This is original post from BushyOlderGrower (BOG) from Overgrow.com
I hope this helps some new growers get started. BOG
Feeding and Mix… I use Wal-Mart Continuous Feeding formula potting soil with 5-10% Perlite added for aeration and drainage. I add 2 cups of bone and blood meal to every 10 gallons of soil. I feed Pure Blend grow in veg and I transplant 3 times. Starting in 1 qt pots then 2 gallon pots then 4 gallon pots.
I transplant to 4 gallon pots when going to flowering. At this time I give a strong dose of foxfarm bloom liquid bat guano product, 2/3 cup to a gallon. This is a one time heavy nitrogen feed as transplanted and going into high light flowering room. (all HPS 35 watts/sq.ft.)
Often I let them flower until sexed before the final transplant and nitrogen treatment. It doesn’t burn them and they shoot in the first 2 weeks of flowering a lot. Capturing this growth “shoot” as I call it is the key to big buds IMHO. Health and vigor is maintained by lots of continued rooting through flower.
I also use some CO2 in flowering and some Superthrive once or twice while in flower at a very weak rate. In flower I feed the first half of flowering with Pure Blend Bloom which has half strength nitrogen compared to their vegging formula. Then the second half of flowering I use Earth juice Bloom to feed as it has no nitrogen and my pots still have some.
SubCool taught me to premix my earth juice bloom 20 hours in advance to reduce its acidity and this has helped me feed more without burning them.
My Basic Tips…
BUSHY’S GROW TIPS FOR BEGINNER INDOOR GARDENERS
– By BushyOlderGrower updated 5/2001
Want to start an indoor garden? I have a few basic tips written down for anyone to view here for free. These techniques work for all herb growing and are intended to aid legal growers to produce the high quality medical marijuana that they need. Anyone can grow in a closet, spare room, attic or basement. Want to learn more?
Starting Seeds
Starting Seeds is easy, just get some good ones first and if you are growing indoors the type will matter less than if growing outdoors but genetics is important to crop quality. Good herb seeds will grow good herb, you can grow just about any variety indoors. Seeds can be safely obtained through Untitled Document and White label bubblegum are an excellent choice for the indoor gardener and Nirvana seeds are very reasonably priced and surprisingly good genetics also.
Assuming you have seeds we need to soak them in Kleenex in a covered bowl wet but not drowning and 80 degrees for 2-3 days till seeds have 1/2 inch tails, then we plant. One seed in a 1 Qt. pot and moisten well don’t plant too deep be gentle with them. They will need light when they are sprouted. Alaska Start-up is good for seedlings and transplants, just use when little.
Soil Mix
Soil Mix is easy get Sam’s Choice, Magic Earth with fertilizer (.09-.06-.05) in already and mix 2/3 cup of blood meal and 2/3 cup of bone meal into each 3 gal pot. By adding 2 tablespoons of dry lime to mix you help flowering and avoid over-acidity. Wal-Mart has this kind and it is cheap! Many prefer to use 5 gallon pots. You should add 10% Perlite for good air to the roots and good drainage.
Stir and plant seed into this, fill pot well and wet well first time, we will supplement with organic fertilizers later. Black Gold is best gro mix but heavier soils are better than lighter ones. Shultz pro mix is expensive but highly recommended, Black Magic has also done well for some expert growers. I like Wal-mart continuous feeding formula soil
Watering
Watering is a skill that must be learned, it is crucial to good health as too much and the roots will drown or too little and the plants will wilt. If leaves are curling or your stems rot you have insufficient drainage, make sure you have holes in your pots.
Too dry shows up as drooping leaves then wilting.
Usually watering every other day, about quart if plant is big,(after transplant to big pot) is average but heat, rate of growth and soil mix will be a variable. Mist the plants 2 times a day in the vegetative cycle. Stop misting when flowering to avoid rot and fungus that can wreck your herbs. Use a fan or two to exchange the hot for cool fresh air on them.
Lighting
Lighting is cheap to start out get a couple 4 foot shop lights with grow tubes or GE kitchen and Bath 40 watt will work, keep 3 inches from light on 24 hours a day, until flowering desired. You will need better lights to finish indoors will need metal halide 400 or 1000 watt to grow well and in flowering will need at least a 600 sodium light or conversion bulb for metal halide ballast.
