Crops' GROW ...

[Croptober]

Ill be out of soil AB after this round and instead of reupping I think I'm gonna try coco but not sure if I should use house and garden or try jacks calcium nitrate. If I do coco I'll most likely run 3 gallons which I assume will need watering once or multiple times a day in peak flower so I've been looking into making a drip system or buying blumats.

Been doing lots of reading on coco but I'm still a noob so any help or info would be greatly appreciated!

 

[dansbuds]

3 gallons of coco is plenty , no need for more than that . half pound plants are easy to see in 3 gallon pots . yes they'll need at least feeding once a day at start of flower & more as they grow out & really start eating . drip system is pretty easy . i use 55 gallon barrels with a 396gph pump in each one . a 1/2" line off the pump to the tray if you use one & create a loop in the 1/2 line with a T , dead ended lines don't give even pressure to the pots . i run 1/4" lines off the 1/2" to each pot & from there there are many options on fluid distribution . open ended lines , drip rings , hydro halos etc ..... i use the halos but they're a PIA to clean .

i'm sure you've seen my set up Crop , but i'll throw a few pics up in case you haven't .

i even use the halos in veg from a 30 gallon rez .

 

[Hundred Gram Oz]

Killing in Crop! Dan, love the setup.

HGO

 

[Chunkypigs]

are those to waste Dans? what kind of timer controls the feeds?

 

[dansbuds]

are those to waste Dans? what kind of timer controls the feeds?

yes chunky DTW . very little waste though . i can suck it out with a shop vac every other night .
mistking timers with seconds of on time . they don't make them anymore i found out though , so i've been looking for replacements . the seconds of on time is great for adjusting the amount of runoff . during the summers i'm up at camp alot for 3 to 4 days at a clip . so i dail back the feed time 15 seconds or so , so that i get little to no runoff while i'm gone , & then when i come back i turn on the pumps long enough to really flush out the pots good . suck that out & get rid of it . then add the 15 or 20 seconds back to the timer till i plan on leaving again .

 

[Slipnot]

yes chunky DTW . very little waste though . i can suck it out with a shop vac every other night .
mistking timers with seconds of on time . they don't make them anymore i found out though , so i've been looking for replacements . the seconds of on time is great for adjusting the amount of runoff . during the summers i'm up at camp alot for 3 to 4 days at a clip . so i dail back the feed time 15 seconds or so , so that i get little to no runoff while i'm gone , & then when i come back i turn on the pumps long enough to really flush out the pots good . suck that out & get rid of it . then add the 15 or 20 seconds back to the timer till i plan on leaving again .

Was going to ask if you had some other return line like a sump pump nice set up and crop looks killer dude

 

[Slipnot]

going to make this diy timer shortly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGfV9IUcFxE

 

[whadeezlrg]

I don't know how it took me this long to stumble into this thread...taggin in.

 

[Croptober]

3 gallons of coco is plenty , no need for more than that . half pound plants are easy to see in 3 gallon pots . yes they'll need at least feeding once a day at start of flower & more as they grow out & really start eating . drip system is pretty easy . i use 55 gallon barrels with a 396gph pump in each one . a 1/2" line off the pump to the tray if you use one & create a loop in the 1/2 line with a T , dead ended lines don't give even pressure to the pots . i run 1/4" lines off the 1/2" to each pot & from there there are many options on fluid distribution . open ended lines , drip rings , hydro halos etc ..... i use the halos but they're a PIA to clean .

i'm sure you've seen my set up Crop , but i'll throw a few pics up in case you haven't .

Seems pretty close to this right? Sorry for the shitty handwriting hope you can read it.

Am I missing anything?

 

[SirSmokalot]

Yup that easy. If the drip lines are lower than the reservoir you will create a siphon. If the drip lines are above the water line on an elevated table your fine. Without that you need to put an anti-siphon hole in the line coming off of the pump. I do pvc from the pump to above my water line and throw a 90° elbow to give me a horizontal plane in the pipe I make a hole that sprays back down into the water when the pump is running and when the pump shuts off it will allow air into the line and allow the line to drain into the pots vs siphoning your res empty
You can make a 90° elbow and then stick the 3 inch piece of PVC in there and do another 90° elbow that goes back up vertically(I recommend) to come through your lid if you have one
I got another super simple setup I love, but it cost a lil more to set up using blumats but damn is it easy, gravity fed, and IMO zero waste.

