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

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^ It is absolutely critical to drill holes in your pot. The more the better. Drainage is crucial to your roots success. DO IT.

ok thanks man, i thought so, i mean its pretty basic but i wanted to be sure, so thanks again nice one :)
 
ok thanks man, i thought so, i mean its pretty basic but i wanted to be sure, so thanks again nice one :)
No problem. I find it important to allow the soil to completely dry before watering again. Having several drainage holes in the bottom allows this to happen without stressing the plant out too much.

All plants need drainage, but the more you grow you'll find that different strains need different amounts of water/drainage. For example, most sativas can drink water like noones business, but many indicas will easily die with too much watering (even with proper drainage). Once you find a strain that works for you, you can play around with the amount of water and frequency of use to dial in that perfect amount. But as always, DRAIN the water out. NEVER let the plant sit in water for extended periods of time (it will cause root rot and many other horrible things).

Many growers here will actually water from the bottom and not from the top of the pot. I find this practice to be very useful because it allows for the oxygen roots at the top of the soil to breathe because the soil remains dry. Good luck.
 
No problem. I find it important to allow the soil to completely dry before watering again. Having several drainage holes in the bottom allows this to happen without stressing the plant out too much.

All plants need drainage, but the more you grow you'll find that different strains need different amounts of water/drainage. For example, most sativas can drink water like noones business, but many indicas will easily die with too much watering (even with proper drainage). Once you find a strain that works for you, you can play around with the amount of water and frequency of use to dial in that perfect amount. But as always, DRAIN the water out. NEVER let the plant sit in water for extended periods of time (it will cause root rot and many other horrible things).

Many growers here will actually water from the bottom and not from the top of the pot. I find this practice to be very useful because it allows for the oxygen roots at the top of the soil to breathe because the soil remains dry. Good luck.

thats great thanks alot, so if i water from the bottom do i pour the water into the container the pot is in and let the roots suck it up, sorry if i sound a bit stupid but im not sure i totally understand or make i do can you just give a quick guide how to do it, thanks
 
thats great thanks alot, so if i water from the bottom do i pour the water into the container the pot is in and let the roots suck it up, sorry if i sound a bit stupid but im not sure i totally understand or make i do can you just give a quick guide how to do it, thanks
Yep, that's it. If it needs watering, you should be able to see the water being sucked up into the pot in about under one minute. Again, you should give it just enough to suck up all the water, but not leave a big puddle that leaves the plant sitting in water for an extended period of time.
 
My greenhouse will have four autovents on the roof and a couple of louvre vents on the gable end near the floor

my old dear has autovents on the greenhouse... if you mean the vents that open automatically... very good...

If your gonna do hydro then sink the res into the floor as well as it really helps keep the water cool. :)
 
Like wolfgang says, you need drainage holes and to employ a wet/dry cycle. One of the main reasons why a wet/dry cycle is so important is because if you're compost medium is always wet, it will never be allowed to become aerated. This can cause a whole host of problems with pathogens like pythium or damping off. This is why drip irrigation that constantly drips water onto your compost is inferior to irrigation systems that only water when the compost has dried out. There is a balance however, and you should avoid leaving it to dry out too much which can cause wilting and kill off the invaluable fine feeder roots, which without them you won't be able to yield as much as you'd ideally want.

The Tropf Blumat irrigation system is quite inexpensive and without needing any electricity, passively senses when the soil is dry with ceramic sensors and automatically opens valves to water the plants at the right time. This avoids you needing to remember to water the plants, so all you'd need to do is fertilize them. This can be done partly through foliar feeding so you don't have to add the feed to the medium and interrupt the normal irrigation cycle. Alternatively the famous Autopot system is cheap and feeds from the bottom from a reservoir using special smart valves in a wet/dry cycle fashion. Many many people use Autopot systems because they're cheap, effective, self contained systems that don't require any power and give excellent results.

When you water from the top (I personally do this but bottom feeding is fine, like wolf suggests), you should not slosh a whole lot of water onto the soil. Rather you should water slowly, a little bit at a time, as this prevents compaction of the soil. It's imporant to maintain the fluffy, aerated structure of the medium so the roots can get access to adequate oxygen. The difference between a really good medium and a high yielding plant and a poor medium with a low yield lies partly in how well aerated it is, whilst being able to retain water at the same time. If both these aspects of the medium are good then you will get good results.
 
my old dear has autovents on the greenhouse... if you mean the vents that open automatically... very good...

