My Balcony (failed)

[elasticband]

1. clean the pigeon shit. My girlfriend took to feeding the birds over the colds months, in return they took to shitting all over my balcony. three days later and several anti bacterial scrubs and several lungs full of toxic fungus and the stink was gone.

2. Privatize part of the balcony. Don't want to piss the neighbors off, Out of sight out of mind and all that jazz.
15 euro for 5m x 1m of some scrappy looking afsluiting gepeld riet. Doubled over and this covers half the balcony nicely but still allowing sun.

3.living camouflage. make the balcony look nicer for the girlfriend, I am not just a weed freak i am a gardening enthusiast

4. Soil & equipment. Wanted just a 20l bag of light mix for seedlings but after vising 6 grow shops i gave up. Kiwi said they normally had light mix in small bags but they did not even have big bags. 40l All mix, nutrient rich soil..... not exactly what i wanted but oh well. Pots were donated by a friend along with a large propagator, a bit to large but you should never look a gift horse in the mouth i guess. He also donated me a 150w florescent light(2 bulbs), this will be getting used initially..... cheating i know but raising seedlings in current outdoor/window conditions would not be ideal.

5. Seeds. As i mentioned in another thread I am going to throw down some bag seeds, i found 4 and all were nice healthy brown/dark large enough seeds. All have germinated and are sprouting. A friend also recommended me the 60day lemon wonder auto flowering by DNA. Three seeds were donated by him with more available later down the line, which might be needed. Five plants is the limit, but it appears i have 4 bag seeds sprouted and another 3 autos germinating just now I guess the plan is to keep the two nicest seedlings/babies from the bag seeds and see what happens with them and at the same time having three auto's growing.

Pictures are coming.

feel free to ask any questions, which i probably don't know the answer too or by all means please share your experience and knowledge with me in outdoor & soil growing.

[Slip & Sal]

Sounds good

[Uncle Ron]

Hoi, good on you for growing your own... many more should.
1. A clean grow area is a happy grow area, not to mention happy plants.
2. Good thinking on "privatizing" your balcony; what about height? If that could be a problem, you might want to give some thought to topping or super cropping.
3. Living camouflage eh? Nice... artificial looks so..............................artificial.
4. Your choice of grow medium and lighting are... well, your choices, but perhaps for the next grow consider the following...
a. Grow medium and container - coco coir and perlite at a 3:1 mix ratio; Airpot, Coco Grow in a Bag, or fabric-type.
What is remarkable about the airpot and root pouch type containers is that they allow the roots to breath, whereas the typical square or circular types don't.
http://www.progrow.co.uk/acatalog/air_p ... stems.html
http://www.humusziegel.de/CoCoPack-800- ... 744ecf798a
http://www.udopea.de/Growshop/Cultivati ... 17673.html
http://www.udopea.de/Growshop/Pots/Top- ... 18539.html
b. CFL's are fine, but let's be honest, they really aren't very effective especially when compared to High Intensity Discharge lamps like Metal Halide and High Pressure Sodium.
For vegetative purposes, spend a little money and buy an HID system with a dimmable ballast. I use the following...
http://www.head-nature.com/tree/4005/El ... 60-W.xhtml
5. Seeds. Be mindful when using bag seed, you don't know if they are prone to turning hermaphrodite, and if just one turns late in flowering (hiding under bud clusters), it could ruin the entire crop.

Starting plants indoors under constant light, then a 48-72 hour absolute dark period, and then moving them outdoors/greenhouse/balcony/terrace, is in my opinion the way to grow.
Happy Balcony Farming...
...

[elasticband]

1. cleaning. the white stains left are paint not bird shit! Boring i know but it took me ages! On the third day i went outside and found 4 fresh new shits. Man i was angry, i like birds and all but not shitting on my balcony girlfriend if you ever read this that was disgusting Anti pigeon devices have been installed.





2. privatize.




3. Living camouflage

[elasticband]

really sorry for the giant pictures...... I will sort this. Just use ctrl - to zoom out and then ctrl + to zoom back in......

