Wanna Ask The Old Farts A Question?

[atomicfield]

was hoping someone could tell me if i should try this, i ended up with some beer can sized buds, dense 14 in long, my buddy said because they are that big i need to starve it of water for about a week before harvest so it starts drying from inside out, any truth? also any truth to sugar in your water to sweetin them up. thanks

 

[ericcalif]

was hoping someone could tell me if i should try this, i ended up with some beer can sized buds, dense 14 in long, my buddy said because they are that big i need to starve it of water for about a week before harvest so it starts drying from inside out, any truth? also any truth to sugar in your water to sweetin them up. thanks

http://www.onlinepot.org/grow/3lbsMolassesManual.htm

 

[Fat J]

Dude HK, just wanted to say thanx again for reassuring me, the "split harvest" worked great for me, got a nice ripe top and also some nice swollen ripe lowers and fatter inner buds than ive ever gotten:



Dude, you rock! Stay up.

 

[atomicfield]

thanks for the site ericcalif good reading, any thought on the water practice.

 

[HempKat]

My first effort to buy seeds was cash sent to Canada, seeds sent, then confiscated by Uncle Sam. My second effort was a money order sent to UK. It has been 30 days, they are still "awaiting payment". Would I be crazy to use my debit card - if I do it must be sent to my home/garden? Is my luck normal or not?

I would advise against using a debit or credit card and regardless of payment method you should always avoid sending seeds to where your grow is. You don't want to be banking on something as vague as luck when it comes to your freedom.

I haven't had the need yet to buy seeds but from what I've seen and heard your experience with Canada is normal as it seems like the two governments are working together more so I think they watch seed purchases more closely. Europe is about as risky as it was before mainly you want to find a good reliable distributor. Seeds Boutique has a good reputation in this respect.

 

[HempKat]

can i use coco nutes in bio bizz soil

Yeah, you can use virtually any nutrient in any medium you just need to adjust the ph to be suitable for the medium you're using if it's different then the medium it was designed for. Coco and soil are similar though and there are even brands out there that make nutrients designed for both soil and coco.

The only thing to maybe check on is that does bio bizz soil already have nutrients in it? Being they make fertalizers as well.

 

[HempKat]

Thanks, I`ll see how it goes last year was cold and I have no issues, I`ll look into the air con as well.
Think i am going to flip the lights to be on during the night rather than the day, so i assume i leave them in the dark for a day then start the new light time?

Running the lights at night can help alot to reduce temp problems, except on nights where the sun goes down but temps don't. You can leave your plants in the dark for a day if you want, there's no logical reason to do so. It never happens that way in nature so there is nothing in the plant's genetics that has evolved to benefit from doing that.

Plants don't key off the length of light for when to start flowering, they key off the length of the dark period. To them any day length above 14 hours is the same as any other day length above 14 hours. So the quickest way to get to a certain time frame for flowering without causing any problems for the plant is to just leave the light on until you reach the time you want lights out to begin for the flower schedule you want to keep.

So lets say you veg your plants under 18/6 and your lights on started at 6pm and ended at 12 noon. Now let's say you want your lights on for flowering to begin at 9pm and end at 9am. On whatever day you wanted to start 12/12 you would either cut your lights at 9am instead of waiting until noon (and reset your timer of course for your new flowering schedule) or you could just let the light run for an extended period until it reached the time you want your lights out to begin and then reset your timer.

 

[HempKat]

The soil level is about 2 inches below the rim. I can see the advantages of one pot/one plant. My thinking in doing this was that I could maximize the amount of soil in a 3X4 ft cab. Advantages and disadvantages to both I suppose. As for competing for resources, I've thought that as long as they weren't deprived of any, then no harm. I let the soil dry several inches down, then water throughly from the top and from the bottom. In theory, I would think that should keep them from competing, not like out in nature where its survival of the fittest.
Any flaws in my logic?
The more I do this, the more I think it would be fun and interesting to do little experiments. Like, identical strains and care in different pots. Shorter LST'ed buds vs taller colas and see the effects on strength. I just don't have the space or resources at this time. The whole game may change in Nov with the legalization initiative here.

Well another way to maximize soil in an indoor grow is to use square pots. Although it's really not the soil you maximize in either case but rather how the space is used.

When I say compeating I mean as in the roots compeating to fill up the same space. If one gets a head start on the others it's going to have roots that spread out more and more or less choke off the others. Even before that though, a bigger root system is going to be able to consume more water and nutrients regardless of how you pour it in. The more one plant consumes, the less the other plants will have.

 

[HempKat]

was hoping someone could tell me if i should try this, i ended up with some beer can sized buds, dense 14 in long, my buddy said because they are that big i need to starve it of water for about a week before harvest so it starts drying from inside out, any truth? also any truth to sugar in your water to sweetin them up. thanks

Nope, you don't want to deprive a plant of water until it's ready to be cut down. What many do and maybe this is what your buddy was confusing his thoughts with, is they deprive the plant of nutrients for the last week or two by giving the plant just water. This forces the plant to use up nutrients stored in it's leaves which has the effect of creating a smoother hitting bud when it's properly dried and cured.

