Hello !!I have a couple of important questions that I hope can be answered here but first some background. I’ve been growing since the late 60’s (with a 25 year break till now). I did outside until the 70’s and went inside with 1000wt MH bulbs. In the early 80’s I saw an article in HT mag about cloning in Holland it, Fascinated me. In those days, if you wanted answers, your wrote letters. Having restored old English motorcycles for years, this was no problem for me. Pen pals were fun. I had the perfect areas to do this in my basement with 2 separate rooms so even though it was 110 degrees outside where we moved to at the time, we had a cool environment underground. I had collected the very best seeds from my very best grower friends mostly Indicia hybrids and even some true Afghanistan strains. I used dirt (worm castings, potting soil, and MR) for the mother plants. Forced flowered to weed out the males and kept 3 prime. One was pure Afghanistan (almost unsmokeable) one hybrid Indica mostly and one that appeared to be mostly sativa These were kept under a 1000wt MH. Cloning was a bitch to learn but soon I could get 2 leaf cuttings to root on my rooting table with 5000K fluorescents Duro lights. The other room had a 4x8 flow table, c02, 2 1000wt MH and one 1000 wt HPS on movers. The water running back into the reservoir aerated the water. I used root tone to clone and only two different nutrients to my tank (plus keeping an eye on the PH). I only flushed the tank once during the cycle (10 weeks) and when done. The first grow only did 2lbs the next 2 did 3+lbs. 3 crops in a little over 8 months off a 4x8 table. 130 plants (or were there really only 3?) that looked like your forearm, not bushes, Except the first grow that I cloned cuttings that had several leaves instead of just 2.
My x-wife still says that we have never before or since smoked better MJ then what we grew 28 years ago. Seymour from this group has convinced me that the Auto can work without the duel rooms and having to wait until the mothers get old enough to clone. After a few hundred hours of research figured I should follow a system that has been proven to work just like I did back then. I simply followed my mentors from Holland suggestions and had huge success. I am experimenting with lighting and bucket aeroponics and bucket deep water. I’m adding good UVB to some of the plants to see if it will actually make a difference in laboratory testing. I design UVB lights and well understand lighting spectrums. We are using a 300wt proto type LED that according to spectral analysis is superior to most LED now available for one side and a multi 1000wt MH/HPS bulb on the other. Both with movers. C02, carbon filters, air conditioned in a 8x10x8 high room.
Now, my questions; why so many different very expensive nutrients to grow these days? Isn’t there a simple effective 2 part system? And can I expect to rival my cloning experience with Auto? I am using Seymours last 2 grows with Think Different and Star Ryder (only the Ryder comes from Sagarmatha instead of from DP). I have some Ruderalis Indica regular auto hoping to get a male to fertilize.
Sorry for the long ramble J
My x-wife still says that we have never before or since smoked better MJ then what we grew 28 years ago. Seymour from this group has convinced me that the Auto can work without the duel rooms and having to wait until the mothers get old enough to clone. After a few hundred hours of research figured I should follow a system that has been proven to work just like I did back then. I simply followed my mentors from Holland suggestions and had huge success. I am experimenting with lighting and bucket aeroponics and bucket deep water. I’m adding good UVB to some of the plants to see if it will actually make a difference in laboratory testing. I design UVB lights and well understand lighting spectrums. We are using a 300wt proto type LED that according to spectral analysis is superior to most LED now available for one side and a multi 1000wt MH/HPS bulb on the other. Both with movers. C02, carbon filters, air conditioned in a 8x10x8 high room.
Now, my questions; why so many different very expensive nutrients to grow these days? Isn’t there a simple effective 2 part system? And can I expect to rival my cloning experience with Auto? I am using Seymours last 2 grows with Think Different and Star Ryder (only the Ryder comes from Sagarmatha instead of from DP). I have some Ruderalis Indica regular auto hoping to get a male to fertilize.
Sorry for the long ramble J
