Betelnut
Growing is part science and part spirit
Hi Everyone,
New hydro grower here (I do have some good experience growing outdoors in Mendocino County CA from about 20 years ago and I once helped a guy with his hydro setup, but that is it for experience).
I love doing research and have read both Ed Rosenthal’s Marijuana Grower’s Handbook and Jorge Cervantes’ Marijuana Horticulture cover to cover. I have also done a tone of Net-Mining for good info.
Doing all this research is really a necessity for me because since I do not live in Europe or the Americas the vast majority of the companies most growers are getting nutes, tents, and lights from either don’t ship here or cost way too much to have sent (one company wanted to charge me over $70 just to ship the 32oz General Hydroponics Flora Series). As a result I need to build pretty much everything I use from scratch, and build my own system from what is available at standard home centers etc. (we do have those for regular gardening), luckily I was able to get some Canna products here.
My plan is to use a 3:1 perlite/vermiculite Hempy Bucket with the Canna Aqua nute system, with LED lighting. I am trying to simplify as much as possible for my setup.
Currently I am waiting for 2 400w 9-band LEDs that use 3w chips from Hong-Kong.
I was going to post the link here but that might be a TOS violation, so unless a more experienced member says it is ok I will wait.
I know they look a bit shady and the company is Chinese but it is fairly large and I am hoping I can upgrade to a “name-brand” LED after the first grow. So even if some of the lights burn out or whatever as long as it is not a total wash they will have served their purpose.
I am Using Canna because it was the only system available here that has gotten good reviews for cannabis. I did order the Advanced Nutrients Piranha and Voodoo Juice from the states, and I am thinking about using their Bud candy carb supplement (but I have to pay over double the price since the shipping costs more than the bottle).
Right now I have 15 fem seeds, 3 each of:
Dutch Passion- Auto Blueberry, Auto Extreme, and Think Different (also an auto).
Dinafem- Critical+ Auto, and Critical Jack Auto.
I am planning on a straight 20/4 lighting schedule for the whole grow.
I have not decided if I will do 10 of them (2 of each type) or just say screw it and start them all.
I have a 1.5mx2.5m space located in a small sealed room of about 2.5mx2.5m. The room is also about 2.5~3m tall.
The room has a wall unit air conditioner in it. From what I understand these units pull in air from outside (not 100% on that though, I will need to confirm it before I start), so it should have no CO2 problems. If it turns out the unit is not refreshing the air I will need to supplement CO2 I think. The room can be open from about 9:00 pm until the next morning every day. But during the day it will need to be sealed.
My plan is to use generic peat plugs designed for veggie growing to start the seeds, but I will put the plugs right into the buckets from the first day, so no transplanting.
This means I will need to water a lot for the first few days until the tap root reaches the reservoir at the bottom. But it will also mean I will not have to subject the Autos to any transplant shock.
I still have no idea when to use the nutes nor how much. Some people seem to be going extremely light for autos and some people give them whatever they think they need even if it is as high as 1.8 EC.
I also have the entire Canna supplement line (Rhizotonic, Cannazym, Cannaboost, and Pk 13/14) and the before mentioned AN sups.
SO I will need to figure out a mixing/feeding schedule for all of these plus the base nutes, plus since I have 5 different strains I am expecting I will need to do 5 different mixes of each of these things.
Not to mention building a foliar feeding plan...
I am going to also be looking for a generic cal/mag sup available here, and might use some kind of carb load. If I can’t get the bud candy shipped I am considering mixing it myself from grape sugar (fructose) corn sugar (dextrose) and malt extract (maltose), with a touch of Marmite/Vegemite yeast extract for amino acids, but damn I would rather just buy it.
So that is it for my pre-grow breakdown I guess. I still have a lot of research and planning to do before I get started, but this is where I am right now.
Of course any advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Betelnut
New hydro grower here (I do have some good experience growing outdoors in Mendocino County CA from about 20 years ago and I once helped a guy with his hydro setup, but that is it for experience).
I love doing research and have read both Ed Rosenthal’s Marijuana Grower’s Handbook and Jorge Cervantes’ Marijuana Horticulture cover to cover. I have also done a tone of Net-Mining for good info.
Doing all this research is really a necessity for me because since I do not live in Europe or the Americas the vast majority of the companies most growers are getting nutes, tents, and lights from either don’t ship here or cost way too much to have sent (one company wanted to charge me over $70 just to ship the 32oz General Hydroponics Flora Series). As a result I need to build pretty much everything I use from scratch, and build my own system from what is available at standard home centers etc. (we do have those for regular gardening), luckily I was able to get some Canna products here.
My plan is to use a 3:1 perlite/vermiculite Hempy Bucket with the Canna Aqua nute system, with LED lighting. I am trying to simplify as much as possible for my setup.
Currently I am waiting for 2 400w 9-band LEDs that use 3w chips from Hong-Kong.
I was going to post the link here but that might be a TOS violation, so unless a more experienced member says it is ok I will wait.
I know they look a bit shady and the company is Chinese but it is fairly large and I am hoping I can upgrade to a “name-brand” LED after the first grow. So even if some of the lights burn out or whatever as long as it is not a total wash they will have served their purpose.
I am Using Canna because it was the only system available here that has gotten good reviews for cannabis. I did order the Advanced Nutrients Piranha and Voodoo Juice from the states, and I am thinking about using their Bud candy carb supplement (but I have to pay over double the price since the shipping costs more than the bottle).
Right now I have 15 fem seeds, 3 each of:
Dutch Passion- Auto Blueberry, Auto Extreme, and Think Different (also an auto).
Dinafem- Critical+ Auto, and Critical Jack Auto.
I am planning on a straight 20/4 lighting schedule for the whole grow.
I have not decided if I will do 10 of them (2 of each type) or just say screw it and start them all.
I have a 1.5mx2.5m space located in a small sealed room of about 2.5mx2.5m. The room is also about 2.5~3m tall.
The room has a wall unit air conditioner in it. From what I understand these units pull in air from outside (not 100% on that though, I will need to confirm it before I start), so it should have no CO2 problems. If it turns out the unit is not refreshing the air I will need to supplement CO2 I think. The room can be open from about 9:00 pm until the next morning every day. But during the day it will need to be sealed.
My plan is to use generic peat plugs designed for veggie growing to start the seeds, but I will put the plugs right into the buckets from the first day, so no transplanting.
This means I will need to water a lot for the first few days until the tap root reaches the reservoir at the bottom. But it will also mean I will not have to subject the Autos to any transplant shock.
I still have no idea when to use the nutes nor how much. Some people seem to be going extremely light for autos and some people give them whatever they think they need even if it is as high as 1.8 EC.
I also have the entire Canna supplement line (Rhizotonic, Cannazym, Cannaboost, and Pk 13/14) and the before mentioned AN sups.
SO I will need to figure out a mixing/feeding schedule for all of these plus the base nutes, plus since I have 5 different strains I am expecting I will need to do 5 different mixes of each of these things.
Not to mention building a foliar feeding plan...
I am going to also be looking for a generic cal/mag sup available here, and might use some kind of carb load. If I can’t get the bud candy shipped I am considering mixing it myself from grape sugar (fructose) corn sugar (dextrose) and malt extract (maltose), with a touch of Marmite/Vegemite yeast extract for amino acids, but damn I would rather just buy it.
So that is it for my pre-grow breakdown I guess. I still have a lot of research and planning to do before I get started, but this is where I am right now.
Of course any advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Betelnut
Last edited:
with some love to get ya going with some :karma Cloud:
