SoCal Outdoor Journal (LA Conf, Durban Poison, Grapefruit)

Good evening folks. I'm new to the forum. Been looking at many other sites and found Roll It Up to be the most enjoyable of all the others I checked out.

Why not start my RIU career with a journal? I mean...afterall, I know nothing about growing herb and what better way to show off my lack of skill then on the world wide web In all seriousness, I'm blessed to be from the NorCal and have many friends to turn to for grow advice.

With all the "hella" references going on here I think I'll fit in just fine.

My goal is to grow three outdoor plants. I have five currently. Two of these babies I'm the foster parent for until my buddy makes the drive down to pick them up (soon I hope) Along the way I hope to educate myself enough to take on a nice indoor project in the fall.

I have

(3) Grapefruit - Sativa
(1) LA Confidential - Indica
(1) Durban Purple - Hmmm is this guy Sativa?

I am keeping two GP's and one of the two Indica's.

Here they are the day I transplanted them (04-05-09). Fox Farm soil and Ph'd water+half gallon buckets. Nothing fancy.

I was very concerned after the transplant. Two of these guys were not doing well at all. My guess is I put them out in the sun too early and we had two hot days in a row. It was a solid 85+ for two straight days. Three of them recovered fine but two of my GP's are struggling a bit. They should recover but are definately falling behind the other three.

I'm going to add more photos and comments in a reply to this post.

After two days of abusing the little ladies I needed to make some decisions. It was clear that some level of stress was happening. In my mind I thinking all kinds of thoughts. I keep hearing how hot FF soil is. Are they getting too much nutes, water, sun...WTF.

I decided it's early in the grow season. Let's put them in the shade for a few days. Here are photos of them (04-07-09) when I moved them into the shade. Again, sorry for the photo quality. They will get better, I promise.

Photo 6 of 8 is supposed to be DP. The leaves were very dark. Those leaves didn't make it through the apparent heat burn. New growth looks really good and the stalk is a solid 3/8" thick. She's not the prettiest plant but she's growing well.

After a week of serious concerns things are looking up. Three of the five look really strong. The other two GP's are recovering but growth is minimal. It looks like they're gonna make it.

Here are photos as of today (04-13-09)

I'm getting my permanent outdoor spot for them ready. Just need to set up a few things to stop the neighbors from seeing. Before moving them into their permanent spot, I'm going to put them in some 10g pots. Why not? I've got the soil, the pots and the space. In they go. Plus, I think with one of the stronger GP's I may experiment with some LST'ing. I may tie it down to the outer edge of the pot. There is a solid 4ft of circumference. That should help keep that sativa down a bit.

Based on where I've located these, they should get about 13 hours of light as of today. When the temps spike I have a nice shade set up. You know that black stuff that lets in 75% of the light but blocks a lot of the heat. I'll use that with some PVC in a traditional garding canopy style to not heat stress them.

The first photo is the DP. That guy had really dark and burnt leaves when I got her. Now she's really starting to level out in color and grow is pretty good. The next two look pretty good to me. The last two are my GP's that are hurting. I'm probably going to pluck those dead leaves but they've been through so much stress I've decided to wait a little. Any thoughts on what to do with those? I know those dead leaves are not ideal. I just want them to progress at this point. I'm in no rush. I have plenty of time.

That's it folks. Any suggestions are welcome.

Add some garden lime to the mix:http://www.gardeners.com/Garden-Lime/FlowerGardening_FertilizersSoil,35-738,default,cp.html http://www.retailmenot.com/view/gardeners.com

Thanks for the links.

I've checked the soil PH it's fine. Below 7...from what I've read about lime it's for acidic soil.

I have yet to check the run off but will on my next watering.

What up bro looks nice.
Im a san diego med grower myself

Last photos taken on 04-13-09 new photos taken today 04-19-2009.

Things are improving dramatically. I know I'm definately setting up an indoor grow after I finish off this outdoor grow. The temperatures are really making it hard on me and my little ladies. In SoCal we have gone from low 60's last week to 97 degrees today. This forces me to keep these out of the sun until I get my shade screens built. They will have plenty of time to grow but I wish I could put them in one spot and let them grow.

No worries. The weather will balance out and I'm sure my frustrations will subside.

Note- Buying clones is easy. Getting the actual strain they label them is another.

I supposedly purchased 3 grapefruits. These are supposed to be Sativa dominant. The one that is growing the best has big fat Indica leaves. In looking at my Indicas some of them look like Sativas.

Here are the photos. My best three are shown first.

Photo #1 is a group photo. Say Cheese

Photo #2 is supposed to be LA Confidential.

Photo #3 is supposed to be Durban Poison. If you go back to my last few posts you will see one plant with very dark green leaves that were burnt. She has rebounded nicely.

Photo #4 is my one really strong Grapefruit. Fat and Bushy. But don't those leaves tell you it's Indica?

My last two photos are my two other grapefruits. They were really struggling from the last heat wave that came through. They are growing and getting healthier but are much smaller than the other three.