Grow Journal 2017
I grew outdoors last year from clones (Northern California). This year I have built an indoor grow space, and starting from seeds to get specific strains. I’ve been a successful vegetable gardener for many years, and familiar with soil gardening, fertilizer, composting, and seeds. My approach is low cost, and I’m just growing for friends and family.
I have built my own grow “tent” framed with pvc pipe and walls of cardboard (free bicycle boxes). The tent width is larger than 4 foot long fluorescent fixtures, and about 3 feet deep, 7 feet tall. The walls are painted white for reflection, the front “door” is a tarp with reflective color. The roof is plywood with some lumber cross beams for strength. The inner roof has hooks and chains to support lights. Floor is layers of cardboard, waterproof plastic, and tarp. I have a power strip mounted on a side with timers.
Growing in 5 gallon buckets. Soil mixture is Summerwinds (garden store) organic potting soil, worm casings, lime, perlite, sand, and peat moss.
Lights are Sun Systems 315 Watt LEC (Philips bulb), and some fluorescent fixtures with grow spectrum bulbs. When closed, the 315 Watt light keeps the temp around 75 degrees F. I have an interior fan, but not ducting air outside, or filtering. I pay for electricity, and my rate is $0.40 per KW hour. With a 18/6 light cycle I figure my monthly cost to be about $216.
My current run was planned to be two each of Blue Dream, Northern Lights, and Jack Herer. Hope to take clones of each strain. I germinated seeds in water for 24 hours, then moved to damp soil in 4 inch pots, under fluorescent lights, in a cardboard box at 75 degrees F. I got 2 Blue Dream seedlings, 1 Northern Lights, and failed to germinate 5 out of 5 Jack Herer. I may try to germinate another Northern Lights, but will probably get Jack Herer seeds from another source. Not clear if I should start those plants late in this run, or wait for the next run.
I’m using a cheap 3-way soil probe for moisture, pH, and light. The pH reads between 6 and 7, but I am skeptical if that is a true reading.
As a vegetable gardener, I think low cost organic fertizer should be good enough nutrients, but looking for comments on the (more expensive) cannabis formulations. COMMENTS?
I live in California, and am reminded that the California Gold Rush mostly profited the vendors selling materials to the miners. Everything related to cannabis cultivation seems overly expensive, and a lot of false claims. Manure tea in a bottle for only $20!
Questions:
In a grow tent, how long should I do vegetative growth?
I can move my plants outdoors in summer to flower. Should I do that, or keep them in the tent?
Do I need special nutrients for cannabis, or can I treat them with the same nutrients my tomatoes and peppers like?
