A Pirate's Dinafem 2019 Outdoor Competition Voyage

[lattitudepirate1]

@Dinafem-Mark Cheers mate, i'm itching to get things going but I know better than to jump too soon. 

 

Ive still got to get the compost & perlite as well as cleaning a giant stack of flower pots from last years veggies, so that should keep my busy and stop me twitching too soon too much. 

 

Ill drop you a PM once they land. 

 

All the best

 

 

[Happyeccentric]

I'm looking forward to watching this diary and @Jack010 diary as I am doing a ww xxl as a first grow and will get to see how more experienced people do it 

[Dinafem-Mark]

On 11/03/2019 at 10:48 PM, lattitudepirate1 said:

Ill drop you a PM once they land. 

 

Thanks mate. Should be any day now

 

I can tell your itching to get your 2019 outdoor grow season underway 

 

All the best 

 

Mark..

[lattitudepirate1]

@Dinafem-Mark Ahoy sir! More than itching! I think i'm gonna have to pop a few early ones as the greenhouse was hitting 26 today in the sunshine!! I can provide cloches and bubble wrap at night time incase of any last minute frosts but I think we're all good here now at lat 51. The magnolia trees near me are just about to bloom and that usually indicates the last frost has now passed. (clever trees eh!)

 

Quick tip - I find using capillary matting great at this time of year to line your greenhouse benches with. Its black so absorbs and will somewhat hold heat, this is great for germination and growth. It helps keep your benches clean and finally costs little to nothing per 10, 20, 50 or 100 meter roll. 

 

Plus the weather for the next 10 days/ 2 weeks is looking dry and sunny with highs of 14-16 degrees. In a sheltered greenhouse thats easily mid 20s. (One other final note to make is that at lat 51, we pass +12 hours of light this week, meaning we shouldn't have any issues with early flowering due to under 12 hours of light per day)

 

Compost - check

Perlite - check 

Clean environment - check

+12 hours of potential mid 20s heat to get things off to a cracking start? - check!!

 

Soon as these beans land ill get an early sail up and cast my lines! 

 

Atb,

 

LP

[Guest]

@lattitudepirate1 good luck me hearty hope them seeds land pretty soon  I'm a bit further south then you with the compass pointing to lat 49.1. Picking up me green house ( 8 ft x 12ft ) this weekend day time temps are similar to yours as well. Here's hoping they sail into port (the seeds ) this week . I've set my auto pilot for two course one south south east to bring me up to the summer solstist and the other north north west to run from summer solstice to winter Equinox 

[Lively]

Good luck with the grow pal. The nautical jokes are hilarious  

[lattitudepirate1]

@bubbleguppie - Y'arrrr, thanks chap. Jealous of your extra degree or two further south you have on me. Good luck this season! 

 

@LivelyUpYourself - Shiver me' timbers, three sheets to the wind & ill make any son of a biscuit eatin' hornswoggler walk the plank if they cross this ol' cappn!!!

 

 I'm glad the puns are appreciated! Im gonna have to get creative with these by the end of the season if i'm to continue! (Puts cutlass away and returns to crows nest) 

 

@Dinafem-Mark - Ahoy there me ole seadog! - I woke this morning to a tapping on the hull. What could it be as I grab for my cutlass. There awaited a bottle with no message?, but 10 beautiful beans instead! (Shit... - stoner realisation - maybe this is how it happened? - an actual pirate was waiting for a message in a bottle but instead seeds turned up, he grew the seeds and low and behold, cannabis was discovered!! ) 

 

Will get some compost and perlite mixed up this week (weekend at latest) & get some pictures up once i've got something worthy & above soil to show! 

 

All the best guys! 

 

LP

[Guest]

51 minutes ago, lattitudepirate1 said:

@bubbleguppie - Y'arrrr, thanks chap. Jealous of your extra degree or two further south you have on me. Good luck this season! 

 

@LivelyUpYourself - Shiver me' timbers, three sheets to the wind & ill make any son of a biscuit eatin' hornswoggler walk the plank if they cross this ol' cappn!!!

 

 I'm glad the puns are appreciated! Im gonna have to get creative with these by the end of the season if i'm to continue! (Puts cutlass away and returns to crows nest) 

 

@Dinafem-Mark - Ahoy there me ole seadog! - I woke this morning to a tapping on the hull. What could it be as I grab for my cutlass. There awaited a bottle with no message?, but 10 beautiful beans instead! (Shit... - stoner realisation - maybe this is how it happened? - an actual pirate was waiting for a message in a bottle but instead seeds turned up, he grew the seeds and low and behold, cannabis was discovered!! ) 

 

Will get some compost and perlite mixed up this week (weekend at latest) & get some pictures up once i've got something worthy & above soil to show! 

 

All the best guys! 

