Thoughts on a new room design, input pls.

[DHF]

Blumats work well Dave IF yas can dial environment inside the grow area...... guaranteed.....

Got too many old heads at my med sites killin it with mostly Maxi`s and bigger plants to say otherwise.......

Folks here like Flowerfarmer , Krunchbubble , Rives , Lazyman , and above all Sunnydog that would definitely testify they DO work....but....

There`s some folks here also that would have you believe they`re pieces of shit due to IME and opinion "grower error" , but everyone`s entitled to their opinion.....and....

I rolled with DTW coco for the last several yrs I grew before shutdown with dialed success , so there`s many ways ta skin a mule but....

Dialed environment means EVERYTHING.....bet on it....anyways...Hope yas find your sweet spot and get shit hoonin Dave regardless of setup....and....

Good luck my buddy....Freds..........

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

Blumats work well Dave IF yas can dial environment inside the grow area...... guaranteed.....

Got too many old heads at my med sites killin it with mostly Maxi`s and bigger plants to say otherwise.......

Folks here like Flowerfarmer , Krunchbubble , Rives , Lazyman , and above all Sunnydog that would definitely testify they DO work....but....

There`s some folks here also that would have you believe they`re pieces of shit due to IME and opinion "grower error" , but everyone`s entitled to their opinion.....and....

I rolled with DTW coco for the last several yrs I grew before shutdown with dialed success , so there`s many ways ta skin a mule but....

Dialed environment means EVERYTHING.....bet on it....anyways...Hope yas find your sweet spot and get shit hoonin Dave regardless of setup....and....

Good luck my buddy....Freds..........

ok Freddy, if can i push this theory further and drill you for more information :

of the people that have had big success with blumats (ignore the others)
- who used normal blumats
- who used blumat maxis
- who grew trees
- who grew sog / smaller plants

could it just be that with the pot/plant size im working with i just need maxis and all will be well?
im really not scared of spending a few hundred if thats what it takes to clean house and get shit on track!

Im dialing things so that they are working better over time, and theres no doubt that having 2 blumats per pot is working better for me than just 1. Also having a really deep dish under the pot seems to be helping alot too.

Even with all of that i have to adjust the blumat every few days by just opening it up a bit more. There is no set and forget in my house. And of course it is easy to over-open them and set off a flood. Its the only way that i have had any success so far.

And ignoring all that it still floods on random days when i havent touched it for 3-4 days. My gut feel says its RH based. The RH swings around here like a horney grandma. Would the maxi being deep into the medium be more immune to RH swing induced flooding?

EDIT : fuck it, ive bought 4 maxis. I guess i will find out the hard way ... as usual

 

[DHF]

ok Freddy, if can i push this theory further and drill you for more information :

of the people that have had big success with blumats (ignore the others)
- who used normal blumats
- who used blumat maxis
- who grew trees
- who grew sog / smaller plants

could it just be that with the pot/plant size im working with i just need maxis and all will be well?
im really not scared of spending a few hundred if thats what it takes to clean house and get shit on track!

Im dialing things so that they are working better over time, and theres no doubt that having 2 blumats per pot is working better for me than just 1. Also having a really deep dish under the pot seems to be helping alot too.

Even with all of that i have to adjust the blumat every few days by just opening it up a bit more. There is no set and forget in my house. And of course it is easy to over-open them and set off a flood. Its the only way that i have had any success so far.

And ignoring all that it still floods on random days when i havent touched it for 3-4 days. My gut feel says its RH based. The RH swings around here like a horney grandma. Would the maxi being deep into the medium be more immune to RH swing induced flooding?

EDIT : fuck it, ive bought 4 maxis. I guess i will find out the hard way ... as usual

In my honest opinion Your lack of heat AND humidity control is what`s causin your regular blumats to go wonky on yas , and when I said above about some folks here callin blumats pieces of shit , it was in no way meant toward you Bro , but rather folks that choose to do things their own way instead of following normal protocol in the upgraded setup of said regular cones and carrots......that said.....

