ARGGH!!! It makes me soooo angry to see someone that has both MH and HPS and only use HPS to flower. Sure you want to use mh for bushy stocky plants, but for flower you want to cover as much of the spectrum as possible. And since LED technology isnt were we need it to be at the moment we are stuck with MH and HPS. Use them BOTH at the same time. Or use the HPS and throw in some leds for added spectrum OR do like i did. I have a 1000w HPS and 3 4ft T-5s on each wall. You want to cover the full spectrum guys, we should know this. The exception is if you only have one light or can only afford one light then you want to get an HPS. It is the best all around light.
Corey, my HPS bulb is the Hortilux bulb. In addition to being 55,000 lumens as opposed to the standard 50,000 hps bulbs, it has a blue spectrum in it. Therefore, the need to flower with both mh and hps is really not necessary because the bulb has all the spectrums. Of course one can never have too much light unless temps get out of control which mine would running anything more than one HID.
All four of the plants were male. I blame the government. If their ridiculous laws were not the way they are, I would have germinated all 10 seeds and had at least one female. However, not all was wasted as I feel I have proved that MG soil with time release is a distant second to just about anything else. Here are a few last pics before I destroy them, such a shame because they are so beautiful. I don't think I can keep them because my other closets have cloths in them which I fear could transfer pollen to my future females.
Yo VTEC, excellent thread man! I love reading side by side's comparisons, especially so when done by an experienced grower like yourself. Great experiment, too bad you ended up with 4 males. This should be made mandetory reading material for all new forum members. Thanks buddy!
well mg soil has worked pretty good for me in the past, but thats pretty much all i ever used, and after a few weeks i even introduced more fert to the plants. BUT,,, I think maybe I'll try something else with less fert and see what happens. Maybe i've been missing the boat. I moved to a new place, and just built a new grow box. I'll let you know.
Thanks urgr8est and definitely give a different soil a try lancir. Also, I could not bring myself to chop them all so I saved the runt of the litter, the MG plant. Maybe I can get some pollen to make for seeds when I get some broads.
In my soil mix i used earthworm castings, bio-bizz light-mix, black peat, and Miracle Grow Organic Mix and I just couldnt imagine using just the Miracle grow, seriously. A "fresh" bag(and i use that very lightly)from home depot was just full of gnats and just the overall texture and moisture of the soil is disgusting. If you ever compare a high quality bag of a soil-less mix like bio-bizz next to MG, ud see. I dont think anyone can argue that if u want to grow marijuana and not have tons of issues, please spend the extra money and save yourself the trouble. I've read alot of posts where most will claim its all they have in their area, this is true, I have the same issue. However, the internet is a beautiful thing. If you look hard you can find a good company to work with to buy soil and have it sent to you. Yes, shipping can get high sometimes depending on how much you need. for example, i bought bio biz light mix online, great price-a 50 ltr bag cost me around 20 dollars to ship-sounds like alot i know, but its worth it to do it right, plus 50 ltrs will last me a while since i mix with others, plus I can make the shipping prices back cuz i wont need to buy weed, which is most peoples goal. I think these threads proves what so many experienced growers have stressed before, it just does not work well for weed. I agree that the thread should be a sticky and considered important info. Awesome job SmknVtec
Well I am attempting to germinate 2 more WW and one Sour Diesel I only have one diesel so best wishes there. I guess if I decide to photograph them I will have to start a new thread because they won't be in MG. The MG Male sure has big balls though. Soon he will be moved to a separate closet where I can hopefully get some pollen. BTW that neem oil is great. It killed mostly everyone on the first spray and everyone on the second 7 days later.
Oh lucky me. I've got 8 plants about 1 week old each. All in MG. This threads giving me a feeling I'm in for one hell of a grow season.
too bad about the sausage fest in your grow. maybe u can make some cannabutter or some bhang after collecting some pollen. it would be worth a try, after all that work.
If I remember correctly it takes about 4 weeks into flower before a male drops pollen right? Well I guess the bastard gnats now have a tolerance to Neem because there were tons flying around the MG Male last night and it was sprayed only a few days ago. And it still looks to me like my MG Male is still being fert burned because leaves are dropping off that look fert burned. I have two more WW and a sour diesel in regular soil that I pre flushed before planting the seeds. They are now under my LED's so check my LED thread if interested.
Pollen has been collected and hopefully I have enough to dust for seeds. I also sterilized my grow room. The whole thing was inundated with fungus gnats and dust bunnies. I killed the male and got rid of all that tainted MG.
I want to add my opinion to this thread because I notice a couple of things that were not addressed - V, these were all started from SEPARATE SEEDLINGS, (each seedling being grown from an individual seed) right? Don't you think this leaves way to many variables? I mean this - 1) How do you know the plant in the MG soil wasn't simply a 'runt?' They're all from separate seeds, right? So, how do you know the genetics are all equal? 2) I would like to see the same experiment done with four clones FROM THE SAME PLANT. I'm in no way harping or dogging on your experiment, as I believe it's an interesting one. However, I do feel that eliminating any and all possible variables is key in experiments where a true measure of success (or failure!) is to be determined. Bottom line is this - to eliminate doubt, (aka convince skeptics like me, HEHE!) you have to maintain equilibrium throughout the experiment. I feel that in starting from SEEDS, there was no consideration given to limiting variables. I for one, have always used the 3month MG mix, with NO problems. I grew for two years hardcore, never got any bugs from the soil, and never experienced any real problems. I'm not saying I haven't had my own snaffus (we learn by our mistakes!), but for the most part it was great. I only used this soil for VEG, when we would put our clones in dirt. It was usually a good month-month 1/2 before we would transplant, and most often we would have to give nutes before they were moved to flowering. I know I'll probably catch hell for admitting to this, but I also used the MG FERTS. I didn't have time (or resources/other product available in my area) to develop an organic regimen. So, it was great to simply plant our clones and forget about feeding. We'd know when it was time to feed because the plants yellow and show a nitrogen deficiency. I never really noticed an overly 'chemical' taste to our weed. It was always flushed with distilled water, a minimum of TWO WEEKS before harvest. Always burned to a nice white ash, no 'carbon chunks' in my smoking utensils. I'd love to see this experiment done with clones from the SAME MOTHER in 4 different soil types/brands. Not to discredit you V, just attempting to HELP out and IMPROVE upon a GREAT IDEA! In no way am I a veteran/expert grower. But, I did grow some pretty righteous buds. I wish I had taken pictures, but alas, I have only had a digicam for 2 years. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pics of my Bubblejack and Grapefruit grows... *wink*wink* jE
Yes they were from seed therefore; I absolutely agree jEthereal, to do the experiment properly a double blind experiment with 100 clones [50 in MG 50 without] would be the best way to do it. Instead I did a half assed experiment that ended even worse when they all turned male. Maybe one day I will have the means to do the aforementioned to really prove the point.