Uncle Ben's Gardening Tweeks and Pointers

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elkukupanda

Active Member
Fruitbat said:
This is what happens when you listen to Uncle Ben's advice: Black Gold Organic Potting Soil .005 / 0.0 / 0.0. Dyna Grow Foliage Pro. 1000 HPS. 67 - 83 +/- degrees. One fan. Topped at the second true node (there are 4 perfect branches/colas). Been on 12/12 for about 1 1/2 weeks.

Madshack (White Widow x Herijuana x Sannie's Jack)


Less is more.
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She is looking gorgeous man!!!... Beleza!!!....
 
billy4479

billy4479

Moderator
Sir.Ganga said:
I read and read and try to figure out why a guy with so much info and resources doesn't listen to reason or is willing to learn a little more. We all learn every day, you should do the same because from what Ive read you do have a real good knowledge base but do to your arrogants and old habits you spit in the faces of others willing to communicate with you. Im sure I could learn a lot from you and visa versa if you could be civil and not think your info is correct while ALL other are just plain wrong.

Here is my take on your orignal comments.

LIGHT You recommend 20/4 for vegging in one sentence then down the pharagraph you comment on how light saturation harms the plants? 20/4 doesn't saturate them? Actually the recommended light period for any indoor grow whether cannabis or vegtables is 16/8, if your concerned about saturation. Plants in nature rarely get a concentrated amount of light for any length of time. Indoors we manipulate many things including light. The key to blasting the light to them is height control. Putting these plants under hid lighting is not a natural state, light saturation in the plants happens to every garden every day. Knowing what to look for is the key to indoor lighting, many people call it nitrogen defficient when they see it, when really they need a rest from the light. You gotta remember were pushing these plants to the limit.

Temperature and the importance of day/night differential Temp. changes from day to night is a myth. Studies have proven this, with a little research and reading you can find this information anywhere. Once the lights go off metobloical changes occurs just like in humans and the plants systems slow to a crawl. Carbo intake does increase but nightime temps have little to do with the amount of uptake. The actual rule is your temp difference should NOT be greater than 10 degrees, keeping the room at a constant temp has little to no effect on the plant or its growthr rate. Again this is indoor gardening and when old outdoor techniques get put into the mix, these myths get started.

Watering technique I have to agree with you on this one, another myth, the wet/dry cycle can have an adverse effect on the growth rate and can and does stress the plants.

Fertilizers Again I agree with you but have a different outlook on fertilizers. It is very easy for a newb or even a veteran to get themselves into trouble if they do not know the science behind it. Most growers do not want a degree they want smoke. I always recommend using a nutrient line of products because the science has already been done by the company and allows the grower time educate themselves.

Foliage production This is where your oldschool outdoor ways fall short. Leaving foilage alone results in smaller buds in a indoor enviorment. Most people have grown tomatoes so I'll use them as an example. Removing the suckers from a tomatoe plant is exactly the same for cannabis. Leaving the suckers on a tomatoe plant will result in a loss of total weight and all the fruit will be generally smaller. Suckers would be the little growing shoots along the stems before the main growing shoots Same technique applies here also, by removing suckers and foilage below a certain point will result in bigger flowers towards the top and a larger yeild is the result.

Upcanning (repotting) Sorry but this is another outdoor technique. When re-planting, stress is your enemy, cutting and hacking roots will just result in a stress plant that will take longer to re-establish and start vigorus growth. The only time you should cut roots is when you are completely root bound and if this happens then you have done something wrong before this point and you should check your schedule. Being indoors we have different factors to watch for, Changing ground level on re-plant can also cause a hole bunch of issues including ROT. This technique is not recommended for indoor or greenhouse growing.

I think you are taking outdoor growing and trying to bottle it for indoors. There are a few similarities but in general were talking apples and oranges and really...take a walk through your nearest greenhouse and maybe ask a couple of questions, these are the people you want knowledge from when it comes to indoor growing.
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Hi friend I saw part of this post about the day and night time temps ...I tried to find the research be for I posted this but I could not ..But any ways I read I think it was in maxuim yield magazine that they recently found in tomatoes and other fruits when the night temp drops the brix level in the fruit goes up because the fruit has more water and is warmer than the rest of the plant so water and sugar migrate to the fruit and when the sun peaks up in the morning the cells in the fruit have more sugar to process than if there were no change in temp ...plants figured out how to used the natural temp swings in nature to the advantage ....I wish I could find the research support what I am telling you ..I didn't do the research my self it was just something I read science is always changing the facts
 
Uncle Ben

Uncle Ben

Well-Known Member
Might as well share this tidbit posted in another forum, topic is root pruning, RootMaker products. Gardeners might appreciate my knowledge:

I've never experienced any set back regarding vigor, stress, when I upcan. Quite the contrary, usually in a day or two, they double their vigor and just explode in new growth.

Concept - which comes first, the chicken or the egg.....roots or foliage? They go hand in hand, can't have one without the other but I'd say too little attention is paid on the root system by gardeners, doesn't matter what the plant material is. Gonna give you an example using other material. I purchased and built in a hay field and started a tree planting campaign around the house. "Finished" with 51 trees - conifers for windbreaks, oaks, bald cypress, maples, pistache, pecan, peach, olive, pomegranate and others I probably forgot. Before each planting I fractured the native compacted clay loam with a 2' deep subsoiler on a tractor, 3-pt. hitch. Dug the hole by hand, planted using no amendments in the hole, stake, rake in slow release Osmocote, mulch, water. Trees sit there for about a year setting a root system and then explode in growth. Same thing applies with my veggie garden which is 1/2 compost 1/2 sand and some native clay loam. Lots of native earthworms. The ROOTS are massive, which produces maters 7' tall and 5' wide. After this rant (meant to make a point) if you focus on the root system FIRST, you'll get your buds.

I often get scorned for making the comment to newbies, "forgot about the bud and ONLY concentrate on producing and maintaining the most amount of roots and foliage until harvest". Of course these are the same folks who follow gimmicks such as defoliation. Whether it's cannabis or trees, you need to let it go "trashy", leave the foliage alone. I found out the hard way that trimming a tree early on to make it "look nice" only produces a much slower growing tree with less trunk girth than letting it branch/leaf out every where for at least a year, preferably two.

Make it a great day,
Tio
 
HeartlandHank

HeartlandHank

Well-Known Member
Sir.Ganga said:
Foliage production This is where your oldschool outdoor ways fall short. Leaving foilage alone results in smaller buds in a indoor enviorment. Most people have grown tomatoes so I'll use them as an example. Removing the suckers from a tomatoe plant is exactly the same for cannabis. Leaving the suckers on a tomatoe plant will result in a loss of total weight and all the fruit will be generally smaller. Suckers would be the little growing shoots along the stems before the main growing shoots Same technique applies here also, by removing suckers and foilage below a certain point will result in bigger flowers towards the top and a larger yeild is the result.
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Nah, cutting out suckers and defoliation is not the same thing.
Speaking from my experience...
Cutting out lower flower sites will increase size of flowers up higher, but not overall yield...
if pruning lower flower sites is done past midway of flower, then yield is decreased..
cutting off leaves anywhere on the plant will not increase yield. I am a bit suspicious of anyone who says otherwise.

That said... I cut out lower flower sites just because I do not want to deal with popcorn and would prefer to have less larger buds then more smaller, even if it means a very small loss in yield.
 
davickm1

davickm1

Well-Known Member
I read all the way to page 88... cant read anymore lol. Great stuff on here, thanks everyone. A lot of new info and a lot of stuff I forgot.

I'm working on my first greenhouse grow, always did indoor before, which is guess this is kinda like indoor. I was wondering if anyone else has used a greenhouse, if so what are the bad/good effects it has.

I'm using happy frog soil and dyna-gro grow, plants are still vegging. Got dyna-gro bloom also. I have 7 plants as of now but getting a few more. Its a 12'x7'x7'
 
Uncle Ben

Uncle Ben

Well-Known Member
davickm1 said:
I read all the way to page 88... cant read anymore lol. Great stuff on here, thanks everyone. A lot of new info and a lot of stuff I forgot.

I'm working on my first greenhouse grow, always did indoor before, which is guess this is kinda like indoor. I was wondering if anyone else has used a greenhouse, if so what are the bad/good effects it has.

I'm using happy frog soil and dyna-gro grow, plants are still vegging. Got dyna-gro bloom also. I have 7 plants as of now but getting a few more. Its a 12'x7'x7'
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Cruz at Riddle3m has an incredible journal of his greenhouse gardens using large Smartpots. He just started more plants. Very neat op and nice greenhouse he built by hand. Nothing different in greenhouse growing except there's less light intensity. You will have more insect and disease pressures....just a heads up. I have a large greenhouse and do tropicals but not pot. Same thing regarding culture.
 
edyah

edyah

Well-Known Member
Sup Moreh Uncle Ben (Moreh means teacher)

My soil mix has been mellowing for 2 days now. I followed your mix ingredients the best I could.

Alot of brown sphagnum peat moss (MG with some NPK .20N really marginal)
large bag of MG potting mix (2 bags of 1.2cf ea.)
a bag of cheap potting soil -(40lbs bag)
6 or so cups blood meal (12-0-0)
3 or so cups bonemeal (6-9-0)
4 cups dolomite lime
1 large bag each of vermiculite and perlite (2cf vermiculite...perlite yet to be added)
4 cups alfalfa feed pellets -(I'm using the 3" x 1.5" cubes. broke them up in water)

I am using Miracle Gro potting Mix (not organic or the Moisture control, just the hated stuff by newbs)

Word up man. I have about 55-56 gallons made.

Waiting for my copper paint to come in.

Just smelled my soil and it has a faint ammonia smell to it (probably too much blood (N) meal as you said in a post once)

Any thoughts?

Respectfully,

Edyah
 
Uncle Ben

Uncle Ben

Well-Known Member
edyah said:
Sup Uncle Ben

My soil mix has been mellowing for 2 days now. I followed your mix ingredients the best I could.

Alot of brown sphagnum peat moss (MG with some NPK .20N really marginal)
large bag of MG potting mix (2 bags of 1.2cf ea.)
a bag of cheap potting soil -(40lbs bag)
6 or so cups blood meal (12-0-0)
3 or so cups bonemeal (6-9-0)
4 cups dolomite lime
1 large bag each of vermiculite and perlite
4 cups alfalfa feed pellets -(I'm using the 3" x 1.5" cubes. broke them up in water)

I am using Miracle Gro potting Mix (not organic or the Moisture control, just the hated stuff by newbs)

Word up man. I have about 55-56 gallons made.

Waiting for my copper paint to come in.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Sounds good. Have it tested by soil lab for NPK and micros so you know where you're at and where you need to go.

What paint did you order and from whom?

Good luck!
 
edyah

edyah

Well-Known Member
Uncle Buck, I mean Ben...

I ordered 1 qt (32oz) jug of Microkote (48.95 + shipping) from:

http://www.horticulturespecialties.com/product_info.php?cPath=30&products_id=278&osCsid=d2d051121777196b6438321ad50cf205


I be will looking into testing my soil as long as it can be reasonably done. USF is far north from me, maybe I could mail them a sample...something I will have to do and will give it a good try. I'm curious if there is a small shop in town that could do it.

I may test my soil here at the university:
http://soilslab.ifas.ufl.edu/

I just aired out my soil and mixed it. I don't think the faint ammonia smell is too much of a problem. It was sealed pretty good in the bins, now I'm letting it air out and mix. Unless this is a terrible sign I will just run with it. Maybe start a seed in it to test it...good stuff.

Did some research and ammonia pot mix smell is normal, gotta wait until my "mellow" period is over to dissipate that.

When using blood meal, partially composted manure or poultry-manure based fertilizer be aware that these high N sources need some time to allow for microbial activity start breaking the organic forms of N and drive them to nitrate (the process called mineralization). If planted into too soon, when first wetted and just starting to break down, these materials may give off ammonia, organic acids and other compounds that can damage germinating seeds and young plants. It is best to moisten the potting mix at least a week or two before you plant into it, making sure it stays warm and allowing time for phytotoxic compounds to dissipate.
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-POTTING MIXES FOR ORGANIC GROWERS
Vern Grubinger, vegetable and berry specialist
University of Vermont Extension

@
http://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/factsheets/pottingmix.html
 
V

Vincent VonBlown

New Member
Room temps?

Well I'd say, theres a reason why they say outdoor weed grown on a tropical island is going to be the best outdoor product.

Besides nice sunshine, good rainfall and a long growing season. What other attribute do you get?

"Even warm temps" that's why indoor pot is usually always so much better quality then outdoor weed. You can control the "temperature". Pot seems to like a flowering temp of about 75 degrees during it's light cycle. Of course it's naturally going to get a little colder when the lights go off, maybe a 10 degree lowerage.

I'd say that's pretty ideal for most cannabis, some strains will prolly vary somewhat though.

[video=youtube;iwQZbgvZ7R0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwQZbgvZ7R0[/video]

Here's a video of some of my outdoor plants from the incredibly tuff drought year of 2012. Temps got way to high, with zero cloud cover for a very long time. Then the cold air started moving in.

