First CFL Grow Using 30 Watt CFLs

[miwa]

i hear you Grogreen..those are the reason i bought this hydrometer..it will tell you if the med is too wet to be in the jars a need to be taken back out to dry some more...they are under 20 bucks on Amazon...i only have one at the moment..but it keeps me from getting mold in the jar..mold while drying is another story..key is a lot of fans..not blowing on the med..i'm talking about max air exchange..stagnant air causes mold..keep it moving...handle your med carefully and you won't lose trics..maybe this will help some more...Curing using a Hygrometer and jar

 

[donpaul.p]

hi all, not to sure about doing a cure in bags, it might work but i think the bag will rest on the buds where as a jar is solid and wont cover the buds if you know what i mean, so a jar will have room for air and would not touch all the buds as much as a bag would, but i suppose it is possible to cure in bags as long as it was dry enough to keep the moisture down, the other problem i can see with bags is that they will condensate more than a jar due to the plastic heating up quicker from the out side, so if the inside and outside of the bag was a different temp then this could cause more condensation where as a jar would take a while for the temp to change as quick so would not condensate as much.

the fish tank i think sounds like a good idea for a hydro set up, it would take some setting up but i know my fish produce nitrates and nitrites as i have to test the water to make sure its within the correct range else my fish will suffer, plus the waste they produce would benefit the plants as well, but if i dropped a few seeds in the tank i know my fish would eat them in one go, but i have little plastic boxes that go under the water with a fine mesh around the outside of the small box, its basically a breeding box, the pregnant fish goes in and lays the eggs and you make sure she is trapped in their so the other fish dont eat the eggs, or it can be used for an ill fish and it allows you to keep it in the tank still but the other fish cant get to it to attack or stress it out anymore, so i could put seeds in that, i can see them rooting under water but not growing,
as for a clone im going to give it a try, ill take a clone or 2 and put it in some foam so it floats with the stem slightly under the water, and ill see if it can root like that,
i also wonder if fish tank water is ok to water plants with, i have not tried it and wont try it unless i know its going to be safe, i have a ph tester so can test the ph, but would it benefit the plants or not,

i just put the fruity chronic juice into a jar for a cure, it weighed 20.25g dry so not even an oz, the only way im going to increase yield with a soil grow is by doing a longer veg, say 2 months then flip to flower, but that would take my costs up, where as if i give a dwc grow a go i should be able to keep the veg at 30days and then flower and i should hit more than an oz per plant, so ill flower off the 4 plants i got in flower, the plants i have got in veg will be vegged for a week or 2 at the most then flipped to flower, i wont be planting any more seeds till i have got my dwc scrog set up, im going to do a 3ft by 3ft scrog, and see how it goes, so im just letting these plants finish then ill be giving a dwc hydro a go and see what yield i get, i will also grow autos along side the scrog and possibly some hempies as well.

this is what i plan on doing with the hempies, ive got 2 x seedism big red fem seeds in my seed collection, now im thinking these would be ideal for a quick 8 week test, im going to do 2 hempies 12-12 from seed, the one hempie will be a 2ltr bottle with soil in it only, the other will be a 2ltr dwc hempie, ill use the same amount of soil as i would if it was a dwc set up, so ill fill both res's up to the same mark, but one will be compost only and the other will be dwc only, then i can grow these side by side and document the grow, at least then if its side by side i can then clearly see whats best, the temps and rh will be the same, the nutes will be mixed up in 1 batch and both given what they need, they will be both under the same light and i wont do anything to the plants such as lolly pop or pruning, ill give them a true side by side test with everything kept the same.
then i can clearly see whats best and what direction i head off in, if the soil hempie grows the quickest and or produces the best buds then ill go back to soil after the dwc scrog, but if the dwc hempie grows the quickest and produces the most and best bud then ill scrap soil all together and dial in a perfect hydro grow,

all i need to do is do some research on a dwc setup and make sure i find out the res temp and find out about ppm and what the best ppm is for the plants, etc etc, then when i give the dwc scrog a go i should have everything where it needs to be.
Now i have 2 options i could either do a 1 or 2 plant dwc scrog 3ft by 3ft, or i could do 4 seperate dwc grows with plants growing normal with no topping or fimming, i dont think ill be topping or fimming again, i think it does affect yield and produces smaller buds, it would be good if i gave the plants a longer veg but id prefer to have 1 bug main bud instead of 2 main buds that dont get as big as 1 main bud would, maybe hydro will be different and the plants might get big enough quick enough to make topping or fim worth doing, but i think ill give the dwc scrog a go first, it keeps the plant numbers down and if i can get half what teSmp did then ill be happy, so if i can do a 30day veg and then flower i should be able to get a decent yield

