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WECKELS WORLD OF
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WONDERS "Y 7ECKELS THE GROW SPECIALIST FROM !TAMI
/UTDOOR GROWING n INDOOR BLOOMING PART /NCE THEY RE INDOORS AND UNDER LAMPS 4HOSE OF YOU WHO THOUGHT THAT 7ECKELS 7ORLD OF 7ONDERS OUTDOOR ONLY LOOKED AT ISSUES REGARDING OUTDOOR GROWING HAVE A FALSE IMPRESSION &ROM THIS ARTICLE PART ONWARDS ) SHALL BE DEALING WITH THE GROWING OF MARIHUANA UNDER ARTIFICIAL LIGHT INDOOR GROWING SINCE AFTER ALL WE ARE LOOKING AT LETTING OUR PLANTS BLOOM INDOORS "UT NEVER FEAR THIS DOES NOT MEAN WE ARE COMING TO THE END OF THE ARTICLES DEVOTED TO OUTDOOR GROWING &ANS OF THE GREAT OUTDOOR CAN REST ASSURED THAT THERE WILL PLENTY MORE LOVELY ARTICLES ON THE WAY WITH WHICH ) WILL BE AIMING TO HELP YOU GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR PATCH OF SOIL
(ERE YOU CAN SEE ALL FIVE PLANTS STOOD NEXT TO EACH OTHER 'IVEN THEIR SIZE WE HAVE CHOSEN TO STICK THE PLANTS STRAIGHT IN TO BLOOM RIGHT FROM THE START
!FTER ABOUT WEEK AND A HALF YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE FROM THE PLANTS AND THE STATE OF THEIR LEAVES THAT THE BLOOM HORMONES HAVE BEGUN TO DO THEIR WORK ON THE PLANTS
In the previous article in this series we saw how we could safely and securely transport our plants to their indoor space. In this article we will be looking at how the lives of these plants are progressing and how we can best tailor conditions to their needs. Growing indoors often demands a bit more experience from the grower, or in any case a bit more technical skill and with it a reasonable level of insight. As a indoor grower you will often be called upon to take account of a number of (new) factors. How many lamps can I safely place in my grow room? What is the maximum height I should allow my plants to reach in order that they still have some leeway under the lamps? How do I best look after the air circulation? These are all important aspects that help determine a successful crop of indoor marihuana, aspects that during the growing cycle we have to have a firm grip of in order to maximise the living conditions under artificial light. In coming articles I will be paying attention to these and all the other important issues.
are going to suffer any deficiency of feed water. If you choose to go down this route, take care over the amount of (feed) water that you program the plants to be given. To prevent your dishes overflowing it might be a good idea to give the plants smaller amounts of water, more times a day, rather than giving them one huge dose all in one go.
But first I would like to return briefly to the outdoor plants that we have now moved into their indoor space. Since we will need to provide the plants with large volumes of water once they come indoors, it is a good idea to place the large flower pots with the plants in them onto large dishes. These dishes are available from pretty much all garden centres and grow shops, and are very practical for our plants. Preferably you
should buy as large dishes as you can, so that they can hold more than enough feed water. This is pretty useful, because otherwise the dishes would run the risk of overflowing every time you watered the plants, which in turn means having to mop up after each watering too, with all the hassle that entails. What’s more, a larger sized dish offers the possibility of keeping a close eye on the water that overflows with the aid of an ec meter. But this is something I will be going in to in greater detail in a later article. So each pot with a marihuana plant in it is stood in a single large dish. In this way we can easily provide the plants with large volumes of water, without most of it streaming away immediately (because a large amount remains behind and available to the plant in the dish). The high quantities of light and the high temperature ensure that the White Shark plants use an amazingly large amount of feed water. This is something as growers we need to keep firmly in mind, because an indoor plant under artificial light that suffers a shortage of water (and thereby also of liquid nutrients and stimulators), will have much more trouble achieving a big harvest than a plant that has been richly provided with plenty of nutrientrich moisture. Given this reality it is perhaps handy to look into having automatic irrigation, so that we can also take the odd day or two off without having to worry that the plants
Because we will be visiting our growing space every day, we can choose in this grow to give the plants water by hand. It is perhaps a little more work, but we do keep everything under our own close control and we can therefore offer our plants maximum care. Rather than schlepping everything around in a bucket, we can place a feed water vat in the grow space with a submersible pump and a smaller circulation pump inside it. The circulation pump makes sure that the nutrients, the stimulators and the water are well and truly mixed and stay mixed with each other. If we did not do this then the liquid nutrients could run the risk of settling at the bottom of the vat and concentrating themselves around the submerged pump (which is at the bottom of the vat). What would then happen, I think every grower can well imagine. When the submerged pump was switched on the plants would be inundated with much too high a concentration of nutrients and stimulators. In short, the nutrients and stimulators are not well dispersed throughout the water. If you still decide that you don’t want to use a small circulation pump, of course
you always decide to just give the vat a thorough stirring with a bamboo pole or something like that, so that the nutrients, stimulators and the water are still well mixed, whereupon we can safely use the submerged pump. In our grow space the submerged pump pumps the feed water (water with liquid nutrient and stimulators mixed with it) through a garden hose when it is switched on. The hose then runs from pot to pot and is secured to each plant’s main stem, so that it can not flap around. In the hose there are holes punched where it passes over each flower pot, so that the feed water can easily flow out. So we only have to switch on the submerged pump and each plant is provided with everything it needs. We do still need to pay attention to ensuring that the plants have used more or less all the fertilisers from the soil they were growing in, since the plants have had a good length of time in pre-growth. It is therefore very important that in any case we provide the plants with liquid nutrients (eventually supplemented with extra stimulators), so that the plants do not become deficient in anything. Our earth mixture did contain some substances that only become available to the plant after a certain period of time has passed (such as the bone meal for example), so we need to avoid washing away the earth as much as we can. Also make sure that the dishes are not allowed to stand filled
