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Propped the light hood slightly higher, raised the circulation fan power (stems on the too-soft side) and fed the girls.

Today they seemed less thirsty, pic taken about 1hour prior to lights off:



Leaves "ironed out". Some curl downwards on previous pictures, but that was due to wall proximity while in the tent or during pot manipulation, no claws due to overfeeding.

Thanks for passing by Chaos! Blumat comes next, sensors already in water, reservoir and line soaking on bleached water for a good disinfectation and cleansing.

Thinking on setting this 25L reservoir as "raised" auxiliary one, with another, bigger one as main at floor level with a pump. (ala Desert Hydro's)

Deciding if using a float valve, or connect a hose high on the elevated reservoir to the floor one as "return" or "overflow" line.

Main reservoir will be periodically or constantly pumping water to the elevated one, water higher than return hose will go back to main reservoir.

From experience, the only requisite is moving and mixing the solution, no need for airstones or alike.

[ChaosCatalunya]

The leaf movement is always interesting, if you follow sativa engineering on IG, he posts some really interesting time lapse videos that show their daily movements.

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Whoa! impressive! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz4nm4ZfCbA

thanks for the tip! reeeally interesting.

I think is a must for a grower, learning to understand the girls "body language".

Blumat deployed today but not active yet: lines fitted, temporary 25L/6Gal reservoir placed, and sensors "installed" on the pots... it was hard actually to push them in but in the Krystallicas, coir on pots felt like rockwool (massive root balls)!

Thinking on making a custom cylindrical reservoir out of 300mm PVC pipe, as a 1 meter one = 70L/ 18Gal, and its shape will make optimal use of available space inside the shed; its shape will also help keeping pressure on the water lines.

Tomorrow I'll double check the sensors are full of water inside (a must to properly set them up), then setup them. Need to sort out a couple issues first with the Online PH/EC meter I use to dose the nutes in the reservoir.

Krystallicas stretched enough to be noticeable, Kalichakra looks like it will need some more supercropping soon, and BB #2 side shoots are stretching nicely and looks like the fastest on budsite development.

Not roots on clones yet (had to use rockwool cubes almost two inches in size), but noticed they're no longer soft and remain erect when I fan them (couple times per day) now, so guess in a couple days we'll have roots!

Will take pics tomorrow.

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As promised:

General view (perceived sizes are thrown off by the perspective of the superwide angle lens). Krystallicas have stretched about 3 inches:



Budsite on BB #1 (they'll be three weeks in flower next Sunday)



I found really curious how this Kalichakra internodes bulge out, pre-flowers get kind of "phagocyted" by the bulging at the internodes:



The main stem bulge above it is due to supercropping.

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Reference: see My experience setting blumats and Blumats Install schematic .

I set it up in the same fashion:

Reservoir (sits at about 90cm height). Vertical venting line, and shutoff valve. 8mm line runs into the tent, where is joined to the final line part with a pneumatic quick release connector.

This shutoff valve is really useful, in order to close it while mixing a res, or in case one wants to detach the line portion coming from the res from the line distribution part inside the tent.




Quick release connector on the right (white cylinder, picture from a previous grow, now this connector joins the line coming from the res with the distribution end of the line, which is inside the tent)




Main line distribution end. Built using short blumat 8mm hard tubing pieces inter-joining 8/3/8mm Tees. Soft rubber 3mm lines go from the tees to each blumat sensor.

This allows each tee to be orientated at will by rotating it, making easier to route 3mm lines towards their pot, proping it in order to prevent from pinching.

Main line ends on another shutoff valve: this one is handy to purge air from the line, or to manually water a given pot prior to setting its blumat sensor.




HeadyBlunts posted a very nice drawing that speaks for itself, only thing missing is the shutoff valve after the venting Tee:




Sensor placement tips:


Place the sensor at about half an inch from the pot rim, run the 3mm tubing coming from the main line through the sensor, crossing the pot and leaving its end at a similar distance from the opposite pot edge, as depicted in the photo.

This is important too, as the dripping has to moisture all the pot to reach the sensor, allowing for an homogeneous, full pot nute solution distribution through the whole pot before the blumat sensor shuts off the dripping.

Tips:

- Coco/Soil should be properly packed so that capilarity is homogeneous on the whole pot.

- Don't grab the blumats from the dark green cap when inserting them into the pots, as the thread is soft plastic and vertically pushing it can cross-thread it losing airtightness, which is essential for proper sensor performance.

- There's no need to insert the ceramic sensors past their ceramic body. This allows for easier inspection/refilling the sensor innards with water and prevents dirt from failing inside if they need to be refilled (shouldn't, as long as you don't let any port to become dry, or the res to go (almost) empty).

- Sensors should be full of water

- Sensor caps should be screwed air-tight. Be gentle as threads are soft plastic.

- 3mm tubing dripping end should not touch the soil/coco. Use anything to prop them (blumat 8mm spike shown in the photo)

- Blumats in tents: Study what your optimal pot positioning will be on the tent prior to insert the sensors on the pots. Position the sensors/3mm dripping tubing ends so that you can easily see if they're dripping or not by looking under the canopy, and being also easy to reach for a given sensor knob readjusting.

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Nice video showing how the combinated osmosis / vacuum effect on the ceramic "carrots" sense humidity and control dripping:

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


Parts List:

- 1x Thru-hull connector (P/N 03023)
- 2x Shutoff Valves (P/N 320102)
- N units of standalone blumat sensors w/o tees nor 3mm tubing (P/N 35101)
- N units (one per sensor) 8/3/8mm tees (P/N 3517)
- 1x 8/8/8mm tee (venting line) (P/N 3516)
- 8mm tubing (10meter rolls P/N: Black: 30405 White: 30504)
- 3mm tubing: calculate 1meter/40in per each sensor (P/N 3508)
- Spikes for 3mm tubing ends (P/N 4305)
- Quick release pneumatic connector for 8mm tubing

Pictures follow:

1x Thru-hull connector (P/N 03023)


2x Shutoff Valves (P/N 320102)


- N standalone blumat sensors w/o tees nor 3mm tubing (P/N 35101)


- N x 8/3/8mm tees (P/N 3517)


- 1x 8/8/8mm tee (venting line) (P/N 3516)


- 8mm tubing (10meter rolls P/N: Black: 30405 White: 30504)

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- 3mm tubing: calculate 1meter/40in per each sensor (P/N 3508)


- Spikes for 3mm tubing ends (P/N 4305)

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Girls growth have exploded thanks to the blumats. Yesterday 3d flowering week was over. Budsites and fan leaves starting to show hints of frost.

Found a custom water reservoir shop at nearby town, will ask for a budget as big PVC pipes doesn't seem to be cheap. This reservoir should allow for a couple weeks unnatended feed, so should be > 60 liters / 15 Gallons, will feed the flowering room, and possibly a second veg chamber I'm considering to build.

The idea is putting blumats on bonsai moms, feeding some from the flowering (higher EC) res when growing them for cuts, and having a small secondary reservoir with a low EC to keep rest of moms in "standby".

Current crop should be around mid February a week, maybe couple weeks, give or take.

Thinking on what would be the best approach for starting some ACE and Mandala seeds in advance for the next run without running into size problems.

Considering sowing them with three weeks advance, allowing them to reach their 4th internode, topping them to have a cut prior to moving the seedlings to the flower chamber.

If my math is right, this would be by 3d week of January.

On the other hand, seeing the jungle I have right now at the flowering tent, I'm considering flowering only cuts. It would help to keep the tent from crowding, and allow to run a greater variety of strains / phenos.

Advice is welcome!

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Took an overall shot before lights went down today.

Welcome to the Jungle... remember perspective, sizes and perceived relative distance is severely "warped" due to the super wide angle.



Kalichakra (far left) had outgrown past the light hood, so applied some crunch and bend to better position its main cola tip horizontally under the hood.

BB #2 (far center) main top was millimeters from the hood too, so I raised the hood to maximum height, gaining about 4 inches and providing better canopy coverage. Did some crunch + bend on some BB #2 side shoots to position them on well lit free spots.

Both Kalichakra and BB #2 clones have already rooted. Liking these. Outstanding vigorous plants.

Krystalica's growing pace is different, more on the late side, felt like "delayed" versus the others, but still they had grown almost double from their initial size since flowering started.

Krystalica #1 and #2 (front row left and right) look like twins, whereas #3, the greener one (tent center: being the stouter, got the central spot under the HPS) has developed a different growing pattern, new leaf shoots are curled downwards along the leaf finger axis. Leaves look different, and a plethora of budsites developed on a horizontal, circular pattern around main cola... maybe C pheno??

All of them are much leafier than Kalichakra or BB, with really tight internodes. Should make a nice plant for space-restricted micro grows, some minor LST look really suitable to achieve an horizontal canopy full of budsites.

Will take detail shots next time.

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Finally, I found the COBs (Cree CXA3070 3000K AB), the driver (MeanWell HLG-185H-c1050A, 95-190V@200W) and the Artic Alpine GT11 rev2 heatsinks.



My idea back when purchased this was to setup 4x CXA3070 (around 150V) at around 35W, about 5000 lumens per COB, 20000 additional lumens.

I'm concerned however regarding canopy distance, seeing how my HML using 10W chips cooked the plants unless they were at more than 12"/30cm.

Driver is dimmable, so that will provide more control.