lets talk co2

[jocat]

hey all i haven't been all that involved in the web grow scene of late but after a visit the other night and a looksee through some posts on gas and how it's best used i thought i might be able to contribute something, it seems there is alot of diferent opinons as to the effectivness of co2 enrichment and how it's best utilised i can only tell what i have learned by using it over a period of time, my current rooms are setup to provide a sustained harvest, 2 plants every 3 weeks, and ocupy a small area in the corner of my woodworking shop, total room size is 9' by 5' with 8' ceilings, the first room is for veg and doesn't get any gas, in the blooming room, 5 by 5 i use a 20# bottle of co2 hooked to a hydrofarm regulator and plugged into a CAP ppm3 parts per million monitor, a side note: before these trick units came along you had to do the math and play with co2 testing devices to figure out how long to time the initial burst of gas and the following release times to keep things steady @1500 ppm, it was always a question "am i gassed to the right level" well this is another example of the future bringing some cool stuff, with these units a peak at the gauge is all it takes and you know exactly WTF is going on, not cheap but if your going this way a must have for sucsess, anyhow i have found that it's only doing anygood during daylight hours and only if you can control both temperture and humidity, i use both a dehumidifier and a window style AC mounted in the wall of my room and hanging into the woodshop, NOT outside as some have sugested. It also heats my shop so my nice tools stay warm and rustfree, i cover it in the morning when cycle times shut everything off and i go to work building custom cabinets or
whatever, the optimum room conditions are as follows: 1500 ppm co2, 30-50% relative humidity, 85-90 for a tempature, i also always do a total room air flush and bring temps down to around 65 F for the night cycle, everything else gets shut off and i don't worry about humidity unless im having mold tell me i need too. with the bagseed strain i'm currently in love with it's normal to see yeilds in the 10 oz pr plant range, i do think that when dealing with living things, there can be a huge range of tolerences, what i mean by this is what one strain likes another hates and alot will be adjusting to what strains you want to grow and how they respond, for beginers it would be good to learn from a favorite and work out the bugs or glitches then apply that knowledge to more sensative types, pot like anything else has become over hybridized and prob more delicate because of it. hope this bit of info helps to answer some questions, peace to all and good smoke. Jocat

 

[jojajico]

wow that was hard on the eyes lol. good read though. 10oz per plant? how long you vegging for? soil or hydro?

 

[Yarkand]

Nice post.

Co2 is looking real promising !

Hopefully going to try and get it for next winter season.

Peace and happy growing

 

[Mr. J Herer.]

i have a regulator on mine but i dont know how to use it, i has settings from 1- 1.5 -2- 2.5 -3 -3.5 ect ect. whats a good setting for a small setup with 4 plants? and how often do i use it

 

[jocat]

jojajico, i'm using an organic soil mix that starts with FF ocean forest i then add 2 cups of a organic soil recipe i got from territorial seed company, that consists of several things fish meal,kelp meal ,rock phosphate dust, small ammount of lime, bone meal, miccoriza. this i mix 20 lbs at a time and keep on hand for soil mixing as nessesary, i also add 1 five gallon bucket full of perilite. I built a nice size mixing box of 3/4 ply that i can easily move around to insure complete mixing, so each bag of FF gets 2 cups my organic mix and 1 bucket perilite, mixed very well. I start with rooting clones going into 4" pots of this mix and after 2-3 weeks they are ready for 1 gallon pots, after 3-4 weeks they go directly into 10 gallon pots of same mix, after 5-7 weeks they are ready to move to bloom rm with average height of 4', including pot height, they bloom for 9-10 weeks before harvest, i do use liquid fertz during bloom, again fox farm, also liquid karma, this takes awhile when you start, up to 25 weeks for the first plants to complete but after that you can bank on it time after time. Jocat. Mr J, my regulator came with instructions for the initial setup, basicly set the psi gauge to 30 psi and plug it in to the monitor/controller, i would guess each manufacture has it's own plan for use, didn't you get some printed info with it explaining initial setup? J

 

[jojajico]

printed info? cool setup sounds good.

