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Now I am writing the 15 of april about germination more than two weeks ago, nothing very special, ordered seeds from Dutch passion about 20th of march, and the seeds arrived next afternoon, maybe someone hopped on a bike to bring them to me. Thunderday the 30th of march I thought it time, filled a bucket half with potting soil from the hardware store were they allso sell garden stuff mixed in half a spade of soil from my garden, for microorganisms and worms and like, and a hand full of a dry mixture of cow and chicken manure, and I dug up a dozen of earth worms from the garden. Second half of the bucket I filled with just potting soil and hydrated it with the shower.
I buried the seed just in the soil, and covered it with about 7 millimeter of dry sand. I think it was sunday evening when I saw a crack appearing, monday morning it raised itself above ground, and it was unfolded when the sun came through my window. I had two straight cloudless days when she germinated, and put her in the full sun right away.
The plant developed beautifully, no spaghettification.
I have a big plastic box and a piece of glass which I found on the street, which form a nice greenhouse, but I saw that when I have that thing closed in the sunshine, temperature rises rapidly, and I was tweeking a bit to get the temperature about right.
I found out that it would be impossible to make this greenhouse work while being away to my mothers for easter.
What I found out directly after germination, that sun is beneficial, If the plant is exposed to full sunlight it develops very nice, other years I was not that lucky with the weather.
The second week I was away. at my mothers for easter, Plant under ordinary supermarketlamps with a timer, lamps off between 10 in the evening and five in the morning, and off between 10 in the morning untill 2 in the afternoon when the sun may shine through the window and both sun AND ledlights at the same time would be exaggerated. My girlfriend inspected and showed the plant with the camera on the phone.
I have been at my mothers a lot longer than I planned, she had problems with her banking app and backup email adresses not existing anymore etc.
In the train I was impatiernt to see my plant but when I saw her I was flabbergasted!! It is only 17 days ago that I planted the seed! She had had two completely sunny days in t
he beginning and then behind the window in combination with 5 lightbulbs some 2700K and one of 4000 k, and I am changing to whiter light, but the fact that this plant is growing like crazy under normal household leds is fantastic, and that it is only about 30 watts and that when I am home and heating my home with gas the energy of the lamps heat my house and save the same amount of gas means that I will start growing things in my living room next autumn! Tomatoes Peppers, will certainly improve my mood during the gloomy dark dutch winter!
Besides that, I think because of the first two days being cloudless and electric light afterwards, I have never seen the first pair of pointy leafs so big, and the plant so big with only 3 pairs of leaves. Its wingspan is bigger than she is tall! Directly after planting the seed I prepared the place where I want to plant her, dug a hole of about a meter deep and wider at the bottom thaqn the top, filling it up with at the bottom some cat litter to hold more moisture during summer and some weeds and grass clippings and I mixed in a couple of hands full of cow and chicken dry manure. Around the place I drilled some holes and put some dung and catlitter. I allso found a big transparent box which I picked up for using as a makeshift greenhouse, and put it over the planting place, where I dug in a bucket the size of the bucket I sowed my plant in, so when my plant is ready I only have to lift out that bucket and pull my plant out of its bucket and that will fit neatly and I wont have to disturb the structure of the soil when planting. Worms take a while tunneling and I want them to eat shit and
Growi8ng season in the countryside has not even started yet, because frost in mid april is still a possibility, but the plant is happy inside. The royal dutch weather service forecasts sunnier weather so with the first nice and sunny days I will allready have a fully fotosynthesizing plant, I want to see how high I can get her, because in autumn the sun is lower, and to get autumn sun the plant must be high so I am planning to let her grow without branching for more than a meter. I have tried that before, all the energy is going to the top creating enourmous leaves.
Directly after planting the seed I have dug a hole where I want to plant my plant, as deep as I have soil in my garden, I hava about a meter soil, and below that there is some kind of cloth and clay pellets. In order to make the soil hold more water I dumped some used cat litter at hte bottom and some weeds and grass clippings on top as wormfood and mixed in a generous amount of cow- and chicken shit.
I allso bought some other fertiliser after the advice of the man in the garden center near my mother who said that the dried shit only improves the structure of the soil
It is now wednesday just over midnight 28 days after sowing the plant so this is the last day of week 3 of vegetation. I have never seen such growth so soon in the season. I am growing under lamps now. I made a "setup" for easter, just lamsps I had in my house, and when I came back my plant had grown. Now I have a hanging setup in my window, and a timer. When the weather is favourable the plants go outside, when the sky is grey, they hang under their lamps. Sowing direcdtly in a 12 liter bucket seems to be rewarded. Plant can continue growing in the bucket undisturbed. Meanwhile I seam to be learning to grow indoors with lamps. I love it! Nothing better than watching a plant grow under artificial light after a bike ride on a very dark and cold day in April The setup is hanging in my living room and I can watch my plant while writing this.
