the little details make the difference?

[FDae]

ok guys, ill get straight to the point.
does marijuana respond well to the little changes? compared to just half assing it? I think it does, and care is what makes or breaks the operation.
let me know your thoughts on these things, ill bold the things I think are best. in the interest of saving money, perhaps you guys could steer me the right way if im off track here

water: bottled water vs tap water vs own-filtered water (brita fridge filter or something like that)
sprayer temperatures: hot, cold, room temperature
spray amount (if setup on timer): lots of little sprays setup every hour, big spray once a day, 2-3 sprays a day
air: filtered, fast movement, above "recommended" temps, below or at it
grow medium: soil, hydro
light: just right, a little below recommended, a little above recommended
humidity: assuming you have control over this compared to the not-enclosed space: dry, medium, really humid

im about to go all out on this next one, but I have not made my selection of seeds yet. I think the whole crop will be one kind, something exotic. and I want the best of the best around here, so do the little things make a difference or is my friend right, set it up to grow and itll grow and stop worrying about it.

heres what im working with (no picture right now, its not complete)
I have two boxes made out of MDF, its going to be fairly large. enough to house probably 7x3 plants, in a pumping hydro system.
I have access to all sorts of pvc equipment, and I also have a small room-sized air conditioning unit im willing to donate to the cause.
I have a generator and batteries for all the lighting, itll be able to pretty much stay off (maybe cycle a little) and use just battery power during the day, and it will auto charge itself at night. depending on how much lighting I decide I need, I may supply a little from the outlet. there will be the recommended amount of light supplied from up top (and from the batteries) and ill have smaller lights below so the shadows from up high dont do anything.
the flower and veg box will share the same air, fed by the ac unit's fan (and perhaps the compressor for temperature control) that breathes through air filters.

my only concern is the overhead infrared piggies and my heat output, so I shall take suggestions on how to control that. at this point im thinking 1000w

sorry for the booklet I wrote here, thoughts?

 

[milehighmedical]

Umm... yeah, that's all in order. Except bottled water, it's usually tap water. If you want better water than tap, get a reverse osmosis filter. End of story. If they're too expensive there's a thread on here about making a ghetto one that significantly reduces your ppm for less than $20. It's made out of one of those car wash things, Mr. Magic? Idk.

Everything else is pretty much common sense. If you're scared of infrared, and I mean really scared... get the infrared shielding on all your walls and ceiling, and get one of those IR hood covers that insulates the heat from your light.

But supreme court ruled that IR could not be done without a warrant, and if they can get a warrant for IR they can already get a warrant to kick in your fucking door. So, IR's really the last on the list of worries these days.

Light leaks. Smell leaks. Noise. And your girlfriend are what will put you behind bars. Mostly your girlfriend/friends. I don't care how much you love her, she's completely psycho. Or at least that's what you have to assume when you're doing something like this and are concerned about security.

Take the time one day to look through all the warrants that have been issued in the last year for grow house busts... and try to find one that doesn't say "We wouldn't have ever made this bust without a snitch on the inside."

 

[FDae]

the girl knows nothing about this. ive brought one person in, only because he made mention of "business" in the past, knows people, moves weight, and is my bank.

its only a me n him, god bless the girl of 7 years, but she will never know.

Why not bottled water? around here they sell flats wholesale, its basically 8 liters for 5 bucks. whats it about the water that makes the difference?

as for the infrared, I believe around here they are just allowed to do ariel survelience and see if they pick up any heat traces and go from there. so I would rather spend the money and buy what I can to hide what I can.

the smell is also a concern of mine, they wont so much be people around it questioning the smell, its just if someone DID come around, I dont want them to smell it.

other than that I think ive got most of my shit sorted out to start something, this is one of those things where rule number one is dont tell anyone, rule number two is dont tell anyone, and rule number three is dont get caught

 

[FreezerBoy]

If you want better water than tap, get a reverse osmosis filter. End of story. If they're too expensive there's a thread on here about making a ghetto one that significantly reduces your ppm for less than $20. It's made out of one of those car wash things, Mr. Magic?

That's the beginning of the story. The middle part of the story is is RO strips water of essential elements necessary for healthy plants. Elements that nute manufacturers specifically leave out because we are expected to add them back with tap water. They even make hard water formulas that are double extra lacking in these elements. The end of the story is, get yourself some Cal-Mag or similar to make up for the elements you stripped out with RO.

DIY RO Filter

 

[FreezerBoy]

Why not bottled water?

Why bother? It's just tap water at 10X the price with a plastic bottle left over to choke the earth with.

