G R E E T I N G S - FLUFFERUS's HYDRO S.C.R.O.G - SYNGANICS COMPLETE GUIDE
This will be my first in-depth guide on my preferred grow method. I am by no means one of those "mAsTeR gRoWeRs" you hear about. I only have about 6 years under my belt growing wise, but have always enjoyed all types of plants.
This will cover the materials needed to grow this specific way, inputs and what their functions are, and beneficial microorganism's that will greatly boost the grow's performance and growth vigour.
This will also cover the pro's and con's of this method of growing, plus some common issues you can come across when practicing this growing method.
This can be used to grow any plant, simply by adjusting the nutrient feed's strength accordingly. I have even cultivated poppies in this manner, and they can be finnicky under indoor lights.
This Tek and or grow style is not entirely organic due to the salt nutrients. these are in no way toxic or harmful in any way when dosed appropriately per plant species.
I do try and use the cleanest inputs available i can find, while also using the least amount of nutrients possible as to not end up with a bad tasting overloaded final bud. This is the way of synganics, a fusion of organic beneficial inputs and hydroponic salts as the base.
Growing cannabis let alone hydro can seem daunting in the beginning, i will try and simplify it as much as possible, Hydro tends to be easier to get the right nutrients, sometimes its tough mixing the right ratios of organic amendments for soil.
My preferred materials: Peat, or coco. i prefer peat for scientific reasoning, Jacks 15-5-15 cal-mg w/micronutrients, Sulfur, A silica source, preferably silicic acid, potassium silicate works, but it takes far too long to break down and become available. same with diatomaceous earth. A bag of microbial inoculant's, preferably with multiple strains of both beneficial bacteria AND myco (fungi). Some all natural plant growth regulators and or hormones, such as from kelp or alf alpha, i prefer to use alittle bit of kelp meal. Humic and Fluvic acids, these are very important so we can run a low nutrient strength while still supplying the plants with ample nutrition. I have a kelp meal mix that includes humic and fluvic acid's. You may come across research that discredits the use of these, claiming a reduction in cannabinoids. this is false. Grow the plant correctly and it will have increased and or un-diminished THC levels. PH down. you can also get ph up, but ph down is more important, and should be bought first. An AC infinity scrog net is good and cheap, but a good scrog net can be made easily with PVC and some netting, or strings.
GENETICS: The most essential key to growing cannabis.
Find your preferred strain, hopefully doing some research on its genetics, who bred it and how did they breed it? Did they work on that line at all? or is it an untested pollen chuck cross of two strains? You must research!
Helpful tools: PH meter, E.C (electrical conductivity) meter. the E.C meter measures nutrient solution strength, while the PH measures its acidity so the nutrients can be more available for the plant in the right ranges.
Light meter, you can use your phone with an app, or more accurate pick up a cheap LED light meter off amazon. 1 large glass pipette, preferably can hold 10ml. A scale if you prefer to weigh by weight rather than volumetrically, i use volumetric (Tsp's,Tbsp's, ECT) A nice grow tent, any size will work, i suggest a minimum of a 4x4 x80" tall so you can stabilize the larger environment easier. the smaller tents can get squirrely trying to stabilize enviromental's.
A nice grow light. Preferably above 200w, try and grab a non purple light LED. If you have an HID light such as HPS or MH lying around, you could use that but it will get incredibly hot and will probably require an AC cooler.
If you get a 4x4 tent, i suggest the minimum watt light you should use is 400w, that seems like a lot, but really for high quality flowers its the minimum. 800 watts is the upper end, so 600 watt light will do you good. You can grow nice buds with a 200W, but it will be a small number of plants due to footprint of the light fixture, you would have to concentrate it on 4 or so plants, if you wanted large flowers... The light and genetics MAKE THE GROW!!! Fabric or plastic 5 gallon pots, i prefer fabric as they enhance this grow style. Plastic will hold water for a very long time making it much trickier to water and easier to drown the plant accidentally. A Humidifier IS ESSENTIAL, a dehumidifier is nice to have also but not required unless growing a jungle. (full 4x4 tent)
Cheap humidity and temperature readers, these are like 3 bux a piece and can stick them inside your tent window with adhesives. i like to place them in multiple spots in the tent, and one in the lungroom to monitor temp & humidity.
