GroErr Grows...

GroErr said:

Trying to remember doesn't work very well when you have multiple grows going. Trying to remember what I did in each grow doesn't work for me (sampling the wares doesn't help!), 1/2 the time I'm wrong if I try and guess, if I didn't have the logs I'd be all over the place.

Click to expand...

That about sums up my dilemma, haha! So I error on the side of "less is more".

I will def. be posting the progress with the 630 light. I haven't seen any logs with that light yet.

As far as the heat, I should be OK. I over-sized my new exhaust fan to an 8" Vortex VTX800S 728CFM quiet fan and will use an 8" skinny Phresh filter rated at 500-750 CFM. I plan on running the fan at the low end first. Then increase based on temps. I should be fine since my basement temps are pretty steady at 68F in summer, 58-60F in winter. I should have no problems dealing with the heat with that intake temp. I calculated around 350 CFM is all I need. I plan to run the light at least 24" from the canopy to start. If the exhaust heats up the basement and my intake, I have a plan in place to pipe the exhaust outside.

Here is a pic of my issue that pop up randomly. The below pic is a White Widow clone in veg that started showing the yellowing symptoms in veg. I usually don't see this in veg either, but I think this is overfed, underfed,or has pH imbalance. I'm guessing overfed since I put it in my flower soil mix. Might have been too hot for this youngun. My meter got wet and I don't trust it anymore, so until I get a new meter I am shooting in the dark. I can't tell if it is lockout due to overfeeding/pH or a deficiency. It starts out looking like a Mg deficiency with the edges of the leaves turning yellow, then gets worse. Last time this happened it cleared up with a transplant into some fresh soil and plain waterings. I'm going to let this one dry out good, then transplant into a 1 gal. square pot to see if it recovers. I should note my water is fairly hard also, so I don't supplement any Mg. Maybe its just Mg deficient. I do have some cal-mag I could try after the transplant and no recovery.

You'll be fine with that monster and incoming air is a good temp so you should be able to control temps/RH by brining in that cooler/drier air no problems.

I get that yellowing early on sometimes on certain strains, from seed more than from clone usually. Looks like they need some extra cal-mag. I just use the AN A/B, around 300-400 ppm at that stage. The "A" has high calcium (3%), enough in there to take care of it if you mix in more of A, I mix it 66% A/33% B, a couple of feedings should take care of it and put them back on track. Keep an eye on new growth as the existing defs won't go away completely, once new growth is coming in with proper colouring you're back on track. This seemed common early on with many strains so if I know the strain is susceptible to it I feed them around 300-400 ppm early (once they have a couple of nodes so I know roots are well established) with that 66/33% mix and it prevents it.

Veg update for the new tent. Have had to turn on both the veg + red switches in there to get the temps up around 76-78F, was getting down to 72-74 and I find the higher temps work better for me.

Getting there with the 4x Blue Dreams in 3gal pots with the tomato cages. They'll remain in there for another 2 1/2 weeks or so until the 5Gal 3x3 finishes. Next weekend I should be pretty well done with the 3gal 3x3, then the 3x 5gal (up-potted last weekend, decided to go bigger) I have in the veg cabinet will go into flower, missed the lights so will post an update on those tomorrow, 2x Blue Pyramid that are getting out of control and 1x THC Bomb that's shorter but spread out and lots of tops. Next weekend these BD's will up-pot to 5gal to let them establish for about 10 days before flowering.

The 4x Blue Dreams are the one's that I'm going to push to the limit and see what these 315w CMH can really do if going for weight. I may run a separate thread, not sure if I want to run it separate or just post it in here. The plan is to run all 4 in approx. 3.5'x3.5' and around 36-40" height after the stretch. The target is to see if I can pull an elbow from 315w with my "vertical scrog" trellis method, should be epic, just not sure if it'll be an epic fail or success - lol

The 2x 2gal pots front-centre are both confirmed fems of my PPP x Blueberry cross. Still looking for a indica-dom with better taste, not impressed so far with the 2 phenos I'm flowering under CMH right now. Both of these are indica leaning, the one on the right more so. They both have that weird 9 point leaf trait on the mains. Have super-cropped and pinched them to try and keep them low, ideally I'd like to run them in the LED tent in about 3.5 weeks or so, I'll throw them into 3gal's and trellis them when I get some room in there in hopes of keeping them around 2ft. max height. The far-right-front one is a clone from the 5gal JTR x Blueberry pheno I have going in the main flower room which is looking and smelling like a keeper sat-dom phenol The little party cup is my only JTR clone, I'm just going to keep it in a 1gal until I can clone it with some other clones I'll be cutting in a couple of weeks.




Cheers

GroErr said:

You'll be fine with that monster and incoming air is a good temp so you should be able to control temps/RH by brining in that cooler/drier air no problems.

