[GastroGrower]

Originally Posted by justiceman

Ya PBP is some good stuff. That Gluebreath man! She's going to be some good smoke.

Yeah I'm getting more and more excited about this strain. The clones I took are moving along quite nicely and their node spacing is nice and tight. Here is the seed plant about 3 hours after lights on last night.

Originally Posted by Dakine

Wait which FastBuds Autos are you growing again lol? I really wanted to grow 1-2 of there strains, but theres ALOT of VERY bad reviews on this company. So Im actually looking at some of Aris Autos from his company.. They have A Good variety with A VERY high percentage of good reviews to bad ones..

EDIT- Just saw your post again. So you only popped 2 seeds in total, 1 of each strain?

Yeah, one of each. Both of them are rooted and looking good at this point - so only time will tell if they pull through. I haven't been able to get any of the previous FB seeds to make it to their second set of true leaves. I'll be running these both in coco as opposed to soil however, and I may end up with a different result than I had previously. Mostly I just needed to pop them before I could justify ordering any more seeds, haha.

Originally Posted by Dakine

What are the most noticeable differences you've seen, growing in hydro compared to soil? Ive heard/seen that yields are a major difference. Also setting up the hydro system is alot more work and its sometimes a bitch to maintain? Idk ive never tried lol, closest thing ive done is clone in straight water haha..

I've started to use the rings as well.. I want to see if that growth hormone thing makes a big difference. What are your thoughts about it, and making sure the tops/canopy are all at an even height?

For me, going hydro vs soil has really come down to what I'm looking for in an end product and what my limitations are in terms of production. Because I'm working with limited space and my focus is return on investment - hydro simply exceeds the abilities of soil to produce enough flower for my needs. If I had a big back yard or plenty of space to grow some soil plants I would, as the taste and quality can be noticeably higher - but as of now I stick with soil primarily for mother plants and single plants if I'm testing new genetics. My breakdown is such:

Full Hydroponic (DWC, Drip, Ebb/flow, etc)

• Insanely fast and hardy growth
• Ease of maintenance (fill reservoir once a week and that's about it)
• Simple application of nutrients - as long as they're tailored to cannabis, you really only need to maintain pH and PPM
• Highest gram/watt return on investment

Soilless (coco)

• Quick growth, but not quite as explosive as full hydroponic
• Can be hand fed/watered or use a drip system for flexibility
• Really forgiving and easy to react to/correct issues
• Less damage to the plant if issues come up with the reservoir or moisture levels than pure hydro

Soil (uh... dirt)

• Potential for yield is more dependent on strain and growth environment
• If it's true living soil, you treat it more in a reactive fashion than you would hydro. Let the microbiome act as a buffer and read the plant.
• If you have a good soil mix, this is probably the simplist and easiet to maintain. Just water with an occasional feeding if necessary.

[justiceman]

Originally Posted by Dakine

What are the most noticeable differences you've seen, growing in hydro compared to soil? Ive heard/seen that yields are a major difference. Also setting up the hydro system is alot more work and its sometimes a bitch to maintain? Idk ive never tried lol, closest thing ive done is clone in straight water haha..

Thought I'd chime in as well. I'd say GastroGrower gave a great description concerning the 3 different main styles. I like using coco for the reasons he stated:

Originally Posted by GastroGrower

• Quick growth, but not quite as explosive as full hydroponic
• Can be hand fed/watered or use a drip system for flexibility
• Really forgiving and easy to react to/correct issues
• Less damage to the plant if issues come up with the reservoir or moisture levels than pure hydro

It kind of gives you the best of both worlds. Also I'd like to add that PROPERLY flushed hydro flowers can stand up in flavor and taste to organic flowers. Just different means to the same end in my opinion.

[GastroGrower]

I agree justiceman. The plant has a genetic potential to produce a certain cannabinoid and terpene profile, as long as there is nothing limiting the plant from reaching that potential, taste and composition is going to be the same in organic soil or properly run hydroponics.

[GastroGrower]

I just checked on the GBxPB plant in tent #1 - smells pretty much like cat shit right now. My roommate even came into my room and asked if the cat used the bathroom in there, haha. Not particularly pleasing right now, but I've grown strains that smelled this way and ended up being really flavorful once they finish flowering.