A fan for air movement, an exhaust fan that fits in your tents portholes. You need both! i just use a singular box fan, and an exhaust fan. You can also use a few smaller clip on fans or really whatever, just make sure its not blowing too hard on your plants ( they should not be violently shaking, intense wiggling is ok, but gentle wiggling throughout the tent is optimal. 0.6-1m/s, picking up in flower more towards 1m/s. A light timer, mechanical or digital, i prefer mech incase of power outages. 1 OZ grove bags, and 1 OZ 62% 2 way humidity packs. makes curing a lot easier.
So you picked up some seeds that really caught your eye, and your now staring at a ripped open pack of beans wondering what to do next...
Grab a water bottle, and put in the seeds you would like to germinate. If you have multiple strains, use multiple water bottles and label them with a marker. ALWAYS LABEL EVERYTHING! Its the worst when you end up with "mystery strain"
Let this sit for 24h in darkness. the next day, all the seeds should have sunk. if they haven't yet, leave them for awhile longer, but not over 48h, Transfer to a Tupperware, or Ziplock bag with a soaked wet paper towel in it, not so much water there are pools, but it should be extremely wet. Make sure to label these too with permanent marker.
In the meantime while they are sprouting in the wet paper towels, Get your starter pots ready. You can also use a seedling tray, but i prefer small starter pots instead, they are larger and bit more stable with not drying out too quickly.
You can spread the peat out, and gently mist it with 1 E.C water that you just mixed up from scratch with Jacks. Directions below. once that soil is MOISTENED not wetted, very important, no dripping. Return it into the small starting plant pot, repeat this as many times as needed, each seed gets its own pot so they are not all crowded, it stunts growth.
I like to wait until the germinating seedlings have grown a long tail while in the paper towels. Gentle heat of no more than 85F can help this process to be quicker, but is definitely not needed and if overheated, will damage them. So i suggest no heat for the less experienced. These are then planted in their respective seedling starter pots, and put in the tent under the powered down light that should read about 5,000 lux on your light meter. Your humidifier should be on by now, and a fan on for airflow. you can keep the exhaust fan off for now, to help keep it humid in the tent. They wont need more air exchange for fresh co2 until they are older anyways. With the light low, and no exhausting air, it should raise to about 75-85f depending on how warm the room the room is the tent sits in. You want to keep humidity between 60-80% with 70% being the sweet zone for new seedlings. airflow is crucial or they will dampen off and wither, so have that fan going! This is where the silica really helps in the high humidity environment, increasing resilience. You will be running the seedlings and vegging at 18/6 hours with 18 hours lights on, and 6 hours off.
Be very careful watering the seedlings at this stage, and check the environment frequently until you get it dialed in, usually having to adjust the humidifier so its not too humid or too dry. Then you can leave it alone for a day or so, and water once a day. Water from the outside edge of the pots, try not to water the stalk they are sensitive at this stage, and will greatly benefit from having to grow roots to search for water around the edges while experiencing proper dry back cycles. this means the pot fully dries out before you water it again, but not dry out so much that the plant shows any wilting or stress. You will be watering with the low E.C starting solution of 1 E.C with the beneficial microbials and a little kelp humic and fluvic added or if you don't like kelp, alf alpha and humic and fluvic. the kelp and alf alpha naturally contain growth regulators that are beneficial to what we want to see in cannabis plant structures. They will be in this stage for about 2-3 weeks, then we will up-pot to larger 5 gallon pots. They are given time to establish in smaller pots so they can grow a proper root mass to handle the water capacity of the larger 5 gallon pots. To make it easier, you can transplant up to 2 gallon pots before you transition to 5 gallon pots, this will make watering easier, but is not needed. With careful watering practices, They will thrive in the 5 gallon pots after getting established. you will change the e.c to 1.5 at this time, a .5 e.c increase. You will also want to give them their first FIM (f i missed) its an advanced form of topping the plant. You can also do some LST to spread the plant out, but i just top because we are going to put these in a SCROG net. (screen of green) This spreads the tops out, making it flat, and creating more bud sites (YUM)! You will want to slowly work your way up to 30,000 luxx by the time you hit the 2nd week. You will want to setup the exhaust fan on lowest setting for now, just to move some heat and air as the light gets turned up slowly over time, trying to shoot for 70% humidity sometimes requires some strange modifications! get creative! adjust humidifier and the exhaust to find the perfect environmental balance. research VPD if you want to become a true pro, but not needed. These parameters will keep you in optimal VPD.
