[ReikoX]

Originally Posted by thejact55

What breeder made the blueberry? Im runnin a pack of DJ blueberry, and they always looked like shit until they got fairly mature. Overwatered look when i watered em. Underwatered look when i didnt. Some yellow, twists and whatever. Got fristerating.
They pulled through it and blossomed into really nice plants.

This one is from Dinafem.

[ReikoX]

I'm mixing up a couple of cubic feet of soil (15 gallons). This is a basic no-till recipe. First I got together my base mix: 5 gallons of hydrated sphangum peat moss, 5 gallons compost, and 5 gallons of aeration. The compost consists of 2 gallons of Malibu biodynamic compost and 3 gallons homemade vermicompost with worms. The aeration consists of 4 gallons scoria lava rock and 1 gallon of rice hulls.


First, I dumped out the compost and mixed in my ammendments. I added 1 cup of kelp meal, 1 cup of neem meal, 1 cup of shrimp meal, and 2 cups malted barley powder (not shown). This was then mixed well.


Next I add my minerals to the amended compost. I added 2 cups gypsum, 2 cups oyster shell flour, 2 cups glacial rock dust, 2 cups basalt, and 1 gallon (16 cups) of biochar. Again this was mixed well.


Finally I added the hydrated sphangum peat moss and the aeration. This was all mixed well one final time.


The soil was split evenly into four #5 fabric pots, then a cover crop of clover was sprinkled on the soil and covered with barley straw.


Everything in the recipe brings something to the table. I would like to take the time to provide a brief description of each item and it's purpose(s). Feel free to skip the rest of this post if youre not interested.

Let's start with the single most important component of the recipe, compost. Compost brings beneficial microbes as well as providing some nutrition. Compost also provides disease, pathogen, and pest supression. Vermicompost brings everything in compost with even more beneficial microbes as well as calcium carbonate.

The sphangum peat moss brings microbes, water retention, carbon, and a high cation exchange capacity (CEC). This is the source of organic matter that will support the soil food web.

The aeration is what provides the roots with oxygen. The rice hulls provide short term aeration as well as a long term source of silica. And the lava rock is mainly just aeration and a minor source of minerals.

Next we move on to the ammendments. Kelp contains macro and micro nutrients, as well as chelating substances. The neem offers macro nutrients as well as pest suppression. The shrimp provides macro nutrients, calcium carbonate, and chitan. The malted barley powder provides a lot of different enzymes such as phosphatase, chitanase, urease, and amylase.

Finally the mineral mix provides, obviously minerals, but also improves soil texture. The gypsum provides calcium and sulphur. The oyster shell flower provides calcium carbonate and helps balance pH. And the glacial and basalt provide an array of micro nutrients and minerals. The biochar provides a lot of surface area for microbes and increases CEC.

Finally the mulch layer also serves a purpose. The clover are nitrogen fixers, they will absorb nitrogen from the air which when later chopped returns to the soil. The clover will also loosen the soil as the roots begin to grow deeper. The straw mulch keeps the soil moist and provides a home for soil life.

[ReikoX]

So here i the initial light bar. Here I have marked and punched the six new holes.


Next I drilled the holes for the other three bars and the hanging chain. Then I added the 4000K and 5000K light bars. Here are the veg lights all the way turned down.


Here are the bloom lights all the way turned down.


All lights, all the way turned down.


And finally everything turned up to 11!

[ReikoX]

Time to transplant the monkey girls to their final 5-gallon containers. Good timing, the roots are just starting to wind around the bottom of the cup. They all looked nice and healthy.


All four monkey girls in have been transplanted and sitting under the veg lights turned all the way down for the day. This is going to be a tight fit. Right now, I have about 18 inches from the top of the soil to the bottom of the lights. I will have to do some creative training on them. I didn't quite finish wiring the LEDs, so just the veg lights are wired currently. I want to put a switch on the AC side of both these drivers.

[starke]

I like your LED setup. If I expand or have to replace I will definitely build mine in the future.

[ReikoX]

Originally Posted by starke

I like your LED setup. If I expand or have to replace I will definitely build mine in the future.

Oh man, I'm spending a ton of cash on this LED project, but soon they will all be Wi-Fi controlled! Keep an eye here in the next few weeks.

[starke]

Looking forward to it.

[bsgospel]

Originally Posted by ReikoX

Oh man, I'm spending a ton of cash on this LED project, but soon they will all be Wi-Fi controlled! Keep an eye here in the next few weeks.

Shit- I was getting all inspired to start building panels because I thought it would be cheaper! What's costing the most?

So- you've got separate drivers for the veg and flower (if I understand correctly?)- are they the same mA/wattage? Seems like 700 mA is super common for drivers. Can you imagine a scenario where a cab or closet would require more than that? Edit: nvm, found those Mau5 videos that explain it perfectly.

[ReikoX]

Originally Posted by bsgospel

Shit- I was getting all inspired to start building panels because I thought it would be cheaper! What's costing the most?

So- you've got separate drivers for the veg and flower (if I understand correctly?)- are they the same mA/wattage? Seems like 700 mA is super common for drivers. Can you imagine a scenario where a cab or closet would require more than that? Edit: nvm, found those Mau5 videos that explain it perfectly.

Ain't nothing cheap about LEDs.

The drivers are probably about half the cost. I can get the heat sinks and strips for about $30 a pop, but the drivers are about $65 each. Yes this light uses two seperate drivers, a 120-watt for the 3 cool lights and a 240-watt for the 6 warm strips. That equals about 500 mA when cranked all the way up.

This light would work pretty good in a 3x3 area delivering about 40-watts per square foot. My area is slightly smaller (30"x30") so I'm pushing closer to 50-watts per square foot, but dimming will allow me to control that.

So that's about $400 For the light plus shipping, aluminum angle, and wires etc. Works out to about $1.15 per watt. So thats cheaper than COBs IME. My 250-watt CXB3590 light cost me about $500 to build, closer to $2.00 per watt.

Now, I'm playing here, so I ordered some stuff for automation. I ordered up some Sonoff WiFi switches and a Bluefish LED Controller. The Bluefish was about $200 and the Sonoff switches ran me about $75. I'm testing out these WiFi switches before I build out my rooms.

So for about $700 I will have a two channel, fully dimmable, WiFi controlled light that I can control with my phone (or even Alexa and the like).

[ReikoX]

Here are this week's Jilly Bean #4. These will be the last run of this pheno. I'm thinking this may go straight to rosin, not sure. Nice fat single colas though.


Making a batch of malted barely tea, and my puppy is helping me with quality control.


Shhh.. the little monkeys are sleeping. They got a feeding of malted barley tea Saturday, just like the rest of the garden. To make the malted barley tea I added 5 oz. (weight) of freshly ground malted barley to 5 gallons of water and bubbled it for about 4 hours. After bubbling I added 1 teaspoon 200x aloe vera powder, 25 ml silica, and 2.5 oz. of Ful-power.