First CFL Grow Using 30 Watt CFLs

[GigaGrew]

great ideas everyone, all i do is make sure the res's are in the shade, this keeps the temps in the right range, but even when the res is not in the shade the temp dont go up to high unless the res is nearly empty

its mainly just an amusing theory atm, but definatly has potential for res temps, for curing ppms droping/ph rising too fast and for curing too low a humidity problem.

amusingly, 1 adult and 3 minors in the ground floor of this house seem to increase the RH of the entire property from 20-30% to 40-50% just by breathing the air.

 

[Xlr8]

Whats the right temps for your res?

Between about 60-70f. I like to keep things 65-68f. Warmer than 70f and the water is unable to hold oxygen effectively, and can cause root rot problems, etc.

 

[donpaul.p]

thanks X, reps as always if it lets me mate,

 

[donpaul.p]

Herbie at Herbies head shop is a true star, he just sent me a bonus with my seeds, instead of getting the 2 free sleestack he is sending me ken estes gdp instead, cant wait to give this strain a try,

it really does pay to shop at herbies, thats a huge bonus for me, wanted this strain for a while now after reading GG7 journal, now i can finally give it a try,

 

[fish cake]

Herbie at Herbies head shop is a true star, he just sent me a bonus with my seeds, instead of getting the 2 free sleestack he is sending me ken estes gdp instead, cant wait to give this strain a try,

it really does pay to shop at herbies, thats a huge bonus for me, wanted this strain for a while now after reading GG7 journal, now i can finally give it a try,

thats sweet Master Don you know it pays to be a good customer too

 

[donpaul.p]

its sure does mate and thats proof, herbie really knows how to look after his customers, he knows i was asking about that strain and checking if he had it and if it was ken estes genuine strain, i was saving up to buy a pack of seeds, ill still buy some more for breeding purposes, all been well ill have some gdp in a few months, cant wait

 

[GigaGrew]

lol guess im not a good customer, they dont even listen to my delivery instructions....they didnt need to understand why i requested no free seeds they just needed to respect it, i told them by voice as well =/

 

[donpaul.p]

ive not had any problems with them mate, in fact herbie always responds by email to let me know whats going on,

what happened with you then mate, i know he did not send you any bonus free seeds but i have ordered plenty from him over the time,

i only get the odd extra free seed every now and then, its not like every order, plus he has always replaced any seeds i have had problems with such as nirvana blue mystic, a lot of growers had problems with this strain and nirvana was aware and replaced the seed, i had the same problems and spoke with herbie and he replaced them with something else,

he is replacing the 2 free sleestack seed with the gdp seeds, as i have placed a few orders then i always end up with a load of the regular free seeds, so i think due to my problems with the blue mystic and me placing orders and having plenty of the usual free seeds herbie decided to sort me out something he knew i wanted.

who else do you use for your seeds then mate, delivery is fast with herbies i get mine the next day

 

[zachlwilson71]

excuse me i am new to this site and havent gotten familiar with how to ask questions so if anyone see this and can help me this is my problem. i live in the country and stores are scarse. i have a bubble-ponic system made i was wondering if i could use regular gravel and miracle gro plant food for nutrients? i dont have many resources will it work?

 

[donpaul.p]

hi mate, what is bubble ponic, is this similar to a dwc set up where you have the plant and some growing medium in the top part and in the bottom you just have the res with the nutrient mixture in,

if its the same then all i do is use compost to start the plant in in the top part then the roots grow down into the dwc part, as for gravel im not sure mate, but then im not sure on how your growing method works, im sure someone else will jump in when they see your question mate,

 

[donpaul.p]

until you have made 50 posts you wont be able to msg anyone direct, but you can still post questions in peoples journals, so have a look through the current journals list and the top 20 are about the most active, have a read through some of these and introduce yourself then ask your question, their are many top growers on here who can help you, but ive not used bubble ponics,

 

[zachlwilson71]

cool. yes bubble ponics is a cheap mans DWC. its just a gallon bucket with net pot in the lid and a simple small air pump for bubbles. so i have a small plant starting maybe 2 inches tall in just some regular soil. i want to transfer it to a hydro system to speed up the process. i just dont have access to any type fancy growing mediums that ive read about. i live out in the country i can barely buy a pepsi. so i just wanted to know what i could use for a growing medium besides like hydroton rockwool and all that. i heard back in the day they used regular driveway gravel i was wondering if anyone knew if it worked. and also i dont have access to nutes can i use MG all purpose plant food for veg stage?

