Wanting advice on a perpetual harvest setup

Originally Posted by James1775

So they like being a little restricted during veg? I was hoping not to transplant b/c it seems like it takes two people and I would prefer people not knowing about my grow, and don't really like the idea of getting someone else in my growroom every week. Paranoid I know, but I had a close call with my ex. I was also thinking about doing some white widow or white rhino after I get a whole cycle in and see how I like my current strains. I've heard that shiva is a good smoke, and that mango sounds tasty. When you switch strains does it cause any problems as far as different finishing times? Do I use the dry nutes the same as I would the liquid ones? In your opinion do the dry nutes out perform the liquid nutes? I also am getting that I shouldn't be concerned about moving from floros in veg straight to hps in flowering.

+rep for all the good info!

It's not so much that they enjoy being restricted, because that's not the case. They enjoy filling out the container. In a functional system transplant would occur before they became restricted.

Transplanting is a one person job and very easy, especially when the plant has filled out its present container and is ready to progress to the next sized container.

Different strains are irrelevant because the system is event driven. No single plant moves forward until a space appears for it at the next phase. The system dictates when a plant moves forward.

However, I do limit myself to no more than two different strains at the same time because I need the time to fully examine all aspects of any particular strain. And I'll only have two strains going when I am phasing one out and one in.

I use organic dry fertilizer because it's damn near impossible to burn your plants and no rinsing is required. In the past I have used concentrated mixes designed to be watered in (Open Sesame, Beastie Bloomz, & Cha Ching) and burned the living shit out of my plants. I never did figure out the right feeding combination and finally switched over to dry organic fertilizer.

My system uses CFL for mothers/seedling/clones because they respond well to the mild light. In veg the MH is more intense but the plants transition well and flourish. The subsequent move to the HPS is not a problem either. I don't see why CFL to HPS would be a problem if the plant is ready to transition. And lights can be adjusted for height to accommodate intensity requirements.

Originally Posted by James1775

That makes sense, I'll have to invest in some 1 gal pots on the next go round, and that will give me more room in the veg area.

It sounds like I'll have to adopt the event driven concept as opposed to the time frame mindset. I'll have to work on that, my last grow failed due to my impatiance.

Thanks for the info on the dry nutes, I didn't notice them at my hydro shop, but I'll take a better look.

As far as the lighting transition, I understand this plant does not like change. So that was the root of my worry but thank you for putting it to rest.

I would like to eventually put a mh in the veg area, but $$ is pretty tight. I'm kinda hoping to make a little money by "getting rid of some pot" to invest in better lighting and ventilation all around. I really am enjoying this and don't want to make $$ my primary goal, but it would be nice to have a few extra bones in my pocket.

It's very tempting for a new grower to over-think his grow when it's really very simple. Nature has been doing it for eons without our help. The over-thinking leads to the impatience. And many of a new growers questions are answered through the course of the grow by the plants themselves.

You have an HPS. If you don't have the jack for an MH system you might consider an MH conversion bulb. They fit right into the HPS ballast and are not much more than an HPS bulb. On second thought, scratch that. A perpetual harvest can be done with two lights initially and CFL to HPS is probably the best way to do this. You probably will want to enhance your CFL capacity to accommodate combining the first two phases of the system. When you are ready you can purchase the MH system.

Change is inevitable. The entire life cycle of a plant is a series of changes, but in nature those changes are usually incremental. We speed things up a little in an artificial environment, but the essentials found in nature are all there. I'd say that plants don't respond well to unreasonable changes.

Growing is a hobby for me so I can't advise you on the selling. When the full cure jars start stacking up, I scale back the grow. Insanely easy to do with my system. 'No tell. No smell. No sell' is my mantra.