Beginners First Grow - Balcony in Pakistan

Thought a grow journal would be useful in keeping track of my crop as well as getting advise from all the experts that roam these forums. I am going to grow 5-6 plants at a time in my balcony. I will also be growing other plants, vegetable and herbs to provide plausible deniability as far as my sudden interest in horticulture is concerned...sort of a cover for family, friends and the local nurseries and horticultural shops. Not that anyone in Pakistan will really do anything about it, but the golden rule is always to keep a low profile.

Starting out here is my inventory list:

1. 10 Sensi Star Seeds
2. 100 Grasscity Combo Pack seeds
3. 12 clay pots of 9.3 gallons each
4. 66 gallons of composted buffalo manure - from the nursery
5. 66 gallons of top soil sand mix - from the nursery
6. 66 gallons of top soil - from the nursey
7. 1 - 20 gallon bag of 'potting substrate' from Growmore (German brand). Composed of medium and highly composted peat moss, fertilizers. Ph of 5.5-6. Looks like a dark soil.
8. 2 - 1.2 gallon bags of Organic fertilizers; composed of worm castings, soil conditioners, and other materials. It looks like a dark soil.
9. 2 - 1.2 gallon bags of local brand top soil
10. 1 - 5 gallon bag of finely ground gravel.
11. 1 PH/Moisture meter from eBay
12. 1 bag 20-20-20 ferts from Growmore
13. Several plastic buckets of various sizes.
14. One hand shovel, one spade, one rake
15. 1 - 0.15 gallon bag bonemeal
16. 1 - 0.15 gallon bag fishmeal
17. 1 bottle of insect and bug killer.
18. 1 heating mat (shipment on the way)
19. 1 box of small rockwool cubes (shipment on the way)
20. 1 growing tray with plastic dome (shipment on the way)
21. 1 T5 Fluorescent tube light (shipment on the way)
22. 1 bottle Ph down for growing tray (shipment on the way)
23. 1 bottle Ph up for growing tray (shipment on the way)
24. 1 bottle rooting solution
25. 1 stack of old newspapers
26. 1 - 2lb bag of dolomite lime (shipment on the way)


Things I still need to buy:

1. 10-50-10 fertilizers
2. Macronutrients
3. Micronutrients
4. Some sort of Ph up for the soil.
5. Blackstrap molasses?
6. Small Styrofoam pellets
7. Plastic or cloth covering for seedlings to protect them from birds in the initial stages.


Now, I first sterilized the entire area, all the pots, and the nursery soils. I sterilized the nursery soils by placing them in the oven for 1 hour at super hot temperatures. The manure and top soil was sterilized using chemicals; insect and bug killing solution which I was told would kill anything bad in the soils. Diluted the solution in water and poured it all over all nursery bought products. Water seeped through the bottom of the big bags they were kept in and those bags (containing soil, manure and soil/sand mix) have been left to dry in the sun for 2-3 days.

I'm going to spend however many days I need preparing until my shipment arrives and allows me to start the germination process. In the meantime I think I'll find the right soil mix and experiment with some of the other plants and seeds (veggie) I bought. If the soil looks too compact or too dry or seems to be burning those plants, I know I should keep toying with the mix. I probably have between 7-10 days until that stuff arrives so I have enough time to get it right.

Any advise would be much appreciated.

 

I'm trying my best to raise the PH of the soil....I noticed using my soil ph meter that it was coming in at around 5. I dont have agricultural lime yet, so I am trying other recipes. I brought coffee grounds from the neighborhood cafe and when I checked the ph of the ground they were also around 5. So thats no good. Next I bought some baking soda. When I drop my ph meter in the baking soda, the ph is close to 7. When I mix it in water and measure the ph of the water, that is also coming out to around 5. Adding more is not making any difference except actually dropping the ph. The water in this area is also close to 5.5 ph.
Can someone please advise what I should do.

 

Ok...it looks like I've solved my Ph issue. Here is what I did:

1. Coffee grounds - I read these are high alkalinity so I checked with my ph meter and they weren't particularly high on the Ph scale. Discarded option.

