Having identified a great soil that can be had from a major chain store, early today I droped a C-Note at Lowes, and another C-Note and a half (not to be confused with a cenote, or a serrote) at the AMAZON Zone…
I have a two outlet timer, a 420 scope, a humidifier control (Inkbird) and a humidifier (Honeywell) on the way.
At Lowes I bagged (literally) five sacks of Sta-Green soil, a bag of Hardwood bark Mulch (for the bottoms of the buckets) some lamp parts to make some hanging light fixtures to suspend LED “Bright Sticks” directly where I want them, a bag of blood meal (they were out of bone meal…), some sulphur powder that is intended to dust roses with, and a bag of “Ironite”, it was a quick and highly compressed trip.
I did not find “Bat Guano” or Azomite. I also forgot about lime - which is a thing a local grower recommended…
The flower fertilizers there were not even close to the flower power mix percentages of the products offered here.
I guess I should order some from ILGM.
I wish I could find a potassium (K) source that was cheap, and I have a tip for those of you who like to save egg shells to use as a calcium source: BLAST them in a blender with some water, to break them up and mix into the soil. Just dropping egg shells in a garden is a slow and disappointing way to go about it that just makes your planters look like a trash can.
~ The shells take forever to break down and become available in the ground unless you do this.
Comments?
PS: Picture one shows the light and fixture off so you can see it. Picture two is with all lights ON
All you need is some parts and a screwdriver - you can hang as many of these in by your plants as you need to, and LED’s use less power to make a lot more light!
Right now it is hanging by the power cord, and I suppose that’s okay because they don’t weigh much. But at the top of the socket if you look - I have installed a loop finial that can have a chain or a wire, or a rope attached to support the weight of it.
NO REFLECTOR is used, so that it can radiate away any heat generated
Something I like about LED lights is that they are not only power conservative, but also generate very little heat - so that the heat and power signature of your grow space is kept to a minimum that would be considered normal
Stealth in all things, right?
If I get real paranoid I will go into the attic and make sure there is a duct attached to the ceiling fan to carry any “SMELL” outside and exhaust it to the great outdoors. The kit for that consists of a flexible hose like a drier hose, and a vent that is installed at the roof edge. That way my attic will not come to smell like a cannibis field…
Most modern bathrooms have a ceiling fan to carry away humid air from taking a shower (among other things like smells). But I have noticed most home builders and contractors take shortcuts and never vent things like that to the outside of the house - they just blow all of that into the attic which is a bad thing anyway.
*THAT is a serious home owner tip for you anyway - get up into your attic and look to see if the grade school dropouts who built your place took short-cuts. I just about guarantee that they did…