Noobin up a PPK

[DaveTheNewbie]

I am constantly amazed at the level of useful help (not opinionated small cock bullshit) always found in this forum. This whole thread shows it.

I used Botanicare coco for a recent PPK grow. 1.25" diameter PVC tailpieces, very lightly packed. Air gap generally 3-5 inches. One tailpiece per bucket, different sized buckets, some 1 gal, 2 gal, and a few 5 gallon buckets cut short to approx 3gal size. Holes for drainage weren't necessary, at least at first, though a couple of the 9 buckets drained really slowly so I drilled holes for most of them.

The circumstances and appearance of your plant's sudden death Dave seem like drowning if I was to take a wild guess, based on my experience in killing plants, but I have no real knowledge to add.

A warning to future coco PPK grows... I'm guessing the consistent moisture makes a particularly pleasant environment for bugs, and for my second PPK grow had a very quick and serious outbreak of gnats.... all the plants went from happy healthy to all but dead in 2-3 weeks.

I just had a look at your grow for the first time and its beautiful. I never saw it before because i dont venture out of the vert forum much

 

[delta9nxs]

Build, build, build... A PPK cloner.. interesting... lol


What kind of PPMs do ya use.?.

I tossed mine on a tote in the veg closet wicked pot and all..
fed the same.. 850-900 ppm

She looks good. No burn... Slow ta start (cold medium)
Taking off now...

without hijacking too much of daves thread i use flora nova bloom at 300 ppm for the cloners until i see roots. the containers are so large that when you do see roots it's ok to flush with and switch to the jack's formula. in the veg room that's about 900 ppm right now but it's on co2 also. without co2 600-750 ppm jack's.

 

[dieselbyrd]

good luck in the future

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

without hijacking too much of daves thread i use flora nova bloom at 300 ppm for the cloners until i see roots. the containers are so large that when you do see roots it's ok to flush with and switch to the jack's formula. in the veg room that's about 900 ppm right now but it's on co2 also. without co2 600-750 ppm jack's.

thats not a hijack, thats useful information the format of an answer to my question.

good luck in the future

thx bud

 

[forkup]

Oh wow Dave what a dramatic change in the week it took my wife and I to get to Washington. The plant looks like it drowned to me. It looks exactly like drowned tobacco plants I used to see after a flood when I was a "youngun" growing up in the south. The people I see having trouble with the ppk are using sketchy media with drainage problems. Solve that, use the correct nute ratios at the correct strength and enjoy the explosion of growth.

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

well you know how i was excited because i sourced DE locally, and ordered 10 bags (which is total overkill)
my credit card has been charged.
then i get a call today, and i am informed that there is now a 50 bag minimum.
thats just taking the piss for me, no way i can do that.
back to square 1 (aka your fucked sunshine)

 

[delta9nxs]

well you know how i was excited because i sourced DE locally, and ordered 10 bags (which is total overkill)
my credit card has been charged.
then i get a call today, and i am informed that there is now a 50 bag minimum.
thats just taking the piss for me, no way i can do that.
back to square 1 (aka your fucked sunshine)

damn! i just realized where you are and i now have a better understanding of your supply problem.

try auto parts stores for de oil dry in the right particle size.

maybe you tell those sob's that you want to test their product first before you commit to a larger amount. it's a shame you have to trick 'em just to give them money!

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

maybe you tell those sob's that you want to test their product first before you commit to a larger amount. it's a shame you have to trick 'em just to give them money!

tried that. they dont hold stock and thier supplier wont do less than 50 bags

 

[DHF]

Surely the auto parts stores have the equivalent of NAPA 8822 'floor dry" Dave......I mean damn......

You ain`t THAT far out in the bush are yas Bro ?.......Sorry bout yer probs and rest assured this shit pays off in the long run guaranteed...

Sometimes yas just gotta fuck up ta learn how not to from now on...Sheesh....

Good luck Dave....

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

 

[Ghudda]

Do pack or don't pack tail pieces with turface/8822?

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

ok so ive been thinking about this for a while now, because all of my growing areas are empty and i have to get something going now.

1) i cant seem to get any growing stone medium
2) i have to run with coco
3) i am over fighting with blumats
4) we all saw what happened last time i ran coco in a PPK

the only solution i can come up with is this :
coco PPK with only 1 wave feed a day. It should have to be pretty hard to drown it then
im not sure if i will go DTW or recirc. DTW will be easier to plumb and its a short term thing untill i can get a real long term solution. The only consideration is if the wicking of the coco will cause the coco to get too wet and drown plants, but i am REALLY dubious about that happening.

so the theory is a PPK which relys heavily on the wicking as it only gets watered once, with a DTW for overflow. Seeing as i already have the PPK modules here it is a trivial exercise to set up.

 

[RM - aquagrower]

ok so ive been thinking about this for a while now, because all of my growing areas are empty and i have to get something going now.

Why not just grab a couple bags of potting soil and handwater? I mean, as far as simplicity goes...At least that way ya can get a harvest or 2 in, get a bit of confidence built back up, then try to re-invent the wheel.

Breaks my heart to sit over here on my bucket and watch ya struggle so much.

Good luck and K+ to ya.

 

[bobblehead]

For real Dave. Fuck the bells and whistles. Do what works. When your jars are overflowing with buds, then go ahead and experiment. My $0.02 from all the frustrations I've had and am currently having.

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

Why not just grab a couple bags of potting soil and handwater? I mean, as far as simplicity goes...At least that way ya can get a harvest or 2 in, get a bit of confidence built back up, then try to re-invent the wheel.

