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Grow Making do with what I have pt 1

psychonaut

psychonaut

Florist
Company Rep
Thanks for the admin's making this sub forum. Not sure how good I'll be at updates, but figured I'd start a thread up.

I'm a registered CO MMJ patient exercising my constitutional right to grow my own medicine.

Because CO law prohibits growing outdoors (not that we have any respectable growing season at 8k elevation) unless in a fully enclosed and locked greenhouse, I am forced to keep my plants indoors.

I have a 4x4' tent that I will be lighting with 2x Mars Hydro SP-250 lamps, for the time being I'll be vegging these under 600W MH lamp, and switching over to LED once they get here. My past experience has been in a variety of different mediums, DWC hydroponic, super soil, coco+perlite, coco+worm castings. Hydroponic nutrients from Fox farms and General hydroponics, and 100% organic soil blends (super soil).

This go around, I'm using fox farms hydro nutrients 1/2 strength (3 part) in straight coco coir. Botanicare Cal Mag Plus 1/2 strength, Kangaroots, and General Hydroponics PH Down (my well water is about 7.2 PH 300 ppm)

I started my autofem seeds in rapid rooters with 5.8 PH'd water with only 1/4 strength Cal Mag Plus.

2x Dutch Passion Auto Daiquiri Lime
1x Dutch Passion Auto Blueberry
1x Dutch Passion Auto Orange Bud
2x Seedsman Auto Skunk #1

Here I am reusing my BVV Shatter Vac with heated bottom set at 70F as my room gets to 50F at night. These seeds were put in the rapid rooters 3 days ago!

VdnJ2Be.jpg


I will be transplanting these lil girls into their 3ga fabric pots filled with just coco coir and will be hand waterin them.

Some changes I made from my last grow:

Reduced pot size from 5ga to 3ga
Eliminated perlite completely
HID being replaced by LED
Slightly less power draw

My goals this go around are to use less nutrients with the smaller pots, my last harvest the roots never did fill the bottom of the pot, so hoping these 3ga pots will be the ticket and need less water for the runoff.
 
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Disrupt said:
Interested in what you think of the Mars LEDs. Good luck!
Click to expand...

I own a high powered mars hydro cree 256 pro that has a burned out quadrant. It was a nice light and very comparable to 600W HID. It drew more power than my 600W HID and wasn't any cooler TBH. I am hoping these SP-250's are cooler, they'll take up less space and I can move them independently. On paper it looks like 2 of these should perform about as good as 1 600W HID but I may never know as I'm growing new cultivars this time.

One of these years I'll do some lighting comparisons on clones but I'm nowhere near ready for that endeavor.

This time it's all about heat, power draw, and efficiency at the corners of the tent. These lights boast 2g/watt so I am really trying to do the best job possible in regards to those 3 things. There are a lot of other lighting options but in the 2g/watt range it's slimmer pickin's at this price point.

Everything about this grow except for water, tent, fans and some hardware is added cost.
 
psychonaut said:
Very nice looking cola there.
Click to expand...

Thanks! There's ten of these on this plant. Seems like they keep getting bigger.

See you're growing autos. The Peppermint Kush is the first with no ruderalis genetics, at least since growing stash seed in the 1990s. First autos, then a fast F1 hybrid, which is an auto back-crossed to its photo parent. Never saw anything like these colas with the ruderalis plants. The fast F1 was the Sweet Afghani Delicious that yielded so well last year. She was fast - jumped out of the soil in one day and never slowed down.

psychonaut said:
And I just bought 2x of thes
Click to expand...

Have to read up on these. Not quite sure what tech these are - something new? Lighting is developing so fast right now, the Amare could already be obsolete!
 
Yes, I'd rather not grow autos but this go around I'm gonna see how it goes. I've heard great things about the dacquiri lime.

That's very cool on your genetics, personally I am wanting to move more towards skunk #1 photo and/or barneys farm LSD as a primary medicine, then have dp orange hill special for recreational and king kush for bedtime.

I've heard folks on forums call it quantum board led but their China rep calls it "sorta quantum board but we use epistar chips quantum board uses samsung"

From what I've seen their epistar lights have had good results. It's their budget chips.
 
Worked on the garden today as it's actually warm outside for a change.

