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

nice looking plants man, the caging seems like the only way to go really...I also lost 3 plants to a boar family, seems like they like the isolated and sunny spots to relax during the afternoon :'D
 
Thanks. I thought it was deer at first until I found that rabbit and realized they had been getting in underneath, so I put sticks and bamboo in all around the perimeter so there was no way in.

As you can see I literally sawed off the trees surrounding to get more light. When I found the spot in winter the trees had no leaves so I didn't realize how bad it would get in summer. Thankfully they were really small trees that were easy to cut down and they'll grow back eventually.
 
So are all of those plants pretty far out in the middle of no where?
Don't you worry about losing a 1/3rd or so of your plants to stupid people?
Another 1/3rd to pests?
Idk, Ive never had too much luck with guirella grow, and I walked maybe 5-10 miles into the middle of no where, and still lost most.

Beautiful looking plants, Pretty plants, I have a few that are still little babies like those :) , wierd how much of a difference it makes having them actually planted in the ground vs outdoors in a pot.

How did rabbits get past that fence? :(
 
you should start to see little white hairs starting after switching over to 12 hour , hairs should appear in less then 2 weeks, plus generally the females leafs are tighter, fatter, and darker, pending on the stain, indica especially!
 
Prelude2TragedyII said:
So are all of those plants pretty far out in the middle of no where?
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I live in the countryside, not in the middle of nowhere but not in a town or city either. It's situated in a wooded area. There are walkers paths nearby but where it is nobody is likely to walk through, or if they did I would be very surprised. So I don't mind taking my chances since it can't be traced back to me.

Prelude2TragedyII said:
Don't you worry about losing a 1/3rd or so of your plants to stupid people?
Another 1/3rd to pests?
Click to expand...

Now that I've sorted out the rabbit problem it should be okay but you never know.

Prelude2TragedyII said:
Idk, Ive never had too much luck with guirella grow, and I walked maybe 5-10 miles into the middle of no where, and still lost most.
Click to expand...

I think the key is to keep on top of pest and disease control. If it's in a good spot you should be okay once you've got the hang of it. People get harvests year after year without losing their crops so it is possible if you put your mind to it. It is important to find a spot that is unlikely to get disturbed by human pests - it's worth riding round on a mountain bike until you find the right place. Spots that are difficult or uncomfortable to get to are good because it will put other people off looking around.

Prelude2TragedyII said:
How did rabbits get past that fence? :(
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They seem to have gotten through by literally pushing underneath the fence. Now that I've pinned it down all around the perimeter with U-shaped pins it's impossible for them to get underneath anymore so theoretically I shouldn't have any more problems with the little bastards. As long as I keep spreading organic slug & snail pellets and periodically spray with neem oil the plants shouldn't get eaten. Planting them in the ground makes a big difference since the roots can spread out into an unlimited amount of soil and aren't restricted by the pot, so they should be a lot bigger and healthier. Also you don't need to water them for the most part if it rains occasionally.
 
Oh but these aren't any regular rabbits, these are super stoner bunnies, they will learn to fly, or jump REALLY high to get over your fence...lolol.

Yeah I've started to notice that I dont really NEED to water my plants, as they rarely start to droop down, but I still water them for fun so I can feel important...lol

Yeah, when I had planted WAY out in the middle of no where, it was next to a river, but far away from any walkers paths, and far enough away to where people wouldn't be able to see it , maybe a good 60-90 minute walk.
I'm pretty sure I lost my crop that year to cops though, as they found about 200 plants around the time mine disappeared. (I only had around 5)

Ill have to try again sometime, as I dont want to be limited when it comes to growing and size.
I'm starting to get a bit nervous of this plant I have in my back yard thats maybe, 3 1/2 feet tall, maybe 4. and still not even pre-flowering.
So , Im guessing LOTS of stretching will be involved.
Im thinking I might keep tying what parts of the top branch down to the fence, It may bend in awkward directions, but atleast it wouldnt be over the fence.
 
You could always train it along a trellis. That technique will result in a much higher yield anyway so it would be worth your while. You basically put a chicken wire type fence with fairly large holes so you can weave the side branches on either side of the main stem horizontally. It cuts down on smaller buds too. The reason it would control height so effectively is because there would no longer be one main dominant 'apical' shoot at the top of the main stem. Instead the plant would have lots of separate branches that are equally dominant. Just like if you top a plant repeatedly, you go from one main apical shoot to two and then four and so on.
 
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Growing Indoors First Time

I am growing Marijuana for the first time, and my plant is about half an inch above soil. I have lined the pot with aluminum and have 4 CFL's 100watt 1600 lumens. I am only using one on the plant right now, should I use another, or would that be too much? Also I have a HPS bulb but no fixture for it and all of them at home depot were 60$+ and way too diffecult to have to move ( All were to be wall-mounted ). So any info on the HPS bulb would hep and how I can go about using it, unless the CFL's will work. Only one of my plants germed.. :/ So I hope this one grows well and is female. Any help is appreciated, thanks.
 
Just to let you know, all growing posts have to go in the Mega growing thread so this will probably get moved by a mod.

A few points first. I wouldn't bother with the foil around the pots as it won't make much of a difference at all. Secondly, what do you have in the way of ventilation for the plant? Ventilation is not only required for venting heat but also for good gas exchange so the plants get enough CO2 for good growth.

I would switch to the HPS if you can since CFLs are not very good for flowering, even if they can be used for good vegetative growth. The HPS uses the same E40 fitting as a CFL but you need a ballast of the correct wattage, a contactor and a timer such as a 24 hour segmental timer used for switching lights off and on whilst you're on holiday. For now the single CFL will be fine though but upgrading is strongly recommended.

If you're going to be growing so few plants feminized seed would be better because chances are 50% each regular seed will be a male and if you've only got one, you're equally likely to be wasting your time as not.
 
thanks for advice and I just relized they are 100watt equivilent but wattage is only 23. so should I use one or two? and I have no idea what you mean by what i have in the way of ventilation could you explain please? I just have the pot with the light 3in above the plant and another light to the side on it.. I have no $ left for growing materials :P' Do you mean a fan by ventilation? I have a humidifier in my room set at half and temp is about 75 degrees F. Thanks
-Ambition
 
The CFL Lights are 5000k by the way. I heard 6000k is best for this beginning stage and 2 to 3 thousand k is good for flowering. So this should be perfect for this phase correct?
 
Two 23W CFLs will only be enough for a week to ten days after germination. You want more light rather than too little even when they're young to prevent them from getting to leggy i.e. tall and spindly.

In pretty much all grow rooms you need at extraction at the top which sucks air through a carbon filter usually and an air intake at the bottom on the opposite side, near the floor. The fan speed of the intake should be slightly less than that of the extraction so that the room has negative pressure. Carbon filters need this negative pressure to work, but if you go without the carbon filter considering it's just a single plant you should still try to have the negative pressure in the grow area. If you're working in a grow tent you can determine whether you have negative and not positive pressure by seeing whether the sides are pulled in slightly rather than the tent blowing up like a balloon like it would be if there were positive pressure in the tent. NB the carbon filter reduces the extraction fan air speed so the rating will have to be correspondingly larger to accommodate this.

The reason proper ventilation is so important is because the plants need to 'breathe' by converting the CO2 in the air sugars and O2 through photosynthesis. If they just sit in the same air CO2 levels will keep falling until photosynthesis levels slow to a crawl and growth slows right down. Lamps produce quite a lot of heat - the higher the wattage the more heat in general for a given type of lamp - and this air which is warmed up by the hot bulbs needs to be replaced with fresh, cool air so you can have better control over the environment and plants can grow properly like they do outdoors. Remember, we are generally trying to emulate the outdoor environment as best we can, and the air the plants use is one factor we can and should control if we want to get good results.

Usually inline fans are used but for smaller setups which are 'micro' style grows large PC fans can be used. It really depends on the type/size of the grow area you're using as well as the size of the lamps. However a fan, like a desktop fan for example, will not be sufficient at all.

youdontknow said:
The CFL Lights are 5000k by the way. I heard 6000k is best for this beginning stage and 2 to 3 thousand k is good for flowering. So this should be perfect for this phase correct?
Click to expand...

No I wouldn't say so. HPS would be a much better option, even for the vegetative stage, but if you can't afford to make the switch then it sounds like you haven't got much of a choice at the end of the day.

If it were me, I would stop the growing for now and save up until I could afford the right kit, but that's your call. I can understand if you're really eager to just get going though.
 
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How hard is it to grow indoors man?

I have a tight budget and can only affor LED's, mainly because of the price of electricity here.

If I acquired some good sees (feminised) how long would it take me to harvest anything?

Smell isn't too much of a problem as long as it stays within the flat/room.
 
Growing indoors is easy. Well when I say easy I mean it's not exactly rocket science but still needs to be done properly.

If I'm honest LED lights are crap unfortunately, especially the cheaper ones but even the more expensive ones don't outperform HPS lamps at the moment and personally I don't believe they ever will but that's another discussion entirely.

Trust me smell will be a problem unless it's a really small grow but even with one plant if it's a decent size will stink out your flat. The stuff permeates brick walls it's so bad. It's the number one reason people get caught, probably followed closely by grasses. Unless you live alone you'll find it hard to keep the grow secret even if you do have a carbon filter so that's worth keeping in mind.
 
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Smell is only a problem for me if my neighbor upstairs gets it. So you say LED's are not a good idea? I'm thinking a single plant or two. I can't afford the more expensive kind I can't access them due to where I live. I don't want to order anything online and feel like posting here isn't such a good idea too.

I think you are an experienced grower so: What would you suggest for anyone who is just beginning this process? Keep in mind that me and probably others out there are on a very low budget and want to refrain from ordering anything online (there's probably a thread out there somewhere but I'd like your opinion on this)
 
LEDs are not even worth considering. Trust me I'm probably as paranoid a grower as you'll get and even I don't worry about buying online. If you're in the UK I can recommend a couple of grow shops online I've been ordering from since 2009 myself safely and others much longer.

If you're a beginner why not just go with a 250W HPS system?

Posting here isn't an issue either as long as you don't share your personal details with anyone. The police won't come searching for you unless you've been grassed up, the smell leads them to your grow or they stumble upon it. But otherwise they wouldn't bother wasting their investigative resources on a few plants anyway. Not when a couple of plants for a first offense is highly unlikely to even get you a conviction in the first place in the UK.

Do you live alone? Or do you have family that could possibly discover your grow at some point, considering you've be growing for a few months before a harvest?
 
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Well, CFL only works for Veg, take it from me. I didn't have money when I started growing, did one plant under 200 watts of CFL bulbs. I went from cool blue for veg, to the warm orange color. (forget the # range). I got very little yield, but I did end up with some, I guess. I ended up just saving 150$ for a light system.
I figure CFL is just good to learn how to to veg for future purpose(or just for fun), as you most likely wont get much yeild.
Growing indoors isn't hard, or easy. If you take time in preparing your room before using it, it will probably go much smoother than
continuously having to buy new things when you realize your plants aren't as healthy as they should be because you forgot something, lol, I did that a lot, it wasn't fun.

Smell can easily be removed with a filter. (Carbon Filter)
And LEDs really aren't worth much, they might veg well, but I haven't seen much in terms of flowering.
 
Hey, I've been having some problems,
About a week ago, I saw grass hoppers on my plants, eating the hell out of everything, I killed about 4-5 , and shoot ALL of the plants around it to see if anything would get spooked and jump out, well, I got all that I could see/hear.

Thing is, I keep going out , and finding more, and more leaves half way chewed off and shit, and it's starting to become a problem because they are now eating the top of my plant, the new growth, causing deformites. Now, to extract revenge, I took the largest grasshopper and smashed his ugly little body under a rock.(Still made me feel bad though, maybe Im crazy)
But that doesn't fix my problem :(
Every day theres maybe a new 1/2 of a leaf missing, which , In the large picture, isn't much, but I know if I dont deal with them now, they will start to eat the buds (plant is 1 or 2 weeks into flower)
I have sprayed with neem oil, that worked for the mites and leaf hoppers.

Also, do larger plants take alot longer to flower? I have mainly the same size plants, (around 2 ft), and then I have one 4-5 ft plant.
All of my plants seem to be OBVIOUSLY flowering, but my large plant just keeps putting out preflowers.
 
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