[MEGA]Community Growing advice, tips, tricks, & experiences Part 5 (2012-2013)

[Whosajiggawaaa]

One of the survivors (decorations are for eye in sky lol).

Hoping it's yield will be good.

It's taller than me and I'm tall.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Meanwhile from Afghanistan

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Beautiful plant there justsayknow It's nice to see you're growing is obviously spot on as your plants are always a lush green and healthy looking so keep the good work up mate.

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One of the survivors (decorations are for eye in sky lol).

Hoping it's yield will be good.

It's taller than me and I'm tall.

Nice one mate. Forgive me for my ignorance but can you remind me what strain this is again? I can't remember if you said if was from some bag seed or not. Have you thought about getting a small polytunnel or greenhouse to obscure the view of the helicopters?

 

[umfree14]

Hahahahhahaha . @ the Christmas decorations oh my fucking god

 

[Whosajiggawaaa]

Beautiful plant there justsayknow It's nice to see you're growing is obviously spot on as your plants are always a lush green and healthy looking so keep the good work up mate.



Nice one mate. Forgive me for my ignorance but can you remind me what strain this is again? I can't remember if you said if was from some bag seed or not. Have you thought about getting a small polytunnel or greenhouse to obscure the view of the helicopters?

Lol, I'm too lazy for that this grow. for next grow sounds like a good plan tho. Needs a lil prunage. That plant's seed came from a bag(seed) of swazi gold - so it's very sativa.

 

[justsayknow]

Beautiful plant there justsayknow It's nice to see you're growing is obviously spot on as your plants are always a lush green and healthy looking so keep the good work up mate

That one is in some beautiful organic soil with a fuck load of extra ferts. Is looking more afghani too. No credit for me though.

This one is in a smaller container using almost entirely bio canna products- soil, ferts and additives. Bit low on N so it needed some worm castings to try and amend that. Is looking and smelling a bit more like the Pakistani.

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I would say the home made mix beats the bio canna soil for staying power.

 

[junkie skumbag]

So planted 3 seeds yesterday.2 wild Thai Ryder auto fem and 1 fantasmo auto fem...the Thai Ryder should take 90 days and is one of if not the strongest auto flowering strains with a thc %of 19 having medicinal propitys and I'm not sure about the strength of the fantasmo but it's up there

Used those clay balls you use with hydro growing along with seasol soil,we shall see how they go wish me luck!

 

[junkie skumbag]

Oh and fantasmo will take 70 days

 

[justsayknow]

I was hoping to grow some Thai this season but not a single one germinated will have to settle for Sri Lankan. Hope you have better luck with your auto flowering one. Going with the sun or with the bulb?

Wonder how it will compare with your outdoor superskunk?

 

[Artificial Emotion]

That one is in some beautiful organic soil with a fuck load of extra ferts. Is looking more afghani too. No credit for me though.

This one is in a smaller container using almost entirely bio canna products- soil, ferts and additives. Bit low on N so it needed some worm castings to try and amend that. Is looking and smelling a bit more like the Pakistani.

NSFW:

I would say the home made mix beats the bio canna soil for staying power.

Wow, lovely! Have you considered trying bat guango when you need a shot of nitrogen? A lot of bat guano sources seem to tend to have reasonably high levels of nitrogen. I recently saw a small scale side-by-side trial with outdoor plants that tested potting soil with nothing added to it, a small amount bat shit mixed into the soil and a small amount of the bat shit bubbled in water overnight. They found the plants that had nothing added predictably looked unimpressive, the ones with the amended soil looked greener and healthier but the ones fed the guano-based tea looked very lush and healthy. I found a similar test on Youtube where a guy did the exact same test but with single pepper plants and he got a similar result. I think he may have been inspired by the results with cannabis. Here it is but there's loads of similar examples of people using it successfully in this way.

