I Care
Well-known member
Amid my current grow I am looking back on my prior success.
I want to outline what I know worked for me and what would work for anybody.
I received clones that rooted and kept dormant under low wattage UV aquarium lights
This was under a small fixture for a 5 gallon tank hung above the clones in a makeshift curb find style grow closet.
The grow lighting I decided on was daylight compact Flourescent bulbs and I started with less that 100 watts. Achieved by two large clip on light domes. A four pack of 23w CFL 100w Equivalent Daylight 1600lumen Bulbs. I also found two splitters to allow for 2 bulbs per dome, test fitted in the store. The price of these products has still not increased by any considerable amount.
On the same visit to purchase lighting I bought, what May now be discontinued,
Bonnie 8-4-4 fertilizer from the garden section at a major retailer. Today, I am still unable to find the next closest thing in liquid form to be anything other than the fox farms 6-4-4.
Fertilizing every watering with a half strength. Using concentrated lime juice to adjust PH if needed. The water I was using was tap water left out in jugs between waterings. Pretty sure I would just fill the jugs up after I used them because I had a good watering cycle going.
The soil mix was a part peat, part perlite and part FF OF at the time.
I don’t recall having a fan for the first month or two of veg.
I doubled my grow space and doubled the lighting. Had 4 good healthy plants and 50w per plant for another month or two of veg. I also added a drainage tray to the grow space that made watering really easy.
They were transplanted into 21L pots with the same soil. I then brought in 600w HPS lighting, 6 inch ventilation. Switched to biofloriste turning lighting down 1hr a day from 24 to settle into 12hours.
PK boost early in flower, get a big stretch. I was told not to boost without any additional nutrients and that’s what I did.
Added a generous amount of unsulphured molasses and started making sure PH was good through the run off from the introduction of canna. I was using PH test strips and I honestly think it was easy enough to target between 6 and 7 on the panel.
I finished out around 90 days, dried in the pots, then 48 dark. Then I proceeded with the chop, at the end with around 400 grams.
The only issue I had was one day I watered them and closed the tent without removing the roasting pot I used to collect run off. Came home to high humidity causing high temps, for that I was punished with some powdery mildew that I had to constantly search every plant individually for 2 weeks after one bad day for them.
The rest of this grow was grown in a perfectly cool and stable environment in a home living space. I had air conditioning and just always kept it very cool indoors. If I wasn’t working in the space, I kept the tent closed with ventilation and fans running 24h.
The simplest things.
Soil and run off with water based fertilizers for grow, bloom, boost and sweet.
Stable indoor conditions, never above 82 with proper ventilation.
Large enough pots for your pant size and simple lighting that works for you.
Seems to me that LED lighting is expensive and adds complications with its intensity.
It might be a little much for anybody wanting to have an easy go at growing their own.
My young plants are struggling with the full spectrum LED and have decided to go back to Flourescent.
I’m considering going back to this same old 24h CFL method for veg when the veggies go in the ground and the tent goes up. Want to try a fast run with the LED in flower before I get too committed to the choices I’ve made with the new grow space, for this I need to get some darn growth that was going pretty good before I put the plants under LED.
I don’t want to start any arguments over LED, because it’s very possible that what I really should be going for is a daylight LED like the Sansi 50w flood lights I was looking at on sale.
I want to outline what I know worked for me and what would work for anybody.
I received clones that rooted and kept dormant under low wattage UV aquarium lights
This was under a small fixture for a 5 gallon tank hung above the clones in a makeshift curb find style grow closet.
The grow lighting I decided on was daylight compact Flourescent bulbs and I started with less that 100 watts. Achieved by two large clip on light domes. A four pack of 23w CFL 100w Equivalent Daylight 1600lumen Bulbs. I also found two splitters to allow for 2 bulbs per dome, test fitted in the store. The price of these products has still not increased by any considerable amount.
On the same visit to purchase lighting I bought, what May now be discontinued,
Bonnie 8-4-4 fertilizer from the garden section at a major retailer. Today, I am still unable to find the next closest thing in liquid form to be anything other than the fox farms 6-4-4.
Fertilizing every watering with a half strength. Using concentrated lime juice to adjust PH if needed. The water I was using was tap water left out in jugs between waterings. Pretty sure I would just fill the jugs up after I used them because I had a good watering cycle going.
The soil mix was a part peat, part perlite and part FF OF at the time.
I don’t recall having a fan for the first month or two of veg.
I doubled my grow space and doubled the lighting. Had 4 good healthy plants and 50w per plant for another month or two of veg. I also added a drainage tray to the grow space that made watering really easy.
They were transplanted into 21L pots with the same soil. I then brought in 600w HPS lighting, 6 inch ventilation. Switched to biofloriste turning lighting down 1hr a day from 24 to settle into 12hours.
PK boost early in flower, get a big stretch. I was told not to boost without any additional nutrients and that’s what I did.
Added a generous amount of unsulphured molasses and started making sure PH was good through the run off from the introduction of canna. I was using PH test strips and I honestly think it was easy enough to target between 6 and 7 on the panel.
I finished out around 90 days, dried in the pots, then 48 dark. Then I proceeded with the chop, at the end with around 400 grams.
The only issue I had was one day I watered them and closed the tent without removing the roasting pot I used to collect run off. Came home to high humidity causing high temps, for that I was punished with some powdery mildew that I had to constantly search every plant individually for 2 weeks after one bad day for them.
The rest of this grow was grown in a perfectly cool and stable environment in a home living space. I had air conditioning and just always kept it very cool indoors. If I wasn’t working in the space, I kept the tent closed with ventilation and fans running 24h.
The simplest things.
Soil and run off with water based fertilizers for grow, bloom, boost and sweet.
Stable indoor conditions, never above 82 with proper ventilation.
Large enough pots for your pant size and simple lighting that works for you.
Seems to me that LED lighting is expensive and adds complications with its intensity.
It might be a little much for anybody wanting to have an easy go at growing their own.
My young plants are struggling with the full spectrum LED and have decided to go back to Flourescent.
I’m considering going back to this same old 24h CFL method for veg when the veggies go in the ground and the tent goes up. Want to try a fast run with the LED in flower before I get too committed to the choices I’ve made with the new grow space, for this I need to get some darn growth that was going pretty good before I put the plants under LED.
I don’t want to start any arguments over LED, because it’s very possible that what I really should be going for is a daylight LED like the Sansi 50w flood lights I was looking at on sale.
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