Technique showdown.

[Facelesdoll]

I'm no professional but I have some experiences in this Hobby. I'm wondering what techniques people use that could be considered simple or easy or low maintenance the produces some of the most killer best stuff out there with applying tested strategies whether or not it be lighting efficiency, veganics, low maintenance pH, etcetera... I plan on using a 400 watt metal halide high pressure sodium digital ballast and I am tossed between soil or coco coir as far as pH balancing is concerned. I do not want the maintenance of mixing soils or earthworm castings to feed or testing PPM but I'm just trying to produce solid stuff in my tent and was thinking about using the veganics line with og tea special sauce, root Webster, and rapid start in a perlite 30%/happy frog 70% mix. Now whats people's opinions on pH testers and should I go with a meter or should I go the extra cheap route I don't know how to calibrate but I've always just used a good reverse osmosis water with additives. I know some folks out there have to have some good experiences with some low-maintenance low-stress good growing methods and I want to hear them. Please post grow logs or maybe even give a shout out to anybody that you think might have something to say. I'm intending on throwing down in a five by five by six and a half foot tall grow tent with a 400 watt. I know it's a pretty good-sized space with not much light but it will have to do for now. But I mean what week do you switch from metal halide to high pressure sodium in flower for some that don't do it for a week to 3 weeks. What about gas light routine? How many hours on how many hours off do you run? What other tricks of the trade do you know? Can you really put milk in water and make a tea out of it and expected to help? I mean I'm trying to boil down a lot of people's Styles and techniques and I would also like to try and keep it as drama-free as possible if everybody can just agree to disagree please. Thank you

 

[trees123]

disagree

 

[trees123]

like most people do, you are over complicating things for yourself. get a "grow bible" there are a lot of choices but they have mostly the same info. a book may have some techniques which are out of date, but they will atleast be more reliable than online forums and it can be difficult to sort through large amounts of wrong info when you are new.
-use sprouting seeds "teas" approx every 2 weeks
-make sure you add organic material regularly
-do yourself a huge favor and buy a micronutrient blend that contains everything in the right ratio and maybe humic acids as well. This should be inexpensive and will do great things for quality.
-diversity of the microbial life/soil food web is the goal. add as many different high quality composts or microbial innoculants as you can get!
-most of the fancy things the hydo/garden store sells can be home made very very cheaply
-culture your own benefical microbes. many people only do this with "ACT" using an airstone in water with molasses and compost.
-do not buy beneficial microbes multiple times. once you add them to your soil they are already there.
-each plant promotes the specific microbes it likes and different strains will promote different microbes as well. so many people seem to not understand this

i wont say not to go with veganics... but really dont do it 100% guranteed you will regret it later.

 

[Facelesdoll]

disagree

What is it you disagree with? Let us hear some input. What do you use and how do you do it? And what Ii was using enriched soils with the vegamatrix notes line and og tea and roots web star with maybe few offer things.

 

[Harpo]

Facelesdoll,

Keep it simple. You are growing a weed that thrives in a number of conditions.

A basic book, some seeds, some sort of soil mix an HPS or Metal halide and you are in business.

You will learn to tweak it to best results only with real hands on experience of a grow or three under your belt.

I love the "NPK: Indoor Yield-O-Rama". Its' old material but not really outdated. Read and understand the keys to find out about a lot of different types of growing approaches and yields.
http://www.lycaeum.org/~npkaye/Y_O_R.html

Luck

 

[Facelesdoll]

I'm not trying top make it overly aggressive. Just looking for input from other people how to see what works for them. Like what kind of things do you practice in your shop? And are there any low maintenance ways to manage pH whether it be in soil or hydro. I would like to use vegamatrix with unfortunately ffhf for soil and I'm going dilute it with perlite because Ii heard some bad things about it