We are now in early-mid veg. The plants are finally looking like something that's measurably growing daily, due to the enhanced growth rate of DTW hydroponic synganics. By a month in, they should be roughly 1.5-2ft tall depending on genetics and other variables. This is a FAST VEGGING way to grow so you can spend less time in veg, and more time finishing flower. The beautiful veggettes should be in their final 5 gallon fabric pots, getting their daily 1.5 E.C feeding once a day. That's roughly how it works out for me, i am not soaking the pots. Most have runoff, but if you run low enough E.C you do not need run off and can treat it like a super absorbent soil. By the time flowering starts, 6-8 weeks of veg, i am SOAKING those pots so they stay wet for 24h at a time, so i can just water daily. if you have just transplanted into 5 gallons from the starter pots, you need to be EXTREMLY CAREFUL about not overwatering the first week or two.
Just water in a ring around the plant, around the edge just like in the beginning with the starter pots. The roots need to experience light dryness, so they build more vigorous roots and seek for water around the edges, filling the pot more quickly. You will take this for as long as you like. just be aware, depending on your strain variety, they usually at least double in size during stretch, some doubling many times that... The plants can now handle alot of light, can shoot for 40,000-50,000 luxx on the canopy, try to get it even by weaving the plants throught he scrog net, perhaps raising the net depending on how large you want them to finish. AT MINIMUM leave 2x their size in space for them to max out at, like if your light all the way cranked up on the cieling is at 6 ft, you are not going to want to grow them in veg over 3-4ft. they will end up 5ft in flowering or more if they have sativa genetics.
It is now the beginning of flower, and you just flipped your lighting schedule to 12 on and 12 off hopefully having a light timer, from 18 hours on and 6 hours off. The light gets turned up even higher to account for the loss of light hours, you will want anywhere from 60,000luxx-80,000luxx for the remainder of early to mid flower. We will then taper it off once we hit late flower, back down to 50k luxx. In the beginning of flower we will now up the E.C to 2.0 to help compensate for the added light intensity, or it will show deficiencies. make sure to ph water carefully between 5.8-6.2 to make sure all of the nutrients are available. the Humic and Fluvic acids greatly help this.
You want your humidity around 60% and temperature in low 80s. You are now in the best part of the grow
by week 2 of flower, the plants will be in full stretch mode, growing up towards the light. We will be weaving these "shooters" through the scrog net, creating an even canopy.
This will ensure Maximum light capture for the plants, and more light to more bud sites, creating more premium nug "tops" in your canopy. Depending on your cultivar, you will most likely be running it in flower for a total of 8-10-12 weeks of flowering. If they are true sativas, which can be much more rewarding like the legendary Original Haze, that will need a flowering time of 20 weeks not including veg!!! What i suggest, is in the final week or two, really just make the plant as comfortable as possible. Can cut the light down to 40k luxx, to reduce heat and maybe kick the exhaust higher, you want lower humidity as you hit 3-4 weeks from harvest, especially if you have big thicker buds, this helps prevent mold, but the silica really helps from loading it up in veg. You want to cut the silica by week 3 flowering so you don't affect the buds, but it wont really hurt it.
HARVEST DAY!!! Youve made it to the end of your plants life cycle, and are ready to dry it to get ready for curing. I suggest letting the plants dry back really well on the day of the chop, so you have to dry them for a shorter amount of time. I follow an un-conventional, but what i think is an improved drying process. Plants get dried back and chopped, They get hung in the tent with the light now off, humidifier off, and fan off. With just the exhaust fan on whatever setting is required to keep it at 40-45% humidity for those first 4-5 days. You will likely need to turn the exhaust down as time goes on, and it dries out to try and keep 40%. once you feel the buds pretty dry and most of the moisture is gone, usually day 4, you can raise the humidity back up to 60% for a more slow classic dry, for another 2 days. this will all vary of course depending on bud structure, but this is the general window. Once you feel it is dry enough, you can then toss it into grove bags or equivalent with a humidity pack in there, the pack and bag will wick off moisture, but make sure you do not put it in there too wet.
