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av8or's PPK - First Grow

av8or

av8or

Member
Hello everyone! I've spent the last year reading this forum and learning a ton. Thank you all for the advice you've given me already. I have spent time in friends' gardens but have finally gotten my own grow up and running. Here is where we stand so far:

7x10’ veg room, two ppk sites and a cloning station, one 600 watt MH
10x10’ flower room, four ppk sites, 1x1000w and 4x600w HPS, X pattern
Sealed room, CO2 daytime, filtered fresh air at night, 24000 btu mini split, 70 pint dehuey, etc.

I picked up four clones from a local dispensary and transplanted those two days ago:
J1
Bruce Banner #3
Cotton Candy
GSC (forum cut)

The goal is to run a six plant perpetual system with two strains running at any given time. I’m starting with four clones just because I can, but I’ll be selecting the two strongest plants to clone and keep perpetually. Any help you guys want to offer would be much appreciated. Like I said, this is my first grow and I’m trying to set myself up for success from the beginning. A big thanks to D9 and crew, you all know who you are, who have developed a fantastic system of growing. Hopefully this grow will be another testament to the stability of the ppk system. If a newb like me can do it, then anyone should be able to!

 
high life 45

high life 45

Seen your Member?
Veteran
Looking good. I like seeing folks rock the newest evolution of the device!

W
What's the heritage on the j1?
 
av8or

av8or

Member
HL45 - Thanks, brother. Once I grasped the concept, putting the system together was really, really simple. It helps having a few tools around the garage to get some of the tasks done, like cutting the carlon fittings down for the wicks.

The heritage on the J1 is a Jack Herer crossed with Skunk #1.

MM - It's awesome starting with brand new everything! I'm using Napa #8822. I took a tumbling compost bin and washed each 24 quart bag for about twenty minutes a piece, tumbling it every couple minutes. I'm really impressed with this media so far.
 
M

Miraculous Meds

Well-known member
That's napa huh, ive only got one bag of it and haven't used it cause its not enough for a full run for me, but my bag is all white stuff, and urs looks tan, maybe cause its been watered, idk?
 
av8or

av8or

Member
Napa Floor Dry #8822

Napa Floor Dry #8822

Exactly. Below, you can see how bright the drier media is on top and how much darker even a little bit of moisture makes it. This site is sitting in the second room with no top feed right now. The moisture you see is from being wicked up over the last four days. I'm assuming this looks the way it should, right?

 
av8or

av8or

Member
Good to have you, Mister D! I got tired of reading about everyone else's ppk fun and I had to join in.

Day 5 - All is quiet on the Western front (except there's no irony here...the girls are doing great).

Temp: 85
Humidity: 55%
Co2: 800 PPM
Res Temp: 80
Ph: 5.77
Nutes: 591 ppm (600 input)

J1 and GSC have shown the most growth, so far. They are all getting a lot more bright green new growth and all seeming to like their new environment.

Question: The media (napa floor dry #8822) is not getting the top dry crust that D9 speaks about. I'm flooding the sites once every 90 minutes. The flood takes about 50 seconds to fill cover the media in the seven gallon top buckets. Is the flood frequency too great if it's not getting somewhat dry on the top of the media? The plants do not look to be drowning at all and, as far as I can tell, the perched water table is subsiding into the wick within a couple minutes of the flood.
 
Mister_D

Mister_D

Active member
Veteran
On average, how many inches of vertical growth per day are you getting? If it's less than 2" then I would start by adjusting to longer periods between floods (increase in 10 minute intervals until you stop seeing increased growth rates). You can dial in to the minute/second depending on how far down the rabbit hole you wish to go. Also if you are seeing light green on the newest growth, up your nutes a small amount (10-50ppm depending on strains reaction).
 
av8or

av8or

Member
Overwatering

Overwatering

Mister D, you nailed it. I went into the room a few minutes ago and the Cotton Candy (the one with the largest root mass, by far) looked like this:



I'm going to stop feeding her in hopes that she survives. Is she too far gone? Luckily, the other three girls are so small that their roots haven't down like the Cotton Candy. Lesson #1: Listen to your plants.

On the positive side, I picked up a Pre-98 Bubba tonight and put her in veg. Hopefully, I don't have to get another one to replace the CC.
 
