The Irish Growers Thread!

Jingle

Well-Known Member
So what do you think professor, should i put them on 12/12 or should i wait a bit longer and see if anything appears
 
Some Autos can take 5 weeks before they start to show flowers, so I suppose you might as well wait it out. If u have the patience :). I couldnt be arsed myself, but then I wouldnt grow autos any more.
 

Maulstrom

Well-Known Member
Nirvana in Dublin still has the big fat cfls but there mad expensive, those bulbs in the avoca lighting shop look like way better value. Youll get a good bit of heat off a few of them though, youll need to vent your box continuously with good fans. With 4.5 ft of head room you could easily put in a cooltube and a hps bulb (250 or 400) if you widened your box a bit, say to 5 feet. Well worth the little extra trouble and expense..Youd get a quarter kilo from that box of yours.
Oh man, I'd love to widen it but it would mean knocking through a supporting wall of my house - don't know if I could hide that from the Mrs.!!:-( The grow room is what used to be our oil boiler enclosure. That's also why I'm going the cfl route - don't want any sudden spikes in price on the elec bill to arouse her suspicion. I know I won't get as much as with hps - but maybe down the road after she has had a few bud brownies she'll be a little more receptive to the homegrown and I can upgrade!

I passed Nirvana near Leonards corner a few days back and they have a big closing down sale sign in the window - might be time to pick up a few fat cfl's at a discount!
 
Oh man, I'd love to widen it but it would mean knocking through a supporting wall of my house - don't know if I could hide that from the Mrs.!!:-( The grow room is what used to be our oil boiler enclosure. That's also why I'm going the cfl route - don't want any sudden spikes in price on the elec bill to arouse her suspicion. I know I won't get as much as with hps - but maybe down the road after she has had a few bud brownies she'll be a little more receptive to the homegrown and I can upgrade!

I passed Nirvana near Leonards corner a few days back and they have a big closing down sale sign in the window - might be time to pick up a few fat cfl's at a discount!
Have to laugh, thats what you call guerilla growing fer sure :). I didnt even know about that Nirvana, I only knew about the one that burnt down, and the one behind the Powerscourt townhouse (sth annes st?). The seed guy in there (italian maybe) is a mine of info on strains.

If that boiler house of yours is outside, will it not be freezing when the lights are off.....What strain you gonna grow?
 
Have to laugh, thats what you call guerilla growing fer sure :). I didnt even know about that Nirvana, I only knew about the one that burnt down, and the one behind the Powerscourt townhouse (sth annes st?). The seed guy in there (italian maybe) is a mine of info on strains.

If that boiler house of yours is outside, will it not be freezing when the lights are off.....What strain you gonna grow?
Sorry man, sounded real negative when I read back, I was laughing at you hiding your grown from your wife, not the box. All problems can be overcome, if its too cold, then a fan heater might do the trick, and serious insulation, so it definitely sounds like a runner. youll need an extractor though, will your missus not wonder why theres a fan noise coming from somewhere?
 

Maulstrom

Well-Known Member
No worries man- no offense taken!! It used to get pretty cold in there but I have just put up 4 inch thick insulated plasterboard on all the walls and the door. Sealed up all the gaps with expanding foam and I'm going to paint it all flat white this weekend. I will most likely need a little heater anyway just to keep the lights off temps from dropping too much. The beauty of growing in there is that I can vent the exhaust air right up the old oil boiler chimney -and the wife is used to hearing a fan noise in there because that's what our new gas boiler sounds like (the diff is that it only takes up about 2 shoeboxes worth of space instead of the whole room!). I think all the bases are covered but the first grow will tell for sure. I have some white dwarf beans left, and just ordered some fem ak-47 autos from Attitude - got some freebies with it so might try one of them before I risk any of the good ones.
 
