Thoughts on a new room design, input pls.

[DaveTheNewbie]

another week of veg, things ticking along nicely.
no doubt the system works, with near zero maintainence. seems 1 blumat will do a 7 gallon easily enough.

very glad i went coco blumat smartpot system, couldnt ask for more.

 

[St3ve]

Plants look good.

So.. are you going to move those plants out of there to flower? I'm asking because they are starting to get crowded so if you are then I would flip them now. Or at least give them a good healthy defoliation/pruning.

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

5 weeks veg (normally 4 weeks but theres only 2 plants not 4)
into the big tent with 4 x 600w HPS

im thinking of putting 2 lights between these 2 plants and see what happens
the usual plan is 2 lights between 4 slightly smaller plants

they are currently in the small tent to the left, moving to the big tent on right

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

i was cutting clones today.
i have grown this cutting out maybe 3-4 times before.

i have NEVER seen such short internode spacing.
I would expect 6-8 cm between nodes, it was maybe 1cm.
thats not slightly better, thats like 6-8 times better

it stinks like hell too with only 3 weeks veg and no flowering time at all
ive never smelt a veg plant stink before.

all thats different so far :
- smart pots instead of normal pots (couldnt make that much difference could it)
- ec 1.2 instead of 2.4 (it could have been too high before)
- blumats instead of normal run to waste pump retic (might have been too wet/dry before)
- maxigrow dry nutes instead of the usual stuff (ive tried a few different ones, doubt this is it)
- the new organic powdered mix goodness i added (kelp4less extreme blend)

something is really really impressing me

 

[DHF]

It`s been my experience that T-5`s right down on top of my rooted cuts/pre-veggers is what helped stack nodes and limbs before goin in the flip rooms , but......

I always had perfect environment , as well as smartpots and my coco blend with lower ppm`s from my GH 3 part , so maybe your plants are just diggin the new setup and with enough lumens and constantly being fed lower ppm`s from the blumats agrees with em...

Guess proof`s in the pudding....and....Gladta hear another coco smartpot blumat success story...1 helluva combo and...K.I.S.S. rules.....

Good luck ....DHF.........

 

[rives]

It's interesting that you had so many problems with 2 blumats in the pots. I use 3 gallon pots, and have run one blumat, a single blumat with both 2 & 3 remote drippers, and 2 blumats. If anything, I think that I had fewer runaways with 2 blumats, but I had shortened the 3mm hose length up a bit so that they weren't trying to "read" each other. I had tried 2 blumats for redundancy's sake because of my frequent absences, but the only time that I've had a problem with them stopping was due to air bubbles in the feed line and that screwed up even 2 blumats in a single pot.

Now that I've gone to the ReadyGro Aeration mix, I think that I will experiment again with the remote drippers. I've had a few runaways this time with a single carrot, but I had pulled the hose out further than recommended because the far side of the pot was staying too dry. Fun stuff!

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

Guess proof`s in the pudding....and....Gladta hear another coco smartpot blumat success story...1 helluva combo and...K.I.S.S. rules.....

Its so much easier, better, stress free, and did i say easy. I am so glad you guys turned me onto this.

It's interesting that you had so many problems with 2 blumats in the pots.

it was just fine tuning issues, i think i would be ok now. Its hard to get both tuned correctly if the first one is giving the correct amount of water, how do you know which one is working and which one is not putting out enough?

I had pulled the hose out further than recommended because the far side of the pot was staying too dry. Fun stuff!

same here, 1 longer drip from the carrot. Glad i bought extra brown 1mm hose

 

[Bennyweed1]

haha its funny man I feel you on the floods. Mine do the same shit but they just take time to dial in.

I had a ghetto rigged feedline because I didnt have enough of the 8mm stuff. Air bubbles were getting in the main feedline and blocking the flow of water, so my soil would dry out and then I would accidentally vibrate the line and the bubble would pass causing all the drippers to kick on full bore flooding everything! lol nothing pisses me off more then checking the girls and sanding in a inch or two of water!!

When those sensors dry out they go nuts.

For me, larger your pot the closer I need the small dripline to the sensor. I dont know, they need serious fine tuning to get them in check but they are for sure super nice when they are dialed in. I have two sensors in larger 12 gallon soil beds and they have a hard time judging the soil moisture because there is so much dirt for the little drips to cover. Mine just started giving me problems because I added second batch of drippers in another tent on the same feed line but before then I had weeks of care free maintenance. I bought the proper tubing to hope fix the problem.

You should consider a float valve for your resev. I installed mine and never have to worry about refilling water. I can leave for days and everything remains on point.

