Racks on Racks

[bigbufu]

Alright so I'm pretty sure my ppms were off so I cleaned my Hanna meter and recalibrated the ppms. Dumped out the old nutes mixed up some new ones with this formula.

-1ml magicali It still brought my ppms to 90ppm
-6 ml floramicro
-9ml flora bloom
-2.5ml silica blast
-1ml rapidstart
-.75ml drip clean


Ppms came to 750ppm 5.8 ph . I think that sounds about right now DHF right ? Knew it was weird how my base nutes were halved and stayed around 700ppm. I calibrated with the 1500 ppm how do I tell if my meters .5 or .7 calibrated ? I got a hanna tri meter with a probe are all hanna on the .5 ? For now I'm staying with the formula above seems solid right everyone ? Looking real solid icmag family

-AJ

 

[bigbufu]

I have a hanna hi 9813-6 by the way I think it's a .7 conversion I don't know though.def going to bring it to the store to make sure it's all on point.

-AJ

 

[Mister_D]

So i finally got my camera in the mail and am shooting some photos as soon as i get to the spot. Everythings alright ladies still a little yellow I know its a mag issue and the roots got a little shocked since my buddy didnt notice he was giving cold ass water like 55F def under 60F. Dont think the little ladies appreciated that. Got an aquarium heater now keeping it a little under 20c now im adjusting my formula right now as im using r/o water now instead of my tap as in past grows. I think I got it down well see in the next week to week in a half. So mister you think full 6/9 is ok ? that comes out for me around 800-825 ppm. I think that might be a tad to much for the ladies until flowering at least. I dont think ive ever used full strength as my ladies have never gotten that big in veg to need full strength. Ive only had a few mothers ive used close to full strength with. Let me see if i can find that post i saw from DHF ahhhh here it is.

" When i went to smaller plants with increased numbers I found less was more. and never ran over 750 ppm's for well over a decade with dialed results."

As DHF said their are certain strains I found that will take elevated numbers but all of my veggers seemed great when i kept it between 600-750 ppms.Im running all diff strains this round so maybe some are asking for more. My strawberrys seem to love the ppms around 700 and are nice and green now but some of the other strains are still a little yellow What do you think mister ? I guess everyones different right ? well i shot them up with 6/9 full strength a couple days ago and their greening up i will say but i adjusted my formula to this to see how it goes these next couple of days.

All per gallon

1ml of GH CaliMagic ( brings my ppms from 20 up to 100-120ppms).
3ml of floramicro
4.5 ml of florabloom
2.5 ml of botanicare silica blast
2 ml of GH rapidstart
.75ml of H&G drip clean

ppms come in rance to around 700 (+-5 )

I think this is pretty solid and the ladies should like it if their still asking for more then ill bump in up like you said mister. Decided to give the calimagic and rapid start a try as I received a bunch of free samples from the GH guys themselves so why not. I hear good stuff about rapidstart and hoped to save a little extra bucks and sub out the roots excel shits pricey. I also decided to give the calimagic a go as I hear its better quality than bontanicares cal mag +. Im a huge botanicare fan dont get me wrong but I heard the shelf life sucks for the cal mag and spoils quick. The calimagic also has less nitrogen i believe and a little more cal and mag which is why I only add 1ml. Well see how the ladies like it dont see why they wont. Might add a little aquashield as well what does everyone think ? please chime in everyone its supposed to be a party over here.



-AJ

I think you should just stick to adding nothing but 6/9 (ALWAYS @ full strength, unless you experience tip burn), ph up/down only if needed to maintain nutrient ph between 5.5-6, and drip clean at 1ml per gal. as insurance. Add nothing else until you have successfully completed a healthy crop with this formula. IF, AND ONLY IF you experience tip burn using 6/9 @ full strength, mix it in the same ratio for less water than you plan to use (i.e mix 4 gals worth of nutes (24/36ml) into 5 gal. of water). H3ad's formula contains EVERYTHING you need nutritionally speaking to grow in coco. To put it in perspective, I just gave full strength 6/9 to freshly sprouted seedlings. They haven't even opened their first set of leaves yet. Yes I've done this before, doesn't burn them.

