in order to establish a fairly consistent canopy height between the 4 trays, #1 should be sitting 6“- 12” higher, and #2 should be 4”-6” higher than trays #3 . This will be dependent on the strain you’re growing. So think about leaving a couple extra inches of hose on the fill and drain tubes between those first 2 trays and their reservoirs and devise a way of elevating them so as to end up with a more even canopy.
All generally good, but the plants in a properly operating system will be at their final height in wk4, so trays 2, 3 & 4 can all be at the same height from the floor. My tray 1 is blocked up 50mm taller than tray 2, but it really doesn't need to be. I've only blocked that tray up in the last year & a bit or so. The tray 1 plants catch up pretty quickly.
A 400 HPS would bearly work for what would be roughly a 5'x5' (all 4 trays together) flower area - but if you're buying for your project spend the little extra for a digital dimmable 600 or 1000 watt lamp - You're never going smaller with your grow... but eventually wanting to go bigger is the obvious progression.
A general rule for HPS lighting is 50W/sq ft. A 400HPS will cover an 8 sq ft rectangular area, 2'x4' or a pair of 2'x2' trays.
I would recommend against 'digital' aka electronic ballasts. 'Magnetic' ballasts have just 3 working components (ballast coil, capacitor & igniter) and every one of them is more durable than the weakest component (semiconductor junctions) in electronic ballasts. Magnetic ballasts' service life is measured in decades. The component which tends to fail is the capacitor, and they rarely fail catastrophically. Light output may dim as the capacitor wears out, but rarely do magnetic ballasts quit entirely. Any old schmoe can replace a capacitor in a magnetic ballast. Capacitors are cheap & available and you might even consider replacing them as a wear component every 3-5 years. Even if you don't want to tear into your magnetic ballast and replace a capacitor, good quality magnetic ballasts (those with bolted laminations in their ballast coil) are so inexpensive that you you can justify having an entire spare ballast unit on the shelf.
Electronic ballasts do not have a ballast coil (as do magnetics), which wastes about 5% of the input power as heat due to eddy currents, but the durability/reliability of magnetics is so superior to electronic types that the 5% greater power consumption of a magnetic a worthwhile trade-off.
Yes, this is a SOG operation at this size. The most important thing about a Sea of Green is the pruning of the plant. It is really hard to trim away healthy lower growth but you want the plant to pump nutes to just a couple HUGE colas on the top, not a bunch of popcorn on lower branches that shouldn't even be there. The above links are your manuals... the "big cutting" process Al lays out will put you about 8-10 days ahead of the game. Once a "small" clone takes root and starts to feed on the nutes, it will take at least a week to get to the point where his clones are starting.
Yep, all that.
Al I'm still having problems with wilting i think its due to low humidity seeing its only about 38% I was wondering what yours is normally at. air temp is right around 20c and medium temp is right around 28c
Humidity is not generally something you have to worry about. If your clones are wilting, it's almost certainly because of stem tip rotting due to overwet conditions in your cloning medium. If the stem tip has rotted, the cutting can't take up any water, causing wilt.
Hey Al!
Been reading and following for a long time...just built a cabinet and have some girls in bubble buckets, needless to say I am struggling...
pH in buckets: currently 5.8-6.2 (although it was all over weeks prior, would set @ 5.4 and would rise rapidly to 6.5+ in 12-24 hours. I have the chart and recorded jumps/adjustments if needed)
pH jumping up like that is a pretty reliable indicator of pathogen infection (pythium, fusarium etc) in your rootmass.
*Using 29% H2O2 @ 3ml a gallon every change/top off
And that's why. You're not using enough H2O2 nor are you using it frequently enough. If using 29%, you should be using 1.7ml/L every 3-4 days.
Bubble buckets aka DWC is not a method I'd recommend as a general rule and definitely not a good method for new growers. Maintenance is difficult & DWC is susceptible to big problems if there's a power failure or air pump failure.
*When I top off I use pH'd tap water to 5.5 and H2O2 every day/other day if buckets shows signs of drinking (also if I need to bring pH down I do it after top off and I use home made pH down, mix: sulfuric acid 1 cup to 1 gal distilled water)
Don't use sulfuric acid to adjust pH. Use proper pHDown, available from any hydro shop. It's one of the very cheapest chemicals a hydro shop carries- there's just no excuse for attempting to use battery acid as a substitute. You can get either the phosphoric acid based type for flowering plants or nitric acid based for vegging plants, but the phosphoric acid based flavour will work in either application.
Never adjust pH of your makeup water. 5.5 is far too low anyway. Mix plain tapwater with nutrient concentrate, check pH & adjust as required afterward. Good quality nNutrient concentrates will generally contain pH buffers, which when mixed to around 1000ppm will set your pH pretty close to 5.8.
*Using home made bubble buckets (2) 2.5 gal (1) 3.5 gal and (1) GH HydroFarm with 3 girls in it - this one is always all over the place with pH
As said, the pH jumping up is indicative of pathogen infection.
Just switched over to GH pH down powder, I had thought I was getting sulfur toxicity with the hard water I have and the home brew pH down.
Pics:
Yep, bigtime root problems, caused by pathogen infections.
I have a chart I can upload that shows all my adjustments ect but here's the pics from last few weeks
sad...If I can get these girls healthy I can move forward and take clones and try my luck flowering but haven't been able to as of yet.
Your plants are in pretty bad nick. Make plans around getting some good cuttings going and starting over.
PS - Im not married to these Tahoe OG's (OR GH NUTES) esp since I will be SOG'ing in some HP Aero chambers in the flowering partition and realize OG prob isn't the best strain. I just wanted to start with something and these were left over from another grow. I can dump em and start fresh but wanted to learn on these first.
I'd not recommend aero for a SoG op. You can't move plants around easily within the op to even up growth among the plants. Strongly suggest you change to flood & drain systems with plants in pots of absorbent media of some sort. I'm seeing very good performance with Sure To Grow loose fill media.
Oh and I forgot to mention..
Roots have grown since they have been put in the buckets about 3+ weeks ago, no smell but slight browning color.
Tan/brown roots are dead roots.
Hey Al,
First off, Gday! And Thank you for providing all tips, techniques, and Ideas.
No worries.
This question comes from me not being able to see pics of your grow room, The link to the "in Operation" photos is Fuct. lol.
*sigh* RIU has a very bad habit of losing photos- and I'm losing my patience with RIU. My entire photo library disappeared some time back- hundreds of instructive photos, many painstakingly Photoshop assembled images, just gone.
Could you repost that photo?
What would you like a photo of?
I have a 10x10 room with only 2 4x4' trays and I'm feeling cramped! I'm really interested in your wiring and pluming and what you do to keep it neat, out of the way, do your reservoirs dump to drain or do you pump them out?
Electrics are best managed by building a power panel. No electrics should ever touch the floor. EVER.
Details are here.
https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/13825-power-panel-keep-electrics-safe.html
Tanks have a valving system for dumping old nute solns:
Details are here:
https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/9187-easy-drain-system-flood-hydro.html
Again, Thanks for helping, if I could I'd shout for tea.
Thanks, but I'm not actually a tea fan. Coffee, black, will do.
Hey Al lemme bombard you with questions! ahahahah I'm just kidding, your quite the man for answering every person's question, even if you answered it somewhere in this thread. YOU DA MAYNE, I honestly don't think I'm going to go hydro, just because I have everything I need for a good soil grow, but I shall lurk in the crevices and niches of this thread, or wait, I might go hydro sometime in the future if my brother wants to grow in his new place, but thats a quite a variable. Stay lit.
Soil is a major pain in the ass compared to hydroponics. Heavy, can harbour pathogens, hard to dispose of, never performs as well as hydroponics with sterile media for each crop. Get past your fear, fork out the cash to do a hydro system correctly & just get on with it.
Holy shitballz it just dawned on me...I think my T5 is way to far away from the girls, hence all the issues!!! I should have that light SLAMMED on the tops of them things...
Man I Fuct myself!!!...
PERFECT
Fluoros are OK for clones. Use HPS or MH for mums (I use a 400HPS for 10 mums), HPS only for flowering plants.
he's been updating this thread.he is answering questions still???
I THINK so!