It then cures for however long you want! it is instantly smokeable after drying, but will generally improve and change smells and flavors over time the longer you cure. you will have to find the sweet spot of cure time for your strain. you can always freeze or refrigerate a curing bag to lock in that scent you like.
How to mix up nutrient solution.
I like to mix up enough to water my whole tent at once, which typically turns out to be half a 5 gallon water tower jug, to a full one depending on how many plants i have.
An example of me whipping up the 5 gallon jug when its bone dry empty:
Fill jug with fresh cold well water, Add silica FIRST or else it precipitates into a mess. Then add the jacks salt nutrients. depending on stage of growth, you will figure out how many tablespoons of fertilizer you need to reach a certain E.C in the jug. it takes alot of practice, and an E.C and P.H meter are ESSENTIAL. Then add the beneficial microbes and kelp humic fluvic.
Lets say im mixing up a 2.0 E.C solution for flowering. I put 3 tablespoons of jacks 15-5-15 in, maybe 2 at first then check, and make adjustments. if you add too much, can always pour some of the jug out and add fresh water, this will bring e.c down. same thing if you add too much ph down, just dump some out and add fresh water, as your water source is likely alkaline and will act like PH UP, hence the need for ph down to reach 5.8-6.2 E.C
Now say im mixing up a 1 E.C batch, same thing, add silica first, then jacks, probably a tablespoon, then beneficial microbes, and finally kelp humic fluvic, then ph the whole solution once you confirm the E.C
There you have it... fairly simple growing for any plant!
Most herbacious plants enjoy an E.C of about 1. Most fruiting plants like cannabis enjoy an E.C of 1.5-2.5! Very delicate plants may require under 1 e.c feeds depending on light intensity.
I hope this helps you grow the best plants you ever have before
Feel free to comment anything that i left out! i wrote this while very tired. Will try to add pictures at some point, but wanted to get the text out there atleast.
This will be my first in-depth guide on my preferred grow method. I am by no means one of those "mAsTeR gRoWeRs" you hear about. I only have about 6 years under my belt growing wise, but have always enjoyed all types of plants.
This will cover the materials needed to grow this specific way, inputs and what their functions are, and beneficial microorganism's that will greatly boost the grow's performance and growth vigour.
This will also cover the pro's and con's of this method of growing, plus some common issues you can come across when practicing this growing method.
This can be used to grow any plant, simply by adjusting the nutrient feed's strength accordingly. I have even cultivated poppies in this manner, and they can be finnicky under indoor lights.
This Tek and or grow style is not entirely organic due to the salt nutrients. these are in no way toxic or harmful in any way when dosed appropriately per plant species.
I do try and use the cleanest inputs available i can find, while also using the least amount of nutrients possible as to not end up with a bad tasting overloaded final bud. This is the way of synganics, a fusion of organic beneficial inputs and hydroponic salts as the base.
Growing cannabis let alone hydro can seem daunting in the beginning, i will try and simplify it as much as possible, Hydro tends to be easier to get the right nutrients, sometimes its tough mixing the right ratios of organic amendments for soil.
My preferred materials: Peat, or coco. i prefer peat for scientific reasoning, Jacks 15-5-15 cal-mg w/micronutrients, Sulfur, A silica source, preferably silicic acid, potassium silicate works, but it takes far too long to break down and become available. same with diatomaceous earth. A bag of microbial inoculant's, preferably with multiple strains of both beneficial bacteria AND myco (fungi). Some all natural plant growth regulators and or hormones, such as from kelp or alf alpha, i prefer to use alittle bit of kelp meal. Humic and Fluvic acids, these are very important so we can run a low nutrient strength while still supplying the plants with ample nutrition. I have a kelp meal mix that includes humic and fluvic acid's. You may come across research that discredits the use of these, claiming a reduction in cannabinoids. this is false. Grow the plant correctly and it will have increased and or un-diminished THC levels. PH down. you can also get ph up, but ph down is more important, and should be bought first. An AC infinity scrog net is good and cheap, but a good scrog net can be made easily with PVC and some netting, or strings.
