I will be growing along with a partner, and I recently purchased a home with a 30x40 pole barn that i will be remodeling into a grow. This is our first grow, so we will be sectioning it off and only doing 24 plants maximum at first. As my partner and I hone our skills in and get a couple grows under our belts, we plan on sectioning off the barn into different zones and filling it with plants.
I have a couple of guys who work for a corporate weed grow helping me plan it out for free since they work for our family friends; I am a connoisseur and absolutely love cannabis, and am willing to put in the love/work required to get the best quality, while the consultants are more of the types who want to have a more set-and-forget grow that will allow them to go on vacations and such.
My question is, what are your guys thoughts on their advice:
1. I have always planned on hand watering, however they are mentioning a Bluemat watering system to "keep the soil at an optimal moisture at all times". I have always been told that the soil dry backs are a good thing, and that you dont want your soil completely wet all the time. Ive even seen people mention watering every couple of days
2. They recommended Build-A-Soil 3.0, however I have been planning on using Roots Organic Soil. They much prefer coco/salt nutes, but since i am adamant about organic, they recommend BAS 3.0.
3. They Recommended Sliding/Rolling Tables For Flower.
4. They Recommended tiered racking for veg. Would you guys personally do this in a 30x40 pole barn with fairly high ceilings? Or would you do somthing else like just build 1 large veg room, multiple veg rooms, etc?
5. Like i mentioned in number 2 they prefer coco, and are trying to convince me organic is more likely to grow poor quality flower than coco, dont think i should top dress, and think i should take a more synthetic approach. My plan that i originally told them is below
- --I have been planning on keeping it simple for my first grow based on my research: Dont feed during seed/clone. Feed only Compost Tea and Buddha Grow once or twice a week during first 2 weeks of Veg. Then begin top dressing with Roots Terp Tea Grow every 2 weeks. Flip to flower, and top dress with Roots Terp Tea Bloom once a week, and feed buddha bloom along with compost tea once or twice a week.
Im sorry this was a long post. I just know that there are some very knowledgable people on here, and i want to make sure this grow is being built with love and connoisseur quality in mind. I dont mind avoiding vacations and having "less of a life" as they put it, if it means that more hands on, hand watering/unautomated growing = better quality flower.
Thanks!
Yo homie, welcome. Sounds like a fun undertaking. I've seen a lot of good advice so far from others here.
1. I have used Bluemat before for a similar size grow, but I stopped using them after 1 round. I just found them finicky and they never seemed to give me the even moisture level I wanted. If your using R/O water, which id recommend, you'll need 1ml/gal cal-mag in the water which i didn't like leaving in the reservoir for the gravity feed. I prefer to soak them with a little runoff then allow them to dry back to like a damp sponge or the moisture level of soil when you open a fresh bag. After transplants, I let dry back just a little more to encourage root growth.
2. Build a soil is good stuff, but it will need bottle feeds starting 2-4 weeks after transplanting into it, depending on pot size, if you really want to crush it. Roots is the same. I prefer to amend the roots organic pretty heavy for a water only grow, or medium amendments and boost with bottles. You can use roots or the 3.0 right out the bag for veg, but plants eat a lot in flowering and will need way more then whats in those bags. For a first grow, i'd add some medium amendments to the roots and use botanicare for the bottle boosts. When you transplant to your final pot size, 2-3 weeks before flowering, add these ingredients to each bag of soil and mix well; 1 quart of worm castings, handful of bu's blend compost, 2 Tbls Fish bone meal, 1 Tbls Fish Meal, 1/3 cup Jamaican bat quano, & Mykos, 1/4 cup budswell (yellow) 2 Tbls oyster shell, and 1 Tbls Dolmitic Lime. Water with R/O water and 1ml cal-mag until you see some signs they are hungry, then start at 50% strength using the pure blend pro SOIL sechedule, id add 1ml/gal vitamino, trinity and some liquid budswell to that as well. Feed with every other watering. Each grow you can add more amendments or use more bottles, but its a good jumping off point.
3. Tables are expensive, if you can afford it do it, they are nice. But, definitely not necessary especially for soil where a simple riser and saucer can be used to catch the small amounts of runoff. That said, you don't want your plants sitting on cold floor. If you over water a bit and they sit soggy and cold, you will see issues.
4. Tiered racking for veg is dope, but if you have the space for one level, do that. I have grown in tiered veg, I have pictures on here of when i did it. Pain in the ass to water the top tier, lol, only complaint.
5. Organic will give you the best quality for sure, but a slightly lower yield in most cases. When you get dialed in with some good soil though you can rival coco, especially if your boosting with bottles. Someone who is dialed in with their coco really well, will most likey out yield every time, but smoke is more harsh and less complex terp profile, in my opinion. Many people with disagree with this and im not doggin on them. I grew in coco for 10 years and found that treating it like soil and feeding it like soil gave me the best results. Then I was like, why not just use soil, lol. Never looked back since.
Honestly, I wouldn't mess with compost teas and fully organic nutrients right off the bat, its just harder to get right as you are relying on the micorbes in the soil to break down those orangic liquids to feed the plants, where as organic based bottles like botanicare give you some immediately available food as well. That being said, if you are really passionate about it, go for it. Like I said above, I'd start with a medium amended roots with botanicare bottles and the premixed budswell compost tea. Get some success under your belt, then start doing some side by sides with different mixes or bottles.
And even if you don't think so, you do want to be able to be away from plants for 3-4 days at a time, just in case. I love big beds of soil, you water once a week and the plants go insane. You have to be very careful with overwatering though, especially when plants are small. But even if you just transplant a medium size plant from a 2gal pot into a 15gal pot for flower, you'll get 3-4 days between waters until week 5 flower when it might only be 1-2 days in between. Hope that helps, good luck!
