Trouble reading today's article? Click
here: Issue
#209 - Sunday, April 24, 2016 Dear Fellow Grower,
In today's issue... - Learn 5 time-saving techniques for busy growers!
- What's the difference between "medical" vs "non-medical" marijuana?
- What are "foxtails" on
buds and are they good or bad?
- Check out this week's trophy pic featuring an auto Amnesia Haze plant grown under CFLs!
Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside (founders of
GrowWeedEasy.com) "Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."
~Marthe Troly-Curtin
5 Time-Savers for Busy Growers by Nebula Haze |
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Are you thinking about growing cannabis for the first time, but are afraid it will take too much time? Or maybe you have been growing for years, but feel like caring for your plants is too
time-consuming.
Every single growing style has its pros and its cons. There are ways to grow cannabis that take a lot of time tending the plants, but there are setups that do a lot of the work for you so you don’t spend as much time on them day-to-day.
Even a few small adjustments can make a big
difference!
As you go through this article you’ll realize that you can’t do all of these things at once, but this list will give you several ideas on how to shave off time depending on your personal grow style!
1.) Choose a Less Time-Consuming Setup
Your responsibilities as a grower change quite a bit depending on how
you set up your garden in the beginning. I've included some info (and the pros and cons) for cannabis grow setups that tend to be the least time-intensive for growers.
Get the breakdown on why these 3 styles of growing are great choices for growers without a lot of time to spare:
Get Nutrients That Let You Mix
Water Ahead of Time
When you need to make nutrient water for your cannabis plants, it can take several minutes to make up a new batch every time you water. Instead, you can make a lot at once and only use it as
needed.
But how long can you store pre-mixed nutrient water?
- Nearly all nutrients can last at least 1 week after
being mixed with water without any negative effects on your plants
- For nutrients comprised solely of inorganic ingredients, your pre-mixed nutrient water can last for 2-3+ weeks without a problem even if the nutrient water is just sitting in the
container
How do you know which is which? Look at the label of your nutrients where it says “Derived from” All the ingredients in the above picture are inorganic minerals and “chemical salts.” They all have "molecular" sounding names. When it comes to hydroponic nutrients, you will almost always see these types
of ingredients specifically because they will not cause reactions or problems even when sitting in water for long periods of time.
But it’s not just hydro! Lots of soil and coco coir nutrients also use the same sources of nutrients because these specially derived mineral sources don’t need to be broken down and are available to your plant immediately.
As long as you don’t see any organic ingredients on the label, you know your nutrient water can be premixed for 2-3+ weeks. If you do spot organic ingredients on the label (like “seaweed extract” in this next example) then you probably shouldn’t let your nutrient water sit as long because organic material tends to start up biological processes. Ultimately this could cause things to grow in your water, possibly altering the nutrient
content or even introducing some nasty microorganisms to your plant roots.
If you see any organic ingredients listed, like “seaweed extract,” don’t let your mixed nutrient water sit for longer than a week.
Note: No matter what nutrients you’re using, make sure any pre-mixed nutrient water gets stored in a cool, dark place!
2.) Get the Right Gear
When you choose the right gear it can help you save minutes here and there, which really starts to add up!
Get a Bigger Plant Container So You Water Less Often
One way to get away with watering your plants less often is to grow them in
a bigger container. This is because your growing medium can hold more water at a time, so it takes longer for your plant to drink it all before needing to be watered again.
Some things to keep in mind: When growing in big containers, you’ll get the fastest growth by starting your plants in smaller
ones first, then transplanting them to bigger ones as they grow. But that also takes time. It’s much easier to start your seeds directly in big containers from the beginning so you can skip transplanting
altogether. The one downside to that is seedlings tend to start a little slower at first in big pots (why?), but once your plant gets going they grow just as fast as any other container-grown plant and you’ll still get the benefit of watering less often.
Avoid Smart Pots & Air
Pots
If your goal is to water less often, avoid using a fabric pot (Smart Pot) or a container with holes on the sides (air pot). Although cannabis plants tend to grow faster in these types of containers, the pots dry out much more quickly since the soil is getting air from the sides. This means you end up
needing to water them much more often than a similar sized “traditional” plant container.