If your gonna do hydro then sink the res into the floor as well as it really helps keep the water cool. :)

Yup, they're opened and closed automatically using pistons filled with mineral wax that expand and contract depending on the ambient temperatures and open and close the roof vents using leverage to convert a small movement of a relatively strong force into a large movement which is required to move the vent open fully in hot weather. They need no power, as you know and are completely automatic.

I was considering using a powerful 6" high powered Ruck extraction fan for the exhaust, with a 6" Rhino carbon filter attached to it to control smell, with a powered intake. However, unless I put a lot of effort into muffling the sound, it will attract attention. The air being expelled might also be visible as it will blow onto people passing by.

So, instead, I am planning on using an ozone generator. I was looking at buying a brand new HydrOzone ozone generator, however this is quite expensive. I've heard much cheaper models from Ebay that cost the value of a couple of one of the most popular UK bank notes that are in circulation can work perfectly well, so I have yet to decide whether or not I should buy one of the more expensive models. I'm not worried about excessive ozone levels being a danger to me as it's in the greenhouse where I won't be at risk. However, relatively low levels of ozone can slow photosynthesis to a crawl, so there's a fine balance between the right amount of ozone and too much and I'd have to be extra vigilant in getting dosing levels exactly right, so it's at a level where it kills odours but doesn't cause any other problems.
 
Like wolfgang says, you need drainage holes and to employ a wet/dry cycle. One of the main reasons why a wet/dry cycle is so important is because if you're compost medium is always wet, it will never be allowed to become aerated. This can cause a whole host of problems with pathogens like pythium or damping off. This is why drip irrigation that constantly drips water onto your compost is inferior to irrigation systems that only water when the compost has dried out. There is a balance however, and you should avoid leaving it to dry out too much which can cause wilting and kill off the invaluable fine feeder roots, which without them you won't be able to yield as much as you'd ideally want.

The Tropf Blumat irrigation system is quite inexpensive and without needing any electricity, passively senses when the soil is dry with ceramic sensors and automatically opens valves to water the plants at the right time. This avoids you needing to remember to water the plants, so all you'd need to do is fertilize th

em. This can be done partly through foliar feeding so you don't have to add the feed to the medium and interrupt the normal irrigation cycle. Alternatively the famous Autopot system is cheap and feeds from the bottom from a reservoir using special smart valves in a wet/dry cycle fashion. Many many people use Autopot systems because they're cheap, effective, self contained systems that don't require any power and give excellent results.



When you water from the top (I personally do this but bottom feeding is fine, like wolf suggests), you should not slosh a whole lot of water onto the soil. Rather you should water slowly, a little bit at a time, as this prevents compaction of the soil. It's imporant to maintain the fluffy, aerated structure of the medium so the roots can get access to adequate oxygen. The difference between a really good medium and a high yielding plant and a poor medium with a low yield lies partly in how well aerated it is, whilst being able to retain water at the same time. If both these aspects of the medium are good then you will get good results.

thanks guys thats a great help, just one thing, to bottom feed i take it that the roots must be showing thogthe bottom of the pot? So the roots can suck up the water, there fore i will have to lift my pot up high enough to drill some holes in the bottom of the pot, i have drilled quite a few holes around the circumfrence of the pot and about 20 mm up, does this sound corectt?because at ne there is no roots showing through as there is no holes for them to.
I only re poted her la, week from a 3 galon pot to an 8 galon so hopefully the roots are not trying o come through the bottom of the pot, if i need to i can drill some holes in the bottom but i dont want to stress her to much,
also guys i have noticed tha sometimes there is some water on some leaves when they are touching eacoer, now i think this is due to the humidity in my room. I have the int fan on 24/7 and it keeps the room, at a steady 85', i dont have an extract as the space is only small ( its a cupboard ) there is a big hole in the top that goes into the roof space, my question is, is there any way i can solve this? The obvious answer is a de humidifire, but finances wont stretch that far just now
So is there any other way i can reduce the humidity?
Thanks alot guys
 
You can make holes on the side at the very bottom rather than on the base if you so wish. I have some pots that came with square holes in this place. The roots don't need to be showing out of the bottom of the pot for you to be able to draw water up through capillary action. If you can, I personally would rather water them from the top as it is marginally better at pushing through stale gases from the medium. However it probably wouldn't make much of a difference to be honest.