Take a look at my album, over 90% of the plants in there received nothing but full strength 6/9 and sm90 their whole lives.

 

[bobblehead]

When I used head's formula, I had better results keeping the ca/mg separate from the 6/9. Doesn't work so well on auto-feed... But you can apply the ca/mg by hand at a higher rate 1x a week, vs a lower rate throughout the week... So let's say 10-15mL ca/mg per gallon 1x a week vs. 2.5-5mL a gallon every day.

And what's the deal with neg rep on legit posts? Normally I just ignore it... But I've seen it quite a bit lately.

Good luck! Racks require a solid feed system to work right.

 

[Avinash.miles]

And what's the deal with neg rep on legit posts? Normally I just ignore it... But I've seen it quite a bit lately.

Let's just blame that on chubby, stoned, lazy fingers making mistakes...


anyhow
bigbufu, looking forward to the progress.... what's goin on in there, how tall your ladies & whatnot?

 

[DHF]

How`re the plants doin......What conversion is your meter....750 ppms @.5 conversion is 1.5 EC.....

750 ppms @.7 is a lil over 1.0 EC , so maybe your best bet is like DBro said to stay strictly 6/9 and keep ph dialed to see how they react.....

Good luck....DHF..........

 

[bigbufu]

Hey everyone found the problem and boy does it suck. So ive used 6/9 before and have had successful runs knew that switching to r/o water was not the reason why i was having so much trouble. I started using rapid start because i noticed my roots werent taking off and I started getting stumped. Since i was switching to smaller plants larger numbers I grabbed some clones from a grower to fill in some spots since I decided to do 80 cuttings instead of 64. I decided to take some of the top layer of coco off and cut the rockwool cube and walala I see some critters pretty sure there RA's. Fuck I usually dont trust anyone and this is why. I know the RA's came in from those cuttings. I did a coco drench with bayers and saw the bastards in the run off water I was catching. Well the plants still look healthy and im going to try to save them as I noticed not all of the babes were infested yet at least from what I saw. I cleaned up the whole room washed the tables and counters and everythings and tossed a HPNS in there for shits and giggles. In a couple days I will hit them with a dosage of the triazicide at 15ml per gallon and then follow up with an azamax drench. Ill see how they do in the next week. Bummer yes but now it just proves the theory of not trusting anyones shit. I will probably just land up trying to bounce the babes back to where I could take a shit load of cuttings and throw them in the domes. This is probably what ill do to play it safe and toss out all the old pots and coco. I will def use those predatory nematodes once the clones root. This will only put me back three weeks which is a hell of alot better than going into flowering thinking the RA's are gone. Will def look into using the sm-90 as well DHF that wont hurt the nematodes right ? and will drip clean hurt them as well ? Im back to cooking my coco from now on again too ! Keep ya guys posted ! and ill post the pics of the racks I built any suggestions on watering systems ? blue mat drippers are amazing from wait i here. thanks everyone for your support.



-AJ

 

[DHF]

I don`t have a clue if SM-90 kills nematodes Bro.....I do know if yas "innoculate" your coco with it BEFORE planting/placing cuts and then with every feed start to finish @ 5 ml per gal , that SM-90 will not allow rootborn critters to hatch .....period.....

It encapsulates the eggs and larvae if any have hatched , then smothers the lil fucks by cutting off the O2 supply.....Shit`s Coriander oil in suspension with a few lower concentrations of inert ingredients and works....ask Mr D.....He`ll testify guaranteed....and....

Can`t see dripclean affecting nematodes , but again have no clue......and here we go again with this neg rep bullshit from chickenshit lil bitch boys hidin behind a keyboard......

