4 Bruce Banner Ladies PPK Style.

[Sobergrower]

First and foremost, thank you to all those that have shared freely about PPK style of growing! I found this site about a year ago after searching for a better way to grow and the knowledge and open sharing of success and failure have allowed me to evolve in this hobby.

I started growing this round of 4 Bruce Banner clones several weeks ago and about one week away from flipping to flower.

The setup:

A small 4x4 tent with limited height

Environment
Temps 77 day 68 night
Humidity 45 to 60

Lighting - LED one Mars Hydro 144/120 reflector series and one Spider Farmer SF2000

Nutrients Jacks 3-2-1 and great white using well water at a base ppm of 110 and fully loaded it runs ~850 ppm.

Growing media - turface

PPK
5 interconnected tubs with a central pump feeding the 4 grow sites.
17 gallon reservoir outside of the ten

Feed cycle
1 minute pulse every 45 minutes.

 

[flylowgethigh]

Can you point me to the PPK discussion thread please?

That set-up with the central reservoir is similar to my SWICK with 4 tubs and a control box in the center. I see that you have a humidifier. I am using my control box as a swamp cooler as well, with a couple socks that stay wet in there, getting blasted by the forced filtered air I am running into the tent via a 6" duct into the control box, with exit holes drilled all around the side at the top. Works great to keep the air cool and moist.

I have a 4 way top-watering rig that's sorta like yours, that I wish I had put in back at the start. I could hook it to a pump dropped into a 5 gallon bucket of goodness, and top-water in the goodies when desired. And not even have to open the tent.

 

[Sobergrower]

Hey flyliwgethigh, there are many threads about PPK. Do a search for any of the following.

A demonic deluge
A wicked pulse this way comes
A PPK for a 6 plant limit
A PPK FOR a 12 Plant limit
Mini ppk build

Delta9nxs curated these threads and multiple people provided in-depth discussion and thoughts. The style of growing evolved over the years but those guys were pulling lbs off each plant.

Many of the older pictures are not available online but the system is pretty foolproof (I mean I can grow using this setup)!!!!

I like the idea of using a red for humidity but wanted a bit more control.

 

[Gry]

Always nice to see someone else utilising the concept.
Last numbers I recall seeing were in the area of 20 pounds per plant. Would imagine those
numbers would have gone up considerably by now.

 

[flylowgethigh]

Ain't no way 20 pounds are coming out of a 4 x 4 tent.

 

[Sobergrower]

Thanks Gry. I know the trees that were and are being grown in large rooms were massive.

FLGH - you are correct. I am not delusional about what to expect out of this grow.

I will post an update later and provide some more pictures.

 

[Sobergrower]

So last Saturday I did some defoliating to the point where the leaves were drooping. I am still new to this whole thing so I didn’t go to crazy. Here are the before and after photos. They perked back up pretty quick.

 

[Sobergrower]

Last night I opened two of them up a bit to flatten the canopy. I used a few LSTclips which I like better then tying them down (I have broken stems that way before). These pics are from today.

 

[Sobergrower]

I may get some feedback on waiting to flip but my last grow overtook the tent ( mostly my fault). I want to get a successful run in the books.

Today I put up the next and am going to flip these to flower. My goal is to use the net during stretch to create a flat canopy.

I plan to swap 8 gallons out of the sub irrigation system with jacks blossom boost 10/30/20 for one week. And the continue to feed a 321 formula through the main res.

 

[Sobergrower]

Yesterday I swapped out 8 gallons of the sub irrigation bites. I mixed up 8 gallons of Jacks 10-30-20 bloom booster at 4 grams per gallon plus 1 gram per gallon of Epsom salts.

Today I checked the ppm and ph. Ppm is at 860 and Ph 6.2. I have not used any ph up/down at all. The last run I chased ph and I think it had a negative effect on the grow.

Temps run 70 to 78 and humidity hovering about 60%.

I see the slightest bit of tip curl on a few of the lower leafs.

I turned on the bloom switch on the Mars-Hydro reflector light.

 

[Sobergrower]

Couple of pics from the end of week 1 flower

 

[Sobergrower]

A few numbers for the records.