I have decided to grow peppers after discovering that weed plants grow under lamps. Bought two little very hot surinam pepper plants and put them in a bucket and hung them in my window with laqmps above them. Those are visible to people passing by, My window is visible from the street, (but my weedplants are hidden)
I must say that I love the bright light in my living room, so I am going to grow surinam peppers next winter as houseplants.
Plant is growing very well under lamps and when available, the sun. The shape of the leaves is different from previous Frisian Dew, the fingers are broader. Does this mean that this one is more Indica?
Friday 28 April.
Yesterday week 4 started, it was 28 days since I sowed the first plant. the second one is about a week underway and its pointy leaves are growing well. I kind of found out how to make plants grow under electric light. I put my hand over the plant and if it the warmth feels about right that is the height I hang the lamps. Plants are hanging in my window. Gradually I built a growing tent out of cardboard tape and aluminium foil. Yesterday our king had his birthday, and the sun was shining all day. so I had the plants outside in the sun! Spring is a bit on the grey and cold side this year. Today is completely overcast so the plants stay inside. Because the weedplants are growing well under ordinary led lamps I allso started another project, I bought two "surinaamse peper" plants, which are similar to habanero peppers, but more aromatic they say. Put hem in a bucket with bit of living soil from my garden and the rest normal potting soil with a bit of fertiliser and a handfull of dried cowmanure. Because pepperplants in the tropics can live several years I am planning to keep those plants next winter. To do is to prepare the planting spot for my second frisian dew, And prepare the soil buckets for the affies, (autoflowering) Lots of worms!
I allready have germinated 4 sunflowers in a big bucket, hoping to grow them beyond slug and snailsize in buckets on a table. A lot of sunflowers in the hope they will distract from the frisian dew, which, Deo Volente, will reach tree size.
Trouble with growing in the netherlands, is that it is not legal to grow weed, allthough I can buy it from 3 different shops in walking distance. Five plants are "allowed, tolerated", but housing agencies may cause problems. When the setup looks commercial you may become homeless.
Update the first of may. Yesterday morning my telephone died. Now I got a new one so I can make pictures of my plants. Yesterday I decided that the big one has to stay outside, she grew too big to easily hang in my window. It is still a bit chilly for the time of year, but she had some sunshine, and on my west facing varanda, in the afternoon, even at temperatures near freezing, I can sit there in the sun and make my vitamin D from march onwards. Yesterday my Surinamese peppers thrived while the temperature at the airport was eight degrees. The top leaves of the pepper plants were rather pale, probably from standing in the shop in poor light conditions, and they turned to a healthy green in a couple of hours outside. It seems that capsicum (bell peppers, chili etc) require more light and higher temperatures than Cannabis. I just got a phone from my girlfriend and after the tedious process of installing google account and stuff on my new device, I made a picture. Yesterday morning she had her last shot of electric light. It seems she does just fine outside. Funny how sowing in a 12 liter bucket and the use of lams make that she is growing a lot wider than in previous springs. Now I am going to upload the picture, and compare it with the picture of last thunderday.
Update for 2nd of may: Plants are permanently outside. I am wondering how well they grow, even though air temperatures are low, and a winter coat is the right choice biking around town, plants looked very happy leaves pointing up in the morning.
"Meten is weten" is Dutch for saying: "Measuring is knowing" So this means that if I want to know how well my plants are, I will have to take measurements. So for the big plant now it is:
Height: 27 cm.
Wingspan 37 cm
For the small one:
Height 6 cm
Wingspan: 12 cm
Third of may :
Nice sunny weather. allthough close to freezing early in the morning. It was terrybly cold last night. Plants do not really seem to mind the cold nights when it is sunny they have the happy morning leafposition, they look very happy. Third night out in the open. No more balancing acts to hang the plant on its spot, or worrie if the lamps should be raised. I created some sort of seeding table.
This week the plants are outside on an improvised table to discourage slugs and snails together witth sunflowers artichokes tomatoes brussels sprouts, I allso left a lot of pots with seeds to germinate, weather is mild with rain and some sunshine so probably some will just germinate in the hands of the weather gods. My girlfriend checks my plants every other day, the only point of concern is the bigger weedplant, because it forms an umbrella over the bucket she is standing in, with her Indica style leaves, I put some garden fertiliser on top of the soil and worked it in superficcialy with my fingers.
11-5
Update eleventh of may, been away for 6 days, plants have grown well, the seed I planted has not germinated yet, so I put thaty one inside at the window, maybe seeds want higher temperatures to germinate to prevent them from sprouting too early The biggest plant has grown 20 centimeters in six days of rather mediocre weather,
Plant has grown from 29 to 49 centimeters so tomorrow she will be planted on the spot I prepared for her when I put her in the soil. I haven't yet prepared the place for the other weedplants, allthough I allready spread fertiliser and dried cow manure every now and then, so that it can seep down and worms can do their business. Weather is said to improve soon so I am going to seed some more autoflowers tomorrow. And more sunflowers.
