Making it rain

[Critter]

Ya that write up was just idiotic....and that guy def didn't "come up" with that either. Its just a technique screwed six ways to sunday Op welcome to ic! Where people who actually know what they are doing reside

 

[OjoRojo420]

I simply made it rain.
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Ponder on that and if your mind does not click things into place and start running a million miles a second you need to go read some more. Joking, What we hear called the flush is very simply what mother nature does when it rains. Now as I continue this story I am going to put my thoughts into laymens terms so that everybody gets what I am trying to say. I am not a botanist and while I know some of the big words and what they mean I do not pretend to fully understand all of this plants functions. That being said. The one missing third of the flush question in the thread was the fact that buds tend to fatten up towards the end (last 2 weeks) DURING THE FLUSH. Of course in most grows she dies eating herself, because folks tend to let her due to some taste, smell, whatever thing???
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Remember earlier in the thread when we were talking about watering, someone quoted Uncle Ben and said water till you get PLENTY OF RUNOFF, sounds like a flush to me? not a drip, not a tray full, but PLENTY. You will get what looks like over watering and that can be scary the first time, as I detailed in my journal it was cool to see her curl up and droop. In my way of thinking this is when they actually sleep (mother natures way) cause we know they are doing things in the dark period. But I must admit that my research said they sleep in the dark period?
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Now for me I think they are sleeping because during a rain there is most usually no sun (for awhile) and the PH of rain is 5.6 so no nute uptake, and the roots are soaked in water so there is no oxygen. Damn she is basically drowning. But I believe she shuts down and waits for the sun to come out, at which point she goes into overdrive to WICK the water out of the ground ( another word you hear UB use a lot) I believe that what I saw happen with that growth spurt (I have proved it with subsequent waterings) was being able to read when she wants water and when she wants food.
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Let me draw the picture for you, mother natures way is to rain, then all the plants transpire the water back into the air and it rains again. Knowing this the best advice I could give a Noob when it comes to watering is to follow the instructions on your shampoo bottle,,,,Rinse & Repeat. Remember I was watering normally and it was taking 5 to 7 days before she needed water again but after the flush (rain) she wanted water after 2 and 1/2 days, this was when I gave her the super tonic. So basically I fed her. I see this as the acidic nature of rain is to release nutes from the soil so that once the water is wicked off the nutes will be available for the plant and the circle of life continues. So to tell you how to read your plants is simple after she has had a good meal, she wants it to rain again and after she has wicked off the water she wants food. WARNING if you do this in veg you will have trees! Remember that as you plan your grow to fit your garden.
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It really is that simple and because you are both God and Mother Nature in your garden you can make it rain when ever you want. And because it takes time for the rain to activate the nutes in soil putting some in there after the wicking process makes them imediately avaiable. Please note that I did not PH my water down to 5.6 (but I am gonna experiment with it) when I flushed which I feel makes the nutes we feed her available even faster as we do not have to wait for the PH to balance itself as much.
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Now lets get to some truths from the forum, everyone says start feeding at 1/4 strength, this makes total sense when you realize how we are now feeding her. If we gave her full strength every 3 or 4 days we would burn/kill her.
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Put your finger in to test the moisture of the soil, this makes sense to understand when she has actually wicked most of the rain water out of the soil. Remember we do not want it to dry out we want to add our nutes right before she runs out of water to wick and while she is in overdrive to do so. Remember also that the next day after I fed her she was dry again and wanted more water. Hell I had not yet figured it out so I watered her as usual and she settled back into that lets go slow thing again. It was all of the total picture and having the mantras in my head that made it click for me.
