Otherwise known as Roach

[lilroach]

I've been getting 420's newsletters for several years now and found them both enjoyable and informative. Having been active in the fight against marijuana laws back in the '70's, I appreciate everything 420 is doing to keep the fight going.

Yeah.....I'm an old fart.....turn 61 this year. Yeah......I'm an old fart that is also a decent grower. I subscribe to KISS growing (keep it simple stupid)....soil....Jack's nutes.....good HID lighting....and some pretty good strains. The rest is all about patience. I can't keep it more simple than that.

I currently have about 60 plants going at various stages of growth. My 13'x13' flower room typically has about 25 plants under the six 600w HPS's and in either #3's or 5 gal Home Depot buckets. Running a perpetual I have the remaining plants in a 7'x10' veg room and they range from clones to 2'+ tall.

Besides some custom strains, I have Ghost Train Haze, the real-deal Blue Dream, Gorilla Glue, Headband, and a few more that I just can't recall at the moment (They say a man's memory is the second thing to go....I can't recall what the first thing was).

I have a couple upgrades to the flower room in the near future....CO2 and a 2-ton mini-split.

Other than that, I'm married to a true-blue hippie chick who makes jewelry and candles while I am a self-employed computer geek that grows weed. We're not rich, but we are indeed happy.

I'm looking forward to meeting other growers on here and plan on being active against the war on drug laws.

 

[Gauge Steel]

Welcome Lilroach. By the sounds of it, you aint smoking lil roaches. Please share your methods with some of us newer growers. Like any learned subject the people before us that have spent years doing it and are experts. Looking forward to seeing you around and mining some of those green nuggets.
Guage.

 

[lilroach]

Here's something I posted in a different forum:

I do not consider myself any sort of expert, but can share what has worked for me, and it's about as simple as it can get.

First rule: Keep it as simple as possible. I go with soil (Happy Frog), and Jack's Classic Bloom Booster from beginning to end. I grow under the always reliable 600 watt HPS's, and other than some topping I don't do a bunch of so-called "advance techniques". I don't SCROG or SOG. I don't buy into LED lighting as some sort of answer to HID's....at least not yet.

Second rule: It's a plant.

Yeah, it's that simple because as much as we mystify growing weed, it's just a plant. Put your seed or rooted clone into a #3 nursery pot with Happy Frog. I use Happy Frog only because that's what I started with and it's a quality soil. You can go out and try other good soils and probably do as well as HF...but if you're not into re-inventing the wheel....get yourself some Happy Frog.

Water the above mentioned seed or clone. This is the only stage where you can drown your plant with too much love...don't do it. If you're using Happy Frog, you don't need to add any nutrients at this point.

So....we have a plant in some nice soil. I guess it's time to talk about lighting in veg.

It's simple.....get yourself some T5HO lighting. Skip the burned-my-plants CFL's. Yeah, they're cheap. Yeah a plant can grow under them. Yeah....too many people use too many CFL's and put them way too close to the fragile plant. You don't have to put either CFL's or T5's all that close to your plants....they don't require all that much light when they first start out. Hell I light dozens of clones in my cheap-ass clone dome with one 23w CFL. My T5's are about 10"-12" from the plants in veg. Sure the plants grow into the lights and that's fine as at least they're growing. T5's are the best light for vegging your plants. get at least a 4 bulb fixture and a length that works for you (2'-4'). Craigslist is a good place to find these cheap. Make sure you're getting the high output (HO) bulbs (54watt).

Veg your plants (18/6) to about 1/2 of the size you want as a final height in flower. I typically go 5-8 weeks depending on strain and available room in the flower room. Typically most plants double in size in flower. Some do more than that.

Let's summarize so far. Soil, plant, light, and watering. How much more simple can this be?

Flowering: If you're gonna do this for any length of time, get yourself a veg area and a separate flowering area. While you have plants in flower you can be vegging your next grow. This cuts your turn around time in half.

I digress.....flowering.....This is where everyone makes it complicated. Fancy expensive LED's, a bunch of snake-oil nutrients (AN) that cost a fortune and increase the odds of fucking up your plants. We're keeping it simple here.....for every four mature plants in flower you should have one 600w HPS over them. Set your timer for 12/12 and you're good to go.

This is where you would start adding nutrients. I currently have 25 plants in flower and guess what my monthly nutrient bill is? How about $10? I use Jack's Classic Bloom Booster (10-30-20) exclusively and put 1/2 tspn per gallon of water. That's it. I feed the plants 1/2 gal of water/feed to each plant every-other day.

The hardest part of all this.....is waiting until the plant is ready to harvest. Keeping it simple in flower is HPS, plant, light nutrients every other day, and wait.

Do this and you will have a great grow. If you're a new grower and feel you want to fiddle with any of this....there's very high odds that you'll screw it up....trust me.

I'll repeat myself......I'm not an expert......but odds are you're not either. I've been growing exactly like this for almost six years.....and cannot see why anyone can't do what I've been doing and getting the same results. I'm not all that smart about this stuff and if I can do it....so can you.