Red's back

[guest 77721]

This one's for I2KanGrow

my LUI started to slow down showed rising PPM's by the pH bottoming out. She's been running on molasses for the last week and has really pulled nutes out the leaves. The trichs just turned 50% cloudy today. I'm going to chop when the trichs look 100% cloudy or maybe 25% amber. This plant is pretty stoney so I don't want it to get too amber.

 

[guest 77721]

Hi there Red.. Ive been building a dresser that uses the exact way of cooling your lights but befor i found your thread i had done stuck 2 65 cfm fans in the top.. One for blowing air in and one for sucking it out .. I see that youve only got one fan sucking air out of the light chamber .. My qustion is are there any gaines or losses by doin that .. I would say one gain would be less noise and thats what i would like to have cause those 2 fans in there sound like a vacum cleaner . But as far as i know it seems to be coolin the chamber really well which has 150hps in it .. Any advice would be helpful cause the Dresser is still in my Wood Working Shop but wanna get all the last details in befor i move it to my Spray Booth to start refinishing ( Its an early 1900's Chest of Drawers mise well make it look nice ) ... And by the way your plants are looking GREAT .. Been scanning thru this thread to look for incuragment for awhile now hahahaa​

Check out my 150 HPS Cab thread to see the build of my cabinet. The basic ventiation system is from my R2D2 design that used a single 38 CFM fan for the lights and the same carbon filter for the 150 HPS light.

On the cabinet design, I orginally put two 65CFM fans in the light box, one sucking, one blowing and found it too loud and overkill for airflow. My thinking was if one fan failed, the other would be a backup. The single 65 CFM fan works just fine.

 

[OldTimers]

Thanks Red .. Your thread that you listed for me to look at summed up my questions .. I will be pulling that other fan out and just doin a single .. Look for my Micro Grow thread soon as it is based on your setup .. Good luck and Keep Safe

 

[guest 77721]

One thing extra I did was to cut the intake hole to a 5"x5" square for maximimum intake size. That's on page two of this thread.

http://icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=2151716&postcount=18

 

[guest 77721]

My Shiskaberry is dried and in the jars now. I got exactly the same 19 grams as the LUI.

The LUI #2 needed watering tonight. It looked kaput and the trichomes are mostly cloudy with a bit clear so I chopped her down. Just have the Thai-Light left in the lonely flowerbox. sniff....

 

[I2KanGrow]

Hey Red - Really great harvest! I'm assuming that you're gonna reveg the LUI also, right?

I've been away for a few days so I don't know what the girls look like, perhaps they'll greet me tonight with ambers - We'll see.

Man, that bud on the left-hand side looks sweeeeet!!!

 

[guest 77721]

Yes it is!!! That's the entire top bud. This plant is a bit smaller than the other two that I harversted. Hoping for 14g+.

I've got all 3 chopped plants revegging in my tubbermaid. I'd sure hate to lose the LUI's.

I'm hoping you'll get your ambers. I wanted to let the LUI go a bit longer but it was ready for chopping.

 

[Aerohead]

Wow, very nice work Red... Those are beautiful!!!

 

[guest 77721]

Thanks for popping by Aerohead. Take a look-see at my Thai-Lights at 9 weeks. This is supposed to be an 8 week finisher. Seems this plant favours the Thai side of the family.

 

[#1cheesebuds]

dam that is 1 very tall ladie u have there.

 

[guest 77721]

She fills nearly fills my growbox at 38" tall. I still have an inch left cause she's standing on an old math book.

I was thinking about putting in a veg section in the bottom a while ago. Good thing I didn't!!!

 

[Aerohead]

Nice plant but a micro growers nightmare, lol, that wouldn't fit in anything I have... Looks like it's still got a few weeks to go too.

 

[guest 77721]

This thing grew 1 to 3 inches a day for two weeks straight.

Now if I had put a screen on it, I could have kept it under control until flowering kicked in. This plant surprised me, it was supposed to be an indica sativa mix but all the plants I've seen are sativa dominant. I'd hate to see a pure Thai in action.