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Now that you understand how to water and feed properly, let's talk about soil. Obviously when starting out with seedlings/clones you need to nurture them and a good soil is an important part of this. Regardless of what you think or have read about it being possible to grow in Miracle Grow, stay away from it! It most usually comes in with a low PH (around 5.5) has bugs in it and is bad for our plants. I honestly believe they do this on purpose to cause harm to us MJ growers but that is just my opinion. That being said any good quality light soil (not hot with nutes) will do, as you know I like Happy Frogs (which would be considered a medium nute soil). You should start out in 6" Coir pots (available at nurseries) because they will get you thru the nurturing phase and transplanting up is as easy as planting the coir pot into a bigger pot. The proper way to do this is to fill a big bowl or pan or bucket (you get the idea) with water and submerge the Coir pot in it until it is soaked (no bubbles comming out) plant it in the bigger pot. No problems, no worries, no messing with roots. Do NOT water her after you put her in the big pot. Here is what happens, by submerging her in water, you put her to sleep. When she wakes up she will transpire (wick) the water out (from being submerged) and then will go into the new soil (in the bigger pot) looking for nutes. This method assures that there absolutely no stress from the transplanting.
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NOTE; You can do all of your control stuff during this nurturing/veg stage things like topping, LST or supercropping (totally your choice, I suggest you experiment with all of them and learn what you like best). You can do the make it rain thing to get bigger plants or you water them the slow way (to keep em small), simply remembering not to over or under water (I have already told you how to figure this out)
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Ok so now let's talk about the soil in the big pot. It does not have to be fancy and does not have to be organic, does not have to have nutes in it. WHY? because we are making it rain and suplementing nutes. This is why things like soiless mediums work. What we want now is called a Potting Mix (as opposed to potting soil), this puts us in complete control with regard to nutes and feeding and allows us to totally dial in how many nutes our plant (strain) can take without burn. Go to your local nursery and ask them to reccommend a good potting mix, and just get it. Now into this potting mix we want to add 1 cup (about a handful) of Sphagnum Moss and 1 tablespoon of Dolomite Lime this per gallon of soil (gonna refer to the potting mix as soil from now on, easier to type). WHY? because the Moss retains water and has a PH of 3.5, The Dolomite contains CAL/MAG (which MJ loves)and buffers the PH back into an acceptable range with each watering. I work and am gone everyday for 9 to 10 hours, the last thing I want is for my plant to wick out all of her water while I'm gone, so water retention is important to me. This is also why I put an inch of perlite in the bottom of my big pot. If your soil does not have perlite in it add some ( 1 cup per gallon of soil) when you mix it up. Because you want GOOD DRAINAGE for when you make it rain.
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Now let's talk about Nutes, You only NEED one or two (you should get both and alternate them) First is DynaGro ($12.99)as it contains ALL of the necessary nutes that a plant NEEDS in just one feeding. Second is Jack's Classic ($4.99) as it is stronger in N-P-K values and has other needed supplements. Also add 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of GRANDMAS UNSULFERED MOLASSES (as long as unsulfered other brands will work, but I like Grandmas)to 1 gallon of water as it contains Carbs and Sugars (has other good nutes as well) that aid in growth, MJ loves it. When you feed Nutes you just need enough runoff to know that the pot is now full of nutes (no point in wasting them). As to measuring, start out at 1/4 strength per the instructions on the package and slowly (with each feeding) work your way up until you notice ANY sign of nute burn. At the VERY FIRST SIGN of nute burn you have discovered what your plant can eat in a single feeding without problems GO BACK A STEP (I would go back 2 steps) and now you have your proper feeding mix for your plant (strain). I am including the word strain where it is important as no two strains will respond the same, why you should only grow one strain at a time and learn it. And by learn it I mean you should be keeping notes as to what works best with each strain so you can consult them in future grows. NOTE: By slowly working your way up I do not mean going from 1/4 to 1/2 more like 1/16 to 1/8 increments to get there, after all we do not want to overburn them! P.S. YES Nutes are this simple.
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I want to spend just a moment on organic, if you somehow feel you must go organic then I'm not sure how it will work out for ya? In my opinion organic is a thing created by high commerce much similar to the fancy MJ nutes. I don't knock it cause it creates jobs for folks but also I don't do it. I honestly believe that if you sit in a blind taste test with properly grown, properly cured MJ, that you could not tell which one was organic and which was not. Not only myself but Uncle Ben agrees with this as well and several books I have agree it does not matter. Both DynaGro and Jack's are high quality nutes made from the best chemicals with the best processes available. Not like MG which is crap. And I just followed a grow journal where the member switched to Jack's and said there was hands down no competition from thier previous grow, Jack's was the shit.