No worries man- no offense taken!! It used to get pretty cold in there but I have just put up 4 inch thick insulated plasterboard on all the walls and the door. Sealed up all the gaps with expanding foam and I'm going to paint it all flat white this weekend. I will most likely need a little heater anyway just to keep the lights off temps from dropping too much. The beauty of growing in there is that I can vent the exhaust air right up the old oil boiler chimney -and the wife is used to hearing a fan noise in there because that's what our new gas boiler sounds like (the diff is that it only takes up about 2 shoeboxes worth of space instead of the whole room!). I think all the bases are covered but the first grow will tell for sure. I have some white dwarf beans left, and just ordered some fem ak-47 autos from Attitude - got some freebies with it so might try one of them before I risk any of the good ones.
Hey sounds like youve got it all sussed, +rep, looking forward to hearing how you get on. In the past (my wife wont let me either, but I have too many kids around to chance it anyway) I have tried Sk#1, NL x Sk #1, euforia from dp, and ak47 autos. I definitely preferred using clones, easy to keep small, easy (and free) to replace. But those autos are very attractive, if you get good genetics. My ak47 autos were shite, but that was me, not them :) U gonna use soil? If so, can I tempt you to look at pots of coco, and water with nutes just like with any other hydro, but looks like soil. Great yields, just water once or twice a day if you use 10L pots. Coco is cheap, as cheap as compost, but is totally inert, holds lots of air, is very hard to overwater, and is by far the easiest hydro medium for hand feeding.

Just a thought :)
 

Maulstrom

Well-Known Member
Certainly will do some reading on it. As I said I'm only new to this so I'll take any advice offered - I was planning on a soil grow but that's not set in stone. I'm not looking for cup-winning buds but it would be gas to produce some nice fat sticky colas - that would be a buzz in itself. Doing it cost-effectively and without a load of fuss are the main priorities -just in case she totally shoots me down (tbh though if I can get her baked once like we used to do back when we were dating I think it will do wonders for my case - she just doesn't like to smoke because she has lung problems so it will have to be edible and I've never seen her turn down chocolate so that may be the answer!)
 

Doiremick

Active Member
Hey sounds like youve got it all sussed, +rep, looking forward to hearing how you get on. In the past (my wife wont let me either, but I have too many kids around to chance it anyway) I have tried Sk#1, NL x Sk #1, euforia from dp, and ak47 autos. I definitely preferred using clones, easy to keep small, easy (and free) to replace. But those autos are very attractive, if you get good genetics. My ak47 autos were shite, but that was me, not them :) U gonna use soil? If so, can I tempt you to look at pots of coco, and water with nutes just like with any other hydro, but looks like soil. Great yields, just water once or twice a day if you use 10L pots. Coco is cheap, as cheap as compost, but is totally inert, holds lots of air, is very hard to overwater, and is by far the easiest hydro medium for hand feeding.

Just a thought :)
Prof I would advise anyone the same, what I've done is mixed coco with an organic compost and it seems to do brilliant, although I'm only doing my 1st grow so I wouldn't be a good judge but the auto ak's are some height now and they only have 2 sets almost 3 true leaves, I'd say a good 6/7 inches.

How did you mess up your ak grow? Although my experiment plant is almost finished and it was done right I can't help but think I'm gonna fuck up the autos for some reason, planted them over a fortnight ago and they aren't growing as fast as they're made out to be, unless I'm wrong and their at the right stage and will flower in a few weeks. All help appreciated man.
 

Maulstrom

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the advice Prof and Doiremick - as soon as I find how to spread the rep you lads are getting some.
How easy is it to get your hands on coco - does it have to be ordered or can you get it at a garden centre or hydro shop?
 

Maulstrom

Well-Known Member
Well I've been reading everything I could find on growing in coco - seems like coco is THE shit for easy growing of big healthy plants so it looks like my first grow in the new room is going to be a coco grow. Any recommendations for particular brands and nutes to use with it?
 

Jay_normous

Well-Known Member
Well I've been reading everything I could find on growing in coco - seems like coco is THE shit for easy growing of big healthy plants so it looks like my first grow in the new room is going to be a coco grow. Any recommendations for particular brands and nutes to use with it?
I got my coco from a €2 shop. Not sure how good it is, coco is nutes free so you'll probably need to feed straight away (not too much mind) my mix contains coco, compost and perlite and the plants were crying out for some nutes, I'm going to check later on how this soil mix is doing, at the moment the jury is out on this one to see if it's any use. Best of luck anyway
 

dBUDlya

Member
I think they are 5l pots from B and Q and crappy miracle grow soil which came pre loaded with bugs and even grass seed - not the good kind!
I have no cooling tube on the light but its pretty cold in my attic and the tops are far enough away at the moment.
Which leads me to my next adventure - I need to stop the veg from growing up and Ive been advised to top the plants by halting the new sprout shooting up.
Is it as simple as that?
But Im waiting to see the sex, I have 4 plants in total which includes a wee retarded one that has suddenly come to life - but Im seeing 2 boys and one girl plus the runt is a girl for def.
So the guys are being removed in the next few days once everything becomes a little clearer.
Cheers for the advice - nice to have our own corner here.
D
 
