Wanna Ask The Old Farts A Question?

[Billy Burroughs]

and ya ya fat J take for instance the town my brother lives in his PPM is only 60 and boy do i envy that i've bought the small units and ran them and its going to cost you at least 100 bucks a month just in water so unless your water hardens up a lil more and gets to that 200ppm point or beyond dont waste your money and if you do buy an RO DO NOT BUY A CHEAP ONE buy a merlin period yes its 500 bucks but with as much waste these smaller ones are going to give you that merlin is going to not only pay for the less water usage but also pay for itself then start paying your bills for your garden maybe not directly but its going to free up money that was being wasted B4 and i'm a firm believer in any penny saved is a penny that goes right back into the garden even if theres nothng to buy save it sooner or later your going to have to buy something i do this but dont get me wrong dont let it get out of hand where your garden account has 30k in it and your living account 30 cents i shouldnt have had to even type that but theres people out there that dont thinkn that far ahead my ole lady is a perfect example of that

 

[Billy Burroughs]

I have never heard any claims of h2o2 being able to rid water of chloromines. It is free chlorine that it can drive out and that is what has always been the claim.
There is really not enough chlorine in anyone's tap water to worry about in the first place.

100% correct not enough in the water to even worry yourself with but this is the only reason i've ever heard of anyone using it for thats what people down here use it for anyways thats there claim in fact its information passed out freely at hydro stores and these joke of medical marijuana meetups to change the law groups which are only jokes to get there hands at your wallet of course they al want to make money but dont we all
like i said to HEMP KAT i've never heard of it being used to do what he was talking about but aqll them reasons still ar not a reason to pour H2O2 on your plants or into your hydro rez all of them things can all be taken care of with simple style changes or climate changes theres plenty of ways to come up with the same result but hydrogen peroxide isnt the answer especially what people that i know around here use it for everyone of them buys this shit by the gallon from sams club outta the large crowd of medical growers i know not one of them had ever heard of an amended soil before i got here or the ones that had had tossed them out as jokes thinking that no way thast way to hot thats going to fry the plants i'll just keep frying them with these expensive ass salts though outta the tons of people i've tried to introduce true organics to and showed them price differences and how much cheaper it is to use an amended soil they just smile and nod and go home and keep doing the same ole shit outta the few that i've given samples of my soil enough to flower out one plant every single one has come back not for the recipe but for more free dirt thing is they didnt get shit i have no problems giving someone a smaple of 5-10 gallons to flower out a plant with but after you run it that one time you should be able to say wow i need to make me some of that not wow that shit was awesome i'm going to go get some more from Billy i email them the recipe and only one has ever acted on it and changed his process up and doing so increased his yields by 1/2 to one pound every 2 months and he went from soiless dirt and expensive advanced nutes to true organics now we figure we pay around 5 dollars per flower per plant on "nutes" no one can touch that with bottled crap your looking at at least 5 times that i'd say by my friends word anyways this way is at least that much cheaper i dunno i myself have never used bottled anything other than molasses, carbs , and pH adjusters ??? why is it so hard to switch out to somethign so easy i'll never understand people never cease to amaze me

 

[tennesseetoker]

Whats up Hempkat grown four batches using a soil medium and switchin to a 4 waterfarm complete module hydroponic system. I was wondering how to transfer my newly sprouted seedling from the rockwool to the module and any more advice/knowledge would be appreciated.
thanks tntoker

 

[HempKat]

100% correct not enough in the water to even worry yourself with but this is the only reason i've ever heard of anyone using it for thats what people down here use it for anyways thats there claim in fact its information passed out freely at hydro stores and these joke of medical marijuana meetups to change the law groups which are only jokes to get there hands at your wallet of course they al want to make money but dont we all
like i said to HEMP KAT i've never heard of it being used to do what he was talking about but aqll them reasons still ar not a reason to pour H2O2 on your plants or into your hydro rez all of them things can all be taken care of with simple style changes or climate changes theres plenty of ways to come up with the same result but hydrogen peroxide isnt the answer especially what people that i know around here use it for everyone of them buys this shit by the gallon from sams club outta the large crowd of medical growers i know not one of them had ever heard of an amended soil before i got here or the ones that had had tossed them out as jokes thinking that no way thast way to hot thats going to fry the plants i'll just keep frying them with these expensive ass salts though outta the tons of people i've tried to introduce true organics to and showed them price differences and how much cheaper it is to use an amended soil they just smile and nod and go home and keep doing the same ole shit outta the few that i've given samples of my soil enough to flower out one plant every single one has come back not for the recipe but for more free dirt thing is they didnt get shit i have no problems giving someone a smaple of 5-10 gallons to flower out a plant with but after you run it that one time you should be able to say wow i need to make me some of that not wow that shit was awesome i'm going to go get some more from Billy i email them the recipe and only one has ever acted on it and changed his process up and doing so increased his yields by 1/2 to one pound every 2 months and he went from soiless dirt and expensive advanced nutes to true organics now we figure we pay around 5 dollars per flower per plant on "nutes" no one can touch that with bottled crap your looking at at least 5 times that i'd say by my friends word anyways this way is at least that much cheaper i dunno i myself have never used bottled anything other than molasses, carbs , and pH adjusters ??? why is it so hard to switch out to somethign so easy i'll never understand people never cease to amaze me

