Dave's Dual Area 51 Grow

daveroller

daveroller

Well-Known Member
BEGIN FLOWERING

Time to switch the lighting schedule from 18/6 to 12/12, to begin forcing all 3 plants to flower. Today I started to flush the roots with water & Final Phase. Root ball is getting bigger. Lookin good!



Tomorrow I’ll dump the flush water & replace with pure water + flowering nutes.

Gave the little ones their first trim. Cut out the underbrush. (Left Lusinda’s ‘fro alone for now.)

Also lowered the light panel above Lusinda so that it’s about 20” above her canopy.
 
daveroller

daveroller

Well-Known Member
Here’s how I plan to leave my ladies on their own when I go on a 4-day vacation later this year. I think that the main issue will be keeping the res water topped up. My big plant already sucks up at least a half gallon of water a day. And that raises the tds and throws the pH out of whack. After a few days of that they’d be hurting, possibly nute burned, not to mention very thirsty for agua.

The video below will show how I plan to keep a tank full of RO-filtered water near my plants and how I’ll just use gravity & the ambient air pressure to keep my reservoirs topped up. Just think "water cooler" & a siphon hose.
:arrow: And imagine that the container on the left is one of my reservoirs, starting out with a low water level.
(Note: The first minute was sped up and condensed into 25 seconds.)


Now the water levels in the 2 containers are exactly the same. I could also daisy-chain another siphon hose to my 2nd res to keep them both topped up.

Note: This is just an experiment. I plan to get a stronger bucket to set the jug on top of. And I’ll probably use a bigger jug.
 
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daveroller

daveroller

Well-Known Member
Today the tds really dropped in both reses.
  • Lusinda's went from about 900 ppm to ~750 ppm.
  • The little girls' went from ~600 ppm to ~450 ppm.
This was measured after topping up with RO water. Together they drank almost a gallon. They really chowed down the nutes in one day. I think it was because they were hungry after flushing overnight. These are probably the healthiest plants I've grown so far, knock on wood.

With the latest feeding I didn't use Final Phase, that flushing agent containing chelated Magnesium. Instead, I used something from Advanced Nutrients called Overdrive. It also contains about 1% Mg, but it isn't chelated. Overdrive is meant to cause a final growth spurt during the last 2 weeks of flowering, but I decided to add a little now to provide some Mg. I'm just afraid that Final Phase might contain some things that aren't so good for putting nutes into my plant, although it seemed to work pretty well. Let's see what happens with this Overdrive stuff...
 
daveroller

daveroller

Well-Known Member
werm11 said:
Wow that's so simple but so genius. Would be interested in seeing how you would pull off adding a third container.
Click to expand...

That would be fun to watch, like dominoes falling down. Basically, it's just another container and a siphon hose from one to the other. I'm thinking of trying this with my 2 extra res containers. I'll have to drill holes in them to slide the siphon tubes through. And I'll have to think of how to get the siphon started. Still need to plan some more. (It would really be cool if I could feed them directly from my RO reservoir and not even have to worry about the water running out. The gears are turning in my head.)
 
G

greatbranch

Well-Known Member
daveroller said:
That would be fun to watch, like dominoes falling down. Basically, it's just another container and a siphon hose from one to the other. I'm thinking of trying this with my 2 extra res containers. I'll have to drill holes in them to slide the siphon tubes through. And I'll have to think of how to get the siphon started. Still need to plan some more. (It would really be cool if I could feed them directly from my RO reservoir and not even have to worry about the water running out. The gears are turning in my head.)
Click to expand...
They are looking fabulous, D-! Sorry I have been so absent. I am not in the "grey bar hotel" or dead. One of those weeks. I will get caught up here soon. Pain has been bad, so everything is behind. Glad things are going well!
 
The Gator

The Gator

Well-Known Member
daveroller said:
Here’s how I plan to leave my ladies on their own when I go on a 4-day vacation later this year. I think that the main issue will be keeping the res water topped up. My big plant already sucks up at least a half gallon of water a day. And that raises the tds and throws the pH out of whack. After a few days of that they’d be hurting, possibly nute burned, not to mention very thirsty for agua.

