RM3
Well-Known Member
Hello New Growers,
How are ya doing ?
Pretty sure you are here to try and learn how to grow Marijuana and fact is you can learn that here but it takes a lot of reading and that includes opinions as well as attitudes which will most likely get in the way and make your learning process take longer.
As a new grower you will see (and it pretty much happens every day) a grower ask a question and then other growers share an answer and then other growers argue this way, no this way, no you're wrong this way. And on and on it goes. In the end you are left with deciding ,,,,,,,,,,,, Sometimes common sense and logic help, hell sometimes things you remember from 6th grade science class help IE: colder water holds more dissolved oxygen than warmer, the kinda of knowledge or logic that makes you question the whole leave the water sit out for 24 /48 hours before usin it. I know it's to remove chlorine except that practice of using chlorine gas in our water supply has been updated to to using chloromine which does not evaporate? And what about the fact that chlorine is one of the 16 elements that plants use or that your tap water doesn't kill your lawn? So now because some one on a forum said so you are watering your plants with warmer water that has less O2 in it ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
But that was not why I started this. I want to tell you how to speed up your journey to becoming a master grower. IF you are lucky when you ask your question here an experienced grower will say things like you need to learn how to read the plants. Some say learn what makes a plant tick. These are slang ways of saying you need to better understand the science of botany.
Your gonna need a few things, some are cheap, some not so much, but you gotta ask yourself how much is this education worth? How much actual time can I save in this learning process? I spent over 2000 hours just reading to do research to write my books on growing and that doesn't cover the time or money spent on the experiments. So my education, parts of which I am now sharing for free cost me a lot LOL. So what do you need? Well if you live in a humid state/area you will need a dehumidifier and it needs to be be good enough to remove humidity fast depending on your grow area size it could cost up to $500 for a good one. But in a small tent you could probably get by with an $80 one? If you are in a arid location (low humidity) you need to get a cheap electric deep fryer $20 at Wal-Mart. You're gonna want to fill it with water, not oil, as it will raise humidity really fast unlike a standard humidifier. In my 500 sq ft room I can raise the humidity 3 points in 10 minutes. Next you need a dish style heater, these go for $80 usually but are cheap to run and raise the temp fast in the area they are aimed at. You could use other types of heaters though, I merely found the parabolic dish heaters to be the best option for this experiment. You also need a temp & humidity gauge but I'm gonna figure if you're growin ya gots one (or more) of these
Now, over time simply raise and lower the temp and humidity in your garden and watch how the plants respond. Wait, don't do both at the same time, changing 2 things at the same time does not teach you anything.
So let's say your current temp is 78 and your humidity is 40%, yes I picked these numbers because most every one on these forums will tell ya they are good or average for growing our plant. Simply raise and lower the humidity a point or 2 then wait an hour or 2 and see how the plants respond. Take before and after pics so you can study them later. and yes keep doing this until you have gone from a humidity that ranges between 20 and 80. From just doing this alone you should discover what the best humidity to compliment our 78 degree temp should be?
Wait, what are we looking for? Well it's not a secret, it's called vigor and it translates to growth. As the plant is growing, the new growth comes out a lighter shade of green. If you look top down you should see a circle of light green growth surrounded by dark green done growing plant matter. Your goal is to seek out the best overall vigor or the size of that new growth circle. Let's say that your circle at our above numbers is 2 inches and when your humidity is up to 50 the circle increases to 3 inches. This would then become obvious that hey I'm gettin more vigor with these numbers. Now of course I gotta say I'm just throwin numbers out here to illustrate what I'm trying to explain your actual mileage will vary.
You are also looking for relaxed leaves, no drooping, no praying, no canoeing, no curling, just flat happy leaves basking in the light. This and the biggest vigor circles you can achieve is what you are looking for.
Next raise & lower the temps from 60 to 99 but keep your humidity at 40. You will now learn the best temp for that humidity. Next we get crazy a bit and do both of these experiments for all the numbers as in raise the temp from 78 to 79 and do the humidity changes again, then raise the temp to 80 you should get the idea. You can be anal like I was when I did this and do 1 point at a time, yes it takes a good while but what you'll learn from watching the plant response is priceless. Or you can jump a few points at a time and still get the idea. You can speed things up by doin the few points at a time and then narrow it if you see a good response.
When you are done with this experiment you will have a complete understanding of how the relationship between temps and humidity (known as the heat index) affects plants. And you will know the sweet spot for the most vigorous growth in your garden. In my garden it is 72 degrees at 33% humidity but hey always remember that no two gardens are the same !!!!
Next we do a similar thing with our lights, raise and lower them an inch at a time while waiting and watching for the plant response (might take a few hours) Once again finding the sweet spot for the most vigorous growth pattern in your garden.
Nutes are a tad more complicated but you can buy dry salts individually and play with different mixtures to learn not only the deficiencies but also the interactions. And I'll tell ya this is not really as important as learning the other plant responses simply because nutes work so what ever nutes you are using should give good results if used properly and to this end that vigor circle is key. There is yet however something about nutes that can not only be important but also revealing
And that is how long are these nutes good for? This is a bit of info that organic soil growers mostly already know. But to find out simply give em a feeding of nutes then water only until a bottom leaf starts to yellow> I have always added Bio-Tone to my pots to give seedlings and clones a good jump start, I grow in peat (sunshine mix #4) and I discovered that it was enough of a charge to last up to 8 weeks with water only, up to because it varied with different strains. If you do this you will learn why all of us old growers are always saying less is more
Your mission, to get the best end product possible is to get the plant to the end as healthy as possible using as little N as you can and still keep the leaves green. That whole bloom booster and PK booster thing is not needed and in most cases causes more harm than good, though most probably would not admit it. And yes, we all have read the it's normal for the plant to fade and die like that at the end, sure outside in the winter with temp & humidity swings totally normal, but if you're growin inside winter should not be happening and there are several great ways to invoke a fast fade at the end.
Last but not least every new grower should buy and read this book, hey it's only $15
http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Garden-Saver-Handbook-Healthy/dp/0932551912
Learning how to read your plant and understand its response to the environment is priceless if you want to go from being a new grower to being a master grower and it's not hard and not terribly expensive. I've been doing this so long I can look at my plants and tell if the humidity changed, I now only look at the gauge to see how much it changed. There are times I know without ever looking at the gauge
Now go forth young Grasshoppers and get your grow on !
How are ya doing ?
Pretty sure you are here to try and learn how to grow Marijuana and fact is you can learn that here but it takes a lot of reading and that includes opinions as well as attitudes which will most likely get in the way and make your learning process take longer.
As a new grower you will see (and it pretty much happens every day) a grower ask a question and then other growers share an answer and then other growers argue this way, no this way, no you're wrong this way. And on and on it goes. In the end you are left with deciding ,,,,,,,,,,,, Sometimes common sense and logic help, hell sometimes things you remember from 6th grade science class help IE: colder water holds more dissolved oxygen than warmer, the kinda of knowledge or logic that makes you question the whole leave the water sit out for 24 /48 hours before usin it. I know it's to remove chlorine except that practice of using chlorine gas in our water supply has been updated to to using chloromine which does not evaporate? And what about the fact that chlorine is one of the 16 elements that plants use or that your tap water doesn't kill your lawn? So now because some one on a forum said so you are watering your plants with warmer water that has less O2 in it ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
But that was not why I started this. I want to tell you how to speed up your journey to becoming a master grower. IF you are lucky when you ask your question here an experienced grower will say things like you need to learn how to read the plants. Some say learn what makes a plant tick. These are slang ways of saying you need to better understand the science of botany.
Your gonna need a few things, some are cheap, some not so much, but you gotta ask yourself how much is this education worth? How much actual time can I save in this learning process? I spent over 2000 hours just reading to do research to write my books on growing and that doesn't cover the time or money spent on the experiments. So my education, parts of which I am now sharing for free cost me a lot LOL. So what do you need? Well if you live in a humid state/area you will need a dehumidifier and it needs to be be good enough to remove humidity fast depending on your grow area size it could cost up to $500 for a good one. But in a small tent you could probably get by with an $80 one? If you are in a arid location (low humidity) you need to get a cheap electric deep fryer $20 at Wal-Mart. You're gonna want to fill it with water, not oil, as it will raise humidity really fast unlike a standard humidifier. In my 500 sq ft room I can raise the humidity 3 points in 10 minutes. Next you need a dish style heater, these go for $80 usually but are cheap to run and raise the temp fast in the area they are aimed at. You could use other types of heaters though, I merely found the parabolic dish heaters to be the best option for this experiment. You also need a temp & humidity gauge but I'm gonna figure if you're growin ya gots one (or more) of these
Now, over time simply raise and lower the temp and humidity in your garden and watch how the plants respond. Wait, don't do both at the same time, changing 2 things at the same time does not teach you anything.
So let's say your current temp is 78 and your humidity is 40%, yes I picked these numbers because most every one on these forums will tell ya they are good or average for growing our plant. Simply raise and lower the humidity a point or 2 then wait an hour or 2 and see how the plants respond. Take before and after pics so you can study them later. and yes keep doing this until you have gone from a humidity that ranges between 20 and 80. From just doing this alone you should discover what the best humidity to compliment our 78 degree temp should be?
Wait, what are we looking for? Well it's not a secret, it's called vigor and it translates to growth. As the plant is growing, the new growth comes out a lighter shade of green. If you look top down you should see a circle of light green growth surrounded by dark green done growing plant matter. Your goal is to seek out the best overall vigor or the size of that new growth circle. Let's say that your circle at our above numbers is 2 inches and when your humidity is up to 50 the circle increases to 3 inches. This would then become obvious that hey I'm gettin more vigor with these numbers. Now of course I gotta say I'm just throwin numbers out here to illustrate what I'm trying to explain your actual mileage will vary.
You are also looking for relaxed leaves, no drooping, no praying, no canoeing, no curling, just flat happy leaves basking in the light. This and the biggest vigor circles you can achieve is what you are looking for.
Next raise & lower the temps from 60 to 99 but keep your humidity at 40. You will now learn the best temp for that humidity. Next we get crazy a bit and do both of these experiments for all the numbers as in raise the temp from 78 to 79 and do the humidity changes again, then raise the temp to 80 you should get the idea. You can be anal like I was when I did this and do 1 point at a time, yes it takes a good while but what you'll learn from watching the plant response is priceless. Or you can jump a few points at a time and still get the idea. You can speed things up by doin the few points at a time and then narrow it if you see a good response.
When you are done with this experiment you will have a complete understanding of how the relationship between temps and humidity (known as the heat index) affects plants. And you will know the sweet spot for the most vigorous growth in your garden. In my garden it is 72 degrees at 33% humidity but hey always remember that no two gardens are the same !!!!
Next we do a similar thing with our lights, raise and lower them an inch at a time while waiting and watching for the plant response (might take a few hours) Once again finding the sweet spot for the most vigorous growth pattern in your garden.
Nutes are a tad more complicated but you can buy dry salts individually and play with different mixtures to learn not only the deficiencies but also the interactions. And I'll tell ya this is not really as important as learning the other plant responses simply because nutes work so what ever nutes you are using should give good results if used properly and to this end that vigor circle is key. There is yet however something about nutes that can not only be important but also revealing
And that is how long are these nutes good for? This is a bit of info that organic soil growers mostly already know. But to find out simply give em a feeding of nutes then water only until a bottom leaf starts to yellow> I have always added Bio-Tone to my pots to give seedlings and clones a good jump start, I grow in peat (sunshine mix #4) and I discovered that it was enough of a charge to last up to 8 weeks with water only, up to because it varied with different strains. If you do this you will learn why all of us old growers are always saying less is more
Your mission, to get the best end product possible is to get the plant to the end as healthy as possible using as little N as you can and still keep the leaves green. That whole bloom booster and PK booster thing is not needed and in most cases causes more harm than good, though most probably would not admit it. And yes, we all have read the it's normal for the plant to fade and die like that at the end, sure outside in the winter with temp & humidity swings totally normal, but if you're growin inside winter should not be happening and there are several great ways to invoke a fast fade at the end.
Last but not least every new grower should buy and read this book, hey it's only $15
http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Garden-Saver-Handbook-Healthy/dp/0932551912
Learning how to read your plant and understand its response to the environment is priceless if you want to go from being a new grower to being a master grower and it's not hard and not terribly expensive. I've been doing this so long I can look at my plants and tell if the humidity changed, I now only look at the gauge to see how much it changed. There are times I know without ever looking at the gauge
Now go forth young Grasshoppers and get your grow on !
