Ah another opportunity to put in 2¢ (damn just realized there was no ¢ on my keyboard lol [alt+0162]).
I am not experienced by your definition, but so far I am at the tail end of my first harvest, about 2-3 weeks from my second, and my third is in vegetative mode.
I came to RIU and joined when I realized the information on this board was far better than the other websites available, UK420 etc. I had been smoking forever, but I had conjured up many many setups in my head theoretically, and logically, all of them would work, though some were far more complex than others. My first setup was on the cheap, but because I understand principles of growth, respiration, vitamins and minerals, photosynthesis, etc. I was able to make quick corrections when plants made an indication. Yada yada.... im smoking on some (appears to be) doctored bud so let me just spray some chloraseptic in my throat and ill just give ya my experience thus far.
[by the way: if you DOCTOR YOUR SHIT in any way, FUCK YOU. I dont give a flying fuck your reasons; If you need more money for personal greed, for food, if you have an AIDS baby that needs a lung transplant from Obama himself, do NOT be putting shit in MY SHIT. For example, I am out of my normal area and dont know anyone in the vicinity. I have to travel 2 hours for reliable dank. So I look at and smell, and taste and am satisfied. I get home and realize shit is harsher than normal, and has a different type of sparkle when I break it up. GOD DAMN YOU FUCKERS. I rigged up a 30x lens from a pair of binoculars to my cellphone to get a cheapo, instant macrolens and what did i see? SILICA. IRON OXIDE/ALUMINUM(?). BITS OF GOLD FOIL. BASICALLY A WHOLE BUNCH OF TRASH. So, I had to make a call to my bud who I had to explain that next time I am coming up there, I want to pay a visit to whomever his came from, and I am going to. I told him to emphatically explain that I know, that HE knows, and that the supplier should know that we both know, and that I dont spend 2 hours driving and more than $300 to consume something hazardous to my health. So I am practicing transference; I am going to become a hazard to this individuals health without his prior knowledge or permission. Considering this is criminal bizniz, I dont have to worry about the cops. BE FUCKING WARNED. GODDAMNIT YOU PIECES OF SHIT. This isnt the first time.)
[I can vape this garbage and be fine but if you torch it, the shit makes you feel wierd and different. Thank God himself I have a harvest right now or I would have made a special trip. I am so pissed off.]
Anyway, now that I have had my Vicks, here is how I have experienced it:
I started out with 6 of my best bagseed (had been saving the seeds for about 5 years now) planted in a cricket container with about 2" of MiracleGro in the windowsill. Only one made it through this ordeal and I named her oG -- original Ganja.
I had transferred oG to a styrofoam cup and had purchased a rubbermaid tub, an egg-crate planter setup from lowes, and rigged up a little hot-box. I put oG in under a 3-bulb 26w CFL bathroom vanity strip mounted into the rubbermaid container, and put 2-3 seeds in each of the egg-crates, to let the plants duke it out via Darwinism to see who would be the last standing. I believe I planted around 72 seeds, from varying "quality sifted" bags of bagseed. I intended on growing "sea of green." alas, how silly I was in the early days.
After having ridiculous amounts of trouble with keeping humidity and temperature levels constant, I continued research and plodded along. I wasnt too serious about the first grow since it was bagseed after all, I didnt plant on getting anything from it, and I was basically using it as hands on experience so I can learn from mistakes and have at least 4 plants under my belt before moving to a Euroseed. I ended up having four seedlings that were successful.
Around this time, I got the wise idea to try and work with rockwool. Well, after lots and lots of trying and killing my plants, i have determined rockwool is too hard for me at this point in time. I have wasted so many plants by killing them after about 2 weeks of germination/growth I have determined it is simply easier to plant the root-sprouts directly into miracle gro for the first 3 weeks, then wash the root ball in warm water to remove most of the debris and then transferring the plant to hydroponic.
I grow weary of telling you my life's story. Basically, I started out as a friggin newb thinking I could cheaply grow some good shit. I was wrong.
1) Put desired seed into a warm water-soaked, but not too-soaked, paper towel. Stick it in a ziploc bag, and put it under the bathroom sink for 2 days. Check it. If it has a root, put some miracle gro, or other cheap, shitty soil into a styrofoam mcdonalds sweet tea cup. NOT soil from your backyard. Any cheap shitty soil will work though. The styrofoam will help regulate temperature. Mcdonalds tea cups will keep iced tea cold for over 6 hours in hot sunny weather in my area, so that says enough for me. Poke a hole 1" deep with your finger, drop the seedling into the hole and cover up. Stab drain holes into bottom of cup.
2) slowly pour in warm water - enough for a little to come out of the bottom. Keep top of soil moist for next two weeks. No sopping wet, but put a little water in every morning, and sometime when you come home from work if the top is dry.
3) Make sure to put some kind of compact fluorescent light 1.5" from leaf surface, and adjust 2-3 times a day if necessary.
4)DONT FUCK WITH THEM TOO MUCH. STOP. Thats already too much.
5)DONT WORRY ABOUT HURTING THEM. Mother Earth and Mother Nature are bitches. They hardly give a fuck about individualism. You think that you accidentally bashing a branch and breaking it off will hurt your precious plant? Fuck that shit, where your branch broke two will most likely pop out. Yeah baby. Mary Jane is a kinky slut, so be a little abusive, they like it.
