Wanna Ask The Old Farts A Question?

[alk_loid]

im embarrased to allways hop in and ask a question but your best one around here on ic. in my opinion.

could i root clones under 2x 12w t5 fluros. i dont want to use as little as possible, clone space isnt big, and ive understand that clones dont need much light when they dont have roots ie. fullgrown system for growing.

 

[Pirate]

Hey there Old Fart. How ya been? It's been a while since I've had a question for ya. But I do drop in now and then to absorb your vast knowledge.

What do ya think about using (Cannabis) fan leaf, roots, dead leaf matter and after harvest trash for a compost pile. I've never had a compost pile before and since I have so much crapola left over all the time I though now would be a good time to start one...........IF, that sort of compost would be beneficial. I would eventually use this in my outdoor vegetable garden. I would also throw food scrap and other organic materials from the kitchen in with it.

Any Ideers? Any do's and don'ts?

Thanks in advance.
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[HempKat]

im embarrased to allways hop in and ask a question but your best one around here on ic. in my opinion.

could i root clones under 2x 12w t5 fluros. i dont want to use as little as possible, clone space isnt big, and ive understand that clones dont need much light when they dont have roots ie. fullgrown system for growing.

While I want to try them I haven't used T-5's yet. I have however used T-8's and compared to T-12's (standard size) they produce more lumens per wat then the T-12's. The same is suppossed to be true for T-5's compared to T-8's so while 24W may not seem like much it's a fair amount. You should be fine but at that size you'll be somewhat limited on how many you can do at one time.

 

[HempKat]

Hey there Old Fart. How ya been? It's been a while since I've had a question for ya. But I do drop in now and then to absorb your vast knowledge.

What do ya think about using (Cannabis) fan leaf, roots, dead leaf matter and after harvest trash for a compost pile. I've never had a compost pile before and since I have so much crapola left over all the time I though now would be a good time to start one...........IF, that sort of compost would be beneficial. I would eventually use this in my outdoor vegetable garden. I would also throw food scrap and other organic materials from the kitchen in with it.

Any Ideers? Any do's and don'ts?

Thanks in advance.
.
.

I myself am just getting started in composting and to semi answer your question I'm doing that myself already and it seems to be working fine although I haven't used any of my compost yet.

Now based on my own studies in trying to get into composting it is my understanding that while any old plant material composted will make a rich soil for new plants it's really best if you can use it on the same type of plants your compost came from. Or to put it another way, what you are suggesting should work well for your garden that compost would work even better for your "other" garden. As I understand it by doing this you're making a soil rich in micro organisms tailored to your plants.

 

[HempKat]

Hey there Old Fart. How ya been? It's been a while since I've had a question for ya. But I do drop in now and then to absorb your vast knowledge.

What do ya think about using (Cannabis) fan leaf, roots, dead leaf matter and after harvest trash for a compost pile. I've never had a compost pile before and since I have so much crapola left over all the time I though now would be a good time to start one...........IF, that sort of compost would be beneficial. I would eventually use this in my outdoor vegetable garden. I would also throw food scrap and other organic materials from the kitchen in with it.

Any Ideers? Any do's and don'ts?

Thanks in advance.
.
.

I myself am just getting started in composting and to semi answer your question I'm doing that myself already and it seems to be working fine although I haven't used any of my compost yet.

Now based on my own studies in trying to get into composting it is my understanding that while any old plant material composted will make a rich soil for new plants it's really best if you can use it on the same type of plants your compost came from. Or to put it another way, what you are suggesting should work well for your garden but that compost would work even better for your "other" garden. As I understand it by doing this you're making a soil rich in micro organisms tailored to your plants.

 

[Pirate]

Thanks HempKat for the fast response.

Like you........I'll be checkin this idea out more. And I hear what your saying about it being best for the type of plant it came from.

