Large scale PPK system

[Desert Hydro]

Every new setup has a learnin curve DH.....Try not to over think yourself and just pay attention to the girls.....after all , you`re usin new lights as well as a new PPK system so don`t beat yerself up too much.....

All things in time Bro......Happy Holidays and good luck.....

Peace....DHF..........

thanks for the pick me up. i put a lot of faith into untested genetics that were supposed to turn solid purple but i havent seen a speck of color and they are soon to be coming down. a couple of the phenotypes look decent but quite a few look like they are headed to the closed loop lol. its all good. nothing gets wasted here.


i still have a post of yours saved on my pc after all these years with your 10 commandments. i think i must have veered off somewhere along the way.

i would like to post a few things here in the hopes that it may help someone. some of it sounds like criticism or me being cynical but sometimes you have to take a step back to see things for what they really are......

some things are learned this round....

1. VPD is king. learn it, live by it or suffer the consequences.
2. warmer temps arent always bad as long as you FOLLOW THE VPD AND HAVE A TON OF AIRFLOW.
3. proper air movement. DJM had a quote about adequate airflow that he posted in his thread. "when you think you have enough, double it" if your plants are dancing youre probably good. NO STAGNANT AIR POCKETS. people worry about wind burn but in a humid environment its a non issue with oscillating fans.
4. stop chasing the next best nutrient line. pick one and master it. they are all pretty close. you will do better by mastering your environment than chasing magic bottles.
5. master your room BEFORE adding CO2. co2 makes things go fast, the good and the bad. if your shit isnt well tuned best believe its gonna exacerbate underlying issues.
6. pay attention to your roots! i was overwatering in the beginning which stunted the roots and never encouraged them to spread and grow. now i have pots of media with underdeveloped weak root systems which lead to poor performance. wet/dry cycles in the beginning until they are well rooted and then bump it up.
7. test genetics before running them full swing, if and when possible. sometimes this cant be avoided, but if youre gardening for maximum potential dont take unnecessary gambles.

these are all the mistakes staring me in the face at the moment. good thing is this room is coming down soon and the next one up where i will be able to implement everything ive learned. i think the biggest things you could take away from this is VPD, airflow and roots. i had been chasing what looked like a deficiency for a while and i kept bumping the feed up to no avail. what finally happened is that i dug up a few plants to check their roots. i had some sort of issue caused by overwatering and or some sort of bacteria. what finally fixed everything is household bleach a a couple mls per 10 gal of nutrients.

first pic is of the dead/dying roots. after treating with bleach now they are all healthy and white. i now add it to my cloner and all my reservoirs. it breaks down quite rapidly and needs to be added back in weekly.

 

[Desert Hydro]

veg plants are spreading their wings! co2 goes in soon if the environment stays in check.

dont laugh at my fucking fan! it does its job......its just dangerous as fuck lol. i already gave one plant a haircut with it and almost stuck my arm in there.

it vibrates the whole table and makes the plants dance like a kid on too much ecstasy...... im thinking this could somehow be beneficial.

added the 1k MH in there with no air cooling to keep it warm in there. worked good since the other light was only about 300w and not keeping it as warm as need be for fast veg.

 

[Speed of green]

those look lush and happy!

 

[Desert Hydro]

thanks. the ones towards the back wall are a bit overfed and then i realized it and started backing off a bit. new stuff is looking good and now that my environment is in check and within the VPD parameters i will begin adding co2 again. wish me luck!

