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4 Crosses of Slapz - All al's Tech Here
- Thread starter als_weed
- Start date
2 Weeks and Done!
The Go-go juice has done its job. The main players all look fabulous, and the stragglers are at least 6 inches tall. PRMZ1,GDPZ1,GDPZ4, and GDPZ5 are not making it to the show. I will rerun them in a future round up run. If they fail to root a third time, it's just not meant to be for my garden.
Here's our girls at 2 weeks veg:
Show us your Roots!
Our Moms:
They are loving twice the root volume right now. I will let them coast for a while before we mess with them more.
Meanwhile, it's time for the clones to go to the bloom room!
-al
The Bloom Room
Tools & Methods
My weapon of choice for rapid phenotyping is the General Hydroponics Aeoflo 36. It's an antique, but is unmatched in performance for this kind of work. We can look at up to 18 individuals in a 6x6 footprint, while cutting weeks out of the process of getting to finished bud compared to any other method. At the same time, it uses a quarter of the nutes and the only waste products are root masses and stalks.
There are several problems with these machines, and I keep meaning to replace them with shiny new bespoke engineered pieces, but they keep running with only minor mods.
Nutrition for aero is very different compared to any other method. This was the largest leap in my progression from soils, NFT, and DWC to aero.
When I first went to water, the Lucas formula(developed on Cannabis World) was the best rule of thumb for starting nutes in bubbling buckets. 0-8-16 made some pretty plants and is still used to this day. This formulation results in a base of 1350 ppm. Aero burns at 400, and proportional reduction does not provide adequate nutrition.
At the time, Dutch Master had a line of compatible products that could be tweaked into usability. After they went belly up, the weed world changed, and the focus had shifted more towards drain to waste and other less complicated growing methods.
I however, was hooked on all the benefits of aero. I did many heads up competitions with several lines of nutes to end up with Heavy 16 as the synthetic base of my recipe. At the same time, I started developing AeroTea, taking aeroponics out of the sterile world and adding a biotic touch, combining the best of both worlds.
Syntho/Biotic Aeroponics - You can't get any further from KISS than this. The pitfalls are numerous, and all have the same result - Start Over. But there isn't a faster, more efficient, and cost effective way to produce spectacular results.
Enough with ancient history. Let's get to work!
Main Products Needed:
Secondary Products:
Disclaimer First: This is what I use. Your mileage may vary. You can harm your plants if made, used, or dosed incorrectly.
-als Syntho/Biotic Bloomtastic Brew
In 40 gallons RO water
80 ml Heavy 16 Bloom A
80 ml Heavy 16 Bloom B
40ml Heavy 16 Fire
40 ml Heavy 16 Prime
2 Tblspn Epson Salts
2 Cups Aero Tea
For me, this results in 360 ppm, with a pH of 6.3. We will have 2 full res changes over the course of the bloom cycle. All adjustments are logged daily.
Let's roll on to the plant.
-al
Bloom Day 0
A Time to Plant
This is our layout for the participants in this run:
The order by size of mom is: Black Rock Lava Cake, Pure Michigan, White Angel, and Gran Dawgy Purps. I tried to group them by strain and size as much as possible.
In addition to our experimental girls, I have included White Angel, Black Rock Lava Cake, Pure Michigan, and Black Truffle for comparison. Black Truffle is Pure Michigan x White Truffle, and the current hotness in these parts.
One of the few good looking GDPZs broke right off in my hand. Hadn't had that happen in years. I needed a moment. What a tragedy!
Day 0 Bloom:
The light is set to the lowest setting. The droopy girls will be looking better tomorrow.
Can't wait to see these girls take off!
As always, your comments and questions are welcome.
-al
Day 3 Bloom Update
Group Shot:
Data:
Everyone survived and perked. They have that super lush look and happy leaves.
I have shoot pruned everyone to 4, and removed any damaged leaves. This practice makes it easier to spot problems and reduces opportunities for pests and disease. As a rule, I never remove leaves unless there is a good reason.
Today was a big day for the plants. They started eating and got their first adjustment. On the data sheet, you can see the ppm got below my trigger of 345. My response was to add 20 ml of both A and B, while continuing to reduce the pH to below 6.4. This should put us right around 390-400 with this growth rate and age.
The circled s on the chart means they got a shot of foliar spray. This is the same als Super Feed N Kill Foliar Spray from earlier in this thread.
Along with all that, the lights got cranked up to 60%.
As always, your comments and questions are welcome.
-al
Yeah things start to burn around 420. Like everyone else! Seriously tho, one of the great advantages of aero is that it uses a quarter of normal hydro nutes.
Thank you for your interest.
-al
-al's Mail Bag
Occasionally I will repost questions asked in other forums or mail that seem relevant.
So what's the short version of how aero works and why you do it? -m
Aero is all about delivering nutrients and dissolved oxygen in water droplets directly to the roots.
This acts like a supercharger, and maxes out the plants metabolism, resulting in crazy growth.
-Advantages:
Fastest Growth - Highest growth rates possible results in faster development, maximum gland and terp production, while finishing faster than other methods. Adding Aero Tea to the mix brings all the advantages of biotics and organics.
Low Nute Load - A quarter of the nutes means a quarter of the cost.
Low Waste - Only root balls and stalks are waste products. Saw a pile of used rockwool cubes on the side of the road the other day and it pissed me off.
Best Product - Aero stacks trichs like nothing else.
