24yrs of self-sufficiency...Mokkas Marihuana Methods

[mokka]

Hello everyone, I hope you´ll enjoy this diary.

First off a few thanks, for @Dinafem-Mark obviously, Uk420 GG´ers for all the variety info, and the missus for the greenlight on the diary.

As you´ll see this ain´t my first grow but its my first diary so hopefully I´ll be learning a bit here as well and TBH one or the reasons for doing my diary here is to have Mark onboard addding input from a breeders perspective.

 

Here´s a pic of the gh

 

It needs a right good tidying.

 

I´ll probably be one of the last here to actually plant any seeds, my sowing dates will be in June, so that gives me plenty of time to talk shit / weed theory depending on your point of view as well as providing me with a distraction as I watch all of you already growing and get jealous as fuck. So my diary time table is as follows...

 

April - how I´ll be doing this years grow.

May - Seed production, my auto hacks, Self sufficiency.

June - My questions to Diafem about seed company practicies and policies.

July - I´ll hopfully have some plants on the go.

August September October - I´m busy as fuck so the diary could get a bit random..

November - Hopefully everthing will be dried in jars and curing.

December January - This is when I start properly testing the weed. Also I´ll be spinning the trim.

 

So the  photoperiods will be (one of each)

 

Dinafem - Purple Afghan Kush

             - Original Amnesia

Serious Seeds - Serious six

Sweet Seeds - Killer Kush fv

                   - Cream Caramel fv

(hopefully) BC Bud Depot - Girl Scout Cookies , althogh if I don´t get it I´ll do Sweet seeds Blck Jack fv instead.

 

Automatics (again one of each)

 

Dinafem - Blue Amnesia xxl

Dutch Passion - Cinderella Jack

My Dianapassion reg hacks - Think Dick and Moby Different. I´ll talk more about them in May..

 

And just to wet the appetite here´s a pic from last Sept

 

I´ll be back soon..

All the best Mokka

 

 

[mokka]

Quick Grumpy Old Git request, can we have no "I´ll be watching this diary" or "that pic looks goood/crap" please, just use the like button thingy.

Questions, criticisms all welcome!

Mokka

[vince noir rock n roll star]

well thats a red rag for ..im gonna be watching this diary cos those pics are great ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sorry im vince ..i cant help it .

[Michael Luchóg]

That's a cool looking greenhouse . They'll grow quickly for sure ,and it's a drier environment. 

Best of luck buddy.

[vince noir rock n roll star]

i have to say sorry ...but yeah i will stay and watch because my first love was grown in a greenhouse and ive had a soft spot for a great greenhouse grow and your greenhouse makes me envious i dont have the outdoor space anymore ...best of luck for a mould free time

[Blayz'd]

I take it if you planted out earlier they would overtake the space? What size space do you use to grow them? Do you train them at all or just let them go?

[mokka]

Hello folks,

@Blayz'd Yes, 2m x 1m x 2m height, yes they´ll be trained (I´ll say later but you can look at a frisian dew in my gallery from´14). Sorry for the very quick answer read on.

 

So on with the show...

 

Aims.

It´s always good I feel to have an aim or two, a few of mine this year are;

For my photos in the gh to grow without the need for extra / emergency tying down, ideally finishing about 5 foot high, whilst still being able to walk down both of my paths in the gh.

I´d like all my autos to be at least 50g no runts.

I´d like to get back to 100% germination rates.

 

The Seeds.

As I´ve listed them before you´ll all know what PAK, OA, S6, KK, CC, BJ, GSC, BA, CJ, TD and MD are.

So in the gh I´ll have PAK, OA, CC and GSC/BJ (4 plants each having 2m x 1 m space). Outside proper will be S6 and under the tomato roof KK. The autos will be dotted around the garden, I´m planning on room for 4 females and a couple of males (in their own mini sealed gh).

And onto the seeds

TBH all the feminised/bought seeds look to me a little unripe / immature and they lack a bit of fatness and colour however the proof is in the pudding and if they all germ then thats fine. And to be fair I´ve generally not had any too many problems with bought seeds germinating. Is it maybe the pollen from a fem male that makes the seed like this ? Hopefully I´ll find out later this year when I´ll try making some fem seeds but I´ll talk more about that in May.

 

Packaging.

I love Dinafems little tins, so did my mates as we were splitting up the packs of seed. Definately "best tin" from a seed company and very carefully packed seeds.

Dutch Passion have just released their new packaging and we weren´t at all impressed. The tins are too big and no-one could think of a new use for it, especially with that plastic window. I couldn´t give it away.

Serious Seeds, their packaging is tbh for the price of S6 a little cheap, but there is an ID number on the back.