Evening all, glad to see a bit of backin and forthin on here between us irish lads, we really need to get our arses in gear and catch up with the rest of the world when it comes to growing I reckon.

If you use regular 10 litre plant pots filled with biobizz coco, (you can get 50 L bags in Nirvana on sth anne street for about 15 euro), and a bottle of hesi coco nutes or canna coco, (another 15 euro) then your laughing. Just make up say 10 L of nutes, and that should last you a few days if you are only doing say 4 plants, at least at the beginning, when they are small. Once every 2 days is fine in veg and early flowering, provided you dont grow them too big.

The most important thing is to allow at least 10% drain off, in other words if you give them 1 litre, then 100 ml should come out the bottom. This flushing of old air and nutes is crucial. Any more that 10% is ok, its just that its a waste of nutes. If your water comes from a well, chances are that the pH will be fine, but if you are using mains water, then you might find the pH is off. You should check the pH of your nutes when you make it up with your water. Let tap water stand for 24 hours before using it, add nutes, then check pH. You can get cheap pH tester strips etc in pet shops for fish tanks, or in garden stores for soil. You are looking for 5.6 to 6.2, ideally 5.8. The best thing to get your pH down is "pH down" from your friendly neighbourhood grow shop again, and its cheap as chips. But you may not need it, I didnt, turned out that my well water was perfect - that was just jammy.

And thats all there is. ONce you follow those few things, its very hard to fuck it up, its really forgiving, unlike other hydro methods. And i would really recommend not using soil and coco mixes, just use plain coco. reason is you get total control. Start off with quarter to half strength nutes as they get bigger, and once they have well established roots, then move up to the full strength. It seems like a good idea to fluch with water once a week, and I would flush with half to quarter strength again for the whole of the last week or so before harvest. One 400 W light, 3 plants, only 4.5 ft head room floor to ceiling and it came to 250g, first time grow. And I fucked up many, many things on the way, like accidentally feeding them double strength once, getting spider mites, and cooking them at 34 C for a day (ducting came off the extractor fan.)

Hope this helps, I'm happy to be able to share anything that Ive picked up over the years when I was at it.

Why everyone so into autos? If its head height, i can see the attraction, but otherwise....naah. They seem too unpredictable. If you can get few clones that someone has selected from their batch of fem seeds, thats gonna be way more lucrative....

Just my opinions. Would like to hear what others think.

Keep on growing lads!

Prof.
 

Maulstrom

Well-Known Member
I don't know about anyone else but I'm trying autos for my first grow just so I have one less thing to fuck up - ie the lighting regimen. Plus I'm pig lazy and the idea of a plant that flowers without me doing much is attractive:sleep:

I'm dying to try a scrog as well - looking at bubblelicious and himalayan blue diesel for that one - anybody have experience with those?
 

Maulstrom

Well-Known Member
If you use regular 10 litre plant pots filled with biobizz coco, (you can get 50 L bags in Nirvana on sth anne street for about 15 euro), and a bottle of hesi coco nutes or canna coco, (another 15 euro) then your laughing. Prof.
I called in there today and suffered a bad case of sticker shock - E55 for a 150W cfl!! Who are they kidding? Plus it was some of the most apathetic customer service I've ever been given and they had no coco. I think I'll look for someplace that's a little more buyer-friendly.
 

Maulstrom

Well-Known Member
I got my coco from a €2 shop. Not sure how good it is, coco is nutes free so you'll probably need to feed straight away (not too much mind) my mix contains coco, compost and perlite and the plants were crying out for some nutes, I'm going to check later on how this soil mix is doing, at the moment the jury is out on this one to see if it's any use. Best of luck anyway
Cheers Jay -rep sent.
 
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