 

[guest 77721]

Here's my 10 week Thai-Lights. I'm having a bit of trouble getting the feeding dialed in at the end with this girl. She's showing tip burn even though I keep reducing nutes and seems to be taking them all up as the pH keeps rising. I just fed with a low nute concentration of Sensi Bloom only, no Big Bud. Maybe a more balanced feeding will help. She's a big plant that's overgrown in a small pot which makes the feeding touchy.

The leaves are looking old and the hairs are just starting to age a bit. I'll be running her on molasses in the next week.

****************************************************************************************

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I jarred up LUI#2 this week at 15 grams. There is a difference between vegged and 12/12 plants. Anyway the grand total now is LUI#1 - 19g, Shiska 19g, LUI#2 15g for 53g total so far.

 

[I2KanGrow]

Tall, and yet fattening up nicely - MMmmmm, lookin' good!! Could it be that that big-ole girl in that smallish pot is the reason for your dialing-in difficulties?

I'd hate to see a pure Thai in action.

Oh, I don't know; plant it in the backyard, hang a swing off of it (maybe a tree fort), and away you go!!

 

[#1cheesebuds]

dang that thing is gunna take fo ever to flower fully.
but its also gunna be a huge bud.

that is a super dooper ooper nice job of growing that big of a plant in that small of a pot planter.

=)

 

[guest 77721]

She filled out big time this week. The calyxes are swelling. I wish she wasn't so touchy with the feeding though. She was taking a 600ppm solution of 300 Big Bud and 300 Sensi Bloom that I was diluted down to 300ppm's since she needed two waterings a week. This is still a bit hot but she's looking for more P.

I'm just gave her a 300 ppm dose of just Sensi and molasses and I'll dilute that down on the next watering.

Being rootbound in a little pot has advantages and disadvantages. I lost the luxury of having a nute buffer in the larger pot where I can dump in a week's feeding and then water inbetween as needed. However feeding 2 - 3 times weekly with diluted nutes gives a bit more day to day control.

That would be awesome to be able to grow in the backyard. I have had no outdoor privacy for the last couple of weeks. I had a row of Lombardy poplars across the backyard which were a nice privacy screen. The've been getting in pretty rough shape and I just had them cut down. A neighbour has been taking the wood and now I'm in a fishbowl with my backyard neighbours who are a recently retired Italian couple with a garden. Thank goodness they have a camp (Cottage for you non-northerners) and are away most of the summer.

 

[guest 77721]

Petemoss found this post from Lucas about the Lucas Formula in coco and other mediums.

My own methods of feeding and watering in my soiless mixture is similar to Lucas' advice. Nutes do build up in the soil and I follow an alternating feed/water program.

Hope this helps...

Here's what Lucas says:

Hi Nevi
looking forward to your success.

the question you asked gives me an opportunity to discuss the difference between hydro and medium based growing in more detail.

In a pot of soil, coco, or other dense medium nutrients build up over time, and this lowers the pH over time..

So it works well to feed dense medium grown plants with .7 EC food at each irrigation, or to feed 2.0 EC once, then use plain water twice..

in both cases the goal is to get the root zone to EC 2.0 and the pH, in the root zone, below 6

One reason soil is supposed to be fed with higher pH, is to offset the dropping pH in the medium, as nutes accumulate..

Therefore feeding soil with pH 7 works fine.. because it is counteracting the low pH of the accumulated nutes..
--
In hydro, the nutes do not concentrate.. they actually get weaker as water is added back..

so the target EC is 2.0, and the target pH is 5.5
as a res ages, the EC drops and the pH rises.. exactly the opposite of what happens in a pot of soil over time

fwiw, soil, coco, sunshine mix, and any other medium that holds water, falls into the category of accumulating nutes..

otoh, ebb flow in rox, or any form of DWC, is a non accumulating system..
the strategies are different, but the target EC and pH in the root zone is the same

another difference is that in Hydro, you cant overwater, but you MUST deliver dissolved oxygen by injecting bubbles into the reservoir..

in Soil you can easily overwater, but, done properly, the plants can be just as healthy and yield just as well, and grow just as fast as Hydro..

