Smokedout grow report

Southern Growing By Smokedout

I’m a grower down on the South coast of England and I’m painfully aware of how bad the current situation concerning good quality bud has become. You can go in to any city, town or village around here and get a bit of bud without too much hassle if you know where to look. Some of you may be lucky and get a decent gear but pay the high price of £10 a gram, while others may end up with the run-of-the-mill crap that seems to be selling everywhere these days for around £20-25.

I, for one, can't be arsed to hunt around trying to find a decent bit of smoke that is going to cost me a small fortune. This is why I grow; not for the potential high value rewards that can be made in this business, but because I love a good bit of bud and I resent having to pay a king’s ransom for it.

I have been growing for about seven years now and only recently have I decided that something needs to change, be it the (stupid) law or the dealers need to stand up and say NO to crap bud!

So this column is my contribution to help enlighten/educate like-minded people about how important it is to know what you are doing when producing a garden of beautiful cannabis plants. We can all stick a seed in a pot and let it grow, but as most people who are passionate about growing find out, this is barely even the tip of the peak you need to scale if you want truly awesome weed. My aim over the coming issues is to help people to grow good bud easily

so that they no longer have to buy off a hoodie or some multi-tasking crack head!

I am going to start nice and easy with a grow report on the lovely Super Skunk from Nirvana seeds, which I have a particular fondness for, plus it is a strain that just seems to love me back! (You will know what I mean). I have been growing it for several years as I find it

“Compared to still cannot be beaten for quality your ‘standard’ or quantity when and even most compared to your ‘standard’ and ‘high grade’ bud even most ‘high that you will buy grade’ bud that you will buy off off your next- your next-door door neighbour’s, neighbour’s teenage son's mate - teenage son’s you get the picmate.... you get ture! the picture!” It gives me great pleasure to share this grow with you all as I have just moved grow rooms from a cramped space to somewhere my ladies can properly flourish! On top of that, I have ditched the ‘old faithful’ 2x 600w HPS lights, (although these will reappear at some later date as they are such good lights), and have opted for a mixture of 300W LED Bloom lighting, 150W HPS with electronic ballasts and 250W CFL lights, to save a bit of energy consumption. One thing I am keeping the same is the method of growing, since I have a strong preference for the Wilma 10 pot hydroponic drip system from Atami.

Lighting

In this issue I will start by covering the 150W HPS with electronic ballasts, two of which I purchased from a grow shop on the outskirts of town for £300! I know that this sounds a lot, and it is really, but using two of them is supposed to be the equivalent of a 600W. For this reason alone they have to be worth a go!

HPS is a great light to grow under, 2x 150W = 300W = less electricity consumption, and as a last point of interest, they run a lot cooler than a 600W and come with a mirrored diffuser for better spread of lumens over your leaf canopy. These will be used in the flowering period.

Medium

There are many different media on the market from countless reputable dealers that are great for all types of growing methods/applications. These come with or without added nutrients and other goodies such as trichoderma and worm castings. I have always used expanded clay pellets (LECCA), small rounded balls that come in bags of about 25ltrs. I find these cheap and easy to use as they retain little water compared to media such as coco. This is good for me as I like to leave my pumps on 24-hours a day to allow my plants access to as much feed water as they want.

These 150W lights are a good alternative to running a 250W but in no way compare to the mighty 600W. The Grow

With the basic set up covered, it’s time to get down to the bit that we all care most about: growing our lovely bud! After my 20 clones had rooted and were split into two batches (10 for the 300W LED for another issue, and 10 for the 150W HPS for this issue), I set my 10 ladies into their new home for the next 2-3 weeks so that they could establish a healthy root system and bulk up a little bit more before they get moved to the bloom room later. To help them on they were placed under a bank of 4x5ft 35W fluorescent fittings, which give off little-to-no heat and allow the plants to grow right up to the lamps and absorb all that yummy light goodness.

Nutrients

Again, this is an area in which there is so much variety that it is hard to say which product/brand is the best/worst to use, and I guess the nutrients are only as good as you are at the end of the day! I have used House and Garden nutrients for five years on my beloved super skunk plants and they seem to adore it, much more than the B.A.C Topflower I used to use. They (House and Garden) have a good range of products starting with root enzymes, veg and bloom pH adjusters, right through to bloom stimulators and flush-out solution.

The Wilma 10 pot hydro system is a recirculating system, and House and Garden produce a great set of nutrients for this type of system called Aqua Flakes, one of the new range of feeds that are supposed to be ‘pH-perfect’, meaning that there should be no fluctuations in your pH values once set to your desired level. In this system it is between 5.8 and 6.1.