Grow up guys....Tell folks how yas feel in open forum , private message , or in the REAL rep icon on the left side of the page , THEN at least the grievance is voiced and able to be approached and dealt with by BOTH parties ....my 2 cents...Good luck Bufu.....and....

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

 

[Mister_D]

It encapsulates the eggs and larvae if any have hatched , then smothers the lil fucks by cutting off the O2 supply.....Shit`s Coriander oil in suspension with a few lower concentrations of inert ingredients and works....ask Mr D.....He`ll testify guaranteed....and....

Well I did just buy 20 more gallons of the stuff so...... ya, you could say I fully recommend it's use . Really feel like I owe you a debt for showing that stuff to me fred

Haven't seen a bug of any kind in my rooms since about 3 weeks after I started using it. It's systematic, so bugs just seem to leave your plants alone once it's in there. Though it won't stop an RA infestation, it does very effectively kill a lot of the little fuckers, and helps stimulate new root growth also. I recommend you grab 3-4 of these bug bombs, a bottle of sm90, and the bayer complete insect killer pictured.

Set a bomb off in your room every three days for 9-12 days (kills fliers, and any hiding in the cracks of your room). Add SM90 @ 5ml per gal. to every drop of nutrient water you give to your plants. Flood/drench each plant with minimum of 1 gal. of max label dose of insect killer. Do this twice, 7 days apart to every plant and any unused media you have sitting around. When mixing the insect killer, no nutrients or anything is else added. That includes ph adjustment. Being your plants are stunted anyway a watering or two without nutes won't hurt them. The bombs and insect killer both contain the same active ingredient, I've yet to meet a bug this stuff doesn't kill. The insect killer also contains Imid, so it's a triple attack. This is the exact method I used to defeat a very bad RA infestation in my own room. Good luck and be diligent in covering every surface with poison.


Oh and forget the nematodes, sm90 and the insect killer will both wipe them out.

 

[bobblehead]

I quit using SM-90 and all pesticides, and switched to brewing teas of beneficial microbes. Bugs can be infected by bacteria, fungi, and viruses just like a human. OGBIOWAR foliar pack has everything you need to kill just about any bug.

Now the combination of high brix and competitive inhibition through beneficial microbes keeps my plants healthy. Things to consider if you ever have to submit your buds for lab testing. They can test for residual pesticides.

 

[DHF]

I quit using SM-90 and all pesticides, and switched to brewing teas of beneficial microbes. Bugs can be infected by bacteria, fungi, and viruses just like a human. OGBIOWAR foliar pack has everything you need to kill just about any bug.

Now the combination of high brix and competitive inhibition through beneficial microbes keeps my plants healthy. Things to consider if you ever have to submit your buds for lab testing. They can test for residual pesticides.

That is so fuckin awesome.....Does it work with coco ?.....

Teas and Cap`s foliar pack ?......No SM-90 or any type of pesticide sounds too good to be true Bobbles , but if it works it works........

Gawd.....We are old Mr D.....Still like the way SM-90 smells so ........anyways....

The more yas learn , the more yas earn .....Thanx for the input...How do yas put it to use INSTEAD of pesticides would be a most interesting and informative thread.......maybe there is one....

I`m gettin old and don`t hunt for shit much anymore , so if there`s a link to how to do this , it`d be greatly appreciated.....

Gonna grow me some PPK headies some of these days.....

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

 

[gamegreenthumb]

That is so fuckin awesome.....Does it work with coco ?.....

Teas and Cap`s foliar pack ?......No SM-90 or any type of pesticide sounds too good to be true Bobbles , but if it works it works........

Gawd.....We are old Mr D.....Still like the way SM-90 smells so ........anyways....

The more yas learn , the more yas earn .....Thanx for the input...How do yas put it to use INSTEAD of pesticides would be a most interesting and informative thread.......maybe there is one....

I`m gettin old and don`t hunt for shit much anymore , so if there`s a link to how to do this , it`d be greatly appreciated.....

Gonna grow me some PPK headies some of these days.....