However Sweet Seeds get my prize for the best packaging. Ok its only a plastic tube glued onto a bit of card but I can see the seeds in the shop and check they are all there and what they look like. But for me most importantly, they put a date of production on the back so you know exactly how fresh those seeds are. The only way they could be bettered is if they glue a Dinafem tin to the card, just don´t put anything in it.

Dinafem and all other seed sellers, please, customers need to know the date of production of a living product.

 

 

The Greenhouse.

I´ll take you all on a little tour of the gh, explain a few features, reasoning etc.

As a basic description its 8m long 4m wide with 3 beds 1m wide running the length of it. Effective growing height is upto 2m.

Its heated actively and passively, has an automatic irrigation system, supplementary lighting and will have added CO2.

I like my gh, it´s a nice place to chill out, even more so with a few weed plants to look at, and for me I find its the best way to grow. I can / will / could have all the climatic control that an indoor grow has, but with the massive advantages of a better primary light source and access to the soil for an unlimited root run. All this without running up too much of a leccy bill.

 

I´ll go into a bit more detail based on the five limiting factors for plant growth, Temp, Light, Nutrients, Water, CO2.

 

Heating.

I use a mixture of heating methods;

Wood burner, this puts out loads of dry heat, really good for a wet Oct day when you want at least 20 degrees and a r/h below 75. Not so good for frost protection when I can´t be arsed getting out of bed.

Gas gh heater, this has a thermostat so is more automatic but I´m not into the gas heater smell. I try to use it only before / after I have weed in the gh.

Water butts painted black. I´ve 440 litre of water in 20 litre butts against the backwall of the gh. If its sunny they warm up and release that heat through the night. They can work surprisingly well, but are fuck all use on said wet day in Oct. They also take some heat out of the gh on a hot day (as the water warms).

Insulation, the back (north) wall is 8cm thick insulation board. The east and west walls are insulated upto a height of 50cm. Glass is 6 and 8mm thick.

Heated mats, these are great for starting some (weed, tom, melon etc) seeds and doing cuttings. Usefull in brewing too.

I´ll talk ventillation in the CO2 bit.

 

Lighting.

Obviously the main light is the sun. However I´ll be adding a little bit here and there.

I´ll be using the far reds again for sure. They basically make your plants flower sooner and faster or at least thats the theory. There´s a link to what happened last year in my signiture (or find it in the uk420 gh section).

I´d like to get a bit of supplementary lighting to help the sun out in October, last year it (Oct) really took the piss. I was thinking of a few 70/150w CMH lights or possibly LED.

There should also be a bit of daylength supplementation for the autos for the first couple of weeks, probably two "normal" led bulbs, I´m testing one now with my toms.

 

Fertilisers.

This year I won´t be spending much on ferts, certainly no expensive weed ferts.

So far the beds in the gh have had 2 wheelbarrows of self made compost. It´ll get some chicken shit, sheep shit, rock potash and worm castings. I´ll be hand watering with a fermented comfrey extract. Hopefully that´ll have the nutes sorted.

Oh and there´s some fish in the irrigation system butt too, which brings me to.

 

Water.

Last year I finally got it together to sort out an automatic irrigation system for the gh. I think this made probably the biggest difference between crops (weed, toms, melon peppers etc) in my old gh and this new one. About 75 litre of water was pumped onto the 3 beds morning and evening. I don´t have mains water so I put a small pump, on a digi timer, in the water butt. The fish keep the water nice and clear and add a bit of nutrients. Willow will also keep your water butt clear.

 

CO2 / Ventillation.

The final limiting factor. Ill be supplementing CO2 levels with a couple of 50 litre barrels with something fermenting in them.

Of course the gh is vented which is also important in keeping temps down, Rh levels down as well as replenishing CO2 from outside.

Oscillating fans run 24/7 throughout Summer and Autumn. These create a good airflow making the stems stronger, helping keep plant heights down. They also hopefully make life a little harder for pests to crawl around.

A solar panel in the gh powers some DC computer fans. In the summer these are mounted in the bottom of the North wall to suck cool air in. In winter they just ventillate inside the gh. Bit gimmicky but it showed me how low the light levels were in Oct when the fans didn´t turn even at midday.

Windows are on automatic openers (wax style), doors I open and shut.

 

 

In Summer once evening temps stay around 15 / day temps hit 40 I remove the side plastic windows, screw the automatic windows fully open and leave the doors always open.

In Autumn I´ve been closing the doors at night and leaving the windows on auto to keep night time temps up. However this can create problems with higher humidity levels. It´s still a tricky question for me, to keep the gh warm but more humid , or have more airflow, lower rh but lower temps.

I personally feel that keeping vegetation levels to a minimum in the gh is the easiest way to keep humidity levels down. To help with this I´ll be starting my weed plants late and remove as much leaf as possible from my toms, melons and cuke.

