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I'm a succesful member of the shroomery trying my hand at MJ cultivation. I've been doing a lot of research but MJ has so many variables that it's extremely confusing on where the hell do I start?
I'm planning on growing 3-4 plants for personal use. Two indica, two sativa. Definitely some form of purple, something else, white widow and something else. Maybe AK-47.
Anyway,
Where do I start? Can anyone link me to a step-by-step guide? Hydro or soil? I heard soil tastes better so I'd rather do that since it's my own personal stash.
My current research is:
Rockwool Cubes soaked for 1 hour in PH tested water, seeds planted, wait for germination and roots to stick out, then transfer to either hydro or soil. I will be using MH lights, should I use Air Cooled Tubes or reflective wings or? Do I need a carbon filter for such a small grow? Will the cops be able to see my grow via Infrared?
What kind of tent should I go with? I was debating between:
I read hydro grows faster and is easier to maintain, is this true? Soil you need watering but I'll be running a shroom op right next door so I'll be constantly in and out so watering is not a problem. I also succesfully cultivate orchids, aloe veras and venus fly traps so I'm pretty good with plants.
I just need a step-by-step guide on what the fuck to do
Soil comes with lots of bugs, and you will need to move it in and out of the house. I prefer coco coir because its reusable and easy to grow in. Soil is tough to get the absolute best growth until you know how to do it. Its much easier to have to feed it every time than to guess if nutrients are breaking down properly in the soil zone. As for taste, that depends on your growing skill, whether you can push the plant to the limit or not.
I like the nutrient regiment I'm using now, with nutrient cost down to 6-8 cents per gram. Check the links in my signature for my setup.
-------------------- Any help given is for educational purposes only. Its your responsibility not to break any applicable laws
Bamboo Bongs I make | Perfect Dry and Cure | Grapegod under LED “Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible player.” ~ Albert Einstein
Canna FTW. Canna Coco loose, don't dick with bales. Canna A&B, Rhizotonic, Cannazyme, and BioBoost. pH to 5.8 with phosphoric acid. Follow their online Grow Guide to a tee other than building the solids so much during flower. Get an RO system. Don't mess around with shitty tap water. Get it down to close to zero, then build up your nutrients. Stay on the low end of solids, don't build up the way Canna suggests, 400-600 ppm solids is a good range to stay in. FloraKleen at the end along with the Bio Boost for 1 week, then a week of straight RO water. Water to runoff every time, feed every time other than flush period.
Soil sucks balls. If you go hydro, go balls = expanded clay pellets, and ebb and flow.
Quote: phychotron said: I prefer coco coir because its reusable and easy to grow in.
I use coir for my mushrooms already so I would fucking LOVE to use this method.
Thanks, I'll check your links out.
Do you use regular 650gram bricks? How do you hydrate them? In terms of nutrients how do you sort it?
Quote: Canna Coco A+B in veg and flower. Cannazym in veg and flower Canna PK 13-14 for 10 days covering week 5
MBFerts.com Hormone-Vitamin Booster (Canna Boost and Canna Rhizotonic replacement) Much cheaper than Canna brand ($100/L for Canna Boost alone.) So far so good, been using it the past two grows and its doing the job.
Humboldt Nutrients' Verde in veg only. It has a lot of nitrogen that helps get that lush green color. The Coco base nutrients don't seem to have the nitrogen you need for veg. It really green's your plant up.
Advanced Nutrients pH-. My pH meter broke so I've just been winging it, but I kinda already had it down before the meter broke. Its about 1ml per gallon. They have the best pH adjust as it is very strong.
Dyna-gro Pro-Tekt Potasium Silicate. Silica is essential for strong plants.
Gen Hydro Ca/Mg. Been experimenting with it, but my tank started getting really salty in the same tint as their product. I'm going to find another brand or just use it to treat the coco once between reuses.
Like how do you measure out exactly how much each plant needs?
For your watering system, that's fucking boss. So you basically took a fish hose and poked some holes in it, made it circular and connected it to a drum reservoir? It obviously works well but did it take a lot of tinkering?
Since I'm running such a small grow I don't think I'll need the high-tech system you have but is there like a small-growers hydro guide?
Btw dude, after thoroughly reading your thread your grow is BOSS AS FUCK. What are those burlap bags you use?
