KrazeeKarma
Member
Background: Old lady with spinal stenosis, chronic nerve pain plus,
allergic to Demerol, and codeine based pain meds, no longer able to work.
Family member with congenital defect of hip and knee, putting off hip
replacement as long as possible, chronic pain, working FT. Family member
with chronic depression, degenerative bone disease, working FT. Using
herbal meds for years with great success, needed to provide said holistic
medication alternately. Experienced with roses, spices and decorative
flowers outdoors only. A close friend offered technical support and a
few supplies, this is how it went.
We started in a room 8' by 7', painted the walls a high gloss bright
white, added a thermal retardant. One window covered with foil. Used
1000 watt HPS light fixed stationary in center of room. Mentor provided a
tub full of chemicals and other stuff, and said they would bring
feminized plants. We waited. And waited... 3 weeks later we planted a
few seeds from select sacks of past, about 20 in jiffy pots with potting
soil (Earthgro). A week later we had 20 little sprouts. These were kept in a homemade greenhouse (old white porcelain sink with pane of glass
over the top) until 1'' to 1 1/2'' then placed 18'' under light with a
light cycle of 18 hours on, 6 hours off. And they grew. Our mentor had
given use two meters, one for measuring PPM and another for PH. They said
to get the PPM up to 1500 if possible starting low and gradually
increasing. Never mentioned PH. They said that we would use the
chemicals provided to raise the PPM, follow directions, but feed every
2-3 days and use water in between. Okay, confusing? You bet. We had
Stuff with no labels, unreadable labels. We had base, grow, bloom,
catalyst, B-1, Neem oil, clearex, PH up, rooting, cloning. We had
powders, gels, and liquids. And not a one said to use every 2-3 days.
So, we kind of guessed. Our PPM started at about 450 plain tap, so we
raised it by 50 every 3 days with base, grow, catalyst. Misted them every
other day with neem and B-1.
Let us note at this point, for the experienced and inexperienced alike,
THIS IS NOT HOW TO DO IT. Please continue with our saga now that we
have...vented.
Our plants did grow, and at about 10 inches tall, the leaves were turning
yellow, with lower ones turning brown and dying. We threatened mentor
with bodily harm and finally got them to visit the garden and take a
look. Mentor was taken aback and had to admit that they were surprised
we had plants at all. Told us to replant them in slightly larger
containers, then started hurting our babies. Called it pinching and said
to do this from time to time, poor babies. They then went home, brought
8 plants about 15" tall and said "keep up the good work", burned a nice
nug with us and went home. We soon called to ask mentor why our plants
had such long skinny stems and theirs were so stocky, they said we need
to put a fan on them, so the oscillating fan went in to run 24/7. And
they grew. But the new ones were such a nice dark green when they
arrived and soon turned yellow, that we worried. Were we over watering?
Light too high, too low? Mixing food wrong? We tried to go a day
between watering, but they would all wilt, moving the light only caused
some to yellow faster or slower, so we stopped feeding altogether, using
only tap water. And they grew, in all their yellowed glory. Our babies
soon grew taller than the newer additions but we still worried, the
plants just didn't look right. When they were all between 1' to 2',
mentor asked us to try to germinate some seeds they had, the oldest 10
years old. We planted about 30, this time in neat little dirt plugs they
provided, and viola, we had 12 come up. Needing room, we decided to get
rid of the males. Internet to the rescue, google images of male and
female and match to our own. We looked for 2 weeks and could not
identify the difference. Back the net. "Male and female parts will be
distinguishable when plants have entered the flowering stage". Okay, and
when do we do that? We only have one light, one room, and plants at
three ages. We decide to wait to reduce the light cycle until the newest
babies are 12" tall. We have also learned how to correctly pinch the
tops to promote bushes and not trees in our garden.
The internet is a wonderful tool, if you know what you are looking for.
It can also overwhelm and misinform you.
Our grow has now been going for 3 months. We have 3 month olds at about
3'-4' (trees), 2 month olds at 2' - 2 1/2' (bushes), and 1 month olds at
1' (better bushes). We go into flowering, cutting light back to 12 on,
12 off. And replant plants into 2 quart pails. Mentor leaves the state,
never to return, oh to be young and free again, we're all jealous. Wait,
what do we do now? We continue on, we know how to raise plants anyway.
