Room setup rundown, examples of bud, et al in pictures... Some minor tweaks since these pictures were taken
Seedlings/Clones lights - Viparspectra XS1500 x1
Vege lights - DIY 630umol/s PAR x3
Flower Lights - 650w 3400K 1900umol/s PAR x2
Substrate - 50/50 sphagnum peat moss and vermiculite in 5-gallon pots
Climate Control - Luckily, the lights, winter and normal furnace use all equate to a decent temperature. A humidifier is needed early and later a dehumidifier is needed The last 4-5 weeks of flower phase.
Irrigation - I use 6 pressure compensating emitters per 5-gallon pot..
Basic process - 16/8 vege and 12/12 ligth schedule - Updated 2026
Sow up to 2x as many seeds as needed. These sit in a 1020 tray under the xs1500 until potting up to 1-gallons. After potting up, a couple 226-watt DIY lights are turned on to cover entire 4x4 area. Everything is hand-watered up to this point. Weak plants are removed as needed to get down to 8 plants that will go into final pots. This takes just over 3 weeks.
Once in the 5-gallon pots (slightly under-filled), they move to the 4x8 platform under two 650w lights running at 60% and a slightly closer hanging distance than normal for a minimum of 10 days before flip to flower - usually ~14. Some light training with scrog to get the canopy level and allow 10-12 future vertical branches per plant to space out a bit.
Cuttings for any feminized breeding cycles are taken after 30-35 days. Some light pruning of lower growth occurs. Flip to flower is generally 35-38 days after sprouting, but the second grow cycle can sometimes be delayed by the first.
After flip to flower, lights set to 100% with normal hanging distance, and fertilizer concentration is reduced. Now, the vertically growing 10-12 branches per plant are spaced out the last few inches with minimal training. The scrog provides the anchor. If necesary, some minimal pruning is employed to avoid future congestion. Some pruning is inevitable, but the goal is not to waste time and resources on growth that is not producing fruit.
Average and better plants will be 180-250+ grams. Weak plants will fall short of that. Even culling the weak early on in vege will result in 1-2 weak plants per crop, on average.
Drying / Curing - Into mesh racks for 10-14 days. I wet trim and cut down to similarly sized buds for even drying. Temps are controlled around 65F and RH is controlled at 57-60%. Then, into some 5-gallon buckets with gamma seal lids and (3) 2-way 67g boveda humidipaks (58% or 62%) in each bucket. These are burped until moisutre levels are confidently at equilibrium. Once i figure out what I prefer to smoke, large portions of both harvests will be vacuum sealed - still kept in the sealed, rh-controlled 5-gallon buckets. Only cut open a couple at a time to keep everything fresh throughout the year.
Cost - 0.33 cents (USD) per gram produced. This includes an accelerated depreciation expense for all equipment used, fertilizer, water, electricity for all equipment used, new filters and other yearly purchases - bti, ph strips, sticky traps, etc. I'm a finance guy, so these numbers are comprehensively accurate and purposely err slightly on high side of cost. The only facet not included is the cost of my labor.
Tip:
Reconstituting 2-way humidipaks -- tray, humidity dome and a heat mat are used. Set some wet paper towel on bottom of tray. change these out daily. I use upside down seedling pots so that the humidipaks don't directly touch the wet towels. Set heat mat to 80F or causes condensation to form on dome, and the 67-gram packs can gain abut 0.20 to 0.25 grams per hour. Weigh them as you go until they get back to 67 grams and remove from dome for use or storage.
Anything that has precipitated (hardness inside), will mostly go back into solution over a few days, but some small portion may not. Shaking or otherwise moving the pebbles around in the solution will help speed that process up. If those solids inside build up over time, that's when you'll need to replace them. A few pebbles inside of a 67g pack won't matter much.
The key is providing a closed 100% RH environment without directly wetting the packs. Rate of absorption is fairly slow, and will vary by pack size. You may not get 100% of it back into solution, but as long as those solids don't build up much, they'll work fine.
This process also reduces any bud smell that may be clinging to them... assuming they dried out significantly and not just topping them off with a few grams of moisture.
Don't try to max out their weight unless you are certain you only need 1-way RH control. Othwerwise, you don't want them fully saturated. So, do weight and keep track of their progress.