Live Stoners Noob intro: growing for MMJ

[Marshydro]

welcome to AFN, and good luck with your first grow

 

[bushmasterar15]

Hello and welcome to the AFN family.

 

[Slater]

Hey guys,
So I'm both new to the network and new to growing.

I came to growing due to a recent diagnosis of Fibromyalgia (after seeing various docs and "specialists"). I tried various medications and treatments all of which either didn't work or carried side effects which were almost more difficult to live with than the condition itself.

Like a lot of people I know, I spent my teenage years smoking constantly and eventually decided that cannabis wasn't for me anymore. There was no conscious effort to stop, it just stopped doing it for me, so i stopped smoking.

Fast forward through a decade of hard drug use to where am now; hard drug free and pretty much alcohol free but in crippling pain, extreme fatigue and an array of other fun symptoms which Fibromyalgia chucks at ya. Total bummer I thought... Until someone suggested it might be an idea to try smoking a bowl or two. Long story short, it worked! Better than anything I've ever tried. HALLEL-FUCKIN-UJAH! I now smoke daily and combine it with a routine of healthy eating, yoga, meditation and acupuncture. I'm fully functional and am able to fulfil my responsibilities without much help.

Problem is, I live in a country with government which has a backward view of cannabis and therefor no access to MMJ. Don't get me wrong, we have great weed here and thankfully a tolerant society with police that simply look the other way, no one's getting locked up for personal use. But this means that it's impossible to access the correct strains and the market tends to just get flooded with super potent Hazes which can make me kinda anxious and can cause a little insomnia for me.

For many reasons, it seemed like the best course of action would be to grow my own! Turned out that I loved it! It provided not only great meds but also a manageable hobby for me. My very first grow was on the balcony as a bit of an experiment, I grew a Frisian Duck from Dutch Passion (super stealth!) and considering i had no idea what I was doing (no nutes and regular garden centre compost) it actually turned out OK. I'd been toying with the idea of getting a tent and going indoors but figured my girlfriend wouldn't be too keen on it as we live together and the small spare room turned into her walk-in wardrobe basically, but it was actually her that suggested it. So my first indoor grow was Blue Dream which went terribly (I wasn't prepared for the sttttrrrreeeettttcccchhh) and 8Ball Kush from Barney's which turned out pretty well and I still got a bunch of decent water hash from the BD so not a total disaster.

For the next grow I decided to look to autos and went to Fast Buds for their Pineapple Express and Tangie'Matic, both went OK but suffered a little bud rot on the P-Ex. I managed to pull just under 9oz of dry and trimmed nugs from the Tangie though so I was pretty stoked on that. Crazy size and yield on that strain!

And that brings us up date. Sorry for the long intro, just figured I'd tell my story and hey, I just had a bowl of Tangie for breakfast.

Here's my lil' basic set up:

1m x 1m white lined BudBox tent
600w HPS with dimmable Omega ballast and crappy no-name reflector
15L Smart Pots
Ram Exhaust fan with carbon filter
2 Ram clip on desk fans for circulation

Growing in Canna Coco with added perlite, I also line the pots with clay balls.

I've been using General Hydroponics Flora series nutes with Plant Magic Cal-Mag. I like to add something for flower too, I've tried Big Bud but I'm not sure it did a lot. I also tried something from Sugar Peak which from what I could tell, was basically guano, worm casings and molasses. This seemed to do a better job and I had no issues from nute burn which I got a hint of with the Big Bud.

So that's me.
I'm here to share but mostly I'm here to learn and open to suggestions, just be cool and remember that I'm still a noob!

This post has been edited and the grow journal it began as moved here

hey @NiceOption and welcome to AFN my man, nice intro dude on your self and well done that man for taking bull by the horns and getting the right meds for the job... I help a friend out with Fibromyalgia, its the bubble hash that does it for her, mainly indica strains but we have found that the hazes can work just as well if not better in some cases... What you may find is that the street weed you have come across has been chopped way to early for med patients and with out going into the details that can cause the raciness you have described... If those hazes had gone there full term then that high would have been more of psychedelic head high than a heart pounding hold onto the arm chair kinda high... chopping time is so so important when it come to the psychoactive affect of this plant. Street weed is chopped to early for profit and no time taken over it, even the cure is just as important.

got few tip on coco as I grow with it... I've tried the perlite / clay pebble mixes and not see any difference as just using straight coco... what I found hard was how to make the perlite vanish in my garden, you can't. It builds up to point it starts to look suspicious if you know what to look for... just a thought for you as your in prohibition land like me

I can recommend drip feeding coco or automated feeding, they love it when that feed is at the same time every day... or if you use smaller pots you can get up to 3 feeds in one day and turn into a full on hydro grow.

