a wicked pulse

[real ting]

media porosity and environmental conditions dictate the height of the "air gap". if someone is hand watering they should not be using a mix with 35% porosity. something along the lines of 20-25% will work better because, usually, when someone hand waters they don't do it as often and so will need more water retention. so you move the "controlled water table" up.

when you automate somehow you can increase porosity to correspond to your watering program. and move the "controlled water table" down.

the "air gap" is really just another way to define the "controlled water table".

utilizing this principle you can control the sub-irrigated wetted profile. this can be described as an adjustment to the amount of water contained in the bottom half of the pot.

moisture distribution in a container full of media will not be the same at the top as the bottom because of gravity, which separates it along a gradient curve. more dense at the bottom.

changing the "air gap" gives you a tool for fine tuning your root zone environment.

i began this grow at 4" as that was what i was using at my other location but i have found the plants like 3.5" better here.

i think this is because of a higher overall metabolic rate.

the timer i'm using now is a sentinel drt-1. a very nice precise instrument. i can just enter in a program and adjust it at will without timing the actual events.

previously i used those green air analog repeat cycle timers. i screwed up and bought the ones with the photocell so you can have it turn off during the dark periods.

you want to run these 24/7 as you are watering the medium and not the plant.

i understand cap (art-dne) makes one for about 70 bucks that will work fine but i really like this 125 dollar instrument.

i have built them before from a cheap intermatic plug in on/off timer by removing the motor and hooking it to a drive belt with a wheel and contact strips and a bunch of other bullshit which will probably get you killed so don't do it.

but in case you are suicidal the motors in those things rotate exactly one turn per hour. so you can have it fire any numbers of seconds per hour by lengthening the contact strips. adjustment is a bitch!

I appreciate the detailed explanation of the water table and timing issues.

I think I will pass on the diy timer, I mean don't get me wrong I love me some DIY, but some things just aren't worth saving money on haha. I think I'll give that cap a shot, or the sentinel if I get the funds together. Thanks again man.

 

[bloyd]

The cap art-dne are good units. I have 4 in use right now, but 1 out of the 4 was defective from purchase. Cap replaced the defective unit with little trouble.

 

[Weed Killer]

I had 3 cap art-dne die after about a year of use, yes they warrantied them but a pita, all on a shelf now running drt-1's

 

[bloyd]

I had 3 cap art-dne die after about a year of use, yes they warrantied them but a pita, all on a shelf now running drt-1's

that is a bit concerning. I am coming up on a years use on the 4 with no problems but I will keep an eye out for trouble now. Will keep folks updated.

 

[real ting]

I had 3 cap art-dne die after about a year of use, yes they warrantied them but a pita, all on a shelf now running drt-1's

What kind of failure did you see? Was it obvious right when it happened or did you discover it a few days after the failure?

 

[high life 45]

Well done!

I must admit, I feel happy every time I look at your room.

 

[Weed Killer]

What kind of failure did you see? Was it obvious right when it happened or did you discover it a few days after the failure?

The first would loose the off time setting, a reset would restore it for a while, the second and third would stutter off and on. So there was some warning.

I discovered them shortly, two were on my aero pumps and I check them twice a day. The third was on my cloner it lasted longest because the cloner was not always running.

 

[Guest 142956]

Several probably all wrong questions. Just suppose I put my slotted up PPK buckets on a drain table without the tailpipes of course and pulsed often enough to keep the media at the right moisture content and used the runoff over and over again? Would results be about the same? If I were to do this I could gain a foot of height in my grow area. And does anyone know if the light from a HPS will charge a battery via a solar panel?

 

[real ting]

Several probably all wrong questions. Just suppose I put my slotted up PPK buckets on a drain table without the tailpipes of course and pulsed often enough to keep the media at the right moisture content and used the runoff over and over again? Would results be about the same? If I were to do this I could gain a foot of height in my grow area. And does anyone know if the light from a HPS will charge a battery via a solar panel?

