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

[nekointheclouds]

nice info...But this should be in with the Growers Advise Mega Thread.

Also i can edit your post so it shows the pictures instead of just a link, but Cannabis Discussion also also has a rule about putting NSFW tags around photos.

/merging with mega thread.

 

[Livinginthealps]

You make some decent points but, as dankplantgrower stated, most growers that produce high quality flowers are educated enough to use RO and other high quality water filtration systems. If they didn't their plants would not strive. I filter the water for all my indoor and outdoor gardens.
Also yes, growers have started to use testing facilities in recent years. They are actually very popular. I would say about half of the strains I grow get dropped off at the lab. It's a standard requirement for reputable collectives and dispensaries.

For a large majority of the marijuana grown in the usa is grown using a supersoil not hydro. It drastically reduces production price as it eliminates the need for nutrients (food). I would also argue that much of the marijuana that circulates the country is outdoor and gets called indoor but thats besides the point.

On another note, how is everyones outdoor season going? Anyone have any giants growing? I have my 50 ladies racing toward the skies currently.

 

[FunctionalOlfactio]

"What am I looking at in these pictures?"

Looking closely at the mimosa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimosa), notice how the foliage slowly darkens and turns red over the duration. This is most obvious on the the edges. The only one given the dyed nutrients was the mimosa. Here is a picture of the bottom of the foliage where the discolouration is more obvious. This variety closes their leaves before the lights turn off and this is why the leaves are closed.

http://www.bayimg.com/HanpjaAem


Here's a picture from today. Last night I flushed the cube (as much as was possible) and put the plant back in the flood table with some of the others.

http://www.bayimg.com/hanpKAAem


"Plenty of hydro users are savvy enough to use RO or treated waters in their systems."

I've owned multiple reverse osmosis units. They can be tricky. You have to get the GPH just right for optimal functioning. Even the more expensive ones don't remove enough of the medium-smaller sized molecular impurities to satisfy me. I've owned two four stage units from name brands (Micron Filtration=>Carbon Filtration=>Thin Film Composite Reverse Osmosis Membrane=>Mixed Bed De-ionization) and both left detectable impurity levels that were to high for me. Even with all that filtration some medium-small sized molecular impurities pass through freely. Better thin film composite membranes exist but in my experience they are not available for non-industrial applications. In fact most residential reverse osmosis units don't even mention the mechanical selectivity of the membrane. The only satisfactory solution I have discovered is fractional distillation. Personally I use a four stage reverse osmosis unit (as mentioned above) followed by fractional distillation for all of the water I use.

Residential fractional distillation unit:
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=water distillers&page=1&rh=i:aps,k:water distillers




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[dankplantgrower]

I understand your concerns, and admire your meticulousness regarding the craft. But Im wondering if abstaining from cannabis due to unknown levels of possibly nonexistent (or neglible levels of) synthetic tap residues isnt needlessly depriving yourself of a very fine medicine and relaxant. IMO you can tell when flowers werent grown properly after the first hit, and can just leave the shit alone if it isnt up to your standards. I really doubt enough tap residue is making it through to the end product that we smoke to substantially hurt us. Ill also point out again that hydroponic growing only accounts for a minority of all the bud circulating out there right now anyway, so chances are your bud wouldnt even have been exposed to harsh tap residuals in a hydro system in the first place.

I would work a clone or 2 into your hydro system for shits and giggles, and distill the water to your hearts content to ensure only the cleanest h2o nourishes your babies. Id also reconsider allowing "black market" produce another chance to court you, there is some really quite fine weed on the streets that will even exceed top shelf medical weed from time. And theres quite a chance that your weed was never exposed to harsh tap in a hydro system to begin with. Happy trails with your hydro system my friend : ) PM me if you need to be pointed to some clones.

 

[Livinginthealps]

"What am I looking at in these pictures?"

