quality is okay. buy it online. or get a friend from abroad to bring one for you.

6000? Damn bro that's a dent for sure. But then again with that large of an indoor grow Im guessing your going to be yielding a couple of pounds so it will be worth it. What was your total yield of all your plants this last harvest? And If i read correctly somewhere you said you had finished ALL of your homegrown stash? I see you been having fun .

keshmonster said:

6000? Damn bro that's a dent for sure. But then again with that large of an indoor grow Im guessing your going to be yielding a couple of pounds so it will be worth it. What was your total yield of all your plants this last harvest? And If i read correctly somewhere you said you had finished ALL of your homegrown stash? I see you been having fun .

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for me it wasn't 'last harvest' per se. growing diff strains outdoor 12/12 from seed all started at different times and finished at diff times. largest indian plant gave me a bit under a kilo, dried. smallest plant (blue widow) didn't like the weather and gave me 25 grams dried. most hybrids give me at least 2 oz, more like 2.5-3 oz dry. i'm a generous guy man, i give a lot to really close friends...

correction, checked out the electricity rates where i'll be staying, it'll be about 5k, but that's if i'm running 2400 watts, i will more likely be running 2000w. 3 x 600w HPS for the main shit and about 100w or so in t5 bulbs for clones/seedlings. so i'm guessing 4.5k. which is a shitload of electricity to pay. but i'd rather spend 4.5k a month for my homegrown than spend an equivalent amount or more for whatever's going around. it's only for three months or so, after that i'll have enough to last me till next year probably haha.

What did your friends think? Was it there first time smoking A grade bud? A good amount of people I know here smoke the really dark auto driver weed and smoke that shit every single day. One of these guys tried telling me that weed smoked in the western world is filled with chemicals and weed scored in Bangalore was organic lol. Then there's the people who know the stuff is spiked but still smoke it anyway. Like some of these guys up to 5 times a day. I mean that has to take a serious toll on the body smoking that spiked shit.

I just wonder would would happen if they smoked real weed and there facial expressions when they realize what they have missed out on haha. Anyways how many plants are you planning to have in your new indoor grow? Any new strains you have been wanting to try?

haha my friends have all been through that stage (me included) and long passed out of it. we now score clean high grade sativas, very crystalline, very green, strong mango scent. and we pick it up by the kilo or more when we do score. clean weed. a lot of people are ignorant. while you can change some of them, most are not worth the time. : ) there are people who see and accept and understand. me and all my friends are very much patriotic towards india. that doesn't mean we say the spiked weed is good, or continue to smoke it knowing it's laced. that doesn't get anybody anywhere. my friends have seen weed abroad, most haven't smoked it, some have. when smoking mine, the ones who hadn't smoked it were mindblown. what made me feel good as a grower was that the ones from cali, uk, switzerland, germany, wherever the fuck they were from - they smoked it and they were just as mindblown with the taste and quality that organics offers.

i will be growing indoors in an 8x8 space ideally (flower) and maybe a 4x4 space (veg). SOG, as it is my first time indoors on a large scale and i want to keep it simple. i will be using organic beds, soma style. : ) much more efficient with organics, as a larger soil bed means more bacterial colonies. think of it as a compost pile, unless it's a certain size, it will work but will not be nearly as efficient or beneficial. 8x8 sog with 2 600 HPS. 4x4 veg with CFL and T5 for cuttings, seeds, and eventually a mother plant. after i get one good mother plant, i will embark on a stadium grow.

and for me, even if it's my homegrown, i still smoke like 2-3 joints a day...normal indian pot (the kind that i get) maybe 4-5...hash, like 2 cause my system doesn't respond well to hash joints...but i'm all down for chillums : )

i have high weed requirements, because i don't like being sober at all..wake up in the morning, hit the gym, do some solid muay thai/brazilian jiu jitsu, and get blazed

So you will be growing in like a spare bedroom? Does the guy that owns the place ever have any suspicion of you growing? Or has anyone for that matter? I know in the states when there is a hike in the electricity bill, some suspicion arises which might lead to further investigation.

And sometimes 4-5 joints a day? Must be pretty nice man. I miss smoking everyday. Every two months or so a guy comes down from Nepal and he has some decent very lime green bud that he sell in 500rs packets that maybe have 50g. Its pretty good but not so much crystalline like you described with the stuff you score. Next time I get it Ill post a picture of it.

And how long did it really take for you to get the connections that you have? Like it sounds like a trial and error process where at one point your tried them all and the product you talked about was the last one standing.

those which you mentioned in your first para, electricity bill hikes and such, are never an issue here. the only thing is getting an electrician to alter the wiring such that you can draw the kind of power that 1800w lighting set up requires. with a 2500w grow, lights and fans and such, you will be drawing a current of more than 20A, which most houses are not set to handle. needs to be wired.

connections take time and trial and error, no two ways about it.

I just spend a couple of hours reading this thread.

Really enjoyed it, especially the cultural and legal aspects of smoking/growing in India.

I've lived abroad in third world countries, so definitely understand some of the limitations you are working with.

I bet you are growing some of the best in India.

elchupacabra said:

those which you mentioned in your first para, electricity bill hikes and such, are never an issue here. the only thing is getting an electrician to alter the wiring such that you can draw the kind of power that 1800w lighting set up requires. with a 2500w grow, lights and fans and such, you will be drawing a current of more than 20A, which most houses are not set to handle. needs to be wired.

connections take time and trial and error, no two ways about it.

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Have you had ant experience with some of these Indian Strains? Like I keep hearing of Mysore Mango and Kerala Gold and Idukki Gold. Have you ever thought of trying to grow one of these? lol I also keep hearing Bob Marley came to Kerala to smoke Kerala Gold. I'm also planning on taking a trip to Mysore next week so hopefully I can find better stuff there than here. Also are you familiar with places like Anekal, Ramnagaram, and Mallu? I hear these are the best places to score.

dude i've smoked and grown almost all...mysore mango, every second retard will say their shit is from mysore and it's mango, if you go around feb or jan you'll get the real mysore mango...should try it...most weed grown in kerala is, surprisingly enough, ditch weed, similar to brick weed from mexico...95% of the best stuff that's grown is exported out...the 5% that isn't is very very hard to get a hold of, even if you do it's like 2k for 20 grams...but it's supposed to be good, no personal experience.

anekal, now is a bad time, they're in season a bit earlier then most and they have a second harvest in july ish which is not too bad. ramnagaram has changed a lot in the last few years, mostly for the worse as far as weed goes...mallur, same story...all these areas were busted in the recent past on a large scale by cops...

surprised you didn't mention some of the best sources, MM Hills and BR hills are home to insane pot from november till may...the fact that it's election time now makes it harder to bring weed in the car back, the car is checked often for money laundering...

Hoskote is great from october to february...even march...then it goes downhilll...

Oh okay well thanks for the info, but you have weed all year round right? So do you buy in bulk when season comes? Also any update on your indoor grow?