 

[GigaGrew]

i know im blowing my own trumpet here, but don paul uses soil/dwc styles with great success and im about to get into hydroganics for the first time which is something you may want to consider.

im english, so when you say the words 'out in the country' i see animals and food crops. is this the case? if so you dont need ANY chemical ferts mate, very few things are better for our plants than a big pile of steaming animal crap, lol

im not sure how complete MG is, but most commercial ferts generally dont have enough cal/mag for our plants and some micros are neglected. if you do have access to grazing animals then you can just use whatever compost/soil you have to hand and make it compost teas from the manures and such.

thats just my thing tho, why buy it from a shop if you can scoop it up off the floor and it ends up better than the storebought!

 

[donpaul.p]

if i lived somewhere nice and out the way id be digging up my own compost, when i go walking i always coma across some nice wooded areas and the soil is exactly like shop bought compost, its not mud its actual compost and probably just as good as shop bought products,


so we are talking a basic dwc here then mate, click on the link below this post, its says 2ltr dwc, this will explain what i do, but basically i use compost in the top part which is the top of a pop bottle turned upside down, then the res is the rest of the bottle, so the top part has about 3 inches of compost in it, then the roots grow down and out the hole at the bottom then they go into the res and hit the nutrient rich solution, i have not tried anything else, not sure how well gravel would work but it would need to be kept watered to stop the roots drying out,

so check my link out, i use compost in the top but just a few inches, then the roots grow into the res,

 

[Xlr8]

cool. yes bubble ponics is a cheap mans DWC. its just a gallon bucket with net pot in the lid and a simple small air pump for bubbles. so i have a small plant starting maybe 2 inches tall in just some regular soil. i want to transfer it to a hydro system to speed up the process. i just dont have access to any type fancy growing mediums that ive read about. i live out in the country i can barely buy a pepsi. so i just wanted to know what i could use for a growing medium besides like hydroton rockwool and all that. i heard back in the day they used regular driveway gravel i was wondering if anyone knew if it worked. and also i dont have access to nutes can i use MG all purpose plant food for veg stage?

Well, I'd recommend finishing it out in soil. If money or access to proper hydroponics nutrients and supplies is an issue, it's going to be tough to do hydroponics as successfully as you could do a soil grow. There are few more affordable and simple ways to grow herb successfully than to grow using soil. Also, many argue that the flavors and finished product from good soil grown herb is second to none.

PH becomes much much more important with hydroponics, and to get results comparable to a soil grow, you'll want to measure and adjust PH of your nutrients so that the plant has access to the nutrition it needs - if the PH of your nutrient solution isn't within a range of about 5.5-6.2 more often than not, the plant will suffer, yield will suffer, and your soil plant might have been the quicker way to good results after all.

I would not use MG all purpose plant food for hydro vegging or any hydro application, personally.

I'm telling you all this as a hydroponics grower, too. That's where my bias is. But, while hydroponics isn't rocket science, you'll not get soil comparable results without proper nutrition, PH and medium. If you can't make those things happen, your results will/can be much better in soil. The more aggressive growth in hydro thing just won't happen if you are not using proper media and nutrients. Just my opinion, I want to see you succeed.

 

[kimmy]

Good answer Xlr8,
+Reps !