 

[Relentless]

nice thread crop! not sure how i missed it!

 

[Croptober]

Yup that easy. If the drip lines are lower than the reservoir you will create a siphon. If the drip lines are above the water line on an elevated table your fine. Without that you need to put an anti-siphon hole in the line coming off of the pump. I do pvc from the pump to above my water line and throw a 90° elbow to give me a horizontal plane in the pipe I make a hole that sprays back down into the water when the pump is running and when the pump shuts off it will allow air into the line and allow the line to drain into the pots vs siphoning your res empty
You can make a 90° elbow and then stick the 3 inch piece of PVC in there and do another 90° elbow that goes back up vertically(I recommend) to come through your lid if you have one
I got another super simple setup I love, but it cost a lil more to set up using blumats but damn is it easy, gravity fed, and IMO zero waste.

I think ill have the res on the floor. How do you like the blumats? Was it hard to get the waterings dialed in at first?

 

[heady blunts]

i love blumats. but i only run water through em. you gotta have a raised res for them to work tho. gravity fed.

 

[dansbuds]

Seems pretty close to this right? Sorry for the shitty handwriting hope you can read it.

Am I missing anything?

View Image

looks great crop , the only thing i see missing is a vaccum break in the 3/4" line at the top of the rez . a small 1/4" line tapped into the 3/4" before it hits the filter would work . & make sure it goes back into the rez , because a strong pump will push water out the vaccum break while the pump is on .

 

[SirSmokalot]

They work fine. There's a lil dialing in period but it's no biggie. Setup is simple.

So after reading about your ph issues I was starting to think about my plants. The last two weeks things seem a little off in veg and flower. Veg is much less affected I was mixing it near the lower end of acceptable ph, mix at 5.6, using fresh daily.
My flower I was setting at 5.8 but it sits for about 4 days until it's all gone and I remix another res. Over the few days ph rises to 6.0 at the most.
I was seeing mg def all over my grow. Nothing major at first but seemed to be a steady creeping issue. I'm not under feeding so after two weeks of observing the spread of mg def, then reading your thread I had to ask myself, when's the last time I calibrated. A few months actually. Smack myself
My meter was reading 7.75 using the 7.01 solution and 4.40 using the 4.01 solution. I cleaned my probe like a madman and calibrated my pen and now it's off by .01 hopefully Problem dealt with and what's done is done but I feel your pain man. Gotta have our tools working properly. Smack myself again. I was simply over content. Took seeing issues to get to it....to late. Normally I'm more proactive about these things. Another lesson thru mistakes.

 

[Croptober]

They work fine. There's a lil dialing in period but it's no biggie. Setup is simple.

So after reading about your ph issues I was starting to think about my plants. The last two weeks things seem a little off in veg and flower. Veg is much less affected I was mixing it near the lower end of acceptable ph, mix at 5.6, using fresh daily.
My flower I was setting at 5.8 but it sits for about 4 days until it's all gone and I remix another res. Over the few days ph rises to 6.0 at the most.
I was seeing mg def all over my grow. Nothing major at first but seemed to be a steady creeping issue. I'm not under feeding so after two weeks of observing the spread of mg def, then reading your thread I had to ask myself, when's the last time I calibrated. A few months actually. Smack myself
My meter was reading 7.75 using the 7.01 solution and 4.40 using the 4.01 solution. I cleaned my probe like a madman and calibrated my pen and now it's off by .01 hopefully Problem dealt with and what's done is done but I feel your pain man. Gotta have our tools working properly. Smack myself again. I was simply over content. Took seeing issues to get to it....to late. Normally I'm more proactive about these things. Another lesson thru mistakes.

Yep mine was off by 2.0 somehow and I calibrate every 2 or 3 feedings. Good thing you checked it and for everyone one else CALIBRATE THOSE METERS!




