[MEGA]Growing advice, tips, tricks and experience: Mark 3

[Wise420]

From the few people ive seen comment on the JC book, most dont recommend it. Ive never read or bought any books though, so I couldnt give you my opinion on them.

Joining a cannabis forum and learning on the internet is going to give you overall more knowledge though IMO. If you participate in growing discussions, ask questions, you get multiple veiws of opinion, rather then just one opinion and not being able to follow up with questions.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

AE, with that leaf mold did you collect the leaves yourself or buy them from somewhere? Im looking online at a gardening store and cant seem to find any mention on the stuff.

We actually have 2 of those topsy turvy(i think there called) planters here. They look a bit small to use though IMO and i'd much prefer to just prep a grow site and stick the plants in the ground. Watering wont be a problem next season once I add a few different goodies to the soil. And yeah the soil my girl is in atm definatly is no good, but she'll be done within 7 weeks or so, so I dont have any problems with continuing to water most days if its needed.

It would be pretty intresting watching a plant grow out of one those turvy planters though, especially if it's grown over the top of a lamp.

It's either a conspiracy or for some reason it's not economical to make it for the horticultural companies (I doubt it since they make green waste compost which involves more effort)

So you have to make it. Although if done right you can make some in only 6 weeks if it's not freezing cold like in winter. You can shred it (although this isn't necessary) and stuff a whole bin (garbage) bag full of it. Make some holes in the bin bag and add some water. The best way to speed it up is to dilute your urine in water by 50% and add it (the smell will not be an issue as it breaks down). After a short period it will make lovely leaf mould which you should pass through a riddle/sieve to get the bits out of it. It's very high quality and so should be used appropriately (some people say the quality is too high for you mulching but it's free anyway, so it's not like it's costing anything).

I would compost the leaves on site if I were you, using the bin bag method. Either that or compost the bracken (here's another materials that's like gold dust to gardeners).

 

[Artificial Emotion]

I may have missed a post, but have you got anything growing in your scrog/hydro set-up atm? How's the smoke from your harvest too, it looked like some nice buds

I harvested all the plants that were left. To save effort (as I'm really lazy!!), I stripped off the vast majority of buds and froze them. They're waiting for me to buy some bubble bags when I can afford it at the moment.

I took about a jar's worth of the buds and dried them on drying racks (the drying rack I used has lots of holes in the fabric screen to improve airflow and didn't make flat parts like I was worried they might do, thankfully) as this was easier to set up in my tent than strings to hang them up. They were almost fully dried so I moved them into a paper bag to finish off and am now using the tent to germinate all my veggie seeds.

I've decided to take a break from growing weed indoors as I hate taking the risk. So in future I'm considering just guerilla growing and possibly having a couple of small autos in my greenhouse amongst all the legit plants. Plants grown outside are more likely to get found, but I'm less likely to get arrested or to get into trouble with my Housing Association.

Here are some photos of the grow room now. As you can see I've used the technique normal gardeners use to plant seeds (get the seed flat, seive compost, compress it with the wooden tool, sprinkle the seeds on and then sieve some more compost before finally lightly compressing it a final time). For the more expensive F1 tomato and strawberry seeds I used seed modules so they have their own individual areas, as they don't need to be thinned out. I used Westland John Innes sowing compost for the seeds and riddled them with my aluminium sieve that I bought from B&Q quite cheaply (which makes sieving a joy). The Jalepeno pepper seeds are being germinated in perlite and vermiculite so that I can remove it from the roots to plant them in NFT with completely bare roots. The peat pellets you can see are actually made of compost (made a mistake when buying them). Peat pellets are fine to use and don't really have much of an impact on the environment, so are better.

 

[minddetergent.]

Jorge Cervantes's Bible. All you need to know really. I'm going to merge this into the mega grow thread.

greg greens book takes a wee on jorges.... stitch done the plant diagnosis and chimera the breeeding section... just loads of great info from people who actuallly grow.

 

[Wise420]

It's either a conspiracy or for some reason it's not economical to make it for the horticultural companies (I doubt it since they make green waste compost which involves more effort)

So you have to make it. Although if done right you can make some in only 6 weeks if it's not freezing cold like in winter. You can shred it (although this isn't necessary) and stuff a whole bin (garbage) bag full of it. Make some holes in the bin bag and add some water. The best way to speed it up is to dilute your urine in water by 50% and add it (the smell will not be an issue as it breaks down). After a short period it will make lovely leaf mould which you should pass through a riddle/sieve to get the bits out of it. It's very high quality and so should be used appropriately (some people say the quality is too high for you mulching but it's free anyway, so it's not like it's costing anything).

I would compost the leaves on site if I were you, using the bin bag method. Either that or compost the bracken (here's another materials that's like gold dust to gardeners).