You'll also get impressive results with actively aerated compost tea (AACT) which you can make with vermicompost or worm castings as well as compost or humus. It's not just the bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes from the soil food web but it's the nutrients that the plants benefit from. Like I was just saying on another board yesterday, if the plants could talk they would scream 'thank you'

You know I've been thinking of growing an afghani and using it purely for hash but I've been tempted by DNA sleestack since that's another great strain for producing hash. Are you planning on making any hash with your crop this year?

I can't wait to see how your buds turn out when they're finished. I hope you have the macro function on your camera working so you can take a close up shot!

 

[justsayknow]

Last year we tried the scissor hash from trimming and it was very nice. I might have to put a few chunks of bud aside and try to make some proper hash. The solvent less method posted here http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/751727-Turning-Flower-into-Solventless-FULL-MELT-HASH-in-5-minutes-(video-tutorial) looks interesting.

Will have to have a bit more of a look at that aerated compost tea. I make worm casting tea but will have to try this active aeration. Haven't seen guano for sale around these parts but will look harder. I think next year I will go back to growing in the earth rather than containers. 50L just doesn't seem like enough to sustain +6 months of sun powered growth. I guess I could always start later and keep it small.

No macros for me my slr got stolen last year. Phone or small camera. Should still be able to take an ok bud shot the resin is pretty visible already.

 

[justsayknow]

Also I think I might need better water. The tap water here is highly chlorinated so I've been trying to aerate it and dilute it with rain water. Will probably use straight rain water for the last phase of flowering. I'm guessing chlorine might fuck with the balance a bit when trying to grow organically. Not sure if cheap filters remove all of the chlorine either.

 

[junkie skumbag]

Both my seeds cracked within a couple of days and I'll be sticking them under a 400wt HPS until I can afford a better light or hydro system I might be able to get

 

[junkie skumbag]

And yeah the yeild of the Thai is 550 per square meter and I'll be growin on a box just big enough to fit the big pots and drip trays and a fan that's All I needed for my last autos and they basicly grew themselfs!

 

[junkie skumbag]

Yeah when I was watering it I was leaving a bucket out over night do dechlornate how ever u spell it

 

[DrGreenthumb]

Last year we tried the scissor hash from trimming and it was very nice. I might have to put a few chunks of bud aside and try to make some proper hash. The solvent less method posted here http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads...-FULL-MELT-HASH-in-5-minutes-(video-tutorial) looks interesting.

Will have to have a bit more of a look at that aerated compost tea. I make worm casting tea but will have to try this active aeration. Haven't seen guano for sale around these parts but will look harder. I think next year I will go back to growing in the earth rather than containers. 50L just doesn't seem like enough to sustain +6 months of sun powered growth. I guess I could always start later and keep it small.

No macros for me my slr got stolen last year. Phone or small camera. Should still be able to take an ok bud shot the resin is pretty visible already.

Get some bubble bags & use all that leaf trim to make super potent full melt hash, anything with trichomes on can go in the bags, whole leaf trimmed away from the buds is best. It makes some great hash from your trash.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Also I think I might need better water. The tap water here is highly chlorinated so I've been trying to aerate it and dilute it with rain water. Will probably use straight rain water for the last phase of flowering. I'm guessing chlorine might fuck with the balance a bit when trying to grow organically. Not sure if cheap filters remove all of the chlorine either.

Hey justsayknow I was going to say don't worry about the chlorinated water since probably 99 times out of a 100 the grower doesn't need to bubble the chlorine out before using on their plants and that gardeners the world round regularly use tap water with no issues whatsoever (including myself) but this is not new info to you so I get the impression it must be particularly bad - bad enough to visibly affect the plants in some way. If that's the case then bubbling for just one hour is sufficient rather than doing it overnight. I know this because the manufacturers of Plant Magic essence advise you bubble for an hour when using water for brewing essence, which contains strains of helpful bacteria and fungi and they make this recommendation based on microscopy testing on many samples and they came to the conclusion that an hour gave a wide enough margin to allow them to recommend it across the board. I bubble for an hour and it's enough to stop LSF in its tracks as well as other diseases so doing it for any longer is not necessary. But do smell it to make sure there's no chlorine smell and if there is, keep bubbling until you no longer smell it any more and bubble it some more just to be safe.

