How can I improve upon my cola quantity?

Discussion in 'Growing Marijuana Indoors' started by Dav4ever, Mar 6, 2015.

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  1. I'm growing indoors and organically. In my grow room I use two 600 watt mh lights surrounded by reflective foil. All but five of my ladies are in nursery 5 gallon tubs the others are in 15 gallon tubs. The soil I use is happy frog, I have a reverse osmosis system for the water, every six or eight days I use bountea (the Alaskan dude's product who grows huge veggies) as a tea, and e3w I add in Mission organic to the water. When I use the mission I add a small amount of B1. The rest of the time it's pure h2o...

    In the flower room I use a 600 w hps lamp and follow the appropriate watering cycles including a two week flush before harvest.... The area is about 400 sq feet so I use a bag hanging just above the ladies for CO2 but I have no idea if that is doing what this supposed to do...

    I followed the instructions from this forum of the person called rumpelforskin for harvesting process...

    Here's the deal, I've had 4 harvests. The first the buds were very loose and there was no dank smell. They smoked good but I knew they were not medical quality. 2nd and 3rd harvests the colas were significantly better in spite of a white fly infestation. The colas were a lot tighter but still not that smell stoners look for... They still smoked really well. They were still not mm quality. I shared them with some burnout friends of mine and they said there was no effect so I was discouraged.

    By the way, I don't smoke a lot on purpose because when I smoke my product I prefer not to be a burnout... I want to have a fresh approach.

    So, the 4th harvest was my best harvest in terms of quality. The colas were bigger than previously but the smell still wasn't there... After curing them for almost 30 days I smoked out last night and the smoke was very good. Smooth, burned nicely, and was a solid 4 hour high. I'm excited to share with my amigos.

    Here is my question... What do I have to do to improve my techniques? To get that dankness and that top shelf high? I am growing to be a supplier of a distribution service. I've invested a load of cash and have spent too much of my summer money (10 paychecks a year) that I must recoup or its gonna hurt come July... I've ramped up the number of plants into the flower room to increase volume and have 8 beauties about four weeks away from being ready... Eventually I will have 8 to 10 going to flower every two weeks and harvesting the same amount...

    I'm an experienced chili and tomato grower, I've grown a vegetable garden for twenty years but those skills are not really translating for marijuana...

    Can someone offer me advice?
     
  2. We all like pictures....
     
  3. Yes right, new to the forum and I'm not seeing how to uplosd
     
  4. More reply options
     
  5. Do your "amigos" know you call them "burnouts"?
     
  6. #6 Dav4ever, Mar 6, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 6, 2015
    These three colas are a few days away from harvest. Tricomes are pretty clear still but getting cloudy

    They are indicas, OG XXX Kush, Afgani, and Ol Skool Kush....
     

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  7. I guess I'm a "burnout" I smoke ALL day everyday (when I can) but yeah those "burnouts" are you're customers come harvest. I feel a bit offended , but without pics we can only guess. I can think of two things how close is the light and how hot is you're room? Ok you don't smoke to not be a burnout to do better ? Hmmm well if a grower is a so called burnout and grow s dope iam going to him 9 out of 10 he got the dopest dope .Lol
     
  8. Yes, I tease them relentlessly about it!

    Unfortunately my photos from iCloud haven't downloaded back into my new iPhone 6+ so that's all I have for now... These two colas are from 4th harvest. Both are from a Bubba Walker
     

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  9. Don't be offended dude, it's a joke... I can't smoke all day any more because of my career. I love marijuana but I have to pick and choose when I partake. Now that I'm growing it is more often but still not very much. I want a clear head when I smoke so I can evaluate. Maybe I'm being dumb but that's my line of thought
     
  10. Lots of fresh air
     

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  11. #11 Dav4ever, Mar 6, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 6, 2015
    Cloning setup. In summer and fall the clones were at 97% successful... This winter it dropped to 60%... I figured out what I was doing wrong and corrected... These 22 clones are in good shape save for one or two of them...
     

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  12. Grow room... 35 ladies in various stages of growth...

    Lights are kept 24 to 30" from the tops with soft breeze from oscillating fan...
     