@ZachWilson:
I have used the dreaded Miracle Grow in 2 liter hempies filled with perlite, but I only used about half of the recommended amount. I started with the MG for tomatoes at about 1/8 teaspoon per US gallon at first and worked my way up to 1/2 teaspoon per gallon.
I then used MG/Bloom at about 1/2 teaspoon per gallon for bloom.
Like Xlr8 said"PH becomes much much more important with hydroponics" and I was using proper pH'ed water/nutrients.

I have heard that you have to wash the sand and other crap out of gravel because if you don't it will cause your pH to climb. If you are going to only use a little bit in netpots then it will probably not be a big issue. Since you live in the country, you can probably get perlite pretty cheap at a farmers co-op type store. It is a great medium for beginners and light too. Cheers.

 

[kimmy]

lol guess im not a good customer, they dont even listen to my delivery instructions....they didnt need to understand why i requested no free seeds they just needed to respect it, i told them by voice as well =/

Am I reading this right ?
Are you saying that you did not want the free seeds ?
If so, can I have them, lol. J/K

 

[GigaGrew]

Am I reading this right ?
Are you saying that you did not want the free seeds ?
If so, can I have them, lol. J/K

lol yeah. i dont have a timer at the moment. and am only running autos. i do have a few regs that are mini and in perminant veg as potential breeding partners for my autos.

i dont have room for any more plants that are not going to make me bud. and now i have some poor defenceless seeds sat on my desk simply waiting in fear till one of my kids squashes them or they dry out or whatever......point being those seeds could have gone to a more deserving home.

i have dela-haze, sleetstack, big bud 2, afghan kush and diesel on standby for breeding. i have 1 spot left open in case i get a donation of some kind from you guys...other than that, for now i dont want to see another seed that isnt an auto. i just dont have the time to give them the propper attention.

so right now i have several sleetstack x skunk seeds that have no use whatsoever and someone else could be getting all excited about the first leaves opening and all that.

 

[GigaGrew]

christ life is going to be hard enough just growing these 20 KC 45s and choosing breeding candidates out of them. my plan is to let them all grow together till we get very close to the males flowering, then i will pull out the best looking male and female and have the female fully pollinated by it. then im gonna strip all the leaves off the males to tie me over and kill them, lol. the rest of the females will be flowered and consumed and then im probably going to have hundreds of seeds.

i have decided to try an experiment. as tedius as it is im going to weigh my seeds. apart from the obvious tiger stripes and dark colours e.t.c im going to find out the average weight of my seeds and seperate out the heaviest half, ill put the lighter ones in storage 'just in case', but only the heaviest seeds are going to make first cut, 2nd cull will be the plants with the worst nodal distance per ft. 3rd cull will be least side branchers and so on.

most of these culls will be virtual (im not going to ditch if i have the room to grow them, i just wont breed them)

my end goal is a kc45 strain that drops big heavy seeds, has fantastic node distance and pushes out lots of side branches, and then i will keep crossing these with each other till every plant grows almost identical.......once i have the KC45 locked down i can think about cross breeding with other strains.

i definatly want a kc45xbigbud2(massive) and a kc45xfastauto2(mini).

 

[donpaul.p]

sounds like you got a lot going on then GiGa, cant believe you dont want them seeds mate, if you lived closer mate id have them off you or give you some of mine in exchange,

anyways i got some great news, my ken estes gdp broke out the soil today and is now in seedling stage, cant wait to grow this out.

ill do a pic update possible tomorrow, not done one in a while but not much to show at the moment, i planted another auto and its sprouted, its a regular auto so it could be male, if it is then ill be collecting the pollen and storing for future breeding programs,

but for now i got enough going on, my sour kush cross kiwi strain that i crossed myself is growing like crazy, i planted these seeds a week or more behind my other plants, yet all these plants are growing quicker than any of my others, so looks like it was a good cross, but proof will be in the buds,

my ak47 cross uk cherry cheese has not re-vegged so ive managed to harvest it and leave the smallest of buds at the bottom of the stem, well these have now stopped flowering and started growing so its back in veg and love this strain, i also got about 40 seeds from the male and female i crossed of this strain, not planted none yet as i got plenty to be getting on with for now.