GENETICS: The most essential key to growing cannabis.
Find your preferred strain, hopefully doing some research on its genetics, who bred it and how did they breed it? Did they work on that line at all? or is it an untested pollen chuck cross of two strains? You must research!
Helpful tools: PH meter, E.C (electrical conductivity) meter. the E.C meter measures nutrient solution strength, while the PH measures its acidity so the nutrients can be more available for the plant in the right ranges.
Light meter, you can use your phone with an app, or more accurate pick up a cheap LED light meter off amazon. 1 large glass pipette, preferably can hold 10ml. A scale if you prefer to weigh by weight rather than volumetrically, i use volumetric (Tsp's,Tbsp's, ECT) A nice grow tent, any size will work, i suggest a minimum of a 4x4 x80" tall so you can stabilize the larger environment easier. the smaller tents can get squirrely trying to stabilize enviromental's.
A nice grow light. Preferably above 200w, try and grab a non purple light LED. If you have an HID light such as HPS or MH lying around, you could use that but it will get incredibly hot and will probably require an AC cooler.
If you get a 4x4 tent, i suggest the minimum watt light you should use is 400w, that seems like a lot, but really for high quality flowers its the minimum. 800 watts is the upper end, so 600 watt light will do you good. You can grow nice buds with a 200W, but it will be a small number of plants due to footprint of the light fixture, you would have to concentrate it on 4 or so plants, if you wanted large flowers... The light and genetics MAKE THE GROW!!! Fabric or plastic 5 gallon pots, i prefer fabric as they enhance this grow style. Plastic will hold water for a very long time making it much trickier to water and easier to drown the plant accidentally. A Humidifier IS ESSENTIAL, a dehumidifier is nice to have also but not required unless growing a jungle. (full 4x4 tent)
Cheap humidity and temperature readers, these are like 3 bux a piece and can stick them inside your tent window with adhesives. i like to place them in multiple spots in the tent, and one in the lungroom to monitor temp & humidity.
A fan for air movement, an exhaust fan that fits in your tents portholes. You need both! i just use a singular box fan, and an exhaust fan. You can also use a few smaller clip on fans or really whatever, just make sure its not blowing too hard on your plants ( they should not be violently shaking, intense wiggling is ok, but gentle wiggling throughout the tent is optimal. 0.6-1m/s, picking up in flower more towards 1m/s. A light timer, mechanical or digital, i prefer mech incase of power outages. 1 OZ grove bags, and 1 OZ 62% 2 way humidity packs. makes curing a lot easier.
So you picked up some seeds that really caught your eye, and your now staring at a ripped open pack of beans wondering what to do next...
Grab a water bottle, and put in the seeds you would like to germinate. If you have multiple strains, use multiple water bottles and label them with a marker. ALWAYS LABEL EVERYTHING! Its the worst when you end up with "mystery strain"
Let this sit for 24h in darkness. the next day, all the seeds should have sunk. if they haven't yet, leave them for awhile longer, but not over 48h, Transfer to a Tupperware, or Ziplock bag with a soaked wet paper towel in it, not so much water there are pools, but it should be extremely wet. Make sure to label these too with permanent marker.
In the meantime while they are sprouting in the wet paper towels, Get your starter pots ready. You can also use a seedling tray, but i prefer small starter pots instead, they are larger and bit more stable with not drying out too quickly.
You can spread the peat out, and gently mist it with 1 E.C water that you just mixed up from scratch with Jacks. Directions below. once that soil is MOISTENED not wetted, very important, no dripping. Return it into the small starting plant pot, repeat this as many times as needed, each seed gets its own pot so they are not all crowded, it stunts growth.
