Hello UB, I have been lurking your threads for about three weeks and have read 300 or more pages. This is a great thread and i wanted to thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise with all the folks on this site and elsewhere i'm sure. I just typed a message to add to this thread and spent about an hour doing it and when i went to add my pics it deleted the message for the second time, so i guess i'll just send this and try to figure the pic thing out later.
I like the common sense, scientific approach you take toward growing this plant. I was first introduced to pot in 1971, and well, I liked it. lol. I have grown one outdoor plant in 1982 or 83 I think, and in spite my ignorance of growing technique and lack of attention to the plant, it grew, matured and was smoked and it was some bad ass weed. My point is, this plant is tough and not hard to grow. Growing indoors makes a big difference since you have to actually create the environment for the plant though, but it is still not that mystical as the nute sellers would have you believe.
So now I have an indoor grow going that is about a month old. I'm growing in a tent 4'x2'x5'tall. 400 watt HID dig ballast, currently MH bulb, have hps for when i go 12/12. I tried to germinate some bagseeds I got last summer and literally combed through the carpet i my stash closet to find seeds down in the carpet that I have dropped over the last 10 years or more. I attempted about 35 seeds and 11 (i think) germed. Of those, three just stopped growing after the cotyledons came up, so whether its user error, or just bad seeds, i don't know, but i have germed plenty of seeds over the years and never had this big of a failure rate. I am a vegetable grower too, so I sort of know what I'm doing, but nowhere near like you and riddlme and a bunch of others do.
I am completely amazed at all the hype, (superstition almost that surrounds the pot growing community). Basically, I am a cynical SOB, and a cheapskate that was raised by parents that grew up during the great depression. How in the world do these sheep believe all these charlatans selling their snake oil. When I see the videos like Big Mike with Advanced nutrients and that gangster looking sidekick of his plying their wares it makes me laugh. I don't see how people can believe their BS. It is a complete joke to me. Give me some air, water, soil, and sunlight, and I will grow you some weed. That's how i see it. I spent 25 bucks on enough fertilizer to grow plants in my tent for 10 years and probably still have some left over. Wtf people! wake up. I guarantee you J.R Peters has forgotten more about how to grow a plant than Big Mike or Fox Farms or any of these Marijuana fert sellers will ever know. Ok done ranting.
Uncle Ben thanks, I will continue reading and if I can figure this pic thing out, I'll show you my plants. rep+ bro. take care