a ppk for a 6 plant limit

[delta9nxs]

D9,

Since switching back to turface, from floor dry...are you still screening and washing the turface?...If so, are you still using your slide/cement tub methods?

not screening anymore but have improved the drains at the same time.

i am using an altered cement mixer to wash and it does a great job.

it also removes some of the finer material but not as much as screening.

 

[Grow4Flow]

hey D,
Can you share you mixer alteration? i'm now washing 14 50lb bags and it get pretty tedious.

thanks

 

[cactusjack]

Hey D9! Glad to see you back in one piece and living in a friendly state.

Good find on the 3 gallon feed dishes! About a year ago I was looking for shallow pans in the 3 gallon range but could never find round ones (my feed store only had the floppy rubber kind). I ended up with rectangular 2.5 gallon Sterlite tubs with two tailpieces each. They work fine and roots fill the corners in spite of my early doubts. Looks like I'll be switching to your 3 gallon round dishes though since they look a bit stiffer. Just ordered a few off Amazon.

Still running 100% Turface with bottom feed only (plus a little hand feed from top to get plants started), but I've reverted back to horizontal scrog training in anticipation of switching to LEDs early next year.

Stay warm and free!

 

[MedScientist]

WooHoo! I am SOoo McFreakingHappy to see you Journaling again! WooHoo!

I am Very close to Finalizing the 1/2 Gallon Turface, MF Wicked, Top Fed/Recirc, Modified ppk System for Veg and 12/12!

Now I need to work on a BETTER Support System to keep them OFF the Floor! WooHoo!

I've had to Lasso and HogTie this Beast!

Happy Dayz!

 

[Miraculous Meds]

WooHoo! I am SOoo McFreakingHappy to see you Journaling again! WooHoo!

I am Very close to Finalizing the 1/2 Gallon Turface, MF Wicked, Top Fed/Recirc, Modified ppk System for Veg and 12/12!

Now I need to work on a BETTER Support System to keep them OFF the Floor! WooHoo!

View Image

I've had to Lasso and HogTie this Beast!

Happy Dayz!

Chicken wire on the ceiling and twine to tie the big branches. Looks good tho.

 

[Snook]

Hey D9! Glad to see you back in one piece and living in a friendly state.

in anticipation of switching to LEDs early next year.

Stay warm and free!

have you made any decisions on he LEDs? I think about them for safety (no fires) but that's a lot of money up front to replicate 600w or 1Kw bulbs, for which I have 3 perfectly good almost new digital ballasts. also there aren't many real positive grows with LEDs that are not written by the wholesaler. and if i'm going to put in the time there must be a reasonable return.

EDIT: and its always good to hear from you 9nsx

 

[delta9nxs]

hey D,
Can you share you mixer alteration? i'm now washing 14 50lb bags and it get pretty tedious.

thanks

i took the 6 cu ft Kushlan mixer from home depot and drilled a bunch of 1/8" holes at the lowest point in the tub when the tub is in the horizontal position. the holes go all the way around the tub in a band about 1.5" wide so that as the tub turns it is continuously draining.

then shoot a stream of water into the tub trying to approximately match drain speed.

i can put one whole bag in at a time.

i'm still experimenting but it looks like i can wash a bag really clean in about 20 minutes.

i'm out of town right now but will take pics when i get back.

 

[delta9nxs]

cactus jack, snook, and medsci! hey, people!

 

[Mister_D]

i took the 6 cu ft Kushlan mixer from home depot and drilled a bunch of 1/8" holes at the lowest point in the tub when the tub is in the horizontal position. the holes go all the way around the tub in a band about 1.5" wide so that as the tub turns it is continuously draining.

then shoot a stream of water into the tub trying to approximately match drain speed.

i can put one whole bag in at a time.

i'm still experimenting but it looks like i can wash a bag really clean in about 20 minutes.

i'm out of town right now but will take pics when i get back.

Dude you're a genius!

 

[cactusjack]

have you made any decisions on he LEDs? I think about them for safety (no fires) but that's a lot of money up front to replicate 600w or 1Kw bulbs, for which I have 3 perfectly good almost new digital ballasts. also there aren't many real positive grows with LEDs that are not written by the wholesaler. and if i'm going to put in the time there must be a reasonable return.

Hey Shook!
No LEDs selected yet and the closer I get to deciding, the less I believe ANY source of info! I'm sticking with my 1,000 watt HPS through the winter because I use the waste heat to help heat the house, but in late spring I'll be expanding my grow and I want to switch to lower heat output LEDs.

Whatever I end up with, I'm planning on cutting my LED cost roughly in half by setting up a glorified light mover. The mover will pass the LED array back and forth between two side-by-side grow spaces every 12 hours.

Stay warm

 

[Snook]

Hey Shook!
No LEDs selected yet and the closer I get to deciding, the less I believe ANY source of info! I'm sticking with my 1,000 watt HPS through the winter because I use the waste heat to help heat the house, but in late spring I'll be expanding my grow and I want to switch to lower heat output LEDs.

Whatever I end up with, I'm planning on cutting my LED cost roughly in half by setting up a glorified light mover. The mover will pass the LED array back and forth between two side-by-side grow spaces every 12 hours.