Appreciated !!
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[IndianHay]

I have my plants in about 20th day of 18/6 and they are about 20cm in height maybe a little bit less. My box is 90cm tall(15cm for pots and 20cm for plants), whitch leaves me 55cm for vertical growth. When do you think that i should switch to 12/12 so the plants will not grow too high? I have mostly indica/sativa crosses and two plants are sativa/indica cross.

 

[HempKat]

I have my plants in about 20th day of 18/6 and they are about 20cm in height maybe a little bit less. My box is 90cm tall(15cm for pots and 20cm for plants), whitch leaves me 55cm for vertical growth. When do you think that i should switch to 12/12 so the plants will not grow too high? I have mostly indica/sativa crosses and two plants are sativa/indica cross.

The rule of thumb most people go by is based on the idea that a plant will double in height during flower. So people wait until the plant is 1/3rd the height they want and then flip.

In your case though that's fairly small due to the size of your grow space. In fact based on what you've said you're almost at that point now. Problem is that if you grew from seed then the plant is still immature (generally plants don't become mature until 5 to 6 weeks from germination). It's my opinion that it's when you flower a plant while it's immature that you'll get a plant doubling or even tripling in size. It's been my experience that plants grown to maturity in veg. don't stretch so much in flower.

Ideally what I would do if I were you would be to not even try to flower these plants but rather veg them to maturity and then take clones. I say this because it's also been my experience that plants grown from clones, tend to grow shorter then their from seed counterpart. That probably doesn't work for you though as it means several more weeks before you could flower something that way.

The next best thing would be to employ some form of training and/or topping to keep the plant short but yet allow it to fully mature and then flower. That won't take as long since you wouldn't be bothering with the clonning process. The idea would be that getting them mature should help keep them from getting too tall.

The third option would to be to go ahead and flower soon and if the plant does get too big employ training even though they're in flower, to keep them from growing too tall. If you go this route though don't use topping the plant as a form of control. Topping in flower is too stressful. If you can get past the first three weeks of flower (what they call the stretch phase) then your plant shouldn't grow much if any taller after that. The only thing in this method, being that they wouldn't be fully mature, is you would have to pull any males that turned up since you don't know their sex now. Fully mature plants often put out pre-flowers helping you to sex the plant before flowering.

The problem with not knowing their sex is this, say you have 6 plants started from seed and you flower them before they've matured and shown pre-flowers. Then during flowering they all turn out to be males. Then you're done and you have to start over from scratch. Now in that case you're screwed either way because they'll still be all males when they mature. Let's say though that instead of all males it's 5 males and one female. Your crop would be greatly reduced but you'd still have at least the one. If however you let them mature and discover it's 5 males and one female before you flower you would have the option of taking the one female, make clones and then have several females to flower.

 

[Anti]

Seeking advice and/or criticism on NGB microcab design

Seeking advice and/or criticism on NGB microcab design

It took weeks, but I finally read from the start to end of this thread. I took notes the whole time. Thank you for your dedication Hempkat!

If you have a moment, i'd be honored to have you take a look at my cab design and poke any and all holes in it that you care to. I'm pretty much a newb, but I'm a good student and I've filled a notebook with observations from you and other long-time growers that I'm eager to put into use.

The thing about my design that I'm particularly interested in hearing your thoughts on is this:

It has a combination passive intake room/bud drying room with light-shielded vents that pass the air through to the mom and flower rooms located on either side of it.

Do you think this will work? Will I be able to use just one fan/filter combination if I use one that pulls the proper CFM for my total volume? Can you think of any drawbacks to this setup? Stealth is my #1 priority so I want a system that can be setup right out in the open. "Hidden in plain sight" as it were.

Here's a couple of pics:


Thanks again.

 

[Joey56789]

I'm not an old fart, but I think that looks pretty cool. I'm curious why you just don't use the flower room for drying. Are you are planning on perpetual harvest? Because if not you could make the flower room bigger.