It`s possible the maxi`s might do better for yas since the sensors have extensions on em and are sunk deeper into the medium , and I truly believe that your upper medium was/is drying out waaay too fast with the heat and low humidity factor being most likely the culprit in your constant need to dial the cones every few days and then experience total runaway out of nowhere.......anyways...

It`s only an educated guess at best , but I will tell yas this....My old head growbro`s that do this shit for a livin and have since the mid 90`s when Cali went legal wild wild west , 8 outta 10 have gravitated toward blumat maxis cuz they grow low plant numbers and the shit all but grows itself these days and they actually have a life AWAY from the grow areas....but.....

EVERY aspect of their setups are dialed from 70% RH till end of stretch , as well as 50 watts per sq ft and major air exchange twice per minute.....IOW......

If yas can`t dial environment , every setup yas end up runnin will have hiccups sooner or later ....bet on it Bro....but....I think you`re killin it with the PPK DIY yas made , and even though EC`s risin and PH`s droppin they`re still within parameters that won`t stop the plants from continuing growth , and I think that`s why D9 told yas ta hang tough ta see if shit changes in a week`s time , but honestly don`t know.....

I do know in EVERY recirculating setup I ever ran that if ph dropped and ec rose , the potential for lockouts and imbalances were right around the corner , and that`s why I asked D9 to elaborate on that post he made......regardless .....

You`re getting there Bro , so hang tough and dig in.....shit`s gotta change sooner than later if yas can put environmental equipment into play as budget provides....

Go look at Gettogro`s cheapass ultrasonic fogger setup he made for pennies on the dollar to up his RH in his veg room , as well as his post back to me stating his bitches have NEVER been that big in that length of time........

All about the little things Dave......Good luck and....

Peace....Freds..........

 

[St3ve]

If yas can`t dial environment , every setup yas end up runnin will have hiccups sooner or later ...

+1

:

With watching your passion to make this work, I always leave your thread scratching my head as to why you try so hard on some aspects of the grow, and don't worry about others. (no offense)

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

It`s only an educated guess at best , but I will tell yas this....My old head growbro`s that do this shit for a livin and have since the mid 90`s when Cali went legal wild wild west , 8 outta 10 have gravitated toward blumat maxis cuz they grow low plant numbers and the shit all but grows itself these days and they actually have a life AWAY from the grow areas....but.....

I know i cut out alot about environment, but this is the answer to what i was asking. I have 4 maxis on the way, and just maybe it will solve alot of my problems. Blumats really are the idea system in theory for me.

With watching your passion to make this work, I always leave your thread scratching my head as to why you try so hard on some aspects of the grow, and don't worry about others. (no offense)

i will see if i can answer this one for you, i have tried before.

An air con will cost me around $2k to put in. I live in a different country where things cost different amounts.
It has to be installed by a licenced electrician. This means i have to clean and empty the room to let him in. The laws here are pretty savage.
There honestly is limited room to physically place one.
The extra cost of running an air con is pretty scary with the cost of leccy around these parts. Im already worried about both the cost and the usage patterns of electricity.
I am a hobby grower running a few plants in one spare room of my house. Im not a pro commercial grower like some of you guys.
Im a pig headed fuck who likes to dig his heels in sometimes and fight the unreasonable odds.

 

[St3ve]

Im a pig headed fuck who likes to dig his heels in sometimes and fight the unreasonable odds.

LMAO! Its cool man, and I do remember you noting that fact before.

But that still doesn't change anything, I'm sorry. If you can't get an AC, then you should try running less lights. Or at least flip rooms that you can run at different times to help with the heat and RH.

I guess what I'm saying is, why run higher wattage and getting half yields instead of half watts and good yields. Or at the very least, run half the lights so you can keep an ideal environment while experimenting with the blumats (or anything else) and then AFTER you get things dialed, THEN try pushing the limits of the environment?

