Cheap Lighting.

[F420]

I love my flood and drain using clay balls, I have tried all sorts of other sysytems but the flood and drain is best suited to me.

 

Cocopeat is a good soil, but I have never used it. Although I have been told that you should mix perlite with it in a 60/40 mix.

[novice grower]

Hi Nath.

I am growing in a wardrobe in my garage,what i use to "disguise" the smell is a mixture of garlic and chilli peppers.

 

Cut them up into small chunks,put in a 2 or 3 litre container of water and leave over-night to steep.

 

Shake well and pour into little containers,i use plastic cups,3/4 filled with this stuff,the smell of the garlic masks the pot and any bugs that happen to have a drink of this stuff,THEY IS AS GOOD AS DEAD !

 

I also use this mixture for my worm farm,i used old 2 litre milk jugs and filled them 3/4 full,works well to keep the stinking ants out of my worms !

 

Hope this is beneficial to you and any one else out there.

Cheers.

[Pure]

I love my flood and drain using clay balls, I have tried all sorts of other sysytems but the flood and drain is best suited to me.

 

Cocopeat is a good soil, but I have never used it. Although I have been told that you should mix perlite with it in a 60/40 mix.

I use coco and I agree I advise you try a mix of coco perlite, Coco retains allot of water and adding a percentage of perlite adds to your drainage and it also allows air to get down into the roots a bit easier

 

personaly I use 70% coco 30% perlite but others use more or less perlite it just depends on you want , I also found that adding a layer of clayballs or perlite at the bottom of the pots greatly improves drainage and stops water from collecting at the bottom of your pots allong with a few other advantages

 

 

couple more things you should know about coco are that coco attracts more bugs than something like perlite so the use of something like biobugs is a neccesity in your resevior you can get biobugs from your local hydro shop, also the frequentcy of watering differs from mix to mix depending on your ratios the more coco you put in the less amount of times you need to water it , I also find it handy to break up the soil a bit every few daysto air it out a little

[Nath]

I have watched friends and their parents grow for many years, and they all use either perlite or clay rocks. One friend of mine's father is in a growing 'ring' or group, of a few experienced growers, and will use nothing other than expanded clay and (to start the clones in) rockwool blocks. Im going to leave the cocofibre for now, and maybe just stick some plants out the back with that. Ill use the clay rocks, as I can have the pump running and my plants will grow faster, and apparently more stronger and become more potent, with less problems like bugs and the sort.

 

The plants at the moment have just gone into 7cm rockwool cubes.. i just kept them in 1.5cm cubes and put them in the 7cm ones yesterday. They have been fed straight spring water, and Im going to make up some 1/4 strength DutchFest HydroGrow nute solution for them right now.

 

I was relying on some money from a car Ive sold, but they guy cant pay for possibly up to another two weeks! Now my ladies are starting to get the third set of leaves on them.. and 1x 2' 18w 'cool white' Sylvania fluoro light is seeming to me to be inadequate. Should I just go buy a proper 'grow' fluoro from the petshop/hydro store. Will this help me a bit? Also, I was looking at some compact fluoros or something.. I need more lighting =( Any suggestions on what I can do temporarily to get light to the plants? I put a few out in the sun yesterday, to see what it would do.. i have 12 seedlings.. but I really will only want to end up with four in the end. The rest will go out the back .. or I'll bud them as early as possible, as I have no smoko hehe

[Tom]

I was looking at some compact fluoros or something..

That's the way I would go for low cost temporary lighting, you can stick the CF's around the house after to offset some of the costs of running the HID.

 

[F420]

I just got back from Bunnings(non-mj call- Im fitting wooden blinds around the house and fluro oysters).

Anyways I noticed that they stock a bulb by Nelson lighting, its a cool white and is equal to 250watts.

So I would consdier trying to find one of these and put it in your grow room, just make sure you get the cool white.

 

it was around $30-00 which is good compared to the envirolights.

[Tom]

Anyways I noticed that they stock a bulb by Nelson lighting, its a cool white and is equal to 250watts.

So I would consdier trying to find one of these and put it in your grow room, just make sure you get the cool white.

Sounds like a good idea, I'll have to stop by Bunnings and pick one up next time I'm in the area.

http://www.hemperium.com/images/free/space/space502.gif

[greenacres]

yep i bought a Nelson equal to 250watts at bunnings.a few weeks ago they are ok cost $28. worth it though their bright little suckers. i have been using it for my clones. 12 out of 12 have taken root. and it was the only light they had

[Nath]

I just got back from Bunnings(non-mj call- Im fitting wooden blinds around the house and fluro oysters).

Anyways I noticed that they stock a bulb by Nelson lighting, its a cool white and is equal to 250watts.

So I would consdier trying to find one of these and put it in your grow room, just make sure you get the cool white.

 

it was around $30-00 which is good compared to the envirolights.

Wow, equal to 250w !?! I just got back from KMart.. I bought a Philips Essential 14w "Warm White" Energy Saver cf. Cost me $7, so Ill fit it for my bedroom light or something if I find something better. Ill head up to Bunnings first thing tommorrow morning in search of these 250w equiv fluoros.. what is the exact wattage of them? I know my 14w Phillips one is equal to 60w of incandecent light. I bought another fluoro 2' tube too.. the other one was probably many years old and just was dying anyway.

 

So now... I have a 14w cf.. which is really bright.. i have a nice white shade for it too.. sitting right on top of the seedlings, and also the fluoro I bought was a Mirrabella 20w 2'.. Note: The 2' fluoro's are normally 18watts, and this tube is like nearly double the size of the 18 watter.. (Ok, that might be a big over the top But its noticably larger and WAY BRIGHTER!!) I was just gonna get another cf on Thursday until I get this money from that guy... or I was thinking of going with a 2nd hand 400w kit for now.. for $85 for a kit isnt bad. I can later get a 600w setup for $220, so at the end of the veg stage Ill whack that light in, and Ill have 1000w's of light, which I can spread out.. my electric heater which runs nearly 24/7 is rated at 1000w's, so Ill just turn that off and wear jumpers, hehe.