I have been enthusiastically anticipating my seeds’ arrival for this epic comparison grow with curiosity piqued, appreciative for the opportunity to partake and finally today is that long-awaited day of my seeds arrival.
Homer likes to keep his growing method simple. Simple is as simple does.
If I am noted for anything in this journal, which I wouldn’t bet on, I believe it will not be for what I do but instead for what I don’t do. No tent, no fans, no adjusting nutrient water pH, no flushing, no watering enough to get run off, no training just topping, no fancy soils or amendments just the cheapest; Pro Mix HP, no complicated additives; just inexpensive one part MegaCrop, and so on. Forgoing tents I simply have my plants under LEDs in the unfinished end of the basement out in the open and for environmental control just keep the house in the comfortable range for humans for both temperature and humidity.
The biggest lesson for me in my time growing here is that the Golden Rule when it comes to light, water and fertilizer is less is more. Although my MegaLight can run over 600 W I keep it at 200 W and 24 inches. Even trying to go to just 240 W caused leaf burn. The manufacturer’s maximum dosage recommended for MegaCrop in flower is 6 g per gallon but I rarely go over five or 5.5 depending on what my leaves are telling me. The only plant I ever had die in flower I believe in hindsight I drowned so I let my pots get pretty dry between waterings even in flower. They seem to like it.
The essence of my pragmatic grow method has been to eliminate anything not beneficial to the plant making growing as cheap, easy and simple as possible so I am genuinely curious how my plants will compare to those that employ every growing doodad and additive available. It should be quite illuminating to discover what other growers do with the same seeds and what they get from them with their more elaborate systems. I’m not certain myself so what could be cooler than that? Going to have to stock up on popcorn!
Now that I have my bare-bones system pretty much settled and stable in future grows though I would like to experiment with some organic fertilizers and such but I didn’t want to do a big comparative grow introducing anything new that I wasn’t certain about.
Good luck to all my fellow comparators.
Strain: Girl Scout Cookies Feminized From @Weed Seeds Express
Sativa/Indica: Hybrid (OG Kush/Durban Poison)
Veg: approx. 8-10 weeks
Indoor Now / Outdoor possibly later but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Grow Medium: ProMix HP
Final Pot Size: 10-gallon indoor
Lights: NextLight MegaLight 650W ( set to about 200 W at 24”)
Room Temperature/Humidity range: 75 to 78F, 35 to 50% (whatever the basement is depending on time of year and humidifier/dehumidifier use)
Soil PH: not tested and nute tap water pH not tested or adjusted
Here is where all the magic and hopefully a minimum of disasters will take place. As a requisite for being in this comparison grow is to use a sponsored light I will be vegging and flowering in this room under my MegaLight from NextLight. It is a happy coincidence that my MegaLight gives off a beautiful soft glow that is not only beautiful in photographs but colour balanced nicely so putting up a backdrop I bought for $20 along with my iPhone turns my grow room into a cheap nice little studio.
Here is the obligatory seed-pack shot.
Here are the seeds I will be starting minus one. I am planning on bringing 2 plants to maturity indoors and hoping to give 2 away for outside to friends so I am actually starting five seeds assuming one will not sprout, the fifth which I added after these photos were taken.
Here are the girls soaking it up in a warm bath of plain tap water. I will keep them in water for 24 to 48 hours depending on how long it will take them to crack and start to sprout a tap root and then transfer them to a wet paper towel for a few days after that. I used to just drop them in soil but this way I can see how they are doing so I spend less time waiting for duds.
I find heating my seeds to between 78 and 80°F when germinating makes a marked improvement in growth rate and I believe a higher success rate but a little too early to draw that conclusion. I can pretty accurately adjust the voltage on the output of my controller with my multimeter so I can dial in my temperature within a degree or two. Being a tinkerer I had the controller and multimeter already so I didn't have to buy anything to heat my seeds. I do try to make my system as simple as possible but when I find something beneficial like heating my seeds I go for it because being a pragmatic grower I only eliminate that which has no benefit.
