Can somebody please inform me on how to post pictures? :-/ I feel so dumb haha, I want to upload some photos and update my journal there are a few things I wanted to share with GC but I apparently am not competant enough to do that without help
Ace: it's the same fixture with different tubes. It came with two sets of tube, blue for seeding/cloning and vegging and red ones for flowering. I keep the ones I'm not using in 3/4" capped PVC pipes to protect them. So far so good. I haven;t weighed my crop since I was growing with my Aerogardens a couple of years ago. At that time I'd get a couple of dried ounces of buds from two plants in the one that was flowering. I used to keep three of them going in different stages of growth most of the time to to keep my sugar bowl full. Now I do it easily by growing a couple of crops a year in my two bubble tubs to do the same thing. Since I'm only growing for me and I don't dose it out by weight it seemed irrelevant. I put a pinch in my vaporizer and it does the job. If you're growing for sale I could see the concern. Have you seen the two National Geographic documentaries on M/J that were aired this weekend? One's called Weed Wars and the other is the M/J Gold Rush. They dealt with the business end of cannabis. I'm glad I'm not involved in that. Hank
Well I've never grown before, only bought, so I'm always getting specific weights and I want to be sure I at least get a couple ozees for the amount of time, energy, money I've spent and will continue to spend. I've been wanting to make some sort of cfl fixture to veg my 3 plants with for now, I saw a thread someone had made that looked almost exactly as I had envisioned http:// http://forum.grasscity.com/do-yourself/639492-diy-cfl-lighting-unit.html I only intend to use 6-8 bulbs, and I want to get a windshield sun reflector thing to put on top of the bulbs to direct all energy downwards. I think it would be more efficient than my current setup, and that would work until getting an hps for flower
Ace: We all had to start somewhere. Before you start spending money and risking frustration and aggravation I would suggest that if you haven't, you read the following books: SeeMorebud's, "MARIJUANA BUDS FOR LESS GROW 8OZ. OF BUD FOR LESS THAN $100," Jose Cervantes's, "MARIJUANA HORTICULTURE THE INDOOR/OUTDOOR MEDICAL GROWER'S BIBLE," and Ed Rosenthahl's, "MARIJUANA GROWER'S HANDBOOK." They're all well written, beautifully illustrated, filled with great photography and they'll answer a lot of your questions before you know to ask them. Hank
I have another question for you guys, I hope you can help. I just read through a journal of some guys that got five oz off two plants under like 350 watts cfl. They had the two plants in one 2.5 gal dwc container and by the end the whole tub was a block of roots. I've read that with soil you want as big a pot as possible so the plant can grow that much more. Is that the same case with dwc hydro systems? Currently I have two plants in one 5.5 gal container which I was worried about being too small, but after seeing those other plants I feel somewhat better. Also I'm planning on perhaps transplanting into individual 5 gal buckets maybe a week or two before flower. Does any of that sound good or does it not matter that much? Any insight is appreciated
Ace: here's what I was taught: "If you want to be ultra safe grow one plant per pot, be it DWC or dirt." The thinking behind that is that if there's a problem you'll only lose one plant. With my bubble tubs I grow six plants in each from seed sprouting to vegging. Then I cut them down to three per tub when they start to flower. I do that to stay under my state's M/M limit . There's a contamination risk there, but it appears to be minimal or I guess I've been very lucky, but I pay close attention to my garden. One guy I know had eight five gallon buckets hooked up to a massive single air pump with eight outlets and an individual air stone in each bucket. He had lids on each one with built in five or six inch net pots you can find in almost any hydro store. He filled them with Hydroton. He started his plants from seeds in Rapid Rooter plugs in a starter tray then transplanted them into the DWC pots when they were a couple of inches tall. He lit each one with a single curly CFL, in a spun aluminum hood from The Home Depot. They were suspended over each pot on a chain from a plastic PCV pipe frame. It worked well for him until they got bigger than the hood then he hung a HID fixture over all of them and watched his wheel on his electric meter spin. A lot of us try different things and some work and some don't. Starting out you might want to be as conservative as possible until you get some experience under your belt. If you look into some of these posts there are a lot of folks who tried to run before they could walk and the results were usually disappointing. Hank
Hmmm thanks for the input Hank, that does make sense. I certainly want my grow to be successful, I guess ill just keep a close eye on the plants and make changes if I see something going wrong. Do you know if a plant would grow larger being in a 5 gal bucket, even if just for flowering phase, as opposed to 2 plants being in a 2.5 gal container for their whole lives?