 

[grogreen]

i hear you Grogreen..those are the reason i bought this hydrometer..it will tell you if the med is too wet to be in the jars a need to be taken back out to dry some more...they are under 20 bucks on Amazon...i only have one at the moment..but it keeps me from getting mold in the jar..mold while drying is another story..key is a lot of fans..not blowing on the med..i'm talking about max air exchange..stagnant air causes mold..keep it moving...handle your med carefully and you won't lose trics..maybe this will help some more...Curing using a Hygrometer and jar

THANKS MIWA, that was exactly what I wanted to see, I had the same ideas that if the stem breaks its too dry, so I also chopped when they were almost snapping but still flexible, hence why I was concerned about mold, but all the buds seem to be perfect this far, sticky, stinky and delicious and best of all DRY, they're in their jars curing for 4-6 weeks

 

[donpaul.p]

i forgot to add, i tested the special kush last night, the buds are super sticky, it was like trying to roll with some chewing gum, my fingers stuck to the rizla and ripped it so i got some more, then when i was rolling all the buds where sticking to the rizzla on the inside and stuck it together like glue, it was a nightmare to roll with, it was dry so i know it wasnt because the buds where wet, they are crazy sticky, it looks like its been snowed on, the buds are solid as well, they hardly squash at all, but when i did manage to roll a joint i was so glad i did, the kush is some nice bud to smoke, i grew this last time round but last time it never ended up this sticky and it didnt taste or smell as nice as this does, so clearly last time round their must of been some issues, but this time round i think i hit the mark, not a huge yield but the quality is a lot better than the last time i grew this, it feels so light and fluffy but its dense, and it is dry when you touch it but when you break the buds up it just sticks like glue,
im so glad i grew this again, this time round its so much better than the last time i grew it,
i just put the fruity chronic juice in a jar for a cure so ill be testing that later as well, that also feels super sticky as well, not sure why the kush changed compared to last time but im so glad it did as its far better this time round

 

[Smokemupm8]

Also had a question maybe some of you more experienced growers could help me with, can I cure my buds in ziplocs? Instead of jars? Just think I could fit more in a Ziploc and would be easier to move the buds around for a more thorough cure. What do you guys think?

Hey mate, i cured some of mine in zip locks, but i made sure they were fairly dry before doing it. And opened the bag every couple hours to move buds around.. But i did use the jars mostly. And all my little 3-6g buds i dried on a rack in my room with the fan circulating air, i would turn them every 5 hours or somethin. Hope it helps ya? Smokem..

 

[Smokemupm8]

Hey Donpaul
Man, i wish i had that trouble atm!! The buds im tokin on suck balls!! Well it duz the job, but man i m itchin for harvest time bro.
I really want to grow some kush, when i order my seeds im prob going to get some kush of some sort. And SUPA SKUNK.. FOR SURE, And maybe a Chemdawg for thc.. I need a big sedative weed, as mi Bi-polar affects me, i can smoke 3g's at times n not feel a difference xcept for little head stone.. Once im manic, it sucks! Also some of these strains i hope will be good for anxiety- it sounds contradictive to say that - as some weed makes ya get anxiety /paranoia
So yeah thems my future plans.. I hope ill get the resinous content associated with PR on this grow, i envy your sticky icky icky!!
Nice work mate youve kicked a goal there by the sounds of it. Later bro. Smokemup..

 

[miwa]

WTH...nature glue...i need that strain to roll blounts...stop all that licking..DP...what did you do different this time to that kush to make it sticky ???...inquiring minds want to know...

 

[teSmp]

Hey Donpaul
Man, i wish i had that trouble atm!! The buds im tokin on suck balls!! Well it duz the job, but man i m itchin for harvest time bro.
I really want to grow some kush, when i order my seeds im prob going to get some kush of some sort. And SUPA SKUNK.. FOR SURE, And maybe a Chemdawg for thc.. I need a big sedative weed, as mi Bi-polar affects me, i can smoke 3g's at times n not feel a difference xcept for little head stone.. Once im manic, it sucks! Also some of these strains i hope will be good for anxiety- it sounds contradictive to say that - as some weed makes ya get anxiety /paranoia
So yeah thems my future plans.. I hope ill get the resinous content associated with PR on this grow, i envy your sticky icky icky!!
Nice work mate youve kicked a goal there by the sounds of it. Later bro. Smokemup..

