Farmer's Funky Flower Trees - PPK

[Mister_D]

the tailpieces are not draining the pwt fast enough to prevent the water still standing from going anaerobic. the plants are drowning.

even though you have drilled the extra holes they only drain down to the point where the perched water table would normally exist in your medium.

can you pull the plant containers out one at a time and have someone run an ice pick or a piece of wire or something up the tailpieces, wallowing out the coco sort of?

i wish i were there. i don't understand why you are not draining.

how much water how often are you giving them?

D9 nailed it as usual. What coco are you using? Going to have to be some seriously course shit to keep from compacting over a cycle with that many feed cycles (the draining action creates a vacuum as you know, that not only exchanges gases, but will also compact a soft media like coco). Chow mix would fair much better if wanting to stick with coco and high feed rates, but screened turface or hydrotron is probably the best option for the direction you guys are headed with this system.

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

but screened turface or hydrotron is probably the best option for the direction you guys are headed with this system.

hydroton, do you know how many times ive nearly gone down that route?
I just cant see it wicking like the other mediums tho.

 

[Mister_D]

hydroton, do you know how many times ive nearly gone down that route?
I just cant see it wicking like the other mediums tho.

You're right, hydrotron probably wouldn't wick well enough to feed the plant in the event of pump failure. It would still work, you would just be losing the safety net a wick provides. So again back to turface, or possibly floor dry.

 

[forkup]

I'd make a move fast, plants will drown very quickly and wilt like you never seen before.

 

[DamnUglyDogE]

Incredible looking plants...
Love the huge colas.. Damn....

Cant lose these ladies bro...

Maybe 2 egg crates
One on each side and lift the pot, push crates under and put the pot on them.
remove the lower bucket and let the plant drain and dry.
Or

I would ripe the tail piece and replace medium.
then shove it back up...
Maybe leave dry for a day or 2 and
continue like nothing happened...

I'm sure you'll figure it out...

Been a great show... Ya even got Spence... Poor finger nail are raw...
Just be ova here watching and learning...

​

 

[forkup]

How about trying hydroton in just one of the three tubes. It would drain very well and the other 2 could handle the wicking.

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

How about trying hydroton in just one of the three tubes. It would drain very well and the other 2 could handle the wicking.

wow thats an awesome idea, an extra level of redundancy and backup ... awesome thinking

 

[whatthe215]

is the pulse res aerated at all?

 

[Snook]

wow thats an awesome idea, an extra level of redundancy and backup ... awesome thinking

I did give that some thought but thought the hydroton might drain so well that you'll never get the pulse to fill the PPK completely to the top.

Hey d9 , thanks again brother..

EDIT: sorry forkdup, I mis quoted the wrong post. EDIT: sorry flokup, didnt meen to call you 'that'.

How about trying hydroton in just one of the three tubes. It would drain very well and the other 2 could handle the wicking.

EDIT: wakin n bakin! i thought i was in the big plant thread.. sorry farmer

 

[FlowerFarmer]

So...

After my last update I decided to take the plants off of the PPK method so to speak. The lower buckets have been disconnected from the pulse res so that the lower container holds no water. I've just been watering them by hand/hand once a day drain to waste. I can hear the water trickling down to the lower container.

I did my best taking a coat hanger blindly into the top to tub to hopefully assist in eliminating the tailpiece blockage. I hit and "wallowed" out many of them, but it was harder to confirm in some. Not sure if I was hitting bottom or if my hanger was merely bending around.

I still get some pooling due to the speed of my wand feed, but they drain down rather quickly.



Atami coco.

My pulse res was not previously aerated, but at some point in the middle there I hooked up another recirculating pump which gave it a stir every 2 hrs during the pulse feed.

My bulk res however was aerated at all aside from pumping fresh solution in it from time to time. Now that I've abandoned it to return to wand feeding until the end I do see a bit of stuff at the bottom of the bulk res. Is it plausible that my issues may be related to imbalanced nutes due to precipitation or is everyone pretty confident that it is related to drowning/ lack of DO?


Plants are still very perky, but still seem to be yellowing rapidly. Yellow leaves pull off effortlessly.

Buds look good, but don't seem to be packing on the weight. I'm not sure if this is due to my issue or if it is strain related. Theses trees where never stripped of their lowers or pruned of their suckers.

Oddly, I'm running it in another spot in the Pure Knowledge water only soil mix. The plants look great health wise, but buds are overall tiny there as well. Heat is however an issue in that spot. When I ran this strain in the past it produced huge Louisville slugger colas. Hoping the coming weeks plump things up.



I think it'll come down with worthwhile buds, but I think yield will be pathetic. Only time will tell.. sigh. Havnt had a problem free harvest in some time now. Hurts even worse when I'm only doing some huge trees like this.

Part of me wants to try again with turface, but I might do a larger plant number crop in coco/jacks + calnit /blumats just to get an quick easy crop off. Tests in another room have confirmed that my prior problems were 100% related to the rhino I was growing. I've got 6 plants around a 1k. 4 of these mangos are looking flawless with jacks on blumats. The 2 rhinos look like death.


///

as for using hydroton in one of the tailpieces.. Sure that sounds like it would definitely assist in draining, but wouldnt you still deal with issues related to a slow/not draining perched water table if the other tailpieces clogged. I mean.. the tubs I have now are definitely draining as I have drilled holes in my upper container...yet I still appear to be having issues, etc due to drowning?

 

[Big John]

So...

After my last update I decided to take the plants off of the PPK method so to speak. The lower buckets have been disconnected from the pulse res so that the lower container holds no water. I've just been watering them by hand/hand once a day drain to waste. I can hear the water trickling down to the lower container.