I get that yellowing early on sometimes on certain strains, from seed more than from clone usually. Looks like they need some extra cal-mag. I just use the AN A/B, around 300-400 ppm at that stage. The "A" has high calcium (3%), enough in there to take care of it if you mix in more of A, I mix it 66% A/33% B, a couple of feedings should take care of it and put them back on track. Keep an eye on new growth as the existing defs won't go away completely, once new growth is coming in with proper colouring you're back on track. This seemed common early on with many strains so if I know the strain is susceptible to it I feed them around 300-400 ppm early (once they have a couple of nodes so I know roots are well established) with that 66/33% mix and it prevents it.

Click to expand...

I was thinking the same. I decided to go out and purchase a ppm and pH pen. My tap water is 7.0pH and 350ppm. So do you feed 300 on top of the tap water ppm, or should I consider filtering my water supply? I will start using the Sensi A&B for veg. My PBP Grow bottle is about done for. I'd hate to use Cal-Mag+ because that stuff is hot.

Do you recycle your soil?

Those plants are going to be monsters. What height are they going into the flower room at? 24".

sm0k4 said:

I was thinking the same. I decided to go out and purchase a ppm and pH pen. My tap water is 7.0pH and 350ppm. So do you feed 300 on top of the tap water ppm, or should I consider filtering my water supply? I will start using the Sensi A&B for veg. My PBP Grow bottle is about done for. I'd hate to use Cal-Mag+ because that stuff is hot.

Do you recycle your soil?

Those plants are going to be monsters. What height are they going into the flower room at? 24".

Click to expand...

Wow, 350's high, I'd consider some type of filtering on that water or buy some. I just use a brita on-tap filter on my basement tap, mainly to get the chlorine out of it as it's high enough to smell like a freshly shocked pool when it comes out of the tap. Then I add my ppm's at whatever level I want like 300-400 early on. If you use it as-is you may want to go lower at first to see how they react, like 250 or the like.

No recycling of this medium, nothing left in it by the end, and I don't know if you're using fabric pots but when they finish in there it's a solid root mass, even if I wanted to recycle some of it, I might be able to get like 30-40% back and a lot of work sifting it through the root ball's. If you haven't used/tried fabric pots, that's another big factor that's made a huge difference in my indoor grows. I don't use anything but cups, then 1/3/5/7 gal fabrics right through the cycles. I even ran 3x 7gal's outdoor last summer with great results.

The plan for those BD's is to get them around 24-26" wound through the trellises I use, then flip. That should get them around 36"-38" when they're done stretching. The original mother from seed pulled 7 zips dry in a 7 gal and was about 40" after the stretch. I'm hoping to pull a qp per plant in the 5gal's if all goes well.

Mmm, I only aspire to get a qp per plant! My little 12 inch lst'd plants get me 1/2 oz. to an oz. per on a 250 with a couple DIY LED panels. Can't wait to go bigger. All should be ready by end of month. Trying to get some vegging now.

I will look into purchasing some fabric pots also. Thanks for the tip!

sm0k4 said:

Mmm, I only aspire to get a qp per plant! My little 12 inch lst'd plants get me 1/2 oz. to an oz. per on a 250 with a couple dot led panels. Can't wait to go bigger. All should be ready by end of month. Trying to get some vegging now.

I will look into purchasing some fabric pots also. Thanks for the tip!

Click to expand...

Oh you'll pull a lot more running that monster light in there, you may want to start thinking about some additional space! Nice thing with those fabric pots is they're getting cheaper, I've used some for about 8 cycles and they're still fine, I just rinse them, throw them in the washer and air dry them. Really no more than plastic pots cost-wise but much better performance.

Get an RO system. They have them at Home Depot. Easy to install.

Cheers,
Mo

@GroErr - Your forest is looking splendid! Is it stinky?

Mohican said:

Get an RO system. They have them at Home Depot. Easy to install.

Cheers,
Mo

Click to expand...

Good catch, should have mentioned that, I've been putting that off but that's the ideal solution. Even re-fills are a bit of a pain now that I have so many grows on the go. Those on-tap filters don't put much pressure/volume out either. RO's the best to know exactly what you're giving them. My son had a deal for me but never came through, gotta get on him and get one installed. Shit, my son in law's a plumber, I'll just go through him and have him install it and bill it to my company, duh. He shows up quick if he's getting paid

I want to get one of those bigger systems that puts out water like a garden hose! I use RO for cooking, drinking, making ice, watering clones and special plants, filling my humidifier when the RH is low, and making ice water hash.

Mohican said:

@GroErr - Your forest is looking splendid! Is it stinky?

Click to expand...

Ha, good timing on that question. I'm down there watering last night and left the door to the basement open for about 1 minute while I was carrying something in. A few minutes later my GF comes down and asks me if something went wrong, she could smell it upstairs - lol I have 2 doors to get into the main flower room, usually I have at least one closed so no smell gets out, gotta be more careful in full bloom

Mohican said:

I want to get one of those bigger systems that puts out water like a garden hose! I use RO for cooking, drinking, making ice, watering clones and special plants, filling my humidifier when the RH is low, and making ice water hash.