 

[FDae]

Why bother? It's just tap water at 10X the price with a plastic bottle left over to choke the earth with.

well it has a mineral breakdown of ppm on the bottle, its not as pure as some of the bottled stuff out there, but 8 liters for 5 bucks. id spend 25 on water... why not? does it make a difference? all those extra minerals in tap water have to go somewhere, the soil maybe if I was using it, but it seems to me that impure water is just soaking more crap into my little pretties when I could go without? maybe it does affect taste, has anyone ever compared? probably not because it really doesnt matter, but if we are on the topic about "the little details..." then maybe it does?

I dont know, my brain wants me to put extra effort into it

 

[FDae]

since we are here anyways, does anyone believe different nutes take better to different plants? or is there a master nutrient I can buy and bow down to it? or do I just go with whats available and quit thinking too much?

 

[lysol]

quit thinking too much?

Ive seen plants grow upside down from a rain gutter. Just provide light and dont over care for it by doing nonsense like watering everyday, dont feed too early or too strong, dont let temps get too high. Honestly in my exp. the hardest part of growing small scale is managing temps, but then again I live in a hot area. You want temps _below 85 70 would be perfect.

 

[FDae]

so lets say ive got this small grow of mine going, out of the 21 plants I expected, lets say 18 of them are healthy females (from all female seeds) and im feeding it a 1000w light in an ambient temp of 80F. temps WILL go up because of the light obviously, I think a 3year old knows that. so while balancing the heat with the ac unit, should I rotate the plants so the ones further from the ac get blasted as much as the ones in the front line?

I realize I may be asking silly questions, but its the small things I want to soak up in the ol noggin.

how about rustling up the plants from time to time? heard you get beefier stalks and plants that dont take no shit

how about music? lol I remember seeing some tv show with some greenhouse and how the plants (dont think it was weed) were "happier" having music/vibrations?

how low is too low? when I ran this ac in my room last year as strictly a room ac. I could get 90degree ambient down to mid 60s within an hour or so, the ac unit does have a built in thermostat too, where it can be set to run the fan 24/7 and only kick on the compressor above a certain setpoint. and the fan moves alot of air even on slow setting. maybe about as much as 4 good 120mm computer fans would do. and fast is easily double that

ive heard of people having good experiences with colder climates too, bringing purple into the buds. but someone also told me that the purple is almost kind of bad, like the plant is starving for something (more heat?) so im kind of confused on that

im asking these dumb questions because after my last grow I sold off all my shit for super cheap and moved away for various reasons. maybe I got lucky cuz im still here to type this, but I do want to do it again, and take what I learned last time (which was successful) into something bigger and better. I havent posted or documented anything of mine, but I think I may for this one

 

[milehighmedical]

so lets say ive got this small grow of mine going, out of the 21 plants I expected, lets say 18 of them are healthy females (from all female seeds) and im feeding it a 1000w light in an ambient temp of 80F. temps WILL go up because of the light obviously, I think a 3year old knows that. so while balancing the heat with the ac unit, should I rotate the plants so the ones further from the ac get blasted as much as the ones in the front line?

Use the a/c to lower the ambient temperature of your room. Not the grow itself. Just get the ambient temperature around the grow box down to 75-80 and with an aircooled hood and good airflow your temps will drop between 80-85. Which is perfect for CO2 intake, maximum opening for the stomata. I don't like to go lower than 75 because 60-70F really helps the powdery mildew. (Huge problem right now on my Cheese! week4)

I realize I may be asking silly questions, but its the small things I want to soak up in the ol noggin.

how about rustling up the plants from time to time? heard you get beefier stalks and plants that dont take no shit

Just wash your hands to keep diseases down and don't go overboard. You're better off with a fan rotating around the room. But I don't have one, and my plants don't take no shit. I rustle them every now and then... but it's more loving than it is for any actual growing advantage.

how about music? lol I remember seeing some tv show with some greenhouse and how the plants (dont think it was weed) were "happier" having music/vibrations?

Whatever makes you happy man. I think that idea comes from people talking, singing and playing music to their plants. And my theory is that when people first started doing that out of superstition they were breathing at/on their plants very pure CO2 that if done enough would moderately help growth. As a result the rumor began. But that's just an explanation I thought up on day when I was heavily medicated.

how low is too low? when I ran this ac in my room last year as strictly a room ac. I could get 90degree ambient down to mid 60s within an hour or so, the ac unit does have a built in thermostat too, where it can be set to run the fan 24/7 and only kick on the compressor above a certain setpoint. and the fan moves alot of air even on slow setting. maybe about as much as 4 good 120mm computer fans would do. and fast is easily double that

Try to stay above 70 during lights on. But it's not a huge deal.

ive heard of people having good experiences with colder climates too, bringing purple into the buds. but someone also told me that the purple is almost kind of bad, like the plant is starving for something (more heat?) so im kind of confused on that

The calyx turning purple is a genetic trait that becomes especially apparent when the temperatures are lower during the night (dark period). Maybe around 55-60F. I've been doing it in my grow room, and the plants that are interested in turning purple have become extremely purple. It's quite beautiful in this case.

im asking these dumb questions because after my last grow I sold off all my shit for super cheap and moved away for various reasons. maybe I got lucky cuz im still here to type this, but I do want to do it again, and take what I learned last time (which was successful) into something bigger and better. I havent posted or documented anything of mine, but I think I may for this one

Well sounds like a decent reason to ask some questions to me.