The Critical Kush and the Glue Breath are both looking good in tent #2. Tomorrow I rinse a bunch of coco and then transplant the GB clones. Once they get comfortable in their new 1 gallon pots, I'll top and start training along the scrog.



Power supply came in for the new light today so now I just need to get off my ass and put it all together.

[justiceman]

hahahaha I bet that GBxPB is going to turn out to be some strong stuff.

That seedling looks perfect! The two on the right look pretty good too but I wonder why they are a bit droopy. Do you feed them every irrigation?

[Dakine]

Hmm I see, even growing in hydroponics are you able to grow enough for your med use ? Do you run out in between harvest?

Oh and what size pots are you going to throw them into? I still kinda don't understand how plants have more root space/get a lot bigger in A pot with coco rather then a same sized pot filled with soil..

I can see how it would be easier to handle certain problems in hydro though. It would be super easy to flush out anything needed. I wonder if taste would still be on par with soil or coco even with A good flush.. The buds have to retain some of the flavor from pumping her with chemicals throughout her life..
For some reason I just thought that buds from a hydro grow would taste pretty bland compared to a same cut in soil.. probably not but it was just A thought..

Plants are looking good though, can't wait to start seeing some flowers. The 2 on the right in the previous post look like there drooping from being dehydrated? IMO it looks like there medium is dry.

[GastroGrower]

Yeah I took this picture right before they got watered after lights on so they were pretty thirsty. Not totally dry, just lightly moist. Giving them some slight dry periods to help build up the roots before they get moved to the drip system but they're just about root bound so drinking heavily. They are being fed every watering right now, just till a slight amount of runoff.

I'm not quite to the point where I can fully provide for myself. I usually go through around an ounce a week. If I can get to the point where I'm pulling off 10 ounces or so per plant, I could probably be totally covered but not quite there yet. I'm confident I'll be able to grow everything I need in the next year or so. Still learning how to grow and what works best for me. Space limitations and staying legal is really difficult here in my state. I'd like to get to the point where I produce a significant surplus so I can start taking it all down to hash or make rosin. I love smoking weed, but it would be nice to vape more for my health and I really prefer to do so with concentrates.

These are going into 1 gallon fabric pots and they'll stay there through flowering.

[justiceman]

Right on man I can't wait for that screen to fill out all the way it should provide a great harvest for you!

Just a couple tips for coco buddy. Aside from small plants in big containers coco doesn't really like to dry out. If it looks dry on top then EC spikes up hard in the medium which can lead to salt build up(less water same amount of salt) and PH can change as well. It's good to let them "dry out" just a little bit but they should always look moist on the top. It's a little different from the normal we/dry cycles you want to give soil plants.

The beauty of coco is it holds lots of air so you don't really have to worry about "over watering" given the appropriate container size. Over watering is actually a lack of oxygen to the roots. That's why DWC works so well. DWC plants sit in pure water but have more than enough oxygen to never suffocate. The more often you water coco the more often you bring oxygen to the roots. You can get soil yields out of coco or hydro yields out of coco all depending on how you choose to water it.

Another tip to lay on top of the one above is coco likes to be fed nutrients consistently. Coco likes "Feed,feed,feed." It doesn't like the old soil "feed, water,water" schedule. IF there is salt build up at some point flushing with a light nutrient solution is always preferred to flushing with pure water.This maintains the cations and ph in the coco. Never give coco pure water until the end when most nutrients are used up in the medium and ph doesn't matter anymore.

This little deadhead OG hasn't seen a dry day in her life!

[GastroGrower]

Yeah, both of those clones are just about rootbound so most of their water uptake is due to the root mass. I've been dealing with the flu today and was going to transplant them but I wasn't able to get out of bed. Hopefully I can get that taken care of tonight or tomorrow as I think that'll make em a lot happier.

Just got a new pump and manifold system I've gotta get installed by this weekend so it'll take care of any issues with dryness.

That OG is looking nice - have you run it before or is this from seed?

[GastroGrower]

Transplanted! I only had one brick of coco so I need to finish filling up these pots once the plants grow out a bit. I am going to let them go until next week before I top them as I want to be able to take some nice sized clones.

Pre and post transplant: