Join Absolem in Wonderland

Day 57 of 12/12.

3rd Coast Sour Diesel




Starkiller

Starkiller


Super Lemon OG

The harvest time comes ...
You really have a lot of fantastic fat and frosty buds.

Looking good.
Going to be a beautiful harvest!!

Very nice looking plants Absolem. Your ROI must be very high with such a low cost for nutrients. Keep up the good work.

-Funk

Excellent knowledge being dropped, thank you man.

In regards to dry salts - I am inspired, and now I venture forth now on my first attempt.

I think I've pieced together a nutrient profile for coco using some of the starter pack ferts on CHN and calculating with SaltSmarts (great tool).

One thing I'm not sure on is Si ppms (best guess is ~20ppm). What do you think is appropriate? And do you continue using Si during late flower? I've read that it may have adverse affects in late bloom.

And on a side note - Have you ever tried not flushing?


Thank you again for your time. I have read all your posts along with much by c64 and have learned a lot. Beautiful looking flowers with no hyped voodoo juices.

This guy knows whats up, very nice setup too.
Buds are huge and frosty.
Mixing his own ferts too.
Talk about well rounded.
Nice work brother, nice work!
Shag

bucketgirl said:

Excellent knowledge being dropped, thank you man.

In regards to dry salts - I am inspired, and now I venture forth now on my first attempt.

I think I've pieced together a nutrient profile for coco using some of the starter pack ferts on CHN and calculating with SaltSmarts (great tool).

One thing I'm not sure on is Si ppms (best guess is ~20ppm). What do you think is appropriate? And do you continue using Si during late flower? I've read that it may have adverse affects in late bloom.

And on a side note - Have you ever tried not flushing?


Thank you again for your time. I have read all your posts along with much by c64 and have learned a lot. Beautiful looking flowers with no hyped voodoo juices.

Click to expand...

Hi Bucketgirl

Thank you for the kind words. I applaud you on your salt journey. Your hard work will be rewarded. I remember all to clearly how bad my head would hurt from all the research needed to mixing salts.


The standard application for Si in the Ag industry is 30 ml/l or 30 ppm. I think it's bit much for an accumulator like cannabis. I run between 5-10 ppm of Si. In veg I'll run 10 ppm then drop it down to 5 ppm for flower and drop it altogether midway through flower. After the stretch plants will slow their use of Si because majority of the plant structure is in place. I figure after the stretch the plant has enough Si in it's leaves to still benefit the plant close till the end. People I trust say Si all the way through messes with the flavor. I agree.

On to leaching/flushing. Oh boy. In the cannabis community there is not really a clear definition for the words leaching/flushing so we are left to the extremes on both sides to fight it out. Coco coir has a very high CEC. It can hold a lot of nutrient ions. The last 10 days of a plants life I cut back on the fertilizer to about 1/8 strength. I get very little run off when watering. Having a weak nutrient solution the final ten days allows the coco's CEC to maintain the proper levels of nutrient ions. It also allows the coco medium to slowly reduce it's CEC daily allowing the plant to use only what is needed. Coco is a great buffer. It took me a long time to realize I was feeding the coco and in return it fed the plant. IMO reducing the EC the last ten days is not "flushing" in the aspect of dumping large amounts of water to "flush" the salts away ruining the CEC in the coir. Essentially what they are doing is un-buffering their coir the final two weeks. Not good.


Nice work Bucketgirl and I wish you the best on your journey. Keep us posted on your work.

shaggyballs said:

This guy knows whats up, very nice setup too.
Buds are huge and frosty.
Mixing his own ferts too.
Talk about well rounded.
Nice work brother, nice work!
Shag

Click to expand...

Thanks Shag. Means a lot. Your threads on plant hormones are amazing.

Thank you for your response! Salts ordered...gearing up for the next run in a week or two.

May I ask for some elaboration on your drip irrigation setup? I am converting a 4x8 flood and drain table to drip and have a couple different ideas of how to go about it.

Basically, my primary plan is replicating the setup here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRQXE_-YpUw

and similarly here as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp3ish6Nvx8

It will be a bit of a challenge to construct this manifold given my skill level with this sort of thing, but I really like the design. My question is, do you think there is a simpler way of going about have even flow for 18 sites? I see your setup utilizes the inline valves and top hat grommets with a pvc grid. How's that working for ya? And what the heck is that cat litter bucket next to your rez for...drainage for the condensation from A/C?

Please forgive me for double posting...I am not allowed to edit my posts. I have some new issues popping up with my formulation for dry salts.

For Absolem and others with an interest, please see attached for the veg formula I have come up with (flower formula would just add or remove calnit / pk boost). The actual amounts of each salt added to achieve this are not included as that is unique to compensate for the levels of my tap water, buy you can see on the "Input" column what I am looking for and the "Output" column for what I can actually do. These were generated via saltsmarts.com. I came up with these numbers by piecing together information on the forums and comparing to recommended levels for tomatoes.