You can run 3000 watts, 12 hrs a day, and not get too high.
Lighting Requirements are about 35 watts per square foot of garden but even higher amounts like 50 watts per sq. foot will be worth it in flowering, the more light the better but watch out for heat damage. Horizontal fixtures need less vertical space. Vertical fixtures cost less and are more efficient if you have the space.
Electrical requirements age good 110 or 220 volt access, never overload a line causing a low voltage situation as this will burn up your wiring and equipment as well as creating a hazard. Lights are safe and the cost to run is about $15/month per 1000 watts used 12 hrs per day. Use your power wisely and you can produce high quality sinse at 5% of its value! How much do you spend on pot?
Prunning
Pruning is important to maximize yield. You just pinch the top off when plant is 8 inches tall and watch it bush out, this will double yield! Some like the big cola though so whatever you want is ok, it is just that I feel indoor growers must be most efficient growers, outdoors plants may not need pruning at all but indoor plants do unless very short and bushy. Some plants genetics require no pruning to bush out nicely.
Don’t prune much after flowering is started. Leave fan leaves on, as plant will need its leaves to grow big buds. Some prune to increase thc production after flowering starts but this is an advanced technique I will not go into further here as these are basic tips. Remember this! Healthy plants make great herb! Prune off low fan leaves as they yellow.
Light Cycles
Light Cycles are the hours of light and darkness in the grow rooms. A growing room is 24 hours light all the time, (at least 18 hours must be lit out of 24 in veg) it is just 1 long ass day to the plants, and they will grow fastest this way. When as big as desired, about 1-2 ft. then trigger flowering. We shock the plants into flowering by putting them on 12/12 light cycle.
By putting plants in this cycle, 12 hours day and 12 hours night we will see flowers starting in 2-3 weeks. Flowering usually takes about 7-8 weeks on this light cycle. They will gain another 50%-100% in height after triggering or might double in height! So trigger when the plants are small or you waste time in growth. 2 ft. tall max.
Sexing
Males and Females and telling them apart is important, you don’t want any males, they are worthless, like most of us, (haha). The male shows his flowers first is skinnier and taller often, will get little balls under each branch, if balls open into little white flowers too late! He has pollinated females and ruined crop! Hash can be made from males if you have a bunch of them.
Females have a hair coming out like a virgins pubic hair, thin and delicate will have lots of tiny sacs with hair coming out of each one. This is the female the sweet virgin that is desired. Growing all females is possible but is more advanced technique I will not go into further here. cloning and all female seeds will increase the efficiency of your garden.
CO2 is the gas that plants need most to grow, the roots need to get oxygen. Supplementing CO2 is most needed in high light gardens where lots of plants have limited fresh air. You produce CO2 when you breathe near your plants but they may need more, talk to your virgins, exercise with them or just shoot them some CO2. Always have a small fan on plants when the lights are on too. Fresh air! Use a bike inflate gun to manually spray co2 if you want to increase flower production.
Timing Harvest
Finishing the crop is important, as any good weed must be harvested at right time and cured properly. The female buds will have their hairs often turn a color before done, wait they need more time, wait until the hairs start to curl and die, you will see large balls of resin glistening on the tops, the tips of small flower leaves will be encrusted with small stalks of resins. They will be frosty looking!!
They can be seen easily with a magnifying glass or the naked eye if sharp. Watch the heads grow big and when the resin color changes to a little cloudy it is time to cut the plant and hang to air dry in the dark. I will take a week or so. Now you may enjoy the fruits of your labors! Well worth it too. Ask me any questions and I will try to elaborate further.
Drying
Curing is easy. You just cut the plant at start of light cycle and hang upside-down for about a week. The slower it dries, the better it will taste and the more potent it will be. This is the time when odors can be a problem if you have many plants. Some growers dry a few days on the branches then place in glass jars with closed lids, open each day, slow 30 day process.
Freedom
Please do all you can to help promote the freedom we have always prided ourselves for and died for. All people deserve the right to choose what they grow and use as medicine, please support efforts to legalize marijuana and end this senseless war on our people. NORML is working to get medical marijuana on your ballot!
Well THAT’S ALL FOLKS. Just trying to save the world by doing my part to free the herb! These tips are free for all and I welcome positive suggestions from other experienced growers.