Words inside the quote don't count as word count. So my original message was to short. Now it is not.

 

[FDae]

hey thanks buddy, what are your thoughts on the purpling? you say its a genetic trait, but how does it alter the plant besides its color? I know if I get too cold and start going purple im in trouble!!

for my own psychotic (maybe?) reasons, I am not using the ac to cool the room, this whole unit im building will be a self contained everything unit. we'll see how it goes I guess

if you are bored check out my other thread if you havent seen it. its pretty related sort of
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=127919

 

[milehighmedical]

I wouldn't be worried about it. As long as the rest of your plant structure looks healthy and thriving, what could possibly be wrong? If you're plant's not happy, it will be extremely obvious. In fact, my happiest plant in the room is purple, it's as perky as an italian model.

Good luck on the self contained unit... that's good for a lot of things, but like I said... you'll simply be better off just ventilating the unit and cooling the room. It's not like you can stealth a unit with an A/C and ventilation anyways.

If you put the A/C directly in, seal the whole room and supplement with CO2. Don't vent at all.

Is that your grow diary? I'll check it out.

 

[FDae]

no its not a diary, I havent started anything like that. dont vent at all? it doesnt need new air?

 

[lysol]

no its not a diary, I havent started anything like that. dont vent at all? it doesnt need new air?

Plants need c02 and proper temperature. The plant doesnt care if the co2 comes from a passive intake or was bottled up at a factory.

 

[GreenintheThumb]

But supreme court ruled that IR could not be done without a warrant, and if they can get a warrant for IR they can already get a warrant to kick in your fucking door. So, IR's really the last on the list of worries these days.

If they could already get a warrant to kick in your door why do you think they're even wasting the time on the FLIR? The PC needed to get a warrant to use IR cameras on your property is significantly less than that needed to kick in your door...

 

[laundrybag]

Take the time one day to look through all the warrants that have been issued in the last year for grow house busts... and try to find one that doesn't say "We wouldn't have ever made this bust without a snitch on the inside."

where/how does one find this information?

 

[FDae]

where/how does one find this information?

after its too late??

 

[1love1earth]

one thing as well, not sure if R/O takes out chlorine/chloramines, but supposedly both of these are toxic to plants on some level. Personally I've always used water straight out of the tap, but maybe my results would be better if I let my water sit for a while for the chlorine to evaporate out.

Either way, my water is ~30-50ppm out of the tap.

On the subject of IR, by the time someone is pointing an IR cam at your grow, you've fucked up and they're hip to it.

Lets think of WHY they're pointing it, did they find stuff in your trash? Did someone you told (bad...) narc?

The root of a bust, a warrant, a kick in, is the same cause as an IR sweep.

Unless it's a semi-illegal blanket IR sweep of the entire area.

Either way, unless you've got a big grow going on, I wouldn't worry about it.

Another suggestion, if you want to grow big, and retain taste, take a look at coco.

Also, why are you going to run off of batteries? If anything I know about physics is true, there's no free lunch, and you'll use more gas charging the batteries and distributing the power. I don't get it you're better off just running your 1k, nobody will ever care. Be alot cheaper too.

Plus generators typically aren't meant to be run all the time. Your plan to attract less attention may actually attract more, ie the guy at the gas station that sees you buying diesel all the time, your neighbors that see you bringing gas in all the time, etc, all of this attracts far more attention than just pulling your meager 1kw per hour.

 

[milehighmedical]

Yeah, 1k isn't shit. Start worrying when you hit 4k plus accessories and a 24,000btu A/C... and then, don't even worry. Just be smart. It's not illegal to use electricity. Plenty of appliances use tons of electricity... hot tub pulls atleast 6kw. Kilns, welders, power tools, stove/oven, security lights, etc. My computer pulls 1kw at peak, my 61" DLP pulls between 600-800 watts. It's America, the land of unlimited energy use.

It's not surprising to see someone driving a lifted truck getting 6 mpg... why would it be surprising to have a $300 electric bill? Both huge wastes of energy... yet both extremely common.

As for the warrant information... people have posted links to news stories of busts that had links to the warrant on the page. Interesting to read, I'm sorry I didn't bookmark it, it's been a year or two. A deep google search should pull up anything you need.

 

[FDae]

well I mean, just a sudden increase. I suppose I could try to keep the other things off (computers/tvs etc) if im that worried until it levels off.

yeah im rethinking the battery idea, I though I had a shot for getting some used stuff for cheap but it fell through anyways