Stopped by the hydro store to see if I could get the jacks through them and talked me into sticking with H&G which I was thinking about and I'm kind of glad since I wont have to get used to another line. But he said I should start in 1g and flower in 5g and I wont have to build a drip or buy blumats just feed every other day? I like to think were friends and he's not just blowing smoke up my ass but does that seem right to you guys?

 

[dansbuds]

Yep mine was off by 2.0 somehow and I calibrate every 2 or 3 feedings. Good thing you checked it and for everyone one else CALIBRATE THOSE METERS!




Stopped by the hydro store to see if I could get the jacks through them and talked me into sticking with H&G which I was thinking about and I'm kind of glad since I wont have to get used to another line. But he said I should start in 1g and flower in 5g and I wont have to build a drip or buy blumats just feed every other day? I like to think were friends and he's not just blowing smoke up my ass but does that seem right to you guys?

yes its right , but then you lose the better & faster growth of fresh nutes & O2 supplied to the plants with daily or multiple feeds . you do want to get the most outa your plants right ? then why deprive them when you can make them thrive ?

 

[Croptober]

yes its right , but then you lose the better & faster growth of fresh nutes & O2 supplied to the plants with daily or multiple feeds . you do want to get the most outa your plants right ? then why deprive them when you can make them thrive ?

That's what I thought, Feed like soil and get soil results right?

 

[SirSmokalot]

If soil that's cool with a couple weeks to let roots hit bottom
In coco, If you want extra stretch, and tiny buds that's how you get that.
Your going coco right?
Coco is better multi feed in a smaller container.
Trust me. I've only been rocking coco for 8 yrs straight.
Had friends I showed what's up do exactly what your shop buddy recommends, and get exactly what I described. Multiple times. It is not soil so it's not to be treated like soil. If you do go from 1gal to 5gal I'd want 4-6 weeks of veg to avoid overwatering and micro nug syndrome and with that establishment you'd be right back to needing automation or daily hand watering.
And besides a drip system is easy and cheap so I don't know why he'd recommend against it. All the extra medium you'd buy would pay for the gear lol.
I gotta go back read to see what your planning.
If I see I missed something I'll delete this post.
I agree with the H&G though

I went back and see I was right about coco... Switch to aqua flakes not coco IMO. Better by all means do your homework but that's my 1 pro tip for h&g line in coco. Also you will be light in the N with the base alone with either one so get the N boost or use a veg nute occasionally the first couple weeks(recommend based on cost vs reward) to keep em from getting Limey to early

 

[Croptober]

If soil that's cool with a couple weeks to let roots hit bottom
In coco, If you want extra stretch, and tiny buds that's how you get that.
Your going coco right?
Coco is better multi feed in a smaller container.
Trust me. I've only been rocking coco for 8 yrs straight.
Had friends I showed what's up do exactly what your shop buddy recommends, and get exactly what I described. Multiple times. It is not soil so it's not to be treated like soil. If you do go from 1gal to 5gal I'd want 4-6 weeks of veg to avoid overwatering and micro nug syndrome and with that establishment you'd be right back to needing automation or daily hand watering.
And besides a drip system is easy and cheap so I don't know why he'd recommend against it. All the extra medium you'd buy would pay for the gear lol.
I gotta go back read to see what your planning.
If I see I missed something I'll delete this post.
I agree with the H&G though

I went back and see I was right about coco... Switch to aqua flakes not coco IMO. Better by all means do your homework but that's my 1 pro tip for h&g line in coco. Also you will be light in the N with the base alone with either one so get the N boost or use a veg nute occasionally the first couple weeks(recommend based on cost vs reward) to keep em from getting Limey to early

Exactly what I was thinking and no idea why he didn't suggest it. Ill check out the aqua flakes. The only thing I'm really worried about with trying coco is just getting the watering down. So say I veg 2 weeks in 1 gallons I would assume I would need to feed once every other day for a couple days, then once a day then maybe twice at the end, transplant to 3s a do the same thing but in peak flower I'm just confused on how to dial in those multiple feeds a day. How do you guys dial it in? Just trial and error?