As for the rain water, my advice would be to avoid it unless you can use a UV sterilizer and constantly aerate the water (not just prior to use but constantly). I know this sounds counter-intuitive but straight rain water is actually bad for gardening and is a bit like playing Russian roulette with plant disease. That said, people that do use it successfully where they have UV sterilizers (a cheap 9W model would be ideal) and a pump with an airstone to keep the water from stagnating by keeping it oxygenated. If I had a garden outside I would harvest rainwater and use this method to make it safe to use myself. I assume that if power isn't available you could use solar panels and a battery to power the pump and UV sterilizer somehow and it would be a pretty cool project but I digress.

Finally and again, I know this is probably nothing new to you so apologies if it is but with regard to the water quality, one piece of advice I can give you if the water is coming from the tap is to avoid cold water at all costs since it shocks the roots of the plant. A good rule of thumb is use the back of your hand to test the temperature and make sure it feels tepid i.e. neither warm nor cold, but in between. Water with a watering can that has a fine rose since believe it or not this actually does a really good job of aerating the water, which I was surprised to learn myself.

 

[justsayknow]

Lol at the water being too cold! It often comes out at around 30 to 40C and I have to wait for it to cool down. To be honest I'm not sure if the chlorine content is too high but compared to most other places I've been the stink of it is much stronger. I have no evidence whatsoever but for systems that rely on bacteria I was thinking that an antbacterial/antomicrobial like chlorine would not be helping. Its reassuring that you mention most people having no trouble with chlorinated tap water. I really don't think there are any pathogens in my rain water but it is possible. Mosquito larvae are living in it so it isn't poisonous. Probably better off just filtering my tap water though as I'm guessing the water collected from the gutters would be pretty acidic and full of leaf matter. I have a little electric pond pump that would probably do the job for aeration though.

Maybe its just the pot is a bit too small and the biocanna is a bit low in N. I've been putting it on at way above the recommended rate and there is absolutely 0 burn and still a small bit of fading to yellow on the fan leaves during the last 4 weeks. (Using full strength veg formula and full strength flower formula plus bioboost and rhizotonic all at once.)In the earth there was no yellowing at all.

The other pot that is bigger and has home made soil plus synthetic ferts has 0 yellowing but a little bit of burn. I reckon the one that is yellowing will end up tasting better. Getting one or two pink/purple coloured pistils now and the trichs are clouding up I think

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No yellowing on the important parts.

 

[justsayknow]

Water with a watering can that has a fine rose since believe it or not this actually does a really good job of aerating the water, which I was surprised to learn myself.

This is also reassuring. Thanks man. And no a lot of the stuff you are telling me are not things I know already. I'm sure its going to turn out just fine though as long as it doesn't get stolen or raided.

What are your thoughts on leaving the plant in darkness before harvest? Not just one night but an extended period of darkness before harvest. I haven't tried it before but one of my friends was telling me something about it converting a lot of the chlorophyll out of the buds.

 

[justsayknow]

Get some bubble bags & use all that leaf trim to make super potent full melt hash, anything with trichomes on can go in the bags, whole leaf trimmed away from the buds is best. It makes some great hash from your trash.

I usually use most of what I get for edibles/drinkables but I do like a bit of hash so that could be a goer.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

What are your thoughts on leaving the plant in darkness before harvest? Not just one night but an extended period of darkness before harvest. I haven't tried it before but one of my friends was telling me something about it converting a lot of the chlorophyll out of the buds.

I am not entirely sure but I have read from credible sources that when the photoperiod falls below 10 hours the THC production diminishes and that is why this practice is not recommended. So this is why I personally would probably not risk it myself. Whether it works or not you'll get a lot of people claiming it does work (think Superthrive), so I wouldn't put too much stock in some of the anecdotes you might hear. Same goes for both ways though tbh.