GiGaBaNE's 4th - HydroGanics 600w HiD + Flouro

Looking good buddy . do remember my last grow and the problems i had check out my new journal im in week 6
 
u can get perlite for about £20 for 100litres which would do 50 hempys, but u want to mix with vermiculite really.

ill have to look around...they certainly dont do that at my local diy/garden type places =(

thats a very good price tho!
i use at least 20% with my soil so i certainly get through the stuff =)
 
hey mate i buy loads shit off ebay, feeds, systems, pots, nik nacs. The good stores are discrete and doesnt come on ur bill in anyway related to hydro store.

Trust me no one as paranoid as me, as i mentioned in a diff thread, i already done 9 years for growing. Theres paranoia thens theres being careful. I hate paying through the nose for anything.
 
thanks brother.

lol in that case avoid hydrovate.com on ebay..it arrived on my statement in capital letters :rofl:

im a split personality at the moment. im part mj warrior/entrepeneur part nervous wreck.
i just need to get past getting established on ultra high alert. i really dont like having my 'job' and my family in the same post code, never mind the same house.

thankfully we have private proprty not a rental in any way, have lived here for many years and its almost impossible to track my sleep pattern or change in behaviour in any way. this will come in handy in the future...

for now we just buy from the local shop with friends and grow indoor veg plants in deliberate plain sight and all that. with the exception of my seeds and my HiD purchase, my grow is totally off the grid. hell ive 2 shitty computers that i used to run seti on that are off when my light is on, they have 450w psu's so if anything my electric footprint has gone down a little bit :rofl:

later on it'l be a rental to recieve deliveries and paypal can be a very flexible friend =D

just a few more micro grows...

"i dont mind doing the time, but at least let me DO the crime" :rofl:
 
wanted to mention that im a big fan of coco, i did my first few indoor grows in a mix of coco and pearlite a little epsoma garden lime for the cal mag thing, in 2 liter hempys, i later started testing bpn organics in coco at that time it was unknown if they would work in coco due to the question of wether or not coco could support the microherd, i discovered that in fact coco worked quite well with organics ,i did a run with straight coco and the 7 part farmers pride with great results, coco is reusable and if you are doing organics theres no real need to even flush it between uses, just get the old roots out, i have been doing a soil /coco blend lately mainly so i can be a little more lazy and not have to check ph/ppm , so basically im suggesting trying out some coco its very versatile,reusable,(it seems to get better after the first use) growth is comparable to hydro, its renewable(eco friendly)generally cheap, and grows some monster plants, i in fact wont grow without it being a huge part of my mix, jm2c:thumb:
 
I'm thinking I'm not ready for an expansion into anything else but a pot and soil just yet ...

I'm gonna keep watching and learning for now ;)
 
oh fluffy just one thing i should probably mention. if you chose hempie over soil, perlite is a lot more expensive than soil per tub.

my royal society for the protection of birds, organic mud cost me just under a tenner for a bag. and it appears to be enough to do 40+ 2l hydroganics or 20-30 soil grows. perlite costs around 6-7 quid and you may get around 5 pots done for one of those puny bags.

just something to consider for folks on a tight budget =)

i dont reccomend DWC for SoG. the practicality of pulling out the entire crop out of your cupboard to empty the old water out and replace it. At least with the hempies you can (with a decent angled drip tray) just water generously to sort of flush replace whats in the bottom of the hempie and just collect the waste water with a towel or water pump and bucket if your feeling snazzy, lol.

of course if you have the budget you can buy one of those irrigation pipe systems and that opens up your options considerably.
Ouch. That is a rip off for sure. I can get 4 cubic feet for $14.00 US. That will fill almost 60- 2 liter pots. I get it at a farm supply store and had to shop around to get that price. Much cheaper and lighter than dirt...
 
thanks kimmy. lol its clear to me that im paying through the nose for the convenience of my local diy store.

also i noticed that my plants are quite pale. i think my soil might be quite mild.
this is what im using
RSPB Multi Purpose Organic Compost | MPC | Peat Free | Recycled Compost
and this is what im now thinking of adding to it, and maybe even using as a 50/50 with perlite in future grows

Organic Extra | Natural Concentrated Farmyard Manure

any thoughts peeps?

i like organics, i dont mind preparing a mix at the begining of a grow, but i dislike the idea of having to add anything but water once the plants are growing.

im trying to get set up so i can use a cement mixer for preparing soil in batches and then just using hosepipes and a timer for watering =D
 
also on a seperate note. i found some clear plastic tubing that is 20" diameter and comes in 2 meter strips.
my 600w light has a safe distance of 8-10 inches. im thinking when i go industrial, i want to use such tubes to fully contain my lights, reflectors and all, i can get a massive volume of air through such a tube and have many lights in a row. and because it contains the entire 'too close' portion of the light, plants should be able to grow around and on it safely.

i know we have cool tubes already, but if your bud tops are close enough to touch a cool tube, they are close enough to cook from too much light.
 
09-dec-12

the story so far.

pics first then a debrief on my hydroganic pots for those looking to take inspiration.

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ok short and sweet guys.

hydroganic pots mk1...they work but are flawed.

gravel bottoms-NOT suitable for roots. they just cant find the room to dig down into the water properly

the anti watering osmosis effect- too strong! my soil is too wet for optimum.

Mk2 will use something wlse instead of stones, preferably with zero ability for water to travel upwards, i shall then use a piece of kitchen towel wrapped into a tube as a limited wick for water to travel up, this should slow it down a little bit. thus there needs to be a minimum of 1cm of air between the water and soil and the wick allows some water to jump the gap.
 
09-dec-12

the story so far.

pics first then a debrief on my hydroganic pots for those looking to take inspiration.

GEDC00088.JPG
GEDC00077.JPG
GEDC00067.JPG
GEDC00059.JPG
GEDC00046.JPG


ok short and sweet guys.

hydroganic pots mk1...they work but are flawed.

gravel bottoms-NOT suitable for roots. they just cant find the room to dig down into the water properly

the anti watering osmosis effect- too strong! my soil is too wet for optimum.

Mk2 will use something wlse instead of stones, preferably with zero ability for water to travel upwards, i shall then use a piece of kitchen towel wrapped into a tube as a limited wick for water to travel up, this should slow it down a little bit. thus there needs to be a minimum of 1cm of air between the water and soil and the wick allows some water to jump the gap.

I suggest that nothing but water be in the bottom chamber but not high enough to touch the upper pot with soil. You could then take a wick an put it from the water up into the soil. You could control the amount of water in the upper chamber by the size/amount of the wick/wicks I would start with one cotton string. Just thinking out loud... pay no attention
 
mixing organic soil is an art form trying to keep it all in proportion to last for months without additives is a challenge in large containers 5-10 gallon it typically the minimum needed to make the distance, i dont see it possible with small containers there's just nowhere for all the needed nutrients to hide i have tried and tried the best i did was to get a month of flower after a month of veg in 2 gallon pots but they started going extremely pale and stalled i had to add some chem ferts to save the crop as organics would have taken to long to become available i think i lost alot of final product due to the soil running out of energy even with bpb 3 part it took a week to get them going again they were almost starved to crop failure, some thoughts for you bro:thumb:
 
I suggest that nothing but water be in the bottom chamber but not high enough to touch the upper pot with soil. You could then take a wick an put it from the water up into the soil. You could control the amount of water in the upper chamber by the size/amount of the wick/wicks I would start with one cotton string. Just thinking out loud... pay no attention
exactly what i mean =) the main reason for using gravel as my ballast was actually the weight to stabilise the pots. now im looking for something thats at worst boyancy neutral but with holes in it for roots to grow down.



mixing organic soil is an art form trying to keep it all in proportion to last for months without additives is a challenge in large containers 5-10 gallon it typically the minimum needed to make the distance, i dont see it possible with small containers there's just nowhere for all the needed nutrients to hide i have tried and tried the best i did was to get a month of flower after a month of veg in 2 gallon pots but they started going extremely pale and stalled i had to add some chem ferts to save the crop as organics would have taken to long to become available i think i lost alot of final product due to the soil running out of energy even with bpb 3 part it took a week to get them going again they were almost starved to crop failure, some thoughts for you bro:thumb:


indeed...i like the sound of that concentrated manure stuff i linked earler...i will be keeping a close eye on it....if i can dial in my soil moisture just right i may be able to skip the perlite mix, giving 20% more food by soil volume. i have also left room in those pots for top dressing and i can make a crude compost tea later.....also a 'flush' of urine and seaweed is also a possible at the water level, say the day before i do a water change, just to give it a kick. i need an organic and cheap replacement for urine tho. so far its always been availible for use, but never tried...i wouldnt care if i was the only person smoking my stuff...

the 'rules' of my grow allowes me to use anything that can be manipulated into a man made 'natural' outdoor grow. such as pond/river water and any flora ferts and soil amendments that could occour naturally (or man assisted) in an outdoor plant and leave type grow.
 
ok folks my next 20 are in pots, the tap root on these looks to be about half the length of the previous batch of 20 in the same time frame =/

dont know if something i did had an affect or if they are from a less vigourous plant.

anyways thought i would post some pics of my potting proccess that follows soaking in warm water.

last round i noticed a few things i wasnt happy about.
it was quite difficult to remove my seedlings without stressing them from the 'real' seed cups, so this time round im using crappy drinking cups. I split one bottom to top, but leave the very top still attached (i can snip this at repotting time), then place this inside another cup to retain structure. im sure you can see how this is meant to work.

Also my soil isnt very conducive to baby tap roots so i have made a little alteration. i mostly fill up a cup with my mix, then i seive about 2cm worth and put this on top, make a tiny hole for the pointy end of the seed to sit in then sprinkle some more powdered soil over the top of that and then just spray it in using a fine mist.

thats it really =)

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Noooooooo.
aww man im stressed to hell.
my usual contact is out of stock till next week...managed to muster up enough cash to visit my other guy, gave him a call and he is not doing it any more! totally knocked for six now, him and his pal have been providing me smoke for the last 15 years on and off. he didnt even say why, tho to be fair he was pissed at me for calling in the AM...they dont open shop till noon, lol.

the only thing worse than not having the money to buy smoke is having the money and not having anywhere to get it 😢

lol dont suppose anyone lives in hampshire? :rofl:
 
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