Rocky Balbroa's Down South Outdoor Grow

Hey guys, this is my first grow. I just got my babies transplanted to some pots. Just so you guys can catch up to where I am, these were cloned with a propagator about 3 weeks ago. From there, they were put into solo cups in FF Ocean forest with half-strength FF nutes. Last night, I transplanted these babies into some happy frog with about 4 parts soil, one part perlite. I also used the Xtreme Gardening Myco. They should develop a nice little root ball within the next month or so. I will be using full-strength nutes starting in about two weeks. I also spread milorganite around the area to keep animals away. Stay tuned and watch. I will have some more detailed stuff up soon. Also, I love tips and constructive criticism. And just so you know, three of these are GHS SSH. I'm not quite sure what the other one is. We thought it was blue dream, but those are some pretty thick leaves. It's starting to look more like a sativa though.

Edited by RockyBalbroa, 06 April 2011 - 04:50 AM.

Looking great dude! Nothin like that good ole Georgia soil for growing ganja! Rock on!

So good to see the start of the Northern Hemisphere outdoor grows as the season comes to an end here in the Southern Hemisphere.

SSH is my favourite strain and I am hoping you get some fire from your plants!

Sweet. I have a good feelin about this one...love the sattys! They may take a little longer but down in the land of Georgia you can take your good old time Looking good, Balbroa the groa!

I appreciate it guys. Hey OP, isn't it about time for you to get started as well? If I recall correctly, you started at pretty much this time last year.

I appreciate it guys. Hey OP, isn't it about time for you to get started as well? If I recall correctly, you started at pretty much this time last year.

I actually started at exactly this time last year. I hit a nice stretch of warm weather for germination and went with it. Thinks worked out OK doing that but my seedlings had to make it through some pretty cold nights which seemed to temporarily slow their growth, and it took a few days for them to get going again. This year, I'm gonna wait a couple more weeks. I feel that when night time temps get down to 40F or below, it is counter productive to plant early.

I actually started at exactly this time last year. I hit a nice stretch of warm weather for germination and went with it. Thinks worked out OK doing that but my seedlings had to make it through some pretty cold nights which seemed to temporarily slow their growth, and it took a few days for them to get going again. This year, I'm gonna wait a couple more weeks. I feel that when night time temps get down to 40F or below, it is counter productive to plant early.

Yeah, that's true. Aren't you at 38 N? I know for the past few days here, it has been pretty cold. Not to mention, the other night we had 60 mph winds. I was just at the point to where I had to shit or get off the pot (no pun intended). From experience of watching my brother grow SSH indoor and seeing how it can take around 3 months for the damn things to flower, I figured I should go ahead and get them going. My profile picture is the mother plant.

I actually started at exactly this time last year. I hit a nice stretch of warm weather for germination and went with it. Thinks worked out OK doing that but my seedlings had to make it through some pretty cold nights which seemed to temporarily slow their growth, and it took a few days for them to get going again. This year, I'm gonna wait a couple more weeks. I feel that when night time temps get down to 40F or below, it is counter productive to plant early.

Thats why you bring em in at night anyway Pork. Keep em all safe like from the slugs, moths, coons, cats, dogs, opossum, etc. And keep em near 70F at night. You are dead on about temps below 55F slowing growth, but if you can manage to bring em in at night, things don't slow down one bit. Just think, about setting out 3-4 ft plants that have been growing "business as usual" compared to waiting the cold out for an "all outside" germ and seedling start. Its more work, but I believe you get hardier plants.

Nice start Rocky. GG is right about temperatures. The earth temp has to be 55 degs. to really grow anything. Here is Dixie we can still get a frost very late, so Rocky keep an I on the weather forecasts. Gook Luck.

\Here is Dixie we can still get a frost very late, so Rocky keep an I on the weather forecasts..

Oooohhh, you better hush up now, just hush There will be no talk like that around here. You're right, second week in april is always a surprise around here, but still, just sayin the words makes me cringe

Yeah, you're not kidding. I know it's really up in the air, but after seeing the 10-day forecast, i have a great feeling about this. Especially because they've been vegging for 2-3 weeks already. If all goes well, they're gonna be some big girls.

Rocky, great looking plants there.

Y'all got me thinking how good it would be to start in April, at 36N. But my babes are way behind yours. So I'm thinking that waxing moon in early May will bring the magic planting window. Good luck, I'm sub'd. Your journal will be my slow train through Georgia, to ease the worried mind...with apologies to Stormin' Norman Blake.