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  13. Your biggest teacher is going to be experience.
    I killed my first four plants through newbie
    mistakes.  So you're already ahead of where I was.
     
    You'll have to learn what your plants like and
    what they don't.  Maybe do some LST or even topping
    or FIMing.
     
    Just take your time and you'll get it.  I figured it would take
    me about eight or ten grows before I got the hang of it.
    Just before I quit growing I was getting the hang of it and
    finally getting a decent harvest.
     
    Remember, YouTube is your friend.
     
  14. just kidding as well lol
     
  15. Thank you... I did forget to mention that I top and prune the bottom of them often... Airflow and old fans and all... Yes you tube is great but I'm not finding what I need to get to there...
     
  16. #16 rain dancer, Mar 6, 2015
    Last edited: Mar 6, 2015
    Couple things i can offer advice on.

    Its better to use two lights to flower than one light to flower and two to veg, ie, two hps is better than one.

    More light in flower equals larger buds.

    What do you mean you hang a bag for co2?

    The smell and taste often comes down to cure. Hay smell is usually harvested too early, a typical new grow mistake, and most all of us have been there, i know i have :)

    Cure in mason jars. Trim after the plants dry, hang them whole and leave them.

    Hopefully the fish tea you use doesnt contain mercury, which wouldnt hurt veges but would deinitely hurt you via an herb you smoke.

    SSTs and ACTs should be considered. Google these and read up a bit and when you have some questions i will be happy to guide you in any way i can :)

    Consider worm bins and worm farming. Castings and acadian kelp meal make all the difference in the world, grow wise.

    Build a soil . Com is a good place to acquire kelp meal and redwormcomposting. Com is where i got my worms years ago when i got into compostings and ACTs.

    LST is the very best way to increase yield ten fold with limited space and minimal effort.

    All of the stuff i just listed can be found in detail with pics in my grow journal here
    http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-grow-journals/1305106-pokes-perpetual-underground-jungle-15-strains.html/page-338

    Genetics are a big deal as well. You want more resin you need full spectrum lighting or more blue lights at the end, or UV light, though both would help. So even a 600w mh and 600w hps together is better in flower than one of either.

    But id stick with 2 hps if yield is your end goal.

    SSTs can be done with corn seed, alfalfa, or barley. ACTs with castings, a 3 dollar bag of manure from home depot and some molasses. Kelp meal contains 73 micro and macro nutes. The techniques and things i just listed will show you a side of gardening that you cant fathom now and make vegetables grow in ways that will boggle the mind. Ive grown broccoli the size of beach balls with these techniques and just recently a few colas the size of two liter soda bottles, with minimal effort and almost no money at all.

    Hope to see you in the jungle brother
    ~ poke
     
  17. Your latest grow will always be your best one. Just keep at it. Rethink your nutrients and medium. Me for example, I yield way way better in coco than soil. I'm not saying coco will always yield best. But soil takes a while to master. Refining soil growing techniques takes mad skills. So I avoid it since mastering coco is a lot simpler. At least for me it is. As for lighting, if your adament on just a single bulb or two for bloom why not just grow in 2 ten gallon pots?
     
  18. The last 2 post ^^^ will help you a bunch
     
  19. #19 Dav4ever, Mar 6, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 6, 2015
    What do you mean you hang a bag for co2?

    I tried these grey tabs in a few ounces of water in a bucket that melted down to a blob of crap I didn't feel comfortable disposing of first. Discussions with my local hydroponic store dealer and she convinced me this bag of co2 will help considering how small my room is...

    I just put solar on the building so I'm comfortable adding more lights (if my wife won't have a cow about spending even more money and having not earned a cent in return) in a few weeks...

    I appreciate your feedback and the feedback of the dude who discussed switching to coco... I will be looking over your references carefully and will keep on tinkering with stuff... In the meantime I gotta try and get some one to buy these couple of ounces from my first harvests... Wish me luck there...
     

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  20. Poke,

    I was reading through some of your journal and a dude named Head Chef, who seemed to have a pretty firm grasp on the science of growing, said to transfer from veg to flower with 36 hours of darkness in between... Do you have any thoughts on this and do you have any idea as to why he recommends this?
     
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