Enr0n's Grow From Scratch On A Budget

[Enr0n]

Thanks I learned a lot and with members like you the journey has been a pleasurable one

 

[VetSmoke85]

Congratulations bud. Great result. Looks tasty

 

[CBD BudMan]

This is a very emphatic and unambiguous directive. Clearly you’ve had an experience with this which has led to this for you. And it’s really helpful for you to give a grower a heads up like this. My experience with RO H2O has been the polar opposite of yours. I fertigate with that and the recycling from the dehumidifier. I recently harvested my 20th plant grown the same way and she was another boomer.
I’m not arguing or trying to confuse the OP. I do think there is room for trial and error, my 2c. Fair enough, learning from each others’ errors is the point too. Just had to remark how different environments and conditions work for different donkeys, growers I mean.

You've put this so eloquently; I might've blundered. I was converted to RO water during my 1st successful cannabis grow. I went through almost half way through the grow season of what would become my 1st harvest. Because I grow outdoors, my grow takes 7 months, or so, from germination to harvest. Because of this naturally long grow season, time had allowed the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) to accumulate in the soil until all my girls started showing rather large signs of stress. I went to my hydro shop in town and went over many things, but nothing seemed to fit. That is until he asked me about my watering. He was surprised to discover that I was using tap water (with a chlorine filter) and had no ph meter. He then laid out a plane of attack to remedy things.

1st, I tested the ph of my Super Soil and found that it was way high. Then I measured the TDS and it was so high that it was literally off the scale and could not be read on the screen! I then flushed all pots with 5 x the water that the pots held soil. To my amazement, all the plants started to recover. I was like: "What?!!!" I have grown so many vegetable gardens and thousands of fruit/nut trees over the decades of my life, always using either natural spring water from the local irrigation distribution system in the rural area where our farm was, or filtered tap water when we moved to town, all with truly great results. So, naturally, I was resistant to RO water at first. But after seeing all this unfold before my very eyes, I jumped in. As a result of sticking with RO, I have never had the tiniest problem with the quality of water since.

One must remember that most all plants do best with rain water falling from the sky. Why? When water evaporates into the atmosphere, usually from our oceans, it leaves all of the dissolved solids behind, including the minerals that were present in that water. Have you ever watched how well a vegetable garden does after a good rain? That's nature's version of RO water. When I discovered this, I was absolutely hooked!

What I learned was, I was flying blind and ran right into an alkaline wall. Nutrients were locked out and my plants were hungry and stressed. RO water, along with proper ph and keeping an eye on the TDS with a good PPM meter, has completely resolved this issue for me, and I have never looked back. After all, RO water is the closest thing we can get to rain water, kinda' like nature does, but from a faucet.

I have also learned that the much shorter grow times of an indoor grow can sometimes sidestep this whole issue, given a pristine water source, even if it's city water from the tap.

Hope this helps and sorry for the rant.

 

[CBD BudMan]

I must apologize for my rant... it seems out of place. I was responding to a much earlier post and didn't realize how much had transpired. That's what I get for being so stoned and not paying attention. Sorry 'bout that.

@Enr0n, all of your fingers MUST be green, not just your thumbs. I have read through all 11 pages and... WOW! Truly amazing!

 

[DonkeyDick]

You've put this so eloquently; I might've blundered. I was converted to RO water during my 1st successful cannabis grow. I went through almost half way through the grow season of what would become my 1st harvest. Because I grow outdoors, my grow takes 7 months, or so, from germination to harvest. Because of this naturally long grow season, time had allowed the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) to accumulate in the soil until all my girls started showing rather large signs of stress. I went to my hydro shop in town and went over many things, but nothing seemed to fit. That is until he asked me about my watering. He was surprised to discover that I was using tap water (with a chlorine filter) and had no ph meter. He then laid out a plane of attack to remedy things.

1st, I tested the ph of my Super Soil and found that it was way high. Then I measured the TDS and it was so high that it was literally off the scale and could not be read on the screen! I then flushed all pots with 5 x the water that the pots held soil. To my amazement, all the plants started to recover. I was like: "What?!!!" I have grown so many vegetable gardens and thousands of fruit/nut trees over the decades of my life, always using either natural spring water from the local irrigation distribution system in the rural area where our farm was, or filtered tap water when we moved to town, all with truly great results. So, naturally, I was resistant to RO water at first. But after seeing all this unfold before my very eyes, I jumped in. As a result of sticking with RO, I have never had the tiniest problem with the quality of water since.

