Colorado Growers Thread

[dragging hooks]

Boycott papa johns:

here's a follow up from today's Post

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19059887

 

[draco]

yea Sexy Pizza!! brilliant!

a real chance to advertise to the herb friendly. if i lived there i would give them a try for sure...

 

[greenmatter]

talked to a friend of mine today who is a firearms instructor ......... he said he got an e-mail from the FBI that says they will no longer allow anyone with an MMJ license to get a CCW (concealed carry permit) i don't know if this will apply to anyone who already has both, or if it only effects new applicants. either way heads up brothers and sisters ...... the feds are restless

 

[draco]

talked to a friend of mine today who is a firearms instructor ......... he said he got an e-mail from the FBI that says they will no longer allow anyone with an MMJ license to get a CCW (concealed carry permit) i don't know if this will apply to anyone who already has both, or if it only effects new applicants. either way heads up brothers and sisters ...... the feds are restless

i would like to know how the HIPA laws apply in regard to this.

my understanding is that the FBI cannot have access to the medical files.

legally of course.

 

[SWT#1]

bump

 

[ManitoidsGhost]

front range snowstorm... serious.

250K BTU heater as the final backup is fired up and raging...

Only hiccup on the forecast til done.

watchin the temp gague, hoping for the best, dry trimming sucks!

Manitoid

 

[Space Case]

Colorado Growers Thread

front range snowstorm... serious.

250K BTU heater as the final backup is fired up and raging...

Only hiccup on the forecast til done.

watchin the temp gague, hoping for the best, dry trimming sucks!

Manitoid

Good luck Manatoid! I've been inspired by your grow this year and hope to follow suit next year!

 

[ManitoidsGhost]

heater keeps the space at 60 when 38 outside...

all is well...

Manitoid

 

[YosemiteSam]

under the CO sun

under the CO sun

 

[dragging hooks]

nice shots Sam, great outdoor job

 

[Dorje113]

What do you do about flushing? Do the catch trays provide enough room to leech the plants and you wouldnt want them sucking that back up again right?

ALSO do you think the digital ballasts are worth it? I suppose I could always upgrade later, but I figure if I am just going to buy the lights one at a time then it would be do-able. I have a galaxy 600 and love it. I will also be runnning electricity to the room and will be using 220, ran from an intermatic timer. figuring 4 outlets in each corner of the room for each light.


Ace

If you're in soil and feed them right there is never any need to flush, it'll actually do more harm than good. Try to water until they are saturated, but no more. Use a soil test kit to monitor NPK and pH, if you keep the levels ~medium and stop feeding 2 weeks before harvest it'll work out fine. pH never needs to be adjusted if you use a peat moss based soil with dolomite lime. Most potting soils already come setup this way.

20 gal smart pots work fine but beds are even better, I use a 5x5 bed per 1kW with about 10-12" of soil in the bed.

I don't think digi ballasts are worth it. I actually prefer the spectrum of light that magnetics produce when compared side-by-side. However, the new Hortilux HPS is supposed to be digi compatible so that may have changed.

Also, I'm no longer a fan of vented hoods, you lose as much light as heat. I've never seen a clean piece of glass in a vented hood, even with filters you get a white film... so f-it, just get adjust-a-wings with hot-spot diffusers.

 

[YosemiteSam]

If you're in soil and feed them right there is never any need to flush, it'll actually do more harm than good. Try to water until they are saturated, but no more. Use a soil test kit to monitor NPK and pH, if you keep the levels ~medium and stop feeding 2 weeks before harvest it'll work out fine. pH never needs to be adjusted if you use a peat moss based soil with dolomite lime. Most potting soils already come setup this way.

20 gal smart pots work fine but beds are even better, I use a 5x5 bed per 1kW with about 10-12" of soil in the bed.

I don't think digi ballasts are worth it. I actually prefer the spectrum of light that magnetics produce when compared side-by-side. However, the new Hortilux HPS is supposed to be digi compatible so that may have changed.

Also, I'm no longer a fan of vented hoods, you lose as much light as heat. I've never seen a clean piece of glass in a vented hood, even with filters you get a white film... so f-it, just get adjust-a-wings with hot-spot diffusers.