 

I like my gadgets and have a few thermometers dotted about in and outside the gh as well as buried in the soil. Humidity meters are also a must (ime). Best is my outside / inside max min thermometer and humidity meter (I have 2 sensors and 2 home units). I can see temps and humidity levels inside and outside the gh, when I´m in the greenhouse and also by the kitchen window, so I can check temps / rh levels when I make my morning coffee! sorted.

 

ATB Mokka

 

I´ll be back soon to describe my outdoor setup..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[craigfjyp]

good luck mate...

[Moobman]

I'll be watching this 

[Moobman]

There's no way you can't win first place that is just to sweet a set up 

[mokka]

@Moobman Thanks for the kind words, but its all about the diary...

 

Right lets go in the garden..

 

The tomato roof.

 

 Here´s a pic from a couple of years ago of the tom roof in action.

There were tom plants there it´s just that the early frost did them in.

Here´s were the KK is going. I built the roof to keep the rain (and the blight) off my toms and then thought what a good place it would be for a weed plant. No rain, no dew, total airflow but it´s not as warm as the gh. The plants under here should be getting there own automatic watering system this year.

 

The S6 is going to be totally outside so I can sit in my shed and look at her. I´ve just prepped the mini bed for her (about 1m square) so I don´t walk on it and I´ll know where it´s going as I plan the veg garden.

My garden is at lat 53 , mainland Europe so it has a slightly different climate to other uk gardens at this lat. I would say Spring comes later but faster, Summer is generally a bit better and the nights are a lot warmer. Autumn can be good or bad, it´s as much a lottery as the uk (or as i remember them when I grew outdoor in Herefordshire). Winter is cold.

 

Hope you´re all enjoying this as much as me, atb Mokka

 

Next up wil be starting dates / germination styles etc...

 

 

 

[Blayz'd]

If you can also add some information on the ground your growing in that would be good. Do you prepare the ground at all or just grow as is? I have dreams of a life like that. Looks quite rural where you are, so you're allowed to play freely with your plants? Stuff of dreams man. One day maybe. Looks like a nice place though. Nice start mate. Loads of info too. Will be nice to watch that greenhouse fill up and see how you train them to the space.

[mokka]

@Blayz'd Hi there, glad to hear you´re enjoying the read.

My soil is a nice loam, not too clay not too sandy and about 50cm deep till you hit the clay layer. I´ve no idea what the ph is. All the beds get a Spring application of fertiliser / compost. I tend to clean the beds of winter weeds then cover the bare soil with compost. I don´t bother digging it in. I also don´t walk on any of the beds. Then I hand weed them through the summer. The mini bed I did for the S6 I just quickly dug over to a couple of spades depth, removed the worst weed roots ad added a couple of hand fulls of 1yr old chicken shit, bit of wood ash, rock potash then covered with compost. Nothing will be growing there till the S6 gets planted out end of June so I covered it with a weed barrier fabric.

Yes it´s very rural but there´s still neigbours, dog walkers and worst of all tractor drivers in massive tall tractors that can see over any fence / hedge. So not as free as I´d like but I manage and I have a lot of tall veg plants screening the weed.

Atb Mokka

[Dinafem-Mark]

Firstly thank you very much for getting your outdoor grow diary going and secondly that is one very nice looking greenhouse which should produce a great crop this season

 

I must say you have started to put some hard work in which will pay of in the end and you have some great strains to try so we will definitely be following along with interest and commenting as updates come in

 

Again thank you for starting this diary we are really grateful and this is a diary to watch

 

All the best 

 

Mark.

Edited April 5, 2017 by Dinafem-Mark

[Dinafem-Mark]

15 hours ago, mokka said:

@Blayz'd Hi there, glad to hear you´re enjoying the read.

My soil is a nice loam, not too clay not too sandy and about 50cm deep till you hit the clay layer. I´ve no idea what the ph is. All the beds get a Spring application of fertiliser / compost. I tend to clean the beds of winter weeds then cover the bare soil with compost. I don´t bother digging it in. I also don´t walk on any of the beds. Then I hand weed them through the summer. The mini bed I did for the S6 I just quickly dug over to a couple of spades depth, removed the worst weed roots ad added a couple of hand fulls of 1yr old chicken shit, bit of wood ash, rock potash then covered with compost. Nothing will be growing there till the S6 gets planted out end of June so I covered it with a weed barrier fabric.

Yes it´s very rural but there´s still neigbours, dog walkers and worst of all tractor drivers in massive tall tractors that can see over any fence / hedge. So not as free as I´d like but I manage and I have a lot of tall veg plants screening the weed.

Atb Mokka

 

By the sound of things you have had this garden for quite a few years and maintained her well

 

This will pay of this season

 

All the best 

 

Mark.