Yes, quite right, all the problems H202 solves can be handled other ways, proactively. Although I wouldn't suggest it's a waste just that it's not something you want to add to your water/nutrient mix everytime. Like I said, it's a tool to be used when needed. I wouldn't say it's totally unneeded because things sometimes do happen and you might find yourself needing it as a quick fix to a root rot issue for example. If so then given the speed with which root rot can develope and cause problems H202 seems like the best solution because it goes to work immediately. Changing one's environment or their routine could also solve the problem but those changes tend to take longer to show in the plants.

Really all I'm trying to stress is that it's not something people should necessarily place in their grow routinely yet people do precisely that with H202 and Epsom Salts. I mean just look in most forums and you'll see people saying things like "You should add hydrogen peroxide..." or "you should add Epsom Salts..." fairly frequently and without enough detail of the problem being given to clearly warrent the advice. Which means people are throwing these things out there like some magic "cure all". I want people to understand that these things have their uses and as such have a place in a grower's arsenol of things to use, but they also have a time, place and reason to be used. Which isn't, all the time, wherever, for no particular reason. I'm also trying to stress not to use things just because someone says, "Well you should use this because I do and it works great" They may be right but never do things blindly, there are so many variables that two or more grows can seem the same and therefore seem like they would benefit from the same additives. Yet in reality the grows are not the same and what ends up being a magic bullet for one ends up being poison to another.

Now if you've done the homework and had your water properly analyzed and you have things in there that H202 can remove and there is no better alternative then sure, go ahead and add it regularly. It's just hydrogen and oxygen so as long as it's diluted in water from being a concentrate it's not going to be harmful.

 

[HempKat]

Whats up Hempkat grown four batches using a soil medium and switchin to a 4 waterfarm complete module hydroponic system. I was wondering how to transfer my newly sprouted seedling from the rockwool to the module and any more advice/knowledge would be appreciated.
thanks tntoker

Well I myself don't know how to advise having never dabbled with hydroponics nor having never worked with rockwool but hopefully one of the other old farts here can step forward and help you. Good luck with your switch, you'll probably like the results if you take to the hydro process, most people do. The ones that usually don't like hydro are those types that just really aren't suited for it. Not everything in this world is for everybody. Some things are better suited for certain people then others. From all I've seen and heard I'd say hydro is more for the grower who likes alot of control and wants a more active role in the growing process. Soil is more for people who don't have the time or patience for hydro and for people who feel Mother Nature does just fine on her own without a bunch of interference from man.

 

[stoNerd]

A friend and I want to set up a quality garden in our new house. We have access to several closets and bedrooms. We want to harvest a total of at least 6oz every month using Hempy method.

A. Is it smarter to set up a hobby sized garden in an enclosed space (i.e. a grow tent) or can one grow quality nug in a wide open space (i.e. the corner of a room). Would it be hard to control odor in the open space, nugs lack density, require more light, etc?

B. How much light/space will I need to harvest 6-8oz every month, and what bulb to use? Will this size setup REQUIRE ventilation? Willing to use 2 6's or 1k lights, whatever the OG who responds recommends.

C. What additives are crucial to your feeding regimen?

..Trying to spend money where it really counts for our first time indoors. Thanks in advance for any reputable advice.

<3 Allie & Sky

 

[oldog]

Q: change night 12/12, to day 12/12 with 3 wks left ?

Q: change night 12/12, to day 12/12 with 3 wks left ?