Undercurrent reservoir
PPM 1000
Ph 5.8

Bulk reservoir
PPM 828
Ph 6.1

Temps run 78 during lights on and 69 lights off

Humidity was running 60 during lights on. Crept up today over 70. Probably due to the leaf mass.

I am going to adjust the watering intervals as the top of the media is dry. I was at 90 minutes. I am going to adjust to 60 and check.

 

[Sobergrower]

While this style of growing is awesome, it is still important to check things out. While running the feed pumps I noted that the water level was petty low. Further inspection revealed that the float valve got stuck closed. A little exercising and the reservoir is filling back up.

 

[Sobergrower]

Well end of week two. I have run the last two weeks using Jacks Blossom Booster 10-30-20 per their feed schedule. Compared to previous runs it appears that bud sites have begun sooner than with the Jacks 321 formula. PPM’s in the sub reservoir are running at 1140.

I have added Jacks 321 back to the main reservoir starting yesterday. PPM’s in this reservoir are 880.

 

[gizmo666]

nice looking plants
look forward to seeing them grow

 

[Sobergrower]

Thanks Gizmo! My last grow had some problems with lighting schedule in the middle of flower and ultimately I outgrew the tent. Life happened and we had a few power outages which ended up setting the time back to default setting and staying on 24/7. Revenge blah blah blah…….

Hoping to avoid that shit this time.

 

[Sobergrower]

Jus a quick photo dump for today. The tent is filling in and I keep tucking here and there. A few of the tops are stretching higher then the others. Overall it is a pretty flat canopy.

I pulled 8 gallons from the sub irrigation portion over the weekend. PPM’s we’re just over 1200. I added 8 gallons back in at 850 PPM. I did this because I saw the slightest tip curl on a few lower leaves.

I keep adding Jacks 321 back to the main reservoir at the 850 mark. I have not added any PH up/down this entire run and I don’t plan to. I chased that the last run and it caused issues.

Temps 73 during the lights on and 68 during darkness.

RH Still a bit high at times at 63 and the low of 35. I am going to defoliate later this week so hopefully that will help. I have the 6” fan rolling at 100%. Again I am not sweating this too much at this point.

Looking forward to the next phase!

 

[Sobergrower]

Today marks the end of week three since this tent has been flipped to a 12/12 cycle. I am pretty happy with the bud development on top. I did clean up a little bit underneath to try to minimize the popcorn bud.

I turned off the mars Hydro light for the pictures just to get a better view of the color on the plants.

Temperature runs between 68° at night and 73 during the lights on. Humidity at about the height of the top buds runs between 42 and 50%.

 

[Sobergrower]

Tomorrow will mark the end of week 4 of flower.

I continue with running Jacks 3-2-1.

PPM in the sub irrigation is holding at 1250 this week. I previously was adding to the main reservoir at about 850 using the full strength 3.7 g/gal jacks 2.4 g/gal calcinit and 1 g/gal Epsom. I still have not adjusted ph either up or down this entire run. I have dropped down to about 750 add back in the main reservoir today and plan to change out 8 gallons in the sub irrigation this week. I have done this every week. I use the was to water the vegetables and outdoor plants.

Yesterday I noticed that the float valve in the sub irrigation was stuck again and the water level was lower. I will plan to replace this valve with a better one next run. That is twice now. With the issues I had in the last run I am more diligent in checking things out.

RH is between 40 and 50%. I just got the ink bird combo temp and humidity controllers but have not done anything with them yet. I plan to use them for the drying process though.

Pictures

 

[Sobergrower]

Today I swapped 8 gallons from the sub irrigation with fresh nutes. PPM of sub irrigation is holding steady at 1250. The add back was Jacks 3-2-1 along with great white at a PPM of 950.

When I do this weekly refresh, I close off the valve from the main reservoir then remove 8 gallons from the sub irrigation system. My add back is a top module flood. I do this for two reasons. First to flush any salts that may build up in each planter and second, I want the great white to get to the roots.

On the subject of roots, I am constantly seeing the white worms at or just below the surface. In past grows I have not used any mico inocculants and my roots would sometimes start to turn. I think this had a negative effect on my harvest. I also know that the root mass below the surface is pretty dense. I have had to reduce my watering times as the pots were full and almost overfilled.

I know it has only been two days but here are some pictures.