balcony on the equater, getting started

[iksrazal]

Hi all, I just signed up and searched the forums before posting. I have the following environment:

19th floor apartment, big balcony, 75-85F, 40% humidity, 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness all year round. Light cycle from 5am to 5pm. Balcony faces the east and receives good light from 6-9am, decent indirect light after that. Powerful lites are on the balcony that could be strong enough to add more light time. Gets moderately windy. Rains hard in march and april. Very sunny beyond that.

Plan: Buy 2 packs of feminised mix of outdoor seeds, not sure if the names "Dr Jekhill, Kannabia Special & Smile" mean anything but they are sativa / indica hybrids. I have some common mini-trees doing fine on the balcony using big concrete planters, so I'm thinking of growing about 4 plants in one big, heavy concrete planter. I'd like to plant outdoors, and not start them out inside and transplant but I could. I plan on using typical store bought dirt, nothing special.

Doubts: Beyond being unsure my plan makes sense, not sure about how long or when I should leave the light cycles at 12 hours, or if my balcony nite light is enough to extend the period. Would prefer the plants not get taller than around 3 feet, bushy is fine. Wondering if I need some type of tomato tent.

Any help appreciated.

[bigtopsfinn]

Firstly, welcome :)

I'd say for 4 plants you'd need a mighty large container. Always best to have separate containers in case one starts to have problems. The roots will also fight for food and water, sometimes to the death :( Plus they will all get better light.

As for the size and light periods, your guess is as good as mine! Look into LST (low stress training) to get those low bushy plants. With that method you can keep them pretty much at any height you want and as wide as you want. Other methods are FIMing, topping, supercropping, scrog... more info in the first link in my signature.

One thing to keep in mind is that you don't want any extra light in the dark cycle (other than the moon and stars of course).

Maybe someone with some balcony experience can step in...

Happy growing :jointsmile:

[bluntar]

the dark period is what i would be worried about. it only takes a weee little bit of light to confuse the plant and its hormone production causeing the plant to go back to the vegetative stage and stop produeing them sweet buds, hermie, or jump off that 19th floor balcony :wtf4:

[iksrazal]

the dark period is what i would be worried about. it only takes a weee little bit of light to confuse the plant and its hormone production causeing the plant to go back to the vegetative stage and stop produeing them sweet buds, hermie, or jump off that 19th floor balcony :wtf4:

Hmm, maybe use a tomato tent and put a tarp over it at nite? Can I have a continuous 12/12 cycle, just to keep it simple?

[GROWxMOREx420]

I've done a super simple Hash Plant balcony grow with great success. The cycle ran about 5 1/2 months, the plants got roughly 3ft tall, yielding 2-4 ounces from each plant. Here is the formula which I followed....

I used an Earthbox with Fox Farm Ocean Forest potting soil, and watered with evaporated hose water. After about 1 month, I started feeding them a compost tea every 2 weeks and used neem oil during veg as needed during flowering.

Earthbox - Self watering planter box with built in resevior to prevent over/under watering.

Fox Farm Ocean Forest potting soil - The best soil money can buy. It has all the nutrients you need for the entire grow pre-mixed right into the soil. I recommend about 3-5 gallons of soil per plant.

Evaporated hose water - No need to spend money on purified water. Just fill up a bucket of hose water and let it evaporate for 48hrs.

Compost Tea - After 1 month of growth, start feeding your plants a compost tea every 2 weeks for beneficial bacterias.

Neem Oil - 2 treatments a week during veg, then as needed during flowering will keep the pests away. (I recommend the company GreenLight. They make organic neem oil that can be used all the way up to harvest.)

Follow this forumla and you will grow organic goodness.... I promise you.

The only problem I can forsee is the photoperiod. 12/12 will send them into flowering. You need at least 14hrs of light to keep them in a vegatative state. Figure that out and it is off to the races....

[bluntar]

Hmm, maybe use a tomato tent and put a tarp over it at nite? Can I have a continuous 12/12 cycle, just to keep it simple?

that would work and be more safe. i cant think of any downfalls. i think you cuold get away with only 12/12 but you will not be able for force flower, leaving it up to the plant to start flowering...if you are patient then no problem

grow more sounds like he haS a good plan..even if you dont use the earth box..i would recomend individual pots over the concrete planter(more control and less room for error.

how bout a pic of this planter?

[GROWxMOREx420]

I went ahead and made an Earthbox video if you're interested in learning a little more about it. Enjoy....