Peace and Love to our green planet and all its creatures!!!
A quote to remember if you’re not sure if it is right to grow one of God’s good herbs. “ONE HAS THE MORAL RESPONSIBILITY TO DISOBEY UNJUST LAWS” DR. Martin Luther King Jr. We must also be willing to accept the punishment if caught but we can make a statement and fight. I advocate moving to a state where the growing of medical marijuana is allowed.
Also when Thoreau was jailed for refusal to pay a poll tax to vote and for making a fuss, Emerson said to him “Shame on you for being here” and, and Thoreau replied “no, shame on you for not being here”. The point was that true activists do fight oppression by risking their freedom. As in civil disobedience or free speech.
Remember if you think you are safe, “There is no armor against fate. Death puts its icy hands on Kings”. So since we can be gone, just that quick, like a snap of the fingers, fear not for to fear is a waste. “A coward dies a thousand deaths, a brave man dies but once”. NO FEAR. BOG
Bonanza of Green (BOG)
Many growers think that to be a successful indoor grower you have to go hydro. I would like to present an argument for my organic system.
First of all you should refer to Bushy’s Indoor organic tips for Beginners in the basic grow room.
All knowledge is practical and has worked well. It is a very simple organic system that is much easier to master quickly than Hydro systems. No meters required, hand watering allowed. This system is cheap and easy to set up but it requires some space, some electricity, and some work.
First the grow room should have at least a 400 watt metal halide light and a few fluoros for clones and/or seedlings. A 1000 watt MH is preferred depending on the size of your flowering room. This with a good cool deluxe horticultural bulb will work well.
400 watt in the grow room is minimal for a 1800 watt flowering room to stay maximized. Under the 2 or 3 (4 ft. fluorescents start your seeds/clones) keep the growing tips about 1-3 inches max from the light tubes if they are regular 40 watt flor tubes.
I start mine in about 1 Qt pots as seedlings or clones ( I do both) I usually start about 10 every 2 weeks. The perpetual harvest is never all at once, it is more of a production line system, with continual harvesting. As the seedlings reach about 8 inches they are moved into the bigger grow area with the 1000 watt metal halide light. Soon they are big enough to transplant into 3-5 gallon pots, depending on size plants desired.
After transplant into big pots the plants need to veg for about another 1-2 weeks until fully or mostly rooted. Rushing this process will hurt eventual yields. I like bigger plants, this is nothing like SOG (Sea of Green). If you want to make hundreds of clones and go hydro then SOG is a high yielding system but I like killer larger buds.
The plants spend about 5 weeks in vegetative stage. When moved to the flowering room they are rooted into large pots and usually about 2 feet tall (this varies with your set up, head room, genetics, etc.) At this point I double pot my plants. This means placing the 2 to 4 gallon pot it is rooted in, into another larger pot of soil. The plant will root through holes in the bottom of the original pot. Have 4 inch holes minimum and wet the soil mix in both pots thoroughly. The continues rooting will extend growth and increase yields due to added health and vigor.
If you have used good soil mix (refer to Basic Tips) and the plant is healthy it should be shooting in fast growth as it goes into flowering. Amazing beautiful bud growth will be seen if all is well. Healthy plants will stay dark green until late in flowering, keep feeding them organic ferts with some Nitrogen in them like Pure Blend or add grow fert to the no Nitro fert if the plant gets yellow. Earth Juice products and Pure Blend as well as Fox Farm Bloom is available at discount grow stores.
Make sure you add some CO2 to the air twice a day at least in flowering. I water every other day usually and I feed them every other feeding generally. Keep them happy and large yields can be obtained in a 3 month total grow and veg time. 5 oz per plant is not uncommon. Under a 1800 watt flowering room (3-600 watt HPS lights) about 20 plants of this size can be grown. This means 3 plants per week to harvest. Ideally it is possible under about a 3K system to grow 4-10 oz of organic dried bud per week!
It takes work but the product can be unsurpassed! There is nothing about hydro that makes the pot better. So if you are growing for quality but think indoor has to be hydro, think again! BOG is my Advice
Bushy has later published his Fully Illustrated Do-It-Yourself Guide to Growing the Highest Quality Medical Marijuana Indoors
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