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Land of a thousand colas, part deux
- Thread starter gmanwho
- Start date
thanks grey. Unfortunately its not fully mine, so it is very hard for me to fully enjoy. Bank still owns the note. Unless the market tumbles, i am prob over 60% equity at this point.
So many variables to speak of i would just be rambling. I just deleted 4 paragraphs.....but
Actually yes on the generating electricity, there is more to speak of.
I didnt post any photos of the other larger stream. But they all do slow mid/late summer. i dont even think i have photos of it tbh. There are small partial stone structures left behind on the banks that where once part of a hydro powered saw mill. i only own one side of that stream.
But ya, I think with a proper penstock i could actually generate at the medium size stream i did show. I own probably 700 ft on that one, an both sides. Without the topography map in front of me, i would say there is a 50-60ft drop in elevation.
Higher up this medium sized stream where it enters the property is a few nice natural bottle neck area's. Multiple areas have higher horizontal rock outcroppings, already forming a natural damming area. This area is riddled with overlapping " S " paths that the stream once carved out. Perfect areas to pond water and form the entry point to the penstock.
also that picture of the rushing water, that area has really nice horizontal rock formations. The way the water cascades over is memorizing.
Craziest thing was other then the few ponds, none of these areas where advertised or mentioned with the listing of the property.
Maine has has a really diverse landscape. One day i'll take some photos of another area of exposed rock bed showing the glacial scaring left some 20-12k years ago.
Also never mentioned, before i pull out my driveway i can see the ocean. With some tree clearing, you could see the ocean from the south facing windows of the house. On a distant to do list there is some thoughts of building a tree house or a fire tower on the ridge. 260ft above sea level. first numbers tell me that i need to be 30ft above that ridge to see over the southern tree line. Still waiting on my buddy to come over with his drone that has an altimeter.
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Too bad the ocean is actually too cold 
to enter
to enter
Personally I will never succeed in my quest to mimic mother nature , but can’t to help notice how they act indoors with the cooler finishing temps translates into a more dense & harder better nuggets
greyfader
Well-known member
we were given a secluded 3-acre site for the dome i'm building. it's part of a 22-acre family farm on a little-traveled country road. very quiet and peaceful. no usable streams though. leds are dc current so it would be easy to build a water-powered dc generator to power them.
i spent 20 years diving in the Caribbean for live marine specimens. i really miss the ocean. in puerto rico, i would go out in a 20 ft boat alone at night sometimes, out 15-20 miles, to where you couldn't see the lights, and turn off the motor and drift for a while. on a clear night, the stars were very bright and it was easy to pick out constellations. the only sound the waves hitting the boat.
i did a lot of surface trolling and spearfishing. taking lobsters whenever i saw one. in puerto rico 5 lb lobsters were common. there are these giant spider crabs that live in caves on the reef that are delicious. 8-10 lb crab. conch and west indian turban snails are very tasty. 5 lb octopus were everywhere.
i don't like cold water. i left Florida because it was too cold in the winter. also, the weather would only let you work about 150 days per year. in Puerto Rico and the virgin islands you can work over 300 days a year.
the fishing is probably excellent where you are. these boats originated on st pierre island and are ideal for fishing the northeast. 26-27', flat-bottomed and trailerable. a 15-20 hp yamaha 4 stroke sail drive will push it at 10 knots burning about 1/2 gal per hour.
Thank you for sharing such a great setup, clean and tidy environment puts your plants in a good mood.Some MAC1 again.
So The 2nd flower room is a 12x11 canopy / light array. But this time i implanted my 2nd idea, adding vertical 315 cmh lighting in between the leds.
The led lights are KingBrite cs660 or cs650 watt, meanwell ballasts samsung diodes and lg or ushio uv and far red. 3 separate channel controls.
The 9 Phillips 315w 4200k vertical bulbs where setup with 2 circuits, a 5 light and a 4 light. the 5 light lantern pattern looks like the dots of a number 5 dice. the 4 light circuit is setup like a square, turned 90degrees to form a 4 pointed diamond. Or run them all together.
Leds are on low, and i just fired the bulbs so they are not to temp or full strength. My first photo of the room was far to bright for the iphone camera so i took a photo at startup. Room width gets a bit thinner towards the back, so i had to increase the light bar overlap on the last row,
the inner room led bars are 16" apart, with the cmh placed in the middle.
this photo is few days after room was loaded with prevegged plants. i have not run the cmh during lights on yet. the 2nd layer of trellis is to close to bulbs right now, and i didnt have the co2 burner and plumbing completed yet. i was already getting major co2 drops lights on and the light/ energy would have been wasted and or plants would have shutdown. TopDawg Fam95
One of the temp preveg spots. no ac, no dehumidifier, no co2, no exhaust, yet. just lights and fans and a reservoir.
Led cmh setup, fam95, day 30 or so. Things finally moving along. A bit to blue green in color but more on that below.
Fighting a sudden mag deficiency, I did not run the cmh lighting till about day 20. by then i was able to correct the mag def to about 80-90% of where they should be. Even with lights at 60% or 600ppfd, 15 inches away there was complications.
I had a major issue with mag deficiency. I have 3 or 4 speculations, or its a mix of all, and probably more.
1-It seems even the horticultural grade giles magnesium sulfate at 1gpg wasnt enough.
2- i wasnt running enough run off.
3- there was an imbalance, or my ph input at 5.8 was to low. run off was registering 5.3-5.4.
4- my DLI increased from veg an they weren't ready.
How i corrected was started using Mag nitrate, i increased my nutrient feed ph to 6.0, 6.1. Few flushes with 80% feed an 6.0+ ph. started running more volume each day. weekly high volume run through
Because of the high level of gypsum in my coco. I cannot truly monitor my ppm run off with my current hanna groline meter. I sent some runoff out for analysis.
abit darker blue green then i want, but most have rebound. plants that stretched more & are a little closer to the lights are still exhibiting some mag def. Lower lit areas show little to no mag deficiency.
Fighting a sudden mag deficiency, I did not run the cmh lighting till about day 20. by then i was able to correct the mag def to about 80-90% of where they should be. Even with lights at 60% or 600ppfd, 15 inches away there was complications.
I had a major issue with mag deficiency. I have 3 or 4 speculations, or its a mix of all, and probably more.
1-It seems even the horticultural grade giles magnesium sulfate at 1gpg wasnt enough.
2- i wasnt running enough run off.
3- there was an imbalance, or my ph input at 5.8 was to low. run off was registering 5.3-5.4.
4- my DLI increased from veg an they weren't ready.
How i corrected was started using Mag nitrate, i increased my nutrient feed ph to 6.0, 6.1. Few flushes with 80% feed an 6.0+ ph. started running more volume each day. weekly high volume run through
Because of the high level of gypsum in my coco. I cannot truly monitor my ppm run off with my current hanna groline meter. I sent some runoff out for analysis.
abit darker blue green then i want, but most have rebound. plants that stretched more & are a little closer to the lights are still exhibiting some mag def. Lower lit areas show little to no mag deficiency.
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Now that is the land of 1000 Colas !Led cmh setup, fam95, day 30 or so. Things finally moving along. A bit to blue green in color but more on that below.
Fighting a sudden mag deficiency, I did not run the cmh lighting till about day 20. by then i was able to correct the mag def to about 80-90% of where they should be. Even with lights at 60% or 600ppfd, 15 inches away there was complications.
I had a major issue with mag deficiency. I have 3 or 4 speculations, or its a mix of all, and probably more.
1-It seems even the horticultural grade giles magnesium sulfate at 1gpg wasnt enough.
2- i wasnt running enough run off.
3- there was an imbalance, or my ph input at 5.8 was to low. run off was registering 5.3-5.4.
4- my DLI increased from veg an they weren't ready.
How i corrected was started using Mag nitrate, i increased my nutrient feed ph to 6.0, 6.1. Few flushes with 80% feed an 6.0+ ph. started running more volume each day. weekly high volume run through
Because of the high level of gypsum in my coco. I cannot truly monitor my ppm run off with my current hanna groline meter. I sent some runoff out for analysis.
abit darker blue green then i want, but most have rebound. plants that stretched more & are a little closer to the lights are still exhibiting some mag def. Lower lit areas show little to no mag deficiency.
I’m not under LEDs but had a similar problem recently with pH. Was feeding 6.5 like I always have in soil, but started having Mg def. Checked run off and it was super low…like 5.6
I then kept raising the pH of my nutrient until the run off was 6.3
All the problems stopped immediately.
IMO, that‘s what separates good growers from ppl who just follow directions... being able to troubleshoot and solve issues quickly.
It’s always nice to see that even the best growers, such as yourself, will talk about the problems they are having and tell ppl how to fix it. Most growers don’t talk much about problems. They act like every run is always great.
I then kept raising the pH of my nutrient until the run off was 6.3
All the problems stopped immediately.
IMO, that‘s what separates good growers from ppl who just follow directions... being able to troubleshoot and solve issues quickly.