-Disadvantages:
High Failure Risk - Exposed roots are dangerous and there is no room for error. Most problems result in start over.
Like Having Cows - The plants require your attention every 12 hours. This is as far from KISS as you can get.
Lack of Commercial Support - Nutes and machines for medium scale aero are scarce. The machines I use are not optimized for weed and required mods.
Sorry, that got long and I still haven't answered your question of why aero? Well the answer is the same quest everyone here is on - To make the very best.
My greatest hope is that readers of this thread will find something useful for their own growing journey.
Thank you for your interest.
-al
Day 7 Bloom Update
Unit Shot:
Data:
We had another adjustment as the plants begin to ramp up their growth. I've pumped up the lights and aggressively shoot pruned the shortest plants. while leaving the larger plants with up to 5 side branches. This directs all the energy of the short plants into height, while forcing the taller plants to lollygag on side branches that unfortunately will be cut off later.
Happy Plants:
You can see the plants have put on a set of leaves and are looking very happy.
Show us your roots!
Herringbone roots have encircled the netpot on this small plant. Smaller hair-like aero roots will develop next. Once that starts, the roots need to be left undisturbed.
As always, your comments and questions are welcome.
-al
------------------------------------------------
I have moved this thread to the GRF forum. This is where I intend to live for the foreseeable future.
How I ended up here
I decided to come back to posting online after more than a decade of working privately. I started this thread on 3 boards and Instagram under als_weed. Looking for some interesting new subjects, I called my favorite clone dealer and we got to talking. Now I have been a long time customer and have purchased dozens of clones from them. They always had high quality strains and excellent customer service.
I showed them this thread, and my pictures and products of their strains. It was at this instant that everyone realized it was a peanut butter cup moment. They need new seed crosses and pheno hunts for winner clones, things I love to do, and don't mind doing in front of you!
So that is what we are going to do here on Icmag. We may add other boards, but this will be our primary site.
Here's my upcoming project list:
23 strain cross with reversed Black Truffle.
Pheno hunt of Brothers Grimm strains: Need that Old Tyme Sat Buzz!
Pheno hunt 2: Picks From the Crew.
In addition to my projects, I look forward to seeing customer pics and grows. Green Rush staff will be around to answer questions and do customer outreach.
This will be so much fun!
-al
Mom Update
At 3 months old, the moms are already screaming for root space and Nitrogen. I removed damaged leaves and pruned where needed.
They have 2 months to go, and the challenge will be to keep them small, but healthy enough to be a clone mother.
So for now, I'm adding 4 Tablespoons of worm castings and RO water. This will let us coast for a while longer on tea.
As always, your questions and comments are welcome.
-al
Epson salts!!! Very interesting!! Good to know!!!
Plants in bloom on straight organics can run low on Mg. Especially true if running under LEDs. Foliar spray helps here too.
This does add to the salt load we are trying to reduce, but larger container size and limited run time of bloom lets us get away with it.
Thanks for your interest.
-al
Day 11 Bloom Update
Trellis Time!
We are in the explosive growth phase, when plants can put on inches every day.
Lush Plants:
Before:
A few plants are falling over and it's time to put up the trellis. I stole the tech from pepper growers that use an adjustable trellis in commercial hydro grows.
It's just dowels lashed together, but it allows us ultimate control of every plant in the unit.
Now is the time to move anyone, before they all get locked in.
Here's our swaps:
One last look at the roots:
Trellis in Place:
I've started pinching the tops of the tallest plants while leaving the side branches. Shorter plants are being aggressively shoot pruned. Just trying to keep the tall ones out of the light, while still getting viable results from the smallest participants.
As always, your comments and questions are welcome.
-al
Attachments
The simplest explanation is that LEDs produce less heat and different spectrum strengths over HPS bulbs.
These factors reduce the transpiration rate, this reduces the rate of passively transported nutrients like Mg and Ca. So supplimenting should help.
That is the most accepted answer, but many disagree. From this being a myth, to other stranger explanations, you can find lots of muddied waters.
For me, I have seen the leaf taco go away with Epsom intervention, so that is what matters.
Thank you for your interest.
-al
These factors reduce the transpiration rate, this reduces the rate of passively transported nutrients like Mg and Ca. So supplimenting should help.
That is the most accepted answer, but many disagree. From this being a myth, to other stranger explanations, you can find lots of muddied waters.
For me, I have seen the leaf taco go away with Epsom intervention, so that is what matters.
Thank you for your interest.
-al
That's is absolutely amazing!! I supplement with a 315cmh with a hortilux full spectrum build. Do you think this is sufficient to prevent those. I haven't run into problem yet, just curious of your input!! I've been told by Steve you are the best grower he has ever know. So I want to learn all I can!!!!!
My best advice is wait and see, and be aware.
If you start to see wonky leaves, add CalMg or ES. Be aware these both add significant ppm and pH issues, so start with low doses.
For me in aero, it's 2 Tablespoons ES in 40 gallons! Seems almost homeopathic, but solves the problem.
Do some research for your application. This place is chock full of information and experts!
Best wishes on your endeavors.
-al
If you start to see wonky leaves, add CalMg or ES. Be aware these both add significant ppm and pH issues, so start with low doses.
For me in aero, it's 2 Tablespoons ES in 40 gallons! Seems almost homeopathic, but solves the problem.
Do some research for your application. This place is chock full of information and experts!
Best wishes on your endeavors.
-al