So basically this is what you do:
Start them in smaller bins, then move them to those bigger bags. To clone you cut the roots and put them into more soil? Will I need two tents for veg and flowering or is that just because your op is so big?
Does your house smell good all the time
Then when they're big enough you "train" them. This is a confusing concept as well, what do you mean by "train" or breaking branches? I see you trim the smaller branches at the bottom during flowering which makes sense but what do you "train"?
Do LEDs put off a lot of heat? Afraid of Infrared helicopters and shit
This is a whole different world from mushrooms,
Quote: phychotron said: The trick is to find the right LED for your needs--a task that is very difficult with a lot of the bullshit marketing and cheap knock-offs.
Any recommendations? I'm afraid of the heat problem but my house stays in the low-mid 70s. Also electricity wise, do LEDs cost more or less?
Quote: GoonerHeClips said: Canna FTW. Canna Coco loose, don't dick with bales. Canna A&B, Rhizotonic, Cannazyme, and BioBoost. pH to 5.8 with phosphoric acid. Follow their online Grow Guide to a tee other than building the solids so much during flower. Get an RO system. Don't mess around with shitty tap water. Get it down to close to zero, then build up your nutrients. Stay on the low end of solids, don't build up the way Canna suggests, 400-600 ppm solids is a good range to stay in. FloraKleen at the end along with the Bio Boost for 1 week, then a week of straight RO water. Water to runoff every time, feed every time other than flush period.
Soil sucks balls. If you go hydro, go balls = expanded clay pellets, and ebb and flow.
When you start talking nutrients I just can't keep up. Where is the grow guide?
Do I measure the PH of the soil or the water? I was told mineral water would work great and have two products, one called PH up and another called PH Down.
Im also a big coco fan, and second the Canna nutrient line. The big thing with coco is to make sure you flush it with water really well before you use it to remove any salt, I do it for bricks and loose just to be safe.
Also choose a nutrient line that's made especially for Coco so you wont have to worry about supplementing calcium and magnesium. I use Canna A&B through the whole grow until the last two weeks when I flush, and Canna PK 13/14 for a week about 3/4 through flower. Im sure all the others listed above wont hurt but I like to keep it as simple as possible and those three alone have done me just fine. I also add Dyna-gro Pro-Tekt with every feeding based on many reccomendations but I honestly havent noticed a difference in the plants that I use it with and the plants I dont (doing a little experiment right now actually). It is great for raising pH though.
Plants growing in coco like a pH of around 5.6 - 6.2. Measure your nutes before you feed. You can measure the runoff too to make sure its staying within range. I personally feed at 5.9-6.0.
Another good tip - if possible try to use reverse osmosis water, less of a chance for anything to go wrong and easier to keep track of your PPM.
I know its overwhelming and a lot to take in but before long you'll get a routine down and started putting out some killer smoke. Good luck!
Thats a lot of questions for one post, but I'll do my best at getting them answered.
I use loose coco. Brick coco needs to be washed and treated. bagged coco isn't that expensive, I spend $100 per year on coco for my 6 plants. You can use the brick coco, I just prefer not to have to process it. Canna guarantees its clean.
I like canna's nutrients because they hold up extremely well, however I'm no longer using their full line in an attempt to save cash. To figure out how much of each to use, read the instructions on the bottle.
Canna A/B is 15mL/gallon but I use 7-15 depending on what I'm doing.
Forget the Canna BOOST and RHIZOTONIC, those are way too expensive. You can get ~$700 worth of those in 5L containers for $60 from MBFerts.com and using their Vitamin-Hormone Boost. Its super concentrated at 1.87mL/gallon. Because of the price you can afford to use the generic like it was suppose to, which brought out a new flavor in my plant this last batch.
Canna base nutrients are pretty hard to burn your plants with. I haven't tested my pH in a long time but it was in the range of ~5.8 before the meter broke. I just mix the nutrients up and use 1mL/gallon of pH down. Canna at full strength always maxed out at 900ppm, whereas Advanced Nutrients would be 1800ppm following the same formula that yields 900ppm. My ppm meter broke too, but it was between 6-900 on average.
Tap water works fine, its better than RO water in some cases because it has some trace elements such as calcium and magnesium. Its something you won't need unless you specifically have problems.
