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Operation Kill Shorty

I'm posting this thread in the New Growers section to test out a couple methods I've learned from ICMag... PPK buckets and The K.I.S.S. Maxibloom method...

I know, who is Shorty and why do I want to kill him? Well, Shorty is a her and she is a short indica plant that I got out of a bag of Sam The Skunkman Mixed x Haze/Skunk #1 seeds...



I like her because she is a pretty easy plant to grow and I wanted to find a shorty stocky indica to grow because sometimes I just like to get locked on the couch...

Right before I put her into flower 15 days ago, I took two clones...One of them looked pretty good yesterday and had lots of roots so I decided to try something new... a PPK (Passive Plant Killer), there a really long thread about them here https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=138004

Yes, I'm going to try to kill Shorty...I've seen threads where people using a PPK go weeks without watering their plants...if I did that with a Hempy bucket or a regular smart pot my plants would be dead in a week...

So, I built a PPK using a rubbermaid 3 gallon tub with a smart pot on top... I made a cut in the bottom of the Smart Pot, slid a 6" tailpiece through it, packed it with coco, put some mesh over the cuts I had made in the tailpiece...then I filled the smart pot with a 70/30 coco/perlite mixture and soaked it with water ph'd to 5.8...yes, tap water...

Here's a picture of my PPK


It's connected using tire valve stems to a control bucket with a float valve that keeps my water level under 3 inches this is filled by a reservoir... since this is a test I just used 5 gallon buckets for the res and control buckets...


Almost forgot, I filled the reservoir with 7 grams of Maxibloom per gallon, yes I used full strength nutes... So far so good, it's been over 24 hours and she is still looking good!

Lets see how long it takes to complete Operation Kill Shorty!

Will she live? Will She die?
 

delta9nxs

No Jive Productions
Veteran
hey JR, break a branch! i would say good luck but you don't need it.

you are about to grow an extremely healthy plant.

with sub-irrigation you will want to run a weaker nute solution than say a hand watered drain to waste. around 600 ppm total input.

also, every once in a while top water it evenly with straight water to back flush salts that will try to accumulate in the top of the medium.

and the practice promotes root growth in the top portion.

welcome to the club! if you need anything ask any of us!

d9
 
Thanks d9, I'm looking forward to this being a very boring grow... Thank you for the tips! I hope the nute solution isn't too strong...
 
This should be an interesting test for the ppk. I'm pulling up a chair.

Man, you sure that you want to hang out and watch me torture Shorty? I'm gonna wait a few days and drop the T-5 right on top of her!

Is a ppk the plant equivalent of water boarding :)
 
Still not dead yet, the coco wick is keeping the entire pot nice and moist... Shorty doesn't seem to be stressed at all... Water is dripping back down from the bucket back down into the res, I guess that means the coco is completely saturated... I have drain holes drilled under the smart pot...

3 days and I haven't had to do anything at all...

View attachment 189683
 
I checked the wick and realized that I hadn't covered the entire tailpiece and a bunch of coco had washed into the res...

I wrapped it up with more netting and we'll see how it works out...
 
I'll watch ya kill shorty :biggrin:

Your a sick bastard... I haven't checked the ppm's yet! Maybe I'll do that tomorrow...

Did I mention that I lost most of my clones sitting in my Turbo Klone sitting right next to shorty... Now I know what happens when your clones start growing, the humidity gets low and the dome is still on... No more domes on the cloner for me...

They are dead yet Shorty still lives...
 
Almost forgot... I tried out the ppm meter yesterday... A bluelab, the fucking LCD was broken out of the box... It was impossible to tell whether they were 420 or 920... The second digit is fucked up...Will get it replaced,

It did show me that our water is 200ppm and that if I mix Maxibloom at 7gr/gallon it looks to be around 1300... That sounded really high so I diluted the mix... I'm waiting to get the water tested before ordering any Jacks... Maxibloom will have to work until then...

Surprisingly, it mixed right up for me...
 

high life 45

Seen your Member?
Veteran
I have had the same problem with my meter. I am using jacks so I just followed instructions and had no problems. Sometimes You can switch it to ec and it should work. I have used just about everything else and bluelabs are the most consistent and stable..
Recently I noticed that this lcd issue is surfacing more often. I still will be using bluelabs.

I have a good relationship with my local hydro store and they took it no questions asked. This is one of the many reasons I dont order online. I also have returned 4 or five of the 20 bulbs I have bought, also no questions asked.

I find that the few extra bucks you could save are not worth it when it comes to having to deal with a return.

Good luck with the meter.
 
I have had the same problem with my meter. I am using jacks so I just followed instructions and had no problems. Sometimes You can switch it to ec and it should work. I have used just about everything else and bluelabs are the most consistent and stable..
Recently I noticed that this lcd issue is surfacing more often. I still will be using bluelabs.

I have a good relationship with my local hydro store and they took it no questions asked. This is one of the many reasons I dont order online. I also have returned 4 or five of the 20 bulbs I have bought, also no questions asked.

I find that the few extra bucks you could save are not worth it when it comes to having to deal with a return.

Good luck with the meter.

Yeah, I have a local that I bought it from, he told me he would exchange it...

What instructions do you use for Jacks?
 

high life 45

Seen your Member?
Veteran
Good, make friends with your local store, or stores and you will start getting hooked up.
My partner wanted to order everything from the net.
I told my store I would rather buy from them and asked what kind of hookup can they give me, I spend at least $500 a month and they always hook me up nicely.
I just mix equal parts by volume, its the easiest for my friends who are involved in the grow.
Each bag of jack has its own scoop. Three scoops gets us to where we need to be in a 32gal top off res.
If plants look hungry they get an extra scoop, if they get the claw they get one less scoop.
I brought a nice digital scale (.001) over to the grow and honestly its was just an extra unneeded step for us.

Its sitting there collecting dust while my plants are sitting there collecting trichs.
 
Good, make friends with your local store, or stores and you will start getting hooked up.
My partner wanted to order everything from the net.
I told my store I would rather buy from them and asked what kind of hookup can they give me, I spend at least $500 a month and they always hook me up nicely.
I just mix equal parts by volume, its the easiest for my friends who are involved in the grow.
Each bag of jack has its own scoop. Three scoops gets us to where we need to be in a 32gal top off res.
If plants look hungry they get an extra scoop, if they get the claw they get one less scoop.
I brought a nice digital scale (.001) over to the grow and honestly its was just an extra unneeded step for us.

Its sitting there collecting dust while my plants are sitting there collecting trichs.

With Jacks, do you use RO or tap water? I don't have an alternative to tap so that's what I gotta use, even if it is 200ppm... Should I bother getting my water tested by Jacks or just buy that and cal-nite and go for it? D9 told me to use a 1/.6 ratio and to use a 600ppm mixture... Is that 600 in addition to the 200ppm tap water?

I went to just about every hydro store in my area, about 10 of them... I finally found one I like about 50 miles from home...
 
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