Marijuana Grow Automatic Watering On The Cheap – Budget Irrigation
I am a dedicated soil grower, but have recently reaped the benefits of additional coco coir in the soil mix. The increased drainage and aeration has boosted growth rates, but requires somewhat more attention to keep the soil from drying out when using small containers (I prefer to run a small “sea of green” using one-gallon pots).
For short term absences from the grow room, I need to be sure that the plants are getting enough water to hold out for a week, especially in the summer when the temperature – and the resulting transpiration of water – runs high.
Recently, we were all going to be away for a week, and needed an easy solution to get the plants through with enough water to keep them moist, but without the danger of over-watering.
The solution turned out to be quite inexpensive and very effective. I picked up a dozen “Blumat” – cleverly designed clay spikes with plastic caps and water tubing attached made by an Austrian company.
They are simple to set up and use. Just soak the clay spike for about 15 min to saturate it with water. I found it useful to submerge the cap and tubing, as well, and get any air out of the tubes to be sure they work most efficiently. You then push the clay spike into your soil, and dangle the tubing into a reservoir of water that is placed lower than the clay spike. This is key! If you place the water bucket higher than the spikes, you’ll create a siphon and flood your plants. Keep the spikes above the water level, and they work using capillary action, drawing water up from the reservoir as the soil dries.
It took a bit of trial and error ahead of time to get it set for our absence, but it turned out that two of these spikes per one-gallon pot kept the soil moisture just right under 250 Watts of lighting. I figure that most of you budget home growers are using 250 watts or less, in which case this setup should work just fine. Keep in mind that these “clay spikes” max out at 80-100ml of water per day, but will also deliver less if your plant requires less. They react to the dampness of the soil and draw accordingly. Not bad for a cheap, easy solution.
You can pick them up in a pack of 3 on eBay or Amazon for about $12.
cheers
glenn panik
Writer Glenn Panik’s “How To Grow Cannabis At Home: A Guide To Indoor Medical Marijuana Growing”, is available on iTunes here, for the Amazon Kindle or via Smashwords here. You can also order the ‘stealth title’ of our information-packed ebook for the Kindle here.
The Best Soil For Growing Marijuana
“Build a better mousetrap, and the mice will beat a path to your door,” goes the old saying. Well, let’s say, “Mix a better grow medium, and your plants will grow themselves.”
OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but there is a lot that can be accomplished with a soil mixture that is tailored to growing cannabis. One great thing about putting your soil mix together yourself is that it doesn’t cost much at all. In fact, if you want to go extra “green” you can recycle a few typical household “wastes” to become a potent fertilizer for your next grow.
The first thing we need to consider is, “What would be the perfect soil for a cannabis plant?” Then all we need to do is put it together.
If you’ve read some of the previous posts on this blog – and even better, checked out our Cannabis Growing ebook (Amazon here, iBooks here) – then you know a few things about what a marijuana plant needs to properly develop through the vegetative and flowering phases. The MUSTS are: Read More…
How To Grow More Female Plants From Standard Cannabis Seeds
Although feminized cannabis seeds have become very popular, many growers still prefer standard seeds. Feminized seeds tend to be develop plants that are rather consistent in their traits, but it is that genetic “roll of the dice” that can treat a grower of standard seeds to a prize plant to clone or save their own top-grade seeds. Saving pollen from a few killer strains – perhaps a resinous Afghani indica, a virile Thai sativa, and a fruit “Bubblegum” hybrid – lets you selectively pollinate a few buds on a particularly nice plant you have in flowering, and create a stash of your own special seeds. Cool stuff.
For the budget-minded home grower, standard seeds are not only less expensive to begin with, but the option to save your own seeds saves much more money in the long run. So in this post contains a variety of tips to help you get the most from standard seeds. You’ll increase the chances of your plants growing into the desirable females for bud production, and also get a few males for pollen and save your own seeds.
Thanks to the great minds at Dutch Passion for introducing these concepts some years ago. I’ll focus on what the current home grower should do to implement these techniques – Read More…
Choosing A Marijuana Strain, Pt.3: All About Autoflowering Seeds.
Before you read this post, take a moment to watch this short video from Dutch Passion, one of the better cannabis seed banks:
This is a great example of the wonders modern cannabis breeders are achieving with cannabis genetics. The “Auto Mazar” from Dutch Passion is an incredible piece of work; an auto-flowering, high yielding, very potent cannabis plant that will go from seed to harvest in 2 1/2 months. Damn. (I should note here that I am in no way affiliated with Dutch Passion).
Even with less perfect conditions than those in which they grew that monster plant in the video, you can be sure to harvest enough buds to medicate for a long period of time! I am currently doing the easy “window grow” technique from my new ebook with an autoflowering plant, and will harvest about 20 grams from a plant that I used no additional lighting to grow. Breeders of these strains of cannabis have made tremendous leaps in productivity and quality of the plants in the last few years. They are no longer “something for home growers who don’t mind low quality marijuana” – they are serious seeds for any grower to consider cultivating.
