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A PPK for a 12 Plant Limit

C

Can of Bliss

Member
Thanks! I'm a hobby grower, so even one of those plants is bigger than I want, but I like to learn and try to modify systems for my applications.

Really tight job with the mainlining. Have any tips on making that work so well?

A idea to improve your efficiency; 2 600's horizontal, maybe 4" between them. Don't turn on the second one til the plants are tall enough to need it. Have you tried vegging with HPS? They stretch a little more, but that's not a problem with some strains. It also simplifies.
 
SuperWeed

SuperWeed

Member
Can of Bliss said:
Thanks! I'm a hobby grower, so even one of those plants is bigger than I want, but I like to learn and try to modify systems for my applications.
Click to expand...

Oh yes, I have a micro ppk going right now; 3.5" x 3.5" square pots with mothers. PPK is genius. Delta9 is a genius.

Can of Bliss said:
Really tight job with the mainlining. Have any tips on making that work so well?
Click to expand...

“The master key to success is self-discipline" - Napoleon Hill

Can of Bliss said:
A idea to improve your efficiency; 2 600's horizontal, maybe 4" between them. Don't turn on the second one til the plants are tall enough to need it.
Click to expand...

That's a good idea. This would work with smaller plants in a tighter canopy. 600's don't have the same penetration. The smaller green caged plants in my thread were run under 600's until the last 3 weeks of their life. They were all over a pound. Some a pound and a half. 600's do a good job. We raised and lowered our lights as necessary, to keep them at the right distance to the middle of the bulb at a slight upward angle. If that makes sense.

Can of Bliss said:
Have you tried vegging with HPS? They stretch a little more, but that's not a problem with some strains. It also simplifies.
Click to expand...

Yes I have. It works. We just ran with mh. Seems to make the plant veg a little faster, which helps when you grow monsters.

Good questions!
 
D

delta9nxs

No Jive Productions
Veteran
wow, what a story! welcome to oregon! surround yourself with nice, smart people and avoid the idiots and you'll do great here.

my wife and i have been here 3 years now and are doing very well.

we were wiped out financially by a bust in TN. but got no jail time as we had a low plant count and i was a 63 year old cancer/liver transplant patient at the time.

you folks really got brutalized! no compassion there!

sorry for all your pain and suffering but at least it got you here to a safe place.

if you are ever in the eugene area let me know and we could meet for lunch.

d9
 
SuperWeed

SuperWeed

Member
delta9nxs said:
wow, what a story! welcome to oregon! surround yourself with nice, smart people and avoid the idiots and you'll do great here.

my wife and i have been here 3 years now and are doing very well.

we were wiped out financially by a bust in TN. but got no jail time as we had a low plant count and i was a 63 year old cancer/liver transplant patient at the time.

you folks really got brutalized! no compassion there!

sorry for all your pain and suffering but at least it got you here to a safe place.

if you are ever in the eugene area let me know and we could meet for lunch.

d9
Click to expand...

You sir, have no idea how much of an impact you have made on my life, especially in terms of my skill-set. I appreciate you beyond measure.

I'm in jackson county, I really have no idea where I am yet. LOL

What do you think of the DTW version of the PPK?
 
D

delta9nxs

No Jive Productions
Veteran
SuperWeed said:
You sir, have no idea how much of an impact you have made on my life, especially in terms of my skill-set. I appreciate you beyond measure.

I'm in jackson county, I really have no idea where I am yet. LOL

What do you think of the DTW version of the PPK?
Click to expand...

thank you very much! this is how i get my reward!

it's kind of funny, in a way, that i have yet to make a dime from the ppk itself. this is in terms of marketing it or sellng rights to it, or anything like that.

i could have patented it in the beginning, 7 years ago, but now it has been in the public domain too long to be patented.

but that's alright because now i am consulting, producing personally in a legal environment, and meeting a lot of really nice folks that i would not have met otherwise. i'm leading a very rewarding and fulfilling life full of giving and receiving.

again, thank you for trying the ppk!

jackson county has perhaps the best overall weather in the state and is a nice place to live. you got lucky if you landed there accidentally.

i can't find much fault with your drain to waste version because of your yields. my only concern would be whether or not the fiber wick will move enough water upward by itself to backfeed these big plants in case of an automated failure of some kind.

i have run drain to waste versions myself for special purposes and have used a medium filled tailpiece and a lower bucket with a hole in it at about 3-4" down from the rim. i was usually top watering by hand occasionally just enough to get a slight trickle out of the hole each time. the excess was caught in a large plant saucer so evaporated between waterings. this set up was used for maintaining mothers and for early veg.

but, really, it is just a slight step further to a very reliable automated full recirculating system. i can maintain very tight parameters in the reservoirs by simply steering the solution once in a while.

i'm about to try to achieve a balanced reservoir feeding 28 plants, 16 in flower and 12 in the power veg area which i use as a shaping, acclimating tool. all of these plants will be under intense de lighting.

i hope to find the perfect balance point where the reservoir remains stable with one input strength under the demands of 28 plants in every stage of life, harvested on a perpetual schedule.

i'm close to that now.
 
SuperWeed

SuperWeed

Member
delta9nxs said:
thank you very much! this is how i get my reward!

it's kind of funny, in a way, that i have yet to make a dime from the ppk itself. this is in terms of marketing it or sellng rights to it, or anything like that.

i could have patented it in the beginning, 7 years ago, but now it has been in the public domain too long to be patented.

but that's alright because now i am consulting, producing personally in a legal environment, and meeting a lot of really nice folks that i would not have met otherwise. i'm leading a very rewarding and fulfilling life full of giving and receiving.

again, thank you for trying the ppk!

jackson county has perhaps the best overall weather in the state and is a nice place to live. you got lucky if you landed there accidentally.

i can't find much fault with your drain to waste version because of your yields. my only concern would be whether or not the fiber wick will move enough water upward by itself to backfeed these big plants in case of an automated failure of some kind.

i have run drain to waste versions myself for special purposes and have used a medium filled tailpiece and a lower bucket with a hole in it at about 3-4" down from the rim. i was usually top watering by hand occasionally just enough to get a slight trickle out of the hole each time. the excess was caught in a large plant saucer so evaporated between waterings. this set up was used for maintaining mothers and for early veg.

but, really, it is just a slight step further to a very reliable automated full recirculating system. i can maintain very tight parameters in the reservoirs by simply steering the solution once in a while.

i'm about to try to achieve a balanced reservoir feeding 28 plants, 16 in flower and 12 in the power veg area which i use as a shaping, acclimating tool. all of these plants will be under intense de lighting.

i hope to find the perfect balance point where the reservoir remains stable with one input strength under the demands of 28 plants in every stage of life, harvested on a perpetual schedule.

i'm close to that now.
Click to expand...

Now that is fascinating! Just like the Kratky cucumbers in trash cans! That is how I stumbled on the PPK, looking for a way to implement wick based systems as redundancy. Blumats would clog, even with Jacks. I made leaps and bounds, as soon as I read your posts. I'm sorry it took me so long to give thanks.

I did land in jackson by accident as a matter of fact. So far, so good! As soon as I have pm ability again, I'm going to hit you up on that lunch offer!

BillFarthing said:
So that makes your cages are 42" across? I am really intrigued by your vertical grow style.
Click to expand...

Actually, some of these cages were at 25" for the 600's and 35" for the thousands. A bulb is 3" across, so you are still technically 19" of the center of the light. I was tight on space in the rooms, so we brought in the cages a little. Sooo, that means it was 35" across. I think. This was a couple years ago.

Basically you want the center of your canopy to receive about 1100-1200 umol. So, you have to play with that a little, based on bulbs, ballasts, etc.
 
SuperWeed

SuperWeed

Member
delta9nxs said:
thank you very much! this is how i get my reward!
Click to expand...

I forgot to say you're welcome! Thank you!

delta9nxs said:
it's kind of funny, in a way, that i have yet to make a dime from the ppk itself. this is in terms of marketing it or sellng rights to it, or anything like that.

i could have patented it in the beginning, 7 years ago, but now it has been in the public domain too long to be patented.
Click to expand...

I understand. It's part of the reason I hadn't posted my pics. It's my interpretation and the methodology is unique. But, I've been reading up on success a lot lately (being broke makes you do things you should have done when you were a teenager) and I have to quit thinking with a competitive mindset. I am here to create. The money will follow. So sayeth the Universe.

delta9nxs said:
but that's alright because now i am consulting, producing personally in a legal environment, and meeting a lot of really nice folks that i would not have met otherwise. i'm leading a very rewarding and fulfilling life full of giving and receiving.
Click to expand...

This sounds like a good career path. I'm taking notes.

delta9nxs said:
again, thank you for trying the ppk!
Click to expand...

Thank you for inventing it. The ppk as far as I can tell recreates mother nature pretty much perfectly.

delta9nxs said:
i can't find much fault with your drain to waste version because of your yields. my only concern would be whether or not the fiber wick will move enough water upward by itself to backfeed these big plants in case of an automated failure of some kind.

i have run drain to waste versions myself for special purposes and have used a medium filled tailpiece and a lower bucket with a hole in it at about 3-4" down from the rim. i was usually top watering by hand occasionally just enough to get a slight trickle out of the hole each time. the excess was caught in a large plant saucer so evaporated between waterings. this set up was used for maintaining mothers and for early veg.
Click to expand...

Yes, this. I like the idea of OctoPot's fiber bags, for this reason. I have considered adopting some of their design into my own.

My last design had a small netpot bucket lid, the net pot being filled with coco, about one inch off the water level. The wick ran through the bag, down the netpot and into the water. The fabric bag sitting on the netpot lid, roots would grow right through the bag, down into the netpot. This place was busted, right after the roots hit the water. That setup was 5gal fabric pots, with 3 gal reservoir buckets, just to see if I could attain the same results with less overall media. I think there is more of a limit to what the canopy can do, than what we can do with building a large root structure.

The next design will have the watering "needs-based". I plan to use a control bucket with a heavy duty float valve rigged to the dosers. When the water level goes down, the float opens the dosers and the plants fertigate themselves. Should eliminate the electrical automation of watering.

It's the simplest version of "needs based watering" that I could come up with. Everything else requires equipment; tensiometers, scales, etc. There are some very sophisticated toys out there, but if I can do it the simple way, I will.

I have a miniature ppk model with bonsai moms going, right now.



As they use up the water, the float triggers a small pump in the aerated mini-reservoir, they get saturated quickly, drain off and about 10% goes down the drain. 10% is what commercial tomato farmers claim in bato buckets with perlite. It works like a peach. Uses less than a quart a day, with these little mums.

I have 0 budget and am using spare pieces and parts these guys have laying around to tinker.

Thoughts?

delta9nxs said:
but, really, it is just a slight step further to a very reliable automated full recirculating system. i can maintain very tight parameters in the reservoirs by simply steering the solution once in a while.

i'm about to try to achieve a balanced reservoir feeding 28 plants, 16 in flower and 12 in the power veg area which i use as a shaping, acclimating tool. all of these plants will be under intense de lighting.

i hope to find the perfect balance point where the reservoir remains stable with one input strength under the demands of 28 plants in every stage of life, harvested on a perpetual schedule.

i'm close to that now.
Click to expand...

And this is where I went crazy with Kratky, because that is the next level. Total control.

Thanks again D9!
 
SuperWeed

SuperWeed

Member
Loc Dog said:
You need 50 posts to edit. Almost there.
Click to expand...

I only asked, because I am a really old member, despite the "newbie" status. I don't know why it all reset. It's no worries. I will just keep posting.

Let's just pray I always have something worth posting! LOL
 
C

chase1

Member
Very smart I read far to many journals an I can't say I've ever seen 1 plant with the light in the centre
As for getting locked up i fooooooooking hate grasses Loose lips sink ships how ever close you think ppl are
I've read many of the ppk threads and I just can't get my head round it . So is it basically a container filled with medium that has a pipe full of medium or rope type wicks that goes into another bucket an the bottom bucket has x amount of water in to keep feeding the top
What height would the water level be and what length wick

I have no doubt you will get back to where you was before good luck thanks for sharing
 
SuperWeed

SuperWeed

Member
chase1 said:
Very smart I read far to many journals an I can't say I've ever seen 1 plant with the light in the centre
As for getting locked up i fooooooooking hate grasses Loose lips sink ships how ever close you think ppl are
I've read many of the ppk threads and I just can't get my head round it . So is it basically a container filled with medium that has a pipe full of medium or rope type wicks that goes into another bucket an the bottom bucket has x amount of water in to keep feeding the top
What height would the water level be and what length wick

I have no doubt you will get back to where you was before good luck thanks for sharing
Click to expand...

I hadn't seen a plant around the light either... I developed the idea over 2 years ago, after getting really high and listening to Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. The Universe sort of gave me the idea. I still hadn't seen it posted, so I figured I better take credit, before anyone else comes up with the idea! LOL

As for the water level, I always keep mine within a few inches of the top of the drain reservoir. The wick runs top to bottom, top of the bag to the bottom of the bucket. I need a better wick than the rope I am using...

Good luck with your designs!
 
~star~crash~

~star~crash~

Active member
SuperWeed

SuperWeed

Member
~star~crash~ said:
dude you got some very talented & unique skills... can U dig up some more pics from your past?

we share similar journeys & i respect you...peace
Click to expand...

Gratzi Amigo.

You know, I never take my own pics. I was always so worried about LEO, that I never tracked my progress on film, like I should have. I have grown every single way possible and I have to say, the dtw ppk has been my favorite.

I do have some pictures that others took. It's a p.i.t.a. to upload them, but I will find some good ones and get them up soon.

Most of my old stuff wasn't as well thought out. I thought I knew how to grow grass, but "If I know anything, it's that I know, nothing" - Aristotle.

Thanks again for the kudos bro!
 
~star~crash~

~star~crash~

Active member
SuperWeed said:
I just checked out your gallery - you have skills sir. And not just behind the camera.
Click to expand...


these days i'm just having fun...it's all i can do now is grow some marijuana and try to be healthy & happy...here are some pics i salvaged from my past 'bout 13 years ago...lol...i did'nt know WTF i was doing but i managed to get some fat colas:biggrin:
 
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