Monday, February 9, 2009

The New Guys

What's up partiers!

I mentioned earlier that I have a second crop readying for deployment and I'd like to share with you some pictures of the little fellas:



I have been running them on 24 hours of light with a 150W equivalent CFL (compact florescent) with a "blue" or daylight spectrum to maximize vegetative growth, such as you would find in the spring and early summertime.

This simple change has really made a difference, with no stretching towards the sunlight, extremely fast growth and nice tight leaf sets that puts me pretty much on schedule for placing these little mammas into the rig to begin flowering!

It's important not to over-water during this stage -- as one website states "most herbs do not like their feet wet". You can buy any number of moisture meters, or if you're cool like me you can use your finger to check to see if the soil is moist -- if it is, hold off on the watering until the top of the soil is crusty.

Also important is your water at this time, I myself take tap water, run it through the brita and then let it sit with a cap off for 24-48 hours to allow all hard water elements, chlorines and other unecessary byproducts to dissolve.

I will be updating you on their progress, stay tuned!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Cradling the Nuggitude

What's up yo!

The big day came for plant numero uno, check it out and let me know what you think!

This would be the yield off of one plant with the bare minimum of money spent on the setup, for a first-timer, I think I learned a lot and I have new kids on the block getting ready to go into flowering soon!



BUDGET GROW EXTRAVAGANJAAAA

here's how it breaks down:

seeds: free, unknown strain
lighting: $40.00 2 150w equivalent compact CFL lightbulbs, w simple clamp fixtures from Home Depot, one ~100w equivalent compact CFL light from Ikea.

Soil/Nutes: each pot contained the following miracle grow products 1 part vermiculite(8bucks), 1 part sphagnum peat moss, 1 part Perlite (8 bucks), 3 parts potting soil. I did not add any nutrients until very late in the game, partly due to financial concerns, partially because I wanted to see what I could come up with without the nutrients. As the budes developed, I caved and bought some miracle grow (surprise surprise) Bloom Booster flower food to aid the bud growth. Being a rookie, I was concerned with the flush, so I only added these nutes for a few weeks before harvest, so I don't know how much effect they had.



My situation living on the top floor of a downtown apartment precludes the use of the high-wattage/high lumens lamps essential to huge yields (helicopters love HPS lamps) so I can only increase my soil and nutrient richness this time around.

Ventilation/Humidity was provided by a simple $10 holmes small box fan, I did not have any humidifiers running, but this is also something I have changed, I think this will help growth in general, my heating system in my apartment is very dry.



Air Filtration: with only two self-contained plants kept in a separate room/closet, I did not see a need to purchase any sort of filtration system -- but the aroma was pungent enough with just two plants, so if you're going to do even a small grow like this, invest or build your own carbon air filtration system, I may do a post later on how to craft a DIY one and save yourself the loot.

As the buds have been drying in their racks, made with some leftover speaker wire and a cardboard box, I have been checking them each day, but I'm concerned that there has not been enough humidity in the room, which causes the bud to dry to quickly, sacrificing some flavor and making it a harsher smoke.



This is plant #1, stay tuned for plant #2!

Peace!