Where were we? Oh, the seeds arrived and were planted, 4 in rock wool and one in Miracle Gro Indoor soil, as I thought, the soil planted seeds came up first, 2 days earlier than Rock wool, but the RW had good root structure immediately, so they took to the soil readily.

Babies

Slow start. Well they are plants, you have to give them some time, but things will look completely different in 6 weeks or so after the nutes are ramped up and the lights are on full power.

 Light and heat are big factors, one more than the other. I used to use CFLs for the growth/veg part of my grow, HPS lamps are expensive and a big electrical cost, so CFL is cost effective. I knew LED was getting better, efficient and the color can be tuned, so on this foray I discovered lamps that had 1000w equivalent fixtures that only draw 105 watts. Huuge savings, and only $60 per fixture, a good deal all around. I checked them against my light meter and found them putting out over 20000 Lumens at 18” which kicks ass, trust me on this, HPS gives off 15000 at 150 watts. Win!

 You’lI need a warming mat for your babies, Mine raises the soil temp to about 85-90 Americanheit, not needed but helpful.

 Nutrients. You will need soil amendments, not like hydroponics, but the same numbers apply.

  NPK is what we rely on, these are Nitrogen, Phosphorus  and Potassium, all plants need them, as well as Micro Nutes like Magnesium, Calcium etc. But let’s stick with the Big 3

Nitrogen makes your shit get big, and fast, Phosphorus promotes root growth, and Potassium makes Flowers, so the need to adjust varies depending where you are in the growth cycle, check out these numbers,

Veg 24-8-16

Early Bloom 4-8-7

Weed Food

Late Bloom 2-45-28 Wow!

Overfeeding will burn your plants to a crisp, you must be easy with nutes, however, a friend is running a crop at 4000 PPM which is insane, but they are kicking ass, go figure.

 Timing is your friend. If I continue to do everything right I’ll have three footers in 8 weeks, I’ll take clones at about 5 weeks, and let the big boys flower, looking for males to kill. ‘Til next time.

Bonsai!

 I like my garden, it keeps the winter at bay, so I decided to try Bonsai trees, same idea, just longer term, like, a few years, we’ll see how that plays, but I have the ultimate green thumb, thanks to growing weed.