[elasticband]

thanks for the response UR, much of what you say is already known and comon knowledge/sense in my opinion.

1. Of course.

2. Height will be an issue if the bag seeds turn out to be female and do indeed grow, topping, pruning and bending will be on the cards.

3. who wants plastic when you can have the real thing, slightly more work but gets the nieghbours use to seeing me on the balcony gardening a lot more

4a. I have down all my growing in the past using hydro or aeroponics methodology. using mediums from rockwool, clay pebbles, coco oh and just foam pellets with roots suspended in the air, so no medium. I have just never used soil. 60/40 mix( coco & clay pebbles) is my preferred medium. There will be clay pebbles in my soil mix for better drainage.
Aeorpots interest me a lot and i have several friends using them now with mixed results, i was discussing it just the other day actually, as much as i can understand how the pots work with witht he air pruning, me and my friend just could not decide if this is a natural occurrence in nature in the ground. each to their own and something to maybe try in the future. Oh i also love the flexibility of them.

b. this is common knowledge in my opinion. To my understanding using lights in NL is illegal, i do think even the CFL which was donated could be classed as part of an instillation. Either way i am trying to do this within the boundaries set by laws, so no high intensity lighting for me. If i did you would not be seeing pictures and it would be quite a large hydro setup.

5. common knowledge again, bag seeds are a gamble, but this is just a bit of fun and to get some experience for next year if still here.

Hoi, good on you for growing your own... many more should.
1. A clean grow area is a happy grow area, not to mention happy plants.
2. Good thinking on "privatizing" your balcony; what about height? If that could be a problem, you might want to give some thought to topping or super cropping.
3. Living camouflage eh? Nice... artificial looks so..............................artificial.
4. Your choice of grow medium and lighting are... well, your choices, but perhaps for the next grow consider the following...
a. Grow medium and container - coco coir and perlite at a 3:1 mix ratio; Airpot, Coco Grow in a Bag, or fabric-type.
What is remarkable about the airpot and root pouch type containers is that they allow the roots to breath, whereas the typical square or circular types don't.
b. CFL's are fine, but let's be honest, they really aren't very effective especially when compared to High Intensity Discharge lamps like Metal Halide and High Pressure Sodium.
For vegetative purposes, spend a little money and buy an HID system with a dimmable ballast. I use the following...
http://www.head-nature.com/tree/4005/El ... 60-W.xhtml
5. Seeds. Be mindful when using bag seed, you don't know if they are prone to turning hermaphrodite, and if just one turns late in flowering (hiding under bud clusters), it could ruin the entire crop.

[elasticband]

germination. Yes I am a wet paper towel man. Maybe let them go a bit longer than i normal would, this due to me being Ill


planted in pots and placed in a propagator with moist coco spread out on the bottom to keep humidity levels high.


On the balcony enjoying some sun



Inside at night and under the lamp, next day they are sprouting out the soil. Only using 1 of the 75w bulbs at the moment.

[macky]

Hey brother can,t you replace bamboo screen with coloured translucent material from hardware store lets light in but you can,t see through it?

[elasticband]

the shoots look nicer Thanks for the tip though, if i think they don't get enough light i can always switch to this.

due to it only covering 50% of the balcony the area will still be getting the sun along the wall, just not against the shoots.

[spidergawd]

Very nice EB, happy growing

[Padge247]

Glad you decided to go ahead with this man =D Looking forward to seeing how it turns out !

[elasticband]

Glad you decided to go ahead with this man =D Looking forward to seeing how it turns out !

Thanks for the support,hopefully it works out and i don't just kill them.

I do apologize for the terrible quality, i seem to be suffering from the shakes.


Day 2 stretch



day 3 stretch

[gapie]

success hope for the good weather here sunny

[KeyMonCha]

This is good stuff...

I'm planning a little "guerrilla" grow myself this season, so i'll keep an eye on your progress...

...Best of luck, EB.

[AzLaker]

Looking good elasticband....love following a grow report, and in Amsterdam to boot.
Really like your mini greenhouse.

AzLaker