Where I've been, and where I'm going

I disappeared from here several years ago. Sorry, life got in the way. I moved to Cali, put down a few seasons running dep houses and outdoors, and have moved away to somewhere I have been forced to go indoors.

I've been running a 4x4 veg room with a 400 watt MH and 45 watt chinese LED, with a 4x8 flowering tent running 2 600w HPS. 3 gallon pots with sunshine 4, GH 3 part with orca and liquid budswel, averaging 4oz/plant with 2 months of veg.

Nice, consistent, but not great, and my genetics are aging out. None of my old seeds are germing, my only local hydro store changed owners, and is no longer carrying Sunshine or GH nutes. Not a great comination.

I'm looking at moving over to the Jacks Citrus feed I've been reading so much about for price and ease of use, and the results everyone here is having seem to be spectacular. I'm changing the lighting situation., pot sizes, and expanding the veg room.

Currently to flower I'm running 2 600w HPS with 2 Amazon special "1000 watt" LEDS, I'm looking to evolve that into 4 of the "1000 watt" LEDS and a single 600w in the center of the room. I've also bumped my pot size and veg times up. Currently seeing if 1 10 gallon plant can yield as much or more than 3 3 gallons. At week 5, it's looking a bit like a wash honestly, but I also missed a watering and the weather has been hell to combat lately.

Probably going to be putting in an order with Dank Seeds come the first of the month when their new specials show up. American Seed banks leave much to be desired in the picture/description game, but I know that's been complained about ad naseum already so I'll stop.

If this isn't the right place for this, please move it, but I figured since I'm stuck growing indoors now it should go in this section.

So to follow up this post a bit with some more information....

WHen I got the sad news that my hydro store sold out, I started looking into organics again. Still look like an obnoxious paint in the ass, but I've got a compost pile going now, and about 8 chickens running around the property so I may still do something with that in the future. I'm not a fan of orgo because people in NorCal seemed to think "Oh it's organic I don't need to flush it" and everything winds up tasting like creek water with a touch of kush. Yuck. There's also a billion people doing it with a billion different opinions on the best way and no. I've grown lazy and complacent through the years, simple is definitely better.

What really hurts is the lack of Sunshine #4. It's what I grew up on, no pun intended, and have been using the better part of 20 years. Losing GH 3 part in addition to that has put me in a bizarre position, as I don't have enough 3 part left to finish the plants I've already started on it, and now can't get any more without having it delivered somewhere, and that's not really an option anymore because I'm a hermit.

I'm really not looking forward to the learning curve of new nutes and dirt options, and mixing the nutrients when it comes time for flip the last few veggers. I have temporarily made the switch to Happy Frog medium. So far, I'm unimpressed with the few clones I put into 5 gallon pots still not really growing at the speed they used too. It's put me 2 weeks behind already, and looks like they'll need another 2 weeks of veg to be ready to put out a yield worth trimming. So I guess I'll see in a month or so how it flowers out.

I do see in my time away from "new stuff" that autoflowers have definitely come into their own. This both excites and bothers me, as some strains I want now look killer in autoflower, but I'd rather have moms instead of buying seeds all the time. Blue Dream, Barneys Cheese, GSC, Gorilla Glue, all readily available as feminized singles from Attitude, but only available as bastardized crosses from American banks.

I'm open to suggestion as far as strains go, an would kind of like some input there. I'm looking for 7 to 9 week flowering times, with solid, consistent yields in SCROG. I run 3, 5, and 10 gallon smart pots, but am looking to phase out the 3 gallon ones. Typically 2 5 gallon or a single 10 per 4x4 area, with anywhere from 2 to 4 months in veg before flowering. I prefer Indica heavy strains, but I'm open to the rare Sativa dominant monster.

My true goal is to get a yearly rotation going, where I start flowering the first plants mid April, and cut the last ones in September. 8 week strains would be the best, but I can allow some flexibility for the right ones. Probably going to take me the better part of a year to get enough supply built up to be able to stop my monthly harvest schedule and go to that one, but long term goals require baby steps and thorough pre planning.

Welcome back. I too took a long hiatus from RIU and got back in the swing of things about two years ago. Lots of things have changed in the growing community during that time, but lots have stayed the same. I don't think you'll have much trouble picking up where you left off.

Regarding the nutrients, if you are familiar with GH's 3 part, are you not able to order that from Amazon? I noticed you have lights you've purchased from there, so I have to assume you could order nutrients there too... If not, Jacks 2-1-2 Citrus would be great for cannabis, just not sure how it would do in flower since I've never use it. I use Jacks 321, it's their 5-12-26 coupled with Cal-Nit and Epsom Salt, and I've had amazing results with it. Being that my NPK comes out to 20-12-26, it can't be too much different than the 2-1-2 in their citrus feed. Plus they have tons of micros,

Genetics wise, this is where I would invest some money. I'd personally avoid attitude and pick up genetics from a North American Seedbank. Seedsherenow, Neptune, SOL seeds, Oregon Elite, Great Lakes Genetics, they are all legit.

I can throw out some suggestions on breeders, but it really comes down to personal preference. I like gas and sour strains which not everyone wants.