ive done four grows now but none of them have really been that great in quality or weight wise. my max seems to be a quarter pound under a 600w light, which would be fine if it was really dank stuff. The herb is good, but ive bought better. I even tried a well known companies seeds 'dutch passion' i grew their orange bud. Im looking for tips to increase my potency as well as the yield. so what should i be using for the soil? i currently use MG Organic blend stuff(comes in orange bag at home depot) with a mix of worm castings and some peat moss. any suggestions on that? for nutes i am currently using a mix of technaflora products. i really dont know much on what nutes i should use or in what dose to use them, but the plants seem to do okay with what i am doing now. could definitely use some suggestions on some good nutrients. how far away should my light be? i normally keep it around 10inches away, but i notice my buds seem to get a little light bleached on top, if i pulled the lights back some would my buds grow better? do i need to give them fresh water as well as nuted water? right now i only feed them nuted water, approximately every 5days how hot can it really be? on the worse days it will hit around 85 on the plants, is that fucking with them or can they take it? what size gallon pots should their final homes be? 5gal? 10gal? i think i read the root mass effected how the plant grew? so how awful is getting light on them? sometimes i look at them when the lights are off, just with a small flashlight though, is it really affecting them? when i water how often should it be, is 5 days too long? i normally use about a gallon of water per plant each watering, is that enough? how important is ph. i never test for it i really dont know how. i think our tap is about 7.5, and that is what they are watered with. what is the best way to dry and cure my bud? just leave it in a dark room for a week then jar it up and burp the jars? thanks to anyone that replies i really enjoy growing, i wanna improve
i am not an expert myself (sort of a beginner) - however in my opinion the light is the most import issue for the plant - I'm using mostly direct sunlight in soil, thus I almost pay no attention to neither temperature (summer heat as high as 100F) nor the exact PH, which are secondary in their importance as long as the plant gets good quality of light. As for nutes - it's better to use less than the recommended amount than too much. I think 5 days is too long in watering cycles. Don't use tap water (poor quality), and 7.5PH is too high - should be around 6.5. When drying the buds and jarring them, be careful they don't get mold.
Few tips... -The bigger the container, the bigger the root system, thus the more nutrients the plant can uptake. -Get rid of miracle grow soil and get some pro mix and mix it with 60/40 pro mix/worm castings. -Try different nutrients? -600w HPS should be raised to about 16-18" -You should give them water in between feedings. This will help to flush out the salt that builds up in your soil from using bottled nutrients. -Try to keep the temps under 80 degrees...especially if your humidity is low. -Air circulation is very important during flowering.
Advice above is good, re pot sizes, soil and stuff. You asked how often should you water, every 5 days? You should water whenever it needs it! Some times that will be every day, some times that will be twice a week or less. A good check is stick your finger in the dirt. If it feels wet, leave it. If it comes out dirty, leave it. If it comes out clean, water it. If the soil is dry and crumbly, you needed to water it yesterday. Water until it runs out the bottom. Exactly how much water will depend on the size of your pots, how thirsty the plant has been, what the moisture-retention of the soil is. Are you doing any training or anything to maximise your yield? Some LST, topping the plants to generate more main colas, or using a scrog net to get a large even canopy for the light to shine on, are ways of getting more out of your plants. You can employ more than one technique too, some of them are complimentary!
So should I say water with plain water every other watering? I hear advanced nutrients are pretty darn good?? Anybody used them? Any recommendations on where to get seeds? I got the purps from bc bud depot, and some Dutch passion strains through attitude, they didnt really impress me I've also been recommended to use perlite by a few different people, I thought peat moss was basically a substitute for perlite, do I need both optimally? I currently top them at about 12in tall and tie branches back as needed to get a nice bush of tops, my last grow I scrogged, but it was done somewhat poorly, defo need more hands on experience more than anything, but to get advice from the people that have already seen what works for themselves will just save me time Thanks guys
Dude, ALL this info is available inthe stickies. Please read, the stickies contain far more knowledge than anyone can post up in a reply And dont be lazy..if you dont find the answer in the stickies...google it. Considering this is your first grow....keep it simple.
Even two waterings between the feeds, especially if you notice any signs of nute burn. They both serve the same purpose - they are not a nutrient, they help to stop the soil from getting too waterlogged by opening up the texture. If you grew using only perlite and moss, you'd basically have to design some kind of hydro setup. There is lots of conflicting information because there are lots of different setups and ways to grow that are as good as each other. But you can't just mix them all up because it doesn't work like that. I recommend that you don't try to make the best damn setup in the world ever, but use your experience from previous grows, and the info you get from GC forums and other places to make some improvements to what you already know. If you just throw everything at it, you'll get nowhere, Good luck!