To nutrient or not to nutrient?

[Halfbreed]

lol, I didn't mean to do all those at once, I just ended up acquiring clones from friends who wanted to be helpful after I started some seedlings, lol. I don't talk about it much, but the two people I did talk to about it are close friends who grow themselves and so were pushing nutrients/clones and gear on me just to show their support, lol. I only set two to flower because I wanted to make sure how they would do in flower too, but so far i've silenced my one old school friend who was saying the LED wouldn't ever be good for flower and impressed the younger one who's been using HID for years. One thing I really like about the LED is that the temperature is easy to control, and rather than needing AC in my room, I actually have to use a little heater sometimes. My electricity bill is actually lower this year than it was the same time last year, plus my room stays clean because I don't have to worry about all the ductwork everywhere. The light's fans sound and are basically the same as a computer fan, so with the room I've built you can't even hear it from the other side of the wall. All things I was hoping for when I was in the planning stages, and all things I'm glad I got. I was a little worried at the cost, paying around $2500 for two lights, but really with HPS or HID once you add in the cost of the digital ballasts, hoods, bulbs, the fans to push/pull the air for ventilation, and the electricity bill, it's really a wash, and as I've said I really like how much cleaner my room is as a result. Once harvest time comes though, that will be the real deciding factor. I'll definitely keep you updated and I'm going to try and keep getting these pictures uploaded.

 

[BWC BayArea]

$2500 is a hefty price tag. Dunno bout the long term savings but I came anew with this grow and spent less than $500. Reflector, dimmable, digital ballast, nutes, prop tray, etc. I've probably spent about $4000-$5000 on supplies and equipmebt over the past 4 years. I can't fathom spending that kind if money on lighting. Anyhow, u have any other nutes that look appealing? Personally, i want to check out Earth Juice next, not completely sold on it yet. Keep me posted if u start a journal drop a link in my visitors messages.

 

[Halfbreed]

For my particular situation not to have the noise and not to have to worry about the ventilation, heat, etc., is worth the extra money. and I don't know where you got gear for that price, but here the just for the fans to push the heat through the tubes would be $500. plus another $500 for the lights with hoods, plus another $500 for the digital ballasts. (x2 on everything, not individually.) And as far as the nutes go, the local shops pretty much carry botanicare, general hydroponics, general organics, and foxfarm. I haven't done much looking online. I think I'll probably end up ording some of the cutting edge stuff from an online store, as I actually went and looked since I was going to get some rockwool today anyway and the local store didn't carry it.

 

[Halfbreed]

the owner of the store did give some good advice for using foxfarm though, and he says what he does is when he's doing new seedlings/clones in the foxfarm he'll actually flush out the soil first and catch the runoff as a sort of tea that he uses with his older plants....says it works like a charm since the foxfarm does run really hot in the beginning and can be hard on the younger plants.

 

[BWC BayArea]

Makes sense. I was gonna do somethin similar until i got my hands on nutes for my current grow. Only thing is I was gonna do it with a Home Depot brand but I got he nutes before i had too. You can always "cut" ur FFOF. Some people use Light Warrior or Happy Frog with coco, sunshine #4, or perilite/vermeculite.

 

[Halfbreed]

actually I found the foxfarm to be a little too dense anyway, so I started doing a pretty liberal dose of perlite in the mix and I put a layer of coco directly around the area I transplant the plants to. The idea behind all of that was to make it easier for the roots to make their way through the soil rather than having to go straight down to the bottom then around the container as I was noticing was happening and was suggested might happen from one of the threads or stickys I read on this site. I talked to the guy at the store about the sunshine #4 too as he had some there, and basically what it is is the same mix I'm doing anyway....He said it was basically just coco and perlite.

 

[Halfbreed]

This is just two plants on day 18 of 12/12

 

[Halfbreed]

Go to my gallery. You can see some pictures of my girls. I tried uploading them to the thread but it didn't work. What you're looking at with the ones in flower is just two Chemo plants.

 

[Halfbreed]

I tried Pmming you BWC but don't have enough posts yet, lol.

 

[BWC BayArea]

No worries. U can always reach me via visitors messaging on my profile page. Can't see any gallery pics jus yet. Onsite web access is next to nil. Footage wait til they finish tweaking this new design bro. Anythig exciting or notable happening?

 

[Halfbreed]

lol, this is my first grow, so everything is exciting to me, lol. My girls look great though. The pictures look good, but don't quite do them justice.

 

[BWC BayArea]

Dude, you should start a grow journal. That way more people will take a look and u can get plenty more feedback.