All the nutrients get mixed into a big tank then the pump will pump that nutrient solution to all the plants evenly two times a day. Mixing requires a little bit of thought, as you don't want to form solids with things like the PK or silica--I mix those with their own water before mixing with the nutrient solution. Cloudiness when you add a nutrient is a bad thing. With the pump system you need an anti-siphon or else the hose will suck the water from the tank.
Even if you wanted to feed your plants by hand it's going to get out of control with coco, they can suck down the water and be very demanding. You could mix up a tank of nutrients just to hand water out of it, cause mixing every day sucks.
Its an easy setup, but I used Autopots and Blumats to autofeed prior, this show ring was just the next phase of auto feeding. The hose and manifold are really cheap to build and basic enough for anyone. You could set one up with a 5 gallon bucket as a res tank if you needed.
Basic formula
Veg: Verde + flower formula
Flower: Canna A/B, Zym, Boost, Silica, pH-
Week 4-5 add P-K for ~10 days, which I tend to use slightly less A/B. Following week regular feed then 7-14 days prior to harvest I flush and only feed plain water.
With coco you won't need to flush as long. I usually flush before P-K week and a week or two prior to harvest. As long as I get the second one in and feed it tap water only for the last week the plants will show some serious deficiencies in the leaves (a good sign) and be perfect for harvest.
The cloth pots are called smart pots. The cloth allows the roots to grow through and air-prune, allowing the roots to get a larger mass in the same size area. The hard pot with holes is called a SuperRoots (brand) Airpot.
You could clone in soil/coco/rockwool/mist, it just depends on what works for you. I prefer mist (aero cloning) then sticking that in a small container to build roots for the next transplant. The 1L pots I put them in at first are critical for getting the best growth possible before I transplant.
I have two tents, one veg and one flower, but you could use just one tent for both, but you won't have bud every 2 months, you'll need to wait for a veg period then you can start to flower. You could also flower in the tent and use the area outside of it to veg in, as they are not as light sensitive in veg growth.
I had to get an ozone generator to mask the smell when a cop came and told me he could smell my plants. I had a carbon filter, but needed to upgraded recently because that added flavor from the MBFerts Vitamin Booster really made it smell stronger.
To train I mean to top then bend the smaller branches over to make it bushier. The trim up in flower is just to prevent too much underbrush.
As for the right LED, it depends on your grow area, but Advanced LED is who I'm recommending at the moment. Specifically the XML650 for $1600 that will cover a 5x5 area (I'd prefer a 4x4 for maximum performance) but you'd probably be better off with the XTE400 in a 2x4' area. Thats their newest style light that I wanted to get before the XML650 came out.
Much much much less heat than HPS, by far. Also a different type of heat, so HPS growers tent to fail trying to re-create an HPS environment. A good LED will take ~75-100% of the wattage for the light itself but significantly less electricity in fans and air conditioners. You still need to vent the tent, and I like to vent it outside not because of the heat, but the moisture. If I vent from my tent into my house instead of out the window I will find myself sleeping in a sauna in the next room over, with a layer of moisture accumulating on me while I sleep. Also the toilet starts to sweat and the bathroom floor gets soaked.
That tent will fit 4 in 5 gallon pots just barely. You'll have to play around and learn what works for you.
I think that's everything
-------------------- Any help given is for educational purposes only. Its your responsibility not to break any applicable laws
Bamboo Bongs I make | Perfect Dry and Cure | Grapegod under LED “Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible player.” ~ Albert Einstein
Click on coco line. Enter your volume of water. You can use EC or TDS in ppm depending on your meter. There are two scales of TDS so it gets a bit confusing. Just need to match it up to whatever meter you have. EC there is no chance for error, but it isn't as fine tuned at TDS.
I'm not saying soil is bad, I just think its not as friendly inside the house as it is outside.
-------------------- Any help given is for educational purposes only. Its your responsibility not to break any applicable laws
Bamboo Bongs I make | Perfect Dry and Cure | Grapegod under LED “Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible player.” ~ Albert Einstein
Kinda harsh reply also.. You said "soil sucks balls" that's simply not true. I think it'd be wiser to present a newcomer with the generally used options than to pidgeon hole them into doing something just because that's what you personally prefer.