2. Baking Soda - Added to a soil sample that was previously 5ish on the Ph scale and kept adding baking soda until it became impractical to add anymore. Discarded option.

3. Powdered coal - Measured on the Ph meter before adding and it showed an even 7. Added to a soil sample and kept increasing ratio until again it became impractical to have a soil composed of any more. Discarded option.

4. Wood ash - Measured on the Ph meter before adding and it showed an even 7. Added 1 liter to a 14 liter previous sample that was measuring 5.2ish on the Ph scale. Now the Ph jumped up to 6.7-7....seems to be slightly different in different parts of the container. This option seems to be a winner!!!

Now I have 15 liters of soil composed of a mix or organic matter, various soils, powdered coal, crushed marble (tiny grains), Styrofoam bits, sand, worm castings and wood ash. This soil has a Ph of between 6.7-7. I have also planted another type of plant to experiment and see what happens if I grow something in this mix, how it drains, what happens to the Ph over the next few days and what the situation looks like at that time. I've got time until some of my stuff arrives so I may as well screw around and get things right while I wait.

 

Now that I've bought everything but the kitchen sink for this grow op, I think I'm pretty damned prepared. Just need those items I ordered from Canada to arrive soon.

I mixed a little hydrated lime with water and used that to raise the Ph of my soil to 6.7-7. I also have wood ash and coal. I filled 4 large containers with this Ph adjusted soil mix and will be watering them (as I would if they had plants in them) for the next 7-10 days. I will continue checking the Ph and also try to flush out any remnants of the insecticide I used to sterilize the soils before mixing them. I'll also make sure that the Ph remains stable and that the soil drains well, doesnt dry out too much, etc. I'll throw in a tomato plant in one of them and see how it performs. I also read that after using hydrated lime you should wait several weeks before planting anything. Wouldn't want my MJ to die on me!

 

To be perfectly honest, you will notice that I've avoided mentioning which city I'm in cause I am totally paranoid. Lets just leave it at that.

I haven't grown here yet, but have done so abroad in an indoor growing room. Used rockwool before, but am now using soil. I think the best way is to engineer a good soil by buying a bunch of ingredients such as your nursery top soil, sand and manure. Also, I would go to one of the gardening shops and buy the bagged top soil (it has different ingredients) as well as one of the imported bags that contain composted peat moss. Add fishmeal, bone meal, wood ash, a little powdered coal, some tiny gravel bits, styrofoam bits and some watered down Choona. I have a Ph meter and I think thats absolutely essential. In the appropriate quantities, this mix drains well, contains sufficient nutrients, holds moisture and air, is not too think and heavy, nor too light and unable to hold a tall plant. Ph should come to around 6.7-7 according to my research.

I am not importing much at all except for the seeds and possibly some nutrients. I should ask you, which seeds did you use? I know of a few people growing locally but their bud is totally shit. They don't bother getting good seeds and I doubt they have gone through the absurd lengths that I have to create the right soil mix. As far as I know, all cities in Pakistan get roughly the same amount of sunlight per day and it is enough for MJ regardless of which month it is. Only differences I can possibly imagine occurring as a result of less than 10 hours of sunlight per day are the plants being less compact, fewer buds and maybe slightly less potency as compared to optimum conditions. If you use good seeds though, even less than ideal results should be much better than any alternative, including hash. I'm sure it will still be better than ordinary weed in places like the US and Canada.

You're growing indoors? What type of lights do you use? You gotta have HPS for flowering if you're going indoors. I honestly dont see any reason for being indoors when we have so much sunlight. Heat shouldn't be an issue since the plants can take the hottest summers of Pakistan and humidity up to 80-90% is still within a tolerable range. Should be ok outdoors.