I'm running into an issue with not having enough Sulfur as I use this element for my degree of freedom in order to accurately achieve N, P, K, Mg and Ca numbers. I could increase Mg or K to up my sulfur (via potassium or mag sulfate), but it would throw those numbers out of whack.

Additionally, I am a little unsure on ideal Fe levels.

I'm wondering what your opinion is on the importance of hitting a particular level of sulfur and iron, and whether not in the case of sulfur it's worth adjust Mg or K to do so.


Thank you for your time, Absolem.

bucketgirl said:

Thank you for your response! Salts ordered...gearing up for the next run in a week or two.

May I ask for some elaboration on your drip irrigation setup? I am converting a 4x8 flood and drain table to drip and have a couple different ideas of how to go about it.

Basically, my primary plan is replicating the setup here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRQXE_-YpUw

and similarly here as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp3ish6Nvx8

It will be a bit of a challenge to construct this manifold given my skill level with this sort of thing, but I really like the design. My question is, do you think there is a simpler way of going about have even flow for 18 sites? I see your setup utilizes the inline valves and top hat grommets with a pvc grid. How's that working for ya? And what the heck is that cat litter bucket next to your rez for...drainage for the condensation from A/C?

Click to expand...

Hi BG

The manifolds in those videos are very impressive. I think with all you have done on the salt research you can easily replicate any manifold you like.

What I've found is when I had a even flow to each plant I would use more nutrient solution then needed. Plants vary on their feed uptake caused by many factors. Unless you install a pressure valve the flow to the plants will vary depending on how full your stock tank is from the water level alone. The reason I put the ball valve close to the drip ring is to have full water pressure at the ball valve to control the water flow. If you put the ball valve on the manifold then each one should be fully open to get the closest one can to a even flow. If you try slowing the nutrient solution to a plant with the ball valve at the manifold there won't be enough water pressure to push the nutrient feed several feet to get to the drip ring in any constant manner. Not sure if that makes sense.

Honestly the top hats I use are a pain. The top hats work great if you use the hard tubing with a ball valve at the plant to control the feed. I should have used a male 1/2" threaded stem attached to the manifold to hook the 1/2' line too instead of the top hats. LOL the cat litter bin is for the drainage from the trays. There is a sump pump with a float valve in it.

bucketgirl said:

View attachment 439124

Please forgive me for double posting...I am not allowed to edit my posts. I have some new issues popping up with my formulation for dry salts.

For Absolem and others with an interest, please see attached for the veg formula I have come up with (flower formula would just add or remove calnit / pk boost). The actual amounts of each salt added to achieve this are not included as that is unique to compensate for the levels of my tap water, buy you can see on the "Input" column what I am looking for and the "Output" column for what I can actually do. These were generated via saltsmarts.com. I came up with these numbers by piecing together information on the forums and comparing to recommended levels for tomatoes.

I'm running into an issue with not having enough Sulfur as I use this element for my degree of freedom in order to accurately achieve N, P, K, Mg and Ca numbers. I could increase Mg or K to up my sulfur (via potassium or mag sulfate), but it would throw those numbers out of whack.

Additionally, I am a little unsure on ideal Fe levels.

I'm wondering what your opinion is on the importance of hitting a particular level of sulfur and iron, and whether not in the case of sulfur it's worth adjust Mg or K to do so.


Thank you for your time, Absolem.

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=75487&pictureid=1809221&thumb=1]View Image[/URL]

Click to expand...

Nice work piecing together your nutrient solution profile. I like your numbers.


I do think your S level is low. Sulfur really helps with the flavor.
Shoot for somewhere around 50 ppm if you can. Can you lower your potassium nitrate then supplement the lost N by using magnesium nitrate? The little extra Mg won't be a problem and it shouldn't take much. Then use potassium sulfate to increase the lost K and that will increase you S level too.

On your micro's.
Fe Input and output are good.
Zn Input is good. Output number is high.
B Input is high. Output number is good.
Cu Input is good. Output number is bit hot.
Mo Input is a bit high. Output is really hot. Try lowering to .03?

Great work on all the research you have done.

Cheers and happy growing.

Wow how did I miss this thread, looking good Absolem

Thanks again

Thanks again

Hi Absolem,

Gearing up to do another run...was firing up Hydrobuddy to formulate a new mix and I just wanted to stop by and say thanks again for sharing your method. I've seen you mentioned here and there but I get the impression that very few are able to appreciate you laying it all out. You've helped me grow in both understanding how to utilize dry salts and also helping me discard all the snake oils. Hope all is well in Absolemland.

some pics...

some pics...

Good looking flowers and plants Bucketgirl. Great job on your use of dry salts and your nutrient profile.

Been super busy building a new facility. 16k watt flower room and a 6k watt veg room. Should be able to have everything moved in within a month. Once in there I'll get some pics posted.

Hello fellow icmag growers.

Root Porn

Was hoping to get a new thread going on the new facility. But have some of it up and running. Right now I'm using the veg room to flower in until I get the flower room completed.



Five ton AC for the flower room. You can see the unistrut on the ceiling where the lights will hang. The flower is 18x27

those roots looking proper