littlefrasure
Member
cool cool thanks guys. Now when i fist start my plant i know to use certain mixtures and stuff but how do you change ferts in the middle of your plants growth without pulling it up and risking damaging the roots?
A test in progress.... Miracle Grow soil vs. Fox Farms soil. Is MG really that bad?
- Thread starter jawbrodt
- Start date
jawbrodt
Well-Known Member
You're welcome bro, I'm more than happy to prove that drainage can greatly improve just about any soil. As for the "feeds for 3 months", disreguard that, it's pretty much meaningless. To me, all that's saying, is that it's a rich soil. It's just makes the bag look more appealing to grandma, who has that spider plant hanging in her window.lol I started giving them some Calmag Plus,(which contains a weak dose of N) about two weeks ago, and will start with the bloom fert, when I switch them to 12/12, which will be coming soon, within the next two weeks. Basically, as you get a few grows under your belt, you'll be able to look at your plants, 'read' them, then make the determination, whether they need fed, or not. If you look at the most recent pics, you'll notice that the above ground foliage, is getting pretty close to occupying the same space as the pot's volume? I've found that typically, that's when a plant will start needing fed, give or take a little. I won't be using any veg fert, being that the foliage is still nice and green. If I were to veg much longer, it'd be necessary.
littlefrasure
Member
will the 1000w run my bill much higher than the 250? and im working on the venting for the summer. thanks. i wanna go to cali so bad. thought about moving. but if you have more advice or more time to answer my questions let me know. need all the good advice i can get. thanks.
littlefrasure
Member
cool thanks for the advice on soil. been reading everything i can for the past two months. lol. just need to get some final things to start. do you think its safe to order growing material online? we don't have as much shit like that over here.
Kaptain Kron
Well-Known Member
yeah the 1000 is gonna run your bill up quite a bit higher than that 250
anyone know where i could find a cheap fan and i mean really cheap to use as an exhaust fan gotta keep the room closed but cant let the girls suffocate
anyone know where i could find a cheap fan and i mean really cheap to use as an exhaust fan gotta keep the room closed but cant let the girls suffocate
Head down to lowes or home depot - that'll be your best bet.
gumball
Well-Known Member
this time of year Lowes and Home Depot only have heaters and barely any fans. i know radio shack has PC fans for like $10 dollars. not sure if they have both AC and DC, but I know they have DC and they should carry the DC power supplies to power the fan. they have 120 mm and 80 mm
jawbrodt
Well-Known Member
What do you mean by this? If you are planning on using the pellet-type ferts, don't. That stuff is terrible for growing indoors, because there's no way to control how much they are fed. Otherwise,...you just switch to your bloom fertilizers, when it's time. There's no need to dig up your soil, or anything like that.
Also,....1000 watts will cost exactly 4x what it'll cost to run 250 watts. It'd cost about $22 a month, to run 1000 watts,(on 12/12) in my area, at $.06 KWH. Look at your electric bill, see what they charge per KWH in your area, and adjust accordingly. That'll give you a close estimate to what it'll cost.
Jack in the Bud
Active Member
Mudslide,
If your going to try growing in the standard Miracle Grow potting mix (feeds 3/6 months) I would recomend you don't give them any additional NPK fertilizers during the first 30 days.
During the first 30 days all I suplement with is a little SupperThrive (once or twice) and a little molasses (@1 teaspoon/gallon) (once or twice). I've never used any of that CalMag jawbrodt talks about but he's got my interest in it up and I think I'll be getting some of it for use on my next grow. Up till now I've been using Epsom Salts occasioanlly to get my plants some Magnesium.
I start my seeds in Jiffy Organic seed starting mix in 9 oz plastic cups. They stay in that for the first week to 10 days before I transplant them into a 4"x4"x5" container with the MG potting soil. You can also start them right in the MG potting mix. I would just suggest that you sift it thru a kitchen type wire basket strainer to get all the bigger chunks of stuff out and end up with a nice fine particle size that will be easy for the seedling to push up thru.
Even though I've got bigger, more intense lighting I could use, my plants spend their first two weeks close up under some flourescent lighting on 18/6 before I move them under the bigger lights.
Jack
jawbrodt
Well-Known Member
Excellent choice. You are well on your way to many successful grows. Take note, that my plants haven't been fed yet, and are growing perfectly fine. I know it's tempting to want to feed them to make them grow faster, but it'll do more harm, than good, if they aren't hungry yet. *hint hint*(if they are in similar sized pots, don't feed them til they are bigger than those in this thread)
jawbrodt
Well-Known Member
Go with Dynagro, if you want cheap ferts. For less than $20, on Ebay, you will get two small bottles, both veg and bloom, which also contain all the necessary micronutrients, that most ferts don't have. Those small bottles will last long enough to harvest hundreds of plants, so is a very good deal. Then, either add some epsom salts(which are very cheap) a couple times during your grows, or buy a bottle of Calmag, like i do, which is also quite cheap.(like$15) That's all you need, guaranteed.
Jack in the Bud
Active Member
jaw,...............
.........................
Also,....1000 watts will cost exactly 4x what it'll cost to run 250 watts. It'd cost about $22 a month, to run 1000 watts,(on 12/12) in my area, at $.06 KWH. Look at your electric bill, see what they charge per KWH in your area, and adjust accordingly. That'll give you a close estimate to what it'll cost.
At .06/KWH it sounds like you have some of the cheaper electricity that's out there. I'm stuck with a fairly rural electrical co-op for service and I'm paying .1229/KWH.
A friend recently lent me one of these P3 "Kill-A-Watt" meters to play around with.
http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html
I've been studying the various elctrical loads (in a 24 hour period) involved with my grow and it's looking like I'm using around $75/month in total electricity just for my grow. Of course if I had your .06/KWH rate I'd only be spending around $35/month.
And I'm only in 12/12 right now. Those 2 months I spend vegging on 18/6 cost me around $112/month. If I wasn't using any electricity to grow weed my electric bill would be under $20/month.
Jack
jawbrodt
Well-Known Member
Um, can I ask,.... At what point would you start feeding them, assuming they were in the same sized pots I am using? Mine were a tad over 4 weeks, in those last pics I took.
jawbrodt
Well-Known Member
Damn, I should consider myself lucky, huh? I had no idea that electric was so much higher, in other places. I just took a peek at my bill, and it's $.06241 KWH. Haha, it's good to live in hillbilly country, sometimes!!!lol
Mudslide9791
Well-Known Member
jawbrodt
Well-Known Member
Mudslide, be patient, it sounds like your plants are focusing on building roots, in which case, they seem to 'stall', like you've mentioned. This grow in this thread, is the first time I've went right to my final-sized pots, and they also 'stalled' for a week or so, at first. Check the first couple pages, and you'll see what I mean. They started off very slow, then took off like a motherfucker, once the roots got established. The only thing I will suggest, is to avoid watering them in the center, if it's still wet, while the edges have dried. For my first 2 or 3 waterings, I concentrated on the outside edges, keeping them moist, allowing the roots to spread, while keeping the center from being excessively moist. This isn't the way I'm used to watering, but chose to modify my normal "wait til dry, then water til I have runoff" routine, because I chose to go with the big pots, from the beginning. It worked great, me thinks.lol
Also,... I think you'll like Calmag, it works really well. Go with Calmag Plus, which has micronutes, in addition to mag and calcium. It's about the same price as the regular stuff, and a slightly better choice, IMO.
Also,... I think you'll like Calmag, it works really well. Go with Calmag Plus, which has micronutes, in addition to mag and calcium. It's about the same price as the regular stuff, and a slightly better choice, IMO.