Fox Farm's soil line is very impressive, and furthermore, you don't even need nutrients for about half the plants life with it. I've never seen any bugs in it. Its also improbable to get nutrient lockout readily with organic solids, as opposed to liquid fertilizers. Be sure to tell OP to invest in PH gear right off the bat if he's using liquid nutrients solely.
I've been growing with soil for over 20 years and the mites I had were from another grower.
As to the question "Will cops see my grow with infared (flir)"? Possibly. Avoid ceilings touching roofing, walls touching outside, and directly piped heat.
-------------------- ***Handing someone your life's work....in a single seed = ***
It only has one intake/exhaust and if I'm reading it right it can fit 6-8".
Quote: Will a 4 inch exhaust fan work well in this tent? Or is a larger diameter fan a smarter choice?
A: This tent i use Its great. unfortunately It only has one 4" sleeve But you can run a 4" fan for intake or exhaust. I use this one In-Line Duct Air Booster Fan 4" Suncourt Inc.$32.26
Will this be a problem? I'm cutting it back to two plants in 5 gallon pots so they're comfortable. I don't need pounds, just a few ounces for myself.
Other then those few questions above I think I'm good to start after I buy these.
Is that light adequate for 2 plants, possibly three, in five gallon small pots? Gonna grow White Widow and some form of purple haze.
What's a ballast? How do I know I have a good one? I read digital ballasts can cause technicians to come to my house asking why I'm messing with everyone's internet signals.
This comes with everything you need, including a MH bulb for veg and a HPS bulb for flower. Dont use that timer they throw in though, its junk.
There should be a 400W version for even less but I'd recommend the 600W, you'll get more bud for your money.
I can vouch for that 600W Apollo ballast, its what Ive been using for over a year now and it works great..no Interference at all. Dont care too much for their bulbs but starting out they'll do you just fine.
At this point would it be better to transfer directly to the 5 gal smart pot or put it in the 1l AirPot? Or is the 1l AirPot a substitution for the rockwool?
When it says >1 and then 0-3 does that mean anywhere in between that 0-3 weeks it'll switch over and I'll have to add more nutrients? Can I just add this to my 5 gallon bucket?
I want to use something like this to hold the nutrients:
At this point would it be better to transfer directly to the 5 gal smart pot or put it in the 1l AirPot? Or is the 1l AirPot a substitution for the rockwool?
When it says >1 and then 0-3 does that mean anywhere in between that 0-3 weeks it'll switch over and I'll have to add more nutrients? Can I just add this to my 5 gallon bucket?
I want to use something like this to hold the nutrients:
To be honest if it's just two plants do I really need an auto-watering schedule?
I hand feed/water. Im going to set a more automated system up eventually, but for now I basically treat the coco like soil except for the fact that I have to feed with every watering.
If you want to keep it simple like me and still get great smoke those three nutrients are all you need. The other additives that were suggested probably help, but like I said before I prefer to keep it simple and I have great results.
What I do is germinate the seeds in a moist paper towel inside of a ziplock baggie, then once the taproot sprouts I put them in solo cups (never used rock wool) filled with 90% flushed coco/10% perlite...100% coco will work too. I start out with 250-300PPM Canna A&B pH 5.9-6.0. Then once they develop 3-4 sets of true leaves (gradually increasing nutrient PPM if needed)I transplant into the fabric pot (smart pot). You can go 5 gallon, but that's honestly overkill in my experience, especially with coco. I have a huge bush growing in a 1 gallon right now, but I'd recommend 3 gallon. With coco since you feed everyday the plant getting root bound is less of a problem. 3 gallon fabric pots will grow four big plants in a tent that size.
I'd grab 4 of these. These are fine too and a lot cheaper, but dont have handles (very useful for moving out of tent when its time to flush but not necessary).
Also that 600W MH is a waste of electricity until you transplant into the bigger pots. While the seedlings are in rock wool or the solo cups, (whichever you choose) I'd veg them under daylight CFL's. You can pick those up at any hardware store or Walmart, just make sure they're 6500k (same used for shrooms). One 23W per plant is plenty for the seedling/pre-veg stage, just make sure you keep them very close to the plants, 3" away or so.
Also you probably already know this but make sure they get either 18 or 24 hours of light during veg, and when you decide to flower change to the HPS bulb and change your timer to 12 hours on 12 hours off.
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