I would strongly suggest Critcal Sensi Star... It of course yields good but the high is calming and sedative. I usually get some sort of paranoia with all the strains I've tried thus far EXCEPT for the CSS, it hasn't caused any paranoia in any way no matter how much I smoke. It slows down my thought process and it allows me to sleep when I want. I grew Purple Kush as well and it helped with sleep but still caused me to have paranoia.

 

[fish cake]

hey DP or should I say Master Don. the fish tank thing is something I've been pondering for a while Aqua culture.
A few things thothe amonia makes me wonder, but with a large enough filter and tank that might be to bad. I have a large trickle filter with a 280gph pump that I had for my reef tank thinking maybe it would be good for a hydro set up.
but if you use chealated copper in your tanks that may kill your plants so keep that in mind. I know I'am all over the place on this lol
as far as temps go if you were to have a tank with ryukins or koi or some other gold fish you wouldnt need to heat the water as they prefer temps below 68 degreesor lower,Ideal for hydro so I have read
and after typing this now that I think about it the plant(Mj) should be the filter
anyway think about what chemicals you add to keep your fish healthy such as to control ph and for thing like Ich and other diseases as they may be detrimental to your plants

 

[bozzo420]

WTH...nature glue...i need that strain to roll blounts...stop all that licking..DP...what did you do different this time to that kush to make it sticky ???...inquiring minds want to know...

I grew some tobacco this year. I can't wait till it cures to try some real blunts ,with natural leaf wraper

 

[Heirloom]

hey DP or should I say Master Don. the fish tank thing is something I've been pondering for a while Aqua culture.
A few things thothe amonia makes me wonder, but with a large enough filter and tank that might be to bad. I have a large trickle filter with a 280gph pump that I had for my reef tank thinking maybe it would be good for a hydro set up.
but if you use chealated copper in your tanks that may kill your plants so keep that in mind. I know I'am all over the place on this lol
as far as temps go if you were to have a tank with ryukins or koi or some other gold fish you wouldnt need to heat the water as they prefer temps below 68 degreesor lower,Ideal for hydro so I have read
and after typing this now that I think about it the plant(Mj) should be the filter
anyway think about what chemicals you add to keep your fish healthy such as to control ph and for thing like Ich and other diseases as they may be detrimental to your plants

I have friends that do aquaponics. I never asked if they grew MJ in it though. I will have to find out. They have a 4x8 bed and a 275 gallon tote as the tank. They were raising tilapia last year.

 

[donpaul.p]

@fishcake, thanks for the info mate, ill think about it, i could try cloning in the tank as the strip light in the hood is a grow light as its written on the bulb, my fish are tropical so the water is heated, ill have to check temps and everything else, i know their are nitrates and nitrites in the tank produced from the fish waste which i think should be good for the plants, but like you say its everything else, luckily i dont have problems with my fish tanks, i have got a big coffee table fish tank and a big tank on a stand and i dont have to add much to the water, the only time i add anything is when i clean and empty and refill the tank, i have to add some water safe to prevent the chloring becoming a problem to the fish, so thats all i add,

i was wondering if the fish tank water would be any good to water plants with, could it be used to mix up the nutrients in, ill need to check the ph and maybe it is ideal for plants after adding nutes, i just dont know enough about these plants or about whats in the water to know whats good and whats not,
but i have been looking around the net and people clearly do grow using fish tanks, i buy plants all the time that grow in tanks, some grow under water and some grow on the surface with their roots under the water, so clearly the oxygen is their and clearly the water is ok for them type of plants, i could not add nutes to my fish tank as it would kill the fish, but would their be enough nutes in the water from the fish to give the plants a chance of surviving or even just start clones in their,

but watering with the fish tank water is something i want to find out about, i clean my tanks every 2 months and change nearly half the water out so would this water be safe to feed the plants with and would i need to add nutes or not, i might even just try it on one of my plants,

 

[donpaul.p]

im not sure about the sticky buds mate, i just think the plants looked a whole lot better this time round, they seemed to grow a whole lot better and to be honest i changed nothing from the last grow, everything was the same, nutes, temps,ph etc etc, so im not exactly sure why this kush turned out different.

