Calling All Noob Growers

Rocky Mountain High said:

I'd be very interested to see what you find once you get the pH pen. Is it a combo meter by chance?

Here's the little cheapo set up I have in my garden. Takes the PPM from about 220 to about 90.

I think it was maybe $30 or so, including the filter (which probably needs to be changed, thanks guys)

Maybe run the hard water through the cheap filter and then 1/2 and 1/2 with the RO???

Click to expand...

Why not just use ro and not have akalinity concerns and just continue with cal-mag supplementation? Just a thought....

Oops...sorry I see why...well ro units are not that high..hell I got one and I sure as hell aint rich!! I just feel it gives you more control over exactly what the plant receives and remove the alkalinity of the water out of the equation on nute calculations... upon which I apparently need to study more

Namaste'
"A state licensed personal medical grow...Thank you"

jumboSWISHER said:

hell yea, now thts what i want to acheive =]
but to start off the mix, should i start with bagged soil and add pearlite/peatmoss n stuff to that. ( i WILL be reading ALOT more befor continueing to buy and stuff, so you know lol)

or should i have the mix totaly comprised of addatives i will buy, with no plain dirt/soil?
srry for the 2 pages of basic Q's about soil lol

Click to expand...

I know a few days later Jumbo, but I just posted this in another thread and thought you may be interested in it also. My basic medium mix. I add bone meal and/or blood meal depending on the stage of growth, will I be vegging in it long, just going to use it to flower ect...

My base medium mix:
1 cuft. peatmoss
24 cups worm castings
1/2 cup dolomite lime
1/4 cup Rock Phosphate
2/3 cup greensand (many great benefits, added drainage being one of them)
1/4 cup azomite
1 cup kelp meal
1/3 cup epsoms salt
7 tbl rare earth
6 qts perlite
2 qts vermiculite

Actually this basic mix is usually more than ample to veg a plant 3-4 weeks. Just a small amount of veg nutes as you introduce your flower nutes during transition works pretty well with this mix. Assuming the basic veg for 4 wks grow.

Rocky Mountain High said:

I'd be very interested to see what you find once you get the pH pen. Is it a combo meter by chance?

Here's the little cheapo set up I have in my garden. Takes the PPM from about 220 to about 90.

I think it was maybe $30 or so, including the filter (which probably needs to be changed, thanks guys)

Maybe run the hard water through the cheap filter and then 1/2 and 1/2 with the RO???

Click to expand...

Hey RMH, I wish it was a combo but its only a ph. I am going to get a tds meter as funds alow. So many things to buy, so little money! lol Did you get that filter at Lowes or Home Cheapo? Anyway that may sound like a plan. Thanks for the help.

Peace

Big

cowboylogic said:

I know a few days later Jumbo, but I just posted this in another thread and thought you may be interested in it also. My basic medium mix. I add bone meal and/or blood meal depending on the stage of growth, will I be vegging in it long, just going to use it to flower ect...

My base soil mix:
1 cuft. peatmoss
24 cups worm castings
1/2 cup dolomite lime
2/3 cup greensand (many great benefits, added drainage being one of them)
1/4 cup azomite
1 cup kelp meal
1/3 cup epsoms salt
7 tbl rare earth
6 qts perlite
2 qts vermiculite

Actually this basic mix is usually more than ample to veg a plant 3-4 weeks. Just a small amount of veg nutes as you introduce your flower nutes during transition works pretty well with this mix. Assuming the basic veg for 4 wks grow.

Click to expand...

hell yea! that really helps alot, puts things more into perspective ya know.
i found a KILLER deal on my black gold soil yesterday though, got 8 Cu. ft. for $9. witch is crazy because the 1/2 Cu.ft bag is usually $6 lol so im going to be using this for vegg.
and after thinking about it more, i think it would be a HUGE shame to kill my first big line-up of plants because of measurement errors. im thinking it would probly be best to do a test run with 1 of the 4 plants i have vegging, just in case...
but honestly, this recipe seems to be the most do-able for me personally. i may just whip up a small batch using these measurements, and see how my strains like it, and make tweaks from there to fit each strain.

thanks ALOT bro! good looking out

Illumination said:

Why not just use ro and not have akalinity concerns and just continue with cal-mag supplementation? Just a thought....

Oops...sorry I see why...well ro units are not that high..hell I got one and I sure as hell aint rich!! I just feel it gives you more control over exactly what the plant receives and remove the alkalinity of the water out of the equation on nute calculations... upon which I apparently need to study more

Namaste'
"A state licensed personal medical grow...Thank you"

Click to expand...