Soaking coco coir
3kMquuT.jpg


3ga fabric pots filled with straight coco coir that's been rinsed
XmzQEu1.jpg


Tent ready to get cleaned up and assembled
5LvLXWs.jpg


100W T5 HO 6500k 4 bulb fixture for seedlings and 8" carbon filter, set for 18/6
4wuWflO.jpg


Baby girls in their new home, soaked coco with 1/4 str cal mag plus and 5.8 PH water
2iqd6fh.jpg


I will be covering the coco coir with clay pebbles once they grow a couple sets of leaves.
 
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Making another change. Dropping the fox farms hydro nutrients. I'll use them another time. I would have had to buy more nutrients anyway as 2 of my 3 bottles are about 1/3 full. After doing about 4hrs of reading over the weekend, I am going to switch over to a coco ph buffered nutrients. Advanced Nutrients PH Perfect Coco Sensi Grow & Bloom A/B. The reason for the switch is I did have some issues with nutrient lockout on a couple of plants at some point. I think there may have been a lack of iron in my nutrients. This should make it a little easier to mix up nutrients, no more cal mag and 3-part or ph down (in theory). Overall I think this will be a good switch but I'll let the girls be the judge.

I still plan to use the kangaroots as that appeared helpful last go.

Switching nutes I'm hoping to, simplify feeding, prevent nutrient lockouts, reduce costs, improve growth and yields.
 
Have you ever wonder why "cannabis specific" fertilizers are,
A.More than one part
B.Need to have the ph adjusted
C.Cost so much compared to legitimate horticultural products
D.How and what they are made of
E.How plants uptake and use nutrients.
Answer those five questions.............and your garden will grow oh so much better brother.
 
arb said:
Have you ever wonder why "cannabis specific" fertilizers are,
A.More than one part
B.Need to have the ph adjusted
C.Cost so much compared to legitimate horticultural products
D.How and what they are made of
E.How plants uptake and use nutrients.
Answer those five questions.............and your garden will grow oh so much better brother.
Click to expand...

I agree! My water has been the biggest hurdle for me as I have no idea what's in it (never sent it to denver for a full test). It's 300ppm of something and usually comes out of the tap at 7.1-7.2 PH. Without knowing whats in there, it's hard to know what to leave out and what to add in, yeah?

There are cheaper solutions and I'll make my way there. Between the chicken coop and horse manure plus compost bin, I am hoping in the next year or so to have some good local organic soil that I can make myself that will have all the nutrients I need. That's pretty much the utopian grow goal for me. I also have a good friend that raises rabbits for manure, food and fur.

The answer to all 5 of those questions is a complicated subject when combined together! I've spent a lot of money in individual components to build a super soil and while it'd make quite a bit at the end of the day, it still cost ~$100 all together, think it was 14 individual components, not including the organic base soil. I'm talking things like kelp meal, bone meal, legitimate horticulture components.

There are some snake oils I don't prescribe to. I do like to use molasses from the kitchen in late bloom, and I do have some hygrozyme that has served me well in DWC and even organics, not entirely sure I think it's necessary in a healthy living soil but that's just my inexperience in the matter TBH.
 
arb said:
Have you ever wonder why "cannabis specific" fertilizers are,
A.More than one part
B.Need to have the ph adjusted
C.Cost so much compared to legitimate horticultural products
D.How and what they are made of
E.How plants uptake and use nutrients.
Answer those five questions.............and your garden will grow oh so much better brother.
Click to expand...

Good questions, but not all indicate conspiracy. Read that nutrients are in 2 parts because calcium would precipitate out otherwise. One reason there's a need to pH is because it varies significantly depending simply on how much nutrient we choose to use, a familiar experience. Certainly, the cost is inflated, and unlisted ingredients are frustrating.

Big DIYer - tried to make super soil at first, but got disappointing results. As a beginning hobbyists growing a very small number of plants, bottled nutrients were a good choice. With so much else to worry about, removing nutrients from the equation was a big help.

Good results (and half-filled bottles of nutrients) make it difficult, but considering a switch to synthetic nutrients - much easier on the reservoir and irrigation than organic.
 
arb said:
Have you ever wonder why "cannabis specific" fertilizers are,
A.More than one part
B.Need to have the ph adjusted
C.Cost so much compared to legitimate horticultural products
D.How and what they are made of
E.How plants uptake and use nutrients.
Answer those five questions.............and your garden will grow oh so much better brother.
Click to expand...
I'm all about the soil. I'm going to have to go back and see what you have said in the past, @arb. At one point, in the not so distant past, I found myself at the edge of the great Pacific, chasing kelp being washed out to sea, then taking said giant sea weed home for the garden. I wanted sea weed weed, by golly, and that was the plan.
 