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Humidity and Temp as we discovered in the class/game, are very important as is the heat index, as the proper combination helps with fast transpiration (wicking). I will briefly touch on the humidity for veggin should be 50 to 60%, think april showers bring may flowers. For Clones & seedlings should be 70 to 80% cause they need more moisture in the air till good roots develope and for flowering should be in the low 30's to prevent mold as for temp MJ is temp tolorant from 50F to 90F but what you want during flower is a fall like temp with a heat index that does not exceed 78F (remember mine was 76.5) this is why I gave you the link to the heat index calculator. You want your humidity and temp combos to have a heat index just a few points above your actual temp to achieve fast easy (no stress to plant) transpiration. doing this will create the perfect enviroment for your girls and they will love you for it, by giving you big buds.
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Circulation, is also important as we discussed in class and can assist in maintaining your humidity and temp. no need to go into detail here as there were several good methods for measuring it in the thread. Also no need to go into CO2 here we covered that as well, just know that if you were to go commercial, that the addition of CO2 allows you to raise all the numbers and make things happen faster. Also and this is very important, your plants want space between them. I see so many growers cramming plants into thier garden which goes against ALL known gardening facts. Your pots should have at least a foot between them and a foot and a half is better. This aids in circulation and light penetration and gives your plant the space it NEEDS to flourish.
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Keepin em green, is not only a mantra, but a way of growing. It allows you to harvest the good (big) tops and then lower the lights and finish the lower buds (increasing your yields) and allows you to put her back in veg and go again with the same plant, just remember to leave the fan leaves on when you harvest the lower buds. It also allows you to flower longer and get those those huge donkey dick buds everybody drools over. as long as your plant is healthy and happy there is no reason for her to die. The saying "Patience is a virtue" is completely true. So many new growers are in such a hurry to harvest that they chop early. The reality is you should chop when the buds are ripe (and huge) and the breeders estimations of grow times are crap, the plant is done when it is done. My advice to you is this, grow more than one plant and when you think it might be done, only harvest one of them so you have some smoke and let the others go to see what they do, My other mantra do it, watch em and learn. This way you will learn what ripe is for you and the for you part is all that matters it's your smoke/medicine.
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Water, There are so many theories on what kind of water to use. As you know I run regular tap water thru a brita filter I do this because it comes out 6.8 ph and filters out the crap that MIGHT be there (I'm not gonna pay to have it tested). I DO NOT let it set out to vape chlorine and I do not let it reach room temp. Let me share some more common sense with ya. All over the USA folks are watering thier lawns, trees, shrubs, bushes and flowers with city water from a hose or sprinkler system. NONE of them are dying, there are lush, green, pretty yards all over the place, so I'm pretty sure tap water is ok though it is true that there are areas that commonly have hard water (discussed in the Insiders Guide book, no reason to repeat, you should have purchased that book). Also I have, many times stood outside while it was raining and it is always COLD, plus I have experimented with it. Silly idea I had about how the cold would shock the plant and how the ground is warm from the sun, so I started with room temp water and gradually made it colder to see what would happen. Guess what it slowed transpiration down and she did not droop. So when you make it rain just use regular cold tap water, filter it, if you like and know that her drooping is a good thing!
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Lights, We pretty much covered this in class, you know that I prefer CMH. WHY? Closest spectrum to the sun there is from ANY bulb. Less heat to deal with. Can be used for both veg & flower (since it has both spectrums) and has UVB to make more resin. Only available up to 400 watt and requires an older type magnetic ballast is why commercial growers don't like em. But for personal medical grows this light is the bomb, period! I have proven you can grow big buds with a small light, that was my intent in doing so (and let's be honest it's why your here cause it got your attention) I have shown you that not everything you read/hear about lights is true.
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Summary, I have given you all the info I know, (and broken many of the myths) I have shown you with pics that I am not full of crap, don't know what I'm talking about Blah Blah Blah. I have proven that the Sum of ALL parts is what makes your grow successful by growing Matilda under one cfl (light is just one of the parts , that is most misunderstood) And Lastly I have had a BLAST doing it! Now get your grow on and good luck.