I plan on installing one eventually but for now I need to figure a better solution. I am trying to prioritize what purchases I make and the R/O unit is in the middle somewhere. It just gets to be a pain in the ass lugging all those water jugs to the store. I am already burning through 8 gals every 2 to 3 days and the checker's have made some comments about how much I drink. LOL I know that when I switch to the CMH and five gal buckets, they are gonna be gulping down the water,

Thanks for the input.

Peace

Big

No worries Jumbo. Better add this. For seed germination, or in my case, peat pellets into 16 oz cups, I cut this mix by about half with some plain peat. Then you can transplant from there directly into this mix.Some strains can be germed in it. But better safe than sorry in my book. Clones can def go right into it. And good score on the Blackgold....

cowboylogic said:

I know a few days later Jumbo, but I just posted this in another thread and thought you may be interested in it also. My basic medium mix. I add bone meal and/or blood meal depending on the stage of growth, will I be vegging in it long, just going to use it to flower ect...

My base medium mix:
1 cuft. peatmoss
24 cups worm castings
1/2 cup dolomite lime
1/4 cup Rock Phosphate
2/3 cup greensand (many great benefits, added drainage being one of them)
1/4 cup azomite
1 cup kelp meal
1/3 cup epsoms salt
7 tbl rare earth
6 qts perlite
2 qts vermiculite

Actually this basic mix is usually more than ample to veg a plant 3-4 weeks. Just a small amount of veg nutes as you introduce your flower nutes during transition works pretty well with this mix. Assuming the basic veg for 4 wks grow.

Click to expand...

Hey Cowboy, would you fill me in on the Azomite? Is that the mycorrhizae like bacteria Azospirillum (sp) ?

Rocky Mountain High said:

Hey Cowboy, would you fill me in on the Azomite? Is that the mycorrhizae like bacteria Azospirillum (sp) ?

Click to expand...

Its a mineral supplement containing over 67 trace minerals. Its mined soley in Utah. Its a unique deposit of ancient minerals. Its used widely in wheatgrass cultivation. Actually it is a key component in its propagation. MJ seems to really like it also. I have been using it for about 2 yrs now. Wouldnt grow without it. EDIT: the worm castings are the initial introduction of beneficials. Then the first few waterings I use a compost tea. Then some later feedings with guano teas introduce yet more beneficials. This routine seems to be more than enough bugs to keep plant/roots/medium happy. Also remember when making teas. R/O water sucks! Its to stripped down, nothing for the bugs to anchor too. This is one time well, pond or lake water works in your benefit. If you have a clean pond nearby, do a few basic tests on it. If it checks out you have liquid gold to use in your teas. And yet more beneficials! Heres is my source: www.wheatgrasskits.com

hey riddleme,
gotta question about depriving the roots of oxygen while growing in hydro.
im coming up on harvest quick, day 61 right now =]
but i want to turn the air stones off, and let em start to frement. but when i turn off my air pumps the water heats up quite a bit...
root rot is unavoidable obviously, but will all the algea n stuff tht will start to grow with warm temps ruin the process?

jumboSWISHER said:

hey riddleme,
gotta question about depriving the roots of oxygen while growing in hydro.
im coming up on harvest quick, day 61 right now =]
but i want to turn the air stones off, and let em start to frement. but when i turn off my air pumps the water heats up quite a bit...
root rot is unavoidable obviously, but will all the algea n stuff tht will start to grow with warm temps ruin the process?

Click to expand...

Not sure about how it effect the drowning process. Get a bunch of one liter bottles of water and freeze them. One at a time in the res and switched out when needed will keep the res temps down. You may need to adjust size and number depending on your res size. But I bet you get the picture. Lower your air temps too. Really make it feel like fall to your plants.

yea iv already been using two 1 GAL frozen jugs, switched every 12 hours. and installed an A/C a little over a week ago. its soo much better in there!! lol
iv got the air temp down to 68-72 when lights on, and 65ish with lights off. the water temp still seemed to rise very quickly though, even with brand new frozen jugs in there.
i think its because the air pumps are getting air from right by the A/C and pumps it into the res super cold.

hey riddleme whats up bro... had a Q for you been awhile since I had to ask you anything huh? anyways only the old leafs on my plants are drooping about the bottom 1/3 of the plant all the leafs above that sticking straight out like they should. never seen this b4 and as always u my goto guy thanks for all the help you have givin me already if you need a pic let me know peace

think i figured it out they in really small pots so i could fit more under my light and they are bigger now and need more water than they been getting, so would underwatering cause this? just checked pots bone dry but ill upload a pic lights arnt on for a few more hours so i dont want to water em but ill snap a pic
?

yeah pretty sure thats it not letting me upload pics on pc right now some wierd reson not bringing up autoplay option for what program to use when importing from camera wonder why how do i find it manually?

damn light fell and snaped one of my colas but i pushed it back up and standing up byitself still weird hope the top makes it they should be done on 8/8

Delux83 said:

think i figured it out they in really small pots so i could fit more under my light and they are bigger now and need more water than they been getting, so would underwatering cause this? just checked pots bone dry but ill upload a pic lights arnt on for a few more hours so i dont want to water em but ill snap a pic
?

Click to expand...

I think you got it figured. I have a friend who grows in 4 inch pots, start to finish and he has to water 3 times in a day on occasion.

jumboSWISHER said:

hell yea! that really helps alot, puts things more into perspective ya know.
i found a KILLER deal on my black gold soil yesterday though, got 8 Cu. ft. for $9. witch is crazy because the 1/2 Cu.ft bag is usually $6 lol so im going to be using this for vegg.
and after thinking about it more, i think it would be a HUGE shame to kill my first big line-up of plants because of measurement errors. im thinking it would probly be best to do a test run with 1 of the 4 plants i have vegging, just in case...
but honestly, this recipe seems to be the most do-able for me personally. i may just whip up a small batch using these measurements, and see how my strains like it, and make tweaks from there to fit each strain.

thanks ALOT bro! good looking out

Click to expand...

You can get a sample analysis for $15 if you send it to Texas. UB showed me this one. I just sent a sample to see how my new mix is. #2. Routine Analysis + Micronutrients (Micro) for $15 is a steal to me.
SOIL SAMPLE INFORMATION FORM
Hope that helps
Daniels

Hallo riddleme, ive been told your the pro. a quick question. my new fan leaves have browned tips but only the new growth. and the bottom leaves are fyn just drooping a bit and i transplanted her bout 3 days back now. i have a hunch its over watering or stress? i just want a second opinion, seeing you are the ganja pro. Id appreciate it if you could help out. Thanx in advanced!!!!

cowboylogic said:

No worries Jumbo. Better add this. For seed germination, or in my case, peat pellets into 16 oz cups, I cut this mix by about half with some plain peat. Then you can transplant from there directly into this mix.Some strains can be germed in it. But better safe than sorry in my book. Clones can def go right into it. And good score on the Blackgold....

Click to expand...

Cowboy just wanted to tell you that I have read your posts for quite a while now and have learned much and see that you are very knowledgeable and very wise and no nonsense. A pleasure to have you around. GOOD PEOPLE in my book. Just wanted you to know I glad you are in our lil 'fold" now. So refreshing to have one with knowledge common sense and honesty. Guys like you RM UB and a few others are what this is all about. To help us dummies with good advice. Thanx dude and please stick around and check us lil noobs out and line us up when we screw up!!

Not meaning to hijack your thread RM, but wanted to express my gratitude to Cowboy as we will benefit form his presence.

Namaste'
"A state licensed personal medical grow...Thank you"

Illumination said:

Cowboy just wanted to tell you that I have read your posts for quite a while now and have learned much and see that you are very knowledgeable and very wise and no nonsense. A pleasure to have you around. GOOD PEOPLE in my book. Just wanted you to know I glad you are in our lil 'fold" now. So refreshing to have one with knowledge common sense and honesty. Guys like you RM UB and a few others are what this is all about. To help us dummies with good advice. Thanx dude and please stick around and check us lil noobs out and line us up when we screw up!!

Not meaning to hijack your thread Big, but wanted to express my gratitude to Cowboy as we will benefit form his presence.

Namaste'
"A state licensed personal medical grow...Thank you"

Click to expand...

Wow Illumination, I really appreciate the vote of confidence. And you are all more than welcome. The pleasure is all mine. And trust me, us Vets learn just as much from you as you rookies learn from us. Thats what makes Riddles threads so wonderful. Its a sharing circle. I glad he invited me along. Its just going to take me about a year to catch up on all this reading! He sparks interest and thought. And UB is definitely the forum botanist in my eyes. I always enjoy those debates. And since you illuminated my day with your thanks. I will post an updated pic of the Orange Bud under the CMH. 3 weeks in. Keep in mind, its the only plant under it, so it selfishly gets all the wonderful rays....... And you all be sure to keep me in check. I sometimes get grumpy and short and cross the line. Sorry all, dont take it to heart. Its all good in my book.