Click to expand...

Any recommendations on brands/specs? I've looked at them but haven't researched specs much.

A shot of my La Crosse environment monitoring screen for the flower room. The chart tracks the last week, blue line is temps, green is humidity. Data is pulled every 15 minutes. Interesting to see patterns, make adjustments if needed. Like in the middle of the lights on cycle (7:00 pm to 7:00 am) I get a short 2 - 3 hour dip of about 3F when it's cold out like it is now. You can see short spikes just above 50% RH at the end of the dark cycle on the days I water. neither are anything to worry about but it lets me know what "normal" is so if there is an issue I can quickly tell by just opening up this page. Temps are 77-82 with short spikes up to 84F. I made a slight adjustment turning the dial down slightly on the controller for incoming air from the HVAC. When it's so cold the heat comes on more through the night and allows that spike, turned it down a bit last night and you can see it never went above 82F. Pretty handy tool for fine tuning and monitoring..

You want to get the most efficient membrane. My old system makes 3 gallons of waste for every gallon of RO. I think the new ones are down to 1:1. Everything else is just plumbing and filters. I use two charcoal filters and one for sediment. I had a UV light for killing any life in the water. Bulb burnt out and I never hooked it back up.

I have a water softener (potassium chloride) before the RO system which helps keep the membrane and filters a little cleaner.

pH is 7.00

Cheers,
Mo

GroErr said:

A shot of my La Crosse environment monitoring screen for the flower room. The chart tracks the last week, blue line is temps, green is humidity. Data is pulled every 15 minutes. Interesting to see patterns, make adjustments if needed.

Click to expand...

Good stuff, I have a weather station thingy with remote sensor so I can see the humidity and temp from my couch, but haven't logged anything for a long time, really should do that again. Is that an expensive gadget?

Mohican said:

You want to get the most efficient membrane. My old system makes 3 gallons of waste for every gallon of RO. I think the new ones are down to 1:1. Everything else is just plumbing and filters. I use two charcoal filters and one for sediment. I had a UV light for killing any life in the water. Bulb burnt out and I never hooked it back up.

I have a water softener (potassium chloride) before the RO system which helps keep the membrane and filters a little cleaner.

pH is 7.00

Cheers,
Mo

Click to expand...

Thanks, sounds like I'll need to have a look around, if I'm going to go with one I'll want decent throughput and least waste. I've seen a few folks using them here, probably a good start. I looked at the installation instructions for one a while back and didn't seem like a big deal/ Just one of those things I don't think about unless it comes up on here I had a filter + UV system in my last place, had a well there, water quality was good but it was an old well and lots of farms around so put that in to be safe.

Sativied said:

Good stuff, I have a weather station thingy with remote sensor so I can see the humidity and temp from my couch, but haven't logged anything for a long time, really should do that again. Is that an expensive gadget?

Click to expand...

Hey Sativied, these run about $95 - $$110 for the first controller + sensor(s), additional sensors are $65-$75 and you can connect up to 5 sensors per controller. I have 3 and will likely add another for that additional veg tent I just fired up. Some of the higher prices are if you buy one with an additional sensor like I have one wet probe which I can put into my cloner to monitor water temps. Another one that's connected to my sensor in the flower room has a water detector that sits under the raised floor. Any water is detected on the concrete floor and I get an alert, put that one in because I have a sump pump in there, if it ever fails and get any water on the concrete floor under the sub-floor I get alerted. Got to test it recently when I over dumped a little water right where the sensor sits They come with a year of the alert service, after you get the basic monitoring page but if you want alerts it's $10/year per sensor, It's saved me a lot of time dialing in rooms and allows me to look at that screen and immediately tell if there's something going on, like a fan that dies and you'll see temp/humidity fluctuations from the norm. To me it's just a tool that lets me quickly see what's going on in the environment and spot any potential issues. Lets me focus on the grow and understand how any changes affect the environment.

That sound really good. I bought an arduino and some sensors about a year ago but I'm afraid of it. It's like crack or heroin to me, if I were to start with that I'm going to need more hours in a day. I've seen a few similar loggers but usually either expensive pro gear or some cheap toy. I don't mind paying a little more for something plug-and-play that gets the job done. I'll have to take a closer look at what they offer, thanks for the info,

I posted some graphs a while back from someone who hooked up blumat tensiometers to an arduino to log water usage which combined with lightperiod and watering and rh offers some additionally insight. Even a separate one (no logging) would probably make an interestinhg addition to that ability to fine tune.

I had to test out the light last night. I couldn't wait any longer. I have more work to do before the room is complete, as you can see, but it fits perfect in the spot I had picked out for flowering. I tossed two White Widow under it to see how it compares to the measly 250W HPS they have been flowering under. No comparison. These bulbs rock, the whiteness is intense and you can actually see color to the leaves. Watching the light fire up is cool too. The pics show a pink looking hue, but in person it is pure neutral white. Looks like I'm starting to get a slight deficiency. They are about two weeks from finishing.