I know this is a long winded thread and I thank you for taking the time to read it, I hope that you found enough info here to make you want to read the thread to fill in the banks, knowing that it will take time but in the end be very worthwhile in helping you to fully understand things. After the class the thread goes on answering question and discussing other things, reading all of it will also be beneficial.

Here are the pics of Matilda,,,,,Enjoy

Keep Em Green and Happy Growing to All

Sorry, but, are you tweaking... ???? LOL

Apply all that energy you wasted writing into mastering SEARCH function.

Just what I first did... and many others in the know.

Yeah, I'm 43, divorced and cranky as fuck!

Ojo

 

[HueJass]

I think that is RIU 'grow lore'

 

[downtoearth]

?

 

[señorsloth]

lol people should have to have like 50 posts before they can start threads...

lol i made that post because it's annoying when somebody with an uber low post count(or anybody for that matter) makes a super obscure, one sentence thread, that makes no sense at all, and then doesn't clarify whatsoever. frankly i assumed you were using some kind of ebonics, lol cause those ghetto types like to use the term "make it rain" a lot...it means showering a skank with dollar bills lol

but from what i can tell, you assume that flushing is similar to a conventional rainstorm, outdoors. which it is not, you have to think of outdoor growing as using the worlds biggest pot, after all, an outdoor plant can send a main tap root straight down up to 30 feet if it needs to, with the purpose of finding the water table, which is a point where the water never evaporates, it stays mostly saturated, and if you were to dig a hole past the water table you would notice the hole fill with water. once the tap root hits the water table it doesn't need to grow any longer, and the plant concentrates on sending out lots of smaller roots to look for nutrients and oxygen, as well as to help anchor the plant to the soil around it. when growing outdoors you can tell your plant has reached the water table because it will not need to be hand watered for the rest of the season, unless drought forces the water table very low during flowering when the plant isn't making many roots anymore.

flushing isn't the same as a rainstorm because you aren't ever going to have a classic "runoff" scenario outdoors, unless you maybe had some sort of subterranean river running right under your plants... if an average full sized pot plant has a 6 foot deep root system outdoors it would likely be equivalent to growing it in an ENORMOUS pot(figure a pot that is 8x8 feet would hold around 3000 gallons!), and it would take a lot more than an inch of water to completely saturate all of the soil. the only time the soil gets completely saturated in nature is after a very long long long rainstorm, or several weeks of very frequent rain. and when it does get saturated it's because the water table rises, nothing really drains away in the traditional, indoor sense, i mean gravity does slowly dry it out during the season from below, and evaporation dries from above, but in a usual temperate conditions the soil never fully dries or saturates, sort of like a lot of people who grow in beds do, the bottom stays slightly moist, and the top few feet outdoors, or the top 8-10 inches in an indoor bed cycle between dry and moist, without ever getting fully saturated or flushing whatsoever. i mean outdoors the nutrients dont wash away, unless you are in a very sandy soil, and thats why things don't grow super well in sand.

 

[trichrider]

^yeah, what i said. nice paste...no pics of Matilda?

 

[gloryoskie]

i sometimes make it rain with my soil plants has anyone ever heard of or tried this method and im not talking about flushing...

okay.

 

[coonword]

thanks for the reply sloth. im giving up on this thread.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

making it rain... thought somebody was pissing on their plants again