Now on 8pm to 8am. Its cooling off now plus I'm in no condition, with senility and all, to be working on my plants at night. Some can be reaped in a week to 10 days, some 85% sativas need maybe a month more. (15 wks from seed and just flowering)

Q? - Keep lights off one night, and back on at say 8am till 8pm
on the next day ? ie they will be in the dark 24 hrs from 8am till 8am the next day, for one time... or forget it until this crop is reaped completely?
Problem is I have some overgrown clones that need to go into the 12/12 room soon. The freebie sativas have messed me up. Didnt realize they'd take so long. I could put the clones on shelves in there for 3 weeks if you think the change over will shock the flowering ones.... but that will just delay the problem as I will still
want to change the clones over to daytime for the cooler months.

Thanks

 

[Billy Burroughs]

Now on 8pm to 8am. Its cooling off now plus I'm in no condition, with senility and all, to be working on my plants at night. Some can be reaped in a week to 10 days, some 85% sativas need maybe a month more. (15 wks from seed and just flowering)

Q? - Keep lights off one night, and back on at say 8am till 8pm
on the next day ? ie they will be in the dark 24 hrs from 8am till 8am the next day, for one time... or forget it until this crop is reaped completely?
Problem is I have some overgrown clones that need to go into the 12/12 room soon. The freebie sativas have messed me up. Didnt realize they'd take so long. I could put the clones on shelves in there for 3 weeks if you think the change over will shock the flowering ones.... but that will just delay the problem as I will still
want to change the clones over to daytime for the cooler months.

Thanks

sorry to rain on your sativas and your clones but personally the clones can wait if the sativas are what you want but if the clones are what your wanting now cull the sativas and throw in the clones
personally i'd cull the sativas your not going to get anything spectacular or even worth the time to grow them and 15 weeks of flower time for a sativa is pretty premature typically sativas are 24 week flowers or so
knock yourself out with the sativas if you want but you can't paint yourself into a corner like this bro im understanding that your rooms full of sativas ???
if your set on finishing up your sativas then let them rock just take your clones grow them out as big as you can and a good month or two before you chop them sativas take and chop your clones down and reclone them thus saving your genetics all of them i've never heard of anyone keeping the light off for 24 hour periods and that speeding up the flower process i raise the BS flag

 

[Billy Burroughs]

A friend and I want to set up a quality garden in our new house. We have access to several closets and bedrooms. We want to harvest a total of at least 6oz every month using Hempy method.

A. Is it smarter to set up a hobby sized garden in an enclosed space (i.e. a grow tent) or can one grow quality nug in a wide open space (i.e. the corner of a room). Would it be hard to control odor in the open space, nugs lack density, require more light, etc?

B. How much light/space will I need to harvest 6-8oz every month, and what bulb to use? Will this size setup REQUIRE ventilation? Willing to use 2 6's or 1k lights, whatever the OG who responds recommends.

C. What additives are crucial to your feeding regimen?

..Trying to spend money where it really counts for our first time indoors. Thanks in advance for any reputable advice.

<3 Allie & Sky

i myself dont use bottled nutes i use whats called an ammended soil requires nothing be added to the water but molasses and carbs for the micro herd this is soil gardening for dummies i promise you if you follow the directions you cant fuck this up heres the ingredients

6lbs Bat Guano 0-7-0
6lbs Fish Bone Meal 3-16-0
3lbs Feather Meal 12-0-0
3 2.8 cu.ft. bags of Sunshine mix Organic Blend
2 1.5 cu.ft. bags of my local dro shop soil
azomite handful or so
Calpril Handful or so
1 4cu.ft bag of Big and Chunky Perlite.
2 25# bags of worm shit

