Subscriptions - Maximum Yield Cannabis USA November/December 2020 | Page 38

Purple Punch autoflower day 10 to day 12.
“Make 2020 the
year you become
a self-sufficient
home grower.”
It’s 2020 and us
home growers need
to clean up our act
starting in the growop.
I’m opting for an
organic dominant
fertilizer regime with
Base Nutrients Iguana
Juice Bloom, BioBizz
BioHeaven stimulant,
Advanced Nutrients
Rhino Skin for tough
plants with thick
stems, BioBizz TopMax
to promote juicy, tasty
buds, Cal-Mag Extra
by Advanced Nutrients
(because it’s better to
have it and not need it,
than to need it and not
have it), SuperThrive,
and a sachet of mycorrhizae
for the roots.
To monitor the pH,
I’ve got a basic GHE
pH color chart test kit
with dropper bottle
of solution with color
chart. I’m already
familiar with my
feeding regime so I
know I can keep my
nutrient solution close
to a 6.0 pH if I stick to
low-medium doses of
my fertilizers. But I’ll
check to make sure.
If you want the highest quality cannabis, it’s got to be
organic. It’s that simple. And the same reason why I want
an organic free-range chicken instead of the factory farmed
soaked-in-chlorine-quasi-food kind. Coconut water has
become a staple of my cannabis plants’ diet — it’s the best
organic supplement and natural PGR you can find on a
supermarket shelf.
How to Grow?
As I’m expecting compact branchy plants from my Purple
Punch Auto seeds, I decided three-gallon air-pots would be
perfect for a couple of plants to either grow natural without
worrying about running out of vertical space or prune and
train comfortably. Factoring in a 400W HPS, optimal light
distance is somewhere between 18-24 inches (30-45cm)
leaving ample room. I couldn’t tell you how high to hang
an LED (they vary so much so make sure to check the
manufacturer’s instructions).
I got a three-pack of seeds, so with my last Purple Punch
Auto bean I went even bigger with a 6.5-gallon black
square plastic pot with plenty of drainage holes in the
bottom. This larger pot is the same height as the air-pots
but much wider allowing me to really go for it with more
topping and perhaps a four-way low-stress training (LST)
for this plant, although three-gallon air-pots are still sufficient
for plenty of LST too.
Another essential piece of grow kit you don’t want to overlook
is a good set of trimming scissors for pruning and trimming
your buds at harvest.
Sowing seeds directly into first and final containers would
be fine for the two three-gallon size pots, but since I have one
seed destined for a big 6.5-gallon pot, I will do it by the book
beginning by using the paper-towel method to germinate
my seeds, then sowing the seedlings in the safe and humid
confines of rooting cubes housed in a propagator with my
HPS above dialed down to 250W. A good start is crucial for
autoflowers and advantageous to all growers.
If you want to keep your cannabis
plant numbers low, perhaps just one
to four plants per 10.5 square feet or
per crop, mastering advanced highyield
cultivation methods such as
the screen of green (SCROG) and/
or mainlining is a real asset.
With time and practice you will
gradually enhance your cultivation
skill set and make
incremental improvements
to your grow-op. The
SCROG is a high-volume,
high-yield strategy
really only suited
to commercial marijuana
production. A second grow
tent for mother plants and/or
cuttings is a practical investment
if you plan to preserve genetics
and for quicker crop rotation.
In total I spent about $445 putting
my complete indoor grow-op
together. When you think about
it, that’s a start-up cost of less
than two ounces. Make 2020 the
year you become a self-sufficient
home grower.
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Maximum Yield