Looking closely at the mimosa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimosa), notice how the foliage slowly darkens and turns red over the duration. This is most obvious on the the edges. The only one given the dyed nutrients was the mimosa. Here is a picture of the bottom of the foliage where the discolouration is more obvious. This variety closes their leaves before the lights turn off and this is why the leaves are closed.

http://img281.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=61419_Day_8_PM_122_547lo.jpg


Here's a picture from today. Last night I flushed the cube (as much as was possible) and put the plant back in the flood table with some of the others.

http://img204.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=66521_Mimosa_122_224lo.jpg


"Plenty of hydro users are savvy enough to use RO or treated waters in their systems."

I've owned multiple reverse osmosis units. They can be tricky. You have to get the GPH just right for optimal functioning. Even the more expensive ones don't remove enough of the medium-smaller sized molecular impurities to satisfy me. I've owned two four stage units from name brands (Micron Filtration=>Carbon Filtration=>Thin Film Composite Reverse Osmosis Membrane=>Mixed Bed De-ionization) and both left detectable impurity levels that were to high for me. Even with all that filtration some medium-small sized molecular impurities pass through freely. Better thin film composite membranes exist but in my experience they are not available for non-industrial applications. In fact most residential reverse osmosis units don't even mention the mechanical selectivity of the membrane. The only satisfactory solution I have discovered is fractional distillation. Personally I use a four stage reverse osmosis unit (as mentioned above) followed by fractional distillation for all of the water I use.

Residential fractional distillation unit:
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=water distillers&page=1&rh=i:aps,k:water distillers

Do you use city water?
I have played around with different filters before and have good experience with them. All 3 of my RO filters work great. I do not use city water or any similar public water systems. All my drinking, non potable, garden etc water is from a series of wells on my acreage. Different well and different filters for each need. There are a number of Analytical facilities that you can test your water and check out your water in ppm detail. I also have most final product tested full spectrum to further make sure all product is SAFE for ingestion. Being involved heavily in the medical marijuana industry in California for years means I have strict standards of product. If I didn't and my flowers had even a tiny bit of mold, pesticides etc. it can potentially be life threatening to a patient. Many patients have life threatening illness and extra sensitive immune systems.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

5 fem Kannabia Thai Fantasy autoflowering plants.

 

[justsayknow]

I also have most final product tested full spectrum to further make sure all product is SAFE for ingestion.

Do you get THC and CBD percentages for all your product?

 

[freehugs]

You make some decent points but, as dankplantgrower stated, most growers that produce high quality flowers are educated enough to use RO and other high quality water filtration systems. If they didn't their plants would not strive. I filter the water for all my indoor and outdoor gardens.
Also yes, growers have started to use testing facilities in recent years. They are actually very popular. I would say about half of the strains I grow get dropped off at the lab. It's a standard requirement for reputable collectives and dispensaries.

For a large majority of the marijuana grown in the usa is grown using a supersoil not hydro. It drastically reduces production price as it eliminates the need for nutrients (food). I would also argue that much of the marijuana that circulates the country is outdoor and gets called indoor but thats besides the point.

On another note, how is everyones outdoor season going? Anyone have any giants growing? I have my 50 ladies racing toward the skies currently.

Can you expand a bit on these supersoils? We have some of the best soil we can buy up here (Nor Cal) but we still feed with compost teas and some synthetic nutes every once in a while, so yeah I would love to hear what you mean

And also, the boss let me LST every plant this year so they are a bit shorter then last year at this time, but man oh man are they bushy. The blue dream and cali dreamin plants are ridiculous.

 

[drug_mentor]

Hey guys, I live in Australia and our outdoor cannabis growing season starts in the next few months. I know a property owner who has told me that I can grow on a certain space of their property, but only if they cannot see or smell the cannabis from the yard. The area is currently wide open and so I need to plant some plants there to sort of block off the area and camoflague cannabis plants and was looking for suggestions on what might work or what plants other people have used for this purpose.