Get the Right Grow Lights
If saving time is your main goal, you most likely want to go with an
LED or MH/HPS grow light. These lights are powerful enough to grow your plant from seed to harvest with great yields, and don’t take a lot of adjustment on your part. You basically just hang the
lights over your plants and forget about them, only needing to adjust the height of them a handful of times during your grow.
What you really want to avoid is time-consuming CFLs. CFL grow lights are actually a great choice for a lot of growers, for example if you’re growing in a
really height-limited space, or if you want to get started growing as cheap as possible. That means for many growers they’re the perfect option for getting started growing, but they do end up taking more time and vigilance on your part compared to other grow lights. This is because CFLs need to be kept within just a few inches of the plants. As a result, you
need to watch your plants closely and adjust your lights often to keep bulbs as close as possible while also preventing your plants from growing into the CFLs.
CFLs are great grow lights, but they are more time-consuming than HPS or LED grow lights. Even in a setup like the one below, a grower will still spend extra time making sure the bulbs are within the 4" (10cm)
range. In comparison, LED or HPS grow lights are kept a foot away from your plants or more, which gives you a lot more wiggle room if
you need to spend some time away from your plants.
Don’t DIY Everything
Although doing things yourself can save you a lot of money, having to make your own tools for the job almost always ends up taking more time. It’s like if you decided to use a rock to drive nails into wood instead of a hammer. You wouldn’t have to
invest money in a hammer, but using a rock is going to take you a heck of a lot longer and not do as good a job!
One simple example when it comes to growing marijuana is using plant ties, which are a tool specifically made for bending and securing stems for plant training. Plant twisty ties unwind from a spool and an attached cutter lets you easily cut each tie to the perfect length in seconds. They are made to be strong enough to hook onto your
plants and secure stems where you want, but not strong enough to accidentally hurt them.
Save time by using specially made plant twisty tie to secure your stems, not some random item around the house like wire or pipe cleaners! If you wanted to save some money, you could skip getting plant ties altogether and just find something from around the house to secure your stems, like pipe cleaners. They both accomplish the same thing in
the end, but with pipe cleaners you would likely have to tie several of them together each time you need to secure a stem. An extra minute here and there starts to add up after a while!
In addition to the time savings, DIY stuff often doesn’t last as long or work as well as tools made for the job. For example plant twisty ties are made of smooth plastic that is unaffected by water, while pipe cleaners
are “hairy” and can easily start molding or running into other problems from being exposed to moist conditions. Unexpected malfunctions with DIY stuff can cause problems that take time away from your busy life!
Other handy tools specifically made for growing purposes include plant yo-yos (for holding up falling plants), a convenient grow tent (easier than building a grow space from scratch), and rope ratchets (adjust lights up and down with a few clicks). Each of these grow room accessories are cheap but can shave off a few minutes when
you’re tending to your plants!3.) Optimize the Grow Space
Some of these ideas are little things and may only take a few minutes to set up,
but can end up saving you so much time and frustration during your grow!
Make Sure You Have an Easy Way to Get Water
When it’s hard to get water, not only are you just less likely to make up your water on time, it ends up taking more of your time.
- Learn how to get water from a too-small sink. If your grow space is near a sink, but you can’t fit your water container under the faucet, you can install an easy-release adapter that lets you easily “snap” a hose onto your sink. In my house the only suitable place to fill up water is on a different floor as my grow space, but with this adapter I can just use the bathroom sink on the same floor so I never have to lug water up a
flight of stairs.
- Get a good size water container to mix up nutrient water. If you’re making up several 1-gallon containers of water at a time, consider getting a bigger container so you can make more at once.
- Don’t try to carry too much water at once. This doesn’t necessarily save time, but will save a lot of effort. If you can’t use a hose to get water directly to your grow space, try to think about how much water you’re expecting yourself to carry on a regular basis. I used to use a single 5-gallon jug to make up water for my plants because I wanted to make a lot of water at a time. The problem was I had a hard time carrying a jug with 5 gallons of water in it. I switched to
using two 3-gallon jugs because they’re easier to carry/handle than a single 5 gallon jug and that works a lot better for me!
