[MEGA]Community Growing advice, tips, tricks, & experiences Part 4

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Well, I think Im going to take clones tomorrow, place them outdoors to root, and flip my plants to 12/12. I'm not sure if I should wait longer or not, as Im just not wanting to stretch the plants so much that the 600watt cant handle it all. Right now the plants are about 16 inches. I took some pictures yesterday, Ill upload them tonight when I get back.
What would be the optimum height for a plant under a 600 watt? and since its just 3 plants, I'd imagine it could be a tad heigher than with 6 right?Idk where that logic comes from but it sounds like it might work lol

Those strains look delicious. looks so stickyyy

That Bangi hazi looks good. Full sativas are better suited for heat correct? Are they alot harder and more picky to grow though?
What sides bud would they end up yielding , I hope that picture is just a few weeks into flower,so sticky though lol.

How much did that purple haze X panama yeild? very nice looking plant.

I'm just looking for plants that will yeild me enough to where I just have to grow 2-3 times a year, and I go through about an ounce every 1-2 weeks
Ive been doing pretty good with just 4-5 plants a grow, but I do usually end up short a few ounces in between each grow.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

You guys will love this. This is pretty much proof that you don't need autoflowering dwarf genetics to stay short and squat for tight spaces if you have clones available. The guy that grew these took rooted cuttings, trimmed back the roots a bit and then flowered them straight away under a 400W HPS in pots of coco. Prelude I thought you might like to see this. If you get enough cuttings, you could fill the floor of your grow area in a sea of green so you have lots of spears of bud all at the same level on the floor.

edit: just to add you wouldn't be able to grow dense buds like that in compost because coco yields more than compost for a given pot size.

NSFW:

You want all the buds at the same level so you don't have one really tall plant and one really short and squat plant that doesn't get any light.

Pure sativas are better suited to longer summers so can only be grown in places like spain rather than say the northern hemisphere in places like the UK. They are not harder to grow no, they just are a bit more involved. If you LST them for example you can keep them nice and short. Also keeping them in a pot for the first two weeks of 12/12 helps with the stretch. Unlike indicas the roots grow for most of the flowering period. That plant was only 5 weeks into flower, and it hadn't been finished at that point.

If you start training your plants you could easily make up the few ounces you are short. SCROG, LST, SOG etc. all increase your yield. Vertical grows are king for yield though.

Well, I think Im going to take clones tomorrow, place them outdoors to root, and flip my plants to 12/12. I'm not sure if I should wait longer or not, as Im just not wanting to stretch the plants so much that the 600watt cant handle it all. Right now the plants are about 16 inches. I took some pictures yesterday, Ill upload them tonight when I get back.
What would be the optimum height for a plant under a 600 watt? and since its just 3 plants, I'd imagine it could be a tad heigher than with 6 right?Idk where that logic comes from but it sounds like it might work lol

Those strains look delicious. looks so stickyyy

That Bangi hazi looks good. Full sativas are better suited for heat correct? Are they alot harder and more picky to grow though?
What sides bud would they end up yielding , I hope that picture is just a few weeks into flower,so sticky though lol.

How much did that purple haze X panama yeild? very nice looking plant.

I'm just looking for plants that will yeild me enough to where I just have to grow 2-3 times a year, and I go through about an ounce every 1-2 weeks
Ive been doing pretty good with just 4-5 plants a grow, but I do usually end up short a few ounces in between each grow.

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

NSFW:

Just wanted to try to quote that to see if it will show, wasn't showing for me.

http://s18.postimage.org/abjxojbo7/2012_04_19_21_23_19.jpg[/IMG

[IMG]http://s18.postimage.org/o6i87063b/2012_04_19_21_23_38.jpg

Don't know if this is just normal? There are a few leaves with those brown spots on them, but it's mostly just the edges of the bottom leaves that are brown, the top half of the plant is more of a healthy green, though one plant does have a large brown rusty looking spot in the middle of the leaf.

I watered my plants today, and I think I am going to re-pot them Sunday/Monday. For the first time ever, I've grown the plant so well that the roots are actually coming out of the bottom of the pot
I've never had healthy root balls, normally the soil will fall mostly apart when I repot, never could figure out why though, I'm pretty sure that my plants health this time around is just due to my consistency of watering/feeding. Last grow, I would just water and feed when I thought they needed it, Now I just have a schedule and follow that as well as I can.