 

[Mr. J Herer.]

jojajico, i'm using an organic soil mix that starts with FF ocean forest i then add 2 cups of a organic soil recipe i got from territorial seed company, that consists of several things fish meal,kelp meal ,rock phosphate dust, small ammount of lime, bone meal, miccoriza. this i mix 20 lbs at a time and keep on hand for soil mixing as nessesary, i also add 1 five gallon bucket full of perilite. I built a nice size mixing box of 3/4 ply that i can easily move around to insure complete mixing, so each bag of FF gets 2 cups my organic mix and 1 bucket perilite, mixed very well. I start with rooting clones going into 4" pots of this mix and after 2-3 weeks they are ready for 1 gallon pots, after 3-4 weeks they go directly into 10 gallon pots of same mix, after 5-7 weeks they are ready to move to bloom rm with average height of 4', including pot height, they bloom for 9-10 weeks before harvest, i do use liquid fertz during bloom, again fox farm, also liquid karma, this takes awhile when you start, up to 25 weeks for the first plants to complete but after that you can bank on it time after time. Jocat Mr J my regulator came with instructions for the initial setup, basicly set the psi gauge to 30 psi and plug it in to the monitor/controller, i would guess each manufacture has it's own plan for use, didn't you get some printed info with it explaining initial setup? J

no, no info. the regulator goes up to 7 i think. i always put it up to 1.5 and leave it for 20 minutes at a time

 

[jocat]

Mr j it sounds like your just using a regulator without a monitor, you should check out cap controllers, could be the missing link your needing, you can always go to your local gro shop and purchase a measuring kit and some glass tubes that you break the ends off and draw air from your room thru with this big syringe looking job as the gas flows thru the tube the co2 turns it purple inside and you read the markings to see ppm, if you record your release time and take measurments and keep track you can acheive some sucsess, still think the new monitor technology is worth the $, it just makes it stoner simple. J

 

[Guest]

Those syringe testers are accurate at hell if you take a full two minutes like suggested to push the air through,I love my cap jocat.For years I grew with a cd-6 and a cyclestat,unfortunately I also used a dual hose portable which still blew my co2 into the attic.The problem I saw with the cyclestat was co2 fluctuations,my room is 8 by 8 so for 1500PPM I would have to burn for 8 minutes every 45 minutes(suggestyed burn time between 5 and 10 minutes)the room would charge up to 1500,but I'm sure 45 minutes later is was well below a thousand,thats too much fluctuating for me.With the cap the fluctuation is never more than 300PPM,and man can I see a difference.Its too cool lol.Jocat I want to make a suggestion to you bro I bet you've already done the research but possibly not.Instead of going into a 10 gal pot to flower,try a 5 gal pot.I just did the same thing with the huge stretchy seedplants which I usually dont grow,clones only.I did some in 5 gal and some in 3 gal,these plants were 5 ft tall man and even the 5 gallon pot wasnt necessary.I went with 3 gallon to finish off the seedplants.I just thought I'd suggest it you've probably already tried different pots sounds like you've been around awhile lol.Yea man,I love my cap I'd marry it if it had an external orafice.O god that was sad

 

[jojajico]

hahahaha ^^^^

 

[Philly Green]

I don't have the money or time to mess around with tanks and regs...I have read about using baking soda and vinegar or fermenting water. Clearly these will not be as strong or consistent, but I am wondering if anyone has tried them. Oh and also spraying carbonated water.

 

[jocat]

hey ballestman i appreciate your advice and ya i have tried the 5 gallon pots in the past evan one with 1/4" holes drilled all over the thing, got that from a guy on the old overgrow site a few years back but i tell ya man the biggest yeilds always come from those big ass pots, in the 5s i could never get more than 5-6 oz pr plant but the 10s have given up to 13, my record with this strain, my goal is the 16 oz plant but that has remained just that, an alusive goal. i am trying my hand at wormfarming and plan to use a homebrewed worm tea in the near future.... maybe ..just maybe... J

 

[Guest]

Cool,a tree grower.With 8 ft ceilings I can flower some pretty big plants,but I like to keep them down a bit.I use the NSI black plastic pots I bet more than half of us do actually the "classic 600" is supposed to be 2 gallon its actually a little less,I can get 2 oz of blockhead in one of those containers.This time with the seedplants I used "classic 1200" which is very close to 3 gallon,I had some damn 5 ft seedplants man I kinda hate that shit lol.Their "classic 2000" is supposed to be their 5 gal p[ots,thats where they start with little side handles,I used a couple of these for seedplants but found the 1200's grew the same sized plants as the 5 gal 2000's.I'm hooked on the 600's for my blockhead though,I've ben considering bumping it up to "classic 1000" which is right in the middle of the 2 gal. 600 and the 3 gal 1200,kinda like a small 3 gal pot.If I could pull 3 O's off upsizing 1 size,it would be worth it otherwise it wouldnt,the 600's take up very little space and blockhead grows up not out.Well now that I've bored you to death with NSI's inventory,I'll let you go..