 

Well...first things first..the thing about cops and neighbors is true as you probably know also. Most of us in Pakistan have bought hash from a cop at one time or another and we all know where cops stand in our society...so definitely its not cops I'm worried about. Neighbors cant say or do anything except bitch about it. The only reason I would keep it on the down low is because its just better kept that way. The last thing I want is for the whole damned city to know, or for people to start showing up at my door asking for weed, or just people with all kinds of messed up motives...and if you live in Karachi you know we have plenty of those.

I was about to buy Durban Poison but got White Widow, Purple Power, Sensi Star and a few others. Already have the seeds. The mail was actually intercepted and customs opened up the whole package and inspected everything. It said "Cannabis Seeds" on the bag in 5 fucking languages!!! So much for stealth packaging huh? It was a good thing that most of our customs guys are illiterate motherfuckers who wouldn't know what cannabis was if it bit them on the ass. They just let it through. This was really encouraging cause it tells you that you can pretty much order seeds with without worry. Very different from Dubai or Toronto..I'd be shitting my pants the entire time if I was there.

You can find imported soil at Lotias next to Altimesh Dental clinic. I wouldn't mind working on this as a joint project if you're up to it....you do have much more experience that I do growing here. The seeds I have are outdoor seeds, I think you're referring to bag seed. I actually know of at least 2 other people who are growing here in Karachi but they use some bullshit strain and never bothered to buy good seeds. You aren't known as the "mad camper" are you?

I have the option to go to the top of my building as well in case I want more than 6 hours of direct sunlight. I was going to grow 5 at a time to see what kind of result I am getting. Its not too difficult to shift everything indoors if outdoors isnt working out. It would just take a month or so for the items to arrive from the US or Canada and you have an indoor growing room with HPS lights, a carbon dioxide generator and ebb and flow tray, all for less than US$ 750-800. Indoors these things just blow out of all proportions, so that is a last resort. I think I'll give it a try and plant 5 seeds now. I've seen people in Canada growing outdoors in some pretty bad conditions and the weed was still acceptable. If you went to school or Uni in the west, you probably did smoke a lot of that stuff and paid good money for it too. Whats the worst that could happen? I'll lose 5 seeds and try again later.

 

After correcting Ph in all my containers a few days ago, I have been keeping a regular check on them. Today I noticed that the Ph, which was initially at 5.5ish and 7ish after correction is now close to 6.2 in all the containers. Since the containers are large, I've been checking several points per container to confirm the ph of that particular pot and have noticed that the first couple of days there was a lot of variation between each point inspected. Today I noticed that the disparity between all the points in a container were much less and all containers were close to 6.2.

Next step, correct Ph again and bump up to 7 using powered wood-based coal and diluted hydrated lime. I think if I do this a couple of times the containers will stabilize at between 6.7-7, which is the range I am targeting for. Hoping to get a consistent Ph value between the target range for an extended time before I plant my first seed.

 

I read in the Cannabible that the ideal Ph is 6.5-7 with 6.8 being ideal. It does say that between 6-7 is also ok. I wanted to keep it in that range (6.7-7) in case the ph value of the container drops over the course of the next several weeks, so that it still remains within an acceptable range of 6+. The other thing that I'm trying to achieve is a consistent ph value for at least 1 week including daily watering. That would indicate that the ph of the soil itself is at that level rather than the water/moisture that was trapped for a short time following liming.

I also noticed, with disappointment, that my coriander, chilli, and okra seeds haven't germinated yet. I placed them in a freshly limed pot of soil almost 5 days ago and I don't see nothing yet. Maybe a few more days?

 

What are you using as a liming agent? How are you keeping your Ph in check?

 

I am fully armed with 110 outdoor seeds of different kinds.

BTW, you said you have tried to grow some of these strains here before. Were you growing outdoors or indoors? And what medium were you using(Soil/Rockwool)?

My Okra seeds just germinated. I have my first seedling making an appearance, so I guess the soil I've mixed up is ok. Okra's requirements are not that different from Cannabis.

I mixed some chalk into the soil yesterday so I could bump up the Ph for the containers from 6.2 to 6.9 in one go without having to keep screwing with it again later. Will see what the result is later today.