now i myself because the sunshine organic blend is very expensive here i use the sunshine #4 bales instead of it 2 bales and beings the sunshine #4 bales have perlite in them already i do not add anymore
and for the bag of soil i use roots organic this is a mix my brother made been using it for 10+ years never had a problem one other than had some pests fungus gnats once and mites once but none of it caused by this soil mix
i just read you want to run this the hempy way and if my memory serves me right these are just deep water culture buckets correct ??? or RDWC something like that personally i advise beginners to stay away from hydro just way to many variables for an inexperienced gardener to be able to pull it off effectively but the sun does shine on a hogs ass every now n again
in a grow tent your not going to save yourself any money using one of these in fact i have had nothing but problems with them temperature and humidity but an enclosed garden i think would best suit your needs if your going to grow in an open room you need to hang enough lights to light up that open room and a properly light garden should have 50 watts per sq foot of floor space so for instance my flower room is 10' x 6' which equals 60 sq feet multiply that by 50 and you get 3000 so to properly light up my garden i need to hang 3 1000 watt lights or 5 600 watt lights and so on
so unless you want to hang a whole lotta lights and you got the cash like that to buy the lights let alone run them i say go for it personally i like to take a bedroom and split it in half or frame off one of its corners and the window and framing the walls to include the window in the room is done for the purpose of installing a window ac unit i run a 12k btu unit in my room and never get over 68 degrees with 3 vented hoods
i also prefer a sealed room because i use co2 and dont like to throw money away if its not sealed and your using co2 obviously your never going to reach that 1200-1500 ppm you desire and i would suggest co2 but thats preference i suppose i say it's necessity
with the amounts your wanting to pull down i'd suggest a small stick framed room i set these up in rentals and when i leave the landlord never knows it was there but then again im also a finish carpenter so building my room is very easy for me and much better than a tent plus your probablly going to save yourself money by building the room yourself so maybe something like 4' x 5' and hang one 1000 watt light i used to run 6 plants in a 4' x 6' area and harvest about a pound every two months your more than welcome to my albums nothing spectacular but pictures speak for themselves
as for ventilation a room this size is not going to need ventilation as long as you have a vented hood and an air conditioner as for an ac unit if it wasnt at least 10k btu i wouldnt even waste my money them 100 dollar jobies might do great up in alaska where it never gets over 70 degrees anyways but here in vegas i can tell you that them lil things just dont cut the mustard if you live in a warm climate your going to need a decent sized ac unit period i've seen guys down here block off all the vents for the house ac unit except for the one in the grow room problem here is that the thermostat for these big house ac units is typically located in a common area so this ac unit just sits there cranking away never shutting down because where the thermostat is it's saying it's 100 degrees but it's set to turn off at 65 it never does because that thermostat never sees that temp now talk about a high power bill your ac unit you want to run lights on and lights off
vent your hood and you should be good to go i'll say it again STAY AWAY FROM HYDRO learn to grow pot first then start being a hobby gardener theres just to many variables n hydro for someone with little to no experience to remain on top of that and wow look at that price tag DWC buckets from what i've been told are a real pain in the ass doing res changes and what not you have to mix up a res for however many buckets you got going so that means you really should have twice as many buckets as you got plants
if i'm mistake about the hempy method please someone yell at me im old well not that old but i've fired a lot of machine guns n thats a fact thanx to uncle sam and the USMC
but hey this is your movie there man you direct and edit it how ever you want the soil mix i posted there a buddy of mine done the math and he says its around 5 bucks a flower per plant if you can beat that with chemicals show me the light
yes chemicals hydro nutes are all chemicals only thing that makes them organic if they claim to be is the fact that the first molecule in there molecular structure is carbon this dirt however is nothing but organic
the name brnads i use for my ammendments are down to earth and then the earth worm castings wiggle worm this odesnt really matter as long as the products your using are somewhat close to the same in the mix you just mix it all together real well and i store mine in 3 45 gallon rubbermaid totes they get 5 gallons of water poured into each tote once its filled with dirt and then the lid is put on and they are left to compost for 2-3 months before use however this mix can be used straight from the bags mixed thoroughly of course will not burn anything
but just as HEMPY KAT pointed out there what works in my garden might be poison in yours do some research dont just take any ole persons word for it talk is cheap and icmag is free so on that note wish you luck and hope this helped you out sorry cant help you with the hydros the only things i know about it is what i've read i have no first hand experiences with it and probably never will this dirt is just to fricking easy and if its somethign you plan on giving a shot by all means fire away with the questions water water water water water oh ya did i mention water and molasses and carbs i'm a firm believer in K.I.S.S. keep it simple stupid

 

[Billy Burroughs]

uh actually im going to take that back the part about you cant fuck this up because i'm sure theres at least one guy out there that would theres always that 10% good luck and hope the best for you
just being honest with the hydro your probably going to fail 3 or more times before you get anything outta that hydro i've seen to many people make this mistake in fact most the people here in las vegas make that mistake run down buy a hydro setup for 3-4 grand without lights and then dont got a clue how to use it properly but your the chief over there bud
and deffinatelly if its tight dank nuggets you want then co2 is going to be your best friend dont buy a co2 generator think they put off heat just run co2 bottles and a regulator on a simple plug in timer attach the hose that comes with the regulator to the regulator then attach it to the back side of your oscillating fan presto you just made a 1200 dollar co2 setup for about 300 bucks but if the sniffer and controller is something you wanna waste money on go for it boss it's your money and no one can tell you how to spend it not even me

 

[Billy Burroughs]

ok ok so i went and looked at the hempy buckets ebb n flo so your going to need a table somewhere for this water to drain to becasue that mix there is going to hold very little water but looks easy enough easier than krusty buckets but i thought they were the same i suppose almost both super simple but this super dank your looking for your not going to get outta them chemicals i can assure you of that and i wouldnt even run something like this without co2 i'd have to have something in there thats going to ensure growth like HEMPYKAT and i pointed out in earlier posts dont take one threads word for it dont be afraid to do some research hell dont be afraid to even do some research off this forum and onto some others this isnt the only stop
more of my advice is somewhat based on scietific facts but mostly on my expierences and my brothers he statred this whole deal of growing and i watched him for years struggle trying to grow hydro and always had good light solid room co2 the works and at first he was running them single buckets that you hook an aquarium pump to the top part is a terra cotta color then the bottom one is beige the water percs up this tube and drips out this circle around the stalk of your plant and in 2 years he only got one plat that even made it to flower but didnt make it long enough to finish now all he runs is hydro ebb and flo with smart pots and coc more less same kinda thing your trying to do but he has a 4' x 8' table that his smart pots sit in which the medium is coco and he uses house and garden nutes and simply this is why house and garden is the only nutrient manufacturer that actually gives out a calculator of sort it has this program on there home page that will tell you exactally how much of what to add and at what week for your rez change these hempy buckets dont have any kinda return pump to flod the table they sit on or do they just sit in drip trays the clear cheap ones ???
i dunno man if your stuck on this hempy method than balls out man but dont set your hopes to high growing in the soiless ix i use i have a wide range of pH that my plants will be 100% comfortable in i can get as low as hydro tables or as high as regular dirt grow it's just so forgiving thats why i said that this was almost fool proof like i recanted and said theres always that 10% cant follow anyones directions for shit they all want some kinda claim to fame or some shit for inventing there way or whatever the case may be big truck lil dick syndrome i'm not a scientist nor do i know enough about what all nutrients that are imperative to plant growth i do know that it dont really matter to me because it's all in that soil mix theres no reason to be mixing anything in jugs just pour damn water on it i use RO water so during veg i do supplement my water with a tad bit of epsom salts on occasion only during veg though never ever have i had to add nitrogen other than my first crop i thought it needed it but come to find out it was just root bound and adding that one shot of nitrogen really screwed this plant up well not really it flowered and all but every other plant was yellowed out and what not the one that got the bio bizz bio grow added to it one time was so damn green i refuse to ever put nitrogen on veg plants let alone any nute if your soil is good enough quality when you buy it you shouldnt have to add anythign to it it should have more than enough food in it to last for 2 months if not 3 or 4 i use roots organic myself and have never had an issue i run my rooms cool and with lots of air movement i put about a 1000 cfm fan in my room to move air very effective this same fan distributes my co2 once again very effective it's strong enough to make sure the whole garden gets hosed with it
with co2 you want it to kinda arch over the top of your plants so that when it starts to fall it falls right into your leafs and it will fall beings it is heavier than our atmosphere
like i said if your dead set on hempy buckets then thats what it is i'd almost promise you your going to alot more happier with an amended soil and co2 on average i pull down about 5 ounces per plant typically a smal plant is roughly 4 ounces a big one is in the range of 8 ounces never gotten anymore than a smidge over 8 ounces off one plant i've done it more than once but havent yet beat that the grow i got nailed with was a monster comparatively to what i was doing started out as 6 plants doing 3/4 to one pound got up to 12 flowering and pulling down 3 pounds at least with 3 1000 watt lights so it's possible the rom dimensions i gave you and what not and the light all thats going to remain the same weather you do the hempy thing or not 50 WATTS PER SQ FOOT OF YOUR ROOM ANYTHING LESS AND YOUR ONLY SCREWING YOURSELF
and one other thign i wanted to say do not buy 600 watt lights these are the biggest scam out there they put off no where near as much light as they claim you hang up a 1000 watt light and then hang up a 600 watt preferabblly in a large shop or warehouse and stand back as far as you can get and i will promise you that 1000 watt light is going to make that 600 watt look like childs play personally i'd run a 400 watt lamp before a 600 and i'd only run that in say my veg area atm i only got 4 foot shop light but with 3 lights and co2 pumping in that bad boy i do quite well for what i got i have friends that have alot more equipment tha i ever had and still couldnt pull off more than 24 ounces a grow and these guys are running 3-4 1000 watt lights you can run out and be a cheap skate or you can be reasonable and get god quality equipment for good prices or you can be a total dumb ass and buy the most expensive shit out there it's not going to make you any better of a grower i'd also suggest saving yourself some money and time and unless you plan on buying a lumatek digital ballast i'd just stick with magnetic ballasts from what eye hortilux claims that these digital ballasts ruin there bulbs because they are set to run at 60 mHz the bulb is but these digital ballasts put out 120 mHz the responses i got back from eye hortilux themselves was that mor less dont wate your money on digital ballasts til the rest of the technology catches up and LED lights dont even waste your money hippy tinkering bullshit at least the name brand UFO lights do not work at all are a complete joke all they done to my plants was stunt there growth and bleach out the leaves i put them under the 1000 watt lights and 10 days later the bleached leafs had died and good new green stuff was growing back well GL to ya man amended soil your going to get the highest quality of medicine from hands down sure hydro grows faster and yields more but that doesnt mean its going to be better i only know one hydro gardener i'll even smoke his weed my brother and trust you me if it was shit i'd tell him so we dont sit around yanking each others puds only makes you a better farmer from learnig from your mistakes

