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

Prelude2TragedyII said:
Hey Drug_Mentor, how is the crop coming along?
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Pretty damn good man, I harvested my plants in late April, despite all my problems I got a pretty decent yield all up of good quality buds. I am still smoking on it actually. :)

Just popping some beans at the moment for my first indoor grow, doing two strains The Flav and Dynamite. Keeping it small as it is strictly for personal use but I am looking forward to the end result! Fingers crossed I have a few less problems indoors than I did outdoors! :)
 
Hey, two questions,
Does anyone know of a website that works for uploading pictures , the old one I used to use isn't working anymore.

Also, I'm starting to do some LSTing with my plants outside.
I have a chicken wire fence with 1 inch openings to use to train them.
I'm noticing some purple around the stem where I am bending the plant.
Is this normal? Or is the purple just a deficiency of some sort? (Because it is hot as hell outside, so I know its not from the cold)

I'll have some pics up as soon as I can .

Man, Im really excited about seeing buds, but I'm also weary, as I know I will lost a lot of my crop to pests, as I always do. Seems like I usually pull out with about 1/3 of what I planted.
I'm actually going to try to do a better job of keeping pests away this year though :P
I have much work to do!
 
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From Left to Right , Pocco (My dog) , Pineapple Blueberry, Green Crack, Northern Lights. (The very small plants on the sides are rosemary and basil , in attempts to keep bugs away)

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Pineapple Blueberry, Green Crack, Northern Lights #5

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Really bummed AE, I sent myself an email of a photo with the strain I Lebanese X Kumanoi(and I deleted it from my phone, checked my email, never sent , I do have a picture of the clone I tried to save, Ill upload it soon) , Even though it turned out to be male, I let it grow 3 1/2 , 4 ft, (within 3-4 weeks), it was growing incredibly fast,
The other one, as I told you , didnt show it's sex until about 2-3 weeks after the others, and at that point, I thought I just saw pollen sacks, so I got it out of the ground, saw pistils, wanted to smash my head into a wall, then went and got rooting hormone, and tried to get it to survive, unfortunately, one night I left the hose on, the ground shifted (I imagine this is because I dug a hole, 3 1/2 feet deep, 2 1/2 feet wide, and 16ft in length, and didn't pack the soil down when I was putting the dirt back. Still really bummed about that. Hopefully I can try again sometime.

The plants I currently have are looking healthy, the pineapple blueberry's stem is purpling while it's been trained, but the green crack and northern lights aren't turning color much, so I imagine this is genetics, though, I could be wrong. Any ideas?

The internodal distance is so short on these plants. Or so it seems to me, compared to previous outdoor grows.

Hows everything looking? I think I might have to use more chicken wire, as the plants have been growing very rapidly, and are taking up many of the holes in the chicken wire already.
Any ideas or advice for anything?
I'm open to em.

Also, I've been spraying neem oil once every 7-14 days , all around my yard, on everything, will this help to prevent caterpillars at all? As I haven't done this in the past, I have no idea.
 
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I don't think there is any thing wrong with purple stems. I've seen it heaps of times with awesome results, pretty sure that's a genetic thing.
 
Awesome, thanks for the info guys
And yeah, I'm pretty excited about these strains this year too :) Normally I stick with some strains that are relatively similar, so that height isn't an issue.
But I knew this year I would be using chicken wire to do some LST with the plants, and knew that height shouldn't become too much of a problems.

Really excited about the pineapple blueberry, and green crack. I've heard lots of good stuff about these strains around town
And Northern Lights #5, well, It's always been my favorite :) Been growing it for about 4-5 years, and I love it.
One of the strains that actually helps me sleep pretty well

I'll try to get some more pictures up soon
My babies are starting to show preflowers :)
 
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Help begginer grower/cloner

[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]Let me start off by saying I'm new to growing but not to cannabis. In under stand the basics but I plan on beginning to grow for personal use. I live in mesa az and currently the weather is around 70-90 weekly. I was told by another MMJ patient that I would be able to grow with a grow tent outside without a light considering the current conditions. I have a friend who has clones he's willing to give me and I need better understanding on what I'm gonna be doing so far I have this; I plan on buying a grow box not a big one, most likely one around 5 feet high,4x4 base. I know I need a certain fan, and some way to keep track of temp humidity etc. Now for growing process my thoughts are: 1. Get growing bag with soil and buy proper nutrients. 2. Root clones in Dixie cup 3. Take clone out of Dixie cup and plant in to grow bag[/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]4. Put grow bag in grow box outside and allow for 18 hours of light, inside of grow box at a 75-90 temperature and humidity around 57%[/COLOR]
[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]5. I plan on allowing plant to grow about 3.5 to 4 feet, so after reaching desired height change to 12 hours of light, same temp and humidity. [/COLOR]
[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]6.harvest after about 3-4 weeks of 12 hour of light schedule. [/COLOR]
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[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]Okay I know I'm probably missing certain supplies or steps of growing so if you guys could tell me all supplies I will need (tent, nutrients, light, electronics, etc.) with a link to a reasonably cheap beginner items, if it's possible to have a small grow tent outside or if I will need to put it in my closet, and if I'm missing any steps in the grow process. All help is appreciated![/COLOR]
 
I am really confused by this, are you saying you want to place a grow tent (which would typically be used for indoor growing) outside? I don't mean to sound like an asshole but if that is what you are suggesting then you do not understand the basics of growing cannabis at all.