Look into products like ecothrive , Biosys, Urb and Great White for your microbes. Once implemented into your feed you will notice that you use less of your bottle nutes.

Big Bud is great when you time it right, can sometimes a be little tricky with auto's getting it bang on. What i did was count 2 weeks from the day I saw them show sex which is about 2 week into flower. Start at half strength and work your way up... also it worth using Over Drive by AV again time that right and you can see the explosion of swelling on those calyx's.

Please tag me (@Slater) if you need any help and I shall do my best

here saved ya some on the welcome joint, have fun my man!

 

[NiceOption]

hey @NiceOption and welcome to AFN my man, nice intro dude on your self and well done that man for taking bull by the horns and getting the right meds for the job... I help a friend out with Fibromyalgia, its the bubble hash that does it for her, mainly indica strains but we have found that the hazes can work just as well if not better in some cases... What you may find is that the street weed you have come across has been chopped way to early for med patients and with out going into the details that can cause the raciness you have described... If those hazes had gone there full term then that high would have been more of psychedelic head high than a heart pounding hold onto the arm chair kinda high... chopping time is so so important when it come to the psychoactive affect of this plant. Street weed is chopped to early for profit and no time taken over it, even the cure is just as important.

got few tip on coco as I grow with it... I've tried the perlite / clay pebble mixes and not see any difference as just using straight coco... what I found hard was how to make the perlite vanish in my garden, you can't. It builds up to point it starts to look suspicious if you know what to look for... just a thought for you as your in prohibition land like me

I can recommend drip feeding coco or automated feeding, they love it when that feed is at the same time every day... or if you use smaller pots you can get up to 3 feeds in one day and turn into a full on hydro grow.

Look into products like ecothrive , Biosys, Urb and Great White for your microbes. Once implemented into your feed you will notice that you use less of your bottle nutes.

Big Bud is great when you time it right, can sometimes a be little tricky with auto's getting it bang on. What i did was count 2 weeks from the day I saw them show sex which is about 2 week into flower. Start at half strength and work your way up... also it worth using Over Drive by AV again time that right and you can see the explosion of swelling on those calyx's.

Please tag me (@Slater) if you need any help and I shall do my best

here saved ya some on the welcome joint, have fun my man!

View attachment 965522

Thanks @Slater

Yes, I'm not sure what it is about the bubble hash but I agree, it seems to offer a fuller and deeper body high than the same strain in flower form. The Blue Dream bubble hash has been working wonders and still retained enough of the flavour and scent of the flower that it's a pleasure to smoke.

I did initially gravitate towards indicas due to a wariness of the sativa raciness but I agree with you, it's more likely due to a premature chop and too short a cure as the Tangie has been very good for pain management and doesn't put me to sleep. The slight raciness of it is actually pretty good for the fibromyalgia as there is a lot of lethargy/chronic fatigue and foggy thinking that comes along with the pain. The Tangie seems to cut through that a bit without causing anxiety. My girlfriend however hates the Tangie and said she felt like she'd done speed, so each to their own!

I actually have an autopot system which I can hook up if I need to go away for work, which can happen sometimes, but I'd rather feed by hand as I'm growing different strains. What do you think?

I'll have a look at those nutes, and chuck my inevitable questions at you when they arise.

As far as the perlite goes, I just bag everything up when I'm done and put it in some bins around the corner from my place... I'm not sure what else I could do really, I have a front garden, not a back garden and live on a fairly large road. I might try a pot without it next grow and see if it makes a difference. I'd be very happy not to use it, I can't stand the dust it creates when mixing it and one less thing to buy is a bonus in my book.

Thanks again for the welcome!

 

[NiceOption]

Just ordered a 28g box of Great White and will test it out on the current Mephisto grow. Thanks for the tip @Slater