Hints, Kinks, Suggestions & Solutions for the Garden

[Emilya Green]

Have you ever thought of doing something that really made things better somehow in the grow room? Some of these things are just so simple, they hardly deserve a mention, much less a thread all on their own, but it would be nice to have a place to share them.

This thread is for those common sense ideas, that innovative way to use a stick, or a cool way to solve a common problem in the garden. Hopefully others will add to this thread over time and we will end up with a collection of Eureka moments, DIY solutions and I-got-to-try-that ideas!

Here is my first for the collection. I have found that I have a collection of still working (but no idea how well) T5 fluorescent bulbs that I have no idea how old they are or how many hours I have on them. A set of replacement bulbs came in today and I quickly got out my Sharpie and wrote the month and year on the metal cap of one end on each bulb. If I do this on the correct surface, I will be able to read the date while they are installed. No more confusion in my tents on this issue... I will be tagging every light I get, of any kind, from now on.

 

[Emilya Green]

bump...

Here is another one, a copy of some advice I just gave to a recent question on the forum:

If you have a lot of plants in your grow room, getting in each other's way, you can tighten them a bit by wrapping them with string. I regularly do this to my overly wide bushes that result in the tent, by using a binder clip on each end of a string, that I wrap around and around the plant a few times, catching all the unruly branches and tightening everything up toward the center. Not too much... you don't want to crowd things... but a couple of binder clips and some string can oftentimes get a wild plant in order so that the rest of the plants don't have to suffer. It makes the grow room look neater too, and if you add a plant stake where needed, it does a lot to help keep everyone standing upright when the buds start to take on weight.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Yeah I label my bulbs too.
I got frustrated and then had a eureka moment one day and got out the magic marker. Labeled my grow lights A, B, and C, right on the refector Then, with the help of a little masking tape, I labelled the respective ends of their power cords. Then I labelled every cord and electrical appliance in the room. I neatly labelled everything I could think of. All those years of being stoned and crawling around in there following cords to see which one belonged to with appliance, unplugging the wrong thing, plugging in a different wrong thing... All that could have been completely avoided.
I also label my bottled nutes and supplements, as abbreviations on all the sides of the jugs that are visible when they are on the shelf. No more dragging out the identical white jugs every time to look at the labels.

 

[Emilya Green]

There is a lot of good to be said for running multiple lights in bloom. First and foremost is the advantage you get with multi-source lighting that eliminates 78% of the shadows in the tent... and add a good fan to move the plants around and that percentage goes even higher. The plants are getting more wattage, and less shadows... it is more than twice the benefit.

And then something that I learned on this run...

Sometimes it is hard to tell when a light is getting weak. None of us like accepting that our $100+ bulb needs to hit the trash bin, and I am sure there are others like me who have let a bulb go too long on a grow. Multi-source lighting will show you when this happens. You will notice that one side of your garden grows faster, foxtails earlier, finishes faster... The other side, has a weak bulb. With a single bulb, I may never have noticed this, until one day, when the old MH would just go pop, or refuse to start. Then we would know too... months later.

 

[Emilya Green]

Clrwatrtom's 1st Grow

Looks good!

www.420magazine.com

good use for old leaky buckets!

 

[clrwatrtom]

The lazy susan i made for my garden is something anyone with back problems should condider. U can build one 4 about 100$

 

[Emilya Green]

Easy way to keep track of multiple strains at harvest

You know that problem where you have 6 strains coming out of harvest, and you want to keep them separated, but as they dry they all start to look alike... plants you were familiar with in bloom, now look totally different? Have you tried labels and different colored ties, only to have them fall...

www.420magazine.com

 

[Ima Paradox]

Not sure of how to tie down your plant? Do you use pipe cleaners, insulated wire, string, plant ties, little plastic twist ties off of a loaf of bread. I think that there must be at least 20 different ways out there maybe a thousand who knows, but what I have found that seems to work the best for me is hooks and weights, then I can pick the area I want to grow a bend and place a hook there and then all I need to do is adjust the weight. kind of like hanging a Christmas tree ornament. It is incredibly easy to adjust so that the grow bends the right way and can be moved to a new position without having to go through the process of untying the tie-down. And you can add to it if it isn't enough weight, notice the two swivels hanging on one hook.

Nothing to it and very easy to do, any piece of stiff wire can be bent into any size hook needed and anything can be used for weights, I like to use my tackle box from fishing, I use all copper or nickle swivels and will be changing to all copper wire hooks from some left over electrical wiring I did recently. Give it a try. You may find you like it better than tying the plant down to the sides of the pot or stabbing down into the soil for an anchor point. I think this is a cleaner approach.

 

[jimfro]

I add 2 or 3 good sized earthworms to all my 3 gallon fabric pots. Those guy`s leave incredible castings and are super good for root ventilation. My plants just from the start doi better.
It could be my wishful thinking but My Girl`s seem to be more robust, stronger and healthy. Start with your soil....

 

[HugePeckerhead]

I use a funnel to water sometimes when I don't want to move the plant. I don't lollipop so pouring into a long funnel make a water & feeds easier.