B---awesome---thank you. 
B
B. Self Reliant
Notes on the First Few Weeks
Notes on the First Few Weeks
Alright, it's been a while and I can say that the temps don't go above 90°F. That's right before the lights go out after 11.5 hours of heat buildup, with my home AC on and near record temps outside.
On another topic, I've been experimenting with different ways to deliver hydro nutes to my plants now that the bloom room is automated by Blumats that only deliver plain water. I have no problem hand-feeding once a week in order to give the gals their food, so I mixed up batch of 1000 PPM veg mix and gave it a try for a couple weeks. The result was the yellowed-out plants in my last photo update. I believe in bold adjustments, so when that didn't work, I gave them a smaller amount of water, but I mixed it @ 1500 PPM's. This did the trick. Within 12 hours they had greened back up, sprung back to their normal selves and started shooting up. So, as of now it looks like my hand feeding once a week method will work, but the PPM's need to be at least 1500 since they're only getting fed once a week. I may even try 2000 PPM. . . whatever I give them is immediately mixing in with the plain water that's already in the medium, so it's not really 1500 or 2000 when it hits the plants. Ideally I'll get into a routine where I can give them something close to a "nutrient shot". . . the smallest amount of water necessary to deliver the amount of nutrients they need.
Notes on the First Few Weeks
Alright, it's been a while and I can say that the temps don't go above 90°F. That's right before the lights go out after 11.5 hours of heat buildup, with my home AC on and near record temps outside.
On another topic, I've been experimenting with different ways to deliver hydro nutes to my plants now that the bloom room is automated by Blumats that only deliver plain water. I have no problem hand-feeding once a week in order to give the gals their food, so I mixed up batch of 1000 PPM veg mix and gave it a try for a couple weeks. The result was the yellowed-out plants in my last photo update. I believe in bold adjustments, so when that didn't work, I gave them a smaller amount of water, but I mixed it @ 1500 PPM's. This did the trick. Within 12 hours they had greened back up, sprung back to their normal selves and started shooting up. So, as of now it looks like my hand feeding once a week method will work, but the PPM's need to be at least 1500 since they're only getting fed once a week. I may even try 2000 PPM. . . whatever I give them is immediately mixing in with the plain water that's already in the medium, so it's not really 1500 or 2000 when it hits the plants. Ideally I'll get into a routine where I can give them something close to a "nutrient shot". . . the smallest amount of water necessary to deliver the amount of nutrients they need.
Last edited:
B
B. Self Reliant
Blumat (Re-)Setup
Blumat (Re-)Setup
A couple of quick notes. . .
Those are really the only big events that have happened since I flowered a while back. The bloom room is going through stretch right now and everything looks good, even if a bit over-crowded. The (3) Sour Cindy's I popped a while back are about to show sex in my veg areas, so that's rad.
Blumat (Re-)Setup
A couple of quick notes. . .
- I let my reservoir run dry a few days ago, and as a result, I had to setup all my Blumats again. I know everyone complains about setting up Blumats, but I removed mine from the medium, set them aside to soak for an hour in a bucket, mixed up a 30-gallon reservoir of Ph-balanced water, hand watered each container, placed each Blumat back in it's container, dialed each one in, and it took about 60 minutes. Not bad at all considering it used to take me 30 minutes/day just to water by hand.
- Next time around I think I need to forego flowering the little gals in the smaller 6" pots. Right now there's one of those gals between each larger plant and it's way too crowded. Granted, I vegged a lot longer this time around, so the larger plants are really large, but I still think it's best to go with too few than too many. . . I'll probably leave the small gal along the back wall there, and the one that's next to the reservoir barrel is also filling a needed gap, but the rest wil be harvested and their spaces left empty.
Those are really the only big events that have happened since I flowered a while back. The bloom room is going through stretch right now and everything looks good, even if a bit over-crowded. The (3) Sour Cindy's I popped a while back are about to show sex in my veg areas, so that's rad.
Last edited:
B
B. Self Reliant
Bloom Day 13
Bloom Day 13
A very full canopy! That's where we're at right now. The pH-balanced tap water in the Blumat reservoir & 1700 PPM feedings via a watering can about once a week seem to be doing the trick. That Sour Cindy along the back wall was mislabeled I think. . . it's actually one of the magic beans from Jack & The Beanstalk. A couple more days and I should be able to climb up her stalk into the clouds! A week ago I chopped her longest top off about a foot from the top because it was too close to the ballast board for comfort. It's already tall again though so if that plant ends up being my new mom, I'll be saving some veg time in the future!
Bloom Day 13
A very full canopy! That's where we're at right now. The pH-balanced tap water in the Blumat reservoir & 1700 PPM feedings via a watering can about once a week seem to be doing the trick. That Sour Cindy along the back wall was mislabeled I think. . . it's actually one of the magic beans from Jack & The Beanstalk. A couple more days and I should be able to climb up her stalk into the clouds! A week ago I chopped her longest top off about a foot from the top because it was too close to the ballast board for comfort. It's already tall again though so if that plant ends up being my new mom, I'll be saving some veg time in the future!
