Ha! I crack me up too! Yeah, it makes me laugh when people talk all that crap about how they love this taste or that taste while smoking thier weed. Sure, I enjoy the taste some. I enjoy walking into a room and smelling freshly smoked weed. BUT, that's NOT why I smoke it. On a scale from one to ten, flavor is about at 1.1 and getting high is a 10 in my life. As long as it gets me wasted, buzzed, stoned, mellow or zonked, Hell, I'm good! When someone tells me "I'm not as concerned with the high as much as the flavor", I politely excuse myself from the room, go outside and laugh my ass off. It's like saying "I don't really care if my car even starts as long as it's pretty". Try as hard as I can, I just don't understand all this emphasis on flavor when smoking weed. I smoke it to get high. Everything else is secondary to that. Hell, if all I have is some weed that wastes me, but smells like rotten camel farts and tastes like the asshole of a dead mongoose, I'll smoke it man, and laugh about the fucking flavor while I'm buzzing!
I also heard that going complete dark for 36-48 hours before switching to 12-12 helps increase yield...have you heard anything about that? Thanks for posting! I've learned a LOT from this thread!!! I haven't actually grown yet, I'm still in the learning/preparing phase, but I think my first grow will be up and running in the next month or two. I can't wait to see my little ladies grow up!
I think that putting your plants into total darkness for 36-48 hours prior to bringing them back online at 12/12 would put unneeded stress on the plants and quite possibly with some strains, cause them to turn hermie on you. My vote on that is no. The key to successful growing is PLANNING and logging everything that you do. If security is your worry, then do it on the PC with massive encryption and keep your passwords private. I log every move that is made inside my grow area. That way I can look back on new methods and see if they're actually making a difference.
Thanks for the quick reply! Once I get up and going I'll post a grow log. And great tip...the more I read from experienced growers, the more I realize this is a big science experiment, right down to keeping a "lab" journal. Not to hijack the thread, but the setup I'm thinking of is in a DR100 tent with two 20 gallon tubs for RDWC and the controller/reservoir outside of the tent. I'm using 30 23W CFLs at a ratio of 2:1 with 2700K:6500K with soda can reflectors. I should have just gone for HIDs, but I figure I can upgrade on my next grow. Not sure what strain(s) I'm going to grow, but I have a couple in mind from the Ministry of Cannabis website. I can't wait to taste the fruits of my labor, but I'm just as geeked up to see the setup in action. Again, thanks for the super fast reply and great tips!
No serious grower uses CFLs. They are not cost effective and just aren't worth it. Sorry to all you CFL users, but that's just the way it is. If you're going to *play* at growing, then fine, use CFLs. If you're serious about growing, use either MH, CMH, or HPS, depending on your budget. Buy a properly sized HPS or multiple HPS and use them for your entire grow if money is a problem. The HPS is more efficient, costs less per/watt at purchase and with a remote ballast, will keep your grow area cooler.
Yeah man, I definitely want to move over to a switchable MH/HPS ballast for my second grow, but for the first I wanted to get the basics down and CFLs seemed the way to go. What wattage would you recommend for a 3.25' x 3.25' grow tent? It's mylar lined, if that makes a difference. I want to use an air cooled hood with a designated fan for that, and another fan for venting the tent. When I move to HPS/MH I also want to supplement with CFLs to make sure I get a full spectrum of light on the ladies (heard multiple people recommend mixing spectrum and it makes sense to me).
Tell ya what man, how about if you start your own thread so we can get out of the OP's thread about your grow room and growing. Just PM me with a link to it and we'll start again there. OP: Sorry about taking up space in your thread. We'll move to a more appropriate thread.
A proper flush involves lowering your base nutrients to about 25% of flowering levels and using any favorite ripener / hardener / finisher like koolbloom for example. Contrary to popular belief you do NOT want to flush using plain pH'd water as that shocks the plant instead of bringing the feeding down gradually but not halting totally.
I am on my 7th week of flowering. I am using Technaflora nutrients. There is a preharvest formula in the feeding schedule, so instead of using all 6 nutrient they recommend using only 2-SugarDaddy 40ml per gallon and MagiCAl 2.5 ml for the last 3 days of feeding and then they recommend to flush with PH adjusted water for 4 days... Ones winery owner told me that they stop using fertilizers 1 month prior to harvest to improve a flavor of the wine grapes..... Who knows how is right and who is wrong but I am switching to just water by the end of this week...Root ball it self should have a good portion of nutrients trap in it to help my plants to keep producing trichomes till the end of the harvest...