I've seen a few grows like that, lots and lots of clones, just little tiny buds, how much do you think each bud would end up weighing? I wonder how much weight aprox 30 would bring. Would that be easier or harder than just a few plants?

Those vertical scrogs looking really interesting, I might have to check that out.
I really need to start working on getting my hood ventilated before I start doing anything else though
With summer rolling around, It's not lookin too good. lol

Hopefully I can get a good look at some sativa clones on monday, Im gonna go get some sleep before I have to goto work.
Thanks for all the help and advice , I appreciate it, and hey, look, its finally paying off, I can veg plants without them dying so quick. lol

 

[Artificial Emotion]

^ it could be a slight over-fertilization. Do many of the other leaves have burnt tips? It's probably nothing mind you so I wouldn't worry.

Are you just watering them with plain water from the tap? Are you doing anything to the water? As for the yield of 30 plants, it depends on so many factors. It's so hard to predict. Would you be training them or growing freestyle? What light would you be using? Those are just some of the factors that affect yield. Growing 30 plants wouldn't be hard though.

 

[^Xayo]

revegging is a funny thing :'D

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[Artificial Emotion]

^ you might find the leaves start forming spiral patterns as well. I know it's probably not the way you want do it but if you can, a really great way to reveg is to literally just plonk them in the corner in a greenhouse during spring (if you have one!) and leave it be. After a couple of it will regenerate completely. I know it's a bit late now but if you can a much more reliable way of doing the strain is to take clones during the first 2 weeks of 12/12. You can keep a bonsai mum in an 8" x 8" box with just a household 12W CFL with no ventilation required.

Or, amazingly, you can take a clipping and store it in a moist sandwich bag for up to 6 weeks or possibly more, but I haven't dared try for longer myself. They go into a sort of hibernation and once rooted after being stored this way show excellent vigor for some reason.

 

[^Xayo]

do you think that dipping them into biobizz root juice and then into earth with moisture hoods on and some water will make them root ?

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Biobizz root juice doesn't get very good reviews, but in any case it's not necessary for rooting clones. If you just stick it in some multipurpose compost and pat down the soil so it's in contact with the base of the stem and then put on a moisture dome that should be sufficient, as long as the temps are right. This way you should get pretty much a 100% success rate. I wouldn't recommend messing with additives just for cuttings though in my experience. edit: by the way if temps are too low you might benefit from a propagation heat mat which heats from underneath. The right amount of heat is key I find.

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

I've tried re-vegging quite a few times, I've even went so far as to letting it veg for 2 months, 16/8(outdoors)
And the plant would never veg, just stayed as a flower, so I ended up just planting more seeds.

As for tons of clones, I would probably just make 30 spears (untrained, no lst or anything)
I just want to know whats going to get me the most weight for the least ammount.
the 30 clones or Vertical Scrog sounds like the way to go for my next grow.

I've been just feeding the plants from the tap, I will usually just get the water and it comes out around 8-9ph, Ill get it down to about 6.5-7.0 , I feed once every 7-10 days. I've been adding 1/4 tea spoon to about 24 ounces of water ( I figured out the math a while back, the bottle says to feed about 1/2 teaspoon, I went half that.)
PPM is around 300-600 right now.

And that burn look is just on the bottom leaves, the top leaves all look healthy, though the very tips curl downward ( forgot what that means, something with ph to high or low right?)
The bottom leaves just have brown edges, Maybe they got nute burn when I first re-potted and they didn't need nutes (it would've been in the soil) but I fed them anyways, can't imagine they are still getting nutrient burn from feeding less than 1/2 recommended strength , but, I know it is possible with how much salt and nutrients they actually put in the bottle and what they tell you to feed them, compared to what they actually need.

Mmm...So, short clone spears, or Vertical scrogging, or LST, lol, time to do my research.
Do you have experience with these types of grows? Have you been able to compare how much they yield compared to one another.
I'd imagine vertical scrog/lst. I've seen alot of people do those small, clone/spear grows, but I haven't ever been around to see the yeild. :/

Thanks for the ideas,help and everything I do appreciate it AE.

And good job on getting that plant to reveg xayo, I can't even get my plants to re-veg, lol. Keep up the good work.


Thank you everyone.

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Hey AE, quick question, when you ended up losing that plant due to mold, did you end up salvaging any of the thc by making Hash or anything? or did you toss it all ?

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Have you considered using an organic fertilizer?

I've experience with all the growing techniques you listed. Vertical growing is king. SOG is more efficient than LST or SCROG.

