Hello and welcome to my journal! I'm a newbie to this site but not to growing so please bear with me as I try to work to establish this thread.
My background as a grower began long ago in the hills around Petrolia California. Many members of my family were growers up until around 1991 so alot of my experience comes from what I witnessed as a young grommet and from my own trials and errors along the way.
Today I live in the southwestern US. The pot situation down here is greatly different than what I remember back in Cali. The area is flooded with Mexican schwag weed and most people go for that because it is so cheap. It can be hard to find good American grown weed and when you do, it's typically way overpriced and over hyped.
After about 3 years of getting down and serious about a productive personal garden, I think I have a program that many can benefit from. After trying many types of gardens my basic philosophy on having a produtive garden and killer weed is "Keep it simple". I have used many types of soil style gardens and hydroponic gardens. I've used everything from cheap wal mart dirt to Fox Farm and I've used Botanicare Power Gardens, GH Waterfarms, and the CAP Ebb & Gro system. I've used damn near every hydro nute and organic nutes. I've experimented with more types of lights than I can count but the best light is still the Sun and I use it for two outdoor harvests per year.
Today my gardens are producing about 2lbs of dry smoke per year. Like I wrote above, I have two outdoor harvests and 4 indoor harvests per year. With the crop killing heat I face in July and August, my indoor garden gets shut down. I typically only grow about 6-12 plants per crop indoors and out with each plant growing into the 30 inch range and producing about an oz per plant. This year I'm growing White Widow but I have also had real good results growing Sensi Star and Ak 48.
On to my set up!
For cloning I use a Botanicare 25 site aeroponic clone machine with Clonex gel and solution and regular tap water with no mind payed to PH. I've found Clonex works best for me over Olivias and others. I think I could probaly root a popsicle stick with this stuff. The succes rate for my clones is about 90%. I also had similar results with a home made ebb & flo tray but it used twice as much solution as the Botanicare machine. In the warm seasons I use a 15 watt cfl and when it's cold I use a 120watt cfl grow light. I dont concern myself with solution temps because I've had clones root in 60degree water and in 90degree water although bacteria can be problematic with warmer temps. As long as the area is kept clean and dead plant material is removed, bacterias are not an issue. I do keep the air temps around 75-80 with no humidity dome. I keep the light on a 18 on 6 off cycle and I never mist them. My clones usually root in 5-12 days.
For vegatating my plants I transplant my clones into a 6x6x6inch pot filled with Fox Farm Ocean Forest dirt. OF has more nutes than any other soil, has a perfect ph and can make the novice rookie look like a pro with the results it can provide. I use FF Grow Big every other watering according to the instructions. My plants grow quite nicely with alot of vigor under a 250 watt MH with internodes in the 1/2 inch range. When the plant is established at about a foot tall, it gets transplanted and moved to flower.
Now for the big mamma jamma, the flowering chamber!
My plants go to flower in a 4x4x7foot hydro hut. The hut's air is controlled by a Green Air Products CT-DH3 atmospheric controller and a thermostat controller . This is where things get a little technical. The controllers monitors humidity and temps and controls two seperate blowers and three fans to keep things right. 2 fans are small clamp on 6 inch fans and the other is an Air King 12 inch wall mount. One blower is a 90cfm for humidity and the other is a 465cfm with a double barrel outlet for cooling. When temps get to 78 degrees, the 465 blower and Air King fan turn on. On the double barrel, one line is branched out into two lines with one blowing cool air into the vegging area and the other branch goes to a Hydro Innovations Ice Box that is custom fitted into the side of the hut to cool the plants. The other part of the double barrel outlet is plugged into the cool tube duct work for the main light inside the hut for extra cooling. The main light also has a 120cfm blower pulling air off it whenever it's on.
For lighting I use a 430watt Son Agro with an Eye Hortilux bulb mounted in a cool tube reflector. If you have heat problems, Cool Tubes are the way to go. Even the best Hydrofarm reflectors have nothing when it come to cooling a light like a Cool Tube. Supplemental light is provided by a 90watt UFX LED made by California Nursery, a 55 watt red & blue LED panel from Ebay and a 13 watt LED spot light in red and blue. The LEDS sole purpose in my gardens is for resin production.
My plants are flowered in five gallon black pots filled with Ocean Forest and I use Grow Big, Big Bloom, and Tiger Bloom nutes. I also use a foliar spray consisting of Dutch Master's MAX FX, Penetrator, Liquid Light, and Botanicare's Sweet in berry flavor. These are used at half their instructed strength so I dont burn my plants. The water I use is regular tap water but I keep it in a 55 gallon barrel prior to using so the chlorine and other stuff has a chance to eveaporate before I use it to feed my plants.
This garden is pretty much dialed in now with my only tinkering being done on the cooling system and trying to get the Ice Box to basically work as a window unit ac for the hut. I'm real close but it's not quite perfect yet. I'll be posting pics of equipment set up and what not soon on this thread but I already do have some posted in the galleries for all to enjoy. I'm sure I've overlooked some things so if anybody has any questions I'll be happy to oblige. Happy Growing and please grow your own to hopefully put an end to the violence over marijuana smuggling and drug cartel tyranny on our Southern borders.