So what is an auto-flowering or “autofem” cannabis plant? How is this different from a standard cannabis plant? Why is that something a home grower should be interested in? We need to learn a bit more about the humble Cannabis r. to understand the significance of an autoflowering cannabis plant: Read More…
Choosing A Marijuana Strain, Pt.2: Fruity, Fantastic Marijuana Strains? What’s In A Name.
Cascade Hops. As with cannabis, hop varieties carry signature aromas.
In a clever bid to sell more product, many marijuana seed breeders and seed shops give their strains enticing names; “Fruity Juice”, “Bubblicious”, “Blueberry Kush”, “Lemon Haze”, and so on. With many weeks from seed to harvest, growers are tense with anticipation – will the name of the strain deliver as promised? A novice grower – especially one on a budget – is not likely to be able to grow a wide variety of plants and compare results.
So the question on beginning grower’s minds: Is there really naturally flavored marijuana? Do strain names mean anything? Does Lemon Haze Cannabis bud taste like lemons? Does Blueberry marijuana taste like blueberries? Do the snozzberries really taste like snozzberries?! Read More…
Why Is Marijuana Illegal?
Here is a refreshingly visual journey through why marijuana remains (federally) illegal in the U.S.A. Dig it, share it, spread the word!
Created by: MedicalBillingandCodingCertification.net
Lemon Haze? Auto Blueberry? Afghan Kush? Choosing A Marijuana Strain For Your Grow, Pt.1
Indica/sativa hybrid in flowering
The most daunting task as a novice grower is probably choosing a cannabis strain for your grow. Googling “cannabis strains”, “seed shop”, “or “buy marijuana seeds” will just leave you reeling from the seemingly endless variety of seeds available.
You may already be familiar with the basic sub-types of the cannabis plant; the warmth-loving, tall growing Cannabis Sativa, the bushier, cooler-climate adapted Cannabis Indica, and the wily, northern Cannabis Ruderalis.
The cannabis seeds you have perused online are likely to be hybrids (in varying proportion), raised from Sativa, Indica, and Ruderalis plants. Reputable online shops such as Dutch Passion, Sensi Seeds, and Nirvana Seeds often provide you with information about the origin of the parent plants (if available) and provide a list of the characteristics you can expect from the plants that will grow from their seeds.
(The stress is on “can expect”. There are even variations within a given strain of seeds, although the long established seed banks are known for the stability of the seed strains they offer; the descriptions they provide are backed by much experience in breeding marijuana plants. Caveat emptor.)
The first thing you should ask yourself is, Read More…
Why visit this blog?
Internet searches for “growing marijuana” or “growing cannabis” release such a deluge of information that beginning growers will become quickly overwhelmed and even discouraged from growing their own medicinal marijuana at home. I’d like to assure you that you can grow a beautiful plant with buds like this on your very first try:
The truth is that cannabis is a vivacious wild plant that grows natively in most parts of the world – from Thailand to Toronto, Malaysia to Moscow, there are subspecies and strains adapted to all manner of growing conditions. We say this tongue-in-cheek, but in most cases, you’ll have a harder time killing a cannabis plants than you’d have trying to grow one! I’ve seen wild Cannabis Ruderalis growing on a roadside, weed-whacked by road crews and run over by a paving truck, only to begin sprouting a dozen branches of new growth a week later. Tough plant!
However, properly cultivating a cannabis plant to the point of harvesting high-quality medical marijuana buds for your own use can be tricky. In nature, a cannabis plant produces a large quantity of seeds which are then spread about by man and nature. The strongest and luckiest (which land in a good growing location) survive and flourish, continuing the genetic line and always adapting to the local environment.
We growers take the seeds indoors and subject them to a custom made micro-climate. The task for the home grower is to create a proper environment for our beloved cannabis plant to flourish in. First we need to decide which type of marijuana plant we wish to grow – and the choices can be daunting! In the next post, I’ll guide you, the beginning grower, through choosing the proper cannabis strain for your needs. If you’re itching to get started, then go ahead and order our ebook here and you’ll be on your way to starting your grow right away; he first step is to inform yourself! (Smashwords will provide you with all formats you could need for an ebook – Kindle, PDF, etc.)
best regards
glenn panik
Welcome To Glenn Panik’s Medical Marijuana Growing Blog
Welcome to Author Glenn Panik’s Cannabis Growing Blog.
We hope you enjoy the tips, tricks, and techniques provided here. If you find the advice on this site helpful or would like to start growing your own medical-grade marijuana, then consider ordering Glenn Panik’s “How To Grow Cannabis At Home: A Guide To Indoor Medical Marijuana Growing”. (Also available on Amazon.com here)
Please visit again soon for the first of our articles on growing this healthful plant. Please note that all information provided on this site is expressly for informational/educational purposes for marijuana growers who are legally allowed to cultivate cannabis for their own use. We do not condone growing activities in areas where the narrow-minded local government has deemed this gift of nature to be illegal, no matter how ridiculous this seems to any right-minded individual.
Cannabis Growing 