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

[Arnold Layne]

I've always wanted a greenhouse and garden set up. Like the idea of one grow per annum, and the use of natural light etc.

Maybe one day.

 

Good work @mokka

[mokka]

Hi Folks, lets continue...

 

Germination and Starting Times.

 

Tbh I´ve always been a stick the seed in the soil type of guy but this method has its drawbacks in that you can´t see if there´s any probs / non germination.

I haven´t had 100% germiation for a couple of years now and I´d like that to change. So this year maybe I´ll germ first and then plant the sprouted seed. Does anyone who sprouts first ever have problems with them not coming after planting or is the procedure relatively harmless (presuming you don´t do anything stupid like knock off the root). How long do you let the root grow before planting?

I´ll be sowing into 11 litre pots (fem autos) and 9 litre pots (photos and reg autos). All pots will be doubled so I can do the no repotting potting method (at least I think thats what its called). They´ll stay in the pots for a few weeks in the gh till planting out.

 

Starting Dates

Autos. This year I´ve decided on a mid to end of August harvest for my autos so I´ll be planting mid June probably the 15th.

Photos. My outdoor plants (S6 and KK) I´ll start 1st June, the 4 in the gh maybe as late as 1st July.

 

Now to some of you, especially the gg folks, this may seem a little late so I´ll give you my reasons..

1. My jars aren´t nearly empty so I´ve got no pressure to get a quick harvest in.

2. My plants can´t get too big. Rates of growth for a well tended plant in the garden, and even more so in the gh, are far quicker than for many gg plants. So for that reason I try and limit the veg phase. In the gh it´s even more important not to have a jungle as you get mould probs.

3. My garden stays weed free for a longer period of time, good for visits by the neighbours, inlaws and parents. It also allows me to grow an early crop of something in the gh before the weed.

4. I give my time, effort and space to grow weed at the "right" time and get decent harvests. If you start plants too early (especially autos) you´ll get not so good a result and you could have grown a better plant later.

5. Plants which are started later when things have warmed up a bit (especially the soil) grow faster than plants which struggled as a seedling.

6. This is more for the gg folks, Early started plants are often put out early before other stuff is really growing and hence is a magnet for slugs and other predators. When I did gg around Herefordshire I never caged or pelleted but planted out mid July my sexed plants from a May 1st start. But that was many years ago.

 

Downsides of starting so late.

1. Boredom

2. "Earlier started plants flower quicker" Whilst I believe there is some truth in this I don´t really think my late start will effect my finish times. We shall see.

 

Coming next will be growth till harvest.

 

Atb Mokka

 

 

 

[Dinafem-Mark]

On 01/04/2017 at 11:03 PM, mokka said:

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..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regarding the labelling and batch number info. I think this is a great idea and one I'll send up to the boss to see if we can implement this into our packaging

 

 

All the best 

 

Mark. 

[MacGanja]

5 hours ago, Dinafem-Mark said:

 

  labelling and batch number in. I'll send up to the boss to see if we can implement this into our packaging

 

 

All the best 

 

Mark. 

Great idea! ... I was going to suggest a "Born on" date, like Budweiser does! Or even a small Bit of Rolled up paper in the vials with the strain name on aswell ... .Like a mini birth Certificate!

(Would also Benefit People when They do stupid stuff like me. When i Recieved My tins (thanks again By the way) i Mixed my vials up Within 2mins ! So i Have no idea what strain is what).

Loving the green house and diary Mokka. 

[Guest]

This looks like it will be an excellent diary!! Well done so far.

 

Totally agree about the printing of dates on seed packs..every company should be doing this. Feel free to tag me or pm any time bud! Nice strain selection! 

[Chevey]

If you look at Mandela Seeds.They have been doing it for years!

[mokka]

HI folks, thanks for all the input.

 

Next up is how I´ll hopefully train my photoeriods. I´ve only managed to do one plant like this before, I tried to improve on the method last year but fucked up so I´ll be doing it like this Frisian Dew from 14.

Sown 1st June, tip taken out 18th, 3rd July planted out.

 

I trimmed it to two leads that were tied regularily to canes. This opened the plant right out. By the end of the month it looked like this.

I only let 1 of the side branches grow and kept removing the lower shoots leaving just the tips. By the end of August it started to fill out. Here´s a pic of one side.

.

 

A pic then from the end sept

 The advantages of this method I feel are as follows..

1 All the buds where "top buds" really nice to trim and very uniform.

2 You don´t need to worry about leaves shading the buds and wether to remove them or not.

3 Excellent air flow through the buds.

4 It fits nicely in the bed and under the roof (and didn´t get too tall), far better than a christmas tree.

 

And to finish a pic of the top bud proper,

 

I won´t be doing this with my auto´s though, I let them just grow (more or less)

 

Atb Mokka

 

Edited April 8, 2017 by mokka

[Bud Wiser]

On 01/04/2017 at 11:03 PM, mokka said:

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..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haven't thought about it much then, eh, @mokka .?  

