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A sealed room would also solve you heating issue. One of my favorite things about sealed rooms is outside temps have almost no effect on temps inside the room. Its ~12 deg outside right now, but my room is a toasty 80 degs. A/C hasn't even been on for a couple months. That's with 5-8 600's + 1200w of t-5 running at any given time.....
The other option i'd recommend is to add more light to increase your heat load and promote more growth while you're at it
Yeah Mister D I added the 400 watt quantum for my MH for a dual spectrum and that pretty much cleared up the temp issue. I would love to run a sealed room,and I prolly will one day but my situation just can't swing that right now. once I get out of this apartment and into a house things mite change but till then I am stuck in tents.
D
DaveTheNewbie
im being really cautious about taking off foliage after over doing it last time ...
I hear you, maybe try and tie some of it back then. sucker branches should be taken no mater what. If it don't have a nice sized crown on it get rid of it it is only going suck up food that could be given to bigger sites. Hope everything works out for you though Dave I am in your corner bud.
D
DaveTheNewbie
I know it !
D
DaveTheNewbie
well I remember reading DHF saying that when growing trees you have to tie things up. Full Stop End Of Story.
Well surprise surprise he is right. I had my very own jumanji moment dodging burns from my 3 light column tying back all sorts of branches that had fallen down in the last day or so in my very cramped tent
the good news is that im really well on schedule to make my challenge at this point, things are bulking up nicely. Blumat floods (had another tonight) and all.
Well surprise surprise he is right. I had my very own jumanji moment dodging burns from my 3 light column tying back all sorts of branches that had fallen down in the last day or so in my very cramped tent
the good news is that im really well on schedule to make my challenge at this point, things are bulking up nicely. Blumat floods (had another tonight) and all.
Yes sir. Absolutely.
The bigger the trees, the more you're gonna have to tie things up. Have fun!
D
DaveTheNewbie
2 weeks to go ... things are looking like they are right on schedule
Double post. But that fan is still in the way.
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DaveTheNewbie
double agreement. But it has to go somewhere and im outta room in the tent already.
Looks good Dave.
Are you running an upper res alone or do you have it fed from a lower res with a pump circulating solution up to your upper res.
If you aren't running a constant pressure res it may be contributing to your floods.... I've noticed at a spot where not running a constant pressure res that when my elevated res gets low..and then I all of a sudden fill it back up.. there must a change in head pressure or something that can increase the risk of run-away.
Not sure.. just tossing that out there.. Having a lower res keep the upper res full 100% of the time.. and via overflow back to your lower res works pretty nice.
Now I've heard someone mention that this isnt the case and water level in the upper res shouldnt be a concern as pressure should be the same as the exit point remains at the same height, but that wasnt the case for me. If I setup my blumats while my elevated barrel was holding 25 Gal.... and then I pumped another 30 up into it I have experienced a run-away which to me seemed to be correlated with the increase in upper res volume.
Furthermore if my elevated barrel got too low in volume.. drip rate would decrease to the point where it wasnt keeping the carrot saturated enough. The coco would steal from the carrot itself..carrot would stop functioning properly..and you'd need a reset. You do get a full on stream/blast out of every line (and while all open full together) when wide open correct?
I know you've pretty much been around the block with these things now. Just throwing a few more suggestions out there before ya abandon them completely.
I'm going to continue to run my blumats in my circles room, going PPK in my tree room, but have a friend having trouble with blumats lately so we might switch it up over there and run Hempy buckets fed via top feed 1/4" line...DTW. Now he's made some environmental changes since his 1st run to accomodate the heat of two more 1ks...adding a cold air intake, but oddly when I setup his blumats for him 1st round he good to go - no problems.. sets them up himself this round much identical to how I showed him.. and he is having run-aways.. beats the hell out of me. I've removed a couple cracked caps from his setup, but seems as though some have the "blumat touch" and others do not.
I'd like to play around with them more as I'd like to try a water only soil mix fed by blumat res..auto topped the RO. It'd be the pinnacle of hands off gardening, but otherwise I'm leaning towards DTW Hempy Buckets with coco/perlite mini res. Paired with bobbles elevated gravity solenoid to eliminate the pump and I think it'd be a good way to rock it. They seem similar with PPK with their keeping the rootzone media out of the reservoir, with still the ability to wick, but might be a more convenient option then doing the whole recirculating system w/ tailpiece route. If I'm going to stick with coco I've want the ability to flush the shit out of them if necessary.
PS - get yourself a green head lamp or light bulb and start doing your work during the dark period. Only takes a few millasecond of touchin' skin to an HID lamp and you'll regret it. Was dragging a watering hose/wand through my circles room a while back and the tubing got caught on simething pulling the back of my hand right into a lamp. Left me a pretty nasty melt welt that was a bit hard to explain to those inquiring "What the heck happened to your hand dude!..that looks pretty bad!"
Best of luck Dave. <- for some reason I like to say your name in my replies. lol.. doesnt happen with others posters.. just you Dave.
Are you running an upper res alone or do you have it fed from a lower res with a pump circulating solution up to your upper res.
If you aren't running a constant pressure res it may be contributing to your floods.... I've noticed at a spot where not running a constant pressure res that when my elevated res gets low..and then I all of a sudden fill it back up.. there must a change in head pressure or something that can increase the risk of run-away.
Not sure.. just tossing that out there.. Having a lower res keep the upper res full 100% of the time.. and via overflow back to your lower res works pretty nice.
Now I've heard someone mention that this isnt the case and water level in the upper res shouldnt be a concern as pressure should be the same as the exit point remains at the same height, but that wasnt the case for me. If I setup my blumats while my elevated barrel was holding 25 Gal.... and then I pumped another 30 up into it I have experienced a run-away which to me seemed to be correlated with the increase in upper res volume.
Furthermore if my elevated barrel got too low in volume.. drip rate would decrease to the point where it wasnt keeping the carrot saturated enough. The coco would steal from the carrot itself..carrot would stop functioning properly..and you'd need a reset. You do get a full on stream/blast out of every line (and while all open full together) when wide open correct?
I know you've pretty much been around the block with these things now. Just throwing a few more suggestions out there before ya abandon them completely.
I'm going to continue to run my blumats in my circles room, going PPK in my tree room, but have a friend having trouble with blumats lately so we might switch it up over there and run Hempy buckets fed via top feed 1/4" line...DTW. Now he's made some environmental changes since his 1st run to accomodate the heat of two more 1ks...adding a cold air intake, but oddly when I setup his blumats for him 1st round he good to go - no problems.. sets them up himself this round much identical to how I showed him.. and he is having run-aways.. beats the hell out of me. I've removed a couple cracked caps from his setup, but seems as though some have the "blumat touch" and others do not.
I'd like to play around with them more as I'd like to try a water only soil mix fed by blumat res..auto topped the RO. It'd be the pinnacle of hands off gardening, but otherwise I'm leaning towards DTW Hempy Buckets with coco/perlite mini res. Paired with bobbles elevated gravity solenoid to eliminate the pump and I think it'd be a good way to rock it. They seem similar with PPK with their keeping the rootzone media out of the reservoir, with still the ability to wick, but might be a more convenient option then doing the whole recirculating system w/ tailpiece route. If I'm going to stick with coco I've want the ability to flush the shit out of them if necessary.
PS - get yourself a green head lamp or light bulb and start doing your work during the dark period. Only takes a few millasecond of touchin' skin to an HID lamp and you'll regret it. Was dragging a watering hose/wand through my circles room a while back and the tubing got caught on simething pulling the back of my hand right into a lamp. Left me a pretty nasty melt welt that was a bit hard to explain to those inquiring "What the heck happened to your hand dude!..that looks pretty bad!"
Best of luck Dave. <- for some reason I like to say your name in my replies. lol.. doesnt happen with others posters.. just you Dave.
D
DaveTheNewbie
yup thats 100% what im doing
bullshit. basic physics says that more water at a higher level = more pressure. less water at a lower level = less water. Its why every water pump has a maximum height as well as a volume rating.
good advice
I feel special
PS im waiting to see what your take on PPK vs blumat actually is, given that your a guy that has run both and had success with blumats
D
DHF
Hey Dave.....FF asked yas above which rez setup yas had , as in JUST an elevated rez , OR an elevated rez with auto top off from a lower rez with pump and an upper overflow to keep constant down pressure on the cones.....and.....
You said yes that`s exactly what yas`re doin , but we still don`t know exactly which it is.....and.....it`s highly possible with the heat issues you`ve been dealin with , that the medium as FF stated above can be stealin more juice from the cones than they can supply from the rapid evaporation in the top levels of your containers cuz a proper coco mix dries out fast.....and....
Voila....runaway cones......but....it`s just theory and assumption at this point in the game , but I do know dialed environment with the upper constantly topped off rez w/overflow helps the cones work better as well.......anyways....
Good luck with them big bitches , and hope Harvey`s good to yas.....
Peace...DHF.....
.....
You said yes that`s exactly what yas`re doin , but we still don`t know exactly which it is.....and.....it`s highly possible with the heat issues you`ve been dealin with , that the medium as FF stated above can be stealin more juice from the cones than they can supply from the rapid evaporation in the top levels of your containers cuz a proper coco mix dries out fast.....and....
Voila....runaway cones......but....it`s just theory and assumption at this point in the game , but I do know dialed environment with the upper constantly topped off rez w/overflow helps the cones work better as well.......anyways....
Good luck with them big bitches , and hope Harvey`s good to yas.....
Peace...DHF.....
.....
D
DaveTheNewbie
sorry i missed the details
was in a busy momenti have a single 60 litre res on 3 x milk crates being about 4 foot above the ground. This feeds the blumats. it is constand fed by
3 x 60 litres rezzies on a single milk crate all joined by a common 1 inch joining hose at the bottom. One of them has a pump that runs 8 times a day to feed the top elevated single 60 litre res which has an overflow back to the main 3 x rezzies.
aka i put the work into making a decent auto top off bucket system to keep constant pressure cause not doing this is asking for a blumat flood every second day.
this is my current theory. im doing better with a bigger pot and 2 x blumats per pot than i ever did with 1 blumat per pot. I am building a theory that a single blumat has a maximum output that a decent sized plant can out suck. I havent hit that point yet with 2 blumats per pot.
thanks bud. As someone else said : it may be the humidity levels or swings that are causing my problems. I have a humidity measure on the way and questions will follow.
Seems to me the water pressure is relative to the water level in the upper bucket, and not where the feed line connects to the bucket.
But as long as the blumat feed rez is rigged flood/drain style, that water level is always constant, ..
Yea.. thats pretty much what I was asking. If you've got the constant pressure upper res I'm not sure why your gettin' these damn run-aways.
Gotta be environment or something as DHF suggested.
When potting up so you give your pot a good bounce so settle all of the coco tighter, but not necessarily packed tight? If watering by hand do you still get "coco sink holes" or is the pot rather filled with roots and everything settled to the point it isn't "loose" around the carrot.
Also, have you found your sweet spot with maxibloom and coco yet?
After finding I had a high EC run-off I've been hand drenching to run-off daily with around 1.0 EC. Sometimes Maxibloom and Silicate. Other times Maxibloom and pH up only. My plants are still looking like shit. Not perky, lighter yellow, brown/rust spots. Purple leaf stems. Almost like I'm getting deficiencies now.. .but perhaps just not flushed down enough yet or still experiencing toxicity/lockout.
Not sure if I should continue maxibloom diluted 1.2 EC or so Maxibloom or increase to 7g/Gal. (which alternatively is closer to 1.8EC).
I'm wondering with RO water if CalMag is required since I'm running at a diluted dose of MB instead of the 7g/Gal profile many shoot for.
Really got me bummed that I can't get these ladies back on point.. I can't wait to try these PPKs.
Gotta be environment or something as DHF suggested.
When potting up so you give your pot a good bounce so settle all of the coco tighter, but not necessarily packed tight? If watering by hand do you still get "coco sink holes" or is the pot rather filled with roots and everything settled to the point it isn't "loose" around the carrot.
Also, have you found your sweet spot with maxibloom and coco yet?
After finding I had a high EC run-off I've been hand drenching to run-off daily with around 1.0 EC. Sometimes Maxibloom and Silicate. Other times Maxibloom and pH up only. My plants are still looking like shit. Not perky, lighter yellow, brown/rust spots. Purple leaf stems. Almost like I'm getting deficiencies now.. .but perhaps just not flushed down enough yet or still experiencing toxicity/lockout.
Not sure if I should continue maxibloom diluted 1.2 EC or so Maxibloom or increase to 7g/Gal. (which alternatively is closer to 1.8EC).
I'm wondering with RO water if CalMag is required since I'm running at a diluted dose of MB instead of the 7g/Gal profile many shoot for.
Really got me bummed that I can't get these ladies back on point.. I can't wait to try these PPKs.
In my own experience, the runaways have all been user-error. That is, usually my drunk ass stumbling into the garden, figuring "HEY LEMME JUST DIAL IN THIS BLUMAT A LITTLE BIT IT'S KINDA DRY HERE LEMME JUST OPEN IT UP A SMIDGEN HEY LOOK IT DIDN'T FLOOD WHILE I'M STANDING HERE LOOKS GREAT"
You're probably a more responsible gardener than I, dave, but I thought I'd share my own runaway reasons..
You're probably a more responsible gardener than I, dave, but I thought I'd share my own runaway reasons..
D
DaveTheNewbie
im sitting at 20 grams maxibloom per 30 litres of water which is about 1.0 EC. This is cause im dealing with stupidly hot temps and the ladies are drinking like theres no tomorrow. It will prob go up in winter.
Been there done that many times. It takes huge self control to not still do it now. But i dont (most of the time)
For sure. I've finally disciplined myself, .. New rule: If I'm going to f*ck with the blumat, simply eyeballing/loosening the brown dial "a smidgen" ain't sufficient.
The proper way, I've found, is to water the pot to the level you want, then dial in the brown doodad all you want. Y'know, almost like they tell you to set it up?
Touching a hot stove - it's how I learn!
