Hints, tips, and tricks

[NathSpoon]

Hi guys I'm pretty new to growing. I'm pretty sure I know all the hows, what, and whys of it.

I've just started this thread to see if anyone has any hints, tips or tricks. If so would they like to share then?

Here's one - I hang a piece of string about 18 inches from my reflector to the top of the plant, that way I know without measuring how far my plant is from light and I can keep it constant.

Thing's like the above would be really useful. Anyway, thanks for any replies, hints, tips or tricks

 

[jawbrodt]

Water evenly, as evenly as possible. I see it waaaaay too often, soil with dry spots after watering. Thats a disaster, waiting to happen. My advice,...don't just dump your water in. Use some kind of sprinkler, or something that'll water slow and evenly. I used a small drill bit and put a bunch of tiny holes in a bottle cap, then use that, when I water(I use 1 and 2 liter bottles), and a mini-sprinkler. Also, if your soil is really dry, water halfway, let it soak for 1/2 hour, then come back and finish. That'll give you a nice even watering, making sure ALL the soil is soaked.

It's really bad,when the soil has dried and opened gaps around the edgs of the pots. That allows a good portion of the water to run straight through, pretty much guaranteeing dry spots. A big no-no.

"I know I haven't been overwatering" No shit, you're killing them with dry spots.

 

[NathSpoon]

That's a good one, never thought of something a simple as that.

Come on guys anymore? I know some of you more experienced guys must have a few hints, tips or tricks.

 

[bigsteve]

Here's a watering trick I've used for years. Put a small drop of Dawn liquid detergent in every gallon of water.
Dawn breaks water drops down into much smaller packages and this lets the water spread farther in the soil.
Just a bit though, I use the smallest drop I can get.

Good luck, BigSteve.

 

[bigsteve]

Watering tip II -- I have a long skinny bamboo skewer I use to aerate the root ball once a week.
I push the skewer into the root ball a dozen or so times to keep the soil from getting so compacted
the plant can't easily access the oxygen it needs. You can't hurt the roots.

Good luck, BigSteve.

 

[bigsteve]

Yield Tip -- Outside of genetics 2 of the most important factors to increase yield is pot size and veg. time.
Bigger pots and longer veg. times mean bigger plants. Use the size of your growing area to determine pot size and veg. time.
I have an 8 x 8 growing area and grow 10-12 small plants (AF rules!) but just 5 or 6 if I let them get 24-30 inches during veg.

Good luck, BigSteve.

 

[LeeroySlim]

Yield Tip -- Outside of genetics 2 of the most important factors to increase yield is pot size and veg. time.
Bigger pots and longer veg. times mean bigger plants. Use the size of your growing area to determine pot size and veg. time.
I have an 8 x 8 growing area and grow 10-12 small plants (AF rules!) but just 5 or 6 if I let them get 24-30 inches during veg.

Good luck, BigSteve.

+ more light

 

[bigsteve]

Yield Tip II -- Learn to re-grow plants already harvested. I grew 10 GigaBud from Attitude and only got one oz./per.
I re-grew the biggest 5 by leaving a softball-size bit of greenery around the base of the plants when I harvested.
I switched them immediately back to 18/6 and resumed my veg. nutes as per usual. I re-vegged them for 3 weeks
then re-bloomed them for just 4 weeks. Yield per plant was 2+ oz./per!

Good luck, BigSteve.

 

[jawbrodt]

Yield Tip II -- Learn to re-grow plants already harvested. I grew 10 GigaBud from Attitude and only got one oz./per.
I re-grew the biggest 5 by leaving a softball-size bit of greenery around the base of the plants when I harvested.
I switched them immediately back to 18/6 and resumed my veg. nutes as per usual. I re-vegged them for 3 weeks
then re-bloomed them for just 4 weeks. Yield per plant was 2+ oz./per!

Good luck, BigSteve.

Hmm....I like the sounds of that, especially the reduced veg time. I grow perpetual, and think it'd be a huge help, to bypass the cloning procedure, and aslo, any transplanting. I'm thinking that a good flush, would be sufficient to start over in veg, possibly with the addition of some lime, to help keep the PH in check. Cool concept, and worth a + rep, to me.

 

[bigsteve]

I started a thread a while ago where I gave the details of my GB re-grow and re-re-grow. Do a search for "re-grow success" and you should find it.

The most important factor for re-growing is to do a proper harvest on the plant to be re-grown. Cut off too much and the plant won't re-grow, cut off too little and you are leaving money on the table, eh? My earlier post included a couple of pix to give you an idea of what a plant should look like after the initial harvest.

Good luck, BigSteve.