Thanks a lot Marapa! I'm mostly worried about bud rot. And I might plant along with you. I know it's my first year and all, so this should be just fine for me, but I want to get a GHS sativa mix pack or just something nice that I could use for breeding. I realized that since it takes 100 plants to get worse than the five year minimum charge, I might as well take advantage of the cover I have in these woods. I have to walk through a creek that is about 3 feet deep, which surrounds my area on all sides with about an 800 yard radius from any sort of habitation. I also happen to have a great hill that faces south. All in all, I think it's gonna be a great year.

suscribed!

Okay, so I put 2 of these little girls in their primary location. I have to put the other 2 in another spot hopefully on Monday. The creek is where I get my water for the two that I moved. I noticed some minor discoloration in some of the leaves and couldn't quite tell what it was. I also purchased the Cannabis Grow Bible last night for any hard-to-find info and I still can't diagnose it. Minor nute burn or PH imbalance maybe? Either way, they are still thriving and I used a little less than a half a teaspoon per gallon with that Purple Maxx to increase nitrogen intake. I know a lot of people burn the shit out of their plants with it, but you are supposed to do it separately from other nutrients and let's be honest, people think they can use as much as the bottle says. WRONG. Moderation is the best way to go. Well, I'm off to go buy some sort of fencing. Peace!

Okay, so I put 2 of these little girls in their primary location. I have to put the other 2 in another spot hopefully on Monday. The creek is where I get my water for the two that I moved. I noticed some minor discoloration in some of the leaves and couldn't quite tell what it was. I also purchased the Cannabis Grow Bible last night for any hard-to-find info and I still can't diagnose it. Minor nute burn or PH imbalance maybe? Either way, they are still thriving and I used a little less than a half a teaspoon per gallon with that Purple Maxx to increase nitrogen intake. I know a lot of people burn the shit out of their plants with it, but you are supposed to do it separately from other nutrients and let's be honest, people think they can use as much as the bottle says. WRONG. Moderation is the best way to go. Well, I'm off to go buy some sort of fencing. Peace!

Dude! You know its trout season right? Just look at that stream If I had that close by, oh man!

That really is a beautiful stream, and high volume for n georgia. I'm guessing Chauga or Chattooga or maybe upper Chattahoochee...whatever, get out your banjo! Rocky, you probably know this, but be wary about putting distinctive background like that in your pics. Just read through a few old outdoor journals here where people slave all summer only to get their plants ripped in the fall and you will see what I mean. Still, it does indeed look like a super sweet area for those of us who like forest and stream...

looks goood .

Okay, so tomorrow is when I start using full-strength nutes. I went out and set up some wildlife netting around the area so now I don't have to worry at night. I felt like I should go ahead and lay out my grow plan for this season. You're going to see my nutrient list and think to yourself that that is excessive. My plan is to only use all the nutes on 2 plants just to do a controlled experiment. I plan on ordering some nice strains to plant next month. Here are the strains I plan on purchasing:

Barney's Farm LSD
Samsara's Holy Grail '69
Paradise's Vertigo
Nirvana's PPP
Nirvana's Blue Mystic
GHS Arjan's Ultra Haze #1
And the GHS Indica/Sativa Mix:
The Church :D:D
Arjan's Strawberry Haze
Lemon Skunk
Great White Shark
Hawaiian Snow

And then they're giving me:
Buddha Seeds' Deimos Autoflower
Buddha Seeds' Red Dwarf Autoflower
Buddha Seeds White Dwarf Autoflower


Those aren't completely locked in, so if you think I should reconsider one of these or if you recommend something else, speak within the next few days or forever hold your peace
I know that seems like it's a lot for a first grow, but if you notice, it is actually well balanced between strains that finish in September/October. It's about half and half, not to mention those autoflowers. I have been curious about them, so I figure "why the hell not?"

Now we're getting down to the nitty gritty

First, I want to say that GC has motivated me so much and if it wasn't for this website and the people on it, I would most likely not be doing this for a few more years. You guys are great. Now onto to the grow. My potting mix is as simple as this:

Happy Frog Potting Soil- roughly 4 parts
Perlite- about 1 part
Xtreme Gardening Myco - about 1/2 a part

Starting tomorrow, I will be using full-strength FF nutes. Hopefully, I can order those seeds Wednesday so I can transplant them to soil at about the same time. I'm going to leave some of them in pots, but that will all be determined at a later date. Whenever I transplant to soil, I will be using OP's soil mix with a little variation.