It’s always nice to see that even the best growers, such as yourself, will talk about the problems they are having and tell ppl how to fix it. Most growers don’t talk much about problems. They act like every run is always great.
Moneymike 
, pretty certain i lost the stride on this one. Wont be the same now. But I do believe theres a chance to have a decent harvest still. All my fault....
But I do have more fam95 in cue for half of the other flower room.
Got a question for u, where you at piffconn this last march? or did you get a chance to sample the Metallic Frankincense? I wasnt there, but last week i got a said cut of it. If so, any thoughts of it?
VP thanks for the praise. I try. I got off the growing bicycle and when i got back on i had so many detailed questions i truly didnt know how to replicate my last grows. An with all the various inputs based on growth stages i completely forgot that at times i used to run Mag Nitrate, and or ratios with the mag sulfate.
Im still not out of the woods. In fact if i could scrap the whole room an start over i would. I know i lost its bulking potential. But this room is about 40 days away from harvest. The next run in this room will be Orginal Peach Hashplant from deadpanhead.
Think one of my biggest problems was never allowing enough run off prior, and now. TBH before I never really had a true number on how much run off i actually had. Today my drippers actually have a metered delivery and its something ive been trying to focus more on.
& I never had WC or ec sensors in my old setups.
And as my runoff analysis confirms, I expected high levels of CA and S, but my chloride & NA where very high too. My Mag levels where up, so lock out is the culprit. And from the looks of it, lock out from multiple angles.
Today for a watering event im gonna plug the drain for the system, back fill & let them soak for an hour or so and drain.
bsafe everyone!!
, pretty certain i lost the stride on this one. Wont be the same now. But I do believe theres a chance to have a decent harvest still. All my fault....But I do have more fam95 in cue for half of the other flower room.
Got a question for u, where you at piffconn this last march? or did you get a chance to sample the Metallic Frankincense? I wasnt there, but last week i got a said cut of it. If so, any thoughts of it?
VP thanks for the praise. I try. I got off the growing bicycle and when i got back on i had so many detailed questions i truly didnt know how to replicate my last grows. An with all the various inputs based on growth stages i completely forgot that at times i used to run Mag Nitrate, and or ratios with the mag sulfate.
Im still not out of the woods. In fact if i could scrap the whole room an start over i would. I know i lost its bulking potential. But this room is about 40 days away from harvest. The next run in this room will be Orginal Peach Hashplant from deadpanhead.
Think one of my biggest problems was never allowing enough run off prior, and now. TBH before I never really had a true number on how much run off i actually had. Today my drippers actually have a metered delivery and its something ive been trying to focus more on.
& I never had WC or ec sensors in my old setups.
And as my runoff analysis confirms, I expected high levels of CA and S, but my chloride & NA where very high too. My Mag levels where up, so lock out is the culprit. And from the looks of it, lock out from multiple angles.
Today for a watering event im gonna plug the drain for the system, back fill & let them soak for an hour or so and drain.
bsafe everyone!!
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Hey G-man got a question and you’re just the guy to ask ..I’m running an outdoor grow & everything looks pretty good there’s been some powdery mildew nothing out of control and I wanna keep it that way , I’m using horticulture oils the one I’m using is actually called “ lost cost plant therapy “ , now the question is I’ve been also dodging thunderstorms I assume if I spray to run off a plant and then it dries but gets washed off for hours later.. has it still been treated?
awesome property! nice projects you got going. thanks for sharing. you sleep good when you work your butt off huh?
Ive never used that product. Looking at the label it looks like it would have a high run off potential in the rain. so frequent sprayings probably would be good.
If i had to speculate, and the oils should have enough contact time with the spores or hyphae, it should kill them off. But the question really comes down to was every spore or hyphae in contact. Outside, probably not, since the neighboring weeds probably have PM traces as well.
Ive had good luck with spraying m-pede and potassium bicarbonate on my outdoor vegetable garden.
Wet season. and seems colder then normal, atleast here.
outdoor can be such a crap shoot. the next bug that lands or takes a bite out of the leaf, a bird lands, or hell ....the wind f'ing blows, each can bring the spores right back!
if i had PM i would look in using Actinovate or similar biofungicide that feeds on PM, instead of trying to keep knocking the pm down. Use something that feeds on the PM fungi! Actinovate could help attack other pathogens you might not even know are there.
hope things work out for u!
I’ll look into that trying to keep them clean and you’re right the product that I’m using has to be used repeatedly and often to keep things under control that’s the point of it it has to be used a lot and using it before a thunderstorm is definitely dumb but it’s better than nothing especially when I’m fighting Mother nature
greyfader
Well-known member
have you ever considered drain to waste using a tailpiece like the ppk? it works great.
i have used a 3.5 gal bucket for the bottom container with a 3/8" hole drilled in it 3" below the plant container.
you water from the top as usual until a trickle comes out of the hole in the bottom bucket.
you still are doing drain to waste but with a reservoir under each plant.
the advantage is that you are draining the perched water table in the plant container immediately and then back-feeding the plant until the next top watering.
the perched water in the plant container is probably messing with your ph as the medium dries down between watering events and that's causing the mag problem.
drying the medium concentrates nutrients and that changes the ph.
also, all coco fiber is initially full of sodium and chloride.
in the 10k sq ft cbd flower facility in nashville we soaked the coco first in a 2000 ppm or ec4 jack's solution for 48 hours. then just lifted it out without rinsing and used it.
no ill effects and we satisfied the ion exchange that coco needs before use.
we used Prococo chips and fiber blend.
i have now moved to #2 perlite amended with worm castings and diatomaceous earth.
the worm shit is mixed into the top 2-3" first and then the DE.
the castings inoculate the system with beneficial bacteria and other good stuff and the DE provides plant-available silica as it is amorphous and does not have a crystalline structure.
the castings and DE retain more moisture in the top of the medium which causes roots to grow into it rapidly and this utilizes more container space than if i did not use it.
DE is also a pest killer and repellant. i have not seen a fungus gnat since i switched from coco to perlite using these amendments. no other bugs either.
just throwing out a few ideas.
i have used a 3.5 gal bucket for the bottom container with a 3/8" hole drilled in it 3" below the plant container.
you water from the top as usual until a trickle comes out of the hole in the bottom bucket.
you still are doing drain to waste but with a reservoir under each plant.
the advantage is that you are draining the perched water table in the plant container immediately and then back-feeding the plant until the next top watering.
the perched water in the plant container is probably messing with your ph as the medium dries down between watering events and that's causing the mag problem.
drying the medium concentrates nutrients and that changes the ph.
also, all coco fiber is initially full of sodium and chloride.
in the 10k sq ft cbd flower facility in nashville we soaked the coco first in a 2000 ppm or ec4 jack's solution for 48 hours. then just lifted it out without rinsing and used it.
no ill effects and we satisfied the ion exchange that coco needs before use.
we used Prococo chips and fiber blend.
i have now moved to #2 perlite amended with worm castings and diatomaceous earth.
the worm shit is mixed into the top 2-3" first and then the DE.
the castings inoculate the system with beneficial bacteria and other good stuff and the DE provides plant-available silica as it is amorphous and does not have a crystalline structure.
the castings and DE retain more moisture in the top of the medium which causes roots to grow into it rapidly and this utilizes more container space than if i did not use it.
DE is also a pest killer and repellant. i have not seen a fungus gnat since i switched from coco to perlite using these amendments. no other bugs either.
just throwing out a few ideas.
Hey grey. Appreciate the response. i do appreciate the feedback. Not many i can talk to these days.
I do actually charge the coco with about 8-10ml per gal of cal mag, and gypsum, and recharge and additional myco from wallace wonder.
im still actually using the buckets i used for the ppk systems, but without the tailpiece an the larger wide top bucket. the 2" or 3" holes are still there in the top 3.5 gal bucket. an the roots do venture down into the lower bucket water. Gotta be atelast 1/2" of water in there at all times because of the drain fitting gasket height. But i do use 3gal bags now in the top bucket instead of adding coco directly. easier to not have to scrub extensively all the top buckets and less nute build up to scrap, places for pathogens to hide and carry over to next run.
i used to put a paint strainer with 1 gal of perlite in the lower 3.5gal bucket. then I place the upper bucket ontop with coco. the roots traveled down and filled that area very well.
I was hopping to remove that perlite lower stage from the systems this go. Because of the grow clean up and reset. and thats one less input and not having to add perlite as another thing to buy and replace. clean the paint strainers. But it seems i may need to go back. That lower section im sure did add more then i recently realized.
Need to also setup my nutrient & microbe tea brewer air lift system into the mix.
kinda makes sense, and the more i think back, the more i think i used to runoff alot more of my feed. Like a lot! Therefore always getting that fresh nutrient exchange.
This build / part deux , In efforts to gain efficiency again, i have limited my run off. Which i think has brought upon these issues.
Another thing ive been doing is i have my Water Content ec an temp probe in each zone. Trolmaster wcs-2 probes attached to my hydro-x pro system. I have been making attempts at "crop steering". I monitor my medium in each zone of the systems.
i wait 2 hrs into lights on. i feed in bursts or cycles within the 3rd hour till run off, and then additional run off, then maintenance shots of watering every hour throughout the day, till a few hours before lights off. trying my best not to start channeling water
as the medium drys down the last few hours of lights on and through the overnight, it dictates how much feed i apply the next day. i usually over compensate and add more runoff during the run off events, and I only correct the maintenance watering based on the dryback % from the previous day.
Maybe add or remove 1 or 2 maintenance feedings based on the medium WC% into overnight and into the next day. which is usually brought down to 25-40% of max saturation before the first watering event.
Patterns emerge. and u see how the drybacks change as the plant develops and or then slows down in age. with my current 2 drippers per site i get 125ml delivered every minute of pump on.
My feeds are based off all of above, and the amount medium in each container, then factoring plant absorption/uptake, and evaporation. As i type this out the i feel i may need to add another run off event and then lower my overall feed ppm.
As always theres hundreds of variables at play, then the unknowns.....
bsafe
I do actually charge the coco with about 8-10ml per gal of cal mag, and gypsum, and recharge and additional myco from wallace wonder.
im still actually using the buckets i used for the ppk systems, but without the tailpiece an the larger wide top bucket. the 2" or 3" holes are still there in the top 3.5 gal bucket. an the roots do venture down into the lower bucket water. Gotta be atelast 1/2" of water in there at all times because of the drain fitting gasket height. But i do use 3gal bags now in the top bucket instead of adding coco directly. easier to not have to scrub extensively all the top buckets and less nute build up to scrap, places for pathogens to hide and carry over to next run.
i used to put a paint strainer with 1 gal of perlite in the lower 3.5gal bucket. then I place the upper bucket ontop with coco. the roots traveled down and filled that area very well.
I was hopping to remove that perlite lower stage from the systems this go. Because of the grow clean up and reset. and thats one less input and not having to add perlite as another thing to buy and replace. clean the paint strainers. But it seems i may need to go back. That lower section im sure did add more then i recently realized.
Need to also setup my nutrient & microbe tea brewer air lift system into the mix.
kinda makes sense, and the more i think back, the more i think i used to runoff alot more of my feed. Like a lot! Therefore always getting that fresh nutrient exchange.
This build / part deux , In efforts to gain efficiency again, i have limited my run off. Which i think has brought upon these issues.
Another thing ive been doing is i have my Water Content ec an temp probe in each zone. Trolmaster wcs-2 probes attached to my hydro-x pro system. I have been making attempts at "crop steering". I monitor my medium in each zone of the systems.
i wait 2 hrs into lights on. i feed in bursts or cycles within the 3rd hour till run off, and then additional run off, then maintenance shots of watering every hour throughout the day, till a few hours before lights off. trying my best not to start channeling water
as the medium drys down the last few hours of lights on and through the overnight, it dictates how much feed i apply the next day. i usually over compensate and add more runoff during the run off events, and I only correct the maintenance watering based on the dryback % from the previous day.
Maybe add or remove 1 or 2 maintenance feedings based on the medium WC% into overnight and into the next day. which is usually brought down to 25-40% of max saturation before the first watering event.
Patterns emerge. and u see how the drybacks change as the plant develops and or then slows down in age. with my current 2 drippers per site i get 125ml delivered every minute of pump on.
My feeds are based off all of above, and the amount medium in each container, then factoring plant absorption/uptake, and evaporation. As i type this out the i feel i may need to add another run off event and then lower my overall feed ppm.
As always theres hundreds of variables at play, then the unknowns.....
bsafe
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greyfader
Well-known member
you are very thorough and thoughtful as usual and from what you describe you shouldn't be having any mag issues. maybe it's not just a mag problem. maybe it's another element antagonizing magnesium and producing the display. are you still using jack's? i am and since going to leds i've been following the 3-2-1- program without issues.
i know you'll figure it out.
I have not had good luck trusting the trolmaster wc probes and recently went back to watching runoff. I think that coco drybacks are much less forgiving than rockwool and happen much quicker. When i see stress under leds I usually raise the lights if i can and that seems to help the quickest.
i noticed how you calibrate from 100% to zero wc per each medium or zone, and then registering your nutrient ec can have an enormous effect on the charts. It takes some getting used to properly calibrate. or i think i have it correct after a few tries. It should be used as an average and not a specific.
I do like the fact i can calibrate my ec probe to my input feed, and zero out anything in the medium. not register the ca an S from the gypsum I add, or na or k already in the medium prior
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