 

[Billy Burroughs]

i forgot to put the web address up for the house and garden nute lines calculator that tells you everything you need to feed every week for your rez changes my brother grows just a good of medicine as i do but he grows hydro and follows this calculator to the tee does not deviate from it not only that but by going cheap skate and not buying the additives isnt going to give you the results your desiring this will tell you everything you need to run whatever nute line of theres you choose and you pick your rez size and so on and so on once again making this almost dummy proof if you can read i'd say at an 8th grade lvl you can follow these instructions very easily and if you can read and comprehend this then your overly qualified to understand this nute calculator well heres the web address for it i got 2 4' x 8' tables sooner or later ill get one going but i'm in no rush for all that now ok sop heres that addy i promised and hope ypu al find this helpful as well have a good one

http://www.house-garden.us/nutrient-calculator/

 

[straintester]

Thought I'd stop in and see how the old farts are doing

But

I'll never catch up

 

[HempKat]

A friend and I want to set up a quality garden in our new house. We have access to several closets and bedrooms. We want to harvest a total of at least 6oz every month using Hempy method.

A. Is it smarter to set up a hobby sized garden in an enclosed space (i.e. a grow tent) or can one grow quality nug in a wide open space (i.e. the corner of a room). Would it be hard to control odor in the open space, nugs lack density, require more light, etc?

B. How much light/space will I need to harvest 6-8oz every month, and what bulb to use? Will this size setup REQUIRE ventilation? Willing to use 2 6's or 1k lights, whatever the OG who responds recommends.

C. What additives are crucial to your feeding regimen?

..Trying to spend money where it really counts for our first time indoors. Thanks in advance for any reputable advice.

<3 Allie & Sky

Well it's possible to hit your target with as small a light as a 400W HID. Most growers can get at least an ounce out of most plants. In fact 2 ounces per plant is probably a better average, although yield is also determined by strain (some strains yield more then others). At one ounce per plant though you only need 8 plants to reach your target harvest rate. That's once every 2 months though, so to get that much every month you would need twice as many plants with half of them staggered to harvest a month before the other which is what some would call a perpetual harvest (although typically a true perpetual harvest will usually have some plants harvesting every week). The problem with this way is that it's going to require the most amount of work and involvement. In my opinion it would be better to shoot more for a pound every two months which for that you would need more like a 1000W. I use a 1000W and get 1.5lbs (dried, cured, trimmed bud) out of a 5'x 8'x8' space fairly routinely.

Now I've never used a grow tent and some of them have a known issue that can affect your plants from reports I've seen. You would be better off for security reasons to just use a room or closet where you can shut and if need be, lock the door. You could go either way and use a closet or section off a corner of a bigger room. If you go with a bigger room you can maximize the light by enclosing the designated grow space with hanging sheets of mylar. This will keep the light trapped in that space but allow the heat to move out into the rest of the room. Using a smaller room your temps will rise quicker but the fan need to properly ventilate the space will be able to be smaller then the size fan that would be needed for a larger room. On the other hand a larger room is going to take longer to heat up and will probably have vents for the house's AC to help in the summer. A bigger room will still require a bigger fan though to ventilate the room properly. The bigger room won't require more light unless you try to use all of the room. If you do like I was saying about enclosing a corner of the room in hanging sheets of mylar then you could use the same size light as you might use in a closet. The buds should be the same, maybe even a little better in the bigger room because you should be able to keep the environment more friendly to the plants. Odor control isn't really going to be different, in both cases your best bet would be a carbon scrubber, you might need a slightly bigger one for the bigger room. As for which size grow is smarter, that all depends on what works best for you. Given your requirements you could probably go either way and so your choice should be more dictated by if you need those rooms or closets for other things.

