Post your grow regimen and share ideas!

I've been a member of this community for over 6 years now going on my 7th and I feel like I need to give back to RIU for all the has been given to me.

When I was a young buck trying to learn how this growing stuff worked, I knew very little and the hydro shop was very confusing to me (still is sometimes). I went through a lot of trial and error as I have only 1 acquaintance I know that grows medically and we don't see eye to eye on methods to insure the end result is quality, so RIU is really my only sanctuary for reliable information from proven growers that know their shit.

I've heard a lot of people get really secretive about their grow style and to this I ask, why? I want every growing enthusiast from tomato growers to cannabis growers to know it can be done with a little dedication, some proper equipment, and a good buddy like RIU to keep ya on the right track when a growing issue pops up.

My first grow was tragedy of epic proportions. You may even be able to find my photos from 6 years ago floating around here somewhere and it's outright shameful what I grew, but I did learn from that experience. I grew in hempy buckets with perlite and vermiculite at a 1:3 ratio in little 3 gallon dollar store trash cans with the hempy hole drilled out about 3" up from the bottom of the bucket for drainage, creating the passive hydro reservoir at the bottom of the bucket.

I couldn't afford a digital PH meter which is a must in hydro, so I used the shitty $8 bottle kit at the detriment of my grow and efforts. I couldn't afford a proper light, so I had 2 rewired 150W HPS industrial lights I got off econolight.com and put them parallel together inside a hollowed out dresser cabinet (gangster, I know), using $1 baking pans from the dollar store as my reflector (don't get jealous).

I then purchased "The recipe for success" kit from techna flora at my local hydro shop. It had something like 10 or 12 different bottles and brother let me tell ya, I used every damn one. You can imagine my results, yes? Burned crunchy leaves on all 3 plants, hermaphrodite on another, and utter devastation that I did not have any smoke-able pot in the end. I did however learn from this experience.

Now being in good 'ol Michigan, I'm legally able to grow medical cannabis for my wife, so I thought I'd better do this right this time.

I sold my ps3 and bought a secret jardin dr120 grow tent for $186 (approximately). My wife's former caregiver gave me a 600w HPS htgsupply digital ballast, hood, and light bulb. I then used my old S&P td-125 inline fan from my previous failed grow and attached a carbon filter to it which cooled my light as well as filtered my exhaust air and provided the negative pressure (tent walls suck in) to bring constant fresh air in. It was beautiful until I got into a summer grow and then I had to separately air cool my light with yet another inline fan (400CFM).

Everything in my environment was good now. At this point, I realized I knew nothing about plant nutrition or what even makes a plant grow. I went with something simple this time which was the general hydroponics 3 part flora series grow, micro, and bloom. I also added floralicous plus but only as a watering additive, not as a foliar (using as a foliar now also).

I grew 4 plants in 5 gallon buckets with fox farm ocean forest. I started in too large of pots so growth was very slow initially but the grow went well with no pests to speak of and the harvest was great. I did have an unidentified problem around week 4 or 5 which presented itself on my next 3 grows as well which turned out to simply be a cal-mag deficiency that I didn't know how to recognize or even address before. Now I give a few hits of cal-mag throughout the plant's life cycle and I keep an eye out for purple stems or leaf mottling / curling up and all has been well again.

My next grow after the previous, I got mites and I got them bad. Week 4 of flowering 5 blue dream's (amazing strain), I noticed my canopy leaves had something going on as if I had light burn but it couldn't be light burn because my light was safely far enough away. 2 or 3 days later not knowing what I was dealing with, I opened my tent to find fucking webs allover my buds on one plant and a few small ones on my other 4. I went into freakout mode and bought all sorts of stupid products that did save my grow, but looking back I now know what to look for in mite damaged leaves as well as how to handle them in a safe and effective manner should they ever pop up again.

My current grow, I finally have the perpetual grow that I always wanted and I have everything dialed in perfectly utilizing a mother / veg tent and a flower tent with carbon scrubbers on both. I have a beautiful t-5 in my veg / clone tent and the same 600w HPS with a nicely upgraded hood with a brand new hortilux bulb (first time using one).

I have now began to refine the little things that make life easier for the cannabis grower (or tomato grower).

I have a 15 gallon tub I bought from lowe's that I fill with tap water (no R.O. yet). I have an air pump connected to 2 air lines and 2 air stones that sit in the tub and keep the water oxygenated while the chlorine evaporates off over the following 24 hours, so I don't kill any beneficial microorganisms that are in my rhizosphere (root zone). This has worked very well and makes my life easier.