I pulled these before it started getting cold out, they were a little immature, but I was happy with the end product. My friend Bill, left his in the ground till it chilled down towards freezing at night (40 degrees). His plants finished up fine, and looked great. But where his plants looked great, they didn't smoke anywhere near as well as mine. Actually bill's crop, all tasted like someone threw a turd in the end of every hit. Sort of reminded me of that "barbarians at the gate" movie, ;)
 
Kite High

Kite High

Well-Known Member
Vincent VonBlown said:
Room temps?

Well I'd say, theres a reason why they say outdoor weed grown on a tropical island is going to be the best outdoor product.

Besides nice sunshine, good rainfall and a long growing season. What other attribute do you get?

"Even warm temps" that's why indoor pot is usually always so much better quality then outdoor weed. You can control the "temperature". Pot seems to like a flowering temp of about 75 degrees during it's light cycle. Of course it's naturally going to get a little colder when the lights go off, maybe a 10 degree lowerage.

I'd say that's pretty ideal for most cannabis, some strains will prolly vary somewhat though.

[video=youtube;iwQZbgvZ7R0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwQZbgvZ7R0[/video]

Here's a video of some of my outdoor plants from the incredibly tuff drought year of 2012. Temps got way to high, with zero cloud cover for a very long time. Then the cold air started moving in.

I pulled these before it started getting cold out, they were a little immature, but I was happy with the end product. My friend Bill, left his in the ground till it chilled down towards freezing at night (40 degrees). His plants finished up fine, and looked great. But where his plants looked great, they didn't smoke anywhere near as well as mine. Actually bill's crop, all tasted like someone threw a turd in the end of every hit. Sort of reminded me of that "barbarians at the gate" movie, ;)
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sounds like bill needs to learn to dry cure better
 
Uncle Ben

Uncle Ben

Well-Known Member
Vincent VonBlown said:
Room temps?

Well I'd say, theres a reason why they say outdoor weed grown on a tropical island is going to be the best outdoor product.

Besides nice sunshine, good rainfall and a long growing season. What other attribute do you get?

"Even warm temps" that's why indoor pot is usually always so much better quality then outdoor weed. You can control the "temperature". Pot seems to like a flowering temp of about 75 degrees during it's light cycle. Of course it's naturally going to get a little colder when the lights go off, maybe a 10 degree lowerage.

I'd say that's pretty ideal for most cannabis, some strains will prolly vary somewhat though.

[video=youtube;iwQZbgvZ7R0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwQZbgvZ7R0[/video]

Here's a video of some of my outdoor plants from the incredibly tuff drought year of 2012. Temps got way to high, with zero cloud cover for a very long time. Then the cold air started moving in.

I pulled these before it started getting cold out, they were a little immature, but I was happy with the end product. My friend Bill, left his in the ground till it chilled down towards freezing at night (40 degrees). His plants finished up fine, and looked great. But where his plants looked great, they didn't smoke anywhere near as well as mine. Actually bill's crop, all tasted like someone threw a turd in the end of every hit. Sort of reminded me of that "barbarians at the gate" movie, ;)
Click to expand...
Nice job, nice video! 40F is a far cry from 32F. If not too inconvenient I would have taken the risk and even let them freeze just to get the bulk and THC increase. If they freeze, so what? You take the limp plant back and dry/cure it. You can let them get down to freezing (depending on your topography's air drainage) and they'll be fine. Here's some O. Haze a few weeks prior to harvest. Incredible, they were mature at harvest....this being a pure sativa. Needless to say the haze was quite airy compared to the solid colas on my Peak19 backcrosses and not quite as potent. https://www.rollitup.org/nutrients/570037-so-you-noobs-hooked-cannabis.html

You do have control indoors, nothing outdoors. Mama Nature kicked my ass the entire time with ultra high gusty winds right up to harvest. Upside is NO maintenance, free light, auto watering from a commercial irrigation system, etc.

Happy harvest,
UB
 
Uncle Ben

Uncle Ben

Well-Known Member
uncle.duke said:
just curious.. What are your thoughts on Maxsea nutrients big uncle BEN?!
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No opinion although the NPK of the Bloom is way too low in N, they're a little pricey compared to what I buy, they sell based on the seaweed "natural" buzzwords hype, and as usual can't find an analysis.

Pay your money, take your chances.
 
U

uncle.duke

Member
Thanks UB for always taking the time to answer my questions... Also, I know you focus on root growth through out its life cycle, and your anti tea brew. how do u maintain your root system? is there special additives you do to supercharge the roots..Thanks!!
 
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