It would make no sense to do that, I have never seen a grow tent that has a removable roof so how the fuck is sunlight supposed to get in there? You need a light if you want to use a grow tent, preferably HID lighting.

You do need to ventilate a grow tent with fans and ducting, you need and exhaust and intake fan, some people will say you can get away with passive intake but I don't think this is ideal. Having a couple fans with attached ducting would make your grow tent even more obvious outdoors, not to mention that hooking up wiring to your outdoor fans is both obvious and impractical, you would need to shield it from rain etc.

Even if you had a secure outdoor spot where hooking up the wiring for your lights and fans was practical, you will have less control over temperature and humidity than you would inside.

If you are provided with clones then they should hopefully already be rooted, I would advise growing out all but the most vigorous/largest one and keeping this one as a mother to take further clones from, the mother plant would need a separate grow space so it did not flower when you flipped to 12/12. If you have to root clones yourself, I would not attempt to do so in a "dixie cup" but instead do it in rockwool cubes. If you have to root the clones yourself then use a bloom nutrient with little no no nitrogen.

The earliest strains you could probably cut down at about 7 weeks of 12/12, this is assuming they have been vegged long enough that they are sexually mature, otherwise you have no chance unless you want to cut early. Realistically I would expect a 8-10 week flowering period, even longer if you were growing sativa strains.

Nobody is ever going to take the time on explaining every detail of growing cannabis to you, if this is something that you want to pursue then you really need to do the hard work on your own. People are generally pretty willing to help and give advice if you run into problems, but only if it is clear you have taken some initiative on your own to figure out whats what. It doesn't seem to me like you have done very much research at all, it comes across like you glanced at a couple of grow weed easy guides but never took the time to delve deeper and piece it all together.

You would be better off growing in your closet, but unless it is a large closet a grow tent in there would be a waste of time. If you are renting then a closet grow is pretty unfeasible, especially one that has both a clone/mother/veg section and a flowering section. You need to ventilate the grow space with air intake and exhaust to control the heat that HID lighting produces and also because plants like to breathe. Most closets I have seen would require some cuts to be made so ducting could be ran outside.

I am not trying to come across harshly, I certainly don't want to discourage anybody from growing cannabis, in my opinion the more people who grow the better, but you have to put some time and effort into this hobby if you expect to get much out of it.
 
Good luck man. I cultivate bonsai trees and I've grown great weed by accident which proves another rule of growing = don't try too hard or you'll kill your plants with kindness.
 
You need to get a book... as DM already stated there is no strain that only flowers for 3-4 weeks. if you harvest at that time you will end up with canibus thats worse then lawn clippings.

A plant does about 3/4 of its growing in flower.. so if you let them get to four feet your going to have like eight to ten foot plants depending if they are sativas, indicas, or hybrids.
 
grow boxes, if you are talking about what most people refer to as grow boxes at least, are completely enclosed and will not allow for any sunlight to come through. They are usually designed for a closet space or something similar and are air tight for the most part.

if you plan on growing outside you are pretty much at the mercy of the climate unless you build a green house or some sort of clear tent that allow the light to pass through. more sophisticated green houses are capable of regulating temp and humidity but even still, most are still at the mercy of mother nature to some degree.

and as mentioned above, you will need a much bigger time frame more than likely. When growing outdoors and using the sun as your source of light then you have to grow with the seasons, as that is what indoor grows mimic.(i.e. plant in the spring and harvest in the fall)

if you do decide to get a grow box, a lot of kits include lights, fan, etc. Basically you will need a 4-1kw bulb and ballast, hood, ducting, inline fan to match size of ducting, bags/buckets, ac/dehumidifier, nutrients and water. Probably a lot of little hardware to assemble things if you are building from scratch. you should check out your local hydro store or online hydro stores for more info on gear.

you don't have to veg until they get 4 ft like mentioned above. if you allow enough time for a clone to sufficiently root into a bigger bucket you can put directly under 12/12 lighting, even if you are using 1kw light. Might want to place light further away for a while, but it is possible. Some strains will still get over 5ft like this.


also, get the best strain possible. strain is not everything, but it is big.
 
Welcome to BL! I'm moving this topic to the Grow Megathread (this thread has all grow-related information that may be helpful)

everything said above + be sure to put in lots of research when building your grow box, air must be able to get in and out but the enclosure must also be completely lightproof. a standard NPK soil + perlite mixed in (~30% of the total) will get you started. remember that root mass is significant so if you want really big individual plants you will need to step up the pots as the roots max out the smaller containers.

there are basically two good approaches to the lighting and plant management: 1) HID + sea of green (SoG), 2) CFL + low-stress training (LST) / screen of green (SCRoG). CFLs are low heat and easier to implement than a proper HID setup, but because they lack the light penetration of HID bulbs you need to manage the plants in a way that minimizes the canopy and exposes more leaves directly to the light. HIDs are more work than CFLs to set up, but you can be more lax on plant management because the light will punch through the canopy. HID is a good solution if you have enough vertical space, because HIDs burn hot so they need to be kept at a distance from the plant. CFL is an excellent solution if your grow box is vertically limited, because the lower-wattage bulbs can be positioned as close as 3" to leaves without causing harm.
 
