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[MEGA] 2010-2011 Community Growing advice, tips, tricks, & experiences

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Spider mite update: major populations decimated by-ed rosenthals zero tolerance- has rosemary oil, cinnamin oil, thyme oil, nutmeg oil and glycerin and it
Kicks ass, it was only 20 bucks and it was ready to use,

but i won't buy it again if it runs out i will just get the rosemary oil by itself and mix my own, because i hear that's the prime ingredient in SNS-217 which is really expensive;like 66 for a quart

Then I did them liberally with the Einstein Oil and Coco Wet emulsifier for 3 days in a row, and i will continue the EO/CW 2 times a week.

(i would never pay for Einstein oil; way too expensive)
I got like a 60 dollar bottle for free, from a friend. Normally i would just go with dynatek neem oil.

rosemary oil and neem oil are great safe organic pest controls for one of the most destructive pests i suggest these as a first attempt before moving on to more toxic methods.

i am going to make my own mix of neem and rosemary oil for future prevention
 
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The seeds were bad, Im quite positive.
As two seeds came out deformed and odd, and both had completely different circumstances.
Ive got one growing perfect right now(and had others growing just fine as well), gonna go get 5 clones tomorrow.(Trainwreck)

Ive been having a serious problem though.
I have bought 2 MH bulbs 600 watt.
I have a 600 watt ballast, dimmable.

But, After running the MH bulbs for about 2 days, they start to flicker, VERY bad, They turn Red/Blue/Red/Blue/Red/Blue(Seems like softwhite/daylight/softwhite/daylight)
And its about once every second.
Can I continue to just keep this bulb on 600 watt and will it grow my plants? because this is the second bulb I've bought, and the same problem keeps happening.
The ballast is plugged into a timer , directly into the wall, I removed the timer, and plugged directly into the wall on the second try, same results. Really bothers me. As my ballast runs 600 watt HPS perfectly fine. (I do have a digital ballast, 5 year warranty)
Anyone have any ideas

I wanna know what the hell is wrong.
 
I have 3 plants in my closet, they staryed off outside and have been doing really good, but slow. It's been around 8-10 weeks and all of them but one are budding, one is very stretched with a lot of little buds(mids) and the dank plant(strawberry cough :D) was short and fat from the beggining, has a big nug growing on top with some little ones branching off everywhere.
I'm worried about the one that isn't budding. Could it be a male plant? If so, when should I get rid of it? It has little hairs but they are green(others are amber and white) and I don't think it's budding yet, even though it's the same age.
 
chaos it could be the plant is sativa, they tend to take longer to flower than indicas and are not so affected by light/dark as they originate in climes with less daylight variance.

prelude sounds like a problem with your ballast, prob something to do with the dimmer...
 
Well, Ran the bulb all night anyways I woke up, and the flickering had stopped, so I lowered it to 75%(it was pretty warm today), and still no flickering...
Im wondering if its going to come back?
Guess we will see.
 
Prelude..do you have a glass for your hood? If not, they are worth the $25 or $30, especially if your ballast may be acting up. The MH bulbs require a hot start, so if the ballast is flickering or any power surges/outages, could negatively affect the bulb. Those MH's have much more of a chance of blowing up than an HPS, but either can blow up from a faulty ballast. I always use the glass when vegging (using a MH), but with the HPS, I take it out. If the bulb does blow up and you have a glass, it will catch all of the debris. Last thing you want is a hot MH blowing up and landing on your plants and closet floor. 8o The glass will lower your lumen output just a tad, but better safe than sorry!
 
a friend of mine bought a few of those dimmable ballasts and had loads of problems like excessive heat, buzzing etc... He said he won't be buying any more, I reckon the dimmer feature just causes problems... I'm not an expert in electricity but i would certainly recommend only adjusting the dimmer when the ballast is turned off.
 
Does a MH bulb have to be HOT to run? as in....if I had 70degree, maybe 60degree (Fahrenheit)blowing on the bulb itself, that wouldn't cause it to flicker would it?

Well, I did read in once place that new MH bulbs can flicker for the first 48 hours of use...Only saw that on one sight, but maybe that rings true for my bulb/ballast.

Im almost 100% sure that there isn't a problem with the ballast , as I've put two different HPS 600 watt bulbs in there, on all 3 dimmable settings, and no problem.

I've run 2 mh bulbs in this ballast, and the first started flickering after about 5 days.... the second started flickering after about 1 day.
Now, The first time it happened, I stopped using the bulb, returned it, got a new one, the second time this happened, I just let it continue to run, and the flickering stopped when I had woke up.(Though I have noticed HEAT has been a bitch the past 2-3days, out of no where, don't know if its because the temps rised outdoors or because the bulb is running hot)


I was thinking of a different way to setup my current fan that is outtake.
As of right now, it has a curve in it(the duct work), I was wondering if I could just cut a 8inch circle in the cieling, have the carbon filter resting on the floor, have the fan on the top of the carbon filter, and have duct work going directly up towards the ceiling(where the hole is for outtake, making it one straight line instead of having bends and losing air power in the duct)
Also, If I did that, i would be moving my carbonfilter/outtake fan closer to the actual hood/lamp/ballast, which produces heat, I was thinking maybe it will remove heat faster , Any ideas, comments?