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

Hey DHF not bobble but I can vouch for the ogbiowar teas doing that also.I also stopped using sm90(which i never went without after reading your post,thanks for that all the other priceless info you share) and other pesticides when i started using the tea.I brewed it twice a week for a month to get everything under control(broad mites,cyclamen mites and gnats) and now only apply once a week to moms(foliar and root drench) to be safe.I also spray it up to day 35 on flowering plants once a week and do a root drench until flush.Stuff is really a life saver.I apologize
OP for going off topic,hope all is going well for you and here's wishing you much success.

 

[Mister_D]

That is so fuckin awesome.....Does it work with coco ?.....

Teas and Cap`s foliar pack ?......No SM-90 or any type of pesticide sounds too good to be true Bobbles , but if it works it works........

Gawd.....We are old Mr D.....Still like the way SM-90 smells so ........anyways....

The more yas learn , the more yas earn .....Thanx for the input...How do yas put it to use INSTEAD of pesticides would be a most interesting and informative thread.......maybe there is one....

I`m gettin old and don`t hunt for shit much anymore , so if there`s a link to how to do this , it`d be greatly appreciated.....

Gonna grow me some PPK headies some of these days.....

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

Must admit I love the smell of it too, and the shit just works . Never added a drop of it to my organic garden though. Hasn't been any bad bugs in that room for years though, and yes I believe that is due to proper recycling and media building practices. I've seen somewhat mixed reports on the ogbiowar's effectiveness once an infestation has taken hold. So I don't yet feel comfortable recommending it, plus I haven't actually tested the product . I do think that taking on proper organic practices will negate the need to use any chemical pesticide, at least once the soil food web is well developed. Tea's like ogbiowar, earth worm castings, etc, should speed up this process a bit, but ultimately there is no substitute for time and proper building and care of the soil. Hell being old we really should know more about this kind of thing :friends:. "Teaming with microbes" is a great book to read up on how this stuff works. Can be had for ~10 bucks on google, or free if you're inclined to download the torrent. Ole D might just have a few ppk's sitting in his room right now .

 

[DHF]

Must admit I love the smell of it too, and the shit just works . Never added a drop of it to my organic garden though. Hasn't been any bad bugs in that room for years though, and yes I believe that is due to proper recycling and media building practices. I've seen somewhat mixed reports on the ogbiowar's effectiveness once an infestation has taken hold. So I don't yet feel comfortable recommending it, plus I haven't actually tested the product . I do think that taking on proper organic practices will negate the need to use any chemical pesticide, at least once the soil food web is well developed. Tea's like ogbiowar, earth worm castings, etc, should speed up this process a bit, but ultimately there is no substitute for time and proper building and care of the soil. Hell being old we really should know more about this kind of thing :friends:. "Teaming with microbes" is a great book to read up on how this stuff works. Can be had for ~10 bucks on google, or free if you're inclined to download the torrent. Ole D might just have a few ppk's sitting in his room right now .

My outside veggie garden`s been water only for 20 yrs DBro......Just ain`t never grown no dope with dirt inside.....Grew outside over 12 yrs with J.R.Peter`s special 20-20-20 , and miracle gro 15-30-15 cuz that`s all there was back in the 70`s......

Old man that lives down the road and tends the garden while I`m gone , plants a clover cover crop late Nov after all the fall greens and root crops of new potatoes , broccoli , cauliflower , all the jalapeno`s and habanero`s left on the vine that turn purple , pink , and deep red.....then....

It`s rinse and repeat next yr after it`s been tilled under and re-amended per needs of soil sample sent to county agent....anyways....Hope yas get back on track Bufu.....

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

 

[Mister_D]

My outside veggie garden`s been water only for 20 yrs DBro......Just ain`t never grown no dope with dirt inside.....Grew outside over 12 yrs with J.R.Peter`s special 20-20-20 , and miracle gro 15-30-15 cuz that`s all there was back in the 70`s......