After all is said and done though, I do appreciate your stubbornness to succeed. Regardless of my opinions though, I still enjoy watching your journey. I won't bring it up again.

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

I won't bring it up again.

yes you will, and you are welcome to.

you also have to realise that in winter (coming soon) it gets down to freezing and then the heat from lights and ballasts is a winner. I just have to take the hit over summer + winter and clean up in spring + autumn

final weights were much lower than i was hoping for.
713g @ 0.8 GPW (thats 25 ounces)

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Always struggled with my vented rooms throughout the seasons.

Would finally get situated for summer months and it'd no sooner be winter time again and everything would need switched back around to accommodate for the colder temps. Back and forth back and forth.. felt like I was constantly "re-configuring" my rooms to deal with the challenges of seasonal change.

and.. being the 1st guy in the neighborhood to have an AC hanging out and running in April doesnt help you sleep at night.


You might have touched on this before Dave, but why not a small window AC. Its pretty easy to build a little makeshift "foam board" box on the back of the window unit to capture that hot air with an inline and send it away... essentially turning your window unit into a portable. Are window units not available where you are?

Hobby grower or not if you can squeeze that Split AC into your budget down the road you'll be loving life. Definitely worth the funds/downtime to never have to even think about environmental conditions again. You can actually focus on the plants/training/pruning, etc. Wish I could have got on the mini split game years ago. They truly are the cats ass.

Doing a horizontal with high temps is bad enough.. running vertical without adequate cooling sounds like a nightmare to me. I'm honestly not sure how you've been successful at all considering the temps I've heard you toss out there. Must have some good genetics not to have a scorched out/ foxtailed mess on your hands.



The PPK bush is looking righteous.

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

yeah we have window units, bunky old things they are.
the room is at the front of the house. hanging anything out the window in a non secure way is asking to get ripped off.
running the aircon all day and night is going to cause questions too. I already have a war going on with my neighbour over trivial things like trees and the like. Had 1 punch up over it. i flattened the fat ****. thats not a good thing.
im already bothered by the noise coming out of that room.

 

[ICbuds]

I hav a Fujitsu mini split that you can't hear from 3 feet away. The flexibility of bein able to place the guts somewhere out of sight might work

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

Well for shits and giggles i bought some GH FLORA NECTAR BLUEBERRY and some GH
CaMG. They are both loaded with sugar/molasses. If i realised how much sugar was in the CaMg I wouldnt have gotten the flora nectar. But anyway ....
Now my res has solid lumps the size of golf balls in it floating around.
I figure this is a bad thing.

Does anyone have any experience/opinions on this?

 

[FlowerFarmer]

The size of golf balls? Never seen anything like that.

But yea, sugar typically avoided in a water culture/ recirculating system. Fuels bad bacteria growth and typically results in some nasty solution.


If you want to use carb products on your coco PPK I'd recommend just hand-watering a bit in the upper container.

 

[delta9nxs]

Well for shits and giggles i bought some GH FLORA NECTAR BLUEBERRY and some GH
CaMG. They are both loaded with sugar/molasses. If i realised how much sugar was in the CaMg I wouldnt have gotten the flora nectar. But anyway ....
Now my res has solid lumps the size of golf balls in it floating around.
I figure this is a bad thing.

Does anyone have any experience/opinions on this?

massive precipitation! get everything cleaned out asap! once precipitation starts for any reason there is a progressive cascading effect. it can only get worse.

 

[DHF]

massive precipitation! get everything cleaned out asap! once precipitation starts for any reason there is a progressive cascading effect. it can only get worse.

Yeah that......

When solution "precipitates"/falls outta suspension and shit turns into golf balls in the rez , the only thing to do is to clean out the rez and start over with the quickness.....

Good call D9......

Peace....DHF.........

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

ok well ive not only drained the res, im replacing it
replacing 3 linked trash cans with one big tank. it seems easier and cleaner.

here is a question for the experts at large :

im thinking of taking my column of 3 lights and breaking it up. Basically moving around and spreading the 3 lights throughout the tent.
Is this likely to have any negative effects on the plants currently growing ? Im wondering if the light being at different locations will affect how the plants turn out?