Ace: generally the more room it has the bigger it will grow, both below and above ground level. As for two in one pot, you may find it a bitch to untangle them. Hank Twist3dReaction: different strokes for different folks. Hank
Yeah in the journal I read the two plants' roots had grown together in the shape of the container. They said there wasn't any trouble with that, but to me it just looked unhealthy for the plants' roots to be like that
Ace: for what it's worth, I saw a friend pull the lid off of a networked five gallon flood and drain pot and the bucket was filled with a solid mass of healthy roots. the plant was almost four feet tall. I wouldn't want to try to stuff two in there. Hank
Hey guys, I was wondering if we could have a little GC therapy session. I need it haha So the other day my gf said for christmas she wants a king of the hill coffee mug and a twisty hair towel thing. Now I have no desire to buy a twisty hair towel, but it isn't for me, its my gfs gift and I plan on getting her what she wants because I know it will make her happy. The other day we were looking at the plants and jokingly I said that she should get me some budswel or worm castings or something like that for christmas, because I do need a couple more supplements for my solution, and that would really make me happy to receive something like that. She said "oh no I'm not buying you anything like that to contribute to the grow, I don't want any part of it." So then today my gf was talking to her mom about what to get her brother for his birthday which is on the 16th, and she was saying that she wanted to buy him a helix or some other nice piece because he had mentioned that he wanted one. So I said to her "you'll buy your brother a marijuana pipe but you won't buy me some worm poop?" She said they're not the same thing and she should be able to buy him a pipe but not have to buy me any grow materials. My point was that if she was willing and even excited about buying her brother a pipe to smoke weed out of(when he has already gotten in trouble for possession) then she shouldn't have a problem with buying me some nutrients, because I've been spending a lot of time on this and I would honestly really appreciate that as a gift, and I can't think of much else I want at the current time. And if she has such a problem with buying me something that helps weed plants grow, then she should have a problem with buying a weed pipe for her brother. To me its just inconsistant logic Anyway, anyone have any thoughts?
I'm running a 600w hps 18 hours a day and my electricity only went up about 30 bucks. You'll never get plants to flower under cfl as well as hps, I don't care who believes it, there's just no comparison. I've been growing for years and tried nearly every combo of lights you can imagine. Once you go hps or hid, you'll never go back.....you'll also feel sorry for those who don't invest in proper equipments as they don't know what they're missing, but their plants do. Best money I ever spent was on a nice setup and I have no regrets. You won't either.
Yeah I want at minimum a 150 preferably a 250 or really a 400 if I can afford it which I plan on being able to. They're just vegging with the cfls for now. But see, whenever I mention hps or hid my gf freaks out because I read when I was very first researching that hid lights give off a lot of heat and police can see the heat with infared technology, and I told her about it. However, as I've researched more I have found that if its less than like 1000 watts and you pay your electric bill on time, there shouldn't be any problem. But she hasn't done any research whatsoever and has always been caught up on the fact that its illegal. She thinks just because its illegal, the cops are going to show up and were going to jail. And I keep telling her that we won't because I've done my research and I have no desire for either of us to go to jail. Its just been a struggle because I'm the only one who wants this to work out, and I really do so badly. I just think it would be so totally awesome but no one else sees it that way
Ace: if she's not cooperative be glad she's your G/F and not your wife. Let her smoke grass clippings from now on. Hank
Haha that's what I'm saying. I asked her "so why should you get to smoke on ounces(hopefully ) of dank for free when you're telling me you want nothing to do with my grow?" She said that it was her place first and the fact that she's letting me grow should be enough by itself, that I should be grateful for that. I am very grateful, but we have discussed it several times and she agreed to let me try so I get frustrated that she still freaks out all the time, even though there are pieces laying around in different places that are incriminating by themselves and they don't seem to be a problem. But we aren't loud and we never have parties and the cops are never at the door
Ace: you'd better get that squared away right away because she sounds like the kind that if you ever give her a ring she'll try to put it through your nose. Good luck amigo. Hank