I was thinking that some fast growing perennial plants would be ideal because then I could plant them now and they would get a head start on the cannabis, since I understand not much grows as fast as cannabis does, and also they wouldn't start to lose their colour late in the flowering season the way that annual plants may be inclined to which could lead to my plants standing out like a sore thumb only weeks before I harvest my bounty which would be very upsetting.

I posted this question in the cannabis thread in AusDD and some people suggested cleomes, tomatos, nettles and basil. I am almost certainly going to incorporate a few, if not all of these, into my garden at this stage but I would really love to hear some more suggestions. As I stated before, I would prefer larger perennial plants that either grow quickly or are relatively inexpensive to purchase in a mature state of growth but I am certainly open to hearing of other annual plants as well.

Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions!

 

[freehugs]

Hey guys, I live in Australia and our outdoor cannabis growing season starts in the next few months. I know a property owner who has told me that I can grow on a certain space of their property, but only if they cannot see or smell the cannabis from the yard. The area is currently wide open and so I need to plant some plants there to sort of block off the area and camoflague cannabis plants and was looking for suggestions on what might work or what plants other people have used for this purpose.

I was thinking that some fast growing perennial plants would be ideal because then I could plant them now and they would get a head start on the cannabis, since I understand not much grows as fast as cannabis does, and also they wouldn't start to lose their colour late in the flowering season the way that annual plants may be inclined to which could lead to my plants standing out like a sore thumb only weeks before I harvest my bounty which would be very upsetting.

I posted this question in the cannabis thread in AusDD and some people suggested cleomes, tomatos, nettles and basil. I am almost certainly going to incorporate a few, if not all of these, into my garden at this stage but I would really love to hear some more suggestions. As I stated before, I would prefer larger perennial plants that either grow quickly or are relatively inexpensive to purchase in a mature state of growth but I am certainly open to hearing of other annual plants as well.

Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions!

You should look up some bushy herbs, like lavender. Something like that in combination with low stress training will keep it out of sight and it will possibly take out the smell as well.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

I would grow loads of tomatoes. A few cannabis plants amongst them will be impossible to pick out from a distance if they are all close together. This is based on success growing in a greenhouse using this method.

 

[SteeleyJ]

I'm planning to do my SCROG grow ( I have had success and experience growing them out naturally but haven't used this method yet and I was wondering

What strains would be good to learn to SCROG with? I was thinking Master Kush would be a good SCROGer what do you think?

 

[justsayknow]

Can you expand a bit on these supersoils?

Its got me interested too. I suppose you could reuse them? It sounds a bit expensive initially but if it gets you several grows then it would be cool. Heres one recipe I saw never tried it though:

8- Large bags Organic potting soil (Roots Organic) (i used Niks Mix)
25 pounds Organic Worm castings
5 pounds Bone meal
5 pounds Bloom bat Guano
5 pounds Blood meal
¾ cup Epson salts
1 Cup Sweet Lime (Powdered) e.g dolomite
1 Cup Azomite (Trace Elements)
2- TBS Powdered Humic Acid

 

[Livinginthealps]

Do you get THC and CBD percentages for all your product?

More or less my flowers are all tested..

Can you expand a bit on these supersoils? We have some of the best soil we can buy up here (Nor Cal) but we still feed with compost teas and some synthetic nutes every once in a while, so yeah I would love to hear what you mean

And also, the boss let me LST every plant this year so they are a bit shorter then last year at this time, but man oh man are they bushy. The blue dream and cali dreamin plants are ridiculous.

Well what dirt does your boss use? Supersoils are amended generally to perfection so the plant will have all the food it needs all season. You can keep reusing supersoil and each year just amending it a bit more. Yes, you can still use teas and nutes. But, these soils tend to run hot so I wouldn't use nutes with most mixes. If you want I can post some of my ingredients for you too see. The post on the bottom of the page by justsayknow is an example. But, on the low end rather then a highly loaded mix.
Feeding teas are virtually free once you have all the supplies so, compost teas are good. Mine get teas regularly but, no synthetic nutrients.