YouTube - GROWxMOREx420's Channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/GROWxMOREx420#p/u/0/31II9b7INb8)

[iksrazal]

Hey guys, finally getting serious. I bought 3 stone planters of 5 gallons each, one for each plant. I bought typical garden soil since I can't get anything fancy down here. I got a plan for keeping the plants dark a nite. I found some sources for fertilzer, 20-20-20 etc.

Where I could use some help atm is picking some strains. I searched the forums and couldn't find anything reviewed with a longitude of less than 5 degrees, and most of the docs I found on seeds are talking about 30-50 degrees longitude lol. I'm looking to spend for quality.

Here's some strains I'm looking at, mostly sativa / indica hybrids which is fine. Any help appeciated.

Search results for: 'outdoor Feminised' Seedsman - Cannabis And Marijuana Seeds (http://www.seedsman.com/en/catalogsearch/result/?q=outdoor+Feminised)

About the earth box ... wish I could but my third world options are limited.

[iksrazal]

I settled on 10 seeds of super lemon haze. I'll post some pics around the germination and transplant stages, probably sometime in late November / early December.

[nugssgalore]

ooooh super lemon haze! Always wanted to try that, very pricey seeds...good luck. The only drawback I can see to having 4 plants in one planter is if one or more of the plants turn out to be male...are you going to start the seeds in smaller pots? Then you could see their gender and only transplant the females to the concrete planter.

[iksrazal]

From the advice in this thread I decided to use one big (about 5 gallon) planter per plant.

I'm planning on starting them out in standard 12 ounce plastic cups, inside, for about 2 weeks. The seeds I ordered are feminized so I'm hoping there won't be any males (or hermies). AFAIK I need to start them out with 18 hours of light per day, but since I have year round 12/12 , I'll need at least 6 hours of artificial lite. I'm still trying to figure out if normal incandescent house lites would work - maybe 100 watt bulbs?

During the vegetation stage on my balcony, I'm thinking I'll also need to add some artificial lite so I can control when they start to flower. I do have a lite built into the roof of the balcony that's right over where the plants will be - nothing special so I wonder if that will be enough.

[energyefficient]

if you have room a 4 or 6 lamp T5 fixture would be more than enough.

[GetThisOrDie]

The regular house bulbs will work but put out a whole lot of heat. CFLs are another option that put out much less heat and are very cheap.

[iksrazal]

Hi all,

Well I've made some progress, hit a few bumps in the road and I need some advice on stuff I can't figure out googling.

I had my first 3 plants die within 2 weeks due to I believe insufficient light - it had all the symptoms. My next three are doing much better after two weeks, now using 1400w 6500K CFL's during the nite hours, moving them in the morning to be on the inside of some of the balconies sliding glass doors. Getting around 18-20 hours total of lite.

One decision I made was to use slightly bigger starter planters, I'd say about 36 fluid ounces. The idea is that way I'll only have to transplant once, after 5 weeks of veg, and more two weeks of 12 / 12 for 7 weeks total.

Two things I need help on:

1) One of my plants has different soil. I found a new, better informed plant place and I showed them both types of soil I bought somewhere else. Turns out the soil I´m using for one plant is for humidity control of some sort - feels dusty - and doesn't have any starter nutrients. I got some organic soil, looks good. Should I try transplanting it into the better soil now or should I wait?

2) I'm in Brazil and basically my options are very limited on most things, including fertilizer. I got what I could get, 10-10-10 for veg and 4-14-8 for flowering. It came in like a small rock form though, and when I asked how to dilute it, I was told to put it in the soil. Told me a tablespoon for a 5 gallon size container is about right. I was planing on diluting it and using it on every other watering. Not sure what to do now, any advice?

[iksrazal]

Rephrasing #2 to be clearer:

2) I'm in Brazil and basically my options are very limited on most things, including fertilizer. I got what I could get, 10-10-10 for veg and 4-14-8 for flowering. It came in like a small rock form though, and when I asked how to dilute it, I was told to put it directly in the soil, no dilution needed. Told me a tablespoon for a 5 gallon size planter is about right, need less obviously for my 36oz starter planters. I was planing on diluting it and using it on every other watering, but now I have no idea of what ratio to dilute. Not sure what to do now, any advice?

[iksrazal]

So at this point my plants have some yellow leaves on the bottom. I'm using about a teaspoon of 10-10-10 pebbles in a gallon of water, letting it sit for a day before using. The symptoms from googling tells me it could be too much or too little nitrogen, I'm just not sure. Here's a pic of a super lemon haze plant at 6 weeks, still in vegetation and 8 inches tall. I've got the plants under CFL's for around 8 hours a day, moving the plants to the balcony windows for about 10 hours, having about 18 hours of light total. Plan on moving this plant out to the balcony and 12/12 in 3 weeks. Thoughts?