Make It Easy to Dispose of Water
When watering cannabis plants grown in containers, you want to give your plants enough water every time to get 20% extra runoff water out the bottom. Making sure to water your plants thoroughly each time means you have to water less often, and cannabis plants grow faster when they get wet/dry cycles.
But in order to prevent soggy roots and plant drooping, you also want to make sure to remove that runoff water right away so your plants aren’t sitting in it. Sometimes that’s easier said than done!
If you’re growing with containers and each one has their own saucer, you have to
physically pick up the plants every time you want to empty the saucers of runoff water. If you only have one plant it’s not really a big deal but the more plants you’re growing at a time the bigger of a pain this is.
You don’t want to have to empty each saucer one at a time after you water your
plants
One solution is to put all your plants on a tray that will catch water, and put something small like a block of wood under the tray opposite you to make an incline. This makes it so all the runoff water
drains to the front of the tray.
These trays are on a slight incline so runoff water immediately pools to the front
At this point, you can take something like a wet vac (I like the Bucket Head attachment which hooks onto any 5-gallon bucket to make an ultra-cheap wet vacuum) to quickly suck up all the runoff water without having to move the plants at all.
Easy Access to Plants
This may seem simple but when it comes to making sure you pay enough attention to your plants without having to spend a lot of time on them, it’s super important to
make sure you can easily access your plants. Every extra obstacle between you and them is going to take a little extra time. So whenever possible try to make sure you have a clear path to the grow space, and that you have an easy-to-open grow tent, closet or grow box.
The main idea is to make it so when you check on the
plants it only takes a second. That being said, don't make your grow area easy to access for other people!
Make Sure the Tools in Your Grow Space Are Easy to Reach
You might not realize you've been wasting time going across the room every time you need to get your nutrients or a pH pen. When possible, you want every tool you use (measuring spoons, nutrients, pH testers, eye protection, grow journal, camera, etc) to be within arm's reach so you don't have to get up or move while tending your
plants.
Taking a little time on a lazy afternoon to really think this one through and set things up right will save you a surprising amount of time and effort in the long run!
4.) Choose the Right Strain
Each strain grows and produces a little differently. Some strains may be better than others for your purposes!
What's the Difference Between "Medical" & "Non-Medical" Marijuana? |
Does medical marijuana make you "messed up?"
While many types of cannabis have strong mental and/or physical effects, some types of
cannabis are completely non-psychoactive, which means they won't affect your thinking much, if at all. Non-psychoactive varieties of cannabis have very low levels of THC. However, there are many patients who use high-THC varieties of cannabis for the relief of certain types of symptoms like pain and nausea, and those can affect your mental state.
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Have you ever seen buds with "foxtails" on them? Sometimes they're good, and sometimes they're bad; how do you know which is which?
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Just wanted to commend you on the info on this website. It's an excellent source of all the info I've looked for and is presented logically in a manner which makes it easy for users to navigate and search for the info I presume they would be looking for. Well Done.
~Moe |
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Auto Amnesia Haze under 300w CFL - first time I've tried topping, LST and defoliation thanks to the excellent guidance and tutorials from growweedeasy. A month to go and can't wait to see the final result
:)
~skunkplant
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Who Runs This
Newsletter? |
Nebula Haze:
Medical cannabis is important to me personally, and I'm dedicated to showing others how easy it is to grow their own supply of
cannabis at home.
It is my mission to educate and build growing resources to help both new and advanced growers get bigger, better yields with less time and money. We update GrowWeedEasy.com at least weekly (often even more often!) to make sure that our website provides you with all the information you need to succeed at growing! |
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Learn which seed sources are personally recommended by Nebula Haze |
Sirius Fourside:
Sirius Fourside is a hobbyist grower who has gained the bulk of his experience growing in water as a medium (deep water culture,
bubbleponics).
"Growing cannabis is a relaxing hobby in and of itself, but it also saves you money and keeps you from having to deal with shady characters. Cannabis is much
easier to grow than people give it credit for, and growing in water doesn't increase the difficulty much, if any. But whether you want to grow in water, coco, or a different medium, we'll show you how easy it can be!"
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