My background as a grower began long ago in the hills around Petrolia California. Many members of my family were growers up until around 1991 so alot of my experience comes from what I witnessed as a young grommet and from my own trials and errors along the way.
Today I live in the southwestern US. The pot situation down here is greatly different than what I remember back in Cali. The area is flooded with Mexican schwag weed and most people go for that because it is so cheap. It can be hard to find good American grown weed and when you do, it's typically way overpriced and over hyped.
After about 3 years of getting down and serious about a productive personal garden, I think I have a program that many can benefit from. After trying many types of gardens my basic philosophy on having a produtive garden and killer weed is "Keep it simple". I have used many types of soil style gardens and hydroponic gardens. I've used everything from cheap wal mart dirt to Fox Farm and I've used Botanicare Power Gardens, GH Waterfarms, and the CAP Ebb & Gro system. I've used damn near every hydro nute and organic nutes. I've experimented with more types of lights than I can count but the best light is still the Sun and I use it for two outdoor harvests per year.
Today my gardens are producing about 2lbs of dry smoke per year. Like I wrote above, I have two outdoor harvests and 4 indoor harvests per year. With the crop killing heat I face in July and August, my indoor garden gets shut down. I typically only grow about 6-12 plants per crop indoors and out with each plant growing into the 30 inch range and producing about an oz per plant. This year I'm growing White Widow but I have also had real good results growing Sensi Star and Ak 48.
On to my set up!
For cloning I use a Botanicare 25 site aeroponic clone machine with Clonex gel and solution and regular tap water with no mind payed to PH. I've found Clonex works best for me over Olivias and others. I think I could probaly root a popsicle stick with this stuff. The succes rate for my clones is about 90%. I also had similar results with a home made ebb & flo tray but it used twice as much solution as the Botanicare machine. In the warm seasons I use a 15 watt cfl and when it's cold I use a 120watt cfl grow light. I dont concern myself with solution temps because I've had clones root in 60degree water and in 90degree water although bacteria can be problematic with warmer temps. As long as the area is kept clean and dead plant material is removed, bacterias are not an issue. I do keep the air temps around 75-80 with no humidity dome. I keep the light on a 18 on 6 off cycle and I never mist them. My clones usually root in 5-12 days.
For vegatating my plants I transplant my clones into a 6x6x6inch pot filled with Fox Farm Ocean Forest dirt. OF has more nutes than any other soil, has a perfect ph and can make the novice rookie look like a pro with the results it can provide. I use FF Grow Big every other watering according to the instructions. My plants grow quite nicely with alot of vigor under a 250 watt MH with internodes in the 1/2 inch range. When the plant is established at about a foot tall, it gets transplanted and moved to flower.
Now for the big mamma jamma, the flowering chamber!
My plants go to flower in a 4x4x7foot hydro hut. The hut's air is controlled by a Green Air Products CT-DH3 atmospheric controller and a thermostat controller . This is where things get a little technical. The controllers monitors humidity and temps and controls two seperate blowers and three fans to keep things right. 2 fans are small clamp on 6 inch fans and the other is an Air King 12 inch wall mount. One blower is a 90cfm for humidity and the other is a 465cfm with a double barrel outlet for cooling. When temps get to 78 degrees, the 465 blower and Air King fan turn on. On the double barrel, one line is branched out into two lines with one blowing cool air into the vegging area and the other branch goes to a Hydro Innovations Ice Box that is custom fitted into the side of the hut to cool the plants. The other part of the double barrel outlet is plugged into the cool tube duct work for the main light inside the hut for extra cooling. The main light also has a 120cfm blower pulling air off it whenever it's on.
For lighting I use a 430watt Son Agro with an Eye Hortilux bulb mounted in a cool tube reflector. If you have heat problems, Cool Tubes are the way to go. Even the best Hydrofarm reflectors have nothing when it come to cooling a light like a Cool Tube. Supplemental light is provided by a 90watt UFX LED made by California Nursery, a 55 watt red & blue LED panel from Ebay and a 13 watt LED spot light in red and blue. The LEDS sole purpose in my gardens is for resin production.
My plants are flowered in five gallon black pots filled with Ocean Forest and I use Grow Big, Big Bloom, and Tiger Bloom nutes. I also use a foliar spray consisting of Dutch Master's MAX FX, Penetrator, Liquid Light, and Botanicare's Sweet in berry flavor. These are used at half their instructed strength so I dont burn my plants. The water I use is regular tap water but I keep it in a 55 gallon barrel prior to using so the chlorine and other stuff has a chance to eveaporate before I use it to feed my plants.
This garden is pretty much dialed in now with my only tinkering being done on the cooling system and trying to get the Ice Box to basically work as a window unit ac for the hut. I'm real close but it's not quite perfect yet. I'll be posting pics of equipment set up and what not soon on this thread but I already do have some posted in the galleries for all to enjoy. I'm sure I've overlooked some things so if anybody has any questions I'll be happy to oblige. Happy Growing and please grow your own to hopefully put an end to the violence over marijuana smuggling and drug cartel tyranny on our Southern borders.
