Ganga: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the slimm. His mission: to explore strange new strains, to seek out new phenotypes and new cultivation methods, to boldly go where no cannabis grower has gone before. A bit dramatic? Maybe.
My First Grow
This was largely a haphazard attempt to grow a couple of plants while I built out my tent and set up equipment. I put a couple of clones in 3 gallon pots FFOF on the back balcony. They were ignored, fed organic nutrients but no other interventions and were finally brought in under the lights for their last couple of weeks. I just let them grow and they did well. They finished healthy and produced a few grams of high quality smoke. Here are a few photos of my first crop close to harvest. I had to chop them early as they began to smell strong and I had no carbon scrubber.
My Second Grow
This grow was an exploration of techniques to understand the plant and how to grow it with my unique set of constraints. I am growing in a storage room that has a 6.5 inch ceiling height. It also gets hot so I wanted a light with a low heat signature and a low profile. LED panels seemed to fit the bill and HGL seemed to have one of the better panels on the market. I built a 5x5x6.5 tent and ScrOGged the plants to keep the canopy low. I was besieged by problems. Aphids, nutrient burn, high temperatures, and powdery mildew to name just a few of the issues I encountered. I ended up with a half pound of little buds and which were un-smokable due to the PM infection. Not knowing how to deal with this properly I ended up making BHO with the lot.
I learned that while cannabis is not a difficult plant to grow. It can be tricky to maintain all of the growing parameters to consistently get a high quality, high quantity harvest, especially if you refuse to use any harsh chemicals. Temperature, nutrients, humidity, light, water quality and air quality all have to be tightly controlled. Problems must be noticed and corrected quickly or there will be cascading effects that mask the real problem. The plants are very forgiving with one or two of these parameters but combine multiple errors and you are in for a fun time trying to get it straightened out. I learned that growing in soil is like steering a ship. You begin to turn it and it takes time to respond. I learned that an ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure. I learned a lot about grow room set up and technical details of growing cannabis.
And I'm still learning. My goals are to master cannabis growing; to learn how to duplicate the techniques and great results I have seen others use and produce; and to learn to incorporate new discoveries to optimize quality and yield. I love gadgets and technology and but keep reminding myself, whenever possible, to employ KISS (keep it simple yet sophisticated).
This Grow
I took the lessons learned from my first two grows and made radical changes. I tore down the tent and built a larger room for better environmental control and more room to work. I insulated, added more robust ventilation, replaced the LED panels with two 400w CMH lights in a vertical cool tube configuration. The CMH gives me improved PAR lighting with an acceptable increase in heat. The vertical light configuration eliminates the two feet of vertical space needed for a horizontal HID hood. I installed a distiller gifted to me by a friend. I read up on Hempy buckets and derivatives of the famous Lucas Formula nutrient regime using GH Flora Series nutrients. I also read up on methods and materials to use to prevent some of the more common plant problems.
This thread follows me on my continuing mission. I may updated it semi-regularly as I am pretty busy these days. Questions, comments, pictures and stories from other's experiences are all welcome here.
Grow Info
Strain(s): TGA Jillybean, Barney's Farm L.S.D. (feminized)
Lights: two 400w CMH run vertically with cool tubes
Medium: 70/30 Perlite/Coco
Nutrients: GH Flora Series
Water: Distilled
Other: Neem, AzaMax, Super Thrive, Roots Excelurator, Messenger, CaMg+, Epsom salts, Ph Up, Ph Down, CVS Hydrogen Peroxide (not stabilized), Protekt Silicate, Myco, SNS217, Dutch Masters Penetrator.
My First Grow
This was largely a haphazard attempt to grow a couple of plants while I built out my tent and set up equipment. I put a couple of clones in 3 gallon pots FFOF on the back balcony. They were ignored, fed organic nutrients but no other interventions and were finally brought in under the lights for their last couple of weeks. I just let them grow and they did well. They finished healthy and produced a few grams of high quality smoke. Here are a few photos of my first crop close to harvest. I had to chop them early as they began to smell strong and I had no carbon scrubber.
My Second Grow
This grow was an exploration of techniques to understand the plant and how to grow it with my unique set of constraints. I am growing in a storage room that has a 6.5 inch ceiling height. It also gets hot so I wanted a light with a low heat signature and a low profile. LED panels seemed to fit the bill and HGL seemed to have one of the better panels on the market. I built a 5x5x6.5 tent and ScrOGged the plants to keep the canopy low. I was besieged by problems. Aphids, nutrient burn, high temperatures, and powdery mildew to name just a few of the issues I encountered. I ended up with a half pound of little buds and which were un-smokable due to the PM infection. Not knowing how to deal with this properly I ended up making BHO with the lot.
I learned that while cannabis is not a difficult plant to grow. It can be tricky to maintain all of the growing parameters to consistently get a high quality, high quantity harvest, especially if you refuse to use any harsh chemicals. Temperature, nutrients, humidity, light, water quality and air quality all have to be tightly controlled. Problems must be noticed and corrected quickly or there will be cascading effects that mask the real problem. The plants are very forgiving with one or two of these parameters but combine multiple errors and you are in for a fun time trying to get it straightened out. I learned that growing in soil is like steering a ship. You begin to turn it and it takes time to respond. I learned that an ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure. I learned a lot about grow room set up and technical details of growing cannabis.
And I'm still learning. My goals are to master cannabis growing; to learn how to duplicate the techniques and great results I have seen others use and produce; and to learn to incorporate new discoveries to optimize quality and yield. I love gadgets and technology and but keep reminding myself, whenever possible, to employ KISS (keep it simple yet sophisticated).
This Grow
I took the lessons learned from my first two grows and made radical changes. I tore down the tent and built a larger room for better environmental control and more room to work. I insulated, added more robust ventilation, replaced the LED panels with two 400w CMH lights in a vertical cool tube configuration. The CMH gives me improved PAR lighting with an acceptable increase in heat. The vertical light configuration eliminates the two feet of vertical space needed for a horizontal HID hood. I installed a distiller gifted to me by a friend. I read up on Hempy buckets and derivatives of the famous Lucas Formula nutrient regime using GH Flora Series nutrients. I also read up on methods and materials to use to prevent some of the more common plant problems.
This thread follows me on my continuing mission. I may updated it semi-regularly as I am pretty busy these days. Questions, comments, pictures and stories from other's experiences are all welcome here.
Grow Info
Strain(s): TGA Jillybean, Barney's Farm L.S.D. (feminized)
Lights: two 400w CMH run vertically with cool tubes
Medium: 70/30 Perlite/Coco
Nutrients: GH Flora Series
Water: Distilled
Other: Neem, AzaMax, Super Thrive, Roots Excelurator, Messenger, CaMg+, Epsom salts, Ph Up, Ph Down, CVS Hydrogen Peroxide (not stabilized), Protekt Silicate, Myco, SNS217, Dutch Masters Penetrator.