The answer to your humidity issue is certainly not to use a dehumidifier. To grow properly you need to have an extraction, ideally going outside but alternatively going in to the loft space. This is not an optional extra, it is a necessity. You will also need a carbon filter, otherwise you will almost certainly get caught since it will smell on your street for a few houses down, potentially. It's the number one reason why people get caught - people telling their friends or other people about their grow is the only other reason for getting caught.

The extraction will reduce humidity to acceptable levels. If you're leaves are showing obvious moisture, the air is saturated with moisture and you could suffer from mould problems. You'll also cause superficial and potentially structural damage to your property from all the damp. It's a serious problem you need to deal with sooner rather than later.

I can tell you what size extraction fan you'll need if you give me the dimensions of your cabinet and tell me what power and type of light you're using. If you absolutely cannot afford to buy another fan then for the very short term use your intake fan as an extraction and have a passive intake.
 
Good to see your back on AE. My pc fucked itself last week and I couldnt get on for a while. Got a new one sorted now though, much faster too :)

Here are some photo's of my lady today. Day 9 of flower.

IMG_0720.jpg

IMG_0716.jpg

IMG_0724.jpg
 
yum yum mate she is looking very sexy.....will upload some photos of my baby later on she's growin heaps since i "supercroped" her :) since im moving do you think it would be worth the effort of digging her up putting her in a huge pot for about half an hour and rushing her over to my new house and chucking her in the ground there.....Do you think she will make it through or should i just pull her on moving day??? :\
 
So FINALLY ready for my grow :).

Germinating 2 seeds at the moment in some paper towel in a tuperware container, then they each will get put in a small pot filled with seed raising mix.

400Watt HPS for the both of them with a very large grow space.

Looking forward to this :)
 
yum yum mate she is looking very sexy.....will upload some photos of my baby later on she's growin heaps since i "supercroped" her :) since im moving do you think it would be worth the effort of digging her up putting her in a huge pot for about half an hour and rushing her over to my new house and chucking her in the ground there.....Do you think she will make it through or should i just pull her on moving day??? :\
Hey JS that is your best bet in keeping her alive, and it will work. You need to make sure when you first dig her out though that your digging very wide of her, and going very deep into the soil. The last thing you want to to is dig her out and rip out or dig into the main roots.
 
So FINALLY ready for my grow :).

Germinating 2 seeds at the moment in some paper towel in a tuperware container, then they each will get put in a small pot filled with seed raising mix.

400Watt HPS for the both of them with a very large grow space.

Looking forward to this :)
Looking forward to watching it Trip :)
 
Hey JS that is your best bet in keeping her alive, and it will work. You need to make sure when you first dig her out though that your digging very wide of her, and going very deep into the soil. The last thing you want to to is dig her out and rip out or dig into the main roots.

Alright mate i'll give that a shot n let ya'snow how it goes....sorry coulden't get photos today cant find my camera :\
 
So FINALLY ready for my grow :).

Germinating 2 seeds at the moment in some paper towel in a tuperware container, then they each will get put in a small pot filled with seed raising mix.

400Watt HPS for the both of them with a very large grow space.

Looking forward to this :)

Hiya mate. Just a helpful bit of advice that you may or may not find useful in future -

Whilst the paper towel method works for many people, if you're growing the seeds in a sowing compost you can use a small dibber or even a pen to make a small indentation in the medium and just place the seed straight in to germinate. The advantage of doing this is that you don't have to touch the taproot at all. The problem with touching it is that it's the number one cause of 'runts', aka small stunted plants. For some reason it can retard the plant's growth right the way throughout it's lifecycle. I've not seen any convincing evidence that explains why this phenomenon occurs, however it definitely is a problem associated with the paper towel method.

Growing straight in compost doesn't allow you to see whether they have germinated at such an early point, however in a few more days when the cotyledons pop through the surface you'll know, so it will just mean being patient for a couple more days. I know the paper towel method is the norm amongst cannabis cultivators, however amongst normal gardeners it is the exception. The usual practice amongst normal gardeners is to just place them in the soil.

I don't mean to criticise your method as it does work, I just thought it might be of some help. However I apologise if the advice is unwanted.

