Yo lost, Got your question. Well lets see, How to best explain? OK 1st. If I have 20 plants in a room then I would say it's normal for me to have 14-15 different strains. I grow the stubby indica's and freak'n jungle weed sativa's. The difference in fertilizer use is very different. The sativa's 'to me' use very little nute's compared to what the indica's use. This is why I have to let the plants talk to me. But when I water I have 2 separate water buckets. Fresh and 1/3 suggested dosage of my cheap stuff fert's. If I see any premature yellowing of bottom leaves Then I know they need food. When I do feed I usually feed 3-4 waterings in a row. I can see the results of my feeding after the 2nd watering dose. I look at my tops for that perect lime green at the new growth. If it's dark green then it also tells me that their a bit dry. I look at leaf tips for any slight burning and if I see that then just straight water. But some strains have a little leaf burn normally when fed perfectly. I normally start bloom fert's when I see the buds just starting to bloom, and follow the same exact water patern. You need to be careful at this point because the girls are going to require much less watering. This is where so many folks begin killing their plants. They keep watering the same as vegging and fuck them up. Slow death by overwatering 'Gasp'. You know there is a good reason that many skilled trades have a 3-5 year apprentiships. My system took me years to perfect and it may take that long for others. Some will never get it. Now flushing. I don't do what you may call a flush. But others dump a shit load of unnessesary water on there shit. Nature does this to some point with fall rains, but not floods. All I do is when I start seeing the hairs about 50% red than I just water with fresh water for 2 weeks and buddy get the scissors ready and let the sticky-icky begin. You Keep asking And I will do my best to answer.
SG1 - I've only done one other grow myself, and an old timer recommended using molasses at the end. I did, but I don't know if that made enough of a difference. What's your opinion - and also, sulphered or unsulphered if you use it yourself? Thank you!
Im not really following you here.... so you you flower with 2 metal halide and 1 high pressure sodium? Are you refering to metal halide as "warm"? Its my understanding that mh is considered bluer and hps is redder.
Diebold, Just my opinion for my garden. I think it's Just a fad. I have never used it and probably never will. I am very happy with my grow and just haven't tried it. I am curious of course as all good growers are, but just haven't. As far as sulfer go's, BAD. Sulfer kills most bacteria, good and bad bacteria so if your going to use malasses then UNsulfered.
There are 2 types of spectrum 1000wt metal halides on the market here locally. One is listed as 'COOL' which is more blue than red, the other is listed as 'WARM' which is more red than blue. Both produce both red and blue as each produce more of one than the other. Now High pressure sodiums produce a greater amount of red, probably double what a MH produces. Understand I just try to immitate nature not rewrite nature. Fall skies are redder than summer skies. I want the extra red from the sodium bulb but still want the extra lumens that the MH provide. Thats how I do it.
If you're a gal, thanks. If you're a guy, Then dude your going to have to go through my little dog first. Her name is Bacon in is the spawn of the devil himself. Love you too!
We must come from the same "seed." Since I am in a basement I am going to use industrial poly pallets as my floor to prevent thermal loss to the pots. Two of walls will be cinder block and the other two stud walls I will build. I am going to run a plenum into the pallets and pull air in through the slots in the pallets, up through the plants, mix with fans, lights on at night (back up heater), stuff the pallets with insulation if needed and remove air through a plenum and then filter it. I will probably paint the pallets white to help reflect light and maybe fill in with some CFL bulbs in the corners. I am testing a 5 gallon bucket light reflector using 300w bulb that I made yesterday. A T5 in each corner is not a bad idea either. I am just trying to decide where I want to duct air to the outside. I may run up the exhaust used by the water heater. No brainer really, the hole from the old heater is capped and waiting for me to use it. Talk about your soil mix some. In outdoor pots I have often used a mix of cheap bagged soil, perlite and a dash of peat moss to help aerate the soil and prevent clumping.
