Second Round

[CharlieMopps]

Setting sun's comparo is running a high ratio of perlit with no problems. Inert and ph neutral, perlite is good stuff, tunes420 had a grow not too long ago in straight all perlite and that went good. I think 50/50 is fine and will give the roots lotsa oxygen.

How r u testing ph?

 

[HealingKronic]

your thinking of doing a setup very similar to mine. i have 12, 3 gallon square pots and i used 1 full bag of ocean forest mixed with half a bag of happy frog. (there is plenty of perlite between the two). i filled my pots to about 3-4 inches from the brim. (roots need room to grow). so for 12, 3 gallon pots nearly full, i used 2.5 cubic feet.

 

[onthe420train]

9*3 = 27 gal
1 (cu feet) = 7 gal
4 cu ft will fill all four

2.5 c ft 1 cu ft perlite 3.5/4 will fill all of the pots most of the way and leave you with some extra... but if hand watering a thicker soil w/ more castings and peat moss will retain more moisture than a heavy perlite mix.

it sounds safe, I think with about a 2 ft plant in a 3 gal fox farm you will yield about an ounce per plant. 9x28/600=0.42 gpw

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Thanks for all the comments guys!

You would really have to water them more often with that much perlite,
on the other hand feeding them through out would probably be perfect for a 2 foot plant. imho

your drainage will be very high with that much perlite. and OMM is right, you'll be watering lots. but hey, nothing wrong with that. you just need to keep an eye on things till you figure out how long they take to dry up.

As it is with my area being so dry (~20% RH), I water daily, so I'm not too concerned with having to water frequently.

in my experience.. my old soil mix needed watering every 4-5 days, my new soil mix (lots more perlite) needs watering every 2-3 days. food for thought.

btw, it's cool that your hydro shop carries soil. mine just calls it dirty. lol

Yeah dude they carry anything you could possibly need to grow plants. Tents, lights, nutes, mediums, build your own hydro supplies, led's, the whole deal

Setting sun's comparo is running a high ratio of perlit with no problems. Inert and ph neutral, perlite is good stuff, tunes420 had a grow not too long ago in straight all perlite and that went good. I think 50/50 is fine and will give the roots lotsa oxygen.

How r u testing ph?

I picked up a Milwaukee ph600 and I'm using that to test my levels.

your thinking of doing a setup very similar to mine. i have 12, 3 gallon square pots and i used 1 full bag of ocean forest mixed with half a bag of happy frog. (there is plenty of perlite between the two). i filled my pots to about 3-4 inches from the brim. (roots need room to grow). so for 12, 3 gallon pots nearly full, i used 2.5 cubic feet.

Not bad dude, so all together you are running about .2 cu ft per pot, so for 9 I would be looking at 1.875 cu ft. I'll definitely have enough soil with one bag of dirt and a bag of perlite.

9*3 = 27 gal
1 (cu feet) = 7 gal
4 cu ft will fill all four

2.5 c ft 1 cu ft perlite 3.5/4 will fill all of the pots most of the way and leave you with some extra... but if hand watering a thicker soil w/ more castings and peat moss will retain more moisture than a heavy perlite mix.

it sounds safe, I think with about a 2 ft plant in a 3 gal fox farm you will yield about an ounce per plant. 9x28/600=0.42 gpw

Do you think it would be beneficial to mix some peat moss in with my mixture instead of so much perlite?

 

[onthe420train]

Peat moss is good you will have to water less often with it though as it holds more moisture and retain too much if watered too often. If there is a hydro store you can most likely buy a pre-mix of coco, peat moss and perlite with other good stuff in it.
as to your yield you probably yield more watering with chemical fertilizer more often with only perlite than the peat moss.

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Peat moss is good you will have to water less often with it though as it holds more moisture and retain too much if watered too often. If there is a hydro store you can most likely buy a pre-mix of coco, peat moss and perlite with other good stuff in it.
as to your yield you probably yield more watering with chemical fertilizer more often with only perlite than the peat moss.

good point, I'll take a look to see what kind of pre-mix deals they have, but I think I might just stick with the perlite for now as I've never mixed anything else with my soil yet.

Thanks for all the comments guys! I can't wait to start posting bud porn for you all to enjoy

 

[onthe420train]

hey man so how are you watering them, by hand?

 

[CharlieMopps]

I'd stay away from peat moss. Adding it defeats the purpose of adding perlite, aka so the roots can breathe.

 

[Steve McStoferson]

hey man so how are you watering them, by hand?

yeah by hand.. I buy cases of 16oz bottled water and every day I give all 9 plants an even watering which equals out to be about 1.7oz of water each plant. When I planted them, I made sure the soil mix was very light, so it drains really fast and doesn't hold much water.

I'd stay away from peat moss. Adding it defeats the purpose of adding perlite, aka so the roots can breathe.