My bad I was not clear. For the outdoor op I planned on getting some type of light permeable material to use as a green house if you will, but I put in some more research and have a better understanding. The strains available are all sensi and sin city plants and will be rooted. I now have this understanding for an indoor op; 1. Buy this kit *** 2. Begin growing at 75-90 degrees with atleast 50% humidity with 18 hours of light and proper soil ph balance level and nutrients. 3. Change to flowering cycle and allow for flowering process to complete. As far as I know this is a better understanding. Any opinions on thag particular kit?
 
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Greenhouse grows are okay depending where you live, I have some experience growing in a greenhouse and I generally feel the plants are better off outdoors than they are in a greenhouse. I mainly just moved my plants inside the greenhouse on days it was set to rain when they were in mid to late flower.

Unless your greenhouse has pretty good ventilation options it is going to be more hot and humid in there than it is outside the greenhouse, in my experience bugs are also more likely to be a problem inside a greenhouse than they are outside one.

You are at the mercy of the actual weather when growing outdoors, you do have more control over some environmental factors in a greenhouse, but if you live in a hot summer climate like I do the increased humidity and temperature is probably not even worth it. On my last outdoor grow my last plant flowered into May, I live in South Eastern Melbourne Australia and we had a pretty wet April, I had to keep my plant in my greenhouse for the majority of the last couple weeks, I couldn't get the humidity down in the fucking thing so I ended up sticking some oscillating fans in there, not only did this stand out like a sore thumb but even having two fucking fans in there did not prevent me from losing a small portion of bud to botrytis due to the high humidity in the greenhouse.

I think the tent footprint is a little larger than is ideal for a 250w light, I also don't get why they are trying to sell you a 6 inch exhaust fan for this size light and tent, that is serious overkill imo.

You shouldn't really need to ph anything growing in soil, my first grow in soil I got confused and over complicated things for a while with ph kits and the like. In my experience this is not really necessary unless you are growing hydro, but then ph is very important.

You are probably not going to be able to control the exact temperature or humidity of your grow space, not without putting your exhaust fan on a fan speed controller which will likely void the warranty and require lots of tinkering around, you would probably also need a dehumidifier and possibly air con. You have to aim for as close to ideal as you can, but realistically without a lot of equipment that bumps your electricity bill higher and higher you are probably going to have to compromise to some extent.

My advice is don't buy a kit, they are almost certainly throwing shit in there that you don't need or is overpowered for your set up. The best thing you can do is educate yourself on all the basics of growing and figure out exactly what you need, go to a few different hydro stores and see who has the most competitive prices. I can almost guarantee if you buy all or most of the equipment you need from one store they will throw in a discount for you, you don't need to buy one of these pre made kits to save money.

I don't know how much you smoke but if it is very much at all I would suggest running 400w, you can get away with a 400 in a pretty small foot print and I think 400w is probably the minimum that a moderate daily smoker could get away with running if they wanted to guarantee they would be entirely self sufficient out of it, especially on the first few runs which you almost certainly wont have dialled in. If you only smoke on weekends and the like then a 250w light will meet your needs, I think LST and SCROG are two growing techniques that are useful for getting a respectable yield when running these smaller lights, because they have poor light penetration you don't really want to grow tall plants under them.

Remember that half a gram per watt is considered respectable from a moderate veg time if you are not growing strains that are primarily known for yield, since I highly doubt you are attempting to cash crop under a single 250w I doubt you would be growing big bud or anything like that. If this is your first grow then you will be doing well to hit even half a gram per watt without a pretty decent veg. More competent growers can easily approach a gram per watt but these guys tend to have a lot of experience, both with growing in general and also with the strains they are running, they also tend to be running bigger lights.
 
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yeah i agree with not buying a pre-made kit, it's never as well-suited to your situation as your own choices will be and you won't learn as much from the experience if you intend to grow more in the future (oh look, i accidentally a pun). i'm not sure what pH kits are about but personally i found litmus strips to be really useful if you have a funky water supply that needs some adjustment.
 
^ Strips and aquarium testers can be useful and are a nice cheap option for checking pH, if you have money to spend though and end up growing hydro (I am counting run to waste in coco and perlite as hydro here as well) then I would really recommend a pH pen, they are quick and easy and so long as you calibrate it regularly you can count on a more accurate reading.

I think that soil grown weed is better than hydroponic weed but if you plan on running anything under 600 watts then personally I think the added speed in veg that you get from hydro is worth sacrificing on taste a little bit, so long as you flush and cure it properly it should still be nice, it wont have the flavour of a good soil grow but growing in hydro can shave a couple weeks off of each grow cycle easily if you aren't running a perpetual set up and don't like the high plant numbers involved in a SOG style grow.
 
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