Totally agree on ballasts. I have tried both and see zero reason to spend double for a digital that you are sure to have more trouble with.

I respectfully disagree on peat with dolomite never needing to be pH'd. If the alkalinity of your water is in the 40-90 ppm range that is true. It is not true if you have high alkalinity water or if you use a whole bunch of NH4+ nitrogen...both of those things will change the pH in the root zone.

Because of the high pH of the water on the western side of the state I amended peat with gypsum instead of dolomite and actual root zone pH was maintained at 6-6.5 with no pH adjustment of the water the entire grow.

You gotta match your media, water and NH4/NO3 ratios to never run into pH problems.

 

[Dorje113]

Totally agree on ballasts. I have tried both and see zero reason to spend double for a digital that you are sure to have more trouble with.

I respectfully disagree on peat with dolomite never needing to be pH'd. If the alkalinity of your water is in the 40-90 ppm range that is true. It is not true if you have high alkalinity water or if you use a whole bunch of NH4+ nitrogen...both of those things will change the pH in the root zone.

Because of the high pH of the water on the western side of the state I amended peat with gypsum instead of dolomite and actual root zone pH was maintained at 6-6.5 with no pH adjustment of the water the entire grow.

You gotta match your media, water and NH4/NO3 ratios to never run into pH problems.

A pH of 6-6.5 is too low for an organic soil system. I maintain about 6.7, but if you're not 100% organic the pH range you have is better.

I agree that you need to be careful about adding too much alkalinity to your soil if you have very alkaline water. However, I have never seen that issue in CO, even using well water from various sources that run up to a pH of 7.8. I admit I have never bothered to measure alkalinity. If you do have very alkaline water, the solution is just to add less lime. I typically add a cup of lime per 150 gallons of soil mix that is about 1/3 peat moss every cycle.

If you regularly use a soil test kit, you will catch any unwanted drift in pH well before it is an issue, however the only time this has happened was teaching hydro growers to use soil, they added ph UP to adjust the water/fert mix to 6.5 from around 4, as is typical with many organic ferts. This increased the soil's alkalinity to the point the pH hit around 7 and we had to find the cause... which was them adding pH UP without my permission, I never adjust the water. Other that that, pH has never been an issue. It sits at 6.7 and never changes.

Many people, myself included, have used the same soil for nearly a decade without even having to flush water through it using my system. But it is tuned for 100% organic ferts.

 

[dragging hooks]

Other that that, pH has never been an issue. It sits at 6.7 and never changes.

Many people, myself included, have used the same soil for nearly a decade without even having to flush water through it using my system. But it is tuned for 100% organic ferts.

that is some of the best advice I have been given here
months ago, thank you once again

My wife and I received our voting ballots today in the mail
and since we live just outside the Fort
the measure to shut down the local pot shops wasn't on ours
Even though we never use them we still wanted to vote to keep them open

hope this finds you all with glassy eyes and sticky fingers.......

 

[gardenlover]

I am mad at myself for voting for the man on this subject alone. You mean to tell me federal agencies have the resources to start going after an income and tax generating, non-violent (99% of the time) crime like medical marijuana as appose to any of the numerous larger threats in and around america? I mean arn't we all up in arms about the drug violence by the boarder? won't medical marijuana reduce the need for shitty brick pack mexican weeds that people seem to be dieing over? won't this put more money into US citizens hands, via taxation, and economic micro boom for nurseries and hydro stores? Won't this keep some money from the violent mexican drug cartels? WHAT THE F^@% AM I MISSING??? can someone shed a little light on this for me?

Sorry I thought i had the link that was posted on the last page about the feds cracking down on dispensaries...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44806723/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/calif-pot-dispensaries-told-feds-shut-down/&gt1=43001#.Tpde4hz5PdM

 

[gardenlover]

on another better note anyone in ASPEN PM me, I am headed out there to ride for a week. Would like to get with any other growers.

 

[YosemiteSam]

A pH of 6-6.5 is too low for an organic soil system. I maintain about 6.7, but if you're not 100% organic the pH range you have is better.

I agree that you need to be careful about adding too much alkalinity to your soil if you have very alkaline water. However, I have never seen that issue in CO, even using well water from various sources that run up to a pH of 7.8. I admit I have never bothered to measure alkalinity. If you do have very alkaline water, the solution is just to add less lime. I typically add a cup of lime per 150 gallons of soil mix that is about 1/3 peat moss every cycle.

