Haha yeah cowboy it certainly is. I do keep meaning to get a PH pen though... Honest!
Yeah, I've used the airpots for three grows now and they're still going strong. No need to replace them. What size are you using? Ive found 15l is a goodun.
I also can't pretend to fully understand the microbial additions, but they do seem to work and that's what matters really. I'd love to learn about it more in depth one day. I've been looking around at some horticultural short courses actually. I'd like to understand what I'm doing even if it doesn't really improve anything, I'd just like to have a better understanding of these things I'm spending all this time and money on.
Regarding the size of the harvests, I'm totally pleased and couldn't really ask for more but I do think it has a lot to do with the light. I know HID/HPS is outdated tech but they are extremely intense and 600w for 4 plants seems to work well. I wouldn't change them if it wasnt for the power bill which is quite frankly eye watering at the moment. So the FxS will be the last plant under that. We'll see how they do under cobs or a board. I've not settled on anything yet and have big travel plans coming up so need to save for that.
Wont be making any major purchases until late March probably as I'd really love to go to Spannabis too! Seems like a good place to make some final decisions on lighting as well.
I think you'll have a good time with coco. As i've said before, in my mind soil grows are for the pros and I wouldn't dream of trying it without understanding all the ins and outs. That said, plenty of people (you included) are having excellent results with it here on the new growers area. I think that just goes to show how green your thumb really is.
air pots, the plastic alien looking things with nipples and holes all over 'em...they're the ones i use and i wish i'd gone fabric, with soil, at least. try and water around the outside edge and 9 time out of 10 the pot will pee on ya. mine are all supposedly 12.5L air pots...but upon buying a 5th one from a different store online, i now have two different "12.5L" air pots...the newer addition is notably wider than the original 4 i picked up. i gave Ripley the larger one, naturally.
same, slowly gaining knowledge as i grow and read stuff - i'd like a better understanding of all the processes. i'm fortunate to get some time to do research at work quite a lot. when i started i didn't even know what NPK meant so have come a long way already and find it fascinating - what i do find frustrating is being unable to chat casually about it all with friends. the missus got bored of plant talk half way through the first grow. but i do have AFN
oh of course, i forget your lights are the bangin' 600W beast. actually, that reminds me! i got a very nice 15% light increase this week by removing the lenses from my cobs. 15% is a big upgrade! i'm going to be adding a blurple to the cupboard at some point too. i love my 3500K cobs, but every blurple i've seen seems to have the magic veggin' spectrum. just something cheap to supplement veg'. and long term, there'll be a 2700K autocob going in there too. big plans! what i'd really like is to switch to a tent, but hiding a tent if needed is way more hassle than switching off the cupboard lights when discretion is required.
soooo you won't be starting any new ladies until you've purchased new lights? i bet the 'leccy bill is pretty high running that...i actually managed to reduce my (admittedly already very high) electric bill or at least kept it the same, by switching off a large freezer and a second fridge we had running for almost no reason. those things suck a lot of power! but i've switched to 24 hour lighting recently, for temp control, and the 4 hours of darkness the girls were getting was never really true darkness - plenty of gaps in the cupboard that would have been bleeding light in, and i'm sure 24/0 is better than half-arsed 20/4. i reduced darkness slowly, it's actually 23/1 right now but i plan to take the timer out tonight. another reason i'd love a tent - better control.
maybe if this bean doesn't pop this weekend and i end up ordering a new strain...
maybe i'll grab a bag of coco instead of running this last pot of lightmix. maybe.
very kind of you to say but i won't agree on the
until i have a grow i'm really happy with. basically getting to harvest with decent buds, very few deficiencies along the way and no confused genders. trying to be optimistic that these current Meph ladies will do that for me, but confidence is still rather low right now.
oh and that Magne-Cal stuff, i didn't even really look. I just blindly listened to the hydro shop dude and it seems to work. Havent seen any cal-mag issues. I did have a little high N on the younger 4AM, i didn't even think of the cal-mag being the culprit, but you're probably onto something with that.
yeh, was something i read about here a lot during my research time, lots of CalMags have quite a high N content - that's why i don't run the AN CalMag with all my other AN stuff.
One more thing about coco... sorry! You won't find the need to give her plain water, you'll be feeding all the way through so expect to go through your nutes a bit quicker. As i've been on the GH which is cheap and widely available it hasnt been an issue but if you want to run AN you might find it gets a bit more expensive. Pretty keen to try Mammoth P myself but I've been put off by the price in the UK.
yes mate absolutely - it's criminal how little nutes i get through right now. it's pathetic adding 0.5ml of A&B to a 1.5L feed but this AN stuff must be really strong - i can't comprehend how soil growers put 2ml+ per L though their autos. but the stuff grows nice buds so
hopefully it'll perform better in coco. i'd love to switch to Greenleaf Nutrients but i'm not forking out £70 shipping from the states and even if i did, importing that kinda product from the US just doesn't seem like the greatest idea. i hassled them on Insta about stocking in the EU but no response. Seen the question asked here too. guess they have found enough success across the pond
I'm in the same boat with the mammoth P bro.. expensive stuff! A wee free sample would be nice!!
Mammoth P has priced itself out of my grows. think i saw something not much bigger than a nail polish bottle priced at £60 as the cheapest option. and AN get slated for their pricing? RealGrowers Recharge looks like a nice product too, and is available in the UK in a pouch for £60ish - still too much imo.