Don't we? And the plants grow, we weed out the males, leaving us a total
of 21 little girls, or are they? Plants are having a hard time, leaves
still yellowing, curling up at edges, looking burnt. Buds are developing,
but there seems to be some sort of spider problem. We treat the room
with an organic, soap based insecticide, taking care not to spray on the
plants themselves because we don't want to pollute the buds. A month
later mentor visits. Tells us that we need to replant again in bigger
pots, 3 gallon at least. Gives us a recipe for a "tea" to brew for the
little things, and says we have spider mites. "Too bad, you probably
won't get anything worth your time". Burns another really nice nug with
us and leaves.
Okay, now we're a little peeved. Well maybe not all of us, just the
majority, We didn't start this to waste time. Back to the internet, this
time to see if we can find it all.
And we find a wonderful little site called...you guessed it,
rollitup.com. And we find everything. Including a nutrient store in our
area where they know all, have all, have seen it all, and share or sell
it all. We learn that PH is important, and that our babies are suffering
from PH lockout and nutrient burn. We learn how to flush and try to
correct the problem. We learn about spider mites, about how after nuclear
winter the cockroaches will at least have the spider mites to keep them
company, because the bast***s are virtually unstoppable. We learn about
teas, bubblers, foliage feeding, trichomes, harvesting, curing, and a
bunch of stuff we may never use, but we know where to find if we do need
it. Nice people answer our questions, and encouragement is all around. We
use AzaMax for our mites. We decide to use EarthJuice nutrients, learn
about bubbling them with molasses and earthworm castings, and begin to
feed properly, but we also learn that it is time to harvest what we can
and start over with knowledge. Our trichomes turn a nice cloudy color and
we start to use clearex along with just molasses and earthworm casting
tea to remove any damage we have done with chemicals. Then we watch a
video by the guru of high times magazine and 10 days later we begin to
harvest. The mites, and our ignorance, have done their damage, but we do
have a crop. It takes 8 hours to trim and hang all 21 plants. Then we
make hash from the trimmings using ice water and varying sizes of
straining screens. The hash tastes great, and our buds smell like heaven.
Will cure for the next month, completely clean grow room, and start over
with much higher hopes and better preparation.
Things we learned:
Research before planting and learn all steps before taking the first.
Plants need to eat, have light, and have water to grow. Marijuana plants
need a bit more than that.
PH is very important!!!
Not everyone on the net knows what they are talking about. Friends don't
either.
After hash, leavings (seaweed) can be used for edibles.
Find a community (like rollitup) and ask, ask, ask questions.
And we learned to never do it this way again.
Next grow we learn how to make edibles, love the suckers.
allergic to Demerol, and codeine based pain meds, no longer able to work.
Family member with congenital defect of hip and knee, putting off hip
replacement as long as possible, chronic pain, working FT. Family member
with chronic depression, degenerative bone disease, working FT. Using
herbal meds for years with great success, needed to provide said holistic
medication alternately. Experienced with roses, spices and decorative
flowers outdoors only. A close friend offered technical support and a
few supplies, this is how it went.
We started in a room 8' by 7', painted the walls a high gloss bright
white, added a thermal retardant. One window covered with foil. Used
1000 watt HPS light fixed stationary in center of room. Mentor provided a
tub full of chemicals and other stuff, and said they would bring
feminized plants. We waited. And waited... 3 weeks later we planted a
few seeds from select sacks of past, about 20 in jiffy pots with potting
soil (Earthgro). A week later we had 20 little sprouts. These were kept in a homemade greenhouse (old white porcelain sink with pane of glass
over the top) until 1'' to 1 1/2'' then placed 18'' under light with a
light cycle of 18 hours on, 6 hours off. And they grew. Our mentor had
given use two meters, one for measuring PPM and another for PH. They said
to get the PPM up to 1500 if possible starting low and gradually
increasing. Never mentioned PH. They said that we would use the
chemicals provided to raise the PPM, follow directions, but feed every
2-3 days and use water in between. Okay, confusing? You bet. We had
Stuff with no labels, unreadable labels. We had base, grow, bloom,
catalyst, B-1, Neem oil, clearex, PH up, rooting, cloning. We had
powders, gels, and liquids. And not a one said to use every 2-3 days.
So, we kind of guessed. Our PPM started at about 450 plain tap, so we
raised it by 50 every 3 days with base, grow, catalyst. Misted them every
other day with neem and B-1.
Let us note at this point, for the experienced and inexperienced alike,
THIS IS NOT HOW TO DO IT. Please continue with our saga now that we
have...vented.