One must remember that most all plants do best with rain water falling from the sky. Why? When water evaporates into the atmosphere, usually from our oceans, it leaves all of the dissolved solids behind, including the minerals that were present in that water. Have you ever watched how well a vegetable garden does after a good rain? That's nature's version of RO water. When I discovered this, I was absolutely hooked!

What I learned was, I was flying blind and ran right into an alkaline wall. Nutrients were locked out and my plants were hungry and stressed. RO water, along with proper ph and keeping an eye on the TDS with a good PPM meter, has completely resolved this issue for me, and I have never looked back. After all, RO water is the closest thing we can get to rain water, kinda' like nature does, but from a faucet.

I have also learned that the much shorter grow times of an indoor grow can sometimes sidestep this whole issue, given a pristine water source, even if it's city water from the tap.

Hope this helps and sorry for the rant.

You have me thinking about collecting the rainwater from the roof of my garage/garden now, so thanks
Making it inconspicuous would be the thing for the suburbs. Hmm.
Cheers

 

[Dabeast09]

I just wanted through the pics again, man.. Those are some freaking fantastic bud oh man...

 

[Enr0n]

I must apologize for my rant... it seems out of place. I was responding to a much earlier post and didn't realize how much had transpired. That's what I get for being so stoned and not paying attention. Sorry 'bout that.

@Enr0n, all of your fingers MUST be green, not just your thumbs. I have read through all 11 pages and... WOW! Truly amazing!

It's ok and thanks for the read. I have to be careful after meds also. BTW I also use RO water and there wasjust a couple of times when I watered without adding nutes. I don't know if the plant just loved the nute application or I might have got lucky to avoid nute burn.

 

[CBD BudMan]

You have me thinking about collecting the rainwater from the roof of my garage/garden now, so thanks
Making it inconspicuous would be the thing for the suburbs. Hmm.
Cheers

Yes, I know what you mean @DonkeyDick. I honestly considered capturing/using rain water. There are 2 main reasons I chose not to go that route:
1) I live in SoCal, so it's very common to go 6 months or so with no rain, or very little if any, during the outdoor grow season.
2) There is the possibility of contaminates in rain water coming off a roof. Things like petroleum byproducts if you have asphalt shingles, bird poop, and whatever else is on your roof.

Plus, my local hydro shop sold me a very good RO filter kit for only $169. I added one of those blue/food grade plastic 55 gallon barrels for $20. and made a small table that I over-built from old scrap lumber I had stored in my shed. Now with the water barrel about 3' above the ground and a hose bib screwed into the side near the bottom, and the RO tubing filling the barrel near the top of the barrel with a float valve; I have a large reserve of water that flows at a reasonable rate though my garden hose. This roughly $200 investment was easy to justify for me, knowing that my girls would have a very reliable source of good clean water all season long. And in the heat of summer, I sure have to water a lot.

 

[GoogleGenie]

Very nice job @Enr0n Congratulations on your harvest

 

[Enr0n]

Got Milk? I have the cookies, correction had the cookies, wife used some of the trimmings to make chocolate chip, cranberry, pecan cookies.

 

[CBD BudMan]

Got Milk? I have the cookies, correction had the cookies, wife used some of the trimmings to make chocolate chip, cranberry, pecan cookies.

OOOoooOO!!! Those look awesome!!! Dude, U got me hungry for some.

 

[Enr0n]

Final trim done and after drying I put 349 grams into jars to cure. Trim will go into cookies and I rubbed some kief off of the stems after drying them completely. Some parts of the stems were so sticky they stuck to my hands when I was trimming the buds off.
A bowl full of the cola and top 20" of main stem. 2nd pic side view of top.

 

[Dabeast09]

Looking so good man! Congrats on a great harvest!

 

[VetSmoke85]

Final trim done and after drying I put 349 grams into jars to cure. Trim will go into cookies and I rubbed some kief off of the stems after drying them completely. Some parts of the stems were so sticky they stuck to my hands when I was trimming the buds off.
A bowl full of the cola and top 20" of main stem. 2nd pic side view of top.

Beautiful mate. Hope you're enjoying the fruits of your labour.