I like to wait until the germinating seedlings have grown a long tail while in the paper towels. Gentle heat of no more than 85F can help this process to be quicker, but is definitely not needed and if overheated, will damage them. So i suggest no heat for the less experienced. These are then planted in their respective seedling starter pots, and put in the tent under the powered down light that should read about 5,000 lux on your light meter. Your humidifier should be on by now, and a fan on for airflow. you can keep the exhaust fan off for now, to help keep it humid in the tent. They wont need more air exchange for fresh co2 until they are older anyways. With the light low, and no exhausting air, it should raise to about 75-85f depending on how warm the room the room is the tent sits in. You want to keep humidity between 60-80% with 70% being the sweet zone for new seedlings. airflow is crucial or they will dampen off and wither, so have that fan going! This is where the silica really helps in the high humidity environment, increasing resilience. You will be running the seedlings and vegging at 18/6 hours with 18 hours lights on, and 6 hours off.
Be very careful watering the seedlings at this stage, and check the environment frequently until you get it dialed in, usually having to adjust the humidifier so its not too humid or too dry. Then you can leave it alone for a day or so, and water once a day. Water from the outside edge of the pots, try not to water the stalk they are sensitive at this stage, and will greatly benefit from having to grow roots to search for water around the edges while experiencing proper dry back cycles. this means the pot fully dries out before you water it again, but not dry out so much that the plant shows any wilting or stress. You will be watering with the low E.C starting solution of 1 E.C with the beneficial microbials and a little kelp humic and fluvic added or if you don't like kelp, alf alpha and humic and fluvic. the kelp and alf alpha naturally contain growth regulators that are beneficial to what we want to see in cannabis plant structures. They will be in this stage for about 2-3 weeks, then we will up-pot to larger 5 gallon pots. They are given time to establish in smaller pots so they can grow a proper root mass to handle the water capacity of the larger 5 gallon pots. To make it easier, you can transplant up to 2 gallon pots before you transition to 5 gallon pots, this will make watering easier, but is not needed. With careful watering practices, They will thrive in the 5 gallon pots after getting established. you will change the e.c to 1.5 at this time, a .5 e.c increase. You will also want to give them their first FIM (f i missed) its an advanced form of topping the plant. You can also do some LST to spread the plant out, but i just top because we are going to put these in a SCROG net. (screen of green) This spreads the tops out, making it flat, and creating more bud sites (YUM)! You will want to slowly work your way up to 30,000 luxx by the time you hit the 2nd week. You will want to setup the exhaust fan on lowest setting for now, just to move some heat and air as the light gets turned up slowly over time, trying to shoot for 70% humidity sometimes requires some strange modifications! get creative! adjust humidifier and the exhaust to find the perfect environmental balance. research VPD if you want to become a true pro, but not needed. These parameters will keep you in optimal VPD.
We are now in early-mid veg. The plants are finally looking like something that's measurably growing daily, due to the enhanced growth rate of DTW hydroponic synganics. By a month in, they should be roughly 1.5-2ft tall depending on genetics and other variables. This is a FAST VEGGING way to grow so you can spend less time in veg, and more time finishing flower. The beautiful veggettes should be in their final 5 gallon fabric pots, getting their daily 1.5 E.C feeding once a day. That's roughly how it works out for me, i am not soaking the pots. Most have runoff, but if you run low enough E.C you do not need run off and can treat it like a super absorbent soil. By the time flowering starts, 6-8 weeks of veg, i am SOAKING those pots so they stay wet for 24h at a time, so i can just water daily. if you have just transplanted into 5 gallons from the starter pots, you need to be EXTREMLY CAREFUL about not overwatering the first week or two.
Just water in a ring around the plant, around the edge just like in the beginning with the starter pots. The roots need to experience light dryness, so they build more vigorous roots and seek for water around the edges, filling the pot more quickly. You will take this for as long as you like. just be aware, depending on your strain variety, they usually at least double in size during stretch, some doubling many times that... The plants can now handle alot of light, can shoot for 40,000-50,000 luxx on the canopy, try to get it even by weaving the plants throught he scrog net, perhaps raising the net depending on how large you want them to finish. AT MINIMUM leave 2x their size in space for them to max out at, like if your light all the way cranked up on the cieling is at 6 ft, you are not going to want to grow them in veg over 3-4ft. they will end up 5ft in flowering or more if they have sativa genetics.