I hate measuring nutrients, so I made that easier on myself. I got 12 hobbyist squeeze bottles with caps (8oz I think) and I filled them all with the products I use. I got a little shot glass measuring cup (available at any grow shop or online) that has teaspoons and ML's on the side for easy measuring. A little squeeze on my bottle into the shot glass and I'm good to go. Less mess and easy measuring.

I keep all my squeeze bottles placed directly in front of the original bottles they belong to and are labeled accordingly, so there are no mix ups and I can always reference the bottle if I'm unsure of something.

I have an old computer desk with closing flaps on the front that I use as my grow equipment station. All my nutrients are lined up accordingly in order of application. Micro (always first), Grow, Bloom, and Sea Green (beneficial microbes).

I have cal-mag on standby, floralicious plus for foliar (I like to rotate floralicoius and sea green which both seem to be great products), silica as an additive (haven't used it much, gotta research more), and my PH UP (never used it) and my PH DOWN. These are all in squeeze bottles and I can't tell you how much easier it makes your life when mixing nutrients and adjusting PH. I'd give my my life before you get my fucking squeeze bottles

I have 2 PH meters ($15 each) which one is my daily user and 1 is backup in case my primary breaks. I have a TDS meter which I rarely use and seems fairly unnecessary for me at this point, but I did purchase it so I knew what my PPM's were coming out of the tap. Useful? Sure. Required, no. As long as I don't overdo my nutrients, it's just not necessary.

I then realized the nutrient companies were telling me to use too much. I cut everything down by 25% from the recommended dose and I have had no burning of my leaves since. Plus I get to save on nutrient costs. That solved my nutrient burn problem and helped me dial in proper nutrient dosing.

I have also invested in a nice drying net which was $40 if I remember right. It has 3 tiers and hangs from the ceiling or whatever you'd like to hang it from. I like to hang it inside my tent and dry my buds in there, so my carbon scrubber can keep the air in my home smelling cannabis free (not that I'm offended by the smell or anything).

I had to invest in a dehumidifier which I got a good deal on for $100. Brand new they're about $200.
This is a MUST and I would not be able to grow in the summer / spring without it. I'd have PM allover the place and so would everyone else that chose not to use one in our environment those times of the year. A portable or window a/c unit will accomplish the same goal. My central A/c unit just can't dehumidify the way my stand alone dehumidifier can.

I would love to post some pictures and show off my setup which I will be working on tonight. I encourage everybody to share their style of growing and contribute to a free exchange of information, tips, and advice for the better of the RIU community and the cannabis growing community as a whole.

POST ON MY FRIENDS!

P.S. I may have to edit this for clarity later. I kinda flew by the seat of my pants on this one. Hopefully it's readable for everyone, but I will try to improve on this post later. I think the pictures will help show newer growers how easy it can be with the proper equipment and knowledge to create the true recipe for success

Apparently I can't add any more text to that post so here's my edit:

I have purchased a 8 site clone bucket that has made the cloning process exceptionally easy. That's right, fuck those propagation trays and humidity domes my friends! You can make one yourself or buy one from someone else, but I highly recommend them for any perpetual grower. After my clones are rooted (about 3-5 days), I then transfer them into 32 oz gas station fountain cups with a drain hole cut out about 3" from the bottom. They spend about a week in there while the roots develop and then they are transferred into their final home, which is a 5 gallon hempy bucket. 1 mother plant always stays in the mother / clone / veg tent and that mother is currently THC bomb which is an incredible strain.

When my flowering girls are done in 55-65 days, the vegging ladies are then transferred into the flower tent (after the buds dry from the harvest), and the cycle repeats itself.

Why do I use hempy buckets (water to waste hydro)? Perlite and vermiculite are super cheap as well as very light weight which makes moving it and using it very easy for me as opposed to the weight and mess of dirt. Do I have a problem with dirt? Hell no! In a perfect world, I would have plenty of land to create my own compost pile and so forth, but the world isn't perfect and most growers don't have that kind of space to compost. Be it as it is, synthetic nutrients and the ingredients of making a hempy bucket are simply easier for my situation.

I've seen the success of others' hempy buckets here and on ICMAG and I just had to give it another shot knowing what I now know from my previous 4 or 5 successful grows in dirt and so far it's a wonderful success and I probably won't be going back to dirt until I have more space.

No one's sharing and I feel all alone in this big world of medical cannabis growers. Where oh where are the growers?

