Wanna Ask The Old Farts A Question?

[HempKat]

i am planing a ebb/flow hydro setup, and have some questions.
-is rockwool the best medium for hydro, and do you have to fasten them to the table, if not wont they tip over?
how long should the table flood, i guess it depends on how often you flood, is there any guidelines?
if you sprout a plant from seed, how long until you can take a clone, how small can they be, and still have a good chance of survival?

I can't really answer your hydro questions because I lack the experience in hydro but hopefully someone will be along shortly to answer that aspect.

Now as for your cloning question. Well probably after about a month you could maybe start getting clones off a plant from seed but the problem will be that the plant will not have shown sex yet so you could end up taking clones of males which might not be what you want. It would be better to wait until the plant from seed shows it's sex (usually around 1.5 to 2 months of growth) and then take your clones. If the mother is fully matured when the clones are taken then the clones will be fully mature once they develope roots and therefore will not need as much veg time as a seedling.

 

[Protea]

Tanks Hempkat.
but the main thing regarding the plants in question is to select a mum, and i only have fore more or less OK ones, from a pack of ten. and only two of them might give a few tiny clones right now.

 

[HempKat]

Tanks Hempkat.
but the main thing regarding the plants in question is to select a mum, and i only have fore more or less OK ones, from a pack of ten. and only two of them might give a few tiny clones right now.

Well personally, and this is just the way I do things. I believe it's most important to let seedlings mature fully by allowing them an 8 week veg period. In most cases your plants should show pre-flowers determining sex, while still in veg. That way when you take clones you'll know what you're taking. I also feel it's less stressful on the seedling to be allowed to mature first before cloning and since you only got a few out of 10 it sounds like they're already having a tough time.

Now you don't have to do that, you can give it just a month like I said and take clones then but you won't know the sex yet (unless of course they're feminized). Since you don't know the sex you'll have to flower either at least one clone of each of the original seed plants you took the clones from, to determine if you have males or females. It's been my experience though that flowering immature plants takes longer for the plant to show sex because it's like the plant needs to finish maturing first before it can show flowers. So it ends up taking almost as long if not a bit longer, then just giving your plants 8 weeks of veg and having them pre-flower on their own. Of course some strains are stubburn and won't show sex until you put them in flower which you can always still do if waiting 8 weeks didn't do it and since the plants are fully mature they should start showing their sex within a week of two of switching to flower.

 

[Tweexican]

I had to alter my flowering cycle a bit because of a visit from the landlord. I was running it from 6PM - 6AM and had to cut the cycle short 2 hours and changed it to 4PM-4AM. I am wondering if it will affect things too much to disrupt the cycle one last time to get some things moved if I turn the lights on an hour early, but adjust the time back an hour. For instance, I'll be turning the lights on at 3PM and run them till 3am.

Love you guys.

 

[HempKat]

I had to alter my flowering cycle a bit because of a visit from the landlord. I was running it from 6PM - 6AM and had to cut the cycle short 2 hours and changed it to 4PM-4AM. I am wondering if it will affect things too much to disrupt the cycle one last time to get some things moved if I turn the lights on an hour early, but adjust the time back an hour. For instance, I'll be turning the lights on at 3PM and run them till 3am.

Love you guys.

As long as you make sure it's the light period that gets interupted or altered and the dark period remains a steady 12 hours you should be fine. What triggers flowering is not the length of the light period but the length of the dark period. When it's dark the grow tips create hormone or enzyme or something that when it reaches a certain level it triggers flowering. If it drops below 12 hours then not enough of this hormone or enzyme is created and the plant tries to revert back to veg which is stressful to plants and can cause hermies. That's why it's so important to not have light leaks because even just the light from one candle can be enough to disrupt the cycle.

If you change the light period and leave the dark period at 12 hours you should be fine and the only possible effect is your plants will grow slightly less that day then they would have otherwise.

 

[Tweexican]

I dont want to start a debate about light anomalies causing hermies, but isn't it true that genetics predetermines whether a plant is prone to hermying?

 

[johnbobit]

what is best temp to store your seeds when using the paper towel method to germ?

 

[HempKat]

I dont want to start a debate about light anomalies causing hermies, but isn't it true that genetics predetermines whether a plant is prone to hermying?

Yeah just as genetics in humans determines whether or not one is more prone to catching colds. Still whether a human is more or less prone to catch a cold, they can still catch one.

Same with plants, a plant with the hermie gene in it thru breeding is more prone to going hermie then the a plant that didn't have the hermie gene in it. Although it isn't just the genes it's also a matter of environment and a plant going hermie is just a response to environment. In other words a seed produced by a hermied plant will be more prone to produce a hermied plant but if given the right environment (stress free) it won't. Likewise a seed from parents that never hermied is likely going to be more resistent to going hermie but if given the right conditions it will.

The thing is like in the cold example with humans, it's not strictly a matter of genetics but also a matter of environment.

 

[HempKat]

what is best temp to store your seeds when using the paper towel method to germ?

I generally keep mine around 78-80 degrees F although I don't know that to be the best but for me it has worked out well.

 

[Tweexican]

I generally keep mine around 78-80 degrees F although I don't know that to be the best but for me it has worked out well.

I was always told 10-15 degrees higher than ambient air temps

 

[crunchy]

So basically the the fuzz are not going to pick it up? I ask to avoid being caught.Im afraid the consumption is a dead give away. :-(

Does it register as a high output device or do three 100w std bulbs use the same?
for example when my std light bulb says 100w like an incandesant does that mean it uses the same kind of electricity or does a hps show up kinda thing?