And, in Soil, and especially in ebb flow, you have an advantage that plants in medium will survive 75+ temps much better than in DWC, which MUST be kept below 72F for best results..

the reason for the heat resistance of medium based grows, is that as the medium dehydrates, it pulls heat away with the steam that is being created in the pot.. like a swamp cooler effect. to get the swamp cooler effect in DWC, the trick is to blow air accross the reservoir..

hth
Lucas

> 4. Is feeding everyother day a good Idea for coco, no matter if the medium is dry or not?

No
it is very bad to water a plant that is already too wet

to feed and water properly, you should NOT water till runoff in your coco based medium

instead, you should only water as much as the plant drinks in one day.. THEN you could feed every day

watering not too much is an art.

Watering coco till it has runoff is a very bad idea. It hurts the plants if they stay wet for more than 3 days. They need to breathe.

> What is the watering schedule for coco ?

depends how big the pot is, how big the plant is, and how fast the pot dries out. You want it to dry out daily, so you can water daily, but, only give enough water to be used up by the plant..

it would probably kill a 6" plant if you put it in a 5 gallon pot and water it till runoff every day.

> 5. If run off is a must with coco can I still use 3 gallon pots, thats a lot of feeding to get run off and a lot of saturation if feeding everyday ?

runoff in coco is not your friend.. as you are surmising, abandon the idea of runoff in coco

> 6. at the old cannabis world I read that growgreen yields better with the Floranova lucas formula with floracious bloom than with pbpb formula, what are your thoughts ?

Yield is more based on plant health, which is more based on not overwatering, than on what is being fed.

Learn to water enough, but not too much

if you are going to feed with every watering.. figure out how many times you water per week, then feed a ppm that adds up to 1000 per week on a .5 meter

iow, if you water 4 times a week, feed 250ppm each time..

or, as you have developed a system of feeding twice and watering once, keep doing that, but again, figure out how often that happens per week, and make it add up to 1000.. iow, if you are watering 3x per week with 2 of them being feed.. use 500ppm each feed, twice, the plain water once..

the goal is to get the runoff not to be above 1000ppm.. but you should not check for runoff every single watering

(find my posts about how to water and read more)
hth
Lucas

> When do I flush

if you dont overfeed you dont need to flush.. if your EC runoff is above 2.0, skip a feeding, and water with plain RO water.

flushing 2 weeks before harvest is not a good strategy, especially since you dont know exactly when the plants will finish..

Then comes vegging under bloom wattage. 5 days of that, will blow the top off any yield you might get from plants vegged under lower than bloom wattage.

to recap
my suggestion is 2 weeks rooting
2weeks veg under fluoro, then prune off bottom 3 branch pairs
5 days veg under bloom light, then flip to 12/12
2 weeks into 12/12 remove any remaining growth that will be shaded or will touch the plant next to it.

> wondering about running 0-8-16 in soil?

actually, that is a very deep question, seldom discussed

when nutes are poured on soil, and the water evaporates, most of the nutes are still in the soil, just dried out, until the next watering.

so it is possible for more and more nutes to accumulate in soil, which is where flushing comes from..

in hydro, the nutes are constantly wet, so they dont dry out and accumulate the way they do in soil

both hydro and soil want a similar nutes strength at the roots, and both hydro and soil would actually use the same total amounts of nutes and water per crop life, at least, thats my theory

so
my rule of thumb is, soil nutes run about 1/3 strength of hydro nutes, if you water with nutes in the water every time, or use full strength if you feed once a week, and water with plain water inbetween

the goal, whatever you do in terms of how often you water per week, and how strong you nute the water, is to keep the runoff between 1000 to [email protected] conver(1.4-2.6 EC)

 

[Anti]

Hi Red. I've thanked you over and over again in my thread, but I have no way of knowing if you're still lurking around there or not...

I followed your advice RE: glass partitions for lights and I based my carbon scrubber on one of your threads. Built my scrubber for $20 including carbon.

Just wanted you to know that both are working out superbly! I read other people's threads who are running with CFLs at a lower wattage than mine that aren't using a glass partition and have temps in the mid 90's! My temps almost never even get into the 80's (generally low to mid 70's) and I'm running 252 watts per room! Thanks so much!

This bud's for you:

Serious Seeds AK47 '04 (Day 72 from Seed, Day 41 from 12/12)
​

 

[Cozy Amnesia]

Yeah I wish I had a glass partition in my cab...