Soil Mix
Pro-Mix BX
Blood Meal
Bone Meal
Composted Manure
Perlite


I'm leaving out the guanos because I don't plan on feeding with teas or trying to put an "organic" label on my grow, but at least everything is food grade. I plan on putting this stuff in the soil because it is slow-release and it would feed even when the nutes don't, especially when they really start thriving. Now it's down to the nute list. I advise that if you are a first-time grower that you don't take the super expensive route I did, but I needed everything to eventually start an indoor grow which you will see started in a few weeks. I also wanted to make sure I had every aspect covered and then from there, I can eliminate what I don't need. Luckily, I have a TDS meter and the General Hydroponics ph kit, so I should be alright. I am honestly not too worried about nute burn, but I'm staying very cautious. well, here's the nutes:

FF Big Bloom
FF Grow Big
FF Tiger Bloom
FF Open Sesame
FF Beastie Bloomz
FF Cha-Ching
Humbolt County's Own Purple Maxx
Humboldt County's Own Bushmaster
Humboldt County's Own Snowstorm Ultra
Humboldt County's Own Gravity ( I'll probably decide not to)
Atami's Bloombastic (it's expensive, but a friend is paying half


I know you're thinking it's a bit much, but if I fuck up, it won't be because I didn't have the right stuff. I have some Clearex if my ppm happens to get out of whack. I'm running it at about 820-850 right now, hoping to take it gradually up once every week or two, but I can't set a schedule for that because my plants are going to tell me when they want more food.

As far as training goes, I have yet to decide for sure, but I think I'm going to SCRoG for the two that are growing right now. The rest, I will at least tie to some bamboo or something. I think it is going to be a great year. I am really really excited that for once, instead of reading all these great grow journals, I am finally contributing to GC. I hope you guys subscribe to this, especially the first-timers. If you have any questions, just ask. If you have any advice, please feel free to share. I'll have some new pictures up tomorrow.

Edited by RockyBalbroa, 11 April 2011 - 08:55 AM.

Hey Rocky.

The clones look good.

Im envy your ability to grow the SSh clones. They just come in to late for me at 37+. I can grow armegeddon as it comes in about 10 days sooner than ssh and is of similar quality, but some pheno's of ssh are top notch.

Im looking at your list up there. Ive grown some of them so let me tell you what i know.

Ghs Lemon Skunk: The hybrid pheno is excellent smoke. It grows to a 7' christmas tree and can produce a lb, but usually less. Very pretty in the bag. Unfortunately, there is a second pheno(2-3 specimens per 10 pk), that is acclimated to 12/12 and it had marbled sized buds when i cut it on nov. 4. It may do a little better for you, but that pheno is late. Its easy to spot, its the classic skunk 1 pheno- larger with a stout stem with purple striping.

Ghs Great white grows to 8' christmas tree- a big budded branch breaker during thunderstorms that will mould in the last 2weeks if weather is cool and damp. Good consistency among plants as all look similar. It has a somewhat fruity taste and a heavy stone of average potency. It stinks to high heaven when the buds are ripe. I dont know anybody that has grown it outdoors that grows it a second year. Not that its bad, its just that there is better, quicker and easier.

Hawaiian Snow. Great big plants of killer smoke. finishes Oct 25th for you.

Barneys LSD. not really and outdoor plant w/ mediocre smoke in my view.
Nirvana'sPPP. Even though it finishes fairly early, it will mould and it doesnt have the level of potency that i like. You'll find it disappointing after smoking the SSh.
Blue mystic. Some specimans are really pretty good, but its a pheno search to find them. Also, the skunk pheno is 2 weeks later than the hybrid pheno. Royal queen seeds has done a pheno search, isolated a good hybrid specimen for selfing and are selling the femmed seeds. Those seeds should display more consistent hybrid phenos.

The real story? If the one clone is actually blue dream, throw everything else away!!! Just teasing, but it is delightful smoke. Blue Haze from HGF is very similar and is also stellar smoke. After smoking the SSH, much of the list (except for the HSnow/1 pheno of LS) is going to be disappointing.
Ill check in later. ch

Edited by clodhopper, 11 April 2011 - 03:53 PM.