 

[Anti]

I'm not an old fart, but I think that looks pretty cool. I'm curious why you just don't use the flower room for drying. Are you are planning on perpetual harvest? Because if not you could make the flower room bigger.

You got it. I'm planning to perpetually SOG a 1.5' x 1.5' cube of 2.75"x2.75" cubes. Approximately 25-30 plantlets in all, harvesting 5-6 a week. If I get 5 grams dry off each, that'd be 25-30g a week. More than ample for one smoka. I can even start experimenting with tinctures!

Don't think i'll need a bigger room. We'll see.

 

[Weezard]

Ancient wind.

Ancient wind.

I 'm an old fart and I like your design.

Suggest you use shallow, waterproof tubs for drawers and make them adjustable in height.
(There are always spills.)

A small dehumidifier on the floor of the drying room will keep the humidity down in the mom and flower rooms.

Well thought out plan, man.
Are you planning to post a grow log?

Regards,
Weezard

 

[Anti]

Grow Log

Grow Log

I 'm an old fart and I like your design.

Suggest you use shallow, waterproof tubs for drawers and make them adjustable in height.
(There are always spills.)

Yeah, I was planning on doing that or actually building something into the shelf so it becomes, more like a drawer. (Still slides out, but has 5 walls.)

A small dehumidifier on the floor of the drying room will keep the humidity down in the mom and flower rooms.

I was wondering if that might be an issue. So... thanks! Do you know of any specific brands or models to recommend? The only dehumidifiers I've ever used are about the SIZE of that room.

Well thought out plan, man.

Thanks again.

Are you planning to post a grow log?

Yeah. I'm going to digest the responses that I get here, make any changes that seem prudent, and begin construction within a few weeks.
I'll try to get a step-by-step with pictures up of the actual IRL box. And then a log doesn't seem out of the question. A natural step, perhaps.

Theoretically, of course.

 

[HempKat]

It took weeks, but I finally read from the start to end of this thread. I took notes the whole time. Thank you for your dedication Hempkat!

If you have a moment, i'd be honored to have you take a look at my cab design and poke any and all holes in it that you care to. I'm pretty much a newb, but I'm a good student and I've filled a notebook with observations from you and other long-time growers that I'm eager to put into use.

The thing about my design that I'm particularly interested in hearing your thoughts on is this:

It has a combination passive intake room/bud drying room with light-shielded vents that pass the air through to the mom and flower rooms located on either side of it.

Do you think this will work? Will I be able to use just one fan/filter combination if I use one that pulls the proper CFM for my total volume? Can you think of any drawbacks to this setup? Stealth is my #1 priority so I want a system that can be setup right out in the open. "Hidden in plain sight" as it were.

Here's a couple of pics:


Thanks again.

Looks and sounds good in theory "if" the fan is powerful enough then it should work. There's two observations I have. Unless you want to run a perpetual harvest such that you're harvesting every couple of weeks I think maybe you'de be better off keeping the drying room seperate. Reason being that if you're just doing a harvest every 2 months or so then much of the time that space won't be in use so it's wasted space and you make the fan work pretty hard to flow thru the path you're describing with all those bends and holes restricting the air somewhat. Also for that to work well you're going to need to make sure it seals up pretty tight when you close the doors to it.

The other thing I notice is you have eight lights in each area, presumably those are cfl's but even still that's going to be a heavy load on one circuit and generate a fair bit of heat. Maybe all those were just to file the space in and not what you were actually planning?

Edit: Okay well I see you are planning a staggered perpetual harvest so the drying roon will get good use. You do realize though that what you are planning is going to require alot of dedication from you. Early on this might seem like no big deal but give it a year or two, being married to your grow can be a hassle. I still think for the sake of airflow and therefore a smaller and quieter fan for the sake of stealth, you'd be better off drying it else where and freeing up the air path some.

 

[bimbamBong]

@ HampKat,

Thx a lot for this Side! I couldnt pay for what I learned here, while Times are passing by..