 

[bobblehead]

Freds- your suggestions regarding blumats are rather vague, imo... Large plants and maxis? Ok. How big is the pot, how many maxis, how many trop-f's? How much are these growers pulling down per plant? What medium are they using? There's a lot more to it than "blumats can grow good dope." I know they can.

I don't see many people calling blumats pieces of shit... Several growers have expressed their frustrations with them... I've shared both frustration and success. Chasing 100 trop-f blumats in different size pots is frustrating, and anyone starting out or running a larger absentee grow is going to find a DTW or recirculating system easier to start with.

Btw I pm'd krunch a while back to see how the flexzilla and blumats was working out... And he was having issues getting the blumtas dialed. He just isn't always around to share these things.

 

[Mister_D]

ok well ive not only drained the res, im replacing it
replacing 3 linked trash cans with one big tank. it seems easier and cleaner.

here is a question for the experts at large :

im thinking of taking my column of 3 lights and breaking it up. Basically moving around and spreading the 3 lights throughout the tent.
Is this likely to have any negative effects on the plants currently growing ? Im wondering if the light being at different locations will affect how the plants turn out?

Moving lights won't cause the plants to freak out and reveg or anything negative like that. It may or may not be better lighting coverage which will effect yield. Which way it effects yield (up or down) is dependent on the move getting more light to the plants over all or not. A light meter would tell you for sure, but visual should be enough to see which configuration is better for everyone (plants).

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

Moving lights won't cause the plants to freak out and reveg or anything negative like that. It may or may not be better lighting coverage which will effect yield. Which way it effects yield (up or down) is dependent on the move getting more light to the plants over all or not. A light meter would tell you for sure, but visual should be enough to see which configuration is better for everyone (plants).

to oversimplify things i have a rectangle room
there are 2 plants in it
i currently have 3 lamps in a column between the 2 plants
as im growing less sativa stretchy plants now i cant really justify the third lamp because the plants arent getting that high

im wondering if i wouldnt be better off with light plant light plant light instead. That way the plants would be surrounded by lights, but 2 of the lights would be on the edge of the tent.

 

[Mister_D]

to oversimplify things i have a rectangle room
there are 2 plants in it
i currently have 3 lamps in a column between the 2 plants
as im growing less sativa stretchy plants now i cant really justify the third lamp because the plants arent getting that high

im wondering if i wouldnt be better off with light plant light plant light instead. That way the plants would be surrounded by lights, but 2 of the lights would be on the edge of the tent.

As long as the lights on the outside are fairly close to the tent walls (for better reflection) you should benefit. I assume (based on a rectangular room shape) by spreading the lights like you suggest your plants will gain more breathing room, which usually adds up to more light getting into more places, which in turn produces less larf, upping yield. Remember more light is always better (to an extent. diminished returns and bleaching problems start at ~70 wpsf) as long as you can control the environment. I can't say for certain which setup will be better for you without physically seeing the room and plants. Pics aren't enough to be sure, but you should be able to visually see an improvement or lack thereof once the changes are made. Try it and see

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Whatever you're planning to do with the lights I'd do it sooner then later.


While I'm not disputing Mr D, I have noticed a change in direction of flower development by changing the orientation of the lamp later in the cycle.


For instance if I've got a heavy top that ends up sagging down and is never tied up its bud structure will change, resulting in a pretty ugly cola. A cola that has sagged out of ideal "donut" zone, new bud development will start to grow upwards towards the light. In my experience this results in odd growth and fox-tailing as the bud trys to re-position itself to it's new source of light.


This has occurred to me even very late in flower. I'll have a nice tight bud, it'll sag lower and lower as flowering progresses and the end result will be a sideways colas with a bunch of foxtail fingers growing out of the side of it (which while growing is now the UP position). Nothing wrong with it really, but looks like hell.