T Nation

Round Two: The Art of Indoor Gardening

#1

..after a short break, i'm ready to try my hand at another indoor gardening experiment. Here's the breakdown for those who missed the first show, with a few changes:

20x cuttings
1x 600 watt HPS
1x 250 ltr tub
ventilation and carbon filter
passive air inlet
1x hallway closet

..and for the new additions: 20 buffertabs that will provide the little ones enough minerals and nutrition for the duration of the experiment, aside from a little boosting at the end. This also means i won't be changing the water's Ph to 6.0 or there abouts. Tapwater over here is 7.1...

..i also put a drainage pipe in. This allows for watering from beneath, and forces the little ones to root for water. Obviously i'll water them for the first few weeks from above...

..vegetative period is 3 days, just to get them settled and force them into blooming as soon as possible. I'll be trimming them, get those bottom branches off and cut them back at least 40% in order to get one big and heavy cola. That's the theory anyways...

..this strain is called PowerPlant, a easy grower with a high yield, perfect for beginners like me. Ought to be ready in 9 weeks, and i'm putting them in the ground tomorrow...

#2

ready in 9 weeks? I'm going to have to check this strain out.

#3

..counting from the start of the blooming phase. So in this case i start week 14 with the 12/12 light cycle and end in week 23...

#4

I bet this plant gets pretty big. Ive been reading lately about growing 12/12 from seed, which minimizes time but also reduces yield a little bit. Mostly its used as a way to grow quickly and in a small space without resorting to one of the lowryder strains. Have you ever tried this method?

#5

..i don't expect them to grow any higher than 2 feet/60 cm. There will only be a 3 day vegetative period. That does not give them much room to grow tall, and altough taller plants have bigger yields, i'd rather have an extra harvest a year than a marginally bigger yield...

..my plan for this batch was to start with seed in a growbox on 12/12 and then move them, after they start to show sex, into the hallcloset, but that plan stalled due to laziness. Did buy seed already though, so maybe i'll go guerilla and look for a good spot outside...

..the 'from seed under 12/12' plan does seem a solid one. I've been reading growreports on dutch sites that show great results. It's worth considering...

#6

WHAT ARE YOU GROWING???

#7
#8


..they've been in the ground since wednesday evening, and a couple of them are struggling. I have trouble keeping the humidity at a good level, and i make the mistake of spraying them with water when the light was on. So 3 cuttings, that could use some tlc and a better root system, are not going to make it or are already dead. The other ones should be fine...

#9

..the tub:

#10


..the dead and the dying:

#11


..from above:

#12

..and the healthy ones:

#13

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#14

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#15

You should tying vegging with a 24 hour light photoperiod. It will increase the rate of growth dramatically.

#16

..as i understand it, plants can't assimilate 24 hrs of light and slow down it's processes to cope with the excess amount of light. Even if that is not true, i find it difficult to keep them alive during 18 hours of light, let alone round the clock. This is more about having subpar cuttings that require more attention [and knowhow] than i can give them. We'll just have to wait and see have things develop...

#17


Week 1 update: most of them are doing nicely, and look healthy enough. The bigger plants are showing the first signs of blooming, and the garlic cloves i also planted are coming up also (-:

..the pics are crappy as always, and there's not much to see, but that just needs time!

#18


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#19

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#20