i had a spliff of the frutiy chronic juice last nite, i could not finish the spliff, i was lying on the sofa and i was so stoned i just could not move, it was exactly the type of bud i need for a night time smoke,

but the special kush is not far off it either, i had a spliff in the day time and sat down the rest of the day, the fruity chronic juice was not sticky either, it was ok to break up and roll with. but the special kush is honestly like chewing gum, when you break the bud which is dry and try to break it up to go in a spliff and it just sticks to anything it touches, its super sticky, the bud is totally dry but when i break it up and try and roll with it it just turns to something super sticky, but its such a nice high, another great night time smoke, really gives me some huge couch lock, just what the doctor ordered

 

[fish cake]

the water you change from the aquarium should be fine as long as you dont use any dechlorination products.they have salts that would cause nute lock. I have used the water before on house plants and hell they are still kicking lol. just thinking about certian chemicals that may be bad. but if you have live plants duckweed and what not you should do well.
just throwing my 2 cents in or pence

 

[donpaul.p]

thanks fish cake, ill give it a try with one of my plants, i have not added any water safe to the tank for a while as i let the water stand in buckets before i change 1/3rd of the water for clean water, so their is nothing added and my water plants all do ok, so ill check the ph when i get back which should be ok, then ill feed it to one of my plants and see how it goes,

 

[donpaul.p]

hi all, the last 2 days i have been giving one of my bigger plants in veg and one of the rooted and now growing clones the fish tank water, within 48 hours the leaves changed, they went from been strait to pointing up towards the light, the leaves have totally changed how they are on the plant, normally the leaves are sideways, but all the fan leaves are now stretching towards the light, this has only happened with the 2 plants that have had fish tank water, and im pretty sure they have grown loads in the time as well, when i compare the clone that has not had fish tank water to the clone that has had water then the one thats had tank water is clearly growing better than the plants that have not,

the problem is im not sure how much harm this is going to do in the long term, this is why i have not gave it the rest of the plants, clearly the 2 plants i gave the water to are doing well and have grown more than the other plants that have had no fish tank water, so ill keep giving these 2 the tank water and no nutes and ill see what happens, the ph of the tank water was hovering just over 7.01 so its pretty neutral, not sure how this will affect things either, my tap water is 7.0 and when i mix the nutes it lowers the ph, so what harm is this 7.01 water going to do to the plants, well so far the plants that have had the water clearly look better than the plants that have not had any, im suprised how quickly the leaves have changed, the leaves are pointing upwards towards the light now instead of been horizontal, so clearly this has boosted these 2 plants and clearly their liking it, ill keep these 2 plants on the tank water and see how far they go, but all ready i have noticed they are growing quicker than the plants that have not had this fish water.

the other thing i dont know is the nutes, now do i mix my nutes up with this tank water or do i just give the plants tank water and say every 3rd water i give tap water with nutes, so does anyone know if i can use the tank water to mix my nutes with so i can try it on these 2 plants, or is their enough goodness in the tank water to keep the plants growing, clearly their getting some boost from it, even if i watered with tank water every other water it should be ok, but i dont know whats happening or why the plants are reacting so well to it, they really have changed from my other soil grown plants, these seem to have grown a lot taller and the leaves are really stretching for the light, im hoping this is a good sign, but i only watered a small amount each day so i could monitor the plants and flush if needed, but now i know their ok ill give them a proper water with it tomorrow and see how them 2 plants go.

now for the experiment im running, i cant do this experiment with clones unless i wait a while which i dont want to do, so ive planted seed for this experiment, the seeds i have planted are seedism big red, looks a nice strain so cant wait to try it,
so the experiment is this
1 x 2ltr soil hempie, watered with nutes
1 x 2ltr dwc hempie also given the same nutes.
they have been planted today so this is the start of the test,
to keep it fair ill keep both plants next to each other, ill mix a big batch of nutes when i need to give them nutes, this will keep the test fairer, the lights and temp etc etc will be kept the same, the only difference will be the type of grow, this will show us all whats best, i clearly think the hydro will grow the quickest and give the best yield, but i want to see how much difference their really is, so this side by side grow should tell me this.

i know their from seed and they could start growing a day or 2 apart but at the most they will be a few days apart, so ill keep dates written down of when the seed sprouted etc etc and then if 1 is 2 days ahead of the other then this will need to be taken into account when comparing the 2 plants, so the test has now started, ill take pics as soon as anything happens, ill take side by side pics so you can all see how each is doing.

so if anyone can give me some help with the tank water and how i can continue to use it, if i mix nutes or not, i just dont know anything about it so thought id ask for some advice if anyone knows anything,

i also harvested the last of the nl x bb, the bottom half that went back under the lights, i took some pics so ill put them up at some point, i didnt get loads more but its more than i would of got if i harvested when i did the plant the 1st time, plus i needed the pot,

 

[miwa]

Ok...tank water...doesn't harm fish....doesn't harm water plants grown with fish in the tank...so with those 2... doesn't harms..i would conclude its ok to water your plants...thats a good find...fish water...may be better than RO water...more experiments...

