self-sufficiency...compliments of micro.

HerBnGorE(illa) · Sep 14, 2015

This thread is dedicated to all the self-sufficient growers out there.

I, for one, do not grow for profit of any kind. I see no need to. I chose to start growing because i was tired of paying to much for a medicinal herb. Always searching for a bag of some overpriced mediocre "fire..."

So i decided to begin growing for myself. I am a micro grower. I smoke "a lot" but only small amounts at a time. So there is no need for the monster bulbs and big tents. I grow in a pc case under a few cfl's.

I don't have big jars of weed laying around all over the place just because i grow. there are times i run lower than i want to....times when i have to smoke my trimmings that i was trying to save for some edibles, just so i can let my jarred nugs cure a little better...

THAT BEING SAID..... I want to see more examples of "non-profit" growers. And I know that some people smoke more than me, so they need more/bigger plants.....or maybe they just do a couple large plants in their yard to last them the season....

....Here size doesn't matter.....Just looking for those who are self-sufficient. I want to hear the why's and how's.

HerBnGorE(illa) · Sep 14, 2015

As previously stated, I grow in a pc case. As far as how and how much I grow, it varies. I am always trying different techniques with the different genetics. From all types of hydro to soil. From multiple 2-3 gram budcicles to doing a single, "large" plant. I experiment with different techniques such as defoliation, lst, super cropping, etc.

I run "perpetual" for the most part, and try to keep a good variety of fresh genetics going through. I keep 2 keeper mother plants, one indica-leaning and one sativa leaning. Then I run fresh genetics in an attempt to "knock out" the old mom and replace with better. As of right now, my only keeper is a barneys farm lsd plant. I'm currently working some ace gear (Malawi) in hopes of finding the sativa mother keeper.

bigganjabud · Sep 14, 2015

I run 16 on a regular basis but I smoke about a quarter oz a day and I rarely sell anything ,I do however donate a little to my neighbor who has been going to chemotherapy for the past 23 months i used to make her some bubble hash or bag method ice hash ,if your not familiar with that comment.

But now very excited about my near future concentrate extractions

For me and her ,also me and my other half are bi-polar so we heavily medicated over here

Good luck with your PC grow il be looking in to see how you get them nuggs nice and dence
,

HerBnGorE(illa) · Sep 14, 2015

I just finished a zamal-hashplant from ace. Hoping its a keeper . I have barneys farm tangerine dream, dinafem critical jack, and dinafem bubba kush all working their way into the mix in the search for something special. My next order will be mostly ace gear, destroyer from cannabiogen, and serious bubblegum (because it was highly recommended)

HerBnGorE(illa) · Sep 14, 2015

Now, let's meet some of the ladies.

For starters, ill post a couple of the barneys farm lsd. The first real keeper I have found. She is truly some good smoke. She is quite a hardy plant, and easy to grow. Very skunky smell and taste. The harvest window goes from about 60 days to 75 days. However, I usually like it around day 65. By day 75 the buzz starts to become a little heavy/draining. Which is good if you want to sleep or be "stupid" for a couple hours! She is the plant I have the most experience with, and I have grown it in all kinds of setups. I prefer the budsicle method with her. The branchy pic of this lsd plant was from testing effects of defoliation on her. It really branched her out, but final weight was about the same as leaving her budcicled. The leaves purple off as she nears the end. Truly a beautiful plant.

ReikoX · Sep 14, 2015

I'm still on my first grow, but I started it for the very reason stated on this thread.

I'm very fortunate to have a medical card. I do not have to deal with the black market, I can rely on quality and selection, and I don't have to meet under shifty circumstances. All that being said, the cost is still the same.

I don't smoke much, so am also doing a Mico cabinet grow. If I can pull 2+ Oz per grow I will be self sufficient.

MicroRoy · Sep 14, 2015

Got to love the micro grows.

hush · Sep 14, 2015

Here are a few examples of some micro grows I've done in the past, entirely for personal consumption:

I'm a huge fan of micro gardening. It absolutely demonstrates that if you are able to keep a perpetual garden going, you only need a tiny space, with barely any lighting, and you can stay medicated all day long.

HerBnGorE(illa) · Sep 14, 2015

You hit the nail on the head there, hush! Using a perpetual system in micro keeps me harvesting about once every week or so of a nice variety of strains. Mind you, it is usually only a few grams or so, but that is all the more I need for my rate of personal consumption. If I needed to yield more, I would just cut back on the longer flowering plants and add a couple fast finishers for a couple rounds. It gets me back to having a "cushion" in the jars. Then once I get ahead again, I pick back up on the long flowering varieties.

