Late start to getting a journal started. I'm a noob with a lot of research and reading rattling around in my brain. My first plan was to go spacebucket in the garage... and then things came up and now I'm growing on my roof. For me, this is an experiment to see if moving to the roof to chase the best sun on my property is worth the general headache of gardening two stories up. I'm in southern California and I'm shooting for a low maintence, simple and clean grow. The Ladies: I'm growing a fun mixture of clones from (do I put the name? is that a thing?). Gorilla Glue #4, Lemon Haze, Bruce Banner #3, XXX and Black Lime Reserve. The GG4s are a few weeks older than the rest and so far healthiest of the lot. Here's the first day upstairs after a week in my hilly, shaded backyard being miserable. It's hot up there, morning and evening tending only. The Setup: After a bit of research on SIPs I decided to go with $10 kiddie pools from target filled with perlite. I may down the line add float valves to maintain water depth. In the soild dept., got a 30/70 mix of FFOF and ProMix HP/Sunshine Mix (the mycorrhizae kinds). The big GG is in a 15gal smartpot everybody else is in 10gal smarties. I'm hoping someone can confirm if I'll be okay with this soil mix in a perlite SIP. Should be fun!
We got roots poking through! Suposedly they will pop like crazy once they get to the bottom of the pot. Can't wait!
Yeah, lack of sunlight forced me up there to begin with. Some folks on here told me to worry about heat, so that's something to look out for.
Yep. Everyone love the kiddie SIPs. Especially the tomatoes. Big tap roots on the GG4s and Black Lime Reserve. The others were put in big pots just this saturday, so they've got a few more days before I'm hoping they'll go bananas. I got an idea for a "please don't flower yet" rig from another member. I used a bunch of 1/2 inch pvc, elbows, tees, and these solar spotlights. While I was checking the lights tonight, I noticed how insanely frosty the top are getting. Am I too late with the lights? I'd really love it if they all went back to veg! Also, what's this sappy biz on the tips of the leaves in this pic?
Progress. Cages, lights. I have no idea what I'm doing with these fucking beastly gorilla glues that are flowering. Next I'm going to get worms. Anyone know a source, or am I stuck with getting 250 of em on amazon? OH! Other bonus of rooftop gardening is a surprising lack of insects so far. I have a few tiny spiderbros, but nothing else... even the tomatoes! Suspect? or possibly a bonus of being so far off the ground. My first break bending a stem! With "bandaid".
Hey man, welcome! Glad to know there are other fools out there trying this roof thing! Yeah tell me about it... One day I'm thinking about how to get more sun on the plants and next thing you know I'm hauling supplies up by rope. I'll look for more permanent solutions once I finish this first test crop. As for a quick update, I just got back from vacation and they are all doing fantastic. I didn't get pictures yet, but the SIPs performed flawlessly. The two big baby pools were empty and i might supplement more perlite to these for a deeper reservoir. The blue tub still has a few inches of water, which makes me think that it's a bit more of a viable path forward. It definitely makes things tidier. Good growth all around and all the smartpots are showing rooting out the bottom, dipping their toes in the perlite. I have some tomatoes up there that are fucking exploding out the bottom so much they're grabbing the perlite touching the bottom. All the girls are very much in flower. Since I was researching for a fall harvest, I don't know how this crop will finish. Anyways, the goal was big trees (like 4 footers). This is where I'll be researching the most in the next week. If anyone has been through an early flower situation like mine, let me know what I can expect!
Holy shit... I just got some great info from a fellow local grower on Instagram. He told me he had a $1000+ clones from the same dispensary which 90% hermied as well! While I feel glad to know that I probably didn't cause the hermie, I'm bummed about the viability of the rest of my crop. He also warned me of a potential infestation of broadmites from the source. Man, what a fucking bummer!