Thanks again for informative posts AE

It's good that you mentioned the brackens can be used. I'll definatly get a batch together in the next week. So a whole garbage bag full you rekon? I can do that. Just erring when you say add 50% diluated urine LOL. I take it gloves need to be used once the leaf mold is ready to be taken out of the bag? And will most of the urine remain in the bag or does the leaf suck that all up?

 

[Wise420]

Ive decided im going to convert a broken mini fridge that I have into a little grow box, mainly used for vegatating younger plants before putting them out. I Figure if I got the space I may as well grow a couple of Auto's too.

So Ive found products on this hydro store online which is located in Sydney. Im planning to buy a 130 watt daylight CFL for the box, along with 2x120 mm computer fans. AE, or anyone else, do you think i'll have any problems with heat?
The size of the fridge is 50 cms tall and 38 wide.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

greg greens book takes a wee on jorges.... stitch done the plant diagnosis and chimera the breeeding section... just loads of great info from people who actuallly grow.

I would agree with that. GG's book dedicated to breeding is very good.

Unfortunately Jorge Cervantes has developed somewhat of a following, which gives people the impression that he must be credible, when this could not be further from the truth. Trust me, don't get me started on Cervantes!

Thanks again for informative posts AE

It's good that you mentioned the brackens can be used. I'll definatly get a batch together in the next week. So a whole garbage bag full you rekon? I can do that. Just erring when you say add 50% diluated urine LOL. I take it gloves need to be used once the leaf mold is ready to be taken out of the bag? And will most of the urine remain in the bag or does the leaf suck that all up?

Fresh summer cut bracken can be composted in 4-5 months and autumn cut bracken takes longer than this, just so you're aware of the time scale. AFAIK commercially they load them into storage bays that hold about 40m3 and turn them with tractors and also nitrogen. Urine won't act as an activator for bracken unfortunately because ammonia doesn't work. I think the bin bag method would work for bracken. If you do use this method then the best source of nitrogen would be grass cuttings. Composted bracken can't really be considered leaf mould though.

If I were you I would rather get deciduous leaves fallen from trees and compost them instead of the bracken if you can, simply it'll compost quicker. The urine really works well because it's high in nitrogen and will be consumed, meaning it shouldn't cause any issues with smell at all if used, especially if diluted by 50%. It's considered to be the best compost activator available since it's both free and extremely effective, although other organic sources of nitrogen will also work. Grass (not cannabis!) clippings also work well as an activator in this case. Remember to keep the leaves wet and if you can shred them that will speed the process up a lot. Occasionally turn the leaves when you can as this will speed the process up.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Ive decided im going to convert a broken mini fridge that I have into a little grow box, mainly used for vegatating younger plants before putting them out. I Figure if I got the space I may as well grow a couple of Auto's too.

So Ive found products on this hydro store online which is located in Sydney. Im planning to buy a 130 watt daylight CFL for the box, along with 2x120 mm computer fans. AE, or anyone else, do you think i'll have any problems with heat?
The size of the fridge is 50 cms tall and 38 wide.

I wouldn't have though so. Is the fridge degassed? Where are you going to drill the holes?

If you're trying to keep the warmth in when it's cold (I suppose it wouldn't be where you live) then a fridge is perfect as they're well insulated. I think the fans might be okay (what rating are they, in terms of airflow?), but you might want to test it out with a thermometer when you install the light and PC fan extraction and decide where to go from there.

 

[Wise420]

I wouldn't have though so. Is the fridge degassed? Where are you going to drill the holes?

If you're trying to keep the warmth in when it's cold (I suppose it wouldn't be where you live) then a fridge is perfect as they're well insulated. I think the fans might be okay (what rating are they, in terms of airflow?), but you might want to test it out with a thermometer and decide where to go from there.

Not sure what de-gassed means but in the few mini fridge builds ive seen online I havnt seen that mentioned? If it is, which I assume it will be if it was original gassed. The fans are 220 v, 21 watts and 2550 RPM.

I havnt taken everything off it yet, just making some plans atm. I was thinking of putting an in fan at the back of it towards the bottom, and an out fan towards the top. Do you think it would work better if I put the fans on opposites side of the box to each other, top to bottom?

And BTW, the cold isnt going to be a problem. I want to make sure I have decent air circ so the box dosent stay to heated.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Don't worry about the degassing thing.

Yes the fans do need to be on opposite sides. If you draw a straight line between both fans that's roughly where the main flow of air will go. So, in order to encourage the most airflow across your plants having the top and bottom fans on opposite sides is better.

How long will the plants be vegged inside the fridge?

 

[Wise420]

Don't worry about the degassing thing.

Yes the fans do need to be on opposite sides. If you draw a straight line between both fans that's roughly where the main flow of air will go. So, in order to encourage the most airflow across your plants having the top and bottom fans on opposite sides is better.

How long will the plants be vegged inside the fridge?

Sweet. Thanks AE.