These are a couple pics of my ace malawi. It is grown from seed. In this pic (from yesterday) it was at day 84 since showing pistils. Its been a little more challenging keeping control of the malawi in such tight quarters, but I think from clone it will behave a little better. You can see in the pics that I tried using root restriction and depriving nitrogen during stretch to keep this monster under control. If you look at all the empty stem space you will see that the nodes on this plant were extremely tight, averaging about 1/2 inch. Not what I was expecting. Just hope it smokes as good as the smoke reports on here! Guess ill find out in a few more weeks! Lol

HerBnGorE(illa) · Sep 14, 2015

Thanks everyone for chiming in. Its good to know there are others out there like me. I feel that many people who grow for others end up maybe using genetics/practices that id not prefer for my personal consumption. Maybe they want weight, bag appeal, smell.....those things mean so little to me. Because Ismoke small amounts at a time, I want the highest quality!

waveguide · Sep 14, 2015

i don't really have any revealing shots of my "discotheque for miniature plants" and i don't like to post pics of my current grows (there are people that fuck with me.. ftr my grow is currently contaminated with phytoplasma vectors..)

i have been meaning to open a journal of "notes" tho since i've been stuck in this thing for a while now (learned a lot.. would prefer something i can fit my arm into..) but this will just be general theory and observation stuff..

eg. about two months back i was struggling with fungus gnats, finally cleared them out (fungus pocket in soil that treatment rolled off of) i was so happy i went lax on pest treatment, and got it in the ass from leafhoppers (no real sign of them, except they wasted my grow).

i manage to smoke a bowl or two every day, but for like three months now, those have been bowls of shitty bad grown weed that have zero "kindness". smoked a lot of male leaves. really fucking hate it. wish i could grow a couple of decent plants each year instead of going through all the ubllshit and torture because some uptight fuckarse society might get weirded otu by my "doobidge".

HerBnGorE(illa) · Sep 14, 2015

Waveguide, would love to see you open a thread of notes to share. Always looking for tricks and tips to help me help the plants. That's why I spend a lot of time reading on icmag. What a great community (minus the occasional troll) ....and even the trolls can teach u a few things if you can filter through their lack of filter.

HerBnGorE(illa) · Sep 14, 2015

Here are a couple pics of the zamal hashplant from ace. This example was chopped around a week ago so it just started to stabilize in the jars. It was grown from seed in a small coco hempy. It is currently reveging (I hope) overall it was a pretty straight forward grow, although it wanted higher ppms than I was willing to give.

In flower the plant smelled wonderful. Hints of a sweet black licorice, almost Jaegermeister aroma. I have never tried any cannabis that smelled like this. Really looking forward to taking a test-toke in a few days. Then, after a few weeks of a cure, i will officially try the product to determine whether or not to cull the (hopefully) reveged mother or not.

HerBnGorE(illa) · Sep 14, 2015

Last on my plant list, for now, is my dinafem bubba kush plant. I started the origional "from seed" of this plant at the same time as my zamal hashplant that I recently chopped . Then I topped them, gave them a few days to recover then put them both in flower. That bubba went hermi on me just after stretch during early calyx formation. Maybe not enough recovery time after the top?? Don't know.

Anyways, this is the cloned top of that plant, and so far its all female. I keep an extremely close eye on this plant and if it goes hermi it will be delt with accordingly. Sure hope it comes through for me. Even if it turns out to be really good herb, I will not reveg this plant because of the hermi issue. Instead, I would order some bubba from a different company or something.

waveguide · Sep 14, 2015

you'll excuse me for asking, where did you get that novelty sized giant ruler?

:tiphat:

HerBnGorE(illa) · Sep 14, 2015

waveguide said:
you'll excuse me for asking, where did you get that novelty sized giant ruler?

I got it from an art supply store...I needed help drawing stick men. Lol

...just kidding, It was purchased just so I could measure stretch of budsicles.

Dropped Cat · Sep 15, 2015

Your grow tech is to be admired. It really challenges to
grow and flower a plant in a PC box. man, that's tight.

My first grow was in a 2 drawer file cabinet with cfls,
much heat and sad buds. Made me a better grower.

I also agree with your attitude about cannabis, grow what
you need and grow the best you can.

Great thread!

HerBnGorE(illa) · Sep 15, 2015

Thanks DC, and thanks for stopping in.

With as easy as growing is, I'm not really sure why more people don't do it. Don't get me wrong, there is an art to it... I have, and probably will make many mistakes. But you live and learn. And just when you learn, a new strain throws you a curveball and you must learn again.

Self sufficiency can be quite simple, require little space/time, and can cost next to nothing to get started.

At the same time, it can be as complex as you allow it to be. More than one could ever learn. Thats what i love about it.

HerBnGorE(illa) · Sep 15, 2015

Pretty excited. Going to take a test toke of the ace zamal-hashplant tonight while I trim her up! Hope she tastes as good as she smells and looks! Props to dubi and ace crew!

grouchy · Sep 16, 2015

The part about smoking trim while waiting for the jars to cure got me. The link in my signature is a little outdated but I still use the same cabinet just with homemade leds, organic soil and bluemats.

I am currently holding on to two mom's from some Nirvana NYPD bagseed I found. One leans Indica with a slightly sour taste and firm buds and the other is more sativa with a lemon/grapefruit taste and less dense buds. I plan on crossing the two and trying to find a better flavored indica to try out.

I hope to be able to update more often in the future but will probably wait till I get my new cabinet up and going. Right now I use two cree cxa-3070 led chips hooked up to two dimmable drivers capable of 80w each. During my last run the heat kept me down to 30w each but it looks like I will have have over two ounces when it's done curing. Not bad for flowering with only 60w.

self-sufficiency...compliments of micro.

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