11-May:
This week has started with planting the plant in the ground. I hope she likes the soil. Weather is not so good today. Plant has grown 21 centimeter in a week, which is three centimeter per day, we will see what she is going to do next, now that she is standing in the ground. At the moment it is raining so some more photo's will come later today. I uploaded two more photos, one from the side.
12-5
Today there was a reasonable amount of sun, and I measured the plant late in the afternoon. It seemed to be 55 cm, 5 cm more than yesterday morning. A bit of sun makes them grow! Soil around the plant is very wet, the wetness of this spring was on the news this evening. My garden is well drained though, I am not afraid the roots will drown. Muddyness is allso increased by the generous amound of dried cow manure I spread around the area, to encourage worms. Anyway, five centimeters of growth in the first 30 hours after planting is not bad.
Madame Jeanette Peppers.
Something funny is happening to my two pepperplants, two Surinam Pepper plants I picked up from the same table in the store, one said yellow on the label, the other one red, are developing quite differently. One is growing up and making flower buds, and branching. The other is making a carpet of leaves right over the soil. They are sharing a bucket, so the conditions are identical. I think one of them has been in the store for longer than the other, or something else has trigerred one plant into different developement than the other, Anyway, both plants look happy. I am looking foreward to keep on growing these plants inside next winter!
18-5.
big plant is growing well, having grown 23 centimeters in a week, the smaller one seemed to experience some difficulties. Maybe the soil has been washed out more during the abundant rainfall of the last weeks, while the bigger one formed a kind of umbrella recieving enough moisture from above but not quite washing out the nutrients. I added some cat kibble, and some organic mineral feriliser by poking holes in the soil with my finger and pushing it in the soil, the growing tip looks happyer again, leaves where thinner not forming an umbrella like the first one did with very broad leaves. Today I used the ground drill and I made some holes in the soil at about 80 centimeters from the plant and I filled them up with predator dung mixed with dry cow manure some organic mineral fertiliser and some bonemeal and some vinassekali since predator dung is mostly nitrogen and I wanted to add some Phosphorus and potash too weather is very cool these days, but the plant grows well.
I think last week the plant still hasa grown mainly on the nutrients present in the pot before I planted the thing, and I think it has invested more energy in expanding its roots in the earth. The new leaves emerging seem to become thinner and longer. The temperatures are predicted to rise during the coming week with reasonable amounts of sun, combining with exponentially growing amounts of water and nutrients being delivereed by a growing root system I am looking foreward to the growth rate in the coming week.
Update 22-5 The 18th I cut of all sidebranches, to stimulate vertical growth and to be able to walk around it and to give it the looks of a tree from some distance. I think this evening or tomorrow I will see what happens when all the energy is forced into one tip. Weather has flipped towards sunny and dry.;
MAKING CLONES?
3 days ago I took cuttings from my plant. First I have stuck them in bottles with water and a knifetip of roothormone powder, I thought maybe this way they suck up something, and I went on a canal cruise where I got an Idea.
I How about letting the stalk stick out of the bottom of the pots, Make holes in the lid of the other pots, and fill tyhose up with water with some powder they add to the water to extend the life of flowers in a vase.
This way they can suck water, they are standing for three days in the sun and they look exactly like the mother plants. I am very curious to see if this is going to work.
Big plant is 80 cm
Weather was good, most of the time sunny, temperatures were on the lower side, no rain which helped the plant in the pot a lot, because the soil was compacted in the previous weeks. I allso think the worms are starting to do their job. Now it became noticable that the plant is reacting to the pruning away of all sidebranches by making bigger leaves.
Week nine has started. Plant is growing very well, and the weather forecast is good although today it was cold. Very curious to see how big the leaves will be by the end of the week. I think I will continue pruning off all side buds for another week, even though that may result in a slightly smaller harvest by the end of the season. The big advantage of having a tall plant is that it will recieve more sun in early october (If there is any, netherlands is not the best country for weedplants, allthough you can be lucky and have a week of indian summer before harvest.) Plant does not seem to suffer from training upwards and simply makes bigger leaves. I have done this before some years ago, and the plants reacted as soon as I let them go by exploding and become near perfectly spherical.
29 juneFrom week 9 I have not kept my diary, been away, and phone stolen. Last weeks I have been collecting some shopping bags of sheep manure, and drilled holes in the ground to fill them with sheep manure. I think the plant has found it. June has been extremely warm and dry, plant has had a week of slower growth but now it is growing faster than ever before. The first sidebranches I let it make are somewhere at the height of my nose. I will be able to walk around my plant under the crown. There is now so much force in the top that the sidebranches grow as fast as the tip, so I guess this plant wont have so much of a main cola, but rather a spherical crown. Now that the top is going to grow like crazy, I hope the stem will grow thicker accordingly, to carry the weight of an expanding crown. In order to make the stem stronger I train the plant, I bend the plant in various directions, to simulate wind, hoping that this will stimulate the strengthening of the stem.Fertiliser for free at about twenty bicycle minutes from my house there are sheep on a former see dike. Good for melons and weedplants.
Agricola_Borealis