-Edit-
Well, Got the light running at 600 watts, no flickering, 74-78 degrees, Im pretty happy with that.(Would like to see it cooler though)
Going to start watering the plants from bottom, what ever they dont soak up Ill pour on top.
I guess you guys were right, the plant did seem to come back after having a HEAVY watering.
Its newest leaf looks healthy, and my other plant looks very healthy as well.
Hopefully since I dont have work tomorrow I can go finally get those clones, been so busy, keep putting it off,
anyways, Ill try to update with a pic soon.

And yes, I notice a HUGE difference between MH , the space between nodes is pretty tight, When I was using CFLS, the plant would be this tall and probably just barely showing its 3rd node, lolol...
Nice to have a real setup.

Also, I can't adjust the dimmer when the ballast is turned off, the power has to be on (along with the light) for anything to be changed. I don't think the ballast was the problem, and if it is, it has a 5 year warranty, so I can return and get a new/free ballast.
Im really just at a loss as to why the bulb would flicker, (both bulbs) and then, all of a sudden it stops, Im wondering if its partly a power problem
 
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^ Prelude, glad you got a nice set up. I hope someday to switch my veg from T5 to MH too. I don't know how your power is set up, but in my home the breaker switch is VERY old, so I have to be conservative with my lights.

Even though I don't think you are going over what you should, it would be a good idea for you to locate the breaker switch in your house and look at the number of Amps it can handle. Compute the number of Amps you are using and make sure you are not going over 80% of the breaker capacity (this is a pretty big calculation because you have to consider EVERYTHING in the house).

It's better to be safe than sorry.


@Aropskittle: Thanks for that info, I'm probably going to follow your steps in the near future if my mite problem worsens. What I did for now is simply spray the bottom of all leaves and top of the soil with 1:1 isopropyl alcohol. It's working so far, and my grow room is overrun by spiders so once I get the numbers of mites down, the spiders take care of the rest for me :)
 
Well, I bought clones today, G13, Sour Diesel, Purple Kush, Afghan Kush,
Problem is , looks like they all had a problem with mites(dont know if they are still alive, as they were already getting sprayed daily at the club, but I could see the damage, and I saw dead mites on one plant), I sprayed them and have them under my t5s, wondering if its even worth putting them into my closet (yet these are my Favorite strains!) I sprayed the plants with some stuff for mites, wondering if I should keep spraying them and keep them under the T5, or if I should spray them once more, and then put them under the MH?

As for my breaker , I remeber I used to have a 10, and it would pop off ALL the time, so it was switched to a 15, It rarely pops unless its summer and the breaker gets too hot.

So, ISO alcohol, Rosemary ( I actually have rosemary growing in my backyard, should I put some in boiling water and make a spray with it and some ISO?
Any ideas? I wanna get these clones under the MH asap, as Im pretty sure they are ready for it.(so they guy at the club says anyways)
 
Thats unfortunate...
Im desperate to get these things growing big :D

At the shop I got them at they were sprayed everyday to help kill spider mites, Ive sprayed them since I got home , Ill check the leaves tonight with a magnifying glass to see how it all looks..

Now, I want to make sure , so Ill ask the pros of Bluelight instead of a stoner at the club...

These clones are about the same size as my plants (maybe 4-5 inches tall) Each of them had rooted into the rockwool cubes they had (1inchX1inch) and had roots coming out of the bottom, I took off the plastic from the cubes, and planted them in pots (FF OF), watered them, and stuck them under my T5.
The guy at the club said they were all ready to go and be put under a 600 watt MH light, I just want to confirm and make sure that , they would be ready, as I dont want to kill them, since they are small, and clones, Ive never dealt with clones under an MH

-edit-
Sprayed them all , took em in the bathroom and checked under all the leaves, didn't see anything actually living except on one plant....Which probably means there more where that came from...
After inspecting the new clones, I put them all in the closet, down wind from the fan, incase anything gets blown off the leaves, it wont be blown onto my healthy babies (so I hope...lol)
Gonna go buy some neem oil and some more rosemary tomorrow...
Ended up cutting off some rosemary from my plant in the back yard and just cut it up, and put it on the Northern Lights Plants and Soil (Deterrent I guess? Idk if bugs just hate the smell of rosemary or just the taste , Im hoping both?)
Anyways, Wish me luck, Would be kinda sad to see them all go down to spider mites...Damn spider mites,I hope they all suffer deaths FULL of agonizing pain...
And I just read back one page, wish I would have read that before I put them in the closet, fuck.
Well, Atleast they are all small and in veg , guess I can spray the fuck out of them with bottles of insectiside, rosemary, neem oil, and what ever the hell else will kill the fuckers...