Our plants did grow, and at about 10 inches tall, the leaves were turning
yellow, with lower ones turning brown and dying. We threatened mentor
with bodily harm and finally got them to visit the garden and take a
look. Mentor was taken aback and had to admit that they were surprised
we had plants at all. Told us to replant them in slightly larger
containers, then started hurting our babies. Called it pinching and said
to do this from time to time, poor babies. They then went home, brought
8 plants about 15" tall and said "keep up the good work", burned a nice
nug with us and went home. We soon called to ask mentor why our plants
had such long skinny stems and theirs were so stocky, they said we need
to put a fan on them, so the oscillating fan went in to run 24/7. And
they grew. But the new ones were such a nice dark green when they
arrived and soon turned yellow, that we worried. Were we over watering?
Light too high, too low? Mixing food wrong? We tried to go a day
between watering, but they would all wilt, moving the light only caused
some to yellow faster or slower, so we stopped feeding altogether, using
only tap water. And they grew, in all their yellowed glory. Our babies
soon grew taller than the newer additions but we still worried, the
plants just didn't look right. When they were all between 1' to 2',
mentor asked us to try to germinate some seeds they had, the oldest 10
years old. We planted about 30, this time in neat little dirt plugs they
provided, and viola, we had 12 come up. Needing room, we decided to get
rid of the males. Internet to the rescue, google images of male and
female and match to our own. We looked for 2 weeks and could not
identify the difference. Back the net. "Male and female parts will be
distinguishable when plants have entered the flowering stage". Okay, and
when do we do that? We only have one light, one room, and plants at
three ages. We decide to wait to reduce the light cycle until the newest
babies are 12" tall. We have also learned how to correctly pinch the
tops to promote bushes and not trees in our garden.
The internet is a wonderful tool, if you know what you are looking for.
It can also overwhelm and misinform you.
Our grow has now been going for 3 months. We have 3 month olds at about
3'-4' (trees), 2 month olds at 2' - 2 1/2' (bushes), and 1 month olds at
1' (better bushes). We go into flowering, cutting light back to 12 on,
12 off. And replant plants into 2 quart pails. Mentor leaves the state,
never to return, oh to be young and free again, we're all jealous. Wait,
what do we do now? We continue on, we know how to raise plants anyway.
Don't we? And the plants grow, we weed out the males, leaving us a total
of 21 little girls, or are they? Plants are having a hard time, leaves
still yellowing, curling up at edges, looking burnt. Buds are developing,
but there seems to be some sort of spider problem. We treat the room
with an organic, soap based insecticide, taking care not to spray on the
plants themselves because we don't want to pollute the buds. A month
later mentor visits. Tells us that we need to replant again in bigger
pots, 3 gallon at least. Gives us a recipe for a "tea" to brew for the
little things, and says we have spider mites. "Too bad, you probably
won't get anything worth your time". Burns another really nice nug with
us and leaves.
Okay, now we're a little peeved. Well maybe not all of us, just the
majority, We didn't start this to waste time. Back to the internet, this
time to see if we can find it all.
And we find a wonderful little site called...you guessed it,
rollitup.com. And we find everything. Including a nutrient store in our
area where they know all, have all, have seen it all, and share or sell
it all. We learn that PH is important, and that our babies are suffering
from PH lockout and nutrient burn. We learn how to flush and try to
correct the problem. We learn about spider mites, about how after nuclear
winter the cockroaches will at least have the spider mites to keep them
company, because the bast***s are virtually unstoppable. We learn about
teas, bubblers, foliage feeding, trichomes, harvesting, curing, and a
bunch of stuff we may never use, but we know where to find if we do need
it. Nice people answer our questions, and encouragement is all around. We
use AzaMax for our mites. We decide to use EarthJuice nutrients, learn
about bubbling them with molasses and earthworm castings, and begin to
feed properly, but we also learn that it is time to harvest what we can
and start over with knowledge. Our trichomes turn a nice cloudy color and
we start to use clearex along with just molasses and earthworm casting
tea to remove any damage we have done with chemicals. Then we watch a
video by the guru of high times magazine and 10 days later we begin to
harvest. The mites, and our ignorance, have done their damage, but we do
have a crop. It takes 8 hours to trim and hang all 21 plants. Then we
make hash from the trimmings using ice water and varying sizes of
straining screens. The hash tastes great, and our buds smell like heaven.
Will cure for the next month, completely clean grow room, and start over
with much higher hopes and better preparation.
Things we learned:
Research before planting and learn all steps before taking the first.
Plants need to eat, have light, and have water to grow. Marijuana plants
need a bit more than that.
PH is very important!!!
Not everyone on the net knows what they are talking about. Friends don't
either.
After hash, leavings (seaweed) can be used for edibles.
Find a community (like rollitup) and ask, ask, ask questions.
And we learned to never do it this way again.
Next grow we learn how to make edibles, love the suckers.