It is now the beginning of flower, and you just flipped your lighting schedule to 12 on and 12 off hopefully having a light timer, from 18 hours on and 6 hours off. The light gets turned up even higher to account for the loss of light hours, you will want anywhere from 60,000luxx-80,000luxx for the remainder of early to mid flower. We will then taper it off once we hit late flower, back down to 50k luxx. In the beginning of flower we will now up the E.C to 2.0 to help compensate for the added light intensity, or it will show deficiencies. make sure to ph water carefully between 5.8-6.2 to make sure all of the nutrients are available. the Humic and Fluvic acids greatly help this.
You want your humidity around 60% and temperature in low 80s. You are now in the best part of the grow
by week 2 of flower, the plants will be in full stretch mode, growing up towards the light. We will be weaving these "shooters" through the scrog net, creating an even canopy.This will ensure Maximum light capture for the plants, and more light to more bud sites, creating more premium nug "tops" in your canopy. Depending on your cultivar, you will most likely be running it in flower for a total of 8-10-12 weeks of flowering. If they are true sativas, which can be much more rewarding like the legendary Original Haze, that will need a flowering time of 20 weeks not including veg!!! What i suggest, is in the final week or two, really just make the plant as comfortable as possible. Can cut the light down to 40k luxx, to reduce heat and maybe kick the exhaust higher, you want lower humidity as you hit 3-4 weeks from harvest, especially if you have big thicker buds, this helps prevent mold, but the silica really helps from loading it up in veg. You want to cut the silica by week 3 flowering so you don't affect the buds, but it wont really hurt it.
HARVEST DAY!!! Youve made it to the end of your plants life cycle, and are ready to dry it to get ready for curing. I suggest letting the plants dry back really well on the day of the chop, so you have to dry them for a shorter amount of time. I follow an un-conventional, but what i think is an improved drying process. Plants get dried back and chopped, They get hung in the tent with the light now off, humidifier off, and fan off. With just the exhaust fan on whatever setting is required to keep it at 40-45% humidity for those first 4-5 days. You will likely need to turn the exhaust down as time goes on, and it dries out to try and keep 40%. once you feel the buds pretty dry and most of the moisture is gone, usually day 4, you can raise the humidity back up to 60% for a more slow classic dry, for another 2 days. this will all vary of course depending on bud structure, but this is the general window. Once you feel it is dry enough, you can then toss it into grove bags or equivalent with a humidity pack in there, the pack and bag will wick off moisture, but make sure you do not put it in there too wet.
It then cures for however long you want! it is instantly smokeable after drying, but will generally improve and change smells and flavors over time the longer you cure. you will have to find the sweet spot of cure time for your strain. you can always freeze or refrigerate a curing bag to lock in that scent you like.
How to mix up nutrient solution.
I like to mix up enough to water my whole tent at once, which typically turns out to be half a 5 gallon water tower jug, to a full one depending on how many plants i have.
An example of me whipping up the 5 gallon jug when its bone dry empty:
Fill jug with fresh cold well water, Add silica FIRST or else it precipitates into a mess. Then add the jacks salt nutrients. depending on stage of growth, you will figure out how many tablespoons of fertilizer you need to reach a certain E.C in the jug. it takes alot of practice, and an E.C and P.H meter are ESSENTIAL. Then add the beneficial microbes and kelp humic fluvic.
Lets say im mixing up a 2.0 E.C solution for flowering. I put 3 tablespoons of jacks 15-5-15 in, maybe 2 at first then check, and make adjustments. if you add too much, can always pour some of the jug out and add fresh water, this will bring e.c down. same thing if you add too much ph down, just dump some out and add fresh water, as your water source is likely alkaline and will act like PH UP, hence the need for ph down to reach 5.8-6.2 E.C
Now say im mixing up a 1 E.C batch, same thing, add silica first, then jacks, probably a tablespoon, then beneficial microbes, and finally kelp humic fluvic, then ph the whole solution once you confirm the E.C
There you have it... fairly simple growing for any plant!
Most herbacious plants enjoy an E.C of about 1. Most fruiting plants like cannabis enjoy an E.C of 1.5-2.5! Very delicate plants may require under 1 e.c feeds depending on light intensity.
I hope this helps you grow the best plants you ever have before
Feel free to comment anything that i left out! i wrote this while very tired. Will try to add pictures at some point, but wanted to get the text out there atleast.
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