Hey AE, quick question, when you ended up losing that plant due to mold, did you end up salvaging any of the thc by making Hash or anything? or did you toss it all ?

I ended up making sieved hash out of it.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

I've tried re-vegging quite a few times, I've even went so far as to letting it veg for 2 months, 16/8(outdoors)
And the plant would never veg, just stayed as a flower, so I ended up just planting more seeds.

As for tons of clones, I would probably just make 30 spears (untrained, no lst or anything)
I just want to know whats going to get me the most weight for the least ammount.
the 30 clones or Vertical Scrog sounds like the way to go for my next grow.

I've been just feeding the plants from the tap, I will usually just get the water and it comes out around 8-9ph, Ill get it down to about 6.5-7.0 , I feed once every 7-10 days. I've been adding 1/4 tea spoon to about 24 ounces of water ( I figured out the math a while back, the bottle says to feed about 1/2 teaspoon, I went half that.)
PPM is around 300-600 right now.

And that burn look is just on the bottom leaves, the top leaves all look healthy, though the very tips curl downward ( forgot what that means, something with ph to high or low right?)
The bottom leaves just have brown edges, Maybe they got nute burn when I first re-potted and they didn't need nutes (it would've been in the soil) but I fed them anyways, can't imagine they are still getting nutrient burn from feeding less than 1/2 recommended strength , but, I know it is possible with how much salt and nutrients they actually put in the bottle and what they tell you to feed them, compared to what they actually need.

Mmm...So, short clone spears, or Vertical scrogging, or LST, lol, time to do my research.
Do you have experience with these types of grows? Have you been able to compare how much they yield compared to one another.
I'd imagine vertical scrog/lst. I've seen alot of people do those small, clone/spear grows, but I haven't ever been around to see the yeild. :/

Thanks for the ideas,help and everything I do appreciate it AE.

And good job on getting that plant to reveg xayo, I can't even get my plants to re-veg, lol. Keep up the good work.


Thank you everyone.

I would definitely at least just try giving one grow a go, even if it's just one plant, my way. Basically just sieve multipurpose compost and pot up from small pots to bigger pots along the way, sprinkling mycorrhizal fungi in the base of the potting hole each time and then after the first two weeks of 12/12, start feeding with an organic fertilizer in non-pH adjusted water. If you're using a good soil and potting up along the way, you should not every have to feed during the vegetative stage at all because the medium supplies all the nutrients the plant needs. Each time you pot up you're providing fresh compost and nutrients for the plant to use which is why you should use this method rather than growing in one big pot from the start. Yield will be up too. With tapwater with the pH you mentioned you still don't need to adjust pH in a compost grow. My water has a pH of 8.5 iirc.

This plant was grown just with compost, plain tepid tapwater that had never been pH-adjusted and just a bloom fertilizer in the flowering period:

NSFW:

The taste of bud grown organically is much better and arguably more healthy, especially when you avoid using chemical fertilizers high in phosphates, which have been linked to cancer (smoking high P bud may be a lung cancer risk factor in theory). I know you're skeptical but I would seriously urge you to just grow one plant my way and then decide whether the growing method is for your or not.

Alternatively you could try growing in Canna coco professional with Hesi Bloom and see how you find it. Growth rates will be comparatively phenominal and the bud will taste quite good for a hydroponic grow. You would only need an pH meter, not an EC meter growing this way. The EC meter doesn't work with Hesi coco ferts.

Apart from the leaves at bottom of your plants they look pretty healthy, so I wouldn't worry yet.

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Well, I don't think not adjusting the pH is an option. The first 2-3 grows I tried, I wasn't even able to adjust the pH, and the plants would just start to yellow at the base and that would start working its way up the plant. But I will probably give each a try just to see if its worth growing in that manner.

I can get these nutrients you speak of, but I can't find coco anywhere. I've literally been to about 3-4 different stores, and NONE have any coco that's worth buying.
Normally what I've seen is just some smashed together 1X1ft cube of long cocoir strands. I'm pretty sure nice cocoir doesn't consist of mainly long 1-2 inch strands.

Whats the pH of cocoir? I've noticed most times that I start growing in peatmoss, I never need to adjust the pH, the plants just run into problems because peatmoss has no nutrition for the plants. Ill continue to look for some nice cocoir.

-Edit-
Did you end up salvaging any of the plant that got rot? or did you trash the whole thing?

 

[Artificial Emotion]

You shouldn't need to adjust pH because of the buffers in compost such as dolomite lime, so if adjusting the pH had an effect, IMO all that means is that there was an issue with the compost. I don't know if it was store bought or mixed by yourself but I wouldn't use it again. Peat is great, but the pH is too low for cannabis to thrive and needs dolomite lime adding. Plants might grow in peat moss, but a lot of the nutrient issues are due to nutrient lockout due to the pH being off if dolomite lime isn't added, which it should really be.

Also I suggest you use organic fertizer and not chemical. That should help with pH issues in and of itself.

I can't get coco from the local shops either. I usually just buy online. If you look at online grow shops that deliver you should be able to find canna coco professional I would have thought (especially where you live). Just don't get any other version like canna coco natural or anything.

Btw I made that plant into hash

 

[Hoes call me santa]

I have some bud pics for you guys today

The 2 first pics are Black Jack and the other are Cream Caramel, both autoflowering.

NSFW:

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Looking pretty, wanna share

And AE, I believe you are correct with the whole dolomite lime issue.
I've never found any dolomite lime that looks, worth using, just the crappy miracle-grow bags with pre-added everything.


(I might have or might not have said before, but I live in a VERY small town. We don't have much, I would have to travel 1+hours to get to a specialty store, or a store that actually has equipment worth buying, everthing here, whether you pay 100+ or pay 10, you get the same results, Quality is just not there. so, I buy cheap crap, and go out maybe once a year when I need new equipment. Which will be within the next week...

So...I guess I should start a list of what I will need, as of right now, I'm planning on buying a good pH pen (the one I have is digital, but still a piece of trash, is there anything I should look for when buying a pH pen?)
I do have a PPM meter, but I recall that it wasn't the correct one (says TDS 3 HM Digital, I believe I needed an EC PPM meter and got the TDS because of price, lol)
I will buy some dolomite lime (how much should I buy if I plant to plant 3 times outdoors in a year, in about 9-12 cubic feet)
(What else should I add to this list, I know there alot of things I probably need that I don't have or don't know about , and this is my chance to get most of it)

I have mainly clay soil, so, what should I add to this soil to keep it from just being rock solid clay, other than dolomite lime, I remember you saying not to add perlite, but just add fertilizers, most of the stores around here , all have name brand , pre-mixed soils, I've seen a few bags of Kelp,Bat Guano, Worm Castings, but I would have to pay a pretty penny and buy them all seperately, and they all seem to be very, concentrate, meaning I have to only add like, 1/4-1/2 cup to all the soil.

I want to be able to put a screen up to help shade the plants during the hottest part of the day, but I don't have many ideas on how I could get the screen to stay up, and how I could do so without disrupting the rest of our yard (I have posted pictures from where I grow in my backyard before, but I will try to post another picture during daylight to give a better idea of what we are dealing with, if you want to help me figure this stuff out within the next 5 days. )

So, since I don't have sativa seeds at the moment, I am planning on buying 4-6 plants for outdoor (clones).
Is there anything specific I should look for in a clone? Other then just looking for a plant that is mainly sativa.

I just re-potted my plants,
Think I might have made a mistake though, I went from a 1/2 gallon pot, to a 3gallon pot.
I know potting up as many time as you can before flowering, is a good thing to do, as it helps the roots, will my plants be okay since Im flowering next week anyways, and you dont want to re-pot when a plant is flowering right?

I bet that hash was tasty :D
And would peatmoss be alright to use for cloning? since it doesn't have anything that could burn the plant, and it kind of buffers the pH, or should I start using something else to get a better success rate, or healthier rooting?

And with organic fertilizer, do you mean that I should create a soil that doesn't require me to feed my plants? Should I still keep my nutrients around just in case I do start making organic fertilizer and my plants might need some help along the way, or is that unlikely?

 

[Artificial Emotion]

^ I'm not sure what pH meters are available to you so wouldn't like to make any recommendations. If I were you I would find what's available and then ask growers online if they're tried the models you're interested in, to see if they can give you feedback.

EC, TDS and PPM are all just different units of the same thing, so a TDS meter is the same as a PPM meter - you just have to convert the units. That said if you're going to use organic fertilizers one of those meters won't work. They only work for chemical salts fertilizers.

You don't need much dolomite - say just 5kg or so would be fine. If the dolomite lime you get isn't fine enough you can easily just grind it up in a pestle and mortar into a find powder. Before adding it to the soil in the ground, be sure to measure the pH using a kit from the garden centre so you know how much dolomite to add. Clay doesn't need any fertilizers at all - it has all the plant available nutrients your cannabis could use. Anyway if you use well rotted manure or garden compost that will provide nutrients anyway. Growers have an obsession with adding nutrients to the soil but unless you're growing in very sandy soil or soil that's been used over and over again for years, you don't need to add any and doing so could even be counterproductive. Growing in soil outdoors is not like growing in containers because the root system ends up being so massive that the plants can uptake as much nutrients as they want. Because of the cation exchange capacity of clay it clings on to nutrients naturally so adding more is pointless in most cases. If you want to add something, spreading worm castings around the potting hole will help, and it will inoculate the soil with friendly microbes.

You could build a frame with wood. You would just need some nails and 8 pieces of woood. Then you could drape green plastic netting over it when needed. It doesn't have to be fancy, it just needs to be able to hold the netting up so it shouldn't be hard to make.

Potting up like that isn't ideal but it'll be fine. The plants won't die or anything like that. It's just preferable to use more stages but if you don't do it that way the plants will still be okay I would imagine.

Peat moss is too far too acidic. You might find it works, buts it's far from ideal and your plants won't thrive. Peat moss on it's own won't really buffer the pH. It needs to have dolomite lime added to raise the pH and act as a pH buffer, although getting the amounts right can be tricky, so I would just get a multipurpose potting soil from the garden centre designed for that sort of thing. It shouldn't be expensive and you won't need much. Straight peat moss is only really appropriate for ericacious (acid-loving plants) like blueberries and rhododendrons. Cannabis needs a higher pH than it can offer unless you use the dolomite lime.

A multipurpose pottings soil (i.e. not a sowing and cutting soil designed just for cuttings and seeds only) should have nutrients added to it so if you're potting up regularly the plants will get feed when they grow into the fresh compost at each pot up. When I say organic fertilizer I mean a liquid organic fertilizer designed for cannabis, like biobizz fishmix (note I mean fishmix, not any of their other range which is poor quality). Biobizz fishmix should be available in the US, which is why I recommend it instead of fertilizers like organic Plant Magic bloom, which is a UK brand. Also if the fertilizer doesn't say organic it probably isn't. I would be very careful about which fertilizer you use, especially if it's designed for cannabis. Because there are so many poor quality brands on the market just buying any old brand is like playing the lottery, so I would stick with tried and tested brands like Biobizz fishmix, which you know will work well if everything else is sorted out in your grow.

NSFW:

edit: just to add, the reason I would buy a potting compost rather than making your own out of peat moss is because those guys are, or should be, professionals that know exactly how much to use of each ingredient, whether it be loam, peat moss, lime and other ingredients. If it's a good quality medium with very little crap in it, it should work well. Also you must remember to sieve it before use as you'd be surprised at what comes out of most potting compost!

 

[Hoes call me santa]

Thanks for the compliments Prelude, if you ever come by it would be a pleasure to share

A multipurpose pottings soil (i.e. not a sowing and cutting soil designed just for cuttings and seeds only) should have nutrients added to it so if you're potting up regularly the plants will get feed when they grow into the fresh compost at each pot up. When I say organic fertilizer I mean a liquid organic fertilizer designed for cannabis, like biobizz fishmix (note I mean fishmix, not any of their other range which is poor quality). Biobizz fishmix should be available in the US, which is why I recommend it instead of fertilizers like organic Plant Magic bloom, which is a UK brand. Also if the fertilizer doesn't say organic it probably isn't. I would be very careful about which fertilizer you use, especially if it's designed for cannabis. Because there are so many poor quality brands on the market just buying any old brand is like playing the lottery, so I would stick with tried and tested brands like Biobizz fishmix, which you know will work well if everything else is sorted out in your grow.

I can totally vouch for that. I asked a guy at my grow shop an organic fertilizer and he pretty much gave me a random one and it ends up my plants are having a Nitrogen deficiency and some of the leaves' tips are a bit burnt. It's the brand "BioCanna" by the way, so you don't end up buying the same shit.

As I am also one of AE's apprentice hahaha, I will be ordering the Bio Bizz Fish mix in a couple of days

 

[Artificial Emotion]

A bonus about the fishmix by the way is that in small quantities it can be used to make compost teas as well for outdoor crops.

 

[Tripman]

Just a tiny bud I have dried, i've just started curing it but this is what it looks like pre-cure:

ps... excuse my nails they need more of a trim than that bud!