[stayup4ever]

Just winging it I reckon  lol ...it's gonna be good 1 atb mokka 

[mokka]

Hi  @bud basher I forgot to mention that when I mounted the glass on the wooden frame l left a small gap for the condensation to drip outside the gh. The theory was that it should reduce the rh in the gh.

Atb Mokka

[mokka]

Sorry bud basher, I meant to link in Bud Wiser but the link thingy is not playing

[Dinafem-Mark]

This is a very well planed out grow and one we will be watching with interest

 

I will see if we can start to put maybe a batch number inside the tins like we did when we collaborated with the cbd grew

 

This is going to be one to watch for sure and I'm happy to be along for the ride

 

Great start

 

All the best

 

Mark.

[Dinafem-Mark]

On 06/04/2017 at 8:18 AM, mokka said:

Hi Folks, lets continue...

 

Germination and Starting Times.

 

Tbh I´ve always been a stick the seed in the soil type of guy but this method has its drawbacks in that you can´t see if there´s any probs / non germination.

I haven´t had 100% germiation for a couple of years now and I´d like that to change. So this year maybe I´ll germ first and then plant the sprouted seed. Does anyone who sprouts first ever have problems with them not coming after planting or is the procedure relatively harmless (presuming you don´t do anything stupid like knock off the root). How long do you let the root grow before planting?

I´ll be sowing into 11 litre pots (fem autos) and 9 litre pots (photos and reg autos). All pots will be doubled so I can do the no repotting potting method (at least I think thats what its called). They´ll stay in the pots for a few weeks in the gh till planting out.

 

Starting Dates

Autos. This year I´ve decided on a mid to end of August harvest for my autos so I´ll be planting mid June probably the 15th.

Photos. My outdoor plants (S6 and KK) I´ll start 1st June, the 4 in the gh maybe as late as 1st July.

 

Now to some of you, especially the gg folks, this may seem a little late so I´ll give you my reasons..

1. My jars aren´t nearly empty so I´ve got no pressure to get a quick harvest in.

2. My plants can´t get too big. Rates of growth for a well tended plant in the garden, and even more so in the gh, are far quicker than for many gg plants. So for that reason I try and limit the veg phase. In the gh it´s even more important not to have a jungle as you get mould probs.

3. My garden stays weed free for a longer period of time, good for visits by the neighbours, inlaws and parents. It also allows me to grow an early crop of something in the gh before the weed.

4. I give my time, effort and space to grow weed at the "right" time and get decent harvests. If you start plants too early (especially autos) you´ll get not so good a result and you could have grown a better plant later.

5. Plants which are started later when things have warmed up a bit (especially the soil) grow faster than plants which struggled as a seedling.

6. This is more for the gg folks, Early started plants are often put out early before other stuff is really growing and hence is a magnet for slugs and other predators. When I did gg around Herefordshire I never caged or pelleted but planted out mid July my sexed plants from a May 1st start. But that was many years ago.

 

Downsides of starting so late.

1. Boredom

2. "Earlier started plants flower quicker" Whilst I believe there is some truth in this I don´t really think my late start will effect my finish times. We shall see.

 

Coming next will be growth till harvest.

 

Atb Mokka

 

 

 

 

Some serious thought has gone into this

 

A very dedicated grower

 

All the best

 

Mark.

[mokka]

Harvest,  Manicure,  Drying and Storing.

 

Harvest.

My usual method of determining wether a plant is ready or not is by seeing if it´s going mouldy yet. If I can´t see no mould I´ll generally leave it to fatten up a bit more / go mouldy. I use a really bright led torch and reading glasses to inspect the buds proper.

I like to harvest as early as possible in the morning as terpene levels are at their highest and it´s a lot quieter wrt to neighbours / visitors. Big fan leaves are removed from the plant first and go straight ito the compost bin. Then I´ll chop the bits which are ready / going mouldy.

Here´s a pic of my picking tray..

Stems go in the holes obviously. To stop the buds wilting slightly during the time I get round to manicuring them (generally an evening job) I pour some water in the two black trays (the reason for the two cutaways). The tray then gets left somewhere dark but airy till the evening.

 

Atb Mokka

[mokka]

Manicure.

 

Here´s my scissors, they came from my dissection kit from my uni days (plant biology btw). They´ve trimmed every plant I´ve every grown. I´m very fond of them.

For me manicuring is removing the leaf from the bud whilst retaining as many glands on both the buds and leaves. I only hold the stems of the bud and never hold the bud itself. I dip and wipe my scissors in strong alcohol to keep them nice and clean. I don´t think I would ever be tempted to use a machine.