I translated your "Entree" into German and postet it in my favored German Forum:

Hanfburgforum

I hope you agree to splead the Idear of this "Ask an old Fart Thread- Thing !

If not! Gimme a Shout! I cancel it Immediatly!

If Yes: Keep on going!

Anyway..... You get a lot Karma Points I bet!

Frosty Greetings from this Part of the green World!

L.G. bbB

 

[JQP]

As one old fart to I assume a bunch of others, I have a sensitive question. I just started growing after being out of it for more than 20 years. The only time I ever bought seeds was my last grow, and they came from Holland. I live in New York State. What do folks in the U.S. do now to get seeds? All the ads I see say no deliveries to the U.S. Somebody must be selling seeds to old farts here!

I've tried the search function, but being an old fart am not too good at this computer stuff...

Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

JQ

 

[Anti]

The other thing I notice is you have eight lights in each area, presumably those are cfl's but even still that's going to be a heavy load on one circuit and generate a fair bit of heat. Maybe all those were just to file the space in and not what you were actually planning?

I based this design on the dr. bud perp-sog thread. He was using (5) 42 watt CFLs in a 2.7sq ft space. I couldn't think of a way to mount five 42w in my space (16.5" x 17.5") and I read somewhere here that anything over 27w in a CFL would start to generate more heat than lumen per w, so I thought that more 27w would be better than fewer 42w.

Do you really think that 480w (216w per room + 50w fan) for entire cabinet (including fan) is going to pull too much for one circuit? I know very little about electricity. So feel free to get as detailed as you wish in explaining why.

Edit: Okay well I see you are planning a staggered perpetual harvest so the drying roon will get good use. You do realize though that what you are planning is going to require alot of dedication from you. Early on this might seem like no big deal but give it a year or two, being married to your grow can be a hassle. I still think for the sake of airflow and therefore a smaller and quieter fan for the sake of stealth, you'd be better off drying it else where and freeing up the air path some.

If I find it that annoying in a year or two, I'm sure I will change things up. The way it's shaping up so far, I could build this box for about what I'd spend on an ounce, so if it provides say... 2 ounces before I decide to switch to something else, I'll have gotten my money's worth. And I should be able to do THAT within 8-12 weeks of first seed.

I have NEVER in my adult life gone on vacation of any kind... so if this is gonna free up enough money where I can start to think about going on one, I'm sure I can wait to take the vacation until I've got a respectable little reserve stash so that I can put the cab on hold, put my mom's in some kind of auto-water situation and then hit the road for a week. But doing anything like that is pretty far off.

Thanks for your help. This thread has given me lots of food for thought.

 

[Weezard]

Dry Guy!

Dry Guy!

"I was wondering if that might be an issue. So... thanks! Do you know of any specific brands or models to recommend? The only dehumidifiers I've ever used are about the SIZE of that room."

Google-up dis pup.


Works a treat!

Aloha,
Weezard

 

[Joey56789]

Lumen per watt for the 27w is about the same as 42W. I don't see how 480W is too much for one circuit. That's only 4 amps for 120volt. That's 4 120 watt regular light bulbs, or less then half of a window unit air conditioner.

 

[HempKat]

@ HampKat,

Thx a lot for this Side! I couldnt pay for what I learned here, while Times are passing by..

I translated your "Entree" into German and postet it in my favored German Forum:

Hanfburgforum

I hope you agree to splead the Idear of this "Ask an old Fart Thread- Thing !

If not! Gimme a Shout! I cancel it Immediatly!

If Yes: Keep on going!

Anyway..... You get a lot Karma Points I bet!

Frosty Greetings from this Part of the green World!

L.G. bbB

Actually I don't get very many karma (respect) points. That's okay though, they don't really mean anything.

As for the thread in that German forum, yeah that's fine as long as you have a German Old Fart to manage it since I don't speak German and don't have enough time to take on another site.