I don't think Ill be buying clones ever again, as we only have one or two clubs around here with clones, and they BOTH have spider mites, now, I know both stores spray their plants daily to help, but wtf, what kinda store sells infected plants. Ugh, Kinda pissed.
I wonder if spider mites can jump...because I have all of my new clones atleast 6 inches away from my Northern Lights.(some are 12 inches.)
Guess Ill be learning the lesson of spider mites real quick here huh...
 
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I wouldn't put those plants in your flowering area until you are absolutely positive that they are spider mite free. Those lil buggers will ruin a grow cycle. I don't know if they jump, but they make webs, they will get anywhere they want. They are so hard to get rid of when you have a bad investation. Use what Arob suggested...go buy some Neem oil and something specific that kills spider mites...basically I had to bomb my entire area (Dr. Doom Fogger) and re-paint. I also made up a solution of water & this spider mite control stuff (i forgot the name of it..sorry). The Neem oil or something similiar will prevent them from getting around. You should also use a growth inhibitor such as Azatrol..its 100% organic and also affects the larvae. If they can't grow..they can't reproduce and they die off.

Prelude, check it out.. since I can't post links. Do a "Google" search on Azatrol. I never used it, but heard very good things about it and if I get spider mites again, I will be buying that stuff and anything else that will help kill those fuckers..
 
I had to chop down my biggest Widow last night...she had the biggest central cola out of everything, but she started shooting off male parts like crazy..some of em already were pollinated (hairs have turned a rusty color) and the one I had to chop had a whole bunch of seed spots..so I know that thing would have been full of seeds and probably would have continued to pollinate stuff. I'm pissed about it, that thing would have yielded nicely. :X I just hope that it didn't do to much damage, I hate seeds.

On a positive note...the Sour D's are lookin lovely!
 
Well, all plants are vegging right now, so , no flowers, I have been spraying all of my plants with insectiside and purchased some more rosemary and neem oil today. Have seen any signs of live spider mites yet, but, better safe than sorry.

Wish I wouldve known
Ill be going to the store tonight and see what they have.
 
What do you use as a wet-ing agent/emulsifier? That stuff is important to make neem oil and rosemary oil effective. A few drops of dish soap works if you don't want to pay for one
 
Well, I ended up using soappy water with the rosemary & neem oil(didnt know I needed the soap in there, but I added and resprayed so ty...) , also bought a product called Mite-X.
Contains mostly Cottonseed, Clove & Garlic Oil
Havent used it yet, Don't know if I should stick to the spray I have , as I dont see anymore mites, and I dont see any more damage happening.
I will continue to spray for a while just to make sure eggs dont hatch and what not, but, everything seems to be alright., just hope it stays that way...(also, I may have mentioned this before but never got an answer, I took some rosemary from my actual plant that Im growing, Im curious if the SMELL is what turns insects away? or is it the taste of rosemary, cause Ive been crushing it up, and putting it on the topsoil/sprinkiling it on the tops of my plants, anyone know? or is it just the oils in the plant?)

Kinda curious, I have soil pH meter , and a ph test kit(color), I tested my water after adding PH down, and it showed 6.2-6.5, I watered my planted (bottom up, poured what they didnt absorb on top. (Gonna test the run off in a bit)
But my meter keeps reading 7.0-8.0, Guess I need a new pH meter, time to go digital..


I just planted the clones into pots yesterday when i got them, though, I didnt have the pots I wanted, (only had clay) I went and bough black plastic containers for the plants, but Im wondering if I could remove the clones from the clay pots and put them in the plastic pots, or would that hurt/damage the roots, or irritate the plant, they already seem stressed out as it is, should I wait two weeks before doing anything?
 
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I believe that it's only the oil that has any effect on the mites, i think it kills the eggs but not sure tho. Oils coat the plant and the mite have to eat through it to get to the weed, they hate it/it might kill them, again speculation not sure of the actual effect.

if you haven't already bought some;look up how to extract your own essential oils and do that to the rosemary, its really easy

DO NOT bring leaves/plant matter from outside into your grow room that's a great way to bring in more invaders.

i think you can move them into the plastic containers, just be careful and leave extra dirt around the roots and they should be fine.
 
Hmm, Alright, Ill try to google what to do with the rosemary I do have.
Ill try repotting them all tonight or tomorrow, hopefully I dont stress them out too much, Sour Diesel and Purple Kush aren't looking so happy, but the G-13, Afghan Kush, and the Northern Lights look pretty good.
Thanks for the info, hopefully Ill find a rosemary recipe :p
 
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