There is some truth to using sugar in water although molasses is a better choice since it has the sugars but not so much and it also has minerals useful to the plant. Neither will make the plant taste or smell sweeter when it's smoked. I don't think the plant actually takes up sugars like that. Where it really helps is that sugar can feed the microbial life that lives in the plant's root zone. This microbial life helps the plants to break down and consume the nutrients the plants need and so by feeding them and keeping them happy and healthy it benefits the plant.

 

[HempKat]

Dude HK, just wanted to say thanx again for reassuring me, the "split harvest" worked great for me, got a nice ripe top and also some nice swollen ripe lowers and fatter inner buds than ive ever gotten:



Dude, you rock! Stay up.

No problem and I'm glad it all worked out well for you.

 

[Gold123]

I just finished chopping down my last girl from this grow and was wondering if it is a waste to continue with co2 right up to the end. Is there a benefit to using it through out or is there a point where I should turn it off?
Thx

 

[atomicfield]

thank you very much HempCat, i will do just that, one quickie, the top buds look done, but not the smaller ones, do i take just the done ones or all ?

 

[ericcalif]

thanks for the site ericcalif good reading, any thought on the water practice.

Well to be clear, I'm not one of the old farts (at growing anyway) I've just enjoyed this thread and thrown in a few things I've learned. I only have a few harvests under my belt.

On the practice of holding back water at the end, I'm apt to concur with HempKat. I can see where depriving them of water would make sense, but, on the other hand, I think 48 hr of drying after they are chopped will dry them more than a week without water. If the goal is to get dried smoke faster, I don't see the gain. If you take months to grow out some plants, take a few weeks to dry and cure the best way possible IMHO. If you have the patience to let them mature properly (trichs matured how you like them) then go all the way and don't skimp at the end.
I'm sure once you have smokable results from your labors, its hard to just let it sit. You could sample a bit here and there while the bulk sits in jars and cures up well, resulting in the best smoke possible.
The best I could do is encourage you to read alot here and try things for yourself.
I found this helpful for curing...
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=156237
And with what HempKat was saying about flushing, I found this thread interesting.
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=90271
I don't agree with it all, it gets long and veers from the point. I see some validity in it after my last round though. Happy growing!

Oh, as for the top colas being done, I do a staggered harvest, cut the tops and let the middles get some better light and mature for a week.

 

[ericcalif]

Hey guys... I'm curious what input you might have about this.

In a previous post HempKat helped me see my lower growth problem was probably due to low/no airflow and insufficent light. It looks like the issue has stabilized some, the fan leave die-off has slowed to almost nil. I had kicked up the fan speed, that might have helped. But its obviously not very bright at the bottom. I've seen single T-5 lights and thought that might be the ticket.
http://www.htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=54975

The question is, how I see putting one of those in my cab, it would by design light upwards, instead of down. MJ leaves obviously like light from above. Would this help greatly? Not at all? Do more damage than good?

 

[gabjaz]

Hi Guys,

Okay, I have worried every step of the way on this grow journey, so why stop now?

I am between 2 & 3 weeks into curing. I think probably everything is going fine, but I'm worried about bud mold, not that I see anything that looks like the mold I see on old stuff in the frig, but the buds are kind of shiny. I think it is probably the resin, but does anyone know of some pictures of bud mold that I can look at?

Also, each jar smells different. The first canned doesn't have much of a smell at all. The others do have an odor, but I don't know how to describe it.

Thanks ever so.....
Gabs

 

[ericcalif]

Hi Guys,

Okay, I have worried every step of the way on this grow journey, so why stop now?

I am between 2 & 3 weeks into curing. I think probably everything is going fine, but I'm worried about bud mold, not that I see anything that looks like the mold I see on old stuff in the frig, but the buds are kind of shiny. I think it is probably the resin, but does anyone know of some pictures of bud mold that I can look at?

Also, each jar smells different. The first canned doesn't have much of a smell at all. The others do have an odor, but I don't know how to describe it.

Thanks ever so.....
Gabs

Try this in the future, it's worked well for me. Heck, you could probably get one pretty fast, took about 5 days for me.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=156237

 

[gabjaz]

Hoosier, you sure do have a green thumb! All beautiful !!

Gabs

 

[hoosierdaddy]

Thanks

 

[mellow yellow]

Hi HK, hows it going?

I have switched to the lights being on at night this has cooled things down a bit but the temp is stll about 90F i know this is too hot but the plants look fine. Is this temp doing any damage/slowing growth etc?

If so I will take the cfl out for a bit and just leave the 250w hps as the temp will sit about 80F I think if i can remember correctly.
Thanks

 

[SickBoyZap]

Hey guys. I just had a quick Q. Do you cut down your harvest just before they are about to go into "lights on" (the normally scheduled time)?

I've heard that this gives them 1 last full 12 hours of dark to build up starches.

From somewhere in the So.Cal hills....

Thank you, and as always,

peace.