I don't know so much aout the composition of my soil rather than if you use the same stuff for long enough, then you get tuned in to it. Big problem with lots of guys use a decent soil but screw up the watering, fail then move to a new soil then fail. Repeat repeat. Get what ever soil you want. Be aware that some soil comes real moist right out of the bag. If the bag is real heavy then don't water for up to a week after transplant. When you do water, pick up the pots. If they still feel heavy then just give a sprinkle of water to just moisten the surface. If you ever start a larger grow then we can talk about bulk soil. And Exhaust will be fine.
word man good looks that helps a lot as i just started flowering about a week ago thanks for the good info, thats exactly what i was looking for
Glad to be of assistance 'Lost'. I'd wish you good luck, But unfortunately luck has little to no bearing on a persons life or his grow. Work at it, keep it simple, And just enjoy the pleasure of the grow. Peace
To reddiesel. Plant is something that is strain specific. Meaning that most indica's need no real training or tying back. They have the perfect shape, but if height is an issue, than just pinching the top is really all they need. Sativa's which I call my jungle weed is a different beast all together. Lets take my romulan, I need to pinch the top at 1ft tall. After that at about 2 1/2 ft tall on all the tall branches. Then as it starts budding the plant will go from 2 1/2 ft to 5' in just 2 weeks. At that point I will use tomato ties to further wrangle them down 'fuck'n jungle weed'. So really your question is not a generic one. But has to be applied individully. And as far as yield goes depends on how long You let them go. Along with how healthy they are and how well you grow them.
Few questions about air. You pump air in so you maintain positive pressure in the room. You exhaust the air through a plenum but you don't filter your exhaust do you? I need to filter the exhaust air so I am inclined to do negative pressure. Even if filtered and no smell, I assume the air is too humid to recycle inside the house / closed loop? How do you seal between the sheets of mylar to keep them air tight and how do you mount the mylar to your walls and ceiling?
^Hey man to mount mylar I use some spray adhesive I got at the wal.mart, and some of the foil ducting tape on difficult surfaces. Good question about the humidity, Id like to know how op handles that. It's one of the reasons Im building that new hood. I dont have moisture meter but I am gonna try and keep things as dry as I can. Im hoping the neg pressure will maintain a supply of semi-dry air being sucked in from my house.
to DrD, If you are venting out of a water heater exhaust port, then everything is venting to top of house I presume. When I used to rent houses to grow I actually preferred to do it amongst other homes. If a person smells it they have 10 suspect houses to look at. The stronger your exhaust the less concentrated the smell. As far as mylar goes 'WHY' would you need to seal it. I tack mine up so as to allow it to move. As the fans blow they move the mylar causing a twinkling affect, kinda like sun off of waves. This allows light to constantly move, thus penetrating deeper into the canapy of your grow. If your light doesn't move the leaves block all availible light. The leaves move too slow to adjust to the twinkling affect. You don't need to seal it. Let it breath.
To revrend toke. Read last post to DrD.Just use strips of duct tape to re-enforce the attachment area. I leave as much looseness to the mylar as possible to allow movement. This is key to light penetration. But if you use a hood then it really is a mute point as my system relies on light coming from an to every direction.
Good job man and great thread. Question about the huge outdoor plants. How many bloom cycles did they go through before getting that large? Is that one year growth? Several years?
Do you use the 3000K metal halides? I fell in love with them years ago- it does away with the need for sodium bulbs.
To Jesstaney, Those plants were cloned 2 months before planting outdoors. Then pics taken 2 months after planting outdoors for a total of 4 months old. I won't make fun at your other questions as we were all noob's once. But just to clarify for you. Pot is like salmon, once you spawn 'breed' then it's over, DEAD. There is no way to grow through flower cycles outdoors. They bud, they die. Done deal.
To Poppybgood. I am strickly a 1000wt guy. I've heard of other higher wattage lights but don't feel the need to change my 30 yr habit or style. In a 3- 1000wt room I just switch the middle light to sodium for flowering.