Switched from hydro to soil and loving it...pics

So I did it, I made the switch...why? A few reasons come to mind. My room is in the basement, with no way to clean my tray and tank there. So I have to haul it up and down the stairs once a week to clean. In my current medical condition, it isn't wise to be doing such tasks.
Also, I met a friend of a friend that was growing the most amazing plants I'd ever seen in person.
We have since become friends sharing clones,medication, knowledge and so on. He is mentoring me throughout my soil learning curve.
I decided to do it, so I went to the local nursery and got some used 5 gal. containers that I bleached at home.
Next I purchased a few 2 cub. ft bags of Fox Farm Ocean Forest Soil.
I had been doing my hydro in 4x4 rockwool cubes, so it was easy to simply plant them in the soil and water them.
I fed with some kelp transplant solution and they didn't appear to have much shock if any.
I Kept them at 18/6 for about a week then gradually decreased the hours over 2 more weeks, finally to 12/12 on May 3.
So far I'm very pleased.
These pics are of the 8th day of flowering. More to come...

Most excellent.

Soil/med guy here also. I've used Ocean Forest and it is some awesome stuff.
My only problem was winding the plants down in it. they just kept flowerin'!
I've since started adding/using coco...but it isn't as good as the OF fer sure.
Gonna try some DWC myself...the plant counts are brutal here (3 veg, 3 flower) and I need to get a yielder goin' (got that lined up) to tip the scales in my favor..so to speak...

If you have the time to spare..dropping the lights hour by hour to 12/12 isn't a bad thing. However..if you wanna see your plants really explode...do 24/0 in veg and then go straight to 12/12. BaddaBLOOM.

good luck. You'll be real happy real soon with those OF grown ladies!

bt dt

thanks, yeah Fox Farm has impressed me so far. I like a gradual lighting decrease to simulate outside as much as possible.

I'd say that a gradual decrease is just more work for you, and actually will lengthen flowering time. When micro-controlling the growing of our plants, we want them to induce to flowering as soon after we switch the lights as possible, not sometime later.

btdt, for a very few plants, the way to grow is scrog. Spread them out!

HTH

I like you plants. How tall are they?

I tried dirt and it took too long. Hydro eb & flo with 400 HPS PH of 5.5 to 5.8 change the purified water every 7 to 10 days. Super natural bloom Over drive, Big Bud, and sweet. Flush out with clearex every week. Produces 1/2 pound of tomatoes every 10 weeks!!!!!! I have another room for veg. 20 hour under veg lamps until 12 inches. Then into bloom room.

Greyskull said:

I like you plants. How tall are they?

Click to expand...

thanks, they are about 30'-37' somewhere in that range.

I just added another 400 hps to the room last night. I now have 3 lights
1-1000 watt hps and 2-400 watt hps.