As far as how much light/space to use. Well if you had two closets that each could give you a 4 by 6 space to grow in. And you want to go with the harvest every month approach, I would reccommend using two closets each with either one 400W or one 600W. One room for veg, one for flower. You will require ventilation unless you go with a closed sealed room supplied with CO2 from a tank. I wouldn't mess with that though for a small personal grow op. Ventilation is mostly for temp/humidity control but it also replenishes the natural CO2 levels in the air which plants need like we need oxygen. If you don't have ventilation your plants won't breath as well and will do poorly compared to with ventilation. Having two rooms will make it easier to have plants ready to go into flower when you harvest the ones coming out so that you can maintain your once a month harvest goal. If you're going to be doing a perpetual harvest you'll really need to be working from clones to make staying on schedule easier. So a third space might be worth considering for keeping mothers for clones and getting new clones ready for the veg room. If you go that route you can get by with fluorescent lights for the clone area.

What addatives are crucial depends on what style you grow. If you grow in soil you'll need certain things and if you grow in hydro you'll need certain things but not always the same things. Also it depends on whether you go organic or not. For example in organic style growing you usually want to grow in soil and encourage the developement of what's called a bio-herd. A bio herd is a community of micro organisms that exist in the root zone and form a symbiotic relationship with the plants. The plants share with them the starches,sugars and proteins it creates from photosynthesis and in return the bio-herd helps break down the organic nutrients so the plant can digest it easier/quicker. They also help the roots resist disease and they increase the plant's ability to take in fluids by expanding the reach of the roots. A good additive for encouraging the bio-herd is blackstrap molasses and it also has some micro nutrients the plants can benefit from. This would be unneeded in a grow using chemical nutrients as those don't need to be broken down before the plant can take them in. In general you need a fertalizer that has an NPK high in Nitrogen but low in potassium and Phosperous to use in veg. That's because veg growth uses mostly nitrogen. In flower you want a fertalizer that's low in Nitrogen but high in Phosperous and somewhat high in potassium as those are the things need most for good bud growth. Too much nitrogen in flower can actually slow down growth and thereby reduce yields. You also need a source for micronutrients. Some fartalizers have this built in or you can buy products like Earthjuice Micro Blast which is a supplement of just the micronutrients plants use. You probably will need an additional source for calcium and magnesium as marijuana uses a fair amount of those two things but many of the fertalizers don't contain enough of that. In soil this can be accomplished with what is known as dolomite lime or garden lime/ In addition to adding a slow release source of calcium and magnesium it also helps to keep your ph at a good level.

One last thing as you talked about spending money where it really counts. In my opinion the number one place to fucus your attention on spending money is in equipment. Good reliable equipment might be more expensive then cheaper equipment but what it doesn't save you in the short term it will save you in the long term. Cutting corners on equipment and runnning with ghetto style jury rigged equipment is an accident waiting to happen that can run crops, burn down homes and even endanger lives in extreme situations. Until your growroom is set and you're comfortable with it, do all your budget buying in nutrients and the like. Cheap nutrients usually aren't that much worse then the expensive brands and some are even as good as some expensive brands. Once you got the equipment set though then you can play around with the nutrients, unless of course cost isn't a huge factor. If you can afford quality all the way down the line then go for it. If you need to cut corners though, don't do it on the equipment.

 

[HempKat]

Now on 8pm to 8am. Its cooling off now plus I'm in no condition, with senility and all, to be working on my plants at night. Some can be reaped in a week to 10 days, some 85% sativas need maybe a month more. (15 wks from seed and just flowering)

Q? - Keep lights off one night, and back on at say 8am till 8pm
on the next day ? ie they will be in the dark 24 hrs from 8am till 8am the next day, for one time... or forget it until this crop is reaped completely?
Problem is I have some overgrown clones that need to go into the 12/12 room soon. The freebie sativas have messed me up. Didnt realize they'd take so long. I could put the clones on shelves in there for 3 weeks if you think the change over will shock the flowering ones.... but that will just delay the problem as I will still
want to change the clones over to daytime for the cooler months.

Thanks

What plants key off of to determine when to flower, is the length of the dark period. So in my opinion, to avoid stress, it's best to allow the lights out period to always stay an undisturbed 12 hour period. Basically when it's dark the plant senses this and it causes an enzyme or hormone to be produced. Once that enzyme or hormone hits a certain level from it being dark long enough, the plant is triggered to switch to flower. I don't know for a fact that too much of this enzyme or hormone being present is bad but I figure why risk it? Since the plant keys off of dark periods it really has no sense of time length for light periods. In theory you could leave a light on for 48 hours in between 2 12 hour dark periods and the plant would see that 48 hours of light as nothing more then a single day or light period.