I dont know the best way to ask this so if you feel my beats (which i hope).

Namaste

Yes it is the same kind of electricity , watts are watts..
A 250watt is nothing, your computer consumes at least or more then that.

 

[gsmoked]

hey hey how is everyone i havent been on for a while and nothing really much happening since my last harvest i have one roadrunner 3 weeks into flower although i am now using a 250 watt hps and for my next grow im looking for a big yeild maybe try 2 ak47 or some easyriders , i know dutch passion are very good seeds but anyways here is my question , for best results how many autos can i grow under a 250 hps many thanks

 

[johnbobit]

Should they be in complete darkness when popping beens or does a little bit of light help?

 

[HempKat]

I was always told 10-15 degrees higher than ambient air temps

Well my ambient temps in the growroom area tend to be around 78 degrees F and 10 - 15 above that puts temps near or in the 90's which is definately too warm in my opinion. Now when I'm in a place where the ambient temps are more like 70 - 72 then I do try to warm them a bit by putting whatever container I'm germinating them in either on top of my PC in the back near the power supply or if you have a CRT style monitor or TV setting it on the part that sticks out in the back while it's running has worked well for me in the past. In those examples I'd estimate the PC or TV raises the ambient 70 - 72 up to around 78-80.

 

[HempKat]

Yes it is the same kind of electricity , watts are watts..
A 250watt is nothing, your computer consumes at least or more then that.

Crunchy is right, the typical gaming PC loaded with memory and multi core processors and high end video cards use about 500 to 600W.

The rule of thumb is for every bedroom in a house you can run a 1000W HID with no worries of showing suspicious consumption. Think of all the electrical devices you might find used by the occupant of each bedroom, stereos, tvs, PC's, Game Consoles, Chargers for phones, blackberries, laptops, etc. 1000W per bedroom is nothing.

When they're checking electric bills they're generally looking for these daredevil growers running 10 or more 1000W HIDs in a home, basically using the whole house as a growroom.

 

[MagicChef]

Hey there... Quick question for ya's regarding rust disease, and how youve been able to deal with it. Im in a region where it is common and it has gotten me the last 3 grows in flower ultimately ending in nut. lockout. Ive heard of sulphur burning helping a bit but m grow in a tent and exhaust out into ambiet air so I cant burn sulphur...any ideas?

 

[HempKat]

hey hey how is everyone i havent been on for a while and nothing really much happening since my last harvest i have one roadrunner 3 weeks into flower although i am now using a 250 watt hps and for my next grow im looking for a big yeild maybe try 2 ak47 or some easyriders , i know dutch passion are very good seeds but anyways here is my question , for best results how many autos can i grow under a 250 hps many thanks

Well it depends on your space and what style of growing you're doing. If you want to grow average bush style then I'd say 2-3. If you went Screen Of Green style I'd say 2-4. If you went SOG style then maybe somewhere in the 12-16 range but it would depend on the dimension of the space. If you're wanting to get the best yield possible out of the small a light I'd say go with the ScrOG or SOG styles.

Since they're autos SOG is probably not a good choice because it's best to do those with clones and autos I believe are difficult to clone? Other then that though the fact they're autos shouldn't matter much. Autos tend to be short from the ruderalis in them but that should work to your advantage using a low wattage HID.

 

[HempKat]

Should they be in complete darkness when popping beens or does a little bit of light help?

While they're in the paper towel and you're waiting for a tap root to show you want them in the dark. Once the tap root shows and you plant it in whatever medium you're using then you can have it dark or light until it sprouts above the surface. Generally when I plant seeds I put them under a light that's running 18/6 and leave it there until I put it in flower.

 

[HempKat]

Hey there... Quick question for ya's regarding rust disease, and how youve been able to deal with it. Im in a region where it is common and it has gotten me the last 3 grows in flower ultimately ending in nut. lockout. Ive heard of sulphur burning helping a bit but m grow in a tent and exhaust out into ambiet air so I cant burn sulphur...any ideas?

Well rust disease is basically a fungus attack on your plant. As is true with most fungus the conditions best for it is areas where there's lots of moisture and poor air circulation. So you should look into whether or not your'e over watering your plants and/or need to improve your air circulation/ventilation. Not overwatering and having good air movement is the key to preventing alot of plant health issues. Once you got it though you basically need to remove infected areas as soon as you spot it, this will help to prevent it from spreading and improve the plant's odds at surviving. Ultimately the surest way of defeating fungus is with a fungicide but I wouldn't want to be using fungicides on anything I have in flower unless maybe it was early on in flower and there was enough time for anything harmful to work it's way out of the plant.

 

[Asmodeus]

Odor control and humidity

Odor control and humidity

Hi all first post here!
I've had some difficulties finding any definitive answers on odour control:
would something like this (proxyfied link) be ok for 6 ladies in a closet?
Mind you, my goal is to have absolutely ZERO smell in the room, not just making sure the cop next door can't smell it.
Maybe some smaller ionizers would be ok too? I don't plan on growing 4K48 or any other strong smelling variety.

Also, I would like to know what is the min and max % humidity for safely growing the ladies, and if a DIY 40w TEC cooler glued to a metal plate should be enough to dry the air of a single room to acceptable levels or at least the closet (I'm planning about 45m3/hour airflow with a silent 12cm PC fan). Just so you know, outdoor humidity can easily go over 80% in here and I got no AC or heating (meh, I'm poor as fuck )

Thanks in advance.