I did a pheno run this time not, so for yields so i went organic with these. In 3 gallon pots talls and shorts i have half root organic soil mix with roots 707 soil. i fed them early on with a bit of general organic(GO) liquid humic acid, then in flower i used GO CaMg+(wich is some type a vinegar) and i used the GO bioweed witch is liquid sea weed(kelp) i use them in way lower doses than recomended i use them at 5mls to 4 gallons. i used 3 tbls of bone meal in each planter spread out over weeks 3 to 6. and a couple a pounds of indonesian bat guano mixed in the water a quarter cup to 1/2 a cup at a time. plus a lot of fresh water feeds.
Holly crap its all of a sudden went from a pheno hunt to a Real Grow. The plant are really putting on some wiehgt and there just oozing with thc the trich's are insane Organic is the way to go for sure.IMO and many others

swaggersDlite said:

I did a pheno run this time not, so for yields so i went organic with these. In 3 gallon pots talls and shorts i have half root organic soil mix with roots 707 soil. i fed them early on with a bit of general organic(GO) liquid humic acid, then in flower i used GO CaMg+(wich is some type a vinegar) and i used the GO bioweed witch is liquid sea weed(kelp) i use them in way lower doses than recomended i use them at 5mls to 4 gallons. i used 3 tbls of bone meal in each planter spread out over weeks 3 to 6. and a couple a pounds of indonesian bat guano mixed in the water a quarter cup to 1/2 a cup at a time. plus a lot of fresh water feeds.
Holly crap its all of a sudden went from a pheno hunt to a Real Grow. The plant are really putting on some wiehgt and there just oozing with thc the trich's are insane Organic is the way to go for sure.IMO and many others View attachment 3235936 View attachment 3235937

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Those plants look amazing and I agree with you that organics is definitely the way to go if you have the option. Mother nature designed every plant in the world to work and live in a symbiotic way with the earth. The better we can replicate and refine that process indoors (or outdoors for that matter), the closer we are to mother nature producing cannabis the way god intended.

My last few dirt grows have been all great tasting, but I did not go organic. I used ocean forest which has lots of organic goodies in it, but I used synthetic nutrient salts. I'm planning to burn down the last bits of my GH flora line and then I may be switching o either roots organic or GH Flora Nova series. Synthetics get the job done but organics get the job done right, as mother nature intended. That is why I feel organics will always produce a superior product in a side by side comparison with hdyro by the same experienced (and impartial) grower.

Hydro by it's nature will probably produce a larger yield (as I'm currently experiencing), but the depth of flavor and aroma's that organic growing produces cannot be replicated in hydro. Can you get close? Maybe, I'm not experienced enough to answer that question very well, but the best pot I've ever smoked was grown naturally outside with organic fertilizer.

I don' grow commercially and I'm no fan boy for either camp whether it's soil or soil free inert medium, I just want to smoke quality pot the most effective and efficient way my space allows. So, I'd like to think my opinion is fairly impartial.

What pheno are you looking for and if you don't mind my asking what strain(s) are you working with?

I'm just now diving into the world of foliar application with humic acids and micro organisms (a la floralicous plus), and I'd like to ask what your feelings are on foliar feeding.

I recently have had 2 bad experiences with foliar feeding. 1 incident was 2 grows ago, I nearly lost my entire crop because I mixed a wetting agent too strong and clogged the stomata. Did I rinse it off? Of course not, because at the time I didn't even know what a stomata was. DAMN YOU PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM!

As a matter of fact, I just rinsed my vegging girls off due to some lower leaf drop and shriveling into dark ugliness due to what I believe were clogged stomata from my previous foliar application. I'd really like to get a consensus on this matter. Mother nature rinses plants every time she makes it rain, so logic would thereby tell me that you should rinse after foliar applications. I'm not sure if I'm correct, but I'm testing my little hypothesis today. We'll see if I have successfully addressed this issue or not tomorrow.

By the way, check out this mutation on my mother plant. She's kicking out single blade leafs. Mother nature is a crazy wild bitch, but aren't all females? Don't take offense ladies of RIU, even though you're crazy and wild, we still love the fuck out of ya

Maybe I should not clone off her? Shit, I may have an issue to address.

I had a plant shoot out single blades like that. she was bomb. just run her take some clones just in case she's a keeper. i like foliar feeds too not doing any of that now, but when i was doing it i never sprayed my ladies after 2-3 weeks. That plant looks good jonny
looks OG'ish to me. what is that girl ??