No hope......

[nomy]

Lo fellow hedz.

If you fancy a laugh at how not to do things read on

I have an outdoor crop of Skunk#11. I say outdoors but it's actually in a home made plastic greenhouse. I have made erm... a few big mistakes:

1. The species is way tooooo BIG and smelly

2. It is a late flowering species and so very mould susceptible

3. I have planted too many in too small a space.

Last year I grew 3 Durban Poison outdoors with some success, but all had to be harvested early due to mould attack. So this time I thought; I know, I'll build a greenhouse to keep them all warm and dry. Thing is I also decided that 7 plants would easily fit into a space 8' x 8' x 7' high. Big mistake. I can hardly go into the area at all without breaking or bending stems, and they are already bending over on the roof. It's like a bleedin jungle and they have only just started to show pre-flowers.

The point of this mail other than to give a few of you tips on what not to do is to gently screem for HELP!

I intend to grow indoors with almost immediate effect But in the mean time what can I do to save some of these lovely ladies? They are all very healthy looking (at the moment), but I can already see signs of mould on the soil from dead vegitation and such like, so it's only a matter of time. The roof has constant condensation too, so it's a perfect place for mould as my ventilation sucks (!).

My plan is to cut down maybe 3/4 of them ( sniff ), so as to give the reamaining 3 a better chance with more room to breath. Also, does anyone know of a good way to help prevent mould? One thing I was thinking of doing was to put a warm air fan in the wall so as to draw air from outside, maybe to help ventilate the room and possibly dry it a touch.

Any ideas out there please? It would be such a shame as they are soooo full of potential.

Thx,

Nomy

[Highlander]

Warm air would help. So too would an extraction unit that really did suck!!! Do you have a fan circulating air inside the greenhouse? With a big grow like your's there is bound to be loads of air pockets where air is not moving especially under the canopy. Put a big fan in there. I would put it low and point it upwards forcing stale air towards the extractor.

If you are not growing under artificial lights in an encvlosed space then you will have probs with humidity.

At a guestimate i'd say you need to be moving 250 cum or more. Are you doing that.

If you are gonna chuck plants out i would say get rid of the tall ones and keep the shortest . Then you can tie down the main colas and train them so they grow sideways. The bud will always want to grow vertically towards the light so you will have to keep retraining them .

Hope someone else can give you some better advice. Are they actually flowering? If not it would be easy to take cuttings and start again though if you are relying on a natural light cycle then you might have probs.

[Guest bc pete]

you could also remove the fan leaves once they start budding allowing more air to the buds

and also remove all lower foliage since these won't produce much

remove any sources of water from your g/house.

find some tinder dry wood or cinder blocks which absorb moisture

try to get it as arid as possible since you are now unconcerned about vegg.

can you induce them in a dark place if they hav'nt triggered yet?

there most definatly"IS HOPE", you have come to far to quit. go the distance man

what have you got to lose?

check your plants regularly, it is amazing how fast mould can travel on your plants!!

also do not spray your plants ever.

bc pete

[nomy]

Thanks guys, you have given me renewed hope,

Another first for me coming up then; I have followed your advice Highlander and I am cloning today. You are right BC, I have gone too far to give up on them. They are so healthy it would be a waste.

I have also taken the tough decision to cull 3 of them though This will leave the four remaining in a lot more space, giving me more room to bend over the tops, more room for them to breath and less moisture.

At the moment I actually have no extraction at all, just plenty of air vents, but I have just put in an internal fan to mover the air around and intend to install a heater fan which will force in some clean warm air too.

Would you suggest I refrain from watering completely? The root system must be large enough to collect from the lower soil fed from the ample rain we have had recently.

Thanks again for your advice and I will now go and select the victims

The needs of the few are outweighed by the needs of the many I'm afraid Mr Spock.

Nomy.

[nomy]

Bugger....forgot to ask if it's ok to take cuttings from mothers showing pre-flowers?

Nomy

[Guest bc pete]

can be done nomy, but depends how far gone, try with all the lower foliage stems u are going to remove anyway, nothing to lose except a little rooting hormone.

large unheated fans would suffice i dont think you need heat, just lots of air movement.

are they in the ground? or potted , i did'nt get that. if they are and have good solid roots then i would keep watering to a minimum.and when you do use a good bloom feed. the tap root will continue to grow usually half the size or more, of the height of your plant so its good to let it do its own search for moisture/nutrients , makes for a stronger plant all round

lots of air and room for air to pass thru plants . you should be ok i think nomy

bc pete

[nomy]

Many thanks for all your help on this one guys.....job done.

I now have four healthy (if a little bit miffed at all the commotion ) females, with a 9" oscilating fan in there and it feels all together fresher and healthier.

Yes bc Pete, they are planted straight into the ground and I'll take your advice on the bloom fertilizer and use that sparingly.

I was only going to introduce the heated fan when the wheather gets cold. The hope is to keep the temp up and the moisture down.

I took 10 cuttings (only just showing their sex) from the culled females and treated them with growth hormone. Although it's only 18 hrs since they were taken they look ok. I have them in moist compost in a plastic propergating box. If successful, these will make my first indoor grow when I get that sorted. Although time is now running out, so I need to get my ass in gear there

Many thx again

Nomy.