 

LP

Arrr me salty sea dog theyre maybe hope for my beans landing this good luck ya rum  drinking swarvy may the wind blow your sails, and the rudder stear you on a safe course to full swing and the grow be a good un

[lattitudepirate1]

Morning all!

 

I had an interesting discussion with a friend of mine who works in the commercial horticulture business. He was telling me about the soil mixes they use and reasons for using different ratios of perlite when potting up. 

 

He explained the growing process better than I have ever heard it before. (Im sure most of you hydro guys will already know whats coming up - but Im a soil man - and it rung bells with me! 

 

 

The more perlite in your medium, the more often you can feed your plants. - Theory being, you can give more waterings (feedings) as your medium will wet/dry cycle quicker than a soil mix with a lesser ratio of perlite. 

 

 

More wet/ dry cycles per 24 hour period = faster growth. 

 

 

Now for a greenhouse/ garden grower like me, I can nip outside and water at my own convenience, so i'm not worried about overdoing the perlite and things drying up too fast, so I think i'm going to run a side experiment. 

 

The experiment will be with autoflowers only, and I intend on seeing the difference between a 50% perlite mix & a much heavier 75% perlite mix. The beanies will be germinated at the same time - so we can run them side by side for weekly comparisons.

 

Would be keen to know if anyone has tried anything like this before & what the results yielded. 

 

Atb!

 

LP 

 

 

 

 

[flighty]

13 hours ago, lattitudepirate1 said:

The more perlite in your medium, the more often you can feed your plants. - Theory being, you can give more waterings (feedings) as your medium will wet/dry cycle quicker than a soil mix with a lesser ratio of perlite. 

 

 

More wet/ dry cycles per 24 hour period = faster growth. 

This sounds like rubbish to me, the only extra thing your giving them is oxygen. The ratio of nutes, is the same. 

 

13 hours ago, lattitudepirate1 said:

The experiment will be with autoflowers only, and I intend on seeing the difference between a 50% perlite mix & a much heavier 75% perlite mix. The beanies will be germinated at the same time - so we can run them side by side for weekly comparisons.

This sounds similar to hempy buckets, have a look into them, it's quite interesting. 

[lattitudepirate1]

@beezee - Ahoy chap! Hope all is well your end!? Are we all set for the outdoor season yet? 

 

I think I may have explained it poorly. The ratio of nutes is the same, that is correct - but if the growing medium is drying faster, the the roots have more oxygen which thus increases frequency of water uptake. (feedings) 

 

Opposed to sitting in a much wetter medium where a single 'wet/dry' cycle is much longer? 

 

That was the logic behind the madness anyhoo! It still may be complete tosh, I wonder if any other growers passing through have had experience with this?? Feel free to chime in! 

 

Ill check hempy buckets out! Never heard of them! It was only a few weeks ago I discovered 'swamp tubes'! 

 

All the best & a cracking season to you sir,

 

LP

 

Edit- I suppose you could somewhat compare this method & theory to flood and drain hydroponics? 

Edited March 22, 2019 by lattitudepirate1

[flighty]

@lattitudepirate1 good here thanks, I'm having a day to recover from clearing a big plot! 

 

Thanks for the added explanation, it makes more sense... But I'm sticking with my original belief  proper watering and reading of the plants will give optimal growth

 

3 hours ago, lattitudepirate1 said:

I suppose you could somewhat compare this method & theory to flood and drain hydroponics? 

That makes sense, will you be using hydro nutes? Also, watch your pH, with less than 50% soil it's doubtful it'll be able to buffer sufficiently 

 

[lattitudepirate1]

@beezee Don’t over do it bud, I had a sore lower back a few weeks ago - you dont realise how much you miss painless mobility until it’s gone! 

 

In terms of nutes - not even thought about it, never grown hydroponically but I have grown lettuce using the kratky method using a resovoir which lasts the duration of growth.

 Not that this would help here.

 

I guess I’m gonna head over to the hydro section to get myself clued up. I know the basics, but that’s it! 

 

I wonder how far I could push the perlite before I have to go down that route? 

 

Theory being to use a weaker feed than you would ever normally use...Then any runoff after soaking the pot could be collected in a tray & fed to my veggies & toms & then repeat when dry. 

 

Cheers dude! Atb! 

 

LP

[flighty]

I think 70% compost is optimal for most aspects, buffering/ aeration etc. The levintons m2 that I use has coir already in it, so I use it as is. 

[Dinafem-Mark]

On 19/03/2019 at 0:06 PM, lattitudepirate1 said:

Ahoy there me ole seadog! - I woke this morning to a tapping on the hull. What could it be as I grab for my cutlass. There awaited a bottle with no message?, but 10 beautiful beans instead! (Shit... - stoner realisation - maybe this is how it happened? - an actual pirate was waiting for a message in a bottle but instead seeds turned up, he grew the seeds and low and behold, cannabis was discovered!! )

 

Nice to see they arrived safe and sound mate, let's get the outdoor fun started

 

All the best 

 

Mark..