So based on that when I make the switch like you're talking about I just let the lights on period run an hour longer to get to 9am and then turn the light out and set the timer for the new adjusted 12 hour period. But see in my case I keep the lights on at night so the lights out is in the day. That's because if I let lights out be at night in the winter, then my grow room gets too cold. Anyway for your situation you should be able to just leave the lights on however long you need to, to get to the appropriate start of the new dark period you want to establish and then turn the light out and update your timer accordingly.

Personally though I wouldn't do any changes now unless you're fairly confident the weather in your area will stay cool and mild from here on out. Where I'm at it can stay warm all the way until October sometimes so I usually just wait until Daylight Savings Time to shitch from 8-8 to 9-9

 

[HempKat]

Thought I'd stop in and see how the old farts are doing

But

I'll never catch up

I wouldn't even try if you mean reading the whole thread, this thread dates back to 2006 when it was started and things in this type of on going general help thread have a way of getting repeated over and over. I'd say you need go back no more the a dozen or so pages from the end to get a good idea where we're at now.

 

[straintester]

I wouldn't even try if you mean reading the whole thread, this thread dates back to 2006 when it was started and things in this type of on going general help thread have a way of getting repeated over and over. I'd say you need go back no more the a dozen or so pages from the end to get a good idea where we're at now.

No I was meaning the last few posts but it looks interesting enough and probably is , if the thread has been there for that long.
Now I don't feel so bad about some of my long winded posts
I'll read up.

for the suggestion.

 

[Billy Burroughs]

No I was meaning the last few posts but it looks interesting enough and probably is , if the thread has been there for that long.
Now I don't feel so bad about some of my long winded posts
I'll read up.

for the suggestion.

lol ya ya ya i gotta bad habit of going on n on n on
i got alot to say and horrible grammar what can i say
it's not bad advice is it ???

 

[Billy Burroughs]

One last thing as you talked about spending money where it really counts. In my opinion the number one place to fucus your attention on spending money is in equipment. Good reliable equipment might be more expensive then cheaper equipment but what it doesn't save you in the short term it will save you in the long term. Cutting corners on equipment and runnning with ghetto style jury rigged equipment is an accident waiting to happen that can run crops, burn down homes and even endanger lives in extreme situations. Until your growroom is set and you're comfortable with it, do all your budget buying in nutrients and the like. Cheap nutrients usually aren't that much worse then the expensive brands and some are even as good as some expensive brands. Once you got the equipment set though then you can play around with the nutrients, unless of course cost isn't a huge factor. If you can afford quality all the way down the line then go for it. If you need to cut corners though, don't do it on the equipment.

oh ya i caqnt stress this enough dont waste your money on cheap equipment you'll be back buying it again but dont splurge on the most expensive either just because it's 1000 bucks and this ones 400 doesnt mean that the 1000 dollar one is better its just more expensive
i want to say one thing here about dolomite lime say for instance i am forced to use it i add a small amount of epsom salts to my soil as well
but dolomite breaks down very very very slowly it comes in a pebble shape round and just hard as a rock take probablly a year or two for them to break completely down this is just a guess so it is very slow releasing it's not a right now fix it's something you'd want to toss into your soil and let compost for a few months then use the soil
myself to avoid using dolomite lime and or epsom salts i use a product called Calpril it dissolves instantlly upon water touching it so it can be a right now fix if need be nevaer have need it to be because even with this i let my soils compost always for at least 2 months
100% equipment equipment equipment i cant stress it enough for instance i brought up RO water filters you can buy a cheapie but your going to pay for it in your water bills or you can go out and spend 500 bucks on a merlin and run your RO like it was never there thus saving you the extra money you'd spend using the cheap 100-200 GPD models which then pays for the merlin once its paid for money in your pocket ??? thast up to you myself i put back into my gardens till theres just nothing more i can do other than wait for something to break

 

[straintester]

lol ya ya ya i gotta bad habit of going on n on n on
i got alot to say and horrible grammar what can i say
it's not bad advice is it ???

Thats ok. I have it bad too.
You just have it worse than me....lol
No it does seem like you know what you are talking about.
I just have to copy paste and read a bit more to add anything beneficial besides my wisecracks

I meant no offence.