Stay warm

if I had the room, I'd buy the LEDs & see myself but I do not: if it didn't work out so good, could use the leds to do veging and cloning. I bought one of those $70 floodlight looking leds years ago ($70 shot to hell) wasn't worth $.70, so i'm very doubtful.. but that was years ago.. the thoughts of no possible fires motivates me. But if used vertically, would one have to buy 2-3 led fixtures or must grow horizontal?

 

[cactusjack]

if I had the room, I'd buy the LEDs & see myself but I do not: if it didn't work out so good, could use the leds to do veging and cloning. I bought one of those $70 floodlight looking leds years ago ($70 shot to hell) wasn't worth $.70, so i'm very doubtful.. but that was years ago.. the thoughts of no possible fires motivates me. But if used vertically, would one have to buy 2-3 led fixtures or must grow horizontal?

Snook - Don't want to divert this thread so I'll try to keep it short. I figure vertical vs horizontal depends on the light source. It appears vertical is superior if HPS is used. If fluorescent tubes are used, horizontal seems better. LEDs are point sources that are very directional which suggests horizontal to me since I can create a very uniform horizontal scrog canopy and fill it more easily than a vertical scrog canopy. The latest LEDs use 5 watt elements and seem to get pretty good penetration. Too good in my book since the suggested canopy height is often nearly 2 ft from the source. That makes for a tall grow area and I like to stack things when growing horizontal scrog. Penetration is a great thing, and I suppose if high enough wattage elements are used, you could penetrate an oak tree, top to bottom. The point is that to me, 5 watt elements are beginning to look like overkill if scrog is used. I'm looking more closely at the older 3 watt arrays which have adequate penetration for scrog and I can place them closer to the canopy.

In addition to our friendly herb, I'm an indoor vegetable gardener growing relatively short plants. Spinach, lettuce, bok-choy, radishes, and dwarf tomatoes mostly. These all stay under a foot tall so deep penetration isn't needed. What I need is a big flat array distributing wattage evenly over the grow area. I've been using T-8 fluorescent for this to date. Once LED data is available (big companies like GE and Philips are finally starting to get involved in this market), I'd like to convert my vegetable garden to LED as well. Even factoring in electricity costs I'm currently able to grow vegetables indoors under lights for less than 20% of what they cost in stores. I should do better with LEDs. All organic, no bugs, no dirt, no Fukashima fallout, and field to table in about 5 minutes.

 

[Grow4Flow]

D9,
your last setup before haitus you had a 1.5-2" pipe down the center of your room and all modules were draining to it, did that not work out well, or were you using it cause it made the most sense for that room configuration?

 

[delta9nxs]

D9,
your last setup before haitus you had a 1.5-2" pipe down the center of your room and all modules were draining to it, did that not work out well, or were you using it cause it made the most sense for that room configuration?

room configuration. one room was long and narrow and this one is nearly square.

 

[Grow4Flow]

ok thanks, thought you found something about it that just didn't work out well

 

[TerpeneTom]

How valuable would a fertilizer analysis be from JR peters labs? If I never changed the solution I'd think it would be valuable to quantify the concentrations of the individual elements @ critical growth stages?

Certainly imbalances arise, but I'm aware the plants are very adaptable.

 

[delta9nxs]

How valuable would a fertilizer analysis be from JR peters labs? If I never changed the solution I'd think it would be valuable to quantify the concentrations of the individual elements @ critical growth stages?

Certainly imbalances arise, but I'm aware the plants are very adaptable.

hi, i don't recommend never changing the solution.

i think an analysis or a series of them would be very interesting some time. just to see exactly what happens to the solution.

i mentioned that i would do a change out if the ph got over about 6.5.

i think that we would find the solution starting to get a little out of shape at that point.

and there is no reason not to change and clean between runs. when i was doing perpetual i would change every few months. i still don't know if i needed to or not.

in a recirculating ppk everything you put in the system is still in it until the end. it's in the plant, the medium, or the solution. unless you change it.

so i think that maybe the solution is being depleted at a rate and composition closely matching the life cycle of the plant.

strong on nitrogen in the beginning and low towards the end. it would be interesting to see it plotted out on maybe a weekly basis.

 

[Mrrite008]

i took the 6 cu ft Kushlan mixer from home depot and drilled a bunch of 1/8" holes at the lowest point in the tub when the tub is in the horizontal position. the holes go all the way around the tub in a band about 1.5" wide so that as the tub turns it is continuously draining.

then shoot a stream of water into the tub trying to approximately match drain speed.

i can put one whole bag in at a time.

i'm still experimenting but it looks like i can wash a bag really clean in about 20 minutes.

i'm out of town right now but will take pics when i get back.

Picked up my Kushlan mixer today...I'm looking forward to the pic of your hole pattern D.

 

[Mister_D]

so i think that maybe the solution is being depleted at a rate and composition closely matching the life cycle of the plant.

It does if you're dialed . I never change any of my reses unless something fucks up the solution (like mouse drowning in it for instance )

 

[Ichabod Crane]

I saw that if you get a mouse in your beer you get a free case of beer. It was on the show "The Great White North". I little info for you hoser eh.