For real Dave. Fuck the bells and whistles. Do what works. When your jars are overflowing with buds, then go ahead and experiment. My $0.02 from all the frustrations I've had and am currently having.

thats what my solution is : simple.
top fed DTW coco
my pots already have a tailpipe so im going to use that to wick in and maintain water levels.
im just wondering if im better cutting the coco with hydroton or perlite regarding the tailpipe and plugging because that what last problem was, a clogged tailpipe.
i already have everything i need here ready to go and get a harvest or 2 in while i fuck about with the long term big picture. And if i invent the next awesome phase of PPK evolution on the way then all the better

keep an eye out for the new thread "DTN's DTW PPK OMG" or something similarly purile.

 

[bobblehead]

Before MIway came along to shit on my parade like a good friend and tell me what DHF already has many times.... I was going to run ppk's with perlite. Depending on the source you may need to screen the perlite... Anyway you just put some nylon window screen on top of it, and add some rocks to weigh everything down. This was a suggestion made to me by a local guy. SRGB suggested I add rocks as well, but the window screen idea prevents the rocks from sinking and the perlite from floating up.

So if I was you I would ditch the coco and switch to perlite or diatomaceous earth. Coco is sweet when its dialed, but there are much better options out there. I used to grow exclusively in coco. Now I don't want anything to do with it. Peat is rocking my world. You can't run a ppk with peat... But you sure can complete a grow assuming the electricity doesn't quit.

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

Before MIway came along to shit on my parade like a good friend and tell me what DHF already has many times.... I was going to run ppk's with perlite. Depending on the source you may need to screen the perlite... Anyway you just put some nylon window screen on top of it, and add some rocks to weigh everything down. This was a suggestion made to me by a local guy. SRGB suggested I add rocks as well, but the window screen idea prevents the rocks from sinking and the perlite from floating up.

So if I was you I would ditch the coco and switch to perlite or diatomaceous earth. Coco is sweet when its dialed, but there are much better options out there. I used to grow exclusively in coco. Now I don't want anything to do with it. Peat is rocking my world. You can't run a ppk with peat... But you sure can complete a grow assuming the electricity doesn't quit.

i fully acknowledge that my PPK was going awesomely in coco before the tailpipe clogged, and that recirc coco works. I just dont like it. DTW coco tho is pretty flawless. I cant get peat (its considered environmentally bad over here, destroying the peat bog marshes etc) and i if could get DE i would already be using it. Perlite would require a recirc system as DTW wont work with that alone. I want to get away from coco but it seems like i cant ... bastards ...

Using a screen to hold the perlite in the container seems like a crazy assed idea to me, and i usually love to fuck about. I just cant see that working at all. I cant even see why you would try. Not that i want to come across as negative or knocking but thats a fucking stupid idea in my mind

i did think about filling the tailpipe with perlite and putting a screen over that and putting the coco on top of the screen filling the bucket, but i suspect it would just cause a hydrophobic layer and ruin everything. Im sure somebody smarter than me can comment here.

and yeah its a good friend that tells you when your being an idiot and need to pull your head in, rather than being a sychophantic turd

 

[bobblehead]

You are one hell of a giant turd Dave... Perlite isn't hydrophobic, it holds more water and has greater air porosity than coco. It has a CEC of 0, so what you feed your plants is what they get. I was suggesting you switch to perlite b/c you already have a recirculating system built. Its not the recirculation that killed your plant, it was insufficient O2 in the rhizosphere that lead to lockout/drowning.

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

You are one hell of a giant turd Dave... Perlite isn't hydrophobic, it holds more water and has greater air porosity than coco. It has a CEC of 0, so what you feed your plants is what they get. I was suggesting you switch to perlite b/c you already have a recirculating system built. Its not the recirculation that killed your plant, it was insufficient O2 in the rhizosphere that lead to lockout/drowning.

ok ive never run pure perlite before, my understanding is that instead of a pulse/wave per hour i would run the pump on continous flow? Is that so?

whats the difference between perlite and hydroton as far as using it goes?

D9 said something about perlite being bad in a PPK due to it floating, thats my main concern here.

I would love to hear more of how you would go about it in my shoes?

Very tempting idea that i never considered. Thanks for the input.

 

[bobblehead]

Lmao, Dave, go back a page and reread my post. The perlite won't float, if you put nylon window screen on top of it all and add some rocks. Cut a slit for the plant. I can buy a bag of rocks for $3 at home depot. I also have a pile of them in my backyard... Rocks don't float, ya hear? They'll weigh the perlite down.

Perlite is better than hydroton for the same reasons turface is better, the size of the granule and porosity. Perlite holds more moisture than hydroton. Perlite is a great hydroponic medium, except that it floats, and you have to wear a dust mask when handling it. You should use the dust mask for turface or DA too... Hell, I use one with dry coco.

I'm telling you... Perlite is the solution to your problems. Leave everything else as-is.

 

[DHF]

Lmao, Dave, go back a page and reread my post. The perlite won't float, if you put nylon window screen on top of it all and add some rocks. Cut a slit for the plant. I can buy a bag of rocks for $3 at home depot. I also have a pile of them in my backyard... Rocks don't float, ya hear? They'll weigh the perlite down.

Perlite is better than hydroton for the same reasons turface is better, the size of the granule and porosity. Perlite holds more moisture than hydroton. Perlite is a great hydroponic medium, except that it floats, and you have to wear a dust mask when handling it. You should use the dust mask for turface or DA too... Hell, I use one with dry coco.

I'm telling you... Perlite is the solution to your problems. Leave everything else as-is.

Works for me......Make sure the rocks are darker so as not to promote algae development on the top layer.......

Vermiculite and Perlite are notorious for algae blooms cuz the shit`s snow white and retains juice while the HID lights promote said bloom like a mofo , so sounds like a plan as long as yas screen out and wash all the little shit out of it.......

The chunkier and coarser for O2 retention in the rootzone FTW Dave.....now......

Get to work............

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