I'll order these things tonight then and start taking apart the fridge

The main idea behind this was to just have a fluro I could run for when I start next seasons plants. I would only veg 2-3 weeks max in cups, untill they need to be repotted into the ground. I would also clone cuttings in there.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Sweet. Thanks AE.

I'll order these things tonight then and start taking apart the fridge

The main idea behind this was to just have a fluro I could run for when I start next seasons plants. I would only veg 2-3 weeks max in cups, untill they need to be repotted into the ground. I would also clone cuttings in there.

One more thing - I would personally use a smaller light for first 7-10 days after seeds emerge from the compost. Whilst clones are rooting they need little light too. A 20W CFL would do for that. After that, from week 2-3 the 130W CFL would work great.

Mind you, the cost of the electricity wasted would be so small that some people would say you may as well just do as you said and go with the 130W light from the start!

I use a 48W T5HO lightwave light personally but those lights wouldn't fit into that space.

 

[Wise420]

Sweet I will keep that in mind. Cheers again mate

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Glad to help

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Wow, I always used to read about how people would use steel rakes (flat ones, not the ones used to sweep leaves) to cultivate the soil into a fine tilth for seeds or to just generally break it up nicely for planting, but I didn't really picture it working that well in comparison to a standard gardening fork. Anyway, I bought one for *snip* today and was just now using it on the soil, and it worked like a dream!

It's the best tool for getting the soil to work into a crumbly texture. I really love a good garden tool when it works well.

edit: fuck fuck fuck I keep forgetting about that. Sorry Yerg!!

Anyway, Wise, I was thinking, if you can't get a compost heap down at your site, you can still compost effectively in a trench. Just get a shovel and dig out a long rectangular trench in the soil. Keep filling it with vegetable food waste/organic matter and cover it. Eventually you'll have a whole trench full of compost and you can plant right in it without any cultivation needed whatsoever. I may try this myself. The only thing is to cover the tarp you use with stones on the sides to hold it down and keep vermin away. If you can, plant 'leguminous' plants in it (grass, peas, runner beans, mustard and other 'green manure' crops that have a short life cycle) as they form nodules of nitrogen taken from the air on their roots, fertilizing the soil. But next crop at the very least I would use the kelp meal, since you need such a small amount and also take a couple of blocks of coir. The coir is perfectly acceptable to use as a soil amendment and will improve the soil well enough.

Or you could get a small bag of peat moss from www.horticulturalsupplies.com.au where you live to use on the soil since this retains water a lot better than coir. The bags are so small they're very portable.

Here's a closeup of a smellberry bud. The quality would have been better if things had gone better in the grow (pump failure). Next time half the crop is going to be in organic compost, I've decided! And when I say organic, I mean it in every sense. Also is a pic from earlier on of my tent grow area with the veggie/fruit seeds. Luckily I happen to have an organic specialist strawberry fertilizer so I shall be taking advantage of that on my expensive F1 strawberry 'temptation' seeds!

 

[Wise420]

Damn AE, that's one incredibly tasty looking bud right there %)

Ive actually got a pre-dug hole/trench from las year that I was going to use for this season, I just didnt get around to filling it, plus I didnt have any plants to put in it. It's kind of in a shaded spot and a bit deeper down the gully to get to then my little spot atm.

I am kinda tossing up wheather to use it or not. It's a pretty big hole, when I first dug it out I planned to fit 4 BIG plants in it.

Now im thinking about digging individual holes slightly further down hill from my spot now, but not as far as where the trench hole is. Im lucky as there's a fresh water source that runs right down the mountain/hill im growing on so water is sorted for me. Another problem I have with growing in this area, is it's extremely rocky. It's quite hard to find spots that dont have a sandstone through it.

I wanted to ask about the leaf mold. How much leaf mold would be sufficient to put into a 5 gal pot? The reason Im asking is just to get an idea of how big these holes will need to be(lookin to dig out a 5 gal+ hole if the rocks let me) to apply x ammount of leaf mold.

Ive also figured out getting the soil's and composts to my site the easy way. First I need a car which is obvious but that should be sorted any month now. I can literally throw the bags of stuff off this small cliff/ledge down to where i'll be growing from my current grow site. Rather then carrying individual bags down the rocky and bushy slopes and risking an injury and putting in hard work that isnt needed when I have gravity on my side

 

[Wise420]

Few shots of my Skunk girl at 15 days flower Any guesses on the yeild?

 

[JoshE]

^Looking awesome Wise Not sure on weild, but what camera do you use? I tried using my 12 megapixel camera to get some close up's of the buds but it still comes out blurry .

Anyway here's the top view of my main girl

 

[Wise420]

Thanks Josh. Your lady is coming along very nicely too

Im using a 10 mega pixel myself. For close up shots you need to use the Macro setting.

 

[junkie skumbag]

god damit!!! snaped the crown of my plant off on the first day of flower looks like ima be cloning the whole plant.......