 

[donpaul.p]

i just commented on your journal mate, but clearly this seems to be working well, i wonder if my plants would veg and flower using just the tank water, i do grow plants in my tanks that the fish eat, and these plants grow really well and i have to cut loads off every few months to stop it getting to much in the tank, but if i can water my plants with this from veg to harvest then it would save me buying nutes.

but im wondering if its worth say every 3rd time i water to give it tap water and bpn, or could i mix the fish water with bpn, i dont want to mix bpn with the fish water for every feed as their should be stuff to feed the soil in the tank, so im thinking if i did say a 2 to 1 ratio of tank water and bpn, so for 2 feeds ill just give fish tank water, then the next feed ill use tap water and bpn, would this work or should the fish tank water be ok for the whole grow, i wonder if the water been slightly warm boost things as well, cuz i put a jug in my tank and took the water out and watered with it while it was still slightly warm.

their is a clear difference, i have got the clone and a kush clone well in veg, and both have grown loads even in that short time, and the leaves are all facing upwards in a v and they had not been like this before, its as if its strengthened the leaves and they are now facing upwards, id like to know whats going on, but ill keep an eye on things and see what happens, but so far their is no problems and everything looks good to be honest

 

[donpaul.p]

plus i think my reserva privada sour kush is well pregnant, the 3 buds i put pollen on are clearly different from the rest of the buds, on these 3 the calyx's seem like their swelling loads, like you know the calyx you get at the nodes that get really fat but its just 1 calyx on the stem, its where the plant shows sex first, well these buds have got lots of them on that are really starting to swell up, all the pistils have shrunk and died but these pods are really swelling, so these 3 bud sites are giving me seeds by the looks of it, but i only put pollen on the top of the bud but it looks like its made the whole bud produce seeds on that stem, not sure if thats what it does but thats what im getting, ive checked the rest of the buds on the plant and none of these have the same look to them. so i think i only did polenate that part of the plant,

so the mother is reserva privada sour kush and the father is kiwi seeds, i shook the pollen onto some black card then brushed it on the pistils, now most of the pollen seemed stuck to the card, so i then wiped the card gently over the top of these 3 buds so it wiped the pollen over them buds as well, so i think when i collected the pollen it was slightly moist or sticky as it had only been out the father for a minute at the most, so most of it would not stick on the make up brush i was using, but it stuck to the card i tapped the pollen onto, so i just rubbed this over the buds i wanted to get seeds from, then i tied pipe cleaners on these 3 branches so i knew which it was in case they all looked the same, but its perfectly clear that the seed pods are swelling loads compared to the rest of the buds, so im keeping my fingers crossed that i should have some seeds,
ill let it go as far as i can before harvest so i know their will be viable, then im told to keep the seeds in the fridge to replicate winter and do this for a couple of weeks up to a month, then they can be taken out the fridge and left at room temp then they can be planted,

this is the first time knowingly that i have helped plants reproduce, and im hoping for good things to come, the male was very fast growing and very easy to grow, and this hempie is a monster and its 5ft tall now and well in flower, so im hoping i picked the best plant to cross it with, i know it wont be a stable strain but if i plant the seeds and get a female then i can flower that and if i like it i can then use it to clone from, so that should keep the plants the same shouldnt it, i know their is a lot of work in making a new strain and it involves picking the traits from certain plants and crossing them with each other and back crossing and all that, but im not trying to do that, sounds like a lot of hard work and high plant numbers, but if i have a female from the seeds and it grows and produces well then if i take clones it should keep it the same each time its grown, or am i wrong about this,

 

[miwa]

i think you may be right ''except the putting seeds in fridge..when my plants revegged..they were in flower and had been pollenated by that hermie...you can see ..in the pots when i posted..where the seeds had fallen down in the pots..they germinated...