Yeah that makes sense. I'll definitely stick with the perlite / soil mix and see how we go from there. I'll be picking it up on Friday, and then I'll just be ordering the light online since its $50 cheaper. I have to wait till the end of the month to get it though, but at least I'll have it in time for when they flower. I'll probably hit them with the MH for a week or two depending on their growth.

I got new batteries yesterday so I will snap some updated pics tonight or something. They are looking great

 

[Retired Three]

Do you think it would be beneficial to mix some peat moss in with my mixture instead of so much perlite?

The soil and perlite combination has me thinking....
After my fungus Gnat problem I am thinking of alternatives to using peat moss in the future..

 

[Xanthapie]

Both of your threads have been such a resource for me and I only started reading this morning. I have now spent 5 hours on here non stop. I love this website and especially your post. I am from Oregon and my best friend is getting her medical card and wants to make me her caregiver. That would mean I would start my own grow very soon. I have helped on grows before but never had my own. I will make a journal for sure when I do.

 

[420warriors]

Welcome to 420mag xanthapie,I too am a new member. You will find the members here very friendly and helpful. If you are inexperienced, look into hempy buckets. check out DocBuds journal, he is the hemptmaster!

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Both of your threads have been such a resource for me and I only started reading this morning. I have now spent 5 hours on here non stop. I love this website and especially your post. I am from Oregon and my best friend is getting her medical card and wants to make me her caregiver. That would mean I would start my own grow very soon. I have helped on grows before but never had my own. I will make a journal for sure when I do.

Glad my experience could help you out man. I came to this site with no knowledge of growing cannabis, or plants in general. I had tried to grow random flower seeds when I was younger and had no luck getting anything to sprout, but with all of the information on here, I was able to grow 6 healthy plants and flower 2 of them to harvest, and got about an ounce of my own grown bud. It was such a good feeling to smoke your own herb.

I probably had one of the cheapest grows of all time, and I got bud from it, so anything is possible. As long as we strive to grow better than our last, there is no stopping this plant from thriving.

Definitely start a journal when you start growing, there are so many experienced growers on here who can help with any issue we could ever encounter.

 

[littlelil]

Do you have any pics?

 

[GMT1975A]

<===== Awaiting bud porn!!!!

 

[Steve McStoferson]

whats up guys, finally got the camera up and running again and i snapped a few shots of the ladies..

Can anyone tell me why my plants aren't growing very wide? It's been a couple of weeks since I fixed their pH issue, and the new growth is coming in, but the leaves are staying pretty small.. they don't seem to be thickening up. I'm thinking once I transplant, they might start taking off then.

Anyway, I went to the hydro place this weekend, not the one I went to last time, this one was closer, but honestly, I'll never go back to that one, I'll just drive an extra 20 mins and go to the other one, they have a much bigger selection, and the prices are better. Online, the place I went to had the Happy Frog soil advertised for $16 a bag, when I go in the store, its $22 a bag, and the only pots they had in 3 gal were around $3 each at the cheapest.. Not to mention their perlite selection sucked, all they had were giant bags for $40.. So I bought the soil there, and I'll wait until Friday when I can get to the other store to get the pots and perlite and then transplant this weekend.

I also picked up a cut of Blue Dream, and all I can say is WOW.. I definitely want to grow some of this. I haven't heard much of it other than it's a popular Cali dispensary item, and isn't grown too much outside of the medical world. What I'm seeing is it's generally a cross between blueberry and haze, and it gives a VERY strong Sativa kick. I'm loving this strain, it's definitely at the top of strains I want to grow now.

Anyway, onto the pics! You can see the bottom growth where I was having pH issues, and all the green stuff is new since then. They did make a remarkable comeback, but I still am not sure why they're not really exploding with new growth. The only thing I can think of is the soil and the cup size. I haven't been feeding them yet, I want them to sit a few days in the new soil before I start nuking them.

I also named them all based on the seed characteristics when they had germinated. Not the most original names, but it helps me keep track of which plant is doing what and so on.

Group shot

Thought this was a cool shot of the new growth shooting out

Finally, the Pink Stink- This is one of the seeds I got off the last harvest of mine, this is the plant that showed all the pink pistils. I'm hoping this plant hermied and polinated itself, and will be a female because I had no males that grew long enough in the grow room for them to be polinated.

And a shot of her Mom for old time sake

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Just wanted to let you guys know I'm getting some purple smoke tonight. I'm excited since I haven't smoked any purple since the one cut of Grape Ape I got a year or so ago, and that bag was amazing.

 

[Retired Three]

I also named them all based on the seed characteristics when they had germinated. Not the most original names, but it helps me keep track of which plant is doing what and so on.

CriMsonK,
The new group is looking real good... LOL! It cracks me up that so many of us name our plants. My wife and I always have conversations using the plants names.. Personally I think it's cool...

 

[Grooster]

Geeks!

 

[onthe420train]

... i hit on my plants... sup baby lemme taste you