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

lol yeah

for those reading and thinking about setting up blumats, they are sensative.
when you turn the dial for more or less water, turn it maybe 45 degrees at a time, then wait half a day. 45 degrees is 1/8 of a circle, or in the metric system its known as fuck all.
at first i was turning a full turn, then a half turn, and i was going from bone dry to flooded. i flooded the floor completely 3 times in the first week.

so how do you know if it needs more or less water?
if the floor is flooded then you have too much water, lessen it
if you pick up the smartpot and its really light then you need more water.
with this system you dont need the coco dripping and soggy, as long as there is an amount of water available at any time for the roots its all good.

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

i always knew that ballasts held charge, and thats why you shouldnt open them up and play DIY sillybuggers with them.
Anyway my ballast today wasnt working, it was just clicking. So i decided to swap it with another ballast. Having pulled the ballast plug out of the socket i noticed it was still making noises as i touched the positive and negative pins to my thumb. BAM and i got a taste of that charge the ballast was holding.
Shows you can get complacent and fuck up.

Anyway week 4 and i decided to flower them. Its a test run to work things out so i may as well.

so i want advice regarding vert growing, and especially pruning/trimming

 

[420ish]

before i flipped ,i would trim the back pretty aggressive.think it was aero's thread that showed the best pics of trimming the back.i would let them recover at least a week after trimming the back side!

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

im assuming you mean this thread : https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=197502

Thats some pretty violent pruning!
Guess ill try it, run the light for another week 18/6 for recovery.

THESE PHOTOS ARE FROM AERO'S THREAD AND ARE NOT MINE. Reference only.

Front :

Back :

Side :

Others :

Thanks for the advice and link 420ish!

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

And heres my effort : Plant 1

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

Plant 2

 

[St3ve]

Looks like a pretty good pruning. I know with this style of vert you wanna clean out the back side.. but don't forget to get the sucker branches from the front side also.

For me.. I always take my clones one week before I flip the plants. While I'm looking for clones.. I'm also pruning out the underside (if horizontal), the backside (if vert), and cleaning out the suckers. I'll even pluck off any fan leaves that are larger or shading. Then they recover for a full week and are ready to kick ass in the flower room.

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

i pulled a whole heap of sucker branches that were low down and deep in, no matter where they were, front or back.
but i left everything near the top as thats all future budsites

 

[St3ve]

oh really? from the pics it just looked pretty shady. Rock on bro

 

[420ish]

nice trim job.i was very leery chopping that much the first time but it made a big differnce.aero's excellently documented thread is what gave me the reassurance to do it!hope you got 4 good clones started for the next round by the time you flip.that gives you enough time to train and clear out the back side for no downtime.i usually vegged anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks.the 8 week veg would let me train and trim to fit my 42 inch circle and have a nice size root mass.took me a long time to learn to trim more of the sucker branches for better yields.good luck!having a dedicated veg and flower area kept me with no downtime between crops!

 

[rives]

when you turn the dial for more or less water, turn it maybe 45 degrees at a time, then wait half a day. 45 degrees is 1/8 of a circle, or in the metric system its known as fuck all.
at first i was turning a full turn, then a half turn, and i was going from bone dry to flooded. i flooded the floor completely 3 times in the first week.

In my experience, this is still pretty aggressive. After the initial setting (clinging drop, in media preset to desired moisture level), I will usually only move the cap a few degrees at a time to do the final dial in. The markers on the cap are every 60 degrees, and my adjustments are always under halfway, and usually around a quarter, between the marker lines.

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

oh really? from the pics it just looked pretty shady. Rock on bro

heh just cause i THINK i did it right doesnt mean i did, first time at this

nice trim job.i was very leery chopping that much the first time but it made a big differnce.aero's excellently documented thread is what gave me the reassurance to do it!hope you got 4 good clones started for the next round by the time you flip.that gives you enough time to train and clear out the back side for no downtime.i usually vegged anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks.the 8 week veg would let me train and trim to fit my 42 inch circle and have a nice size root mass.took me a long time to learn to trim more of the sucker branches for better yields.good luck!having a dedicated veg and flower area kept me with no downtime between crops!

Got 12 clones going, but im a suck cloner and its cold. Im also trying out a new LED T5 cloning light so we will see how that works.

In my experience, this is still pretty aggressive. After the initial setting (clinging drop, in media preset to desired moisture level), I will usually only move the cap a few degrees at a time to do the final dial in. The markers on the cap are every 60 degrees, and my adjustments are always under halfway, and usually around a quarter, between the marker lines.

yeah i would agree with this. its a touchy (subtle?) little thing isnt it.

Im trying to document EVERYTHING i do rather than just show off my big yield awesomeness. Hopefully someone can learn from the little things and the fuckups as well as the glory moments.

EDIT : Like dont touch the pins of the ballast if its still clicking and making noises once unplugged