I'm enjoying the discussion and pictures! @psychonaut are you going from seed in those 5 gallon pots? I was considering that, but thought it would take more water to keep things moving, and was planning on starting in solo cups, transplanting when they got a bit larger. (and then my neighbour says 'I have a ton of clones, come get some', so this might not matter so much?) I also have a bag of coco coire that, if used, will likely require me to become proficient in nutrients. Soil seems to be much simpler? Or, as the guy at the hydro store said to me in a snotty voice 'you grow in dirt?'...

My experience growing is limited. I've got a couple of bottles of nutrients, mostly as gifts from someone who decided to stop growing, but haven't really used them. Our water is from a well, and it's been tested. It's not perfect, but most things will fall out of suspension if left to sit for awhile. I have a 1000 litre IBC tank that collects rainwater near the garden for use this coming season. Beside the water tank I also have a 40 gallon pressure vessel that I'm considering repurposing into a nutrient tank. Can I premix 40 gallons of nutes and leave them ready for application? I'm puttering with an automated self-watering system, a sort-of sub-irrigated design, and don't want to kill the entire crop with a fluffy highdea :)
 
Killick said:
I'm enjoying the discussion and pictures! @psychonaut are you going from seed in those 5 gallon pots? I was considering that, but thought it would take more water to keep things moving, and was planning on starting in solo cups, transplanting when they got a bit larger. (and then my neighbour says 'I have a ton of clones, come get some', so this might not matter so much?) I also have a bag of coco coire that, if used, will likely require me to become proficient in nutrients. Soil seems to be much simpler? Or, as the guy at the hydro store said to me in a snotty voice 'you grow in dirt?'...

My experience growing is limited. I've got a couple of bottles of nutrients, mostly as gifts from someone who decided to stop growing, but haven't really used them. Our water is from a well, and it's been tested. It's not perfect, but most things will fall out of suspension if left to sit for awhile. I have a 1000 litre IBC tank that collects rainwater near the garden for use this coming season. Beside the water tank I also have a 40 gallon pressure vessel that I'm considering repurposing into a nutrient tank. Can I premix 40 gallons of nutes and leave them ready for application? I'm puttering with an automated self-watering system, a sort-of sub-irrigated design, and don't want to kill the entire crop with a fluffy highdea :)
Click to expand...

For autoflowers, I go from seed in rapid rooter, then directly into the final pot (3 gallons). I dont mess with them too much because I'm worried to stress em and stunt their growth. It'll for sure take more water in coco.

I would also say soiil is simpler, but if you have too much of anything in the mix like a lot of beginners do, you can burn the plants and that always sucks =/ Ultimately I think soil is the way to go, it's very sustainable and cheap. Drawbacks to soil too though, bugs love it =/

One of the nice things about Coco is you cant really overwater it, it just DTW. I guess it has some drawbacks, but I like how easy it is to get that explosive hydroponic growth without having to clean buckets and such like I was dealing with in DWC. I've heard of people checking the PH of the nutrient water with these advanced nutrients PH perfect coco nutes, and it maintained the PH after 7 days. That's TBD, I gotta see it to believe it.

I've found with the bottle nutrients, even the ones that are supposedly made for cannabis, half strength, even less in some cultivars, is about right. They always have all these extra bottles you can buy that give more terps, etc. IDK, I did that for one grow, what a serious pain in the ass to add all that stuff in, and TBH, this last grow with just a 3 part system was a lot better done in coco coir. I follow the feeding schedule on the bottle for cal mag and kangaroots.

I guess I'm not really making do with what I have lol, I'm trying to be cheap, but I changed up my nutes this go. Hoping that'll straighten out the lock outs, then maybe in 2020 I wanna get back on the organic train and see how my own home made mix turns out.
 
I used bagged soil in 5 gallon airpots, watered from hose using well water every few days when soil felt dry below the surface .

One nice thing i noticed was that airpots don't retain moisture, allowing excess water to run out the sides and bottom of the pots. The pots were on grass, between cherry trees, for a couple of weeks soaking up sunshine.

One day we were expecting rain/lightning and possibly a bit of hail so i wanted to move the plants under shelter for the event, and discovered that roots had grown through the bottom of the airpots and had latched into the soil under the pots.

I guess the morale of the story is fabric pots allow for good drainage and aeration. Plus they are easy to add to an existing sub-irrigated planter just by digging a shallow depression and just placing the bag directly in it. Tomatos enjoyed SIPs, as well.
 
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