Thanks for stopping by.
Homer likes to keep his growing method simple. Simple is as simple does.
If I am noted for anything in this journal, which I wouldn’t bet on, I believe it will not be for what I do but instead for what I don’t do. No tent, no fans, no adjusting nutrient water pH, no flushing, no watering enough to get run off, no training just topping, no fancy soils or amendments just the cheapest; Pro Mix HP, no complicated additives; just inexpensive one part MegaCrop, and so on. Forgoing tents I simply have my plants under LEDs in the unfinished end of the basement out in the open and for environmental control just keep the house in the comfortable range for humans for both temperature and humidity.
The biggest lesson for me in my time growing here is that the Golden Rule when it comes to light, water and fertilizer is less is more. Although my MegaLight can run over 600 W I keep it at 200 W and 24 inches. Even trying to go to just 240 W caused leaf burn. The manufacturer’s maximum dosage recommended for MegaCrop in flower is 6 g per gallon but I rarely go over five or 5.5 depending on what my leaves are telling me. The only plant I ever had die in flower I believe in hindsight I drowned so I let my pots get pretty dry between waterings even in flower. They seem to like it.
The essence of my pragmatic grow method has been to eliminate anything not beneficial to the plant making growing as cheap, easy and simple as possible so I am genuinely curious how my plants will compare to those that employ every growing doodad and additive available. It should be quite illuminating to discover what other growers do with the same seeds and what they get from them with their more elaborate systems. I’m not certain myself so what could be cooler than that? Going to have to stock up on popcorn!
Now that I have my bare-bones system pretty much settled and stable in future grows though I would like to experiment with some organic fertilizers and such but I didn’t want to do a big comparative grow introducing anything new that I wasn’t certain about.
Good luck to all my fellow comparators.
Strain: Girl Scout Cookies Feminized From @Weed Seeds Express
Sativa/Indica: Hybrid (OG Kush/Durban Poison)
Veg: approx. 8-10 weeks
Indoor Now / Outdoor possibly later but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Grow Medium: ProMix HP
Final Pot Size: 10-gallon indoor
Lights: NextLight MegaLight 650W ( set to about 200 W at 24”)
Room Temperature/Humidity range: 75 to 78F, 35 to 50% (whatever the basement is depending on time of year and humidifier/dehumidifier use)
Soil PH: not tested and nute tap water pH not tested or adjusted
Here is where all the magic and hopefully a minimum of disasters will take place. As a requisite for being in this comparison grow is to use a sponsored light I will be vegging and flowering in this room under my MegaLight from NextLight. It is a happy coincidence that my MegaLight gives off a beautiful soft glow that is not only beautiful in photographs but colour balanced nicely so putting up a backdrop I bought for $20 along with my iPhone turns my grow room into a cheap nice little studio.
Here is the obligatory seed-pack shot.
Here are the seeds I will be starting minus one. I am planning on bringing 2 plants to maturity indoors and hoping to give 2 away for outside to friends so I am actually starting five seeds assuming one will not sprout, the fifth which I added after these photos were taken.
Here are the girls soaking it up in a warm bath of plain tap water. I will keep them in water for 24 to 48 hours depending on how long it will take them to crack and start to sprout a tap root and then transfer them to a wet paper towel for a few days after that. I used to just drop them in soil but this way I can see how they are doing so I spend less time waiting for duds.
I find heating my seeds to between 78 and 80°F when germinating makes a marked improvement in growth rate and I believe a higher success rate but a little too early to draw that conclusion. I can pretty accurately adjust the voltage on the output of my controller with my multimeter so I can dial in my temperature within a degree or two. Being a tinkerer I had the controller and multimeter already so I didn't have to buy anything to heat my seeds. I do try to make my system as simple as possible but when I find something beneficial like heating my seeds I go for it because being a pragmatic grower I only eliminate that which has no benefit.
Thanks for stopping by.
What kind of material is yours and where did you get it?