B
B. Self Reliant
420ish, if you didn't hang around my threads my traffic would be cut in half. Thanks for sticking' with me!
I hope the lamp rig works for you! So much frustration was lifted from my daily routine once I had a rigid lamp fixture to move and manipulate.B---awesome---thank you.
Thanks budman678. I'm still searching for a mom that's just right for my space, but what I have now is getting me by and I'm excited to see the new space up & running. If you stick around you'll see some great strains flowering in the next few weeks and for next round I have two kinds of Rotten Banana, Blue Vixen, Sour Cindy and some others already vegging. Hope to see you around!
Ganja Maker
Member
Hey B, looks like you got it all rolling smooth. you gave me the push I needed, I've decided that I am hooking up my bluemats this week. I'm just going to hang a 5 gallon bucket for a res to start out. I figure if I was able to keep up on hand watering then I should be able to keep that topped.
B
B. Self Reliant
That should be very helpful for you. Even if you have to be around to top it off, you'll be saving yourself the trouble of having to tend to every plant every day. Let me know how it goes!
B
B. Self Reliant
Bloom Day 28
Bloom Day 28
With a little training the canopy ended up nice & even.
Getting in there was a nightmare, so I made some bold adjustments. First, I realized that scooting around in the walkway underneath the canopy was by far the easiest approach. Walking & working while standing is a last resort only. I also rigged the front HPS stack up to hang horizontal overhead while I work. Last, I culled a 1-gallon pot on the left wall so the front floor fan can slide over to the side. The result is an area that's pretty easily accessible. Next round I'm going to have all the plants propped up on a 1' tall shelf that runs around the edge of the room. This will allow even better accessibility when the plants are large.
The canopy is pretty tall, but all in all everything looks good. I've been hand watering with a 1700 PPM solution every 5-7 days and it's been effective & easy. The Blumats take care of everything in between hand waterings.
This is my current arrangement, with a 1-gallon pot between every pair of 3-gallon pots. It's a bit crowded on the floor and up in the canopy, so next run I'll route a new 1/2" line for the Blumats with less feed lines coming off of it. I think I can harvest the same amount of product with less plants, so why not?
As time goes on, the issues I'm dealing with are becoming smaller & smaller. I'm hoping for some good numbers this round. . .
Bloom Day 28
With a little training the canopy ended up nice & even.
Getting in there was a nightmare, so I made some bold adjustments. First, I realized that scooting around in the walkway underneath the canopy was by far the easiest approach. Walking & working while standing is a last resort only. I also rigged the front HPS stack up to hang horizontal overhead while I work. Last, I culled a 1-gallon pot on the left wall so the front floor fan can slide over to the side. The result is an area that's pretty easily accessible. Next round I'm going to have all the plants propped up on a 1' tall shelf that runs around the edge of the room. This will allow even better accessibility when the plants are large.
The canopy is pretty tall, but all in all everything looks good. I've been hand watering with a 1700 PPM solution every 5-7 days and it's been effective & easy. The Blumats take care of everything in between hand waterings.
This is my current arrangement, with a 1-gallon pot between every pair of 3-gallon pots. It's a bit crowded on the floor and up in the canopy, so next run I'll route a new 1/2" line for the Blumats with less feed lines coming off of it. I think I can harvest the same amount of product with less plants, so why not?
As time goes on, the issues I'm dealing with are becoming smaller & smaller. I'm hoping for some good numbers this round. . .
B
B. Self Reliant
Custom Veg Rack
Custom Veg Rack
It's finally built, painted & functional! My veg space is 4'x4', so pics are tough to get, but this should give you an idea of my new veg area/work space. The top rack is for keg cups, 1/2-gallon pots & moms. That bottom shelf will have my 2'x4' T5 resting vertically on it, but I haven't hung it yet. When hung vertically, it can only veg (4) 3-gallon pots at a time, but the results are similar to vegging around a HPS. Finally, I installed a flip-up tray to work on when I need to re-pot, trim, etc.
The tray hangs up & out of the way most of the time. It also acts as a reflector for the plants vegging under the LED. On the wall you can see a list of what's in the mom stable at the moment, with some notes on different Sour Cindy phenos next to it.
When the tray is down I have a pretty legit work area that's totally smell controlled. I think the biggest benefit is going to be at harvest when my whole house no longer smells due to clipping outside the grow room.
The left side of the work tray is supported by a rope that hooks onto a hanging chain. This side isn't going to give out on me, but the hinges are only screwed to 1/2" plywood, so I'm not going to be doing anything too crazy on it.
Custom Veg Rack
It's finally built, painted & functional! My veg space is 4'x4', so pics are tough to get, but this should give you an idea of my new veg area/work space. The top rack is for keg cups, 1/2-gallon pots & moms. That bottom shelf will have my 2'x4' T5 resting vertically on it, but I haven't hung it yet. When hung vertically, it can only veg (4) 3-gallon pots at a time, but the results are similar to vegging around a HPS. Finally, I installed a flip-up tray to work on when I need to re-pot, trim, etc.
The tray hangs up & out of the way most of the time. It also acts as a reflector for the plants vegging under the LED. On the wall you can see a list of what's in the mom stable at the moment, with some notes on different Sour Cindy phenos next to it.
When the tray is down I have a pretty legit work area that's totally smell controlled. I think the biggest benefit is going to be at harvest when my whole house no longer smells due to clipping outside the grow room.
The left side of the work tray is supported by a rope that hooks onto a hanging chain. This side isn't going to give out on me, but the hinges are only screwed to 1/2" plywood, so I'm not going to be doing anything too crazy on it.
are you using ro water?around how much water per plant?it was always a pain using the nutes in my res.i would disassemble the blumats and hoses every crop and clean and blow the hoses out.i think my hard water was more of the crud i would clean out then the nutes,i know the hard water made keeping everything mixed a pain.
B
B. Self Reliant
I started this round with (7), but next time I'll probably only run the one along the back wall and the one next to the reservoir. The back wall has space that needs to be filled and the one that wraps itself around the reservoir helps keep the water cool. . . . otherwise the water barrel just sits naked about 8" from a 1k HPS stack. The plant keeps the water very cool by absorbing most of the light & heat.
I used to use RO water, but with this new room I've been using tap water @ about 230 PPM. I don't have any issues with keeping things clean, but I do keep in mind my starting PPM's when mixing up my nutes. I want 1000 PPM or 1700 PPM of actual nutes. Keeping the main res clean with only Ph-balanced water is one of the better decisions I've made. It never really needs to be cleaned, there's no questions about the Blumats working properly, I can split up my harvests without needing two reservoirs, etc. It's just easier for this particular garden. When I need to feed, I've been giving them a 1700 PPM nutrient mix until the pot is almost saturated, but no run off comes out. I have no problem saturating a container once they get into the flowering space because the relatively large plants can go through that amount of moisture in less than 24 hours, with the Blumats kicking back in whenever they need to.
As a side note, I also use Drip Clean. I have no scientific experiments to confirm that it works, but I can say that the hard water in my res & lines is the only hard water at my house that doesn't seem to leave water spots. If Mr. Clean can make a car-wash product that you hook up to your hose to give your car a spot-free rinse, it's not crazy to think that Home & Garden could make something that prevents buildup in my irrigation system, but who knows. . .
benzo
Active member
Dope thread b!!!
I wanna see more pics of the rooms
You have 3 total ? 2 rooms with light movers for flowering and 1 for veg? Either way awesome !! I used blumats with the rezipe plus pro tek , cal mag and drip clean. My lines stayed pretty clean , but i would have to clean out the rez pretty often. Imma try it your way next time and only run water in the rez and hand feed em.
Have a good one !
I wanna see more pics of the rooms
You have 3 total ? 2 rooms with light movers for flowering and 1 for veg? Either way awesome !! I used blumats with the rezipe plus pro tek , cal mag and drip clean. My lines stayed pretty clean , but i would have to clean out the rez pretty often. Imma try it your way next time and only run water in the rez and hand feed em.
Have a good one !
B
B. Self Reliant
Yeah hand watering the nutes is the way to go if at all possible. Very convenient.
I really only have the one room up & running. It's partitioned into a 4x8 bloom room & a 4x4 veg room. I have some smaller areas, but they aren't up & running right now. . . they'll be some more pics once the buds start to take shape in the next few weeks.
B
B. Self Reliant
Bloom Day 43
Bloom Day 43
This is the Casey's Dream that's near the entrance. This photo shows how beat up the leaves on the extreme inside get. The floor fan really does a number on them, but the lamp is pretty intense at that distance too. I don't really know what I can do about it and it hasn't hurt my yields as of yet, so that's that for now.
The ladies! The branches are trained to go wherever they fit best, so there aren't any clear lines between plants, but you're looking at Casey's Dream, Rotten Banana #1 & #2, along with Sour Cindy #1 in the back.
4 weeks left for the Casey's Dreams. The rest will come down as they're ready, but as of now they all look like 10 week moms to me, which would be very convenient for harvest. . .
Bloom Day 43
This is the Casey's Dream that's near the entrance. This photo shows how beat up the leaves on the extreme inside get. The floor fan really does a number on them, but the lamp is pretty intense at that distance too. I don't really know what I can do about it and it hasn't hurt my yields as of yet, so that's that for now.
The ladies! The branches are trained to go wherever they fit best, so there aren't any clear lines between plants, but you're looking at Casey's Dream, Rotten Banana #1 & #2, along with Sour Cindy #1 in the back.
4 weeks left for the Casey's Dreams. The rest will come down as they're ready, but as of now they all look like 10 week moms to me, which would be very convenient for harvest. . .
B
B. Self Reliant
Thanks buddy. They're getting to a point where they're really bulking up.
I'm a professional photog & have been for quite a while now. My plants provide me with a chance to shoot for fun. I use Canon SLR gear. These last images were made using a 35mm f/1.4L & a Canon 5D MkII.
Thanks for stopping by!