If you regularly use a soil test kit, you will catch any unwanted drift in pH well before it is an issue, however the only time this has happened was teaching hydro growers to use soil, they added ph UP to adjust the water/fert mix to 6.5 from around 4, as is typical with many organic ferts. This increased the soil's alkalinity to the point the pH hit around 7 and we had to find the cause... which was them adding pH UP without my permission, I never adjust the water. Other that that, pH has never been an issue. It sits at 6.7 and never changes.

Many people, myself included, have used the same soil for nearly a decade without even having to flush water through it using my system. But it is tuned for 100% organic ferts.

Can I ask if you are in some combo of peat, compost and perlite?

I am looking to make the switch to organic indoors myself. Outdoors it proved to be simple as could be except my plants stayed greener than I like to see them finish. Have not smoked any yet so cannot comment on taste but I like to get them to fade a hair more. With western slope water I amended with gypsum as opposed to limestone and pH (SME extraction method) stayed steady at 6.5 throughout the grow.

Is the secret to start with just enough amendments that the food is used up by the end of the grow...and then amend again? I have no problem going 100 gallon smarties per light.

 

[Dorje113]

Can I ask if you are in some combo of peat, compost and perlite?

I am looking to make the switch to organic indoors myself. Outdoors it proved to be simple as could be except my plants stayed greener than I like to see them finish. Have not smoked any yet so cannot comment on taste but I like to get them to fade a hair more. With western slope water I amended with gypsum as opposed to limestone and pH (SME extraction method) stayed steady at 6.5 throughout the grow.

Is the secret to start with just enough amendments that the food is used up by the end of the grow...and then amend again? I have no problem going 100 gallon smarties per light.

I generally use 50% organic potting mix, usually a combination of a few brands like ffof, roots, and black gold. Then 25% peat moss and 25% perlite. For very large qtys of soil, you can also use a combination of topsoil, organic composts, EWC and the like for a base, then add even more peat and perlite to the mix.

If you use a commercial potting mix there is no need to amend the soil at all, either with ferts or lime, for the 1st run... then amend the soil for the 2nd run. You'll find the soil gets better over the 1st few runs.

I use whatever is easily available for amendments... kelp meal, EWC, guanos, bone/blood meal. Whatever you use, you need to balance the NPK ratios and use as wide a variety of ingredients as possible. I use a lot of dry ferts as amendments, but find it's easier to use a bit less dry ferts than you'd need all by themselves and fine-tune with organic liquid ferts like Age Old and Earth Juice at lower rates. Again, a soil test kit is invaluable for tuning your feeding program.

I use about 4 20 gal smart pots or a 5x5' plywood bed per light for containers. The beds are far better than smart pots but sometimes aren't practical. Beds are also easier to feed and water and the nute levels and pH change slower than pots. The nute mix in beds doesn't have to be as hot as it does in pots either, giving you a very large margin for error in feeding.

The nice thing about organics is that having a little excess nutes doesn't detract from the quality of the buds, the nutes aren't available to the plant directly like in a non-organic system, so the natural buffering ability of the soil keeps the plants from getting overfed. Of course if you have way too much nutes it's not going to work out so well, but the margin for error is far wider in an all organic system, making flushing the soil unnecessary and actually harmful because it'll flush out stuff you'd rather keep as well.

 

[Stankie]

pH and true organic growing should never be mentioned in the same sentence, unless you are saying they shouldn't be discussed in the same sentence, IMO. If you take the time and put in the energy to learn about a good, proper, balanced soil mixture, pH will never be of concern to you. Some of my 'nute' mixes that get watered in are in the 4 - 5 pH range. Use good quality compost. The more variety the better. The soil microbes work out the 'pH issue' in true organics.

 

[dragging hooks]

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/articl...?Title=Feds-raid-medical-pot-co-op-near-Ukiah

so it begins in northern California with the feds

Hey Stankie isn't your avatar the old Colorado Rockies NHL team logo???
(now the NJ Devils)

Thanks folks for answering all my Smart Pot questions a few months back
Just washed the first one after taking down the plant
and it really did look brand new again