 

[Desert Hydro]

so i figured out what screwed me over on this round and thought i would let everyone know so they dont make the same mistake as me.

i had reused some drip tubing and manifolds while i was vegging without properly sterilizing it. there was some nasty shit inside the tubes and it infected my media with some bad shit. it started off by looking like a deficiency so i treated with more food.....big mistake. caused more issues and burns. the situation continued to progress. tried all sorts of additives and chased in circled for a long time.

i had started using beneficial bacteria thinking that would help me out. i guess at that time the bad shit had already taken hold and the good couldnt overtake the bad.

i blamed everything but the actual problem until i dug up a bunch of affected plants. i knew right then and there. smell your root zone. we know what fresh clean earth smells like and can usually tell if theres some funk.

i immediately looked up a dead res technique and started applying the solution to all my reservoirs. most of the clones were too far gone but i was able to bring back a few from the dead.

anyways, here is what fianlly solved the issue. .4ml household bleach per gallon for the infected plants for the first 2 days and then down to .2ml per gal after that. i add the bleach right before i hand water because bleach has a VERY SHORT LIFESPAN in the reservoirs, especially if you aerate.

before and afters, you can still see some of the old dead roots on the bottom right close to my hand.

 

[Thirdtime]

Glad you caught it. I like to run bleach occasionally to clean up the slime that grows in the reservoir. I think D9 mentioned using h2o2 pool shock but I haven't seen any at HD.

 

[Desert Hydro]

Checked today and I'm at like five to ten percent amber so they are gonna go about ten more days I think. Perfect timing on the flush and can't wait to get the next round going

 

[datal4b]

yo dH i have used 1gram of hth pool shock to 1 gal of RO as chlorine solution for a couple years now. dosage is 1 liquid oz to 5gal, every other day. have never lost a clone since. i don't see why you can't use it in a system as well, i tried it in the ppk for a while but never stayed with it. try it out on some clones

 

[datal4b]

 

[datal4b]

i have used Clorox as well and this seemed to work better for me for some reason. just my own findings

 

[Desert Hydro]

cool thanks man. been having good luck with bleach thus far and the new kids are doing pretty good so far. blumats get installed tomorrow so i wont have to hand water ever again!

they will veg in the coco with blumats for a few more weeks and then go into PPKs with tupur coco

the plants under the COBs are the ones from the middle pic from the right 2/3 of the table. i spread them out under the LED to give them better penetration

 

[Desert Hydro]

lights are off till friday then its chop time. truth be told im not at all happy with this round. i will be lucky to hit .3 gpw is my guess. plants that were supposed to be solid purple never turned. lots of other problems that were all directly my fault. the root zone pathogen really screwed me but at least i learned a lesson. VPD was way off for most of the grow and fixed it too late. low rH in the desert.....imagine that.

anyways here are the pics. room will be cleaned up and reset for the next go around ASAP but i may have to dry in the room due to lack of proper place to do so.

 

[Desert Hydro]

a few of these will be fast dried and sent to the BHO column. that may be their saving grace lol

 

[Thirdtime]

Looks good even though you had issues. See purple in them what strains?

I am in the desert but humidity stays too high in my flower room. Just bought a dehumidifier. With the room almost empty humidity is low but when its full I have to open doors and vent to keep it down to 50. I guess full room lots of respiration = high humidity. Also my plants are all a lot bigger than they should be, bad timing on my part.

 

[Desert Hydro]

all of them are ninja fruit from ocean grown except for the third pic which is my ~28%
ethos harambe. i wanna see what she pulls down as far as weight off a medium sized plant

 

[Mr Blah]

Nothing to be upset with there.
This is what I say to myself;
If you ain't making mistakes..your not learning.

 

[Desert Hydro]

Nothing to be upset with here.
This is what I say to myself;
If you ain't making mistakes..your not learning.

for sure. i sure learned a shitload on this run lol

 

[datal4b]

still looks bomb..

 

[Desert Hydro]

everything is down for the count. hanging on the cages. temps are right at 70 and keeping rH at ~50 for the first couple days. once i am out of the mold danger zone i will bump the rH to ~60 for the next 10 days for a total of about 14 days hang. from there i will be trimming them dry over the next week or two.

i have four shitty plants that are fast drying with a dehumidifier in a tent and will be sent through the closed loop in a couple days. as soon as they are cracker dry they will be processed. hoping for nice light extract off them

 

[starke]

Still a good show. Congrats.