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I'm here bro. Party at duchies!
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Right on, appreciate the support guys.
So like I said, there's a couple of reasons for me starting this thread and one of them is for me to keep track of what's going on. I found myself going back pages in the 600 to find posts that would give me an idea of when I started 12/12 because of my lazy ass not keeping proper track. Well, any of you who know the 600 know that there are a lot of friggin pages there! Thing is, I'm not just starting a new thread, I'm changing things up in the nutes and soil mix department and a few other things so I figured a thread with a fresh start would be good. Kind of like pressing the reset button.
Right now I'm trying to figure out how to start off here on the right foot. I'm going through the pics I've got and picking some stuff out, and those who know me know I have a lot of pics. I also want to lay it out in good way for everyone else so that I/we can benefit the most from everyone's input. It's a lot easier when you can see the picture clearly. So, I'd like to tell a quick story.
A while back my teenage daughter was on the home PC having a video chat with a male friend. He spotted a couple of my electric guitars in the background and asked her if it was a Fender? She replied that she didn't know but read Yamaha off the headstock. It was a strat copy beginner guitar that I had grabbed for $40 bucks. The other was a nice 5 string Samick bass that I picked up from the same guy for $75. Anyway, the kid started bashing my guitar and pumping the Fender that he has, yada, yada, yada...She later told me about it and I explained to her that he can spend all the money he wants on a guitar, he'll never get the results out of it that I can on this cheap Yamaha if he never get's himself past the 3 chords he knows now. This is how I feel about everything.
Point is that when I started reading about this hobby of ours, like everything else I've ever emmersed myself in, it quickly became overwhelming. Never mind all the techniques and knowledge of plants that you need to obtain, there's the product market that you have to face and Holy Shit can they get you in this one! I'm the kind of guy who will find something of interest that I want to do and I will throw myself into it. I will scour for information and research the hell out of it and then plan my moves. I'm also a real tight ass for money. Mostly by choice and partly not. I don't believe in buying crap but I don't believe in going out and buying "the best" either until you can justify it more. I've spent about 10 years of my life in the bar industry and another couple more selling cars so I'm no "lay down" for any salesman. I'm pretty good at smelling bullshit even when it's masked in perfume. More like Aux de just had a crap in my Toilet to me. And then there's my theory of how do you know how good you have it if you never had it bad? So, the past year or so has been really fly by the seat of my pants experimental and I started with some real basic stuff and still using most of it but now that I'm satisfied with where I am now I'll invest a little more and up my game a bit more and watch for the differences and improvements. If I see them now, then I can probably say with confidence that yes, that product does seem to be better than the average Joe out there.
Like a lot of people I started under some CFL's in potting soil but quickly found the 600, got a lot of info and lead on where and what to look for and found a shop on ebay that is local to me ordered a 600W magnetic ballast kit with a simple reflector. It came with a basic Artemis HPS Bulb and I ordered a second Super HPS plant bulb with it. I think the kit was around 150.00 and the extra bulb was $25 buck. Yes they're not Hortilux bulbs or the higher end digital ballasts but they're doing the job right now. Even my tent I picked up for a song and again, not the greatest but it's working.
Then there's nutes. I've been using granular stuff I got from common garden centers around here. I found a deal on coir bricks one day for $2 a brick so I bought up 75 of them and up till now I've been using that mixed with peat moss and perlite and some other basic amendments and I've been recycling this mix. Other things like Molasses and Epsom salts and Mychorrizae, therefore Organic.
While I am looking at adding a second tent and light, and they will be upgrades from what I have now like quality tent and light and bigger 6" inline (that was one mistake I made getting a 4"), right now I'm changing my nutes to a 100% organic liquid line that I found that I'll get into in a separate post, as well as the amendments to my coir mix. I'm quite confident that this is going to resolve a lot of issues I've been dealing and once I see the improvements in my grows that I'm expecting, then I'll start lining up my ducks for some new gear.
Sorry for the long winded post. A good bong hit and 30+ WPM typing speed can get you here pretty quick. Blah, blah, blah
Here's where I got my lights.
http://stores.ebay.ca/Hobby-Lights-Oneshop?_trksid=p4340.l2563