6)After a while, if you having been fucking with them, youll notice they are getting outright bushy for the little things they are. Well, this should be around 5 nodes or so. This tells you it is time for the little one to go to the next biggest pot. Do you need a bigger pot? Yes you do! at this point, you are not a cheap fucker, you will buy your plant what it needs:
Ground Fault Circuit Interruptor (if You dont already have some outlets installed) IMPORTANT!!!
Bucket
Bucket Basket - link is for a bag of 50, they cost no more than $2.00-$10.00
Hydroton
Air Pump - Bigger (more dissolved oxygen in water) is better
Air Tubing
5' section of 1'OD PVC pipe
(4) Four 1"OD PVC Elbows (fourth for 2-bucket setup)
(1) One 1" OD PVC Tee Joint (2 if you desire a more controllable reservoir emptying)
(1) 1" ID Ball Valve (2 if you desire a more controllable reservoir emptying)
Submersible Water Pump - If you are only growing 2 plants per reservoir, you do not need more than 400GPH.
20 Gallon Tub - I buy a bunch of these after christmas since they are on sale for around $3.00 - $15.00
400w Light Setup - @$160.00
dont be a chump. Learn some discipline and save your money so you can afford this setup. This is just the beginning. Buy 2 Phillips
Son-Agro bulbs and save up the scratch while its in veg mode to buy a duplicate setup for your flowering stage. This, simply put, is the absolute most important part of your setup besides the seed or clone. I agree that CFL is a good strong light for people with space requirements but more light is always better and the difference between a HPS and a CFL makes att the difference in the world. As far as energy consumtpion, its only 400w. Turn off the computer and go outside. The electrical bill will LOWER even though you are growing pot. Dont worry about power consumption. Turn shit off and go outside. Socialize, volunteer. Feel me?
Non-Organic Recommendation:
Dutch Masters Gold Grow A+B, Dutch Masters Gold Flowering A+B, Dutch Masters Penetrator Foliar Spray, and Dutch Masters Liquid Light Foliar Spray.
Organic:
FoxFarm Nutrients, or
Blue Mountain Organics Super Plant Tonic
I recommend use of these products. I feel the Dutch Masters is far superior to other nutes.
I also recommend use of
SuperThrive at every watering, reservoir change, or whenever you think about it.
For quick emergency solutions, I strongly recommend having
Revive onhand.
I also recommend these optional items (personally required for myself; I would not know how to live without
Cost was not factored for these:
Graduated Measuring Cylinders As I understand it, our American coffee drinking, units of measurement, road driving preference, among other things, were devised simply to be in protest of England, therefore fuck that shit. I will go with what makes life easier, and that is by using METRIC SYSTEM. Convert grams to ounces and tablespoons to mL and what the fuck?? Do it all in mL. Read the label. Pour it in. Pour it out. Good.
Milwaukee TDS/pH/EC tester - runs on a single 9v battery, ive left this thing on so many times, and dropped it on numerous occasions I am surprised it isnt toast already. The cord for the lead is durable, and the handle is big and grippy when wet. After four months of use, it only needed a calibration of -0.2.
Fluker's Digital Hygrometer SIX years and this thing is still running strong on its first battery, left on ALL the time.
After getting all that shit together, you be ready. Put that shit together so it looks like this:
I have invested in a nice reflector so I put that in as my example. The link above is for a cheap reflector of aluminum which works fine, so who gives a fuck.
7) After you have all this shit, it amounts to somewhere around $373. As of 10:54am 03/07/2010. I went the expensive route and spent more than $1400 overall learning my lessons. I have 8 - 72" VHO Fluorescent tubes, About 30 42w CFL and several bathroom vanity fixtures, for lighting alone, and I have a bunch of tubs and buckets with drilled holes, PVC of varying sizes, you name it. Spend the $400 and buy what you NEED and dont peicemeal the shit together and only have to buy the right shit later.
As you are using the good expensive nutrients, and the good expensive lights, and your reservoir is changed weekly and disinfected with bleach, your roots should be fluorishing nicely, and pH should be steady between 5.8 and 6.0. So you monitor growth. Pluck fan leaves that are not getting light due to overhead canopy. This gives more air to the underside of the canopy, and allows more light from any reflective material (I use
Reflective Insulation. I like insulation, especially when it is reflective.) Use your fingers and just break or pinch em off. If you mess up and pick off a cola branch no big deal, itll grow back and probably be better.
9) Leave the shit alone.
10) When your plant is the desired height, and you want it to start budding, buy a
timer. Hook that light to it. Make it only on 12 hours a day. Bada Boom. Within 3 weeks later, you see little hairs, start counting that as first day of FLOWERING, YAY! If its a dude pull the bitchass. Rinse and repeat.
11) Change over to your flowering nutes and watch as they grow. I suggest the Screen of Green method. You can build anything with PVC pipe, so i used that and made a sort of table out of it, and weaved jute twine through holes drilled in the PVC.
Damn ive been typing till I wasnt high. Fuck. Im out.
Oh yeah, you guys that are acting like little kids, stop it, you look stupid. Pssh. Emo biatches.