Mister_D

Mister_D

Active member
Veteran
Nah it's a weed, it'll bounce back :biggrin: Try feeding once every 4-6 hours and see how that does for you (generally speaking you'll have to use longer intervals until the root ball is established). Also how big is your air gap?
 
av8or

av8or

Member
Awesome. I'm glad to learn this lesson very early. I set the air gap initially at three inches. The garage floor has a grade that forces the six ppk sites to sit at different elevations. The plant that was furthest downhill was the Cotton Candy (pictured above) that was drowning. That, coupled with her having the longest roots, would account for the air gap being good for the uphill plant and not the downhill one. So, I cut some plywood to use as leveling stands. I increased the air gap to four inches to see how the media reacts. I didn't realize this floor dry would stay wet for so long. After 8 hours, it's still not completely dry across the top.

Mister D, I'll take your advice on the feed interval. I've only fed once today so far and the media just doesn't look like it needs more yet. I'll check again this evening. How long should I let the Cotton Candy sit without water before feeding her again?
 
av8or

av8or

Member
Correction: I leveled all six of my ppk sites. The air gap is now set at 3.25". I flooded the sites after about 10 hours of letting it dry out. I'm confident that this won't happen again, but I'm not sure how to nurse these girls back.
 
Mister_D

Mister_D

Active member
Veteran
Monitor your media, knowing it will always be somewhat wet in this system due to the wick. If its staying too wet (i.e. plants are showing signs of over watering) you can do a couple things to solve the problem. 1. Increase the air gap in 1/4-1/2" intervals until the plants show improved growth (should be noticeable in 2-3 days at most). 2. Increase the length of time between floods (no more than every six hours though or you run the risk of not developing hydro roots). What you are ultimately trying to do here is strike a balance between high o2 levels in the media, and the ability to feed as often as possible. Setting the air gap properly insures your PWT (perched water table) is pulled low enough that the roots aren't left in an over saturated media due to the regular floods (keeps your o2 high). Setting your floods correctly (based on approximate root ball size) ensures that not only is your plant fed/kept at a constant EC/PH, but also exchanges gases in the root zone regularly. This in combination with a proper air gap insures the roots are almost always in the ideal moisture to air ratio. Which in turn creates the insane growth rates the ppk is becoming well known for :biggrin:


Also great job leveling all your ppk's, smart thinkin' there :tiphat:
 
av8or

av8or

Member
The Cotton Candy lives! She's showing signs of rejuvenation. The grade of my garage floor was the culprit. The site that I checked the air gap at was the most uphill site. It also happened to be where a tiny, barely rooted cutting went. The most downhill site was the Cotton Candy, which had the largest root mass at transplant. The air gap was only 2 1/4 at her site, whereas the uphill site was at 3". Now that is all corrected and the cycle timer has been set at 6 hour intervals, but I think I'm going to increase that tomorrow morning, so long as the girls all continue to show signs of good growth.

Mister D, thank you very much for a plain text explanation. When I set up, I was attempting to achieve those conditions, but I completely overlooked the engineered run of the garage floor! Rookie mistake, to be certain.

Snook, glad to have you aboard! My strategy is to emulate all of you guys until I get dialed in and confident, too. I'll take all the advice I can get.
 
Snook

Snook

Still Learning
Veteran
av8or said:
The Cotton Candy lives! She's showing signs of rejuvenation. The grade of my garage floor was the culprit. The site that I checked the air gap at was the most uphill site. It also happened to be where a tiny, barely rooted cutting went. The most downhill site was the Cotton Candy, which had the largest root mass at transplant. The air gap was only 2 1/4 at her site, whereas the uphill site was at 3". Now that is all corrected and the cycle timer has been set at 6 hour intervals, but I think I'm going to increase that tomorrow morning, so long as the girls all continue to show signs of good growth.

Mister D, thank you very much for a plain text explanation. When I set up, I was attempting to achieve those conditions, but I completely overlooked the engineered run of the garage floor! Rookie mistake, to be certain.

Snook, glad to have you aboard! My strategy is to emulate all of you guys until I get dialed in and confident, too. I'll take all the advice I can get.
Click to expand...

my advice? my advise is to read the original Passive Plant Killer thread (you probably have already). There is allot of good technical advice in there, even without the pictures. thanks again, D9...
 
av8or

av8or

Member
Snook - Yeah, the pictures would have made things a bit easier, but as length as the original thread is, it was invaluable. Once I understood the concept, construction was pretty easy. One thing that I have really liked so far is the rubber garden hose poked right into the 70 qt tubs. I haven't had so much as a single drop leak out of any site or res yet.

The Cotton Candy is doing much better, but the GSC is a little droopy. I'm not too worried. The feed schedule seems to be working now that I've leveled the sites and set an appropriate water gap. I'm holding steady at 3 1/4" and I'm noticing quick growth on the J1 and Bruce Banner #3. Hopefully the girls are all starting to settle in after I tried to drown them. This is getting exciting.
 
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