This would basically just be a recirculating drip system, correct? Without the tail pipes (or some form of dangling wick) I don't believe you would be eliminating the perched water table, but I might be misunderstanding your idea.

 

[delta9nxs]

Several probably all wrong questions. Just suppose I put my slotted up PPK buckets on a drain table without the tailpipes of course and pulsed often enough to keep the media at the right moisture content and used the runoff over and over again? Would results be about the same? If I were to do this I could gain a foot of height in my grow area. And does anyone know if the light from a HPS will charge a battery via a solar panel?

hey, bill! you can grow a plant like that but it won't drain the perched water table unless you put a wick in it.

you can put a fabric wick about 2" up into the medium with the tail end that comes out of the bucket in contact with a big piece of the same fabric that is under all buckets. it will effectively drain the pwt. i wouldn't recirculate this as it will get very dirty and be covered in algae.

you would still need to catch the water to throw it out.

 

[delta9nxs]

View Image

Well done!

I must admit, I feel happy every time I look at your room.

i'm happy too! just to see it working! this turned into a much bigger project than i thought it would be. and took a lot more work.

some of the plants are within 4" of the top of the screen but some are only half way up. i'm working on them a little every day right now. tying some branches back as needed and a grazing type defoliation. i walk around and pick off large light blockers.

i have found that, using co2, i need to increase the nitrogen feed. so i have increased overall feed strength at this point to 1050 ppm or ec 2.1, which is what jrpeterslab recommends.

as the plants grew the humidity started climbing and now runs around 60-70% during lights on and will shoot up into the 80's lights off. still running 18/6 with the off 6 from noon to 6 pm during the worst heat. so i'm not using the home made huey anymore. i will have to hook up the de-huey for lights off during flower though.

room temp lights on is 81-85f.

center of roots 81f

reservoir 81f

leaf surface 84-85f

co2 set point is at 650 ppm and goes up to 950-1000 ppm after firing.

reservoir ppm is 770 and the ph is 6.1 without adjusters.

the plants look great. maybe i can get a pic or two later.

later

 

[delta9nxs]

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[delta9nxs]

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[village green]

Looking mighty..like a Lion in Zion. Am I right in thinking that you will add a front screen about a foot from the back screen?

 

[bloyd]

When do you plan to flip? Afraid of overgrowth at this point?

 

[Ichabod Crane]

Am I a pervert if I say I like your little girls?

 

[delta9nxs]

Looking mighty..like a Lion in Zion. Am I right in thinking that you will add a front screen about a foot from the back screen?

yeah, but i don't know what it will be yet. i might tie the branch ends to a bar hanging a foot out.

 

[village green]

i'm happy too! just to see it working! this turned into a much bigger project than i thought it would be. and took a lot more work.

some of the plants are within 4" of the top of the screen but some are only half way up. i'm working on them a little every day right now. tying some branches back as needed and a grazing type defoliation. i walk around and pick off large light blockers.


Would your uneven screen coverage be strain related ?

 

[delta9nxs]

When do you plan to flip? Afraid of overgrowth at this point?

around the 27th which would be close to 5 weeks from transplant.

i'm sure i'm going to overgrow the screens but i can always remove material if necessary while it is extremely difficult to add more at the last minute.

one of the problems i'm trying to work with here is that they are all seedlings so i'm getting a lot of expression. with clones it will be much more straightforward. the clones are from only 6 plants. those plants were selected for shape and speed of growth.

also i may not run all six strains next time.

it's been 5 days since the last defo and tie back session and they need another one now.

i have begun thinning the lowers in favor of the larger shoots.

 

[delta9nxs]

"Would your uneven screen coverage be strain related ?"

while it could be the clone donors i have picked are very close to each other in size and shape right now.

but really, even or uneven, large or small, won't make much of a difference in total yield here as long as the screen is full.

i knew i would be getting different plants.