Good to see your back on AE. My pc fucked itself last week and I couldnt get on for a while. Got a new one sorted now though, much faster too :)

Here are some photo's of my lady today. Day 9 of flower.

IMG_0720.jpg

IMG_0716.jpg

IMG_0724.jpg

Heya Wise! Good to see you too mate. I hope you're doing well!

Seriously, is that just one plant?! It's doing really well!

Can I ask, do you add regular organic matter mulches, wheter it be garden compost or leaf mould?

I've found in recent years a really good technique if I've planted in the ground like you have. If I use a compost tumbler (cylindrical barrel that rotates along it's axis and aerates the compost when you turn it daily), I can make 'compost' in about 4 weeks. It would need to be finished off in a maturation bin (so the worms would finish it off) if you wanted to dig it in. However, if you use it as a mulch over the ground your plant is in, the worms already populating the soil will pull the mulch down and consume the organic matter for you meaning no digging is necessary. You almost certainly know all this as you're an experience ganga grower, however I was curious if you do anything like this or do you just dig compost in at the beginning of the season?

I've been looking absolutely everywhere and I can't find a source for leaf mould. Since this is even better than compost for improving the soil and even making potting mediums (where it arguably performs better than coir, especially since you can use organic nutrients), I'm going to try and start making my own again. I think it'll take about 6 months to a year, but it's probably worth the effort. I think it's the best peat replacement available, since it fills the same function, with it being low in nutrients, light and airy but it doesn't compact and is sustainable. It's amazing you can't buy it at all - it's like there's a conspiracy or something. I'd love to go into business to start selling it, since there would be absolutely no competition whatsoever and I would probably get some fat government grants with the horticultural industry and government being so incompetent at reaching their peat free targets (almost all peat free composts on the market are complete dog shite and are not fit for purpose - it's actually a disgrace as people starting out in gardening will blame themselves and end up choosing a different hobby).

If you do some reading on the benefits of leaf mould you'd be surprised. I know I was, as it's like a miracle substrate that can be made so easily and for free.
 
Well, as for feeding, been feeding with 6-4-4 ,1/3 tsp per 1/4 gallon. once weekly, with some micro nutrients 1/4 tsp., been keeping the water around 6.3-6.5.

temps are about 71-73, RH is 25%.
without lights temps get to about 59-63 degrees.
 
In the past I havnt used any type of mulch or compost to be honest, Im yet to really do a full on outdoor grow in ground. Next season i'll be doing this though. I plan to use some organic potting mix with mushroom compost, along with vermiculite for water retention/drainage and then adding pea straw, or sugar cane mulch on the top soil.

Might just add that the soil she is in is, well, crap. The potting mix is from an indoor mix and already had fertlisers in it. When I dug her into the ground, all I added was more of the same soil, and a few kilo's worth of Dynamic Lifter(which is a rich organic grandular fert) along with mixing in some of the soil that was already at the spot, which is mostly sandy. To show you what I mean when I say the soil is crap, it does not retain water at all. Im finding myself watering 3-6 litres every day when the temps hit around 30+ degress celcius because she dries out so quickly.

I dont have a compost bin going at the moment, it's kinda hard to get one set-up without attracting attention from the owners of the house. As far as they know, im not into horticulture, not the typical side to it anyway ;)

Im really dissapointed about this season, I had bigger and better plans but major things fell through and well, what can ya do about it :\ And yes it's just the one lady in those shots, I think she's about 4.5 months old now with roughly 8-9 weeks to go. She's showing more Sativa now as she starts to flower so I think she will turn into being mostly Sativa dominant by appearance, but I predict the smoke will be mostly couchlock as im 99% sure she's a Skunk 1 going by her apperance and growth patterns.
 
Well, as for feeding, been feeding with 6-4-4 ,1/3 tsp per 1/4 gallon. once weekly, with some micro nutrients 1/4 tsp., been keeping the water around 6.3-6.5.

temps are about 71-73, RH is 25%.
without lights temps get to about 59-63 degrees.
You could try flushing her prelude. Also she may have a virus or desease, although ive never experienced any deseased plants myself, it does happen and it looks like your's may have something?
 
A friend has just started some Auto BlueBerry seeds and if he gets a couple to sprout he's going to shoot me some beans to start a little late summer/winter grow. The main goal is to breed the auto's for a bunch of seeds. :)

The price on auto's are just to much IMO.
 
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