 

[Dan42nepa]

i tried the yeast, water and sugar thing in a few 2 litre bottles.. Who knows it it helps.. I cant afford to invest in a co2 setup. In a few months i will have to relocate my grow to the basement for the warmer months.. Maybe i can do something then...

 

[Guest]

Dan any money spent on yeast or anything like that would be so much better spent on a quality fert or good soil,anything else that has to do with growing but that.For it to be beneficial in any way it has to be controlled,it takes awhile for the plant to adjust to the higher PPM's and start working in "overdrive",if the co2 is fluctuating too much or just not being kept steady it'll do you no good whatsoever.You basically need a controller of some sort to utilize co2 enrichment

 

[jojajico]

jocat though u may be gettin massive yeilds from one plant you may have better yeilds overall from smaller plants. with this method you dont have to veg for 2 months or however long you do and u get to harvest on average every 2 months with usually more bud and more quality bud. i never undersood why people would grow massive plants indoors just doesnt seem logical unless uve got vertical lighting but even then you lose on overall yeild because of veg time just an idea...

how much do u pull on average dry weight at harvest and how long does it take you to harvest?

 

[Guest]

I wouldnt necessarily say that bro,even though I agree for the most part I've seen people get good overall yields growing trees,you have to know what your doing and have the physical ability to do it though.Didnt you hear he got 13 O's off a plant?Thats pretty respectable I think the key would be in the strain/pheno.You'd want something that you wouldnt have to veg very long to get massive growth after the switch,I've grown unintentional trees whenever I get seeds and go on a phenohunt lol,especially this time.Dont think dutch passion blueberry and skywalker wont stretch to high heaven cause it will lol.

 

[Dan42nepa]

Dan any money spent on yeast or anything like that would be so much better spent on a quality fert or good soil,anything else that has to do with growing but that.For it to be beneficial in any way it has to be controlled,it takes awhile for the plant to adjust to the higher PPM's and start working in "overdrive",if the co2 is fluctuating too much or just not being kept steady it'll do you no good whatsoever.You basically need a controller of some sort to utilize co2 enrichment

Well i am about a week away from harvest... I had the yeast anyway. I do wonder if the concoction had something to do with attracting the fungus knats. I think they came from some basil i had transplanted from outside into a pot to keep over the winter. I had it under my lights for a while... on and off..

 

[Dan42nepa]

i had 6 plants from seed which i veged for 2 months... 4 were females and they are pretty big now with lots of bud sites and large colas. I veged them for 2 months to see the properties of the plant. They are in 5 gallon pots now but i have clones which i will probably flower in 2 gallon pots and we will see the difference in the yield..

 

[jojajico]

dont get me wrong im not insulting his growin technique at all 14 ounces from a single plant indoors is amazing. im just presenting an idea that i dont kno if had conisdered yet. he siad he vegged for 2 months no consider another 2 months for lower in that time you could do 2 grows in a SOG setup. I AM NOT SAYING YOU ARE WRONG AND I AM RIGHT just saying heres an idea that may help you out a bit. another thing is that without vertical lighting alot of the bud u get on the lower branches will be popcorn bud. i dont know about u guys but i prefer when its harvest time to work with a single main cola on my plants lol makes trimming sooo much easier. all the bud or atleast most of it grown in a sog or scrog setup is premium main cola bud it all matures at the same time for an easy clean harvest. again i am amazed at 14 ounces form one plant, this is just a suggestion for your consideration. lol try veggin a clone from that 14 ounce plant indoors for a few months then put her outside at the begning of the season and youll probably have a multi lb yeilding plant.... those are always soo beautiful.