The video below will show how I plan to keep a tank full of RO-filtered water near my plants and how I’ll just use gravity & the ambient air pressure to keep my reservoirs topped up. Just think "water cooler" & a siphon hose.
:arrow: And imagine that the container on the left is one of my reservoirs, starting out with a low water level.
(Note: The first minute was sped up and condensed into 25 seconds.)

Now the water levels in the 2 containers are exactly the same. I could also daisy-chain another siphon hose to my 2nd res to keep them both topped up.

Note: This is just an experiment. I plan to get a stronger bucket to set the jug on top of. And I’ll probably use a bigger jug.
Click to expand...
That is a crazy cool idea, You should post some pics when your done or a video. That is some cool MacGuyver stuff!
 
daveroller

daveroller

Well-Known Member
The Gator said:
That is a crazy cool idea, You should post some pics when your done or a video. That is some cool MacGuyver stuff!
Click to expand...

I was thinking about this some more and I think I can get it to work pretty easy. The only thing that I'm worried about is that air bubbles might form inside the tubing and screw up the siphon. Depending on the position of the water jug in my closet, one of the tubes might have to be pretty long, like around 4 feet, so more opportunity for air bubbles to form. I might have to set this up in my garage and let it run for a few days, manually removing about a gallon a day from the 2 reses without any plants, just to see if any problems develop. I don't want to have any surprises when I have to do this for real. :eyesmoke:
 
daveroller

daveroller

Well-Known Member
greatbranch said:
They are looking fabulous, D-! Sorry I have been so absent. I am not in the "grey bar hotel" or dead. One of those weeks. I will get caught up here soon. Pain has been bad, so everything is behind. Glad things are going well!
Click to expand...

Hey, GB! Glad to see you back! I thought maybe you went on vacation or something. I hope the pain gets better. Has it been raining a lot by you? I get those weeks usually when we have a week of rain for some reason. I'd never last in Seattle. I hope it's getting better for you! I'm looking forward to seeing how your SCROG is filling up.
 
The Gator

The Gator

Well-Known Member
daveroller said:
I was thinking about this some more and I think I can get it to work pretty easy. The only thing that I'm worried about is that air bubbles might form inside the tubing and screw up the siphon. Depending on the position of the water jug in my closet, one of the tubes might have to be pretty long, like around 4 feet, so more opportunity for air bubbles to form. I might have to set this up in my garage and let it run for a few days, manually removing about a gallon a day from the 2 reses without any plants, just to see if any problems develop. I don't want to have any surprises when I have to do this for real. :eyesmoke:
Click to expand...
That sounds like a plan. Hopefully one you remove the initial air bubbles the whole system will maintain pressure and keep any other bubbles from forming. Good luck with the test !
 
G

greatbranch

Well-Known Member
daveroller said:
Hey, GB! Glad to see you back! I thought maybe you went on vacation or something. I hope the pain gets better. Has it been raining a lot by you? I get those weeks usually when we have a week of rain for some reason. I'd never last in Seattle. I hope it's getting better for you! I'm looking forward to seeing how your SCROG is filling up.
Click to expand...
I'm a walking barometer. It HAS been raining a lot here. Large fluctuations and turbulence cause problems. Temp drops are the worst.
 
daveroller

daveroller

Well-Known Member
greatbranch said:
I'm a walking barometer. It HAS been raining a lot here. Large fluctuations and turbulence cause problems. Temp drops are the worst.
Click to expand...

I've been lucky this summer because it hasn't rained here very much. We need to move to Denver, where they get 300 days of sun during the year (so I've heard).
 
G

greatbranch

Well-Known Member
daveroller said:
I've been lucky this summer because it hasn't rained here very much. We need to move to Denver, where they get 300 days of sun during the year (so I've heard).
Click to expand...
I'm sure that's the MAIN reason you want to move to Denver. bongsmilie lol I only have a couple times per year that things are really nasty. I don't see myself moving anywhere. I'd have to fix up my shack and sell it, and I've told you guys how much I suck at DIY. Besides, if I do buy another place, I'd do it locally and just convert my little rancher into a hobby site. That's my retirement plan...lol. Recession proof - at least I wouldn't CARE that I was poor. :hump:
 
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