I did my best taking a coat hanger blindly into the top to tub to hopefully assist in eliminating the tailpiece blockage. I hit and "wallowed" out many of them, but it was harder to confirm in some. Not sure if I was hitting bottom or if my hanger was merely bending around.

I still get some pooling due to the speed of my wand feed, but they drain down rather quickly.



Atami coco.

My pulse res was not previously aerated, but at some point in the middle there I hooked up another recirculating pump which gave it a stir every 2 hrs during the pulse feed.

My bulk res however was aerated at all aside from pumping fresh solution in it from time to time. Now that I've abandoned it to return to wand feeding until the end I do see a bit of stuff at the bottom of the bulk res. Is it plausible that my issues may be related to imbalanced nutes due to precipitation or is everyone pretty confident that it is related to drowning/ lack of DO?


Plants are still very perky, but still seem to be yellowing rapidly. Yellow leaves pull off effortlessly.

Buds look good, but don't seem to be packing on the weight. I'm not sure if this is due to my issue or if it is strain related. Theses trees where never stripped of their lowers or pruned of their suckers.

Oddly, I'm running it in another spot in the Pure Knowledge water only soil mix. The plants look great health wise, but buds are overall tiny there as well. Heat is however an issue in that spot. When I ran this strain in the past it produced huge Louisville slugger colas. Hoping the coming weeks plump things up.



I think it'll come down with worthwhile buds, but I think yield will be pathetic. Only time will tell.. sigh. Havnt had a problem free harvest in some time now. Hurts even worse when I'm only doing some huge trees like this.

Part of me wants to try again with turface, but I might do a larger plant number crop in coco/jacks + calnit /blumats just to get an quick easy crop off. Tests in another room have confirmed that my prior problems were 100% related to the rhino I was growing. I've got 6 plants around a 1k. 4 of these mangos are looking flawless with jacks on blumats. The 2 rhinos look like death.


///

as for using hydroton in one of the tailpieces.. Sure that sounds like it would definitely assist in draining, but wouldnt you still deal with issues related to a slow/not draining perched water table if the other tailpieces clogged. I mean.. the tubs I have now are definitely draining as I have drilled holes in my upper container...yet I still appear to be having issues, etc due to drowning?

Sorry to hear you had to ditch the ppks, but it sounds like you're doing what you have to to save the crop. Hope it turns around for ya.

I agree about the hydroton, dunno if it would work in practice, I think if you have a higher drainage material below a low drainage material you may just be raising the perched water table.

I've done plenty of runs in coco, but I don't think it's good in ppks. At least the dusty pith I can get in my area wasn't. I tried some mixed 50/50 with bark in a passive ppk, it was a water logged mess. Never even got it to drain enough that I could plant into it, even after waiting 24 hours.

 

[forkup]

One tail piece filled with hydroton should allow for rapid draining thereby eliminating the PWT. The other 2 will hopefully still maintain wicking capabilities. The early yellowing goes along too much watering. Perhaps leave one plant on the ppk with hydroton in 1 tailpiece to test?

 

[Big John]

One tail piece filled with hydroton should allow for rapid draining thereby eliminating the PWT. The other 2 will hopefully still maintain wicking capabilities. The early yellowing goes along too much watering. Perhaps leave one plant on the ppk with hydroton in 1 tailpiece to test?

You know, you may be right. I shouldn't have said that I didn't think it was a good idea without ever having tried it myself.

And you could test the idea out before trying with a plant in place easy enough. Build up a quick test ppk with three tailpieces, 1 with the hydroton, then flood it with water and watch what happens. If you make the tailpieces out of something clear like plastic water bottles you could see where the PWT ends up, and how the draining is going. It'd be even better if you found a largeish clear container for the test ppk, like say one of those plastic domes they put over cakes and the like.

 

[Grow4Flow]

FF,
got any closeups of how you mounted your mini split?

 

[FlowerFarmer]

sorry for the lack of update/reply. Here are some recent shots.

I gotta dig back to find out how many days flower they are, but they finally seem to be plumping up a bit.

EDIT - these are ~53 days in bloom give or take a day.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Grow4Flow,

The split is mounted on a couple of 2x4s turned sideways. The wall behind it was block so the studs are just well fastened to the above rafters and suspend down to the concrete floor.

Not fastened anywhere near the floor (or actually on the wall), but between the split bracket and the upper brace/attachment points it is pretty ridged... it's not going anywhere and doesn't really vibrate or anything.

 

[GMax]

Hey FF...

those are some nice colas... looks like you are in for a nice harvest... your empty room looks clean and ready to go.. looking great.. keep up the great work..!!!

thanks for the update.. I am watching this one closely

 

[willyweed]

yep all looking great in these pics

 

[Grow4Flow]

Thanks FF,
Went through your album to search for images i could see the mount better on, figured it out though. Ended up with 2x4's an "L" brackets secured to the roof of the grow, it's solid.

 

[DHF]

Right at and or a lil past 7 weeks bloomage Bro......That said....How long till Harvey ?......reason I ask is if it`s soon as in couple weeks or so , instead of starving the plants in a flush type setup till chop , why not try "dwindling down" the ppm`s by lower and lower concentrations if yas`re still handwaterin to allow the plants to keep swellin till end of cycle for optimum return on investment ......

I always topped off my rez`s last couple weeks or so with H20 till ppms were in the low 150-200 tapwater range , and let proper dry and cure take care of the rest through evaporation/dehumidification , but........

I also kept my nugs in sealed pickle buckets for 4-5 weeks before goin to market for best possible end product......anyways....

Just putting it out there since they look like they could get bigger if given the opportunity and food to do so , so good luck and here`s hopin Harvey`s good to yas in spite of the hiccups and learnin curve of a new setup.......

Peace.....Freds...........