Its got me interested too. I suppose you could reuse them? It sounds a bit expensive initially but if it gets you several grows then it would be cool. Heres one recipe I saw never tried it though:

Yes, you can keep reusing the dirt. Dirt's expensive. Each pot I have is a few hundred bucks of dirt +all amendments.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

I pay about 92 cents per pot of soil lol. I grow quasi-organically.

I'm planning to do my SCROG grow ( I have had success and experience growing them out naturally but haven't used this method yet and I was wondering

What strains would be good to learn to SCROG with? I was thinking Master Kush would be a good SCROGer what do you think?

Any strain can be grown SCROG style. That said, I would choose any sativa/indica hybrid. Some strains respond a bit better to the SCROG technique but most of your average hybrids are just fine for learning the ropes since it's really not that difficult to learn. If you want to grow Master Kush that way it will be fine.

 

[Livinginthealps]

I pay about 92 cents per pot of soil lol. I grow quasi-organically.



Any strain can be grown SCROG style. That said, I would choose any sativa/indica hybrid. Some strains respond a bit better to the SCROG technique but most of your average hybrids are just fine for learning the ropes since it's really not that difficult to learn. If you want to grow Master Kush that way it will be fine.

92 cents...but, how many gallons are your pots? lol

Also not every strain can be scrogged. Indica/sativa doesn't matter but, look for a low squatty plant that has lots of internodal structure. I will say that I have strains in my garden that would be impossible to scrog. ICE COOL is one of them that comes to mind. Single cola hybrids/indica are the ones that you won't beabe to do.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

I personally have been able to SCROG plants people say are not able to be SCROG'd including single cola type strains. Even pure sativas.

We can both at least agree some strains are better for SCROG than others. And if you say your Ice Cool is impossible to SCROG I believe you.

As for what pot size the 92 cents figure is calculated from, it was 11L.

How's your garden doing atm anyway, Living? I'd love to see pics to see how you're getting on.

The autos in the photo above are in 19L smart pot type containers. Next year all my outdoor autos are definitely going in 30L (minimum) pots, because they could easily use more soil. I use a mass produced peat moss-based multipurpose compost from B&Q and use Plant Magic organic bloom nutrient during flower. The only additive I use is seaweed extract. I may switch to an organic potting compost next year but the small amount of chemical fertilizers in my current compost is almost certainly completely gone by the time I harvest. If it performs as well and the bud tastes better then I may stay with the new organic potting compost but we'll see.

 

[Livinginthealps]

I personally have been able to SCROG plants people say are not able to be SCROG'd including single cola type strains. Even pure sativas.

We can both at least agree some strains are better for SCROG than others. And if you say your Ice Cool is impossible to SCROG I believe you.

As for what pot size the 92 cents figure is calculated from, it was 11L.

How's your garden doing atm anyway, Living? I'd love to see pics to see how you're getting on.

The autos in the photo above are in 19L smart pot type containers. Next year all my outdoor autos are definitely going in 30L (minimum) pots, because they could easily use more soil. I use a mass produced peat moss-based multipurpose compost from B&Q and use Plant Magic organic bloom nutrient during flower. The only additive I use is seaweed extract. I may switch to an organic potting compost next year but the small amount of chemical fertilizers in my current compost is almost certainly completely gone by the time I harvest. If it performs as well and the bud tastes better then I may stay with the new organic potting compost but we'll see.

I mean I guess you can scrog anything but, it is not going to fill out a full screen which defeats the purpose in my experience with SCROG. Due to single cola plants internodel spacing being so tight (which is why it is a single cola) it does not want to spread horizontal, rather vertical growth. You definitely can manipulate them to grow horizontal through the screen but, it puts a great deal of stress on those strains. Ice cool is just one strain in my outdoor garden that is "impossible" to scrog due to the way it grows. OK, I guess nothing is impossible rather not worthwhile.

11 L is about 3 gallons. 19 is equal to our 5 gallon pots, 30 l is equal to just under 8 gallons. My pots take a few hundred each since they are minimum 200 gallons upwards of 400 gallons. So between 757 L and 1514 L of container space to fill. Which ends up being 1 yard of dirt per 200 gallons. So by your math, if you were using my containers it would cost you around 133 dollars. You have to figure in some extra amendments. Though my dirt is well amended (not bag soil, though you can use as a base).

My gardens doing great, thanks for asking. I will try and upload some pictures when I get a chance this week. If you want some dirt and amendment advice feel free to shoot me a PM. I would be glad to share some knowledge.
Your auto's up there are looking nice! I have some autos to just play around with. I actually didn't plant them yet though. Originally, I was going to back in april. But, my hands are busy with the real garden. Up here in the mountains or northern california people have two outdoor harvests generally. First being depo aka Light deprivation. Basically, since we get such a long season ~7 months (longer if you have a Greenhouse especially, climate controlled) Second is the regular fall harvest. People do light deprivation to have flower earlier in the season. Most people do it so they can pay off some expenses. Light dep is out for the season already. But, I was going to run an experiment between SOG of autos and see if they out compete light dep. I have my extreme doubts but, I do know people when doing autos outside here they get a pretty big yield by auto means. If they could produce a decent bit when SOG format then it would be nice to have some flower to smoke early in the season What is your auto harvests like outdoors?

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Right, I had no idea your containers were so big. That makes a lot more sense now. I was thinking WTF, that's a crazy amount to spend!

If you plants autos early enough here they flower when the days are longest, which is the best conditions you can flower a plant in because ultraviolet light peaks at that time of the year, light intensity is high and the photoperiod long. These are conditions you don't get with flowering photoperiod plants in autumn over here unless you force flower them like you were mentioning. So the results can be really good, even for the UK (especially in a year like this). With some of the super-autos available yield can come closer to photoperiod strains whilst giving you sativa-leaning bud you otherwise wouldn't be able to grow unless force flowering and/or using a greenhouse.

 

[Livinginthealps]

Right, I had no idea your containers were so big. That makes a lot more sense now. I was thinking WTF, that's a crazy amount to spend!

If you plants autos early enough here they flower when the days are longest, which is the best conditions you can flower a plant in because ultraviolet light peaks at that time of the year, light intensity is high and the photoperiod long. These are conditions you don't get with flowering photoperiod plants in autumn over here unless you force flower them like you were mentioning. So the results can be really good, even for the UK (especially in a year like this). With some of the super-autos available yield can come closer to photoperiod strains whilst giving you sativa-leaning bud you otherwise wouldn't be able to grow unless force flowering and/or using a greenhouse.

Yeah no doubt it is a bunch to spend. Though it is worth it for a number of reasons. Mostly, because I love all types of gardening and I need my medicine
But, spending that much money means you can pull upwards of ten lbs.

But, you only need to spend that much your first year or if you move. Moving tends to be a big hassle but, happens often. As a large percentage of the growers only live here during the season. As lot's of properties are out there and winters can be gnarly and most properties are just land with simple living (tents, rv's, shacks, sheds, yurts etc). If you don't have a house with at least a woodstove (heat is ideal 8)) you can't make it through the winter. It is lame the amount of in and out of staters that come here each season. But, understandable considering it accounts for an extreme high percentage of the flowers in the country. It's a pretty mind boggling percentage, that can only truly be grasped if you spent time up in the area.

I know a great deal about ruderalis based plants. I do breed so I have a firm grasp on my species. I just haven't grown them due to to me being able to grow full seasons inside and out. What has been your highest yield from an auto? My auto's if I bother using them ever will just be for fun. It's just not worth it inside or out for me. Especially, when you have the capability of pulling a lot.