Old man that lives down the road and tends the garden while I`m gone , plants a clover cover crop late Nov after all the fall greens and root crops of new potatoes , broccoli , cauliflower , all the jalapeno`s and habanero`s left on the vine that turn purple , pink , and deep red.....then....

It`s rinse and repeat next yr after it`s been tilled under and re-amended per needs of soil sample sent to county agent....anyways....Hope yas get back on track Bufu.....

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

Soil building principals are the same for dope as they are for veggies, just different nute requirements. I'm sure you've noticed your veggie beds have gotten better over the years (plant health, productivity, yield, etc)? The same thing happens indoors, this is a result of the soil food web developing.

 

[bigbufu]

Whats up everyone !

Long time no posting been just getting things rearranged. Did a through cleaning as all of you know and took all cuttings and tossed everything. Definitely was a pain but more than half my army is ready to go into dixie cups. Damn 30 aflavs take awhile to root but should be ready by the end of the week so theyll trail a week behind which I dont mind as itll be a little less hectic at harvest time and who knows if theyll catch up there keepers !! So what am I running this round you might be asking. Trying to find that vert production keeper so ill have a little variety to see which one is the one. Ill have 20 criticals 20 afgoos 10 tgas ripped bubba and the 30 aflavs. Im going to bomb my room after another cleaning tonight and throw the 50 babes in. Two more racks and im done will shoot some photos of everything tonight and yes I finally will as im notorious for saying I will and dont haha. Got some sm90 and boy you fellas are right love that smell ! I will be giving the babes from start to finish the formula right below :

6/9 flora micro and bloom
2.5ml of silica blast
1ml of rapid start
2ml of sm90

Feels good to get a fresh start boys and cant wait to kill it with my ic mag family by my side. You all rock and by the way DHF from , my chemistry background anything with an oxide in its base will kill living organisms. So the drip clean might be out of my lineup this round as I want to give the predatory nematodes a go to keep those aphids or any other buggers at bay if they try to make a home in my room again. Can you guys please help me on how I can set up a water system for my racks. Was thinking of just using a pump in my rez with a hose and lines with picks until I can afford blue mat drippers. Should I run the main hose from the pump at the top of the racks and have a 80 lines with picks coming down or should I run it in the middle of he racks so all the lines with picks will be even ? Please chime in fellas your opinions and ideas are much appreciated.


-AJ

 

[DHF]

Hey Bro....Hopefully Bobbles or Mr D will chime in how they used gravity controlled solenoids for a fairly easy feed setup...Me ?.....

All my shit was hard plumbed with CPVC and had loopfield manifolds on 4 levels with tophat grommets , 1/4" open ended driptubing hooked to basket stakes fed once a day till end of stretch , and twice till end of cycle.....and.....

All 4 loopfields had ball/choke/control valves turned either less or more depending on height of each level to control flow and pressure to each of the 16 plantsites on each level.....then.....

Each level was attached to the "riser" comin up from the rez with bigass 5200 gph pond pumps to blast juice up the full 6' .....The riser also had a bypass/relief tee fitting above the rez with an elbow pointed back down to rez to help control pressure upwards while the extra juice blasted back down oxygenating solution FTW ala "Heath Robinson" style.....and....

I had small powerhead pumps inside rez`s keepin shit stirred up preventing possible precipitation/fallin outta suspension , so Bro my feed setups were kinda for the intermediate skilled with mucho runs under the belt , so I again suggest Mr D`s "solenoid" setup.....

BldSwtTrs ran a killer feed setup those 8 site mushroom lookin thingie`s used in irrigation found easily at Lowes or Home Depot , so yas got choices...and...

Glad ta see yas still strokin , and if yas run lower ppm`s across the board dripclean MIGHT not be necessary since Mr D don`t use it , but he stays round 600 ppm`s/1.2 ec thru the life of each run , so there`s hope for yas without dripclean , but.....

Guaranteed it`s the BEST thing since sliced bread in the prevention of residual salt buildup in drip setups as well as keepin the plumbin clean of deposits as well in ALL coco systems......anyways....

Good luck....DHF...........

 

[Mister_D]

I don't know about easy, but after several years of testing, head scratching, and collaboration with bobble this is the best solution we've been able to come up with. It's not perfect, but it works. There is a lower res (not pictured) that feeds the upper res (black tote in upper right). Same way you'd setup for blumats. A 1" PVC manifold exits the upper res and makes a circle around the rack system forming a manifold.

Tee'd off the 1" manifold, in between each set of racks there is a battery operated solenoid that controls flow to a 1/2" flexzilla (green hose) manifold. I tapped into the flexzilla with 1/4" drip line that then runs to each plant. Each of the 1/4" lines has shut of valve on the end of it, this is so I can adjust flow to each individual plant.

So basically the lower res keeps the upper res topped off. Upper res keeps the 1" manifold full. Each solenoid turns on 5 mins apart, for 1 min per watering cycle (minimum the solenoids I use allow). As the solenoid opens water flows from the 1" manifold, through the solenoid, into the 1/2" flexzilla manifold, then out the 1/4" drip lines to the plants. I have taken this a step further and added drains to each of my plant saucers. This was done because 1 min of watering leads to excessive run-off in my setup. I am considering adding shut off valves to the flexzilla so I can slow flow a bit more that way, but I'm concerned the flexzilla won't fill fast enough to overcome the flow out the bottom 1/4" lines. Let me know if any of that isn't making sense. One of these days i'll get around to another thread with a better explanation of the system with more pictures.

 

[DHF]

I don't know about easy, but after several years of testing, head scratching, and collaboration with bobble this is the best solution we've been able to come up with. It's not perfect, but it works. There is a lower res (not pictured) that feeds the upper res (black tote in upper right). Same way you'd setup for blumats. A 1" PVC manifold exits the upper res and makes a circle around the rack system forming a manifold.

View Image

Tee'd off the 1" manifold, in between each set of racks there is a battery operated solenoid that controls flow to a 1/2" flexzilla (green hose) manifold. I tapped into the flexzilla with 1/4" drip line that then runs to each plant. Each of the 1/4" lines has shut of valve on the end of it, this is so I can adjust flow to each individual plant.

View Image

So basically the lower res keeps the upper res topped off. Upper res keeps the 1" manifold full. Each solenoid turns on 5 mins apart, for 1 min per watering cycle (minimum the solenoids I use allow). As the solenoid opens water flows from the 1" manifold, through the solenoid, into the 1/2" flexzilla manifold, then out the 1/4" drip lines to the plants. I have taken this a step further and added drains to each of my plant saucers. This was done because 1 min of watering leads to excessive run-off in my setup. I am considering adding shut off valves to the flexzilla so I can slow flow a bit more that way, but I'm concerned the flexzilla won't fill fast enough to overcome the flow out the bottom 1/4" lines. Let me know if any of that isn't making sense. One of these days i'll get around to another thread with a better explanation of the system with more pictures.

Well...I meant fairly easy compared to a buncha hard plumbed spiderwebs of cpvc with pond pumps and specific and sufficient "head pressure" to supply all plantsites up and all around the 4 levels.....

NO manifold setup is easy , but when ya`ll came up with ther upper rez gravity type feed setup , it just seemed soooo much easier than mine....anyways....as illustrated....

Many waysta skin a mule....

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

 

[SmokinErb22]

Mr_D, really digging that watering set-up you got. I may have to mimic this for my vert cabs as I'm moving away from donuts and into SOG type runs with multiple levels...actually installing the shelving/racks today..... I've been scratching my head as to how to design a watering system to get away from hand watering. Watering 8 plants per cab is one thing... watering 32 per cab is another entirely.

To clairfy, having a mainfold mounted up high is to allow even pressure/distribution to each dripper across different height levels? Compared to a floor mounted mainfold with a pump.... the higher levels should receive less water because of the longer tube + pressure accumulation as it moves up the line.