New to rollitup.org - New CFL Grower - Think I may have issues already. Help!

roseypeach said:

this is going to sound really crazy but when I am in doubt of any soil, mg, yard soil, old planter soils, I carefully place it in a baking dish and cook it slowly on 250 degrees in the oven until it starts steaming and then a little longer to kill any non-beneficial bacteria, organisms and other materials/toxins. You'll want to stir it a little during the baking process. Remove it and cool it down. I also cut used banana peels into squares and bake them until they harden up and are a nice black color (think of charcoal). Cool and add to soil. This adds back some potassium and phosphates to the soil.I had awesome results last year doing this. Since there are no nutrients that can survive the heat you will want to start nutes a few weeks after planting.

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I've heard of using peels as they are, using 2-3 peels per plant.. have never really tried it, or tried the baking thereof.. I could entertain this, and have added it to the list of experiments - thanks

nuckyt said:

OK you've succeeded in making me realize I'm being an asshole I need to cut that out, bad karma and I do apologize. I have grown some nice tomatoes in mg and grew some nice pot plants in it too, the only problem I had with it was that I harvested with the leaves still green. I couldnt flush those time released nutes out!!! Other than that the plant grew huge and the smoke was killer tasted like shit though. I had his same setup starting out. He has the tools to produce some bud thats for sure.

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Thanks for givin' one our newbies a second chance and not bustin' their nuts as they learn - your apology which I feel is sincere has earned you +rep.

Figong said:

Thanks for givin' one our newbies a second chance and not bustin' their nuts as they learn - your apology which I feel is sincere has earned you +rep.

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Thanks bro it is sincere. I was acting like some who get on my threads and act that way but that don't mean I have to be the same way its not a good look

On another note....DINNER!

nuckyt said:

That banana peel thing is interesting. I eat alot of bananas might have to try that!

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you won't be sorry! I started using them mainly for my roses, you wouldn't believe the insane growth I got from it, when I tried it on my mj plant got the same results!

haoleflip said:

On another note....DINNER!

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That is a healthy ass dinner if I've ever seen one! If you keep eating that way, you're gonna be smoking homegrown for a long, long time.

haoleflip said:

On another note....DINNER!

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*waves* come join us up at roll it up cafe, for non -canna cookin www.rollitup.org/roll-up-cafe/

Apomixis said:

That is a healthy ass dinner if I've ever seen one! If you keep eating that way, you're gonna be smoking homegrown for a long, long time.

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Yeah, I actually eat like this every day. I make smoothies and stuff too. I eat an 80% raw foods diet and 20% fish and some cooked foods. It's good stuff!

sunni said:

*waves* come join us up at roll it up cafe, for non -canna cookin www.rollitup.org/roll-up-cafe/

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Awesome! I may have to check it out! Thanks!

OK guys. I changed things up again and probably for good this time. I am stopping at these 4 plants here for now. I had two germinated the last couple of days and so I just planted them in new soil, new pots and got some new lights and y-splitters with new, higher kelvin bulbs for veg. I got tired of the other sickly plants just looking worse day by day and I just figured I'm not going to waste my time on those anymore. I saved the last two seedlings and transplanted into these bigger pots. I got the bigger pots because I was reading in a book that one of the reasons my plants had stunted growth was because my roots were all bunched up at the bottom of the cup. Sure enough, when transplanting I look at all the plants I had and the roots looked all cluttered at the bottom and were rotted. I also took down all the foil because I will be grabbing panda film or a solar blanket tomorrow for sure. Dammit, I just hate that I'm having to spend all this money, but I guess it's going to pay off in the long run. My smoke will be free! Anyway, here are some pics....



Oh, and I also grabbed this $20 "electronic soil tester" and it sucks, it doesn't seem to work. I heavily pH downed some soil in a cup to test it and it didn't move!
I'm having the worst luck with this lol. Anyway, if it doesn't go good this time, I might have to stop for a while it's draining my wallet lol.

Ya the initial startup is not low but the more you put into it now the more you get out later. root bound already huh? Makes sense simce you did not see shit goin on up top, lil did we know your rootswere just giving it all they could. rotten too huh? Odd since you had drainage holes in the bottom, very strong indicator that the soil stayed too moist for too long. but i am sure you have already read this somewhere, just thought i should mention, really does surprise me tho since you said you had drain holes and you were doig the finger test...

natro.hydro said:

Ya the initial startup is not low but the more you put into it now the more you get out later. root bound already huh? Makes sense simce you did not see shit goin on up top, lil did we know your rootswere just giving it all they could. rotten too huh? Odd since you had drainage holes in the bottom, very strong indicator that the soil stayed too moist for too long. but i am sure you have already read this somewhere, just thought i should mention, really does surprise me tho since you said you had drain holes and you were doig the finger test...

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Yes, nothing on top. The quote in the book was like "if there's no growth below, there will be no growth above." The roots looked like they were a little dark brown with spots. The only thing that was happening up top was death. The leaves on the others were starting to yellow today. I just couldn't stand it anymore. Skimming through other peoples' CFL threads and seeing how green and how fast their plants were growing got me kind of discouraged lol. The one thing I noticed were a lot of them had their plants in big pots to begin with. Anyway, the next thing I need to grab is a pH tester that works, but I don't want to spend $50...

Test strips are like 5 bucks just require a lil more patience and know how than a meter

The ph meter is going to work best when you have good contact from prongs to soil, which should be damp. Those meters can be finicky, so be patient. Take several readings each time, its not going to be perfect, but you will be able to get a general handle. A ballpark figure. If you don't mind fussing with test strips or capsules, they are very cheap and offer reliable readings.
So... This is it. This time, let them come up, establish good root systems, and we take it from there. You're getting closer.
just to let you know, I have at least $700 invested in my little shower op, and that's small peanuts on RIU. You might find yourself investing more and more. If that's discouraging, just remember, the buds get better as you go lol.
I look forward to seeing updates man!

Hey man my 2nd season into it i had this plant and it was giving me such a hard time at first all these problems litterally at about 6-8inches high every leaf turned yellow and died the plant was pretty much dead there was litterally like 3-4 leaves left on top that was new growth and for shits and giggles i just stuck with it tried to adjust some things and the thing ended up growing into a 5ft monster that gave some serious smoke sometimes its worth it they are very determined plants when you love them properly good luck i look forward to seeing how this ends up

Got this big boy today lol.

125w, 10,500 lumens, 6400k CFL



Not sure if I should keep it there in the middle or let it hang down? Thoughts?

if you could mount it hanging above going sideways as you should not really hang CFL's upside down maybe mount it to the wall with a moveable arm of some sort to adjust height

something like this is what i was talking about http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B002ZEN13M/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=228013&s=hi

And the ghetto-rig of the year award goes to.....

hey man whatever works... you can already see how much more light is on top of those babies vs. how you had it positioned before you will be much happier with your results light penetration wise ... you are deff 1 step closer to a more solid grow good job!

i think your next step should be building some sort of wall to contain all those lumens you are now putting out you can do something as simple and "ghetto rigged" as taking a sun blocker for a car putting it around the lights maybe get some kinda foil above the light to get it to bounce back down i think that should increase your yeild and will be